Hey, everybody! To paraphrase Mr. Elvis Costello, welcome back to the working week! Doesn’t it suck? I trust you all had a wonderful holiday break. I know I did. This year, I decided to celebrate the holidays by not celebrating at all. Not even remotely. Well, except for the Lil Wayne concert and that four-day long, New Year’s-induced, Sparks-fueled bender with the crew in Philly. (Long live Philly and Monk’s Cafe, but R.I.P. Sparks! Such a travesty. Why hasn’t anyone written a post about this outrage?!) Anyway, glorious times! But now, sadly, it’s back to reality, sitting here at our desks on another icky Tuesday afternoon. How about we lighten the mood with the first What We’re Listening To of ‘09?! On the menu today we’ve got: Cut Copy, Lady Sovereign, Fall Out Boy, Katy Perry, Animal Collective, Escape Club, Grouper, Darius Rucker, Meiko, The Kinks and Wu-Tang Clan. Do it to it below the fold and look out for the weekly WWLT mixtape tomorrow afternoon…

Cut Copy—In Ghost Colours

These guys have been a blip on the edge of my radar screen for about 6 months now but I’ve only recently gotten around to listening to them. Great stuff. Good dancable beat, fun 80s call-backs (sax solo anyone?), samples of crowds cheering (a la The KLF) and only a slight homage to New Order (who I generally dislike). I had the opportunity to see them in 2008 when Black Kids opened for them, and liked Black Kids infinitely more. Who knows, though, maybe I was just in the wrong frame of mind. Check out “Lights and Music” and “So Haunted” for starters. The whole album is great. – Michael

Lady Sovereign—”I Got You Dancing!”

Oh Lady Sovereign! You got me doing more than just dancing! I am in love with the first scrumptious track from her second album Jigsaw (due in April). I cannot stop listening to this tweaked-out electronic two-steppin’ gem! She’s got me dancing for sure. But I can’t get enough of it. I’m listening to it right now as I type this paragraph. I play it when I vacuum. When I brush my hair. When I cook hamburger helper. It’s definitely good for more than just dancing. – Summer Camp

Fall Out Boy—Folie A Deux

A friend sent me FOB’s latest album just before the holidays and it’s been toying with me ever since. Basically it’s got the same mix of almost-insightful catchiness and flat-out pandering which I love/hate about this band. Take the first song on the album “Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes” – there are lyrics which make me think, “Hey, self-awareness!” (“Imperfect boys with their perfect lives/Nobody wants to hear you sing about tragedy”) followed by lines which make me cringe in memory of my “Being a teenager in the suburbs is like sooooo hard, no one gets me” days which I’m desperately trying to forget (repeated calls of “BOYCOTT LOVE!”) Either way, these guys continue to have upbeat-catchy-occasionally-danceable music down to a science, which makes them perfect for a workout or morning commute, or anytime I just want my head messed with, really. – Jolly

Katy Perry—”Hot ‘N Cold”

God damn you, Katy Perry. You got in my head with your god damn catchy tune. “’cause you’re hot, then you’re cold / you’re yes, then you’re no…” There’s a reason this post is called “What We’re Listening To” and not “What We Listen To That Moves Our Souls and Makes Us Believe That Thom Yorke Is God.” Perry makes my skin crawl (and I don’t really think Yorke is sacrosanct), but this song that has been stuck in my head, played on loop on my iPod, and officially infected my family over the holiday, is what I’m listening to. – Maggie

Animal Collective—Merriweather Post Pavilion (Jan. 20)

My chair is soaking wet right now. That’s what happens when you pee your pants in excitement. The first track of Animal Collective’s new album, “In The Flowers”, is a slight reworking of a song called “Dancer with Flowers” that they used to open their 2007 DC concert. After a year of searching, I finally found a copy of the latter online over the summer and I had just stopped listening to it when the official version came out. My former experience with AC is that they’re a lot easier to watch than to listen to, but this new one might buck the trend. It also goes without saying that stoners will have a real field day with it. – Zack

Escape Club—Wild Wild West

All I had ever heard from Escape Club was their one big hit, “Wild, Wild West.” Since that’s nowhere near the top of my list of favorite ‘80s songs, I didn’t hold out much hope for the full-length Wild, Wild West album when my brother gave it to me for Christmas. Pleasant surprise: little snippets of songs have kept lodging in my head over the past week or so. Whether it’s the slinky, shake-your-ass pop-rock of “The Longest Day” or the very touching “Goodbye Joey Rae,” a note to a Vietnam veteran who committed suicide, the songs are by turns silly and sophisticated, thoughtful and catchy. I’m off to go find Escape Club’s second album. – Philip

Grouper—Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill

Grouper is a one-woman band (Liz Harris) who creates atmospheric, eerie music with her guitar textures somewhere between ’shoegazer’ and ‘ambient.’ Her voice is distant and disembodied, and it weaves in and out of the musical fog like a ghost. It is perfect headphone music for winter nights, when it’s just you, a cat on your lap, huddled in your Snuggie. – Craig

Darius Rucker—”It Won’t Be Like This For Long”

Hootie has traded in the late-90s flannel for a pair of cowboy boots and, in the words of Alan Jackson, gone country. Former Hootie & The Blowfish frontman Darius Rucker’s first solo country album is already a knockout hit, with its first single “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It” reaching no. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country chart and no. 35 on the Hot 100. “It Won’t Be Like This For Long” is a soulful, sweet song about a new father’s reaction to his little girl’s intrusion into his life. Rucker’s smooth delivery makes this song a nice diversion from all the Katy and Britney that seems to be finding its way onto my iPod lately. – Andrew

Meiko—Meiko

In her debut album, Meiko – who emerged from the same L.A. club as Ingrid Michaelson – has created a nice, chill sound. iTunes selected it as one of the best singer-songwriter albums of ‘08, and also put it on sale for the recession-friendly price of $4.99. As usual, I appreciate their taste. “Boys With Girlfriends” is a standout song with an infectious pop sound and wonderful, uncomplicated lyrics – “I know better not to be friends with boys with girlfriends / Oh, I know better than that, I know better…” As I have the same issue with straight men, single or taken, I can easily relate. – Corey

The Kinks—”Strangers”

I’ve been listening to this song on repeat for the last few days, not only because it’s my favorite song by one of my favorite bands, but also it’s a nice counterpoint to these dreary, rainy days we’ve been getting lately. Not that it’s all happy and shiny or anything, but its groove is conducive to daydreaming, slow head-bobbing and feeling cool. Plus, it’s got a pretty sweet message: even though people suck, God is a lie, and we’ll always kind of be strangers to one another, let’s promise we’re gonna have each other’s back. Let’s try and let hope and love triumph in the face of… life, and who can ask for more than that, right? Well, everyone I suppose, so I guess it’s just an anthem for grizzled, cynical romantics like me. Cheers! – Rocky

Wu-Tang Clan—”Triumph”

Since going to the recent Wu-Tang Clan concert, I’ve been reminiscing over all the classics. Triumph is one of my favorites, particularly for the RZA’s beats. – Ben