I'm a bit of a music junkee. Really. Anyway, I just spent so much time putting together the list below that I don't feel like writing a proper intro to this post. So let's just get into it: here are Diabolical H. Crazy's top 10 albums of 2009.
1. Dirty Projectors "Bitte Orca" -- As in, please, I'd like another whale of an album like this. While it seems that the rest of the music press penciled in Animal Collective as the year's best album in January, "Bitte Orca" came out in June and picked up steam throughout the summer. "Stillness Is The Move" is definitely the highlight track (I think I must have Shazamed this song about a dozen times before buying the album, plus there's the Solange Knowles cover. Any song that is still amazing when covered in another genre must be an amazing song). The album starts with "Cannibal Resource," one of my all time favorite, "is this music? what the hell is this? wait, this IS music!" album openers ever. The vibe continues through "Temecula Sunrise" and "No Intention." At moments, it sounds like a cacophonic experimental middle school band, and it others it is simply pure genius.
2. Phoenix "Wolfgang Amedeus Phoenix" -- At first I had it really low on this list. Then not as low. And then I listened to it again. And again. It's a damn catchy album, and I can't believe I am putting something this poppy so high, but that's just the thing--who expected a (mostly obscure) French band to make one of the best pop albums of the year and then name it after one of the best composers ever? Everyone knows "1901" (thanks, Cadillac. By the way, I know someone who should do your marketing) and "Lisztomania," but this album is steady all the way through--so solid that I had trouble picking which song I wanted to link to (I went with "Lasso," but make sure you check out "Love Like a Sunset, Pt. II"). Oh yeah, and thanks to my wife for turning me on to this band and buying me tickets to the show.
3. Yeah Yeah Yeahs "It's Blitz" -- I liked "Show Your Bones." Having said that, it was definitely not the right album to follow their stellar debut "Fever to Tell." The YYYs could have retreated from "Show Your Bones," licked their wounds, and put out another indie-punk gem. Instead, they completely blew up their sound (seriously, Nick Zinner, keyboards? I had no clue.) and came out with one of the most backward-sounding, forward-reaching albums I have ever heard. It's hard to outshine Karen O, but in some cases on this album--like "Zero"--the music is at the forefront. Luckily Karen gives us "Heads Will Roll" and "Dull Life."
4. Girls "Album" -- "I wish I had a pizza and a bottle of wine." This line, from "Lust for Life," is so many perfect moments wrapped up into 11 little words. It's the first song on the album, and I completely skipped over it for a month, listening to "Laura," "Big Bad Mean Motherfucker," and "Hellhole Ratrace." And then one day, while walking the dog, I listened to "Lust for Life," over and over and over again. And then the rest of the album. It's at once retro and lo-fi, yet somehow modern and vulnerable. "So come on, come on, come on and laugh with me." And listen to this album.
5. The Flaming Lips "Embryonic" -- Okay, Wayne and company, the album's called "Embryonic"; we really didn't need to see that birth scene in the video for "Watching the Planets." As you say so well on the album's first song, "that's the difference between us." But you did show us that and so much more. Starting with "Convinced of the Hex, this album feels like the birth and destruction of something, but what? The ego (as in "The Ego's Last Stand")? Yourself? Celebrity? What?
(bonus side note: Karen O offers some amazing animal vocals on "I Can Be A Frog." Some called this the year of Jack White. I call it the year of Karen O.)
6. Passion Pit "Manners" -- Of the year's electronic albums, I like this one the best. Maybe it's the way "Moth's Wings" builds up. Maybe its the way "Sleepyhead" reminds me of my wife. But most likely it's the singing, sometimes high pitched, sometimes a collection of voices, that adds depth to everything else. That, and it's fun. Whatever it is, I have the manners to say, "thank you, Passion Pit."
7. The Decemberists "The Hazards of Love" -- I really didn't want to like this album. I even took most of the songs off my iPod for a while to make room for some newer albums. But there's this one riff that's repeated in a number of songs that just makes me want more, and I started adding them back. In my opinion, the Decemberists have always engaged in a bit of puffery and fluffery in their songs, making them sound complex and grandiose. And some of their so-called period songs (like "Eli, the Barrow Boy") seem like a creative writing class gone wrong. But this album, "The Hazards of Love," though a concept album, never feels overblown. It might be that refrain that first appears in "A Bower Scene" or it might be the presence of My Brightest Diamond, but this compact (one hour!) musical is simply Ear Delicious.
8. Animal Collective "Merriweather Post Pavilion" -- So okay, here it is. I think it deserves the hype it got. The band finally makes sense to me. I have to mention, I was a little skeptical for the first few listens. But after a while, you peel through the layers (and occasionally something that sounds like a siren backwards) to listen to an amazing album. And my wife liked "My Girls," which counts for something. From the confusingly named "Lion in a Coma" with its didgeridoo, through the never-ending build-up of "My Girls," there's only one word that can describe this album: genius. Or swirling. Your pick. I'm going with swirling.
9. DJ Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse "Dark Night of the Soul" -- This is an eerie, alternate universe of an album, almost like what Edward Scissorhands would have on his iPod if he didn't keep cutting the cord on his earphones. No wonder it accompanies a series of David Lynch's photography. It starts out strong, with a slowly haunting collaboration with the Flaming Lip's Wayne Coyne (each song has a different vocal collaborist). This album really plays like an old double record, with four distinct sections. From a slowly psychedelic beginning, the album delves into punk, and then another psychedelic turn--this one working its way down to the haunting, final two songs, which feature church (death?) bells, the fuzz from an old record player, and some understated Vic Chesnutt vocals. Don't listen to this album alone in the dark.
Oh yeah, and this record was never released (officially). Start your search here.
10. The Drums "Summertime" -- Even though it didn't come out until almost Fall, this brief debut EP by the Drums perfectly encapsulates every summer from the last 60 years. Surf rock, hand claps, and the catchiest whistling this side of Peter, Bjorn and John almost make this album sound like a relic from the past--as do the album's repeating themes of schoolyard love, holding hands and old-fashioned dates. It's a simple, classic format, perfectly executed.
The next five albums just missed my Top Ten. They are the best of the rest. But I'm making some tough decisions by leaving Wilco, the Dead Weather, blakroc, Metric, Mos Def, Soulsavers, The Very Best, Bat for Lashes, and Beirut off this list.
11. The xx "xx"
12. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes "Up From Below"
13. Arctic Monkeys "Humbug"
14. Miike Snow "Miike Snow"
15. Neko Case "Middle Cyclone"
Notable Omissions:
The Antlers "Hospice" -- I'm sorry, but the slow-building church organ just didn't do it for me, especially after trying to make it through Grizzly Bear's "Veckatimest." Speaking of ...
Grizzly Bear "Veckatimist" -- I get it. Kind of. "The Knife" was great. As are moments of "Veckatimist," like "Two Weeks." The rest of it just feels empty. And not in the amazing Bon-Iver-there's-no-one-else-around empty, more like soulless empty.
"Dark Was the Night" -- great album, but it was a COMPILATION. Sorry, not valid in my book. Neither are soundtracks (unless all the music is original and new). Sorry, them's the rules.
And now, if you've made it this far: time to debate.
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What's your top songs of 2009?
ReplyDeleteClose to mine. I would probably add these band's albums on my album list:
Rural Alberta Advantage
The Avett Brothers
I agree on Passion Pit and they had a fun show @troub
fight the hype on AC..a couple songs ok and PF fav but top album not sure