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

rescuing a gorgeously bleepy melodic gem from the clutches of a Gorilla Zoe mixtape track

heh

good to see someone else repping for the demi lovato album! though i think i prefer her second one to the debut

Hey ilxor, do you want to post your list on here? Not signed up to Facebook so I can't see it. Think we have a decent amount of overlap in taste, so I'll be interested to see your selection.

Here you go!

The Facebook note included a YouTube link to each of the 49 songs, obviously missing here.

#1

Fever Ray

9 for 09

Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion
Bat for Lashes, Two Suns
The-Dream, Love vs. Money
The Horrors, Primary Colours
The Juan Maclean, The Future Will Come
Raekwon, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…Pt II
Rihanna, Rated R
Six Organs of Admittance, Luminous Night
The xx, xx

the next 9

Broadcast and the Focus Group, Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age
DOOM, Born Like This
The Flaming Lips, Embryonic
Fuck Buttons, Tarot Sport
Mos Def, The Ecstatic
Oneida, Rated O
The Raveonettes, In and Out of Control
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, It's Blitz!
5: Five Years of Hyperdub

another 9

Annie, Don't Stop
Basement Jaxx, Scars
Black Meteoric Star
Ghostface Killah, Ghostdini: Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City
Tim Hecker, An Imaginary Country
Jay-Z, The Blueprint 3
LSD March, Under Milk Wood
Mount Eerie, Wind's Poem
Sunn O))), Monoliths and Dimensions

19 more admired in whole or part

Antony and the Johnsons, Another World
James Blackshaw, The Glass Bead Game
Blues Control, Local Flavor
Clipse, Til the Casket Drops
Current 93, Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain
Depeche Mode, Sounds of the Universe
The Field, Yesterday and Today
PJ Harvey and John Parish, A Woman A Man Walked By
Isis, Wavering Radiant
J Dilla, Jay Stay Paid
Merzbow, 13 Japanese Birds series
The Mountain Goats, The Life of the World to Come
Om, God Is Good
A Place to Bury Strangers, Exploding Head
Shrinebuilder
Sonic Youth, The Eternal
Taken by Trees, East of Eden
Woods, Songs of Shame
Yo La Tengo, Popular Songs

49 short ones for 09

Animal Collective, “My Girls”
Animal Collective, “Summertime Clothes”
Basement Jaxx, “Raindrops”
Bat for Lashes, “Daniel”
Bat for Lashes, “Pearl's Dream”
Big Boi ft. Gucci Mane, “Shine Blockas”
James Blackshaw, “Cross”
Burial, “Fostercare”
Burial and Four Tet, “Moth”
Clipse ft. Cam'ron, “Popular Demand (Popeyes)”
Miley Cyrus, “Party in the USA”
Darkstar, “Aidy's Girl Is a Computer”
Depeche Mode, “Wrong”
DOOM, “Gazzillion Ear”
The-Dream, “Rockin' That Shit”
The-Dream, “Sweat It Out”
Fever Ray, “When I Grow Up”
Fever Ray, “Seven”
Four Tet, “Love Cry”
The Flaming Lips ft. Karen O, “I Can Be a Frog”
The Flaming Lips, “Watching the Planets”
Fuck Buttons, “Surf Solar (7" Edit)”
Keri Hilson ft. Kanye West and Ne-Yo, “Knock You Down”
The Horrors, “Sea within a Sea”
Jay-Z, “DOA (Death of Auto-Tune)” *
Joker, “Digidesign”
The Juan Maclean, “One Day”
King Midas Sound, “Meltdown”
Lady Gaga, “Paparazzi”
Lady Gaga, “Bad Romance”
Adam Lambert, “Mad World” (Tears for Fears cover) **
LCD Soundsystem, “Bye Bye Bayou” (Alan Vega cover)
Lindstrom and Christabelle, “Baby Can't Stop (Aeroplane Remix)”
Mos Def, “Life in Marvelous Times”
Pet Shop Boys, “Love Etc.”
Raekwon ft. Inspectah Deck, Ghostface Killah and Method Man, “House of Flying Daggers”
The Raveonettes, “Last Dance”
Rihanna ft. Young Jeezy, “Hard”
Rihanna, “Russian Roulette”
Saint Etienne, “Method of Modern Love”
Six Organs of Admittance, “Anesthesia”
Solange, “Stillness Is the Move” (Dirty Projectors cover) ***
Taylor Swift, “You Belong with Me”
Taken by Trees ft. Noah Lennox, “Anna”
The xx, “Crystalised”
The xx, “Teardrops” (Womack & Womack cover)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “Zero”
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “Heads Will Roll”
Yo La Tengo, “Here to Fall”

* Yes, I realize that Jay's running on autopilot here. It's still a great song.

** This doesn't hold a candle to Tears for Fears' original, but it's pretty awesome.

*** This works much better as a full-stop R&B song than an indie rock tune.

6 extended plays for 09

Animal Collective, Fall Be Kind
Annie, All Night
Jesu, Opiate Sun
No Age, Losing Feeling
Spectrum, War Sucks
Spoon, Got Nuffin

9 archival, remix and live albums for 09

Bardo Pond, Peri
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, White Lunar
Echo and the Bunnymen, Live at the Royal Albert Hall
Melvins, Chicken Switch
Kylie Minogue, Boombox: The Remix Album 2000-2008
REM, Live at the Olympia
Saint Etienne, Foxbase Beta
Six Organs of Admittance, RTZ
Tom Waits, Glitter and Doom Live

19 not heard in 09

Matias Aguayo, Ay Ay Ay
Atlas Sound, Logos
William Basinski, 92982
Dälek, Gutter Tactics
Deerhunter, Rainwater Cassette Exchange
Dizzee Rascal, Tongue n' Cheek
Emeralds, What Happened (ordered from No Fun)
Hush Arbors, Yankee Reality
King Midas Sound, Waiting for You...
Madlib, Beat Konducta Vol. 5-6: A Tribute to...
Oneohtrix Point Never, Rifts (ordered from No Fun)
OOIOO, Armonico Hewa
Jim O'Rourke, The Visitor
Pet Shop Boys, Yes
Real Estate (ordered from Woodsist)
Jack Rose and the Black Twig Pickers
U2, No Line on the Horizon
White Rainbow, New Clouds
Zomby, One Foot Ahead of the Other

29 live thrills

Animal Collective (2x)
Antipop Consortium
Autolux
Erykah Badu
Black Dice (2x)
Boredoms performing 9 drummer BOADRUM
Boris performing Feedbacker
Caribou Vibration Ensemble with Marshall Allen
Devo
Dirty Three performing Ocean Songs
Echo and the Bunnymen (2x)
El-P
The Feelies performing Crazy Rhythms
The Flaming Lips
Grouper
The Jesus Lizard
The Juan Maclean
Melvins
Peter Murphy
My Bloody Valentine
No Age with Bob Mould performing Hüsker Dü
Oneida presents The Ocropolis
Panda Bear
Primal Scream (2x)
Red Red Meat
School of Seven Bells
Shellac
Six Finger Satellite
Suicide performing Suicide (1st LP)

8 from 08 loved in 09

Burning Star Core, Challenger
Flying Lotus, Los Angeles
Gang Gang Dance, Saint Dymphna
Grouper, Dragging a Dead Deer up a Hill
Jamie Lidell, Jim
Ne-Yo, Year of the Gentleman
Steinski, What Does It All Mean? 1983-2006 Retrospective
Young Jeezy, The Recession

10 anticipated in 10

Erykah Badu, New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh)
The-Dream, Love King
Eluvium, Similes
Four Tet, There Is Love in You
Flying Lotus, Cosmogramma
Liars, Sisterworld
Lindstrom and Christabelle, Real Life Is No Cool
Massive Attack, Heligoland
Pantha du Prince, Black Noise
Spoon, Transference

Hey thanks! Still need to hear the Tim Hecker and the Mount Eerie.

There's some great stuff in ilxor's list. He showed it to me recently and I was delighted to see The Horrors doing so well. I'm not keen on the whole album but 4 of the tracks at least are classics. Would love to have seen Shellac live. I think the lyrics to "Prayer To God" are on balance my favourite of the decade.

lol at my inability to tell the difference between lopp and lotp

It's not from the same ATP when I saw 'em, but still great...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHknmc_o28w

lol @ you apologizing for "doa" being autopilot jay but including the WHOLE DAMN ALBUM in the top 27

posted a top 100 tracks of 2009 here + youtube playlist featuring all but 10 of them

lol @ you apologizing for "doa" being autopilot jay but including the WHOLE DAMN ALBUM in the top 27

Yeah good point. It should probably be in the bottom 19 or so. I do like a number of the tracks on there, not really the whole thing, and obviously it doesn't hold up to Jay's 5 or 6 better albums. Then again... I really liked American Gangster, I might as well like this one, too, huh?

In retrospect I'd easily swap the Jay-Z album for Blues Control, Current 93, Om. Really like all of those start to finish.

Radio K Top 77 albums of '09

http://radiok.cce.umn.edu/top77/

seems like less local stuff than usual on the radio k list

Xgau (w/ P&J predictions):

http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Rock-Roll/Resuscitations-and-Business-Plans-The-Best-Albums-of-2009/ba-p/2032

Forty-nine years younger than Nelson at 27, Nellie McKay reached back half a century to reinvoke the spunk, optimism, and beauty of Hollywood nice gal Doris Day, dumbfounding her contemporaries in the process

You can't dumbfound people who don't care at all.

Wow, he really loves that late '08 Baseball Project cd. I've been meaning to check that out but haven't paid much attention to Steve Wynn since his early '80s Dream Syndicate days.

Mostly a good, interesting read.

If I can be nitpicky, am I the only one intrigued by Christgau describing the the xx as "electropoppers" (a term which he then uses to describe Lady Gaga, lest we have any doubts about his meaning)? Is it because of the band's background? Is it because they're from the UK? Is all eighties revivalism swept into this category? Are the rhythms on "Basic Space" really such a shock to the rock mindset?

Animal Collective are (these days) more "electropop" than the xx when you get down to it, but the term would never be applied to them. I don't think Christgau means the term as a compliment or an insult, but I'm curious as to what Christgau does mean by it.

OTOH I love Christgau on the Brad Paisley album: http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Rock-Roll/Paisley-s-Progress/ba-p/1695;jsessionid=DF668A4729C68A6D83677028A764B67C

At least he didn't call them "techno."

Hold up-- The xx are 80s revivalists?

I think so. They sound something like The Cure to me.

Animal Collective are (these days) more "electropop" than the xx when you get down to it, but the term would never be applied to them. I don't think Christgau means the term as a compliment or an insult, but I'm curious as to what Christgau does mean by it.

I think Christgau means "electropop" in an '80s sense of the word, while even if Animal Collective may now use programming alot, and added a bit more pop, he and many think of them more as rock.

What is the 80s sense of the word?

I would have thought any sense of the word would suggest, like, primarily electronic arrangements, but maybe not?

New wave, synth pop, new romantic...

it just amuses him to bracket the two together since they have programmed drums and synth sounds, esp. since he's riffing on being an old fart.

more concerned about the critically esteemed hip hop of the year consisting of "Raekwon, Mos Def, and possibly Jay-Z", did no one review say the quik/kurupt?

don't know Serengeti that he mentions.

"three recent NYU grads" - is that a joke?

At least the B&N site looks decent-- the presentation of the Consumer Guide on MSN is appalling.

Quik & Kurpt haven't appeared in EOY lists for shit (except maybe p4k and a couple others). Sad thing.

am I the only one intrigued by Christgau describing the the xx as "electropoppers"

You know I can totally hear the xx in songs like Yazoo's 'Nobody's Diary', but it does involve erasing the synth tracks. There is a bit of a New Order thing too I guess.

i kinda like his list!

Yeah, I d/l'ed The Panic Is On, still have to play--never heard of it before. His lists always have some reissue or compilation I haven't heard of and end up loving.

Our list (Porcys, Poland) http://porcys.com/Others.aspx?id=247

Jane Dark, top 25 songs

http://janedark.com/2010/01/top_25_songs_of_2009_in_a_sing.html

Do we have a PAZZ AND JOP 2009 thread yet?

imo jane dark is terrible

The Best Southern Soul 2009. I wish Pitchfork would give this guy a column

http://www.southernsoulrnb.com/corner2010.cfm

Still wanna hear that Ben Frost album.

― The bugger in the short sleeves (NickB), Tuesday, December 8, 2009 9:12 PM (6 months ago) Bookmark

searched "ben frost," he hasn't got his own thread, but man I am getting to this album this afternoon and it is WAY cool.

speaking of Ben Frost:

Ben Frost is one of six young talents to have been hand-picked “for a year of collaboration and inspiration” in the international Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative.

The 30-year-old composer, producer and musician has been chosen as the scheme’s “music protégé for 2010-2011″. He will be mentored by none other than Brian Eno, former Roxy Music member, ambient pioneer, multidisciplinary artist and producer for the likes of Talking Heads, Jon Hassell and U2.

Melbourne-hailing, Reykjavik-based Frost received much acclaim for his 2009 album By The Throat, released via his own Bedroom Community label. Over the years he has collaborated with the likes of Tim Hecker, Nico Muhly and Bjork; he is currently working on the score for multi-player online game World of Darkness and “a reworking of Tarkovsky’s Solaris“. More info on the latter here. [thanks, Enter]

The Arts Initiative has six disciplines: dance, film, literature, music, theatre and visual arts. Each protégés receives their own individually tailored programme, with time provided across the year for unique personal access to, and creative dialogue with, their assigned mentor. Furthermore, each protégé receives a grant of $25,000 USD each and is eligible for a further $25,000 towards the cost of creating a project following their mentoring year.

The other protégés and mentors for 2010-2011 are:

Literature: American poet Tracy K. Smith; mentored by Hans Magnus Enzensberger (Germany)
Visual arts: South African artist Nicholas Hlobo; mentored by Anish Kapoor (United Kingdom)
Theatre: Lebanese actor, writer and aspiring director Maya Zbib; mentored by Peter Sellars (United States)
Film: Annemarie Jacir, a Palestinian film director and poet living in Jordan; mentored by Zhang Yimou (China)