Garrett’s Ten Favorite Albums of the Year and Assorted Other Musings

 

Did anybody else think that 2009 was a bit of a letdown?  It’s like the Great Recession even reached into the musical world to deliver me sub-par returns.  Oh well.  Onward…

 

As always, I don’t pretend that this is a “top 10” list.  I listened to a lot of music this year, but I certainly didn’t hear everything.  So these are my ten favorite albums of 2009 that I’ve heard so far:

 

Ten Favorite Albums of 2009

 

1) Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

 

If you like what Phoenix does (and deep down, who doesn’t except communists?) then this is the perfect Phoenix record.  This is the “Top Gun” of 2009 albums – it starts off fast and loose (“Lisztomania” and “1901”), has its catharsis (“Love Like a Sunset, Parts I and II) and then takes back off (“Lasso” and “Girlfriend”).  What a great ride.

 

 

2) Califone – All My Friends Are Funeral Singers

 

As maddeningly consistent as Roots & Crowns was consistently maddening.  I realized this is a great record while waiting on a two-hour delayed connecting flight through DFW Airport, working on two hours of sleep and hungover as sh*t.  This was the perfect soundtrack for that scenario.  

 

 

3) Fever Ray – Fever Ray

 

My big problem with Silent Shout was too much plinky keyboard - the sound wasn’t organic enough (like sodium benzoate, a bad thing).  Problem, er, solved.  Karin Dreijer Andersson proves she’s the dark half of the Knife (good thing).

 

 

4) White Rabbits – It’s Frightening

 

Man, everything that Britt Daniels touches turns to solid gold.  “The Salesman (Tramp Life)” might be my favorite track of the year.

 

 

5) The Flaming Lips – Embryonic

 

Better than Yoshimi.  There, I said it.  Unlike Yoshimi, it doesn’t have the one standout track, but from front to back a far superior effort.  See also, there are always bonus points when your live show involves a human hamster ball:

 

 

6) Hurray for the Riff Raff – It Don’t Mean I Don’t Love You

 

This is the best record of 2009 that you never heard of.  But I’ve heard of it, and that makes me cooler than you.  Much cooler.  This is a sad and lovely little understatement of a record from this “gypsy folk” group out of New Orleans.  A soundtrack for your gin hole, so long as your gin drink of choice is a ramos gin fizz.

 

 

7) Woodpigeon – Treasure Library Canada c/w Houndstooth Europa

 

A sprawling folk set, with 24 tracks, and some of the most creative song titles of the year (“In the Battle of Sun vs. Curtains, Sun Loses and We Sleep Until Noon”, “Thoughts on the One Who Got Away By the One He Left Behind”).  Beyond the kitsch, though, is a set of beautiful folk tunes.

 

 

8) Andrew Bird – Noble Beast

 

A letdown from 2007’s Armchair Apocrypha, but as good as Armchair Apocrypha is, that was almost a certainty.  Noble Beast doesn’t have Armchair’s standout tracks, but it’s a more consistent effort throughout (geez, are we sensing a pattern here?).  Bonus points for his live set earlier this year at the House of Blues, which was flatout awesome.

 

 

9) Arkells – Jackson Square

 

The kickassiest record of 2009 was actually released in late December 2008.  These guys are Canadian though so I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt.  This year’s answer to the Gaslight Anthem.  Rock on, brah!

 

 

10) Bowerbirds – Upper Air

 

The companion to the Hurray for the Riff Raff album (in my head at least).  The two albums are very similar in style, although the Bowerbirds album has a bit more structure, a bit less soul, and a lot more press.  

 

 

Honorable Mention (11-20, in alphabetical order)

 

These records also rock, but you know… less so:

 

Harlem Shakes – Technicolor Health

Manic Street Preachers – Journal for Plague Lovers

Metric – Fantasies

The Mountain Goats – The Life of the World to Come

Memory Tapes – Seek Magic

Neko Case – Middle Cyclone

Roman Candle – Oh Tall Tree in the Ear

Silversun Pickups - Swoon

Sunset Rubdown – Dragonslayer

The xx – The xx

 

 

Surprise of the Year

 

Alice in Chains’ Black Gives Way to Blue.  It kinda kicks ass, in the same way that old AIC used to kick ass, before Layne Staley’s smack addiction became a problem instead of a muse.  I hate you, heroin.  Bonus: Brad Pitt is currently sporting a Staley-esque goatee, so it all kinda evens out I guess.  Or maybe he looks more like the Dude.  You decide:

 

 

Letdown of the Year

 

John Mayer’s new album, Battle Studies.  I loved Continuum and I have a man-crush on Mayer.  The new album isn’t bad.  It’s just kinda dull, and it’s a letdown because Mayer has a lot more to offer than this, and I hope that next time he tries a little harder.  He needs to stop dicking around with actresses and start focusing.  However, he still does sh*t like this, so he’s still cool:

 

 

WTF Moment of the Year

 

Animal Collective.  WTF, man?  Am I missing something?  Merriweather Post Pavilion is getting talked about like it’s the new Sgt. Pepper’s.  I found most of it to be unlistenable.  

 

Honorable Mention WTF Moment: Dirty Projectors’ Bitte Orca.  Further proof that sometimes people take themselves way too seriously.

Ten Older Records I Discovered and Loved in 2009 (in chronological order):

 

Because I can’t get to everything that comes out every year (and also because I wasn’t alive in the ‘60s):

 

Love – Forever Changes (1967)

Sly & The Family Stone – There’s a Riot Goin’ On (1971)

Red Red Meat – Bunny Gets Paid (1995)

Gov’t Mule – Life Before Insanity (2000)

Low – Things We Lost in the Fire (2001)

Holopaw – Holopaw (2003)

Pretty Girls Make Graves – The New Romance (2003)

Archer Prewitt – Wilderness (2005)

Pinetop Seven – The Night’s Bloom (2005)

Wintersleep – Welcome to the Night Sky (2007)