The 2009 Magazine Albums Of The Year Thread For Posting Lists and Discussion.

xposts to scott

much like the Animal Collective and Dirty Prodge albums I guess. It's good to see bands slowly gaining mainstream attention over a course of years, as opposed to blowing their load on their first or second album and then nothing.

It also helped Phoenix for sure since they were shit live at the start of the decade and now they are quite tight: Most people seeing them this year probably were doing so for the first time, and they surprised a lot of other people who were expecting to be underwhelmed.

i'd like a similarly sensible explanation for why The Future Will Come is being totally ignored. I suppose 'TOO pop/dancey for LCD lovers' would do tho.

Tom Ewing said it reminded him of Younger Younger 28's. This is NOT a sensible explanation!

Seemed to me the big turning point for Phoenix was their fabulous performance on SNL last spring. Something about it just stood out, and people were talking about it a lot. I tried to get tickets to their show a month in advance and it already sold out.

the future will come is kind of inconsistent - though yeah given the past poll form of lcd soundsystem, hot chip et al i am definitely surprised it hasn't cropped up more. it'll make my top 30, maybe 20.

i ain't heard FOTL yetit - when did it come out? quite recently, right?

phoenix - it's kind of a gradual snowball effect, right? they've always trundled away in the background making inoffensive noises - i even liked "if i ever feel better" - and slowly picking up more and more fans. hard, consistent graft paying off, which fits into their improvement live too. wouldn't surprise me to see hot chip in this position a few years hence.

also, the juan maclean's album came out pretty near the start of the year, with the big hype single all the way back in 2008, so people may have just forgotten

Yeah, getting booked onto SNL six weeks before your record is released can't hurt either! I had damn well forgotten about that since by that time the LP had leaked I think and the die was cast for them already in certain circles.

xpost to blueski, yeah too dancey is about right. Even things like Hot Chip and your other DFA/Kompakt-y stuff is still a hardish sell to our readers. That stuff will place a lot higher on our year-end lists than on, say, a Stereogum readers poll (or our own for that matter).

In some small way it probably didn't help that Happy House had come out and been considered a "2008" song already to people and overwhelmed the rest of the (still good!) LP. In some small mental way, that track lived on its own away from the LP and when that happens people can tend to discount the LP more than they should, almost as if a song like that doesn't "count" toward its overall quality. I know that doesn't make any freaking sense at all, but I do feel as if that somehow happens.

xpost I agree with the lex 100% across the board there, ha!

there's a good chance the next Hot Chip album will be their best yet. i don't think Phoenix are actually improving, just picking up more new fans as you say.

scott i think you're right about that Happy House effect sadly. i'd almost rather it wasn't on there (it's not my favourite on there anyway tho for many would be the obvious highlight).

Well, Scott listed a few albums that I obviously don't doubt will do great in P&J, and he's right -- in the few years since I left the Voice, there's been a real shift toward indie stuff finishing at the top tier, maybe because the electorate has shifted in that direction, but also maybe partly for the reason I mentioned earlier, about voters letting their P&J ballots follow on the bandwagon of earlier published lists. (I hope he's wrong about all those singles finishing Top 10, though, which would be completely pathetic. But maybe he's right.)

Thing is, Phil had also listed several records that I'd guess would be more marginal, hardly sure things Pazz & Jop-wise: The Antlers, Arctic Monkeys, Art Brut, Bat For Lashes, Andrew Bird, Bill Callahan, Dan Deacon, The Dead Weather, The Decemberists, Fuck Buttons, Future Of The Left, Bon Iver, Japandroids, Lucero, Metric, Monsters Of Folk, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Passion Pit, St. Vincent, Sunset Rubdown, The Thermals, White Rabbits. Some of those albums will undoubtedly place, in the bottom half of the Top 40. But I doubt that most of them will. (Then again, maybe I'm just being unduly optimistic.)

it helps that phoenix and hot chip are both bands who aren't so immersed in any scenes or trends that they'll go out of fashion, but they're not outsider mavericks either - they glom on to whatever vague electrodribble wave is popular at any given time w/remixes and such. this is partly why i find YYYs so impressive, cuz they started out as the epitome of a trend-driven act and overcame that rather spectacularly.

only heard the singles from the latest phoenix and they were both really boring, so definitely not improving, no.

i ain't heard FOTL yetit - when did it come out? quite recently, right?

― dog latin, Friday, 11 December 2009 13:54 (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Late June or early July I believe

Thing is, Phil had also listed several records that I'd guess would be more marginal, hardly sure things Pazz & Jop-wise: The Antlers, Arctic Monkeys, Art Brut, Bat For Lashes, Andrew Bird, Bill Callahan, Dan Deacon, The Dead Weather, The Decemberists, Fuck Buttons, Future Of The Left, Bon Iver, Japandroids, Lucero, Metric, Monsters Of Folk, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Passion Pit, St. Vincent, Sunset Rubdown, The Thermals, White Rabbits. Some of those albums will undoubtedly place, in the bottom half of the Top 40. But I doubt that most of them will. (Then again, maybe I'm just being unduly optimistic.)

ah...oh yeah that's 100% right! only a few of those are locks for a top 40 (passion pit, andrew bird, bar for lashes, st vincent-- maybe decemberists and arctics since they are so big) but many more have no chance at all! Sorry for any misunderstanding there.

Complete - FACT 40 best: Albums of 2009

Here's the Fact top 20:

1 The XX - xx
2 Telepathe - Dance Mother
3 Omar-S - Fabric 45
4 Cold Cave - Love Comes Close
5 Discovery - LP
6 Circlesquare - Songs About Dancing & Drugs
7 Zomby - One Foot Ahead Of The Other
8 Bat For Lashes - Two Suns
9 Jim O'Rourke - The Visitor
10 Micachu - Jewellery
11 Leyland Kirby - Sadly The Future Is No Longer What Is Was
12 Martyn - Great Lengths
13 Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
14 Desire - II
15 Blank Dogs - Under & Under
16 Shackleton - Three EPs
17 DJ Sprinkles - Midtown 120 Blues
18 Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
19 10-20 - 10-20
20 Ducktails - Ducktails

Look at the our current 70s poll

oh ok sounds cool!

there are a list of over 1,300 nominees to choose from

oh lol ahem you know what never mind

^^^^ that's the first list i've actually been inspired to listen to the things on it that i haven't heard, based on the things they rated that i had

x-post re: the fact thing

from the comments: "All in all a list trying to be different than the rest, but kind of ultimately sucking, pretty hard at that."

is the rub w/these things I guess; ur damned if u do, damned if u don't

I do love that FACT list but my mind boggles at that placement for the Discovery album. Its nowhere near that good!

Yeah it was totally in one ear and out the other - I have no idea who might constitute the voters for the FACT poll, it might be like four ppl for all I know? It's great that they gave the DJ Sprinkles thing its due given that no-one else seems to (has that even been nominated in the ILM poll yet? I totally forgot tbh)

is the rub w/these things I guess; ur damned if u do, damned if u don't

― conezy (cozwn), Friday, December 11, 2009 9:43 AM (7 minutes ago)

t-bomb tbh

i really haven't listened to like 85% of these albums; making the decision to not fuck with indie rock has really knocked so much of this out of my field of vision

need to hear the Omar-S still

It's great that they gave the DJ Sprinkles thing its due given that no-one else seems to (has that even been nominated in the ILM poll yet? I totally forgot tbh)

yeah i threw it in

Just noticed, good skillz

yeh all the omar-s i've bought in the past sounded like dj tools/lofi/half assed kinda stuff (not a critisism btw) is this any different?

yeh the dj sprinkles album is easily my dance album of the year, stunning.

it was the opposite for me - was blown away and have gone back to the omar-s again and again, it's so pristine and compelling, and the flow of the mix is amazing. never really got into the sprinkles album properly - pretty enough but ehhh, just b/c dude spouts crazy iconoclastic theories doesn't make his music any more interesting.

I'm honestly placing my bets on Grizzly Bear for Pazz & Jop

I think AnCo is gonna win get the hipster/pfork-centric/20-or-30-something voters easy, but you forget that a good number of Pazz And Jop voters are older people that run weeklys and get their indie rock ideas from NPR and TV--a demo that GB is dominating more than anyone in the DirtyPro/Phoenix axis. And plus they'll be like one spot down from AnCo on all the hipster lists anyway

yeh, it's verrrry subtle- the dj sprinkles. all about the moods, that lovely deeeeep house feeling, not for dancing, for playing at 3 in the morning while you're hanging out with good friends.

i don't think concerning yourself with the 'crazy iconoclastic theories' element of the rec is really going to help you like it, it's there but it doesn't really overwhelm the music. the fact there are some spoken word bits there breaks things up nicely, i'd suffer without them.

xpost

more like a truism-bomb, k3vin, that said I'll take 1 list tht does over 100 tht don't obv

don't understand dirty projectors placing so highly, that record is pretty fucking weird and out there imo. took me ages to take it all in. not accessible at all.

yeah i get that pretty deep house mood, but the dj sprinkles isn't much more than that? didn't stand out from a ton of other house albums/mixes. i mean, yeah, it's nice though.

Good old FACT. This isn't quite voting Gang Gang Dance as #1 of 2008, but you can always rely on them to throw up a much more interesting list than most of the others.

13 seems like a pretty reasonable place for MPP in any indie-friendly list. FACT have def got the upper-hand in my eyes for placing some tender, hip brits' debut over the psychedelic dad-pop masterpiece that everyone else freaked out over.

man, why is nothing on this dirty projectors album nearly as good as stillness is the move?

there are at least three or four songs better

please to be naming cuz they ain't jumping on first full listen

Not on nearly enough lists: Dam Funk.

i kinda don't get the dirty projectors album at all and i generally dig well-executed leftfield arty shit...the narratives aren't interesting imo and the tunes not altogether great...it's just a bit empty for me

but then subjectivity calls...fair enough it ain't my thing and i have cloth ears

i kinda don't get the dirty projectors album at all and i generally dig well-executed leftfield arty shit...the narratives aren't interesting imo and the tunes not altogether great...it's just a bit empty for me

but then subjectivity calls...fair enough it ain't my thing and i have cloth ears
--102. LJ: British. 5. (acoleuthic)

Didn't you only check it out about fifty messages ago? Give it a chance man. The last track is the only one I'm not too fussed about, the rest is pretty stunning IMO.

I'll give it another listen. I'll give GAPDY another listen, man. It's all I have left to give.

"man, why is nothing on this dirty projectors album nearly as good as stillness is the move?"

It's the burning question. It's Midlake and Roscoe all over again.

The Daily Mail

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1234927/Now-thats-I-music-The-50-best-albums-Noughties.html#ixzz0ZLnJZHK

1. AMY WINEHOUSE: Back To Black (Island, 2006)
2. COLDPLAY: A Rush Of Blood To The Head (Parlophone, 2002)
3. THE KILLERS: Hot Fuss (Lizard King, 2004)
4. MADONNA: Confessions On A Dance Floor (Warner Bros., 2005)
5. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: The Rising (Columbia, 2002)
6. LILY ALLEN: Alright, Still (Parlophone, 2006)
7. ALICIA KEYS: The Diary Of Alicia Keys (J Records, 2003)
8. THE WHITE STRIPES: Elephant (Third Man, 2003)
9. RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS: By The Way (Warner Bros., 2002)
10. ADELE: 19 (XL, 2008)
11. ROBERT PLANT & ALISON KRAUSS: Raising Sand (Rounder, 2007)
12. KANYE WEST: Graduation (Roc-A-Fella, 2007)
13. NORAH JONES: Come Away With Me (Blue Note, 2002)
14. DESTINY'S CHILD: Survivor (Columbia, 2001)
15. LADY GAGA: The Fame (Interscope, 2009)
16. GORILLAZ: Gorillaz (Parlophone, 2001)
17. CHRISTINA AGUILERA: Back To Basics (RCA, 2006)
18. FLORENCE & THE MACHINE: Lungs (Island, 2009)
19. ARCTIC MONKEYS: Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (Domino, 2006)
20. GIRLS ALOUD: Tangled Up (Fascination, 2007)
21. SNOW PATROL: Final Straw (Fiction, 2004)
22. THE STROKES: Is This It (Rough Trade, 2001)
23. TAKE THAT: Beautiful World (Polydor, 2006)
24. JOHN LEGEND: Get Lifted (Columbia, 2005)
25. BOB DYLAN: Love And Theft (Columbia, 2001)
26. THE ARCADE FIRE: Funeral (Merge, 2005)
27. THE BLACK EYED PEAS: Elephunk (A&M, 2003)
28. KINGS OF LEON: Only By The Night (Columbia, 2008)
29. FRANZ FERDINAND: Franz Ferdinand (Domino, 2004)
30. RADIOHEAD: In Rainbows (XL, 2007)
31. NE-YO: Year Of The Gentleman (Def Jam, 200
32. FLEET FOXES: Fleet Foxes (Bella Union, 2008)
33. KEANE: Hopes And Fears (Island, 2004)
34. GREEN DAY: American Idiot (Reprise, 2004)
35. JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE: Justified (Jive, 2002)
36. COLDPLAY: Parachutes (Parlophone, 2000)
37. RIHANNA: Good Girl Gone Bad (Def Jam, 2007)
38. SCISSOR SISTERS: Scissor Sisters (Polydor, 2004)
39. MUSE: Black Holes & Revelations (Warner Bros., 2006)
40. THE KILLERS: Sam's Town (Mercury, 2006)
41. MIKA: Life In Cartoon Motion (Casablanca, 2007)
42. MARK RONSON: Version (Sony BMG, 2007)
43. PAOLO NUTINI: Sunny Side Up (Atlantic, 2009)
44. KYLIE: Fever (Parlophone, 2001)
45. SUFJAN STEVENS: Illinois (Asthmatic Kitty, 2005)
46. JOSS STONE: The Soul Sessions (Relentless, 2003)
47. ESTELLE: Shine (HomeSchool/ Atlantic, 200
48. THE KOOKS: Inside In / Inside Out (Virgin, 2006)
49. KAISER CHIEFS: Employment (B-Unique, 2005)
50. VAMPIRE WEEKEND: Vampire Weekend (XL, 2008)

I really hope that list causes a new and bitter fight between critics to rage across three Tumblrs, two message boards and several blogs, but I somehow doubt it.

lol daily mail. I did not expect that.

it's on the wrong thread btw!