THE 20 BEST ALBUMS OF 2009
20. The Mountain Goats The Life of the World to Come
The Mountain Goats within one year have become one of my favorite bands. Whodathunk one year ago an man who suffers from Asperger's Syndrome and records shit into a boom box would glench my alltime top 50? Regardless of there's prized title (haha... yeah), I loved the direction of clean, solid tracks all inspired by the bible. It's like if Christian rock didn't suck.
I have been waiting for this album for WAY too long. I loved At War With The Mystics, and I totally didn't get that here. But then I realized that I shouldn't have expected their polished tracks of psychedelia, rather they were unpolished. It was noises, it was random, it was lyrically insane, it had Karen O for christ sake. Going back an listening to the entire catalog chronologically made me realize that this was the only next logical step for The Flaming Lips, and acceptance in the first step to recovery.
The Fiery Furnaces have a near and dear place to my heart, but like so much of the vanguard this year, they all came up a little short. That's not to say they weren't good (the wouldn't be on this list if they weren't), but it definitely cut corners and the hooks and melodies, often encouraging a little avant garde in the bad way. Regardless I loved their take on 70s influence and was a mainstay of the summer.
Completely in Spanish and music videos of old men in speedos, Fool's Gold stole my heart with very catchy jingles and tropical theme. The inverted authentic Vampire Weekend if you will. Afropop doesn't inspire them, they inspire Afropop.
Atlas Sound doesn't have much going for it on the surface, but when you realize that members of Animal Collective are willing to chip in, you know you have something going for it. "Walkabout" might have been the best song I heard all last year, and for some reason sounds great when you're waiting for the bus.
Another contribution (via signing them to Paw Tracks) of Animal Collective (hey, guess which album is high ranked on my album list?), Dent May is an old man with a ukulele and a mission, and oddly enough HE FUCKING STICKS THE LANDING. Every one of his songs (particularly "College Town Boy" and "Meet Me in the Garden") could arguably be a single and easily the greatest sing along album of 2009. I just wish I could get my friends to listen, as what I've described is a hard sell.
Did anyone really not like this album? Wait, better question; does anyone not like Kings of Convenience? Acoustic heart-tugging track after acoustic heart-tugging track, they make a man want to crave a beer and hammock as they reminisce about past loves and adolescence. Notch the belt a third time with this album, for they are three for three now. Who say s you can't rock three times in a row in the 2000s?
I'm stil not sure what a Veckatimist is. Chuck Klosterman once wrote about a fictional man who use to sit at the same barstool in a diner every day for years and if you asked him which chair he sat at he couldn't tell you. I feel this is analogous to this album and I. If you gave me a track from this album and asked me who sang it (negating Two Weeks) I could tell you it feels very familiar, but I couldn't name the band. Sometimes you don't need to know what you're listening to in order to know if feels comfortable, warm and enjoyable. Oh, poverty, muggy heat, and PBR, thy name is Grizzly Bear.
I mean, really how does someone not love these aging rock stars. So much has been right this year, and that statement I made about shitty vanguard albums need not apply here. "Over It" gave me one of the best videos this year. Watching old guys ride skateboards and bmx bikes made me realize that maybe all the parents with facebooks still hold the coolness baton, and that you should never doubt an album of a reunited band just because U2, Areosmith, and everyone from the 80s sucked. Perhaps the most sincere and honest album of 2009.
Gee, I wonder if someone from Bellingham wrote this list... I really didn't want to like this album. At first, I was just kind of confused as to why Rick Rubin decided that a bunch of mediocre hicks deserved his pro bono production (maybe because the lord, err I mean Rick Rubin, works in mysterious ways). Yet despite all my grudge (mostly due to a thousand different critics claiming it was one of the best of the decade), there's so much to like about this. The lyrics are rough and sincere, the chords simple, the whole thing, gorgeous, sad, and beautiful.
THE TOP TEN
10./10. Jay-Z The Blueprint 3 & Raekwon Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II
These are both #10 for a few reasons. These are both the two biggest signs of maturity in the rap game. These are the two most successful returns of highly influential albums (The Blueprint & Only Built 4 Cuban Linx). After what a shit year 2008 was for rap, it's good to see two incredibly mature takebacks. Raekwon might have made the best redefining of subject matter in Rap in 2009 ("Pyrex Vision" might be the darkest thing I heard all year), and Jay-Z might have made the best critique of modern Rap in 2009.
It was a great year for Slumberland Records, and this was their defining moment. 2009 was definitely that transitory year of rock, and I love the quotation of 80s indie pop/rock that TPOBPAT (a horrible acronym, I know) toyed with. Probably the most fluid thing I listened to all year, and so god damn cheeky and happy I had to take a shot of insulin when I finished it.
Neon Indian won my coveted prize (again, haha... yeah) of my summer anthem, in which it beat a close fought battle against Dinosaur Jr.'s "See You". I spent three months relatively unemployed and drunk. Thus how could Neon Indian's "Deadbeat Summer" not win? The funny thing was this album didn't come out for a much longer time than the single itself (which was sad because it didn't win my summer album award (quick sidenote: I'm not making a list of seasonal song awards, this is merely for smart assery), but it totally could have been. With the five thousand different genres that semi-spawn this year, it was a joy to hear one that had their shit together. New Wave/Electronica/Psychelia never sounded so good.
For the record, Neko never fails me. I would give her this spot on my list for her album cover alone. But she hit something deep and very mature with this. I was even convinced that she couldn't get as good as she did on Fox Confessor but like the sexy former Tacoma resident that she is, she proved me wrong again. Her rapid excitement on "This Tornado Loves You" to her semi-cheesiness on "Don't Turn Your Back on Mother Earth"*, it's flawless to the core.
*You mean it's not about the environment? What?!
The story about this album; Andrew Cohen, a semi-decent dj from Ann Arbor, on a whim, had been recording musical tracks of 70s inspired soul and funk, when a Stones Throw Records head heard it, he was sure it was a set of rarities from the era. When they realized it was this goofy looking white guy doing the whole thing, they signed his ass and gained the attention of everyone from Justin Timberlake to M.I.A. This album is so good it almost crashed my computer. Being the white funk and soul enthusiast that I am, this was the best surprise I received this year.
Would anyone really dispute this? Not really. This was Phoenix's Dark Side of the Moon. The most flawless tracks they've combined into a compact disk. While French Pop died in the late 90s, the reason this is so popular and "refreshing" is no one has heard that genre in so fucking long that this is considered unique. The truth is, they're the last ones of the league to still put up a fight, and they won big this year, gaining notoriety with everyone from car commercial consumers to Pitchfork readers. The greatest success overall this year? Yeah, pretty much.
Where in the hell did this album come from? With almost no hype (fuck you, Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band), Girls beat everyone to a pulp with the catchiest hooks and best lyrics of last year. Fading from Summer to Fall, it followed and defined the progression perfectly, and when they said "I wish I had a pizza and a bottle of wine", I was right there with them.
3. Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion
It almost feels like a cliche at this point to say this album was one of the best. The truth remains, it really was. I've never heard psychedelia so tight and fast and solid in my life. I don't feel I need to say much more about this album, because everyone has said already, starting from the moment it emerged at the beginning of last year.
Genres were established left and right last year, but what happens when someone takes all the ones that exist and manipulates them to their liking? You get Dirty Projectors. Nothing made more sense with such an orchestral perfection than Bitte Orca. I had way too much fun with this one, and genuinely surprised me when I played this album and stared at my laptop like it was broken when I went "Wait, this is actually coming out of my speakers?" Captain Fantastic.
The Best Album of 2009
Sexy, Sad, Loving, Emotional, Soothing-
This is a disputable contention with a lot of people, but nothing made me more satisfied than this ode to adolescent love and lust. Thematic of my year? No, not really, but then again nothing really was this year. Nostalgic? Very much so. When a bunch of twentysomethings from the UK can whisper to each other like the time you lost your virginity, you've got something good in your hands. Jim Derogotis said something along the lines of this album sounding like the kind of emotional and sleepy pillowtalk that goes on at 2:00 am. I couldn't agree more. It makes you want to cry, it makes you want to love, it makes you want that everything right there covered in the sheets and talking with their eyes closed. When the whole world around you makes a billion songs a year about love, it's so refreshing to hear one that stands above the rest.
2009, everyone. Enjoy your day.
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