a reflection on the music of 2009 for ilx

How much of the stuff you hadn't previously heard have you listened to in the hour or so since this thread got going?

subjectively speaking. obviously there is good stuff in every year and claiming something to be a flat-out bad year is a fool's errand, but there's a notable dearth of stuff that to me feels like it's aged well

bearing in mind that UK Funky and Balearic aren't exactly my specialist areas - I'll accept your expert word that this was a good time for all that

in 2009 i was numb & depressed and submitted a ballot to the eoy poll that just contained andrew wk's record of improv piano dedicated to his car

That was a good album, love the bit where he does a guitar solo by drumming his fingers on the side of the piano.

Back then I was in my early 20s and still firmly entrenched in the feeling that everything having to be a bit prog (even moreso than now) but a lot of my faves of the time were either noticeably on the wane (The Mars Volta, Opeth) or had just one more classic in them (Isis, Mastodon). There's probably a lot of stuff I loved at the time but got rid of and subsequently forgotten.

Had a quick look now and my music from that year is still embarrassingly rock/metal based almost exclusively, but I might make a list of the best stuff though idgaf about ranked lists, track lists or if music stands the test of time if I still like it.

ultros, i'm sure you're the only person with me on the Cheer-Accident record from that year being one of its best!

The only good album from 2009 is The Future Will Come by The Juan Maclean. WTF is “UK Funky”?

Wikipedia sez: Popular songs have also produced dance crazes, such as "Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes"

Ever heard this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YHC69wa9JA

UK Funky was seriously great.

xxxp you're probably right unfortunately!

what was ILX policy on art by fascists again? Burzum gets a pass right?

― imago, Wednesday, January 16, 2019 3:16 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

god it’s like you’ve never read a single thread here

2009 was my first year on ilx, so i mostly remember the tracks poll being great and opening me up to music i wasn’t necessarily coming across on my own. i burned a cd of like nos. 40-20 or so and played it in my car for weeks. electrik red was a pretty big deal to me

also since 2009 BLACKsummers'night has become one of my favorite albums of all time

xxp speaking of fascists, I've just remembered about Mistabishi, let's quietly delete that one from my list.

trying to find the 2009 EOY ballots and afterparty thread. Anyone got it handy?

2009 was the year we were all on a boat

Darkstar's 'Aidy's Girl Is A Computer' is the archetypal 2009 song in my head

Let us not forget Nokturnal Mortum's suitably vague conversion to – fuck if I know – as evidenced by this Facebook post from 2014:

https://www.facebook.com/nokturnalmortumofficial/posts/10154629159940487

I suppose their being Ukrainian (itself a nebulous category, in part due to Russia's imperialist propaganda, which dubs Ukraine 'Little Russia') does attenuate the fash somewhat, but just barely.

i feel like in 2009 i was mostly listening to old music - i was working for the first time in a long time and had just gotten my first ipod. the new stuff i was listening to was mostly prog (some of which might even be up imago's alley - the cheer-accident is pretty much my absolute fave of theirs as well). here's a partial list of 2009 releases i feel like i was listening to in or around 2009:

tortoise, rubik, plush, mission of burma, miriodor, magma, litmus, knifeworld, joker's daughter, hypnotic brass ensemble, him, fucked up, curse ov dialect, circulatory system, cheer-accident, charlotte gainsbourg, cave, broadway project, bibio, andromeda mega express orchestra, anamanaguchi, alamaailman vasarat, "kind of bloop"

i don't think i even heard any of the gapdy records until at least 2011, although i might have heard "merriwether post pavilion" at the time and dismissed it. then again i might have dismissed it without hearing it. i can't remember. most of my music listening back then was on rym, where i was still regularly writing bad reviews.

blaqkout was my other album of the year iirc

this was the last year before hip-hop started getting Alex Da Kid'd out. there seemed to be a genuine dearth of new rappers and most of the best hip-hop seemed to be made by oldheads. DJ Quik, obviously, Raekwon, Cam'ron dropped a pretty good album that year, so did Camp Lo, Diamond District, DOOm, Mos Def. Gucci and Freddie were the main exceptions, younger dudes who doing their thing and doing it well. It was the year before Wiz/Cudi/Drake really made their mark on the mainstream.

Anyway, some more music I liked a lot at the time that I still like: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Phoenix, Wild Beasts, AnCo, Neko Case, Bat For Lashes, No Ceilings, Isis, The State vs. Radric Davis, Dinosaur Jr., Camera Obscura, Black Milk, Bill Callahan

I'm sure there are more

that's what 18/19-y.o. me was into--rap and rock and nothin' else.

xxp - Here's the 2009 voting thread:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!~~~FINALLY - 2009 ILX Albums 'n' Trax Poll voting thread ahoy~~~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (VOTING CLOSED: lol Whiney)

And the 'post your ballots' one:

They Belong To You: Your ILM 2009 Track of the Year Ballots

tell me what you know about my votes: your ILM 2009 Albums of the Year ballots

I remember not liking a ton of new music in 2009. Taylor Swift's Fearless (late 2008, but year of impact 2009) was a big new record I listened to a lot. Haven't given old Swifty a spin in a while though.

Lists of nominations:

Albums

Tracks

My 2009 albums:

YOB - The Great Cessation
The Mountain Goats - The Life of the World To Come
Bloody Panda- Summon
Mayyors - Deads
SubArachnoid Space - Eight Bells
Ancestors - Of Sound Mind
Sula Bassana - The Night
Zu - Carboniferous
Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 - Goodnight Oslo
Wiliie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel - Willie and the Wheel

I'd bump the Mayors to the top and switch Willie and Sula Bassana, but I still like and listen to all these records.

I forgot the nominations thread:

!~!~!~!~!~BOOM BOOM ALBUMS N TRAX POLL 2009: NOMINATIONS due Dec 31~!~!~!~!~!

the Dan Deacon album is still amazing

And now everything in one handy post:

2009 IN REVIEW:

2009 albums worth listening to
Favorite songs of 2009
2009 end-of-the year lists

ILM 2009 EOY POLL:

Nominations thread

Lists of nominations:
Albums
Tracks

Voting thread

Results threads:
Albums
Tracks

Final results:
Albums
Tracks

Ballots:
Albums
Tracks

I recall there were some extremely bad T.I. singles during this era

I must have been focused on school that year. It's mostly a blank for me music-wise.

What I ranked then and still love and listen to regularly:

Shackleton - 3 EPs
Marked Men - Ghosts
Pissed Jeans - King of Jeans
Lindstrom and Prins Thomas - II

What I wouldn't mind hearing right now but hasn't really stuck:

Emptyset - S/T
Niobe - Blackbird's Echo
Subway - II
Juan Maclean - Future will Come
Reigning Sound - Love and Curses
Serpentcult - Weight of Light

Doesn't seem as great now as it did back then:

Future of the Left - Travels with Myself and Another (my #1)
Jay Reatard - Watch Me Fall (residual Blood Visions love)
Thee Oh Sees - Help
Distance - Repercussions
Death - For the Whole World to See

Actively do not like at this point:

Baroness - Blue Record

I was still holding The xx at arms length back then but fully embrace them now.

OTM that "Aidy’s Girl Is A Computer" is the definitive song of that moment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkPy4yq7EJo

this song is still like... miraculous

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

or was at least inescapable on r&b stations

Loved it then, still do: The xx, La Roux, Röyksopp, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Gui Boratto, The Bird and the Bee, Annie, Horrors

Liked it then, less so now: Phoenix, Lily Allen, Girls

Hadn't heard then, love now: Discovery-LP, Fuck Buttons-Tarot Sport, Jon Hopkins-Insides

Have still never heard: Electric Red, Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear

Can't find any lists I made at the time, but I know my favorite albums were Dananananaykroyd's Hey Everyone! and the Fever Ray s/t. I'll still vouch for the former, though I barely ever listen to it, while I increasingly think of the latter as a classic. My #1 single was "Daniel" by Bat for Lashes.

2009 was also the birth of chillwave, as coined by Carles to refer to Neon Indian, Washed Out, and Memory Tapes, all of whom debuted in 2008-09.

people moaned about GAPDYX but fuck me did the singles poll have a lot of Lady Gaga in it

had a look at the 2009 p4k eoy list today and discovered Warm Heart of Africa by the Very Best which i'd never heard or heard of before and have really enjoyed today

my favourite underappreciated 2009 indie albums are Why There Are Mountains by Cymbals Eat Guitars and Ashes Grammar by A Sunny Day In Glasgow which are both classics to me. i hadn't thought about jj in a while but jj no 2 still rules so much

This was the list I pulled together at the time...

1. Flaming Lips - Embryonic
2. Baroness - Blue Record
3. Mastodon - Crack the Skye
4. Sunn O))) - Monoliths & Dimensions
5. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
6. Oneida - Rated O
7. The xx - xx
8. Converge - Axe to Fall
9. Shrinebuilder - Shrinebuilder
10. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
11. Kylesa - Static Tensions
12. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
13. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
14. Wooden Shjips - Dos
15. Isis - Wavering Radiant
16. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!
17. Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
18. Bat For Lashes - Two Suns
19. Dinosaur Jr. - Farm
20. Cobalt - Gin

For the most part, still fairly happy with the list. I'd probably bump Sunn O)) up to #2 now and push the Mastodon down a little bit. I'd probably swap out Kylesa for Eletrik Red (which I didn't hear until 2010). Definitely guilty of contributing to GAPDY love.

I listened to Rival Consoles on a recommendation the other day and thought, 'it's like Fuck Buttons never happened'

Obviously this year was a massive uk funky year for me and any time I think of the period 2008 - 2010 I will think of that music first. I think I voted for Marcus Nasty's official Rinse mix out of loyalty but I didn't listen to it much compared to all the radio sets (the best of which in 2009 was probably a DJ Mak-10 set with MC Shantie on Deja Vu FM (https://www.mixcloud.com/Classic_UK_Funky_Sets/dj-mak-10-mc-shantie-deja-vu-fm-26-march-2009/).

After that, definitely The-Dream/Electrik Red etc. is what I remember 2009 for.

I didn't keep any record of what I voted for, but looking at ILM's top 50 the albums I would have voted for and still listen to the most are Fall Out Boy and Meanderthals (which alongside the first Smith & Mudd album from 2007 is one of my two main balearic "background music" go-to records). DJ Sprinkles as well but I think of that as a 2008 record.

I think I was also really into the DJ Quik/Kurupt, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Animal Collective, Paramore, XX, Mungolian Jet Set, Fever Ray, Gucci Mane, Juan Maclean, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Dam-Funk albums.

Pretty sure I either didn't hear or underrated the Maxwell album until later. The other big album in that category would be Me'shell Ndgeocello's 'Devil's Halo' which is often my favourite of hers.

But looking at Matt DC's list upthread reminds me of how much more tracks-focused I was back then.

My favorite that year was Miranda Lambert's Revolution

Oh yeah and Miranda! Although it's not my favourite of her albums.

My favorite was and remains the Maxwell record.

Forgot that Dam-Funk album was 2009, that'd be on my updated list too - another one I didn't discover until the following year.

my ballots were

albums:
the-dream - love vs. money *
taylor swift - fearless
fever ray - fever ray*
junior boys - begone dull care
electrik red - how to be a lady vol. 1* (10 years old!)
DJ quik and kurupt - blaqkout*
OPN - rifts
the yeah yeah yeahs - it's blitz!
baroness - the blue album
dam-funk - toeachizown

tracks:

the-dream - fancy
darkstar - aidy's girl is a computer**
DJ quik & kurupt - 9x's outta 10
guido - way U make me feel**
hot toddy - I need love**
sade - soldier of love
joker & ginz - purple city**
joy orbison - hyph mngo**
kelly clarkson - my life would suck without you***
lady gaga - bad romance***

*still rate & listen to often
**have not listened to this since 2009
***waht

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.