My Top Records of 2009
I don’t listen to enough of other people’s music (besides my own of course) to be able to authoritatively comment on what were the definitive best albums of the year. But these were some albums that occupied spaces of time in my life. As you’ll see, many didn’t even come out this year. That’s what makes this list so damn interesting, no?
Last Winter
Deerhunter – Microcastles
This came out in 2008. Still, it was new to me this year. I wrote about this record here when I talked about the power of certain albums to reveal themselves to you over time. Bradford Cox’s songwriting greatly impressed me. Obviously, “Nothing Ever Happened” is something special. But there are moments on every song that I fell in love with. And I fell in love with the production quality. The haze and the squalor and the beauty that lay beneath everything. And I wrote a song called “Anywhere At All” that I stole from “Twilight at Carbon Lake”. Really what happened is that I was driving home and the song was playing very low and I started singing my own melody to it. Not sure if that’s stealing.
Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
This actually did come out this year. Near unanimous acclaim and many people’s record of the year. The interesting comment I’ll add: Of all the bands compared to The Beach Boys, Animal Collective actually sounds the most like the Beach Boys/Pet Sounds. Mainly because of the high timbre of their vocals but also because I what would describe as their oblong melodies. Imagine TFC bringing 12-15 people on stage and dancing and shimmying to a live cover of “My Girls”. This plus the Deerhunter record were the staples of last Winter. Demo’ing new tunes. Smoking cigs. Staring at the snow in Kerhonkson. Building fires.
Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours
Another record that came out in 2008. But it was earlier this year that I fell in love with it. We covered “Hearts on Fire” at The Living Room. My interesting comment on it: It’s a dance record with a strong streak of melancholy and sadness running through it. And I like the way they use the acoustic. This record makes me think about Miami. I’ve listened to it in Miami. But it made me think of Miami before I’d listened to it in Miami.
Day & Age – The Killers
I bought this record on a whim and I can’t testify to its enduring greatness. But I found myself putting it on a lot on the drive upstate. The first three tunes are fun and bright and hilarious and I love Brandon Flowers voice for whatever reason. And there may be something deeper and more profound in the lyrics of “Human” than we had originally supposed. And “Spaceman” is another in longstanding tradition of songs in the “abduction rock” genre that also includes that wonderful song “Face of the Earth” off of the Dismemberment Plan’s last record, Change. Judge me if you will. But a lot of these tunes bring a smile to my face.
Spring / Summer
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz
I wrote about this record in August when I’d driven up to the beach over the summer. I enjoy Dave Sitek quite a bit. This record represents a mature and direct step forward for the band and I’m very impressed by it. I love Brian Chase’s drumming on the record. It’s very specific. That’s how I describe it. Everything is placed very intentionally and directly. Nothing cluttered. But still human. The first two tunes are big and loud and fine but the record grabbed me at “Soft Shock” with the layering of that beautiful stuttering melody line against the guitars and the synths. The record then closed the deal on “Skeletons” which is quintessential Sitek. Restrained and elegant and beautifully arranged and great percussion. You keep thinking that the song will explode into something totally enormous and the fact that it doesn’t lends it a stately grace that becomes more affecting with every listen. Finally, “Hysteric” is the second best thing they’ve ever done, second only to “Maps”. And the record is 10 songs. No fat. Just extended anything. Just fully formed electro-guitar pop.
The Field – From Here We Go Sublime
Hastings pointed this album out to me. It became one of my favorite records of all time. I don’t know why it struck me so hard. There’s something so insistent and so elegant and so demure about these beats and these rhythms. Almost celestially melodic. The whole thing feels of one large organic and shifting movement. And again. Almost impossibly melodic. I remember lying on my bed after a long run and listening to this all morning in the summertime with the windows open. Very wonderful.
Sinead O’Connor – I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got
I rediscovered this back in June. 7th Grade in El Salvador. I remember sitting by the pool on the high dive and I remember listening to it in the long driveway in my mom’s grey Honda Accord. Something led me to pull it out of the dust bin this year and it left me fairly floored. I wrote about it. It’s like reading her diary. She is bitterly and purely baring her soul to the world and her voice is gorgeous and the songs are amazing. The dark goth notes against the Funky Drummer-sample in “I Am Stretched On Your Grave”. What a song. And the yodeling/crys of despair in “Last Day of Our Acquaintance”. That song is one of the most beautiful heartbreaking things ever put to tape. This album is probably the finest record by a female artist aside from Joni Mitchell in the last 50 years.
Fall / Winter
Neko Case – Middle Cyclone
I listened to this record all year really. It’s not start to finish great. It’s too long. The crickets thing at the end is sadly cliche and she should know better even though it’s still fun. Utris did a crickets outro on the Long Walk Home 10 years ago and many others have done the same thing. So it’s a bit silly. But there are wonderful songs on this record and Neko has a great voice and a great pen. ”The next time you say forever I will punch you in your face.” Great line. And bits and pieces of songs reveal themselves to you over time. I fell in love with the outro of “Prison Girls” at one point this fall and listened to it over and over and over again. I don’t love all female singers. In fact, I lean against them if given the option. But I love Neko.
Now
Dan Deacon – Bromst
If you follow my tweets, you’ve seen me tweeting about it. I listened to it when it came out and fell back in love with it when I was going through the Top 50 records of the year on P4k. It’s undoubtedly better than the slot they gave it (#46). I’d say it’s #3 behind Animal Collective and Bitte Orca. The most obvious touchstone is Eno. His singing sounds like Eno and his production has a Tiger Mountain/Here Come The Warm Jets/Another Green World vibe. Like Axel Willner in The Field, it’s fairly simple music but the layers and the humanity behind the beats and the melody win me over every time. There’s a period during “Snookered” when he’s sampling his voice and bouncing it across the mix and then the swells of the synths come up and then the chords change and it’s one of those fist-pumping ecstatic moments in music and it makes you very happy.
