Best Albums of 2009
The xx perform “Islands” on Later…with Jools Holland
Since I couldn’t figure out how to upload my best-of 2009 list to my Drowned in Sound friends, I figured you’d be dying to know my top 50 records of the year. Okay, maybe not dying. Let’s say, mildly curious.
Albums of 2009
- The xx: XX
- Grizzly Bear: Veckatimest
- Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion
- Various: Dark Was the Night
- Memory Tapes: Seek Magic
- Japandroids: Post-Nothing
- Cymbals Eat Guitars: Where There Are Mountains
- Handsome Furs: Face Control
- Sunset Rubdown: Dragonslayer
- Flaming Lips: Embryonic
- The Antlers: Hospice
- The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
- Woods: Songs of Shame
- Natural Snow Buildings: Shadow Kingdom
- Washed Out: Life of Leisure EP
- Bat for Lashes: Two Suns
- Fever Ray: Fever Ray
- Girls: Album
- Foreign Born: Person to Person
- Volcano Choir: Unmap
- Doves: Kingdom of Rust
- The Field: Yesterday and Today
- Mount Eerie: Wind’s Poem
- Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs: It’s Blitz
- Neon Indian: Psychic Chasms
- Fuck Buttons: Tarot Sport
- Yo La Tengo: Popular Songs
- Lights: Lights
- Atlas Sound: Logos
- Polvo: In Prism
- Wild Beasts: Two Dancers
- Built to Spill: There is No Enemy
- Arctic Monkeys: Humbug
- Dirty Projectors: Bitte Orca
- Patrick Wolf: The Bachelor
- Sholi: Sholi
- Swan Lake: Enemy Mine
- Phoenix: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
- The Big Pink: A Brief History of Love
- Patrick Watson: Wooden Arms
- St. Vincent: Actor
- Condo Fucks: Fuckbook
- Circulatory System: Signal Morning
- jj: jjno.2
- Neko Case: Middle Cyclone
- Mew: No More Stories…
- Papercuts: You Can Have What You Want
- The Horrors: Primary Colours
- The Clientele: Bonfire on the Hearth
- A Place to Bury Strangers: Exploding Head
Your turn!
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:31 pm
A bit early? Still some coming. However love your list. Move A Place to Bury Strangers way up. I think I was the only one who wasn’t “thrilled (like top 20)” with Flaming Lips. Love Animal Collective, Girls, and The Pains of Being Pure At Heart (maybe one of my top 3…still putting mine together).
November 24th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
I really liked your top pic New Order…I mean XX. For my top album of the year I’m going to go with an album from 2007 (because music sucked this year) Band of Horses Cease to Begin. Yeah baby!
November 24th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
….but if you were going to pin me down. Deerhunter- Rainwater Cassette Exchange.
November 25th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Japandriods this Friday? Anyone game I think Tim and I are going to go…
November 27th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
You can keep tomorrow, after tonight I’m not gonna need it.
November 29th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
oR – What’s up w/ The XX? Do you have a review of them somewhere?
November 30th, 2009 at 10:32 am
No. The only records on that list I reviewed is Papercuts and Sholi. But here’s what I’d say:
There’s a minimalist quality to XX that many people will find too simple to be great. To the contrary, the added space shows remarkable restraint for a bunch of youngsters. It reminds me a lot of Young Marble Giants, but with slinky r’n b basslines and sorta emotionless vocals, almost a stripped-down Interpol. It’s deliberate, dirty, unsettling and exciting. Like having sex with a stranger. 9/10
December 1st, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Amen to that review of XX. I tried to tell my sister the same thing. So simple but so great. KISS theory in full effect.
December 1st, 2009 at 10:44 pm
That’s cool…I just got done w/ another Craigslist fattie, so I’m definitely down w/ having sex w/ strangers. No condoms!
You should have a feature on “shortest review possible” and make it all haikus:
XX
A lake in winter, high in the mountains
Vast space, and much restraint
I hear a drum machine and synth
December 2nd, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Damn dude, XX described as deliberate is dead on. For me, though, its not so much like having sex with a stranger as it is holding hands with a mental demon I once found waiting for me in Disintegration.
And I can TOTALLY see Warpaint touring/opening for these guys.
BTW, as much as I cherish the flaming lips…I’ve heard just way too much shit about Embryonic…I figured it was only a matter of time before I caved in a gave it a chance. Apparently you like it…
December 3rd, 2009 at 9:55 pm
great list. sholi and xx debuts are my two favorite records of the year. dark / gorgeous/ timeless / effortless. and the drumming on the sholi record wow
December 6th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Re mel on Sholi. Whoa, not too many people had a chance to hear that one. You’re right, it’s remarkably cool. The drumming is very Deerhoof-like, but overall reminds me more of a less abrasive Dirty Projectors. Or Sweep the Leg Johnny without all that shitty free-jazz horns.
December 6th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Along those lines…if the Capt is listening…a double bill w/ Sholi and Akron would be good for any of their shows coming up in the future.