a reflection on the music of 2009 for ilx

Cracking the seal on this, a 2009 song I loved but can barely remember now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTzA8XejLxE

Christ, has it really been ten years since The Flaming Lips made their last great record?

God but it's hardly a 'classic year' for music is it? is there such a thing any more? I know we've had threads about this kind of thing, where people cite 1967, 1977, 1979, 1987, 1994 etc as iconic years for one reason or another like a new style bursting into the scene or a glut of fantastic albums... ILM even had a nice 'I love 1998' moment a wee while back..
But I don't really think of many years post-2005 as being particularly remarkable either way. they all just feel like a jumble of good/bad/okay music that aren't really marked by a pivotal event

― frame casual (dog latin)

i think 2018 was a 'classic year' for music! jesus there's so much good music that came out last year, so many scenes reaching new heights.

2018 was a real stinker for me. most albums i anticipated (hop along, 1975) didn’t live up to expectations, didn’t connect w much rap (although tbh sort of stopped checking), few pop bangers... got streaming on my phone and my tastes became super normy (stopped checking for house/techno aside from mixes cus nothing is on it) few good surprises by artists i had forgotten about or written off (parquet courts, arctic monkeys, amen dunes)

going back to slsk in 2019

(so this is time travel, huh?)

do you mean it feels like yesterday or a long time ago?

looking through the '09 results threads and wild to me that black eyed peas' "i gotta feeling" placed 12th in the tracks poll

great song

going back to slsk in 2019

it's hot

my 2018 tracks list is well over 50% afro pop, dancehall, SA house and related. A clutchful of token rock acts: Ought, The Beths, Parquet Courts, Malkmus, Teleman and Kero Kero Bonita. Little bit of electronic: Ross From Friends, Autechre. If it wasn't for those, I don't know what new music I would have listened to this year. My albums list is very thin. Still, I don't think it's been a bad year for the music I did listen to.

2018 was a great year if you're into female singer/songwriters, as has been every other recent year

'09 (and especially '10-11) were tremendously exciting for me in terms of electronic music. Mount Kimbie's Maybes ep came out in' 09, and that 5 Years of Hyperdub comp, FlyLo, etc. Between UK dance music and 'post-dubstep' and the L.A. stuff it felt like a huge wave of creativity and new ideas, and for the first time (personally) also had an air of accessibility, like anyone might be able to contribute something.

describes a complex and ambiguous romantic situation, beautifully layered musically gradually morphing from textural bells into a more traditional r&b ensemble into horn arrangements which burst from the surface of the song like mountains in a relief map. and it was a hit

― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Wednesday, January 16, 2019 9:13 AM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

great writing, brad. that song is timeless and gets better with age, whole album does really.

I wasn't writing and also wasn't listening to a lot of new music in 2009, but here are albums I like:

Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Agorapocalypse
Band of Skulls - Baby Darling Doll Face Honey
Baroness - Blue Record
Cobalt - Gin
Dälek - Gutter Tactics
Isis - Wavering Radiant
Kylesa - Static Tensions
Lady Gaga - The Fame Monster
Oblomov - Communitas (Deconstructing the Order)
Oranssi Pazuzu - Muukalainen puhuu
Pissed Jeans - King of Jeans
Skeletonwitch - Breathing the Fire
Týr - By the Light of the Northern Star
Vektor - Black Future
Wolves in the Throne Room - Black Cascade
YOB - The Great Cessation

2009 was a bit of a transitional year for me in terms of what I was listening to, in the sense that I was beginning to move towards getting back into '80s music/synthpop (both familiar and unfamiliar) in a much bigger way than ever before and starting to move away from listening to "indie"/alternative rock stuff so much.

I remember at the time playing the shit out of the Manic Street Preachers' Journal For Plague Lovers, thinking higher of Muse's The Resistance than most, being initially delighted then suddenly disappointed (it was a fast burner) by Super Furry Animals' Dark Days/Light Years, and loving The Flaming Lips' Embryonic ...

Of course there was also Fever Ray and Yeah Yeah Yeahs' It's Blitz!, both of which I still play the shit out of. Greek synthpoppers Marsheaux released their best album, Lumineux Noir. Depeche Mode and Pet Shop Boys released albums this year that admittedly weren't up there with their best, but both featured at least one killer single and it mattered little since I was listening to and getting a lot out of the back catalogues of both bands a lot.

I didn't really rate the La Roux album or The xx's debut, even though on paper I should have been into both. It took until 2 years ago for The xx to finally make an album I liked. Of course, I disliked the Animal Collective album and still do.

I hated Arctic Monkeys in 2009 but have since come to really, really love Humbug, and I still think the album Franz Ferdinand put out that year wasn't all that bad.

(so this is time travel, huh?)

do you mean it feels like yesterday or a long time ago?

― billstevejim, Thursday, January 17, 2019 10:44 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

A little of both.

Also, I seem to remember 2009 as the year that a lot of bands/artists that had only been popular a couple of years before were starting to enter the "yawn, nobody gives a fuck" zone: Maximo Park, The Cribs, Jarvis Cocker, The Rakes (who I never liked), Kasabian (who I also never liked), Weezer, Doves, Editors and Green Day all released lousy records that year. Eels, Art Brut, Gomez and Graham Coxon all released albums that even their own fanbases struggled to get excited about.

(x-post)

Gucci mane

I would say that sadly very many people still give a fuck about Weezer

For me, in retrospect, 2009 was a pretty bad year, maybe the worst of the 2000s. Stuff I liked then that I think still holds up would be the Bat For Lashes, Camera Obscura, Nellie McKay and Tanya Morgan albums, but it trails off pretty quickly after that. I think I was kind of in a transitional place in my listening habits.

Also, I seem to remember 2009 as the year that a lot of bands/artists that had only been popular a couple of years before were starting to enter the "yawn, nobody gives a fuck" zone: Maximo Park, The Cribs, Jarvis Cocker, The Rakes (who I never liked), Kasabian (who I also never liked), Weezer, Doves, Editors and Green Day all released lousy records that year. Eels, Art Brut, Gomez and Graham Coxon all released albums that even their own fanbases struggled to get excited about.

(x-post)

― Le Baton Rose (Turrican)

I hate to stand up for Kasabian in any way, but that album was pretty huge for them. It gave them a top three single and sold just as much as the previous album. I will happily stand up for the Art Brut album though. They came very close to repeating the brilliance of the debut and it is very popular with their (admittedly quite modest) fanbase. You're right about the others. 2008/9 was a great time seeing all those landfill indie bands falling one by one. The relative failure of the Kaiser Chiefs and Razorlight albums in the fall of 2008 were particular highlights from that era.

some albums/tracks that I loved back then that still sound great to me now:

DJ Sprinkles – Midtown 120 Blues
Sun Araw – Heavy Deeds
Jim O'Rourke – The Visitor
Oneohtrix Point Never – Rifts
Ben Frost – By the Throat
Shackleton – 3 EPS
The XX – xx
Moritz von Oswald Trio – Vertical Ascent
Emeralds – What Happened
King Midas Sound – Waiting For You

Joy Orbison – Hyph Mngo
Rustie – Bad Science
Darkstar – Aidy's Girl's a Computer
Cooly G – Love Dub
Untold – Gonna Work Out Fine
Joker – Digidesign
Joker and Ginz – Purple City
The XX – Crystallised
Burial & Four Tet – Moth / Wolf Cub
Girls – Lust for Life
The-Dream – Rockin' That Shit

oh yeah, that Jim O'Rourke album is great. i liked it in 2009 but came to really appreciate it more over time.

imo, 2009 is easily the worst year for music of the 21st century so far.

I went to last.fm to see what was my 2009 list, which I'm pretty sure I posted there, but apparently they removed this feature and deleted the old lists?

Good shout on the King Midas Sound - I still listen to that pretty regularly.

I liked (and reviewed) The Visitor at the time, but don't think I've listened to it in five years.