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

Got around to checking out that Hatcham Social record last night... and again this morning... and earlier this afternoon... and again here shortly. Lovin' it.

"The songs are too short", "the girl can't sing" and "random bursts of noise" are pretty shaky reasons for a record's dismissal. You could dismiss "Another Green World" on the same ground.

uhh, two of these complaints certainly wouldn't make any sense leveled at Another Green World...

well, call Eno a girl all you want, but I won't tolerate anyone accusing Another Green World of having "random bursts of noise."

anyway, carry on, i haven't heard Micachu.

Granted the only exposure I've had to Micachu was an NPR video podcast, but she struck me as someone that spent way more time developing her carefully crafted "aww shucks, I just woke up from bed and wrote this silly lil' song" image than she did in actually developing an engaging tune.

a few of these were already mentioned, but worth repeating:

Albums

Fever Ray
Moritz Von Oswald Trio - Vertical Ascent
John Daly - Sea and Sky
Mount Eerie - Wind's Poem
El Perro del Mar - Love is Not Pop
Lindstrom & Prins - II
Yagya - Rigning

EPs

Giorgio Gigli - Observation Document
Even Tuell - Workshop 07
Donnacha Costello - While in Exile EP and Tragedy of Commons EP
Baby Ford - Gravy Train
Andre Lodemann - Coming Home
Sally Shapiro - Miracle
Burial & Four Tet - Moth
Chaton - +91 Ahead Session 3

To add to my list above, stuff I've added since my arbitrary cut-off date.

Oneida - Rated O (this would probably rank in the top 5, easily)
Maxwell - BLACKsummer'snight
Bowerbirds - Upper Air

Got around to checking out that Hatcham Social record last night... and again this morning... and earlier this afternoon... and again here shortly. Lovin' it.

yay! i think this record has been sadly slept on thus far

Heh, and I'm listening to it again right now

Thanks to everyone who mentioned Hatcham Social (which was totally off my radar). Great little album.

Albums I'm Looking Forward to:
Mariah Carey
Rooney
Yo La Tengo
Julian Casablancas
Cassie
Drake
Kris Allen
Jay Reatard
The Avalanches
Os Mutantes
Scarlett Johansson/Pete Yorn
Imogen Heap
D'Angelo
Christina Milian
Mission of Burma

I really like that Hatcham Social record ! I think this is the only place I have seen it mentioned, so thanks to those who praised it.

I find it hard to understand why this is apparently ignored when so many mediocre indie bands seem to be everywhere.

Yeah, I am really surprised by the lack of Hatcham Social love. You'd think with all of these bands like Crystal Stilts and Pains of Being Pure at Heart getting tons of buzz for mining the C86 thing, these guys would get some love somehow. Still very glad I grabbed that album knowing pretty much nothing about them.

i also recommend the bricolage album, which also mines the postcard vibe, albeit to the point of heavily borrowing from orange juice much of the time

i like the new declining winter record, the first post-Hood thing i have liked possibly because it sounds most like a Hood record though it's probably going to sound better in the autumn overcast than it does now in the 90 degree sunshine.

Polvo - In Prism .
one of the most successful reunion recordes ever.

oh man that micachu is good. i am definitely a sucker for short catchy quirky pop albums (unicorns, discovery etc) but there is so much to love on the album. to people saying she sings badly, it's basically a punk album so that's sorta irrelevant. also there is not a single random burst of noise on the entire album. every burst of noise is perfectly logical and lovely and not really even that unexpected.

The thread is upsetting me with no mentions of the wonderful "(A)spera" by Mirah. So, problem rectified.

these are my favorite albums of the year so far:

Necro Deathmort - This Beat Is Necrotronic

Subarachnoid Space - Eight Bells

Rice Corpse - Mrs. Rice Corpse

William Fowler Collins - Perdition Hill Radio

Violet - Violet Ray Gas And The Playback Singers

Gnaw Their Tongues - All The Dread Magnificence Of Perversity

Sperm Whales/Color Rabbit - Split CD

Starving Weirdos - Into An Energy

Ata Ebtekar & The Iranian Orchestra For New Music - Ornamentalism

Overmars - Born Again (American release/reissue)

Kommissar Hjuler & Mama Bar - Asylum Lunaticum

Frank Vigroux & Matthew Bourne - Call Me Madame (Good News From Wonderland)

Vagusnerve - Lo Pan

Kreng - L'Autopsie Phenomenale De Dieu

Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto - UTP_

An Anthology Of Chinese Experimental Music 1992-2008

Nurse With Wound - The Surveillance Lounge

Gog - Mist From The Random More

Tim Olive - The Specialist

Whoah! A new Subarachnoid Space? That one totally flew by my radar!

I just tried to order that Mama Bar CD and FE was out, oh well.

latest wye oak album is just gorgeous, way better than their first which was pretty decent too

it's not as shoegaze as some seem to be describing it but it's more gaze than, say, beach house or speck mountain

other 2009 albums i am loving the heck out of right now:

desolation wilderness
my sad captains
fanfarlo (is there any good reason ilm is ignoring this? tip: it doesn't actually sound like arcade fire, as some complete idiots seem to think)
paper moon (omg girly power pop does not get better than this)

oh and i nearly forgot, the dolly rocker movement's "purple journey..." album is total psych pop loveliness and doesn't sound australian at all

albums:
Ada - Adaptations
Desire - Desire (untitled CDR on Italians Do It Better)
The Juan Maclean - The Future Will Come

singles:
DJ Kaos - "Love the Night Away (Tiedye mix)"
Lindstrom and Solale - "Baby I Can't Stop (Aeroplane mix)"
Shit Robot - "Simple Things (Work It Out) (Serge Santiago mix)"
Altair Nouveau - "Space Fortress"

my top whatever so far fwiw in no order

The Soundtrack of Our Lives - Communion
DJ Quik & Kurupt - BlaQKout
Spinal Tap - Back From the Dead
Dev.D soundtrack
The-Dream - Love Vs. Money
Super Furry Animals - Dark Days/Light Years
Company of Thieves - Ordinary Riches
Otis Taylor - Pentatonic Wars and Other Love Songs
Electrik Red - How to Be a Lady Vol. 1
Meg & Dia - Here, Here, and Here
Fru Fru - Az Prileti Tucnak
Invisible System - Punt: Made in Ethiopia
Otep - Smash the Control Machine
Slivovitz - Hubris
KEEK - Ritter
Radio Moscow - Brain Cycles
R.Kelly - DJ Drama & DJ Skee mixtape
Trey Songz - Anticipation mixtape
Polly Scattergood - Polly Scattergood
P.O.S. - Never Better
Oneida - Rated O
Various Artists - Revolution Rising
Cheap Trick - The Latest
Allen Toussaint - The Bright Mississippi
Gomez - A New Tide
Mastodon - Crack the Skye
Michael Olatuja - Speak
Paulina Rubio - Gran City Pop

some others too

Amazed that no one has mentioned this yet:
Jeniferever - Spring Tides
The first two tracks are amazing, the rest of the album very good.

Two new ones in my top ten, V.V. Brown - Travelling Like the Light and Pill - 4180 The Prescription mixtape.

yeah that pill mixtape is just amazing, can't wait for whatever comes next from him

i would have added those two too but my list was long and life is short

pill's dropping a new mixtape soon

it's called 4175: the refill i think (i might have the number wrong)

yeah i think ive heard of that, he may have even referred to it at the end of 4180

Not a full list, but this new Tinariwen disc is very good.

Wussy - Wussy - almost perfect joy. for everyone who loves great catchy melodies and hooks.their best record so far.

i will also add Part Chimp if the fact that they don't really know how to write songs, will not interrupt the joy of listening to their sound.but i doubt it.

Tinariwen

really liking the White Denim album...sounds like vintage-era SST bands (Minutemen, Meat Puppets) gettin' down at Studio One...

also the new Jim O'Rourke...

http://images.emusic.com/music/images/album/281/115/106/11510695/600x600.jpg

2009 songs to hear before you write anything off, sequenced as mixtape:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-jl1L6YRCI

1. Heartless Bastards, The Mountain (Fat Possum Records), 2009: "Be So Happy" (album version)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HevhOgvxQH4

2. Brother Ali, Us (Rhymesayers), 2009*: "Breakin' Dawn"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT-hYXqTN38

3. Mos Def, The Ecstatic (Downtown), 2009: "Auditorium"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX3CdNl-7GE

4. K'NAAN, Troubadour (A&M/Octone), 2009*: "Fifteen Minutes Away"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdr_fInv3PQ

5. Bruce Springsteen, Working on a Dream (Columbia), 2009: "This Life"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bwft9wG8hb4

6. P.O.S., Never Better (Rhymesayers), 2009*: "The Basics (Alright)"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLRt3BdEBGI

7. Yo La Tengo, Popular Songs (Matador), 2009: "By Two's"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uIBqwd0Fp8

8. Eyedea & Abilities, By the Throat (Rhymesayers), 2009*: "This Story"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ7cGBAdOWk

9. U2, No Line on the Horizon (Island/Universal), 2009: "The Cedars of Lebanon"

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

10. Mr. Lif, I Heard It Today (Bloodbog Tactical Enterprises), 2009: "What About Us?"

11. Dynas, The Apartment (BBE), 2009*: "The Apartment 2" (can't find on youtube):
http://www.zero-inch.com/artist/Dynas/track/The_Apartment_2/109525

12. Busdriver, Jhelli Beam (Anti-), 2009: "Me-Time (With the Pulmonary Palimpsest)"

13. Lady Sovereign, Jigsaw (Midget Records), 2009* (friends here): "Let's Be Mates"

14. Two Fingers, Two Fingers (Paper Bag Records), 2009: "That Girl" (I prefer original mix, but can't find it on Youtube)

15. Various artists, Aaron LaCrate & Debonair Samir Present, B-More Club Crack (Koch), 2009: Verb f. Eliza Doolittle, "Rockin with the Best"

16. Doom, Born Like This (Lex Records), 2009: "Batty Boyz"

17. Lily Allen, It's Not Me, It's You (EMI), 2009: "The Fear":

18. Major Lazer, Guns Don't Kill People... Lazers Do (Downtown), 2009: "When You Hear the Bassline"

19. Mastodon, Crack the Skye (Reprise Records), 2009: "Oblivion" (turn this up)

20. The Clean, Mister Pop (Merge), 2009: "In the Dreamlife You Need a Rubber Soul"

Whups...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a0Y-CRx4nE

12. Busdriver, Jhelli Beam (Anti-), 2009: "Me-Time (With the Pulmonary Palimpsest)"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iED-fN9Hm4w

13. Lady Sovereign, Jigsaw (Midget Records), 2009* (friends here): "Let's Be Mates"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBxTtw2vYgk

14. Two Fingers, Two Fingers (Paper Bag Records), 2009: "That Girl" (I prefer original mix, but can't find it on Youtube)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWAYMcec1S0

15. Various artists, Aaron LaCrate & Debonair Samir Present, B-More Club Crack (Koch), 2009: Verb f. Eliza Doolittle, "Rockin with the Best"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_pp6PysRNM

16. Doom, Born Like This (Lex Records), 2009: "Batty Boyz"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-wGMlSuX_c

17. Lily Allen, It's Not Me, It's You (EMI), 2009: "The Fear":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lU2NAiWe8A

18. Major Lazer, Guns Don't Kill People... Lazers Do (Downtown), 2009: "When You Hear the Bassline"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kcErNWtw1o

19. Mastodon, Crack the Skye (Reprise Records), 2009: "Oblivion" (turn this up)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbJKs-_enXQ

20. The Clean, Mister Pop (Merge), 2009: "In the Dreamlife You Need a Rubber Soul"

* = any vague connection to Minneapolis/St. Paul

el goodo coyote. sounds like a long lost move record

On second thought, subtract Major Lazer, add Rancid's "East Bay Night" at the beginning of that tape, and shuffle a couple other songs--nobody cares, I realize, I just can't let bad sequencing stand.

man, that Mastodon vid is outta this world!

2009 has been a pretty darn good year.. nothing has ~BLOWN MY MIND~ as it were but I think there have been more good-to-great albums this year than ever before imo

i feel the same way, but imo there have been at least a couple mindblowers (love vs money, bitte orca).

Bannakumbi's Un Nuevo Dia is amazingly great, one of the only new salsa albums I've heard this decade worth shouting about. I'm going to try to put some of this into words after a few listens, but I have no doubt that is something exceptional.

Also:

Truco & Zaperoko - En Plena Rumba
Ata Ebtekar and the Iranian Orchestra for New Music Performing Works of Alireza Mashayekhia
Ayelet Rose Gottlieb - Upto Here|From Here

and though I haven't heard all of this yet, I can say so far, so good:

Acoustic Guitar Trio - Vignes

(That's Rod Poole, Jim McAuley, and Nels Cline.)

Will stan for the new Shakira album. (Anyone who o_O's pleasantly at the new Mariah should enjoy.)

nothing has ~BLOWN MY MIND

Correct.. I have yet to hear a 2009 release where I love almost every song. Lots of great singles though.

Porcupine Tree - The incident was pretty good.