Best Albums of 2009 (Part 3)

I wish I could go on at length about all the great music of 2009 but time is finite, here's 700+ words on the cream of the crop.

Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You - One of my musical pet peeves is when an artist takes an existing song and just uses it as a music bed to sing or rap over.  It's lazy and it's cheating, I don't care that some of the biggest names in music do it, it's not right.  When I heard "Alfie" from Lily's first album, my BS detector kicked on as it's Lily simply singing over the (splendid) opening piano riff from Professor Longhair's "Big Chief", a longtime favorite of mine. I forgave Lily because the rest of the album was pretty original and a whole lot of fun.  Album 2 is even better. Opening single "The Fear" baits her detractors with a false air of ignorance that turns on itself, like your friend who pushes your buttons and then laughs when you get all riled up.  She forgives her absentee dad on "He Wasn't There" and dispatches George W. Bush in "Fuck You".  But did she pull it off live?  Tune in next week to see if she makes my Top Shows of 2009 list.

The Flaming Lips - Embryonic -  After a mid-career renaissance with the one-two punch of The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots in '99 and '02, they faltered a bit with At War With The Mystics. It wasn't a bad album by any stretch but having set the bar so high, they could only go down.  So where many bands would try way too hard to replicate past successes, The Lips just went back to their weird selves and made another classic, albeit the strangest classic of their career.  And like Talking Heads before them, The Flaming Lips are one of the oddest bands to get critical and commercial success.  Viva la Lips!

Julian Casblancas - Phrazes for the Young - While I consider myself a pretty big Strokes fan, none  of the members solo records had knocked me out, until this one. When I heard the first single "11th Dimension", I had to check and make sure I was listening to the right record.  Not that that it was bad--quite the contrary--but except for the voice, it sounded nothing like The Strokes.  It was awash in organ, synths and a drum machine.  The real discovery for me was the stone-cold pop gem "Left & Right In The Dark" which has the most indelible chorus of the year, my god this is a great song. Its says something that it's the third most listened-to track on my iTunes in 2009, considering it came out in November.  One of my highlights of the year was spinning records at Allstate Arena and hearing the song over the massive house PA.

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion - I'll admit I was dubious when in the first week of January 2009, people were saying this would be tough to beat for album of the year.  Damn if it didn't hold up with the strength of songs like "Summer Clothes" and My Girls".  

Wilco - Wilco (The Album) - I'd probably get kicked out of the state if I didn't have this on my list, right? I'm glad they picked up the pace from Sky Blue Sky and there's some real growers on this.  Not a great first impression record, though.  I tend to take them for granted but it's easy to do in their hometown as they seem ubiquitous to me but I doubt that's the case in any other city but mine.

Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix- Wow, who knew that a synth and drum-heavy French band would have such a strong showing this year?  I'd say not me, but when they played SNL before this record came out, I had an idea they were going to be big.  True this wasn't their debut (their fourth studio album actually) but they weren't on many radar screens before this year, at least not mine.  The "Love Like A Sunset" two-part suite sounds like the bastard child of Neu! and Tangerine Dream.  And hey, let's face it, '1901" was the jam of 2009, wasn't it?  Not even the relentless Cadillac commercial featuring '1901' could dull that song for me.

Other artists who put out great stuff worth mentioning: Datarock, Bad Lieutenant, Miike Snow, Temper Trap, Great Northern, Fruit Bats, Skygreen Leopards, Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3, Starling Crush, Lou Barlow, Brendan Benson, Grizzly Bear & White Rabbits.

What did I miss (check all three posts)? What were your faves?

Comments

[Brian]

Hey Ken - Nice list of your top albums.

I really liked the Animal Collective disc. That grew on me every time I listened to it. This would probably be the disc I played more than any other from this year.

U2's disc is a big mix of hits and misses for me. I would also add the title track to the list of hits on the album.

The Pearl Jam disc is one that I wasn't expecting to care much for, but I listened to it when XRT was streaming it on their site and liked quite a few of the tracks and the flow of the album.

I really liked a lot of the Arctic Monkey's new disc. Them hooking up with the guy from Queen's of the Stone Age served them well. I really like the darker take on things.

And I really liked the Nico Case album from this year, too. While I didn't think their discs were quite as good as some of the others released this year, I did enjoy some of the tracks from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs!!! and Visqueen.

Wilco's disc was one that I played a lot at first, but found that I didn't keep playing it. I liked it but not as much as Sky Blue Sky. There are some really good songs on this disc, but it couldn't keep my interest for whatever reason.

There were quite a bit of good releases this year, in my opinion. To me, it seemed like a much better year for music than last year. I am already looking forward to the new Spoon release.

Happy New Year

[Scotty]

Great list! I really liked A Place to Bury Strangers self titled album. I also really liked The Horrors Primary Colours and Major Lazor's Guns Don't Kill People, Lazers Do.

[dj]

Again, nice list Ken, what a year for music 2009 was. I completely agree with you on Animal Collective, Phoenix and Lily Allen. As big a fan of Wilco that I am, I just don't find myself listening to it that much. Maybe because it starts with such an embarrassing song.

As far as your honorable mentions go, I just picked up Temper Trap and I really love the new Grizzly Bear album.

Probably the album I had the most fun listening to this year was from Passion Pit. I'm surprised I haven't seen it on more year-end lists, but I have heard it in a few commercials.

[Scotty]

I liked Passion Pit as well. Good call.

[Scotty]

I forgot a couple of my favorites from this year. Dan Auerbach from the Black Keys had a great solo album called Keep it Hid. Dinosaur Jr.'s Farm was pretty darn good as well.

[drcastrato]

I don't get the Flaming Lips record. I've been a fan of theirs since before "Jelly" and I've liked everything I've heard from them...(did you hear their cover of Madonna's Borderline? It's magic) ...except for Embryonic. I find it unlistenable! Their whole schtick was that, underneath the noise and weirdness, there were pop songs. But I don't hear any songs on this one. It's a mess. I'm having a tough time understanding all the positive reviews. Maybe it's me.

I thought the Wilco album was kind of weak, too. Loved Phoenix, though. And Dinosaur Jr.