Rob's Favorite Albums of 2009
Honorable Mention – 5 Years of Hyperdub
I generally keep compilations off the list, but if I included them this would be waaaay up the list. Basically almost 3 hours showing off how awesome bass is. Makes me feel silly thinking about the money I spent on the Warp anniversary comp.
Joker – "Stash"
31. Black Dice – Repo – "Chicken Shit"
30. Fabriclive 45: Omar S. – "Oasis One"
29. Mic Terror – King of the New School
28. Black Moth Super Rainbow – Eating Us – "Twin of Myself"
27. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It's Blitz – "Zero"
26. R Kelly – The Demo Tape
25. Marissa Nadler – Little Hells – "Heartpaper Lover"
24. Condo Fucks – Fuckbook – "Come On Up"
23. The Fiery Furnaces – I'm Going Away – "The End Is Near"
22. Times New Viking – Born Again Revisited – "Move To California"
21. Wale – Back to the Feature
20. Wavves – Wavvves – "So Bored"
Probably still my favorite non-No Age lo-fi band. Controversies aside, good album.
19. The Dream – Love vs Money – "Take U Home 2 My Mama"
Futuresexlovesounds production quality – Timberlake/Michael Jackson + R Kelly – R Kelly's slightly creepy vibe = Something what this album sounds like. Man, I really hope this is where R&B is going. Oh, and guest rapper free!
18. Martyn – Great Lengths - "Seventy Four"
I listened to this expecting a dubstep album. Well, this isn't quite that…but a damn fine electronic album all the same.
17. Fever Ray – Fever Ray – "Triangle Walks"
Took awhile to grow on me, but ultimately more satisfying than any Knife album to date. Also, my favorite music video of the year.
16. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion – "My Girls"
What more can be said about this album? "My Girls" is great, the rest isn't so shabby either.
15. HEALTH – Get Color – "Die Slow"
I love it when young bands make as big a leap between their first and second albums.
14. No Age – Losing Feeling EP – "You're A Target"
Wow. Shit-gaze no more…this EP further established No Age as the leaders of the lo-fi movement, and possibly even beyond it.
13. A Place To Bury Strangers – Exploding Head – "Ego Death"
See my blurb for Get Color. There are parts of this album where the title is oh so appropriate.
12. The Pains of Being Pure At Heart – The Pains of Being Pure At Heart – "Contender"
Gotta admit, I wanted to hate this album…but perfect songwriting can overcome lots of things. Like stupid blogger prejudices.
11. Obits – I Blame You – "Pine On"
Rick Froberg does no wrong. Buy this if you love rock n' roll.
10. The XX – XX – "Crystallized"
Okay, so I've talked time and time again about how much I hate "hype bands" and how often this has come to my detriment. Well, here's exhibit #34021. I actually hadn't even heard anything by The XX until a month ago, and that was mostly because I was actively avoiding them. Little did I know how down my lane this shit is. Sparse, dark, and well…pretty headphone music. Yes please. Let's just not use any variation of the word "minimal" anymore to describe them…please?
9. Pontiak – Maker – "Bloodpride"
Great album of fuzzy, slow, stomping, psychedelia with enough of a southern rock vibe tossed in to not sound like the other 20 albums released like this each year. How did this slip under so many people's radar?
8. Lupe Fiasco – Enemy of the State: A Love Story
Not even a half an hour long, but I'll be damned if this didn't let me know that Lupe has banished all thoughts of retirement from his head. All of those scared off by his indulgences (oh no! you have to listen to his lyrics more than once to get them!! Thinking about rap lyrics is so 1999, I know…apologies) will find this a welcome change of pace. He sounds so intensely focused over these tracks that I'm kinda giddy about what 2010 holds for Mr. Fiasco.
7. Raekwon – Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…Pt.II – "10 Bricks"
Did anyone really think he could do it? Better question: Did anyone who listened to Immobilarity think he could do it? (Hell the fuck no!) Well shit…he did it. Pushed back release dates and all, Rae actually followed through and dropped a proper follow up to the classic Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, thereby accomplishing something two other NYC rap titans have yet to successfully achieve. I remember when the singles started dropping, and like a jilted lover I refused to believe that the entire album could be as good as "House of Flying Daggers", then "New Wu", then "10 Bricks". I also remember listening to the entire album, laughing out loud, transforming into a 14 year old Wu-Tang obsessive again, and listening to the entire album with a stupid grin on my face. Pretty much everything that's great about NYC rap is in this album.
6. Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career – "French Navy"
In a year where variations on low-fidelity recording seem to be the flavor of choice, Camera Obscura gets an extra bonus point for swinging for the fences with an album that deserves to be mentioned in the same sentence as the word "Spector". Man, some of the vocal melodies on My Maudlin Career are so soaring that you can't help but get heartsick upon listening. I've loved watching this band transform from another indie-pop band I didn't give much thought to into something I absolutely adore.
5. Major Lazer – Guns Don't Kill People, Lazers Do – "When You Hear The Bassline"
Dancehall hits the (hipster) dancefloor!! That seems to be the overriding sentiment about this album. Not that it's inaccurate, but simply designating this album as such isn't giving nearly enough credit toward the nods to roots and dub thrown into Guns… Singles aside, I'm always surprised at how consistent of an album this is. Diplo especially has been on what, a 4 year hot streak now…killin' it.
4. Big Business – Mind The Drift – "Cold Lunch"
When you're a two piece drum/bass band, it's a pretty big decision to add a full time guitar player. Isn't that pretty much abandoning your original aesthetic? Are you really even the same band? In the case of Big Business, the answers are respectively no and yes. Still as heavy and sludgy as ever (at points even more so) with the guitar serving not so much to lighten up their assault, but to cut through the sludge, making Big Business sound even more menacing. A risk that worked out great, well done gentlemen.
3. Micachu and The Shapes – Jewellery – "Vulture"
I think I've already done enough gushing about this one here. I guess all I can say is that I stand by everything posted there. Oh, and I'm an idiot for missing her twice in Chicago.
2. Mi Ami – Watersports – "New Guitar"
Maybe the troubles Touch N' Go experienced earlier this year partially explain how this album seemed to slip under everyone's radar this year. Whatever the reason, it's a major bummer, because no one else (not even The XX) used "negative space" and the bass guitar as well as Mi Ami this year. Formed from the ashes of the also criminally overlooked Black Eyes, the self-proclaimed "drum punk" band melded elements of dub, noise rock, and krautrock/tribal drumming to create something that sounds what I imagine an African punk band would sound like in some otherworldly void. Let's hope their upcoming 2010 album gets a little more attention, it'd be much deserved.
1. Future of the Left – Travels With Myself and Another – "Chin Music"
Super tight rhythm section. Downtuned…well downtuned everything (even keyboards). Production that sounds like someone in the studio gave a shit. Searing and simultaneously hilarious lyrics from a band that does pissed off better than any currently active band. So basically everything that would assure you would be almost completely ignored in 2009. Which kinda pisses me off. Which makes it even more appropriate that I still can't stop listening to this album. It's just a shame that a band made from the remains of another ignored-until-too-late-now-legendary band releases an album that surpasses any of their former band's material…and it's ignored as well. And I'm almost positive it's because they don't fit the current zeitgeist of the moment. No one wants to be pissed…let's be hazy and dreamy and dancey and rip off trance music (oh you didn't realize that's what that shit you're listening to really is?!? Oops!) instead. Well okay, that's all well and good, but when we're all pissed off about health care and unemployment and Swine AIDS next year, promise me you'll revisit this album. You owe it to yourself, and I'll even look the other way if you throw it on your Best of 2010 list, promise.
Favorite Songs of 2009
5. 40 Thieves w/Qzen – "Don't Turn It Off" – Don't Turn It Off EP
4. HEALTH – "Die Slow" – Get Color
3. Burial & Four Tet – "Moth" – Moth/Wolf Cub single
2. Lupe Fiasco – "Turnt Up" – Enemy of the State: A Love Story
1. Joker – "Stash" – 5 Years of Hyperdub
1 comments:
meh.
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