So, everyone with a WordPress blog and a laptop has written lists featuring their favourite albums of the year/decade/millenium.
To be honest, I really like these lists. It helps me to catch up with bands I have previously missed and can now get a Spotify playlist going and explore.
To keep things exciting, I’m just listing the albums I listened to the most in 2009, that have been released in 2009.
Honourable mentions go to Department of Eagles for In Ear Park, which has probably been my most played album of the year, but was released in late 08′, as was We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed by Los Campesinos! Those were the days.
So…Get ready for what will in all likeliness be a condensed version of the Pitchfork Top 50. Bollocks to originality.
Various Artists – Dark Was The Night
This may be on this list because it’s been on my Blackberry amongst only a couple of other albums so I’ve listened to it again and again in the car, but it is an outstanding compilation full of bands I adore. I bought it for the Sufjan Stevens version of You Are The Blood, but it also introduced me to The Dirty Projectors (would you believe), with one of the highlights of the album being Knotty Piny with David Byrne.
The Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
Speaking of which, I downloaded Bitte Orca, which for me was the album of the year. I love listening to music that I just couldn’t comprehend making myself, which is what this album is to me.. For all the unusual time signatures and alternative structures, it has stunning melodies.
St. Vincent – Actor
Annie Clark makes interesting music. I imagine she has a head full of ideas and might record several drastically different versions of each song. There’s a great live session on YouTube of her singing a version of ‘Actor Out of Work’ with only an acoustic guitar. She makes what was an aggressive song into something more whimsical. Her voice is beautiful, her guitar playing is harsh, the result is great.
The Mountain Goats – Life of the World to Come
I first heard The Mountain Goats with ‘Get Lonely’ in 2006, but they didn’t click for me until I listened to ‘Heretic Pride’ and ‘Life of the World to Come’, both in 2009. Ezekiel 7 is a special song.
Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
(I had to Google the album title spelling)
What a talented bunch these guys are. This album felt more immediate to me than Yellow House, and has spent more time on my earphones because of it. There’s something personal in the way it sounds, which I always like. Basically Daniel Rossen is the man.
Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
This album didn’t click for me as quickly as ‘Feels’, which I love. That was, until I saw their set at The Park at Glastonbury 2009. I know ‘My Girls’ has been lauded, but it, and their set, was a festival highlight at Glastonbury. After hearing the songs in the dark, with a light show, amongst people dancing questionably to uncommon time-signatures, it made much more sense to me.