Much Dance 2009/Dance Plus 2009

Much Dance 2009 is another volume in the long-running series of annual dance music collections compiled for release by the Canadian video music channel Much Music. The album includes some of the year's biggest dance-pop, contemporary R&B, pop-rap, and punk-pop hits, including original versions as well as club remixes. The tracks are mixed together seamlessly as they would be in a dance club. All explicit language is cleaned up. Highlights of Much Dance 2009 include Rihanna's "Disturbia," Lady Gaga's "Just Dance," the Pussycat Dolls' "When I Grow Up," Britney Spears' "Break the Ice," Lil Wayne's "Lollipop," and Usher's "Love in This Club." While most of the songs come from the United States, there is a handful of Canadian inclusions as well: Danny Fernandes' "Private Dancer," Classified's "Hard to Be Hip Hop," Shiloh's "Operator (A Girl Like Me)," and Avril Lavigne's "The Best Damn Thing." Though the selections seem somewhat randomly chosen and the segues from one track to the next are often rough, Much Dance 2009 includes a broad range of popular dance music that makes for a fun and energetic listening experience oriented toward the youth market. Anyone who enjoyed past volumes in the Much Dance series will likely enjoy this one as well.