Favorite Albums & Songs of 2009

(archiving selected content from my old Wordpress blog!)

A caveat before I start: I’m always hesitant to make lists of the best albums, in particular, in a given year because I never listen to as many new releases as I want/plan to. Those I do listen to take time to grow on me, be digested, and oftentimes it won’t be until months later that I decide, hey, this __ album is really freaking awesome, why was I not loving it a year ago? In the same fashion, an album I loved at first listen can sour or get boring quickly on subsequent ones, or become inextricably associated with unpleasant memories. Finally, the albums and songs I really loved this year, again, just like any year, are almost certainly not the objective best in a sea of releases, but they’re the ones I loved the most, that I made some sort of personal connection with or that remind me of people, places, times. Frankly, I’m the wrong person to ask which were the “best,” anyway; I couldn’t tell you. So instead I call this a list of my favorites and have done with it.

Albums

1. Hospice, The Antlers
I need to talk about how much and more importantly why I love this album so very much, but it’s too long and wordy and personal and thus is getting a post of its own. Watch for it; should be up in a couple of days. Suffice to say: LOVE. LOVE. LOVE.

2. Actor, St. Vincent
Annie Clark is so fascinating to me. She has a little porcelain doll’s perfect, delicate face, and when you see her live she spends a lot of time shredding on her guitar like a champ. I adore her. Marry Me is great, but Actor is even better, with tons of quirky songs and epic arrangements.

3. Noble Beast, Andrew Bird
I really enjoyed the experience of reading snippets from Andrew on NY Times’ Measure for Measure blog during the making of this album. He said from the get go that he had a texture in mind for this, warm, woody, mossy, fecund, and either the power of suggestion works wonders or he really achieved what he set out to; I’m thinking it’s the latter. In particular, Natural Disaster encapsulates the whole album, sound and content-wise. On the other end of the spectrum, Not a Robot, But a Ghost sounds more like Radiohead than your typical Andrew Bird song, and is totally mind-blowing. To finish the whole thing off there’s the loveliest bittersweet instrumental, On Ho!, which I gushed my love of to Martin Dosh and Mike Lewis (of Andrew’s band) when I met them briefly after a show. Like everything Andrew does, I adore this. I might be slightly obsessed. I don’t think it’s a bad thing.

4. Lungs, Florence + The Machine
Florence Welch is out of this world amazing. I fell totally and irrevocably under her spell after seeing her live this year. The huge impact of The Dog Days Are Over gets your heart racing, and it just doesn’t stop from there. Sometimes I try to sing along with this for fun, but usually I just sit stunned and let the sound wash over me. It’s that good.

5. The Life of the World to Come, The Mountain Goats
This one took some time to grow on me. The sound is very spare and minimal, and although I’m a lyrics freak at heart I do also have a weakness for pretty strings and that’s generally the first thing I have an ear out for. Once I familiarized myself with the lyrics for this, though, I was totally sold. So many of these songs hit really close to home for me in a way that very few other albums have; between this and Hospice, it was, for me, the year of albums that tell you the story of your life! And make you cry! And then you see said bands live and you get weepy then as well! Too much relevance! Who am I kidding, I love music this affecting.

6. Reservoir, Fanfarlo
There’s a lot of obvious sonic inspiration from the huge epic sounds of Arcade Fire, as well as their menagerie of instrumentation. But Fanfarlo isn’t a carbon copy, and it’s unfair to peg them as such. I can’t help but love the similarities, anyway: any band that takes the things I love about Arcade Fire’s sound, and adds their own twist to them? Awesome! This is such a charming album, I really can’t get enough of it, and the more I listen to it the more I like it. As a bonus, they’re amazing live, go see them and be prepared to dance and have a lovely time.

7. Two Suns, Bat for Lashes
Natasha Khan is incredible. Her albums and songs exist in this universe with their own imagery and mythology. We get glimpses of what it’s like there, we may get to visit for a little while, but ultimately we’re just visitors. Which is a shame, because I want to live in these songs, be wild and strong and free.

8. Middle Cyclone, Neko Case
See also: best album cover of the year. What strikes me about Neko Case, once I get over her awe-inspiring voice, which usually doesn’t happen–is her lyrics, which are unusual and strange and lovely. She has a very different way of saying things, and I’m frequently reminded of snatches of dreams, primal bits of the collective unconscious.

9. The Bachelor, Patrick Wolf
Patrick Wolf is a total character, one of a kind. There’s a little bit of everything on this album and that’s pretty well representative of him as an artist and performer. A couple of songs, I could do without, but the rest are so amazing they more than make up for it.

10. Bitte Orca, Dirty Projectors
Hyped to hell, and with good reason. This has no right to sound as good as it does; challenging and experimental generally are not good bedfellows to catchy pop music. Somehow, this straddles the line perfectly, while maintaining just the right amount of tension to stay interesting.

11. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, Phoenix
Whenever I want to bounce around my house like a maniac, I play this album and commence the dancing and geeking out. It’s really feel good perfection. For some reason, live, I wasn’t feeling it, but that’s okay, because on record it has yet to lose its magic. Hopefully it never will.

12. Dear John, Loney Dear
Lovely, intimate, melancholy. I spend a lot of time with this, and I always am touched by some different aspect.

13. Merriweather Post Pavilion, Animal Collective
I downloaded the leak of this after hearing all the hype, and wanting to roll my eyes at how ridiculous and overblown it all was. The first version I downloaded was actually eleven tracks of Never Gonna Give You Up, and the first time I’ve ever legitimately been Rickrolled. It was pretty funny. Then I found the real thing and was impressed, in spite of myself. Best album of the year? Nah. But right up there.

14. The First Days of Spring, Noah and the Whale
Classic super depressing breakup album. Heartbreaking.

15. Get Guilty, A.C. Newman
Deliciously catchy little pop gems.

Songs

1. Two, The Antlers
Again, watch this space for an explanation and expression of my love for this. All I’ll say now is that Two, along with Wake, is more or less the story of my life. Two = me at 17. It’s uncanny and slightly frightening and destroys me just about every time I hear it.

2. You Are the Blood, Sufjan Stevens
Epic.

3. In The Flowers, Animal Collective
This song grabbed me immediately the first time I listened to the album and never let go; twelve months later, I still get a bit of a rush when hearing it. Totally relevant lyrics for myself and anyone who’s wished to just leave their body for the night, followed by that enormous musical leap – it’s a stunner.

4. Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up), Florence + The Machine
I was discussing this song with Theresa, what it means and why I love it so much. There’s a vast well of emotional truth behind the lyrics, but I have a hard time explaining any concrete literal interpretation. (If, indeed, mine is the correct one, which it probably isn’t.) To me, it’s a song about the trade-off on having any sort of talent or gift, particularly of an artistic sort: that there’s always a balance, and in exchange for this ability, you have to use if, you have to offer yourself up, sacrifice yourself in a way. Which is something I’ve often thought about/felt like. So when I heard this for the first time I felt an immediate connection with it and proceeded to listen to it on repeat, a lot.

5. Laughing With a Mouth of Blood, St. Vincent
This song sneaks up on you and bowls you over. It’s practically perfect, I can’t explain much more than that.

6. Anonanimal, Andrew Bird
Swoon-worthy violin. “I will become this animal, perfectly adapted to our music halls.”

7. One Wing, Wilco
I listened to this on repeat a lot this summer. Usually while attempting to sing along with the harmony line.

8. The Wanting Comes in Waves / Repaid, The Decemberists
I was pretty lukewarm on The Hazards of Love as a whole; the story doesn’t hang together as well as it’s intended to, and without a premise to link them the individual songs aren’t nearly as strong as The Decemberists’ usual fare. Except for The Wanting Comes in Waves, that is. Becky Stark and Shara Worden lend their vocal talents and blow this thing into the stratosphere.

9. Stillness is the Move, Dirty Projectors
It’s impossible to listen to this and not dance around a little, at least for me. Irresistible.

10. Prison Girls, Neko Case
A particularly potent slice of Neko Case’s dreamscapes, narrated by that huge incredible voice.

11. Siren Song, Bat for Lashes
“My name is Pearl and I love you the best way I know how.” Chills, every time!

12. So Far Around the Bend, The National
Another standout from Dark Was the Night. Dear The National, I love you, could you put out a new album, like, yesterday? Also, a tour. If that’s not asking too much, or anything. Ok, thanks. PS: I know, it’s my own fault for only getting into you guys this past year.

13. Finish Line, Fanfarlo
Fanfarlo are so incredible. Right now this is my favorite song of theirs, but that could always change.

14. Damaris, Patrick Wolf
The repeated “rise up”s in the end give me chills.

15. Blood Bank, Bon Iver
For Emma, Forever Ago didn’t blow me away the way it seemed to for many others. I mean, I enjoyed it, but something seemed to be keeping me from embracing it wholeheartedly. Whatever obstacle, real or imagined, stood between me and that album was nowhere in sight when I listened to the Blood Bank EP, particularly the title track. It’s incredible how such simple and direct lyrics can be so devastating.

16. House of Diamonds, Bowerbirds
So much fun. This track is a particular standout in another strong album from these guys. Folky + boy/girl vocals + delightful lyrics = I like it.

17. Love of an Orchestra, Noah and the Whale
I wasn’t sure how well this song would translate live, but I was pleasantly surprised. Quite an epic break in an album of lovely quiet melancholy songs.

18. I Was Only Going Out, Loney Dear
Sunshine.

19. Lisztomania, Phoenix
Dancing! Dancing? Yes, dancing! Try to deny it. That’s right, you can’t.

20. While You Wait for the Others, Grizzly Bear
Veckatimest sounded good and everything, but most of the songs ran together to my ears, with the exceptions of Two Weeks and While You Wait for the Others. Both songs are quite excellent, but …Wait for the Others edges ahead slightly in my ranking.