The 25 Best Albums of 2009
Yep – it’s that time of year. The release calendar is a wasteland through the holidays, there are at least 3 albums I’m really looking forward to in January, but in the meantime, we’ve got a month or so to decide on the best records of the year. So for the last few weeks, I’ve been listening and relistening to the year’s crop, jockeying position, and here’s the deal.
The Top Ten:
This has been sitting at #1 since I first heard it late in 2008 on imeem (and trust me – no one gives less of a crap about imeem than me – that’s how much I wanted to hear it). Then they got picked up by a label, released it, I bought it the day it came out on iTunes, they got picked up by another label and it was rereleased, and then they went on tour and came nowhere near here. Oh well. The album – it’s a blast of guitars and noise and lyrics written as if nothing mattered but girls. It makes me feel like it’s 1995 and I’m much younger than I am. It has the line “we run the gauntlet / must get to France / so we can french kiss some French girls,” which is ridiculous. But then that same song has the lyrics “she had wet hair / say what you will / I don’t care, I couldn’t resist it,” which makes total sense to me.
This one came out of nowhere, but if you can’t trust Merge with power-pop, than what can you trust them with? So it’s a total summer record – big hooks, catchy choruses, ba ba bas and la la las, and though it does make me want a new Beulah record pretty badly (or at least for Miles Kurowsky to finish his solo album), it also pretty much rules all by itself.
3) Sunset Rubdown: Dragonslayer
The title is untouchable, the album art is hideously awesome, and it’s totally the catchiest thing Spencer Krug has ever done outside of Wolf Parade. I’ve enjoyed all his records, but this one is by far the easiest to love, with the most memorable songs, not the least of which is the 10+ minute suite that closes the record and manages to one-up the also pretty awesome “Kissing the Beehive” at the end of the last Wolf Parade album.
4) Handsome Furs: Face Control
The other guy from Wolf Parade (Dan Boeckner), with the second best Wolf Parade side-project of the year. But it’s close – this easily outstrips his first record as Handsome Furs, with songs that aren’t as claustrophobic or mannered. And the promo shots he and his wife took for promotion of the record are hotttt.
5) The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: s/t
Three new bands in my top 5, which bodes well for the future. This one is a total throwback – this record could have been released at any point in the early 90s and I wouldn’t have batted an eye. It’s also incredibly catchy and fun and addicting – AND they released three singles with b-sides AND an EP this year. An embarrassment of riches.
6 ) The Mountain Goats: The Life of the World to Come
It’s not Tallahassee, or Get Lonely, or Heretic Pride, but it’s a new Mountain Goats record, and so far, that gets it into my top ten by default.
There really aren’t any tricks left up Yo La Tengo’s sleeves at this point in their career, but their ability to spit out late-period gems that don’t sound warmed over or derivitave is positively shocking at this point. This record should have been their Steel Wheels or All That You Can’t Leave Behind or something, but it’s at least as good as any of the past 5 records, all of which are pretty damn good.
8 Phoenix: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Honestly this record doesn’t belong as high as it is on its collective merits (most notably because of its atrocious sequencing) – there are at least 5 songs that I could take or leave. But the other 5 are so good that they make you forget the weak spots, with the record’s true triumph being “Lisztomania” – easily the best song of the year.
9) Say Hi: Oohs and Aahs
I went back and looked; if I had heard of Say Hi in 2006, Impeccable Blahs would have been my #2 of the year (albeit a distant second to Boys and Girls in America). As it is, I had fun discovering them this year, and this record is pretty good too.
This was my sleeper – I heard it pretty early in the year and didn’t care much for it, but by the end of the year it was the record that I put on every time I wanted to hear something new but didn’t have anything specific in mind.
The rest:
11) The Thermals: Now We Can See
After The Body, The Blood, The Machine, I was really hoping this record would be better.
12) Casiotone for the Painfully Alone: Vs. Children
13) The Dodos: Time to Die
Not nearly as good as the last record, but “Fables” comes a pretty close second to “Lisztomania” as song of the year.
14) David Bazan: Curse Your Branches
For the faint of faith.
15) Dead Man’s Bones: s/t
Ryan Gosling follows in the footsteps of Zooey Deschanel (or Don Johnson, if you will), and makes a surprisingly good album. Really.
16) Bishop Allen: Grrr…
17) Built to Spill: There is No Enemy
18) Cymbals Eat Guitars: Why There Are Mountains
19) The Veils: Sun Gangs
20) The Drums: Summertime!
21) White Rabbits: It’s Frightening
22) The Decemberists: Hazards of Love
23) An Horse: Rearrange Beds
24) The xx: s/t
25) Yeah Yeah Yeahs: It’s Blitz!
great list, and loved your breakdown of it all. so much for me to still check out, it’s overwhelming!
also a thought . . . we have so much crossover, and then my hands-down-number-one of 2009 ends up your #24.
Great list! Sadly, a lot of these sneaked past me this year. Phoenix is right at the top of my best of list this year, along with Yo La Tengo, but I also really liked the new Dinosaur Jr album, and Camera Obscura’s Maudlin Career was phenomenal. I really liked the soundtracks from 500 Days of Summer, the Twilight movie, and Where the Wild Things Are. REM and Tom Waits put out some great live albums this year too. Itunes gave away a single called Walking on a Dream by Empire of the Sun which really stuck in my head.
For some reason, I can’t get into Camera Obscura and regularly confuse them with the Clientele, who I also can’t get into. I keep trying, though.
Great list, though I think they’re all great picks, I definitely put Phoenix and Dinosaur Jr.’s album up there and The Mountain Goats for me was in my top ten. In my opinion though (and its just my opinion), this list lacks when it comes to great vocals and goes heavy on what seems to me typical indie vocals. I gotta agree with the earlier comment, I loved the Tom Waits album. Also, as much as I hate to admit to it, I did really dig the Big Whiskey and the Groo Grux by Dave Matthews Band too.
Thanks! Appreciate the comment.
On vocals – fair enough – obviously my taste runs to indie rock, though I’m not sure I think there’s a universal standard for great vocals. Bette Midler? Celine Dion? I think that’s a standard that’s very much in the ear of the beholder – I think that Georgia Hubley has one of the most gorgeous voices I’ve ever heard, and Dan Boeckner has one of the purest rock and roll voices ever – if he was born in the 70s, he would have played in a power trio and been a rich, rich man. And so on.
Curious – who would you consider “great” vocalists?