So we're... blah blah blah... of the way through 2009; what records are worth listening to so far?

i'm listening now to Woods - Songs Of Shame and it's super-great,way better than anything theyve done before.
about Fanfarlo - arent they pure imitators of Arcade Fire etc...?

are they? don't hear it myself

Besides the ones already listed, the new Soundtrack Of Our Lives is great and one of their best ever.

i was listeing to them only once, so i might be wrong about arcade fire, but i do remember thinking
bout the lack of originality..
xpost

SFA and Zu. Nick is OTM about that Animal Collective record.

Album mentioned on this thread I'd be most interested in hearing: The Antlers - Hospice

The album come out last year but my favourite single of 2k9 is Dream Big by Jazmine Sullivan so far.

ok, so Woods - Songs of Shame (Beach Boys Meets Fairport Convention for a 60's psych party or something)
http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/s2175979.jpg

thank you for this record.

Animal Collective, Gnaw, Cobalt, SFA, Staff Benda Bilili, Wounded Knee, Fennesz, Omar S, probably Junior Boys, probably Meanderthals

yeah if you think this has been a weak year ur trippin imo, look harder

wanna grab that lindstrom

20 albums

Jono El Grande – Neo Dada (Rune Grammofon)
Faust – C’est Com…Com…Complique (Bureau)
Ian Gillan – One Eye To Morocco (Eagle Rock)
Buraka Som Sistema – Black Diamond (Fabric)
K’Naan – Troubador (A&M)
Kid Sister – Dream Date (Downtown)
Diagonal – Diagonal (Rise Above)
Megan Munroe – One More Broken String (Diamond)
Jessica Lurie Ensemble – Shop Of Wild Dreams (Zipa!Music)
Pat Green – What I’m For (BNA)
Rufus Huff – Rufus Huff (Zoho Roots)
Sarah Borges And the Broken Singles – The Stars Are Out (Sugar Hill)
Dirty Little Rabbits – Simon (The End)
Dave Douglas & Brass Ecstasy – Spirit Moves (Greenleaf)
Sinner – Crash And Burn (Candlelight USA)
Lady Sovereign – Jigsaw (EMI/Midget)
Rodney Atkins -- It’s America (Curb)
The Flatlanders – Hills And Valleys (New West)
Eric Church – Carolina (Capitol)
Steadlür – Everything Is Nothing (Roadrunner)

10 reissues

Benny – Amigo Charly Brown: Die Hits Von Gestern Und Auch Heut (Alaska)
(Various Artists) – The Chiswick Story, Part 1 (Ace)
Richard Thompson -- Walking On A Wire Discs One and Two (Shout! Factory)
(Various Artists) – Fly Girls!: B-Boys Beware: Revenge Of The Super Female Rappers! (Soul Jazz)
The Scene Is Now – Tonight We Ride (Lexicon Devil)
Sigh – Imaginary Soundscape (The End)
Zero Boys – Vicious Circle (Secretly Canadian)
(Various Artists) – Winter Dance Party: 50th Anniversary Special: The Day The Music Died (El Toro)
Death – …For The Whole World To See (Drag City)
Thin Lizzy – Still Dangerous: Live At The Tower Theatre Philadelphia 1977 (VH1 Classic)

10 singles

Jamey Johnson – “High Cost Of Living”
John Rich – “Shuttin’ Detroit Down”
Shystie feat. DJ Deekline – “New Style”
Sarah Buxton – “Space”
Love and Theft – “Runaway”
Caitlin & Will – “Even Now”
Floyd Taylor --- “Southern Soul Party”
Betty Padgett – “Sugar Daddy”
Raekwon -- "Heat Rocks"
Trace Adkins – “I Can’t Outrun You”

Loney Dear - Dear John

xhuxk, is the new richard thompson collection good? I've got two other Richard Thompson box sets, for god's sake. is it worth it/different?

Well, if you already have two boxes, I can't tell you. I don't have any, and I think the first two discs are a pretty definitive summation -- Probably what I'll put on, from now on, when I want to hear the guy. Discs three and four, on the other hand, I found barely listenable. Fortunately, the advance I was sent wasn't the whole box, but two separate 2-disc sets.

(Disc 2 seems to carry you more or less through to the mid '80s fwiw, after which I've always had trouble remotely caring about him -- though I did like Sweet Revenge more than I expected a couple years ago. Will probably try to spend more time with discs 3 and 4, but am not expecting much.)

(I mean Sweet Warrior, duh.)

cool, thanks, i'll investigate further ... don't think i need another multi-disc Thompson set, though. Unless there's like some definitive version of "Calvary Cross" that's never been released.

Syntheme, Stinking Lizaveta, Teeth Of The Sea and These Are Powers can go on my list too

Some mo' suchlike the likes o'which ain't been mentioned yet:

The One Ensemble Orchestra, Other Thunders (Daniel Padden & a company o'six)
PhoneCall, Behind The Music EP
Gutbucket, A Modest Proposal
Kristjan Randalu, Desde Manhattan
Dakota Suite, The End of Trying
Hoppy Kamiyama, The three cornered world

Dakota Suite, The End of Trying

^^ YES. The just released remix album of that one, 'The Night Just Keeps Coming In', is also gorgeous (remixes by Loscil, Machinefabriek, Peter Broderick, Hauschka, Deaf Center, Arve Henriksen, Gregg Haines, Tape, The Boats, Jacacsek, the list goes on and on...)

Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle
Royksopp - Junior
Junior Senior - Begone Dull Care
Peter Bjorn and John - Living Thing
Mastodon - Crack the Skye
M. Ward - Hold Time
Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - s/t

Kaspar Ewalds Exorbitante Kabinett, Ritter
The-Dream, Love V/S Money
Company of Thieves, Ordinary Riches
Radio Moscow, Brain Cycles
A.R. Rahman, Delhi-6
Super Furry Animals, Dark Days/Light Years
P.O.S., Never Better
Monte Carlo 76, Marisela
Asmegin, Arv
MIDIval PunditZ, Hello Hello
James Sudakow & Eric Zimmerman, there is no sound in space
Big Band Ritmo Sinfonica Città di Verona, Restless Spirits
Gadamer, s/t
Boomkat, A Million Billion Stars
Zach Williams and the Reformation, Electric Reformation
Experimental Dental School, Forest Field
Melinda Doolittle, Coming Back to You

My top five:

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
The-Dream - Love Vs Money
Fever Ray - s/t
Tim Hecker - An Imaginary Country
Six Organs of Admittance - RTZ

Other stuff I've played here and there:

Antony and the Johnsons - The Crying Light
Condo Fucks - Fuckbook
Doom - Born Like This
Merzbow - Suzume/Fukurou/Yurikamome
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - s/t

Admittedly I haven't paid much attention to "new" music this year, these are just the things I've picked up and enjoyed thus far.

Looking forward to hearing (but still haven't picked up, or downloaded):

Boredoms
The Juan Maclean
Junior Boys
Royksöpp
Lindstrøm and Prins Thomas
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Morrissey
Bill Callahan
Grizzly Bear
PJ Harvey and John Parish
Faust
Raekwon
Tombs

the Napoleon album is a lot of fun, reminds of Orlando quite a bit, maybe a bit Wham! too.

those don't sound like selling points at all!

ha

K'Naan is my fave by far at this point.

Others:
Lily Allen
Glasvegas
Heartless Bastards
Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
John Paul Keith & the One Four Fives

The thing with the Woods album... is that, there is a dedication on the inner sleeve to a very good friend of mine who passed away in 2008, and so everytime I pull the record out of the sleeve, I feel a little twinge of sadness and loss.

:(

The military madness cover is ace too

zu's carboniferous is easily heading the pack, followed by:

storsveit nix noltes - royal-family divorce
ilk - panegyric territories vol. I
karl sanders - saurian exorcisms
capillary action - so embarrassing
john zorn - the crucible
stinking lizaveta - sacrifice and bliss

Need to add UGK's 4 Life somewhere in here.

Anyone else feeling the Tim Hecker or Six Organs releases???

Juan Maclean
The Veils
Distance
Serpentcult

Like, but not really feeling real strongly about: Neko, Fever Ray, Pains of Being Pure of Heart, Wavves

Like, but not really feeling real strongly about: Neko

Every time someone expresses considered/reserved feelings about Neko Case, a kitten loses an angel.

Six Organs is great ... forgot about that one. Might be my favorite thing by him, honestly. I like most of Chasny's stuff, but I think I like his more out there, long-form stuff more than the singer-songwriter-y stuff.

2009 is kinda weak so far.
correct me if i'm wrong.

Very strong for albums so far.. very strong for reissues.. and much like last year, weak for singles. Hopefully this will pick up.

Every time someone expresses considered/reserved feelings about Neko Case, a kitten loses an angel.

O-oh, so THAT's where angels come from?! Aw....

only a few things i actually love so far:

nels cline coward
the grandfather paradox
death for the whole world to see

See, up until Middle Cyclone, I'd always generally liked but never felt strongly for Neko. I absolutely adore her now.

^^^

2009 is kinda weak so far.

fuck's sake, must we deal with this every year

― lex pretend, Monday, 30 March 2009

fucks sake, must you not be able to deal with the fact that music fans sometimes feel out the vibe of a year by how good and abundant the quality of music they've personally found/heard is.... every year?

wait you have the unique music journalistic perspective of being able to sit on your ass and listen to music 24hrs every goddamn day till your ears pop if you fancy and remind us "there's more out there" (waw unique insight) I forgot.

carry on lecturing everyone else for totally human tendencies, it's okay!!

Melinda Doolittle, Coming Back to You

Ooh, this is good?

I liked the AGF/Delay okay when I finally got round to hearing it, but find it a little less meaningful (for want of a better word) & fresh than their first collaboration, It's a more professional, accomplished sounding version of pretty much the same expressions & feelings they were naively sketching out the first time, which is exactly why I don't find it as good although I'm sure it's just as genuine, if that makes sense....

Better than every other non-winner Idol album ever. xp

The Coasters - Greatest Hits. These guys have the jams, their music is still fresh. Also liking Fabio Orsi 'Music for Lovers' but I think that it came out late 08 :( Enjoying music coming out of the Deepchord camp (Quantec, Intrusion, etc). And eagerly awaiting more from Joan as Police Woman.

D4n: Re Melinda: I like it, it's bluesy (two Robert Johnson covers!) and there's some weirdness to it but I wouldn't bet the farm that anyone else would dig it. She can SANG though and that's the theme of the record more or less. Fine by me!

Jono El Grande – Neo Dada (Rune Grammofon)

This sounds very Diaspar (judging by what I'm hearing on their myspace).