Top Twenty Albums of 2009
Thursday, December 31st, 2009- Grizzly Bear: Veckatimest
- Dirty Projectors: Bitte Orca
- Fuck Buttons: Tarot Sport
- Bear in Heaven: Beast Rest Forth Mouth
- Mastodon: Crack the Skye
- Yo La Tengo: Popular Songs
- Sunn O))): Monoliths & Dimensions
- Bat for Lashes: Two Suns
- St. Vincent: Actor
- The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs: It’s Blitz!
- Dinosaur Jr: Farm
- The xx: xx
- Raekwon: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx … Pt. II
- Sonic Youth: The Eternal
- Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion
- The Flaming Lips: Embryonic
- Kylesa: Static Tensions
- Slayer: World Painted Blood
- Memory Tapes: Seek Magic
Major calisthenics were demanded before I could arrive at a final order for these twenty gems, but I made it. What a terrific year!
Notes:
Grizzly Bear utterly dominated the competition. I feel strongly about every one of these, but I can’t remember another year—at least not recently—when my #1 towered so high above the rest of the list (maybe 2004?). Veckatimest has purchased real estate next to some of my all-time favorites. Way to go, guys.
It was an unusually strong year for metal, with three albums of undeniable heavitude (four if you count the majestic Monoliths & Dimensions; notice that I balk at the opportunity to put the band’s name in parentheses) moshing their way into the top twenty. Honorable mentions for 2009’s contributions from Isis, Shrinebuilder, Khanate, Skeletonwitch, Baroness, Converge, Coalesce, and, most delightfully, Megadeth’s pummeling Endgame, which is their best in perhaps twenty years.
Many of my favorite rock bands of the nineties, from an array of genres, made strong showings this year, with Yo La Tengo seeming to turn over a new leaf, Dinosaur continuing to roll as confidently as ever in its new (old) incarnation, and Sonic Youth releasing its punkiest album ever. And though I didn’t get quite as swept away by Embryonic as some other folks might have, its ambition and foggy darkness made it more than satisfying. A few other entries in this category deserve an HM: Polvo’s In Prism, Built to Spill’s There Is No Enemy, Wilco’s Wilco (The Album), and, yes, U2’s No Line on the Horizon. I’ll keep my mouth shut about the Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam albums. Oops. Guess I didn’t do a very good job of that.
Finally, as to new sounds: this glo-fi thing? I am over the moon for it. Washed Out didn’t quite make the albums list, and neither did Neon Indian, and Memory Tapes’s inclusion was a veritable squeaker, but all three artists impressed me enormously, and all three will be present on my forthcoming songs list. To the degree that this fledgling sound is in fact a coherent sound, and that these three artists from among certainly many more may be considered its most salient representatives, this sound is deeply moving to me and comes as close as any electronic music I’ve heard to delivering the emotional goods that I expect from the best pop. It’ll either take over indie electropop altogether in the next two years or be forgotten utterly. We’ll see. It might depend entirely on what M.I.A. decides to do next.
And as to the two songs lists I’m working on: they are totally driving me crazy. Wish me luck.