Drowned in Sound's Top 50 Albums of 2009 - 50-1
- Artists:
- Phoenix »
- Animal Collective »
- St. Vincent »
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs »
- Manic Street Preachers »
- F*ck Buttons »
- Paramore »
- Fever Ray »
- Wild Beasts »
- Grizzly Bear »
- St Vincent »
Relevant
-
2008 to date: our favourites on their favourites
- Green Man 2009 - The DiS Review
- DiS Does Singles 20.05.13: Paramore, Laura Marling, The Replacements
-
In Photos: Lovebox Festival @ Victoria Park, London
- Spotifriday #89 - This week on DiS as a playlist ft. EMA, Wild Beasts, Murcof + more
- Latitude (Friday): The DiS Review
-
Supersonic 2007: the DiS review
- Summercase 2007: the DiS review
More by Sean Adams
- DiS joins the Music Alliance Pact + May 2013's global MAP compilation
- The Veils - Time Stays, We Go
- Frightened Rabbit: Tour Diary Part 5 - New York, Boston, DC, Philly
- DiS Digest: April 2013's Must-Hear Album, Top Tracks, Most Read + Playlist
- Record Store Day 2013 - The DiS Guide: SoundCloud sampler + Wings / RSD13 competition
So, that was 2009? Possibly the most blink-and-you-missed-it year of the decade. I mean, it literally feels like a few weeks ago that I was sitting here excitedly revealing M83 Saturdays = Youth as our album of 2008 (if you missed last year's list cast your eyes this'a way). Yet, in the 52 weeks which have whizzed by there have been shock shifts in direction from brave Brits (The Horrors, Arctic Monkeys and Muse, to name but three) as well as many fine acts not just delivering on their promise but raising the bar, and then some (hello Wild Beasts and Fxxk Buttons!). Was it a great year for music? A high watermark? Only time will tell but there have been some triumphant, innovative and bold records released and cherished in 2009 and we hope our list of the top 50 of the year reflects this.
With all of the releases on this list the one thing that they share is their ability to take us elsewhere. We've ventured from the dark atonal tombs of Sunno))) or Fever Ray, explored the neon industrial sci-fi lands of HEALTH and been beamed up to the contrary planet of pulsing mirrors that Lady Gaga inhabits. We've closed our eyes and seen the remotest parts of Scotland with Idlewild and My Latest Novel, woken up at house parties in San Francisco with Girls and had chill-fi-ers Neon Indian and Memory Tapes take us down a Warioland-pipe and into their swirling playgrounds made of mercury and toxic goo. Whether it was a place beyond our solar system or the re-imagined bedrooms of Croydon, music in '09 has tried its damnedest to distract us from the humming-drum of war and recession and remove us from the grey, homogenized, globalized blah that exists somewhere outside our office/bedroom windows.
Of course, the one other thing which truly brings these records together is the fact we liked them more than all the others released in 2009. When I say 'we', I mean the trinity of DiS staff, forty+ freelancers and the regulars on our music forum. I've spent the past two months exploring all the recommended albums suggested on our boards here, going as far as making this epic playlist on Spotify which'll take a mere 4.1 days to listen to. I also took into special consideration top 5 lists from all of our regular contributors, looking for patterns (nearly every number 1 was different) and surprises. For more of my thoughts on why this list was compiled in this manner please visit my blog.
So, without further ado, here we go, a year of record releases compiled into a top 50...
1) Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
By DiS Founder/Editor Sean Adams: There can be only one number one and to be honest, there's only one album which far and away soared into our collective bosom in 2009. One record which, even on first listen, felt like ingesting industrial strength Haribo as the melodies exploded in my bloodstream and the beats stroked every erect hair that the falsettos had left standing on end. For every high - and this record is full of them ('Rome', 'Lasso', 'Armistice', 'Lisztomania', '1901'...) - there's a sugar crash but it's the most graceful, filmic, shot in black 'n' white variety of beautiful slo-mo crash. In fact, it's the slow, brooding, instrumental electronica-ish track 'Love Like a Sunset - Part 1' which is the throbbing heart of this epic album. It's Wolfgang's epicenter not only because it is one of the songs of the year/decade but because it feels like the manifesto track which forms the backbone of this fourth Phoenix album. Sonically, it's magnificent but musically it's one of the finest explorations of song to have been committed to tape. Even now, after months of repeated listening, its climax leaves me breathless.
Wolfgang... is a record that is sprawling but has a honed sense of style that marries the synthetic with the sound of very real drums and guitars, yet it's not all-production-no-trousers and the substantive songcraft would still shine through if this record was recorded onto a dictaphone. Every syncopated drum pattern builds and falls away without any excess and every chorus has a Sunny-D like charge of summer sun. Despite an uncluttered air of simplicity, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (9/10 Review) is an utter masterclass in sophisticated songwriting which they have honed and developed over the past decade and finds Phoenix almost too good for British TV or the radio, in an age of co-writers, talentless upstarts and pop mediocrity, with whom they're battling for air-time. Yet, outside of the UK, this album has been unanimously heralded by the pop press, American TV and music enthusiasts, as the best record of the year. Even the blogosphere went nuts for it and its subsequent remix album featuring the likes of Friendly Fires, Passion Pit and Animal Collective. I don't expect this to be everyone's album of the year (you're wrong, obviously!) but of all the records in this list, I believe this is the record that 2009 will be remembered for when history is written twenty or thirty years from now. It's a record that becomes an addiction and repeated listens reveal evermore ornate textures. And there's only one thing left to say: Bravo and thank you, you bloody brilliant Frenchmen!
On hearing they'd topped the list, Phoenix had this to say:
'merci drowned in sound for the gold medal! We are very proud to be on top of your list.
Merry Xmas to you all and happy 2010!
Phoenix
DiS Interview: Ed from Grizzly Bear's phone call with Branco:
2) St Vincent Actor
By Chris Power: I saw Annie Clark, aka St Vincent, play live twice in the last year: first with her band on a little Bella Union bandstand at Wireless in Hyde Park, and the second time alone, supporting Grizzly Bear. Both were great performances, but what impressed me most about them was the way Clark shredded, turned aslant and re-stitched the songs from Actor. I was already a fan of the album, but hearing her do so helped me realise what a lot of people no doubt already knew: that this is an album of songs strong, smart and nuanced enough to not only endure, but grow in the retelling.
Clark adopts personas when she writes, and her talent for mutability is what gives Actor its substance, as well as the over-arching theme suggested by its title. Just as her lyrics inhabit numerous troubled lives and fraught situations, so does the music she surrounds them with stutter, warp and tremble through the more uncomfortable emotional registers. Even at its most lushly melodic, as on ‘Laughing With a Mouthful of Blood’ or the stunning ‘Just the Same But Brand New’, there’s a jagged fringe of anxiety, even barely-withheld panic, skirting the outskirts of the melody.
It’s there on the diseased guitar that bleeds into life on the deceptively breezy opener ‘The Strangers’, and the eerily robotic waltz-time revolutions of ‘The Neighbors’. Most blatantly of all, it's at the core of the spiralling chamber orchestra crescendo of ‘Black Rainbow’, the lyrics of which need assemble just a handful of word pictures to evoke a powerful sense of suburban suffocation: a bird fighting its own reflection in a kitchen window; neighbours’ endless talk; the oppressive black rainbow itself, looming above the narrator’s house.
Like a great short story collection, Actor enthralls and entertains immediately, and then goes on to grow in the revisiting. Its most fascinating mysteries barely seem like mysteries at all the first time around, but give it a little of your time and its initial gorgeousness passes into a richer, stranger splendour.
Review | Interview | Video: Tour Diaries
3) Yeah Yeah Yeahs It's Blitz!
By DiS Albums Editor Andrzej Lukowski: It’s Blitz! probably isn’t in my personal album of the year (which I, er, haven’t properly totted up yet) but I’m happy as a pig in the mud to see the band’s third album up so high.
It’s kind of an awful concept to suggest a decade comes with such a thing as a defining band, but nonetheless, have any musicians conducted themselves more impressively over the last ten years than Yeah Yeah Yeahs? Three immaculate albums, two goddamn near-perfect EPs, and still conveying the impression of being the cool but misfit kids who walloped us over the head with ‘Bang’, back in 2001.
It was a less abrasive, but no less potent blow struck early this year when Karen and the gang sauntered back into the game with the joyous neon blast of ‘Zero’. I’m not going to patronise you by re-reviewing the thing here, but the fact it was a) a perfect pop song, b) totally unexpected (in its abandonment of guitars for synths) and c) entirely expected (it still sounds EXACTLY like the YYYs) says pretty much everything you need to know this band.
It’s Blitz! wasn’t by any stretch of the imagination the synth-pop record some were expecting (and indeed described it as, purely on grounds of ‘Zero’ and the feverish boogies of second track ‘Head Will Roll’). In fact, it’s a selection of reliably brilliant songs – a good deal of them of them lush, heady ballads, others guitar-dominated for the Zinner fanboys – that once again saw the band failing to put a foot wrong. I’m beginning to wonder now if they ever will.
Review | 10/10 Live Review at Brixton Academy | Interview
4) Manic Street Preachers Journal for Plague Lovers
Let's not pull any punches with this blurb, Richey Edwards' words easily win the lyrics of the year award, plus come runner-up and fill places 3-20. Greatness abounds but it's visceral lines like these which trump all else committed to tape in 2009: "The falcons attack the pigeons, in the West Wing at night," "beaten across the face, with a horsewhip, where the wounds already exist," and, the chorus question of the year "Mummy, what's a Sex Pistol?" There's the stream of consciousness listless listing, the May Day protest rush of the sneering sloganeering ("crucifixion is the easy life") and the meticulous yet nightmarish details like "she bathed herself in a bath of bleach", and it's these jagged, blood-splashed words which help this record burrow beneath your skin. Add this James Dean Bradfield's voice and guitar lines, which are some of the best of his career and the production from Dave Eringa and Steve Albini and this really is a special record.
For more on why this one of our records of the year read Dom Gourlay's review and the fascinating biography by John 'Kill Your Friends' Niven . Also read the three-part interview we conducted with Nicky Wire, which begins here.
5) Fxxk Buttons Tarot Sport
DiS albums editor Andrzej Lukowski: So there's a not unreasonable argument doing the rounds that a lot of these end of year lists are looking mighty similar, to the point of losing meaning. And y'know, I kind of agree - I love the Fever Ray and Animal Collective records, but even so, what does another thumbs up mean? Everything else you see in this top ten is songwriterly, mostly verse-chorus-verse stuff, written by bands poised to have a big critical or commercial smash before this year ever started - admittedly great music, and hardly meat'n'potatoes, but is it really a victory for anything in particular that Merriweather Post Pavilion has bagged itself another end of year nod? The only record whose presence in this top ten (or any others) feels like a victory to me is Fxxk Buttons' (swearing censored to make this page safe for work) Tarot Sport. Sure, its place in these lists in now kind of a given. But it's a seven track, instrumental noise trance record made by two pleasant, entirely un-starry chaps whose defining rock'n'roll trait is 'quite fond of hoodies'. It's three euphoric climbs - the pulsing firestorm of 'Surf Solar', the martial build of 'The Lisbon Maru'-'Olmpians' and the mindwipe explosion of joy as 'Space Mountain' ignites into 'Flight of the Feathered Serpent' - flowing seamlessly into the best and (sorry, Vitalic) loudest dance album of the year. And I truly think its acceptance is a small tipping point for the avant garde.
Sure it's not a hard or even particularly abrasive noise record, but it's made out of drones and feedback, jumble sale bric-a-brac distorted to the max... and a lot of people who shouldn't like it, like it. NME likes it. Q likes it. The Telegraph likes it. This would not have happened ten years ago. If this stuff is going mainstream, if kids starting bands might start wondering how they can sound like Andy Hung and Ben Power... well, we'll still have a lot of shit guitar bands... but I'm going to stick my neck out and say the world will be a fractionally better place.
Fuck Buttons - Surf Solar from ATP Recordings on Vimeo.
- Click here to listen to the top 50 albums (if available) on Spotify.
- Or click here for a more digestible 2 tracks from each available album sampler on Spotify
6) Grizzly Bear Veckatimest | Review | Grizzly Bear Week
7) Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavillion | Review | Interview
8) Wild Beasts Two Dancers | Review | Interview
9) Fever Ray Fever Ray | Review | Interview 1 / 2
10) Paramore brand new eyes | Review
11) Bat for Lashes Two Suns | Review | Interview
12) Arctic Monkeys Humbug | Review
13) The Horrors Primary Colours | Review | Interview
14) PJ Harvey & John Parish A Woman a Man Walked By | Review
15) Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca | Review
16) Memory Tapes Seek Magic | Review
17) Metric Fantasies | Emily's Track-By-Track
18) The Veils Sun Gangs | Review
19) The Phantom Band Checkmate Savage | Review
20) Raekwon Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II | Review coming v.soon
21) Future of the Left Travels With Myself and Another | Review | Falkous' Track-by-Track
22) Marissa Nadler Little Hells | Review
23) Sunset Rubdown Dragonslayer | Review | Interview
24) Idlewild Post-Electric Blues | Review
25) Pissed Jeans King of Jeans | Review
26) HEALTH Get Color | Review
27) Mos Def The Ecstatic | Review
28) Lady Gaga The Fame Monster | Review coming soon
29) Atlas Sound Logos | Review
30) Girls Album | Review
31) Muse The Resistance | Review | Interview
32) The Maccabees Wall of Arms | Review
33) The Flaming Lips Embryonic | Review
34) Sunn0))) Monoliths & Dimensions | Review
35) Moderat Moderat | Review coming soon
36) The Pains of Being Pure at Heart The Pains of Being Pure at Heart | Review | Interview
37) Vitalic Flashmob | Review
38) Emmy the Great First Love | Review | Emmy's Track-by-Track
39) Gallows Grey Britain | Review
40) Annie Don't Stop | Review
41) Neon Indian Psychic Chasms | Review
42) Dananananakroyd Hey Everyone | Review | Track-by-Track Commentary
43) Jamie T Kings & Queens | Review
44) Grammatics Grammatics | Review
45) Micachu Jewellery | Review
46) Mew No More Stories... | Review
47) My Latest Novel Death and Entrances | Review
48) Sufjan Stevens the BQE | Review
49) Sky Larkin The Golden Spike | Katie's Commentary
50) the xx the xx | Review
Oh no, that's your lot and you've got to the end, who did we forget? Beirut? Andrew Bird? Decemberists? Dark Was the Night (sorry, we decided not to include compilations)? Bonnie 'Prince' Billy? Sonic Youth? Cursive? Mars Volta? Telepathe? Wilco? Jay-Z? Passion Pit? School of Seven Bells (technically out in '08)? Nadja? Oneida? Noah & the Whale? Biffy Clyro? Mum? Isis? M.Ward? Kraftwerk (we didn't include re-issues, we'll do a separate list)? Little Boots? La Roux?
Also, tell us what your favourite 10 albums of the year are below... also you can now rate every album in the database out of 10 and we'll be revealing the 'best rated' in January.
More...
- Listen to the top 50 albums (if available) on Spotify.
- Or click here for a more digestible 2 tracks from each available album sampler on Spotify
- 2009 In Photos - snappers favourite shots of the year
- Singles of the Year - coming soon
- Staff Mixtapes - coming soon
- 2009, a year in news - coming soon
- All 2009 Year-End coverage compiled
- Drowned in Sound's review of the decade - coming Summer 2010 to coincide with our 10th Anniversary!
- In Photos: Field Day Festival 2013 @ Victoria Park, London
- Animal Collective - Monkey Been to Burntown
- "All songs are about The Sex" - DiS waves farewell to Singles columnist Wendy Roby
- This Week's Singles 12.11.12: Omega Male, Animal Collective, Roses Gabor, Dutch Uncles
- Animal Collective - Centipede Hz
- News Mixtape: July 2012 ft. Frank Ocean, Death Cab's Ben Gibbard, Peter Broderick, Lykke Li and more
- Behind The Screens: DiS meets This Is My Jam
- ATP Animal Collective: the very belated DiS review
Animal Collective
Phoenix
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Manic Street Preachers
A lot I agree with and a lot I don't.
Same as it ever was. Lukowski's words on Tarot Sport are wise and reasoned, as ever.
Looking forward to 4-1.
THIS LIST IS RUBBISH AND MEANINGLESS BECAUSE
IT HAS BAND X WHO I HATE AND DOES NOT HAVE BAND Y WHO I LIKE
just thought i'd get that in first so no-one else has to reply with something on that theme
thank
you
Mine are
1. Grizzly Bear - Vecktamist
2. Bibio - Ambivalence Avenue
3. Madness - The Liberty Of Norton Folgate
4. Blakroc - Blackroc
5. Russian Circles - Geneva
6. P.O.S. - Never Better
7. Belbury Poly - From An Ancient Star
8. Hudson Mohawke - Butter
9. Broadcast And The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age
10. Kill It Kid - Kill It Kid
And, if you're interested, here's why: http://asheq.co.uk/2009/11/22/the-top-10-albums-of-2009
And if you want a mostly beat-matched mixtape featuring some of the finest of '09 - http://asheq.co.uk/2009/11/20/mixtape-2009
Wevie Stonder - Glidstep
Bibio - dwrcan (Eskimo Remix – 45rpm)
Blakroc - Dollaz & Sense
MF Doom – Gazzillion Ear
Eyedea and Abilities – Burn Fetish
Them Crooked Vultures – New Fang
Brother Ali – Tight Rope
Raekwon - Black Mozart
Belbury Poly – Remember Tomorrow
Robot Koch – Death Star Droid
Anti Pop Consortium – Capricorn One
Three Trapped Tigers – 7
Pablo - Sky Is High (Instrumental)
Madness - Dust Devil
Jay-Z – Already Home
Joker - Stash
King Midas Sound – Meltdown
King Cannibal – Flower Of Flesh And Blood
Ges-E and Sukh Knight – Vengeance
Sukh Knight – Knightlife
Darkstar - Videotape
Pablo - Act Of Persuasion
Bibio - Cry! Baby!
Thavius Beck – Go
Grizzly Bear – Two Weeks
Tinariwen - Tahult In
P.O.S. - Purexed
Mayer Hawthorne – Just Aint Gonna Work Out
Ancient Astronauts - I Came Running
Hudson Mohawke - Rising 5
quite surprised
only one of mine made top 5, but I'm pleased with that 'cos my list were right boring (and 3 of the other 4 are sitting in the top 10 admittedly). This makes tomorrow EXCITING for me
Antlers and Phoenix to come
presumably
and Royksopp
(i hope)
My top 5 are
1. The XX- xx
2. The Horrors- Primary Colours
3. Yeah Yeah Yeah's- It's Blitz
4. The Maccabees- Wall Of Arms
5. Jamie T- Kings and Queens
6-25 are on here- http://itsgettingboringbythesea.blogspot.com/
Dark Days/Light Years
would be a surprise inclusion in the top four, but it would be such a pile of bollocks if it didn't make the top fifty.
basically
I don't think Phoenix should be in the top 4 over some of those records. I think it's a good, not great, album -
my ten
Fol Chen: Part 1. John Shade, Your Fortune’s Made (Asthmatic Kitty)
Yacht: See Mystery Lights (DFA)
Jessica Lea Mayfield: With Blasphemy So Heartfelt (munich)
Miniature Tigers: Tell It To The Volcano (Modern Art)
Mos Def: The Ecstatic (Downtown)
Doves: Kingdom Of Rust (EMI)
Phoenix: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (EMI)
Freelance Whales: Weathervanes (s/r)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs: It’s Blitz (Interscope)
White Denim: Fits (Full Time Hobby)
My list:
Would look somewhat similar to this
1. Micachu - Jewllery
2. Led Bib - Senislbe Shoes
3. Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Carrer
4. King Creosote - Flick the Vs
5. What Price Wonderland - It Is True. It is Shakey
6. Nitkowski - Chauffers
7. The invisible - The Invisible
8. Gay Against You - Righteous Signals Sour Dudes
9. Whalebone Polly - Taproot and Still EP
10 Blackpepper - Color/Colour EP
Reflects my views on the year pretty well
I await the inevitable backlash about the band at 50!
Here's my favourites:
http://drownedinsound.com/releases/charts/18
Personal Faves
1. Portico Quartet - Isla
2. Animal Collective - MPP
3. Wild Beasts - Two Dancers
4. The Whitest Boy Alice - Rules
5. The Horrors - Primary Colours
6. Tyondai Braxton - Central Market
7. HEALTH - Get Color
8. Krazy Baldhead - The B-Suite
9. Turzi - B
10. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
Let's Wrestle's came close...surely gonna be in the DiS top 4, no?
what's with..
the xx being so low, no. 50, really?
I don't know if you're aware...
but a lot of people think it's a piece of crap that wasn't worth the fuss.
GTFO!
Band Y suck it big time. Band X are heaps better!
I'm *very* surprised at that one
not that I think very much of it, but a hell of a lot of other people seem to.
they did it last year with fleet foxes
raging against the machine and all that
Well that's my honest taste
It's not like I didn't enjoy the records from Grizzly Bear, Pains of Being Pure @ Heart, Bat For Lahes, FOTL, Dananana, Sky Larkin, Fever Ray and Girls too.
Shoes and Socks Off - Muddy Banks of Melitzer
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion
Atlas Sound - Logos
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Vs Children
Lightning Bolt - Earthly Delights
quite obvious.
isn't it?
i think i'm still working on my order
1. Forget the Night Ahead - Twilight Sad
2. It's Blitz! - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
3. XX - The XX
4. Checkmate Savage - Phantom Band
5. Waxing Gibbous - Malcolm Middleton
6. Dragonslayer - Sunset Rubdown
7. Flashmob - Vitalic
8. Octahedron - Mars Volta
9. No One's First and You're Next - modest Mouse
10. Deaths and Entrances - My Latest Novel
mentions:
Arctic Monkeys
The Rural Alberta Advantage
Junior Boys
Dananananananana
Franz Ferdinand
That time already?
I'm not ready.
More than ever, I think, I'm at odds with what was popular this year. I hated Animal Collective, was left unimpressed by The xx, but, hey, I got by I guess.
My tragically unhip list of '09 includes:
El Perro Del Mar - Love is Not Pop
Charlotte Hatherley - New Worlds
Eels - Hombre Lobo
Au Revoir Simone - Still Night, Still Light
Jarvis Cocker - Further Complications
Lisa o Piu - When This Was the Future
Githead - Landing
Bat For Lashes - Two Suns
PJ Harvey, John Parish - A Man A woman Walked By
Fever Ray- s/t
Is that ten? No particular order, anyhow.
Wanting more? Fave songs of the year, and stuff: http://open.spotify.com/user/davidm2000ad/playlist/5gWX6m0zzuS8tGXzhFICv4
Almost too many to choose from this year
Off the top of my head
Sky Larkin - Golden Spike
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Its Blitz
Passion Pit - Manners
Doves - Kingdom of Rust
Bat For Lashes - Two Suns
Twilight Sad - Forget the Night Ahead
Them Crooked Vultures - S/T
Karen O and the Kids - Where The Wild Things Are OST
My Latest Novel - Death & Entrances
Jemina Pearl - Break It Up
This will probably change in 2 weeks time when I've had a chance to listen to all the albums I should be getting for Christmas.
Doh
It's changed already! Totally forgot about Humbug. No idea what to take out though.
...
1. Slow Club - Yeah So
2. The Whitest Boy Alive - Rules
3. Maps - Turning The Mind
4. Malcolm Middleton - Waxing Gibbous
5. Jeffrey Lewis and The Junkyard Band - 'Em Are I
6. Emmy The Great - First Love
7. Laurent Garnier - Tales of Kleptomaniac
8. The Flower of Hell - Come Hell or High Water
9. Brakes - Touchdown
10. And So I Watch You From A Far - ASIWYFA
I've got to inlcude these
11. Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
12. The Twilight Sad - Forget The Night Ahead
13. Colin MacIntyre - Island
14. Julian Plenti - Skyscraper
15. Yacht - See Mystery Lights
16. King Creosote - Flick The V's
I'm just really pleased...
...that Idlewild made the top 25. Its a cracking little album that gets better every time I hear it.
Also good to finally see Grammatics in an end of year list!
The idlewild is excellent and will make my top 10
it was initally underwhelming, but it really reveals itself and is easily the best idlewild record since The Remote Part and definately a more mature, refined and layered album than that.
Wow. I only have six of these so far...
though I've investigated nearly all of them. I think this is the year where popular indie must've gotten too weird for me.I have 15 or so from last year's list. A lot of the usual suspects are already here. I wonder what the final four are?
My Top Ten would be something like, in very loose order:
1. Editors - In This Light and On This Evening
2. Johnny Foreigner - Grace and the Bigger Picture
3. Danananaykroyd - Hey Everyone
4. The Horrors - Primary Colours
5. Cold Cave - Love Comes Close
6. Japandroids - Post-Nothing
7. Maximo Park - Quicken the Heart
8. The Twilight Sad - Forget the Night Ahead
9. Future of the Left - Travels with Myself and Another
10. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - s/t (aka Up from Below)
A second ten would include stuff from the Manics, Handsome Furs, Jack Penate, Deastro, The Love Language, Memory Tapes, Picture Plane, Wild Beasts, Sunset Rubdown and The Thermals.
#1 Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
with albums from st. vincent, atlas sound, dirty projectors close behind.
1. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
2. Jeffrey Lewis & The Jitters - 'Em Are I
3. Staff Benda Bilili - Tres Tres Fort
4. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion
5. Megafaun - Gather, Form & Fly
I done a DiS List!: http://drownedinsound.com/releases/charts/49
Jeez, my taste really doesn't mesh that closely with team DiS
Some good stuff there, but on a venn diagram there is a rather wee crossover
Proud of DIS
This has grown to be an exceptional music site and one of my favorite places to go. Kudos to DIS for having the balls to put on Idlewild, Mew and The Veils while they've been snobbishly ignored on other sites.
Now I just listened to Memory Tapes the first time and I found it listless and boring. Am I missing something?
Hang on,
you've not even announced any of the top four and we're meant to already know that Beirut, Andrew Bird, Decemberists et al aren't in the list at all, and we're meant to be upset about it too?
I think I'll wait until Friday before declaring it the WORST LIST EVER via a snarky tweet.
Yeah, that'll learn ya.
Gonna change it at least 10 times before the actual end of the year...
But this is what I've got so far:
Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer
DM Stith - Heavy Ghost
Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
Cold Cave - Love Comes Close
Former Ghosts - Fleurs
Fever Ray - Fever Ray
Memory Tapes - Seek Magic
Mew - No More Stories...
Bibio - Ambivalence Avenue
also
1. Fuck Buttons- Tarot Sport
2. Sunn 0)))- Monoliths & Dimensions
3. The xx- XX
4. Cymbals Eat Guitars- Why There Are Mountains
5. P.O.S.- Never Better
6. Antlers- Hospice
7. Camera Obscura- My Maudlin Career
8. Baroness- Blue Record
9. Martyn- Great Lengths
10.Raekwon- OB4CL2
...
1. Girls - Album
2. The Horrors - Primary Colours
3. The Pains at Being Pure at Heart - s/t
4. The xx - xx
5. Animal Collective - MPP
6. Fever Ray - s/t
7. Wild Beasts - Two Dancers
8. Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
9. Phoenix - Wolfgang...
10. Arctic Monkeys - Humbug
see
he thing people don't quite get about DiS is that it's a collection of disperate individuals. the 10/10 was an individual opinion, not some comissioned and agreed upon party line. i've still not even heard 'Monoliths and Dimensions' - haven't bought it as I've not liked any of their other stuff, etc...
and...
AS IF it's the best album of the year!
Custom Blue - All Will Be Well
Harmonic 313
Bonnie 'prince' Billy - Behave
So what's left?
Phoenix
Bill Callahan
St. Vincent
I would say White Denim but they got bashed on DiS, didn't they?
Can't think of that last spot. Antony?
Oh:
It's going to be Dan fucking Deacon, isn't it?
nope
that review was based entirely on speculation and heresay
If the YYYs is #1 i will stop frequenting DiS
not really. but i really don't understand the love for this record and I just realised its a cert for the top 4.
hmmm, not a terrible list by any means
did find the fact mag list a lot more interesting though
My list;
20. The Mars Volta - Octahedron
19. ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - The Century of Self
18. We Were Promised Jetpacks - These Four Walls
17. Dinosaur Jr - Farm
16. Mew - No More Stories....
15. The Longcut - Open Hearts
14. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
13. Engineers - Three Fact Fader
12. Grammatics - Grammatics
11. The Twilight Sad - Forget The Night Ahead
10. Moderat - Moderat
9. The Veils - Sun Gangs
8. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
7. I Concur - Able Archer
6. Silversun Pickups - Swoon
5. Mastodon - Crack The Skye
4. Isis - Wavering Radiant
3. And So I Watch You From Afar - And So I Watch You from Afar
2. Future of the Left - Travels With Myself and Another
1. Obits - I Blame You
Honorable mentions;
The Tupolev Ghost (mini LP)
Crippled Black Phoenix - The Resurrectionist
Sonic Youth - The Eternal
Fever Ray - Fever Ray
Metric - Fantasies
Maybeshewill - Sing The Word Hope In Four Part Harmony
Clutch - Strange Cousins From The West
F*ck Buttons - Tarot Sport
That F*cking Tank - Tanknology
worriedaboutsatan - Arrivals
Redjetson - Other Arms
I have done a Spotify playlist
of 1 track off each of the above. It's here if anyone's interested - http://open.spotify.com/user/biomech68/playlist/3sjQE7zRzMcqLWTuUyvmG5
I've been trying to find ways to order my top ten
such that YYYs aren't at the top, but none of my arrangements thus far have come across as particularly convincing.
Pumping for these
Wild Beasts - 2 dancers
Bibio - Amb Av
Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion
FOTL - Travels
Phoenix - Wolfgang
Tobacco - F'D UP Friends
Grammatics - Grammatics
Boxer Rebellion - Union
The Phantom Band - Checkmate Savage
Great shot kid, that's one in a million!
http://drownedinsound.com/releases/charts/63
Paramore? Sean, you love them way too much ;)
I love year end lists! Mine for what it's worth:
1. The Decemberists - Hazards of Love
2. Fanfarlo - Reservoir
3. The Veils - Sun Gangs
4. Broken Records - Until The Earth Begins to Part
5. Edward Sharp & the Magnetic Zeros - Up From Below
6. Dot Allison - Room 7 1/2
7. The Horrors - Primary Colours
8. Telekinesis! - Telekinesis!
9. Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer
10. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
11. The Phanton Band - Checkmate Savage
12. Leisure Society - The Sleeper
13. Brendan Benson - My Old, Familar Friend
14. Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More
15. Lisa Hannigan - Sea Sew
16. A Camp - Colonia
17. Titus Andronicus - The Airing Of Grievances
18. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
19. Morton Valence - Bob & Veronica Ride Again
20. Ane Brun - Changing of the Seasons
Finally, some love for DM Stith!
My favourite artist of the year ("Pity Dance" was by far my fave song of the year and I also loved all the stuff on his EPs).
My top-10 is being finalised these days, it looks a bit like this:
1. Patrick Watson - Wooden Arms (was it because of PF's slaughtering that no one seemed to care? Whatever, I think it's wonderful)
2. DM Stith - Heavy Ghost
3. Wild Beasts - Two Dancers
4. Atlas Sound - Logos (I actually like this better than anything else he's done)
5. Soap & Skin - Lovetune for Vacuum
6. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
7. Animal Collective - MPP
8. Fever Ray
9. Flaming Lips - Embryonic
10. Circulatory System - Signal Morning
A couple things might change though...
I feel out of touch with DiS
Who's going to be in the Top 4 then? Phoenix? (surely #1) Yeah Yeah Yeahs? St Vincent? one left... Florence?!!!
My top 10
01. Wild Beasts - Two Dancers
02. The Horrors - Primary Colours
03. Fever Ray - Fever Ray
04. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
05. The Twilight Sad - Forget The Night Ahead
06. The Flaming Lips - Embryonic
07. The Phantom Band - Checkmate Savage
08. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
09. Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
10. Bat for Lashes - Two Suns
You feel out of touch...
...but 8 out of your top 10 are in our top 20, and only one doesn't feature in the list at all?! ODD.
Mine are
The Veils - Sun Gangs
The POBPAH - S/T
Bill Callahan - Some Times I wish I Was An Eagle
Richard Hawley - Trueloves Gutter
Phantom Band - Checkmate Savage
SlowClub - Yeah So
Wild Beasts - Two Dancers
Girls - Album
Cymbals Eat Guitars - Why There Are Mountains
PJ Harvey & John Parish - A Woman A Man Walked By
stick them in any order you like
Token Electronica album would be Bibio
Token Hip Hop would go to Mos Def
Reissue/Box Set would have to go to Warp 20
See I like
Bill Callahan so much I got the album name wrong, it's Sometime's I Wish We Were An Eagle
heres mine.
i'm upset that wild beasts weren't in the DiS top 5....
My top 5
Lots of these are on my Xmas list. At the moment it is:
Pain of being pure at heart
Arctics
Biffy Clyro
Future of the Left
Manics
top10
1 Mew No More Stories Are Told Today
2 Royksopp Junior
3 Rural Alberta Advantage, The Hometowns
4 Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
5 Blue Roses Blue Roses
6 Future of the Left Travels With Myself And Another
7 Antlers, The Hospice
8 Efterklang Perfoming Parades (Live)
9 Idlewild Post-Electric Blues
10 Fuck Buttons Tarot Sport
i dont even think fuck buttons would make my top 75!
You heard it here first! Neko Case Middle Cyclone is number 1! lol
"4) To Be Announced Tomorrow"
This is one of those "tomorrow never comes" gags, isn't it?
Top 10: in no particular order
Antlers - Hospice
Phoenix - WAP
Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse - DNOTS
White Denim - Fits
Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
Bear in Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth
Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns (counts for 2010?)
The xx
Animal Collective - MPP
Girls - Album
But then I feel bad not mentioning how I also loved:
No Age - Losing Feeling
Atlas Sound - Logos
Deerhunter - Rainwater Cassette Exchange
Bibio - Ambivalence Avenue
Bill Callahan - Some Times I wish I Was An Eagle
Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
Cymbals Eat Guitars - Why There Are Mountains
Flaming Lips - Embryonic
St Vincent - Actor
I've enjoyed 2009 I guess;)
apologies
combining them both today. something got in the way.
Regarding the Lady Gaga...
I think as a rule any album featuring Akon, no matter how small a part he plays, kinda null and voids any other talent to be found on said collection of songs... and therefore cannot be included in the best albums of the year by default.
the manics album
is pretty shit. sorry manics.
my top 10...
1. The Leisure Society - The Sleeper
2. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
3. Telekinesis - Telekinesis!
4. The Horrors - Primary Colours
5. Patrick Wolf - The Bachelor
6. ...Trail of Dead - Century of Self
7. Woodpigeon - Treasury Library Canada
8. Fanfarlo - Reservoir
9. Phoenix - WAP
10. Idlewild - Post Electric Blues
What are the predictions for top 3?
Phoenix
Japandroids
Dan Deacon
Antony and the Johnsons
Passion Pit
???
the Manics album is a good 'un for sure
but the rest of the top 10 thus far (bar Paramore) trump it imo, with ease.
Instead of criticising the list I'll write a short one myself...
The order isn't exact.
01. Future of the Left - Curses
02. Converge - Axe To Fall
03. Acoustic Ladyland - Living With A Tiger
04. HEALTH - Get Color
05. Kylesa - Static Tensions
06. Grammatics - s/t
07. Mastodon - Crack The Skye
08. The Mars Volta - Octahedron
08. Manic Street Preachers - Journal of Plague Lovers
10. The Chariot - Wars And Rumours of Wars
Kong, Dirty Projectors, Part Chimp, Mew, Trail of Dead & Zu were all good as well.
Curses?
Obviously I meant Travels With Myself And Another.
pretty sure mine comes pretty in line with this..
20 - The Antlers - Hospice
19 - Memory Tapes - Seek Mahic
18 - Do Make Say Think - Other Truths
17 - Clark - Totems Flare
16 - Hudson Mohawke - Butter
15 - Future Of The Left - Travels With Myself and Another
14 - Noah And The Whale - First Day Of Spring
13 - Tyondai Braxton - Central Market
12 - Worriedaboutsatan - Arrivals
11 - The Field - Yesterday and Today
10 - Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
9 - Health - Get Color
8 - Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
7 - Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
6 - Wild Beasts - Two Dancers
5 - Bibio - Ambivalence Avenue
4 - The XX - S/T
3 - Moderat - S/T
2 - Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
1 - Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
Took a worrying amount of satisfaction posting this...oh the joys!
right sod it i will post my full list, sorry for double post
1 Mew No More Stories Are Told Today
2 Royksopp Junior
3 Rural Alberta Advantage, The Hometowns
4 Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
5 Blue Roses Blue Roses
6 Future of the Left Travels With Myself And Another
7 Antlers, The Hospice
8 Efterklang Performing Parades (Live)
9 Idlewild Post-Electric Blues
10 Fuck Buttons Tarot Sport
11 Wolf, Patrick The Bachelor
12 Antony & The Johnsons The Crying Light
13 Engineers Three Fact Fader
14 Noah and the Whale The First Days Of Spring
15 Felice Brothers, The Yonder Is The Clock
16 Xx, The 2.0
17 Leisure Society, The The Sleeper
18 McCombs, Cass Catacombs
19 Bike For Three! More Heart Than Brains
20 Blackshaw, James The Glass Bead Game
21 Casiotone for the Painfully Alone Vs. Children
22 Hawley, Richard Truelove's Gutter
23 Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavillion
24 Mountain Goats, The The Life Of The World To Come
25 St. Vincent Actor
26 Baroness Blue Record
27 Real Estate Real Estate
28 Reatard, Jay Watch Me Fall
29 Whitest Boy Alive Rules
30 Japandroids Post-Nothing
i win.
my top 20
1/ Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion
2/ The Horrors - Primary Colours
3/ Wild Beasts - Two Dancers
4/ Franz Ferdinand - Tonight: Franz Ferdinand
5/ Toddla T - Skanky Skanky
6/ Arctic Monkeys - Humbug
7/ Fever Ray - Fever Ray
8/ The Big Pink - A Brief History Of Love
9/ The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
10/ Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport (heard this just three days ago, it's already doing it for me)
11/ Manic Street Preachers - Journal For Plague Lovers
12/ Sonic Youth - The Eternal
13/ Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
14/ Dananananaykroyd - Hey Everyone!
15/ Maxïmo Park - Quicken The Heart
16/ Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
17/ La Roux - La Roux
18/ Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!
19/ The xx - xx
20/ Girls - Album
Top Ten
1. Former Ghosts Fleurs
2. Burial Four Tet split
3. Daitro Y
4. worriedaboutsatan Arrivals/Mount Kimbie Maybes
5. Maths Descent
6. Hudson Mohawke Butter
7. Mount Kimbie Sketch on Glass
8. Casiotone For the Painfully Alone
9. A Sunny Day in Glasgow Ashes Grammar
10. Mount Eerie Wind's Poem
(in no particular order)
you'd make my dreams come true if you finally came around to putting mumford & sons number 1.
prob have to come to terms with pheonix tho - would be nice for antlers if it's a toss up between those 2.
real good but important!
you're missing most of all the new Minster Hill Capturing Clouds in a Bottle" and Orange Peels "2020"
no fanfarlo? no slow club?
lady gaga??? are you stoned? These lists are pretty pointless, but this one could take the biscuit. Miss out the hazards of love at your peril.
This is my list
1. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
2. The Field – Yesterday and Today
3. Gentle Friendly – RIDE SLOW
4. The Horrors – Primary Colours
5. The Maccabees – Wall Of Arms
6. Cold Cave – Love Comes Close
7. The Strange Boys – The Strange Boys and Girls Club
8. A Grave With No Name – Mountain Debris
9. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
10. YACHT – See Mystery Lights
11. Micachu – Jewellery
12. Women – WOMEN
13. Fanfarlo – Reservoir
14. The xx – xx
15. Wavves – Wavves
so
it looks like Camera Obscura and Phoenix for top 2. I can get behind that.
A FINE FINE FINE FINE FINE FANTASTIC
Great choice for no. 2. It's probably the best "sounding" record of the year, if not the actual best. A masterpiece. Spangly.
Loving St Vincent at 2.
About time the beautiful Annie Clark made an appearance on the end of year lists rather than perennial also-ran.
OK, didn't expect Actor to place so high.
That's even better than an obscura/phoenix top two. Snaps for DiS. St Vincent <3
Actor's number 1 for me
a little bit more consistant than the record which will probably hold the number 1 spot.
Thought KONG's album might be in the list
considering it was Drowned in Sound's album of the month in July.
Annie Clark...
...like Bouncy - makes me want to give up being a lady, because there is utterlynopoint unless you are as MZN as them. An uncommonly startling and entirely brilliant woman. LOVE HER.
my tuppence worth...
1. Girls - Album
2. The Xcerts – In The Cold Wind We Smile
3. Let's Wrestle – In The Court of the Wrestling Lets
4. Stricken City – Songs About People I Know
5. We Were Promised Jetpacks – These Four Walls
6. Bombay Bicycle Club – I Had the Blues but I Shook them Loose
7. Kap Bambino - Blacklist
8. Various Artists – Tumbele!
9. The Horrors – Primary Colours
10. Get Back Guinozzi – Carpet Madness
Hold on
If Phoenix is number 1. Where is Camera Obscura?
Seven of mine aren't on your list... so which one of us is uncool?
10. Taken By Trees - East Of Eden
9. Fanfarlo - Reservoir
8. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
7. Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
6. M Ward - Hold Time
5. Mono - Hymn To The Immortal Wind
4. The Low Anthem - Oh My God, Charlie Darwin
3. Dan Deacon - Bromst
2. Grammatics - s/t
1. Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
I haven't seen any list anywhere which reflects this, so I get that I'm no longer 'down wit da kidz' or something like that
fans of st vincent
should really watch the video of her and andrew bird live in austin art centre that was linked on pitchfork a while back.
http://video.pbs.org/video/1287561166/#
tis very good
DiScover Album of the Month
You mean...
No.1 will be Phoenix
As Sean told me it has been his personal favourite album for a while.
My list would be something along the lines of:
Girls
The XX
Fever Ray
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Horrors
Wavves
Crystal Stilts
Wild Beasts
No Age
Japandroids
A Place To Bury Strangers
Thanks to your post I'm listening to the Stricken City album
I missed that this had been issued - as long ago as Sept 09.
I love this band. They need a bit more promo.
the number 1 is going to be phoenix
and i agree
I'm glad Actor is there
considering its complete omission by Rough Trade :)
hrm
My personal album of the year is Paramore tho. Close second is St Vincent. I do love a bit of Phoenix tho ;-)
Agreed.
This list needs more Mount Eerie. Otherwise a good job, i'd say!
My favourite has changed so many times this year
and thats because its been such a great year. There are so many albums which you just forget about. I just listened to Telepathe and School Of Seven Bells again. Brilliant stuff. Not to forget to mention Camera Obscura. This list should be at least a top 100.
Is there going to be a reader poll to this?
Pheonix does nothing for me
I've listened to only 15 out of the top 50, and only 4 of my top ten are in the top 50.
So many greats overlooked, Telepathe and A Place to Bury Strangers being just two...
Some great records released this year
The fact that so many great personal favourites (A Place To Bury Strangers, Gentle Friendly, Doves, Crystal Stilts, Boxer Rebellion) didn't make it into this list only emphasises that even further.
For the umpteetnth time, I would like to express my support
for this great album, and your choice of it as the best of the year.
Well done!
What?
To dismiss Neko Case Middle Cyclone when many in the music industry have considered it the album of her career, just invalidates your exhaustive approach to music. Such a travesty. I'll stick with pitchfork.
is this where our lists go?
here's mine:
1. the flaming lips - embryonic
2. health - get color
3. animal collective - merriweather post pavilion
4. telepathe - dance mother
5. clark - totems flare
6. doom - born like this
7. ooioo - armonico hewa
8. kid 606 - shout at the doner
9. fever ray - fever ray
10. pictureplane - dark rift
11. black dice - repo
12. super furry animals - dark days/light years
13. oneida - rated o
14. franz ferdinand - blood
15. forest creature - frustrated analogue
16. rainbow arabia - kabukimono
17. the horrors - primary colours
18. cold cave - love comes close
19. jarvis cocker - further complications
20. atlas sound - logos
21. 2562 - unbalance
22. esben and the witch - 33
23. dan deacon - bromst
24. sunn o))) - monoliths and dimensions
25. a place to bury strangers - exploding head
oops!
i forgot fuck buttons - tarot sport. that should be #4 up there with everything below moving down a spot.
'Ridiculous'...'travesty'...
Calm down people!
as if there were 50 better albums than Mastodon's
AND ONE OF THEM WAS BY LADY SHITTING GAGA
That Clark album...
..is something pretty special
Bibio
Ambivalence Avenue was the best album this year for me. HAd such a colourful variety of sounds and styles yet all remained as personal as a secret diary.
Warp Records pretty much raped my albums of the year. I'd count Clark and Hudson Mohawke as some of the best albums this year as well..
Although Phoenix deserve it really, pop gold
Some really good albums in this list
Personally, Wild Beasts really did something special with 'Two Dancers' but for a pure pop fix, the #1 is on the money.
---
Get involved: Red Stripe Music Award - http://www.redstripe.net/rsma
top albums of 2009
been a good year for music & a great one for gigs.
Albums that i have bought & enjoyed.
Wilco-Wilco (the album)
The Low Anthem-Oh my God, Chalie Darwin
The Joy Formidable-First you have to get mad
Bill Callahan-Sometimes i wish we were an eagle
The Duke & the King-Nothing Gold Can Stay
The Joy Formidable-a Balloon Called Moaning
Richmond Fontaine-We used to think the freeway sounded like a river
M.Ward-Hold Time
Steve Earle-Townes
Animal Collective-Merriweather Post Pavilion
Dawes-North Hills
And if you are making judgements based on the shitty sound of MP3 and downloading illegally-may you soon go deaf.
I'm really chuffed that Phoenix are getting all the props
It doesn't seem that long ago that they were written off as uninteresting pop-wannabes - which always seemed very unfair to me. The thing is, this album isn't even much better than their previous records - maybe the time is just right for a little critical acclaim.
Japandroids "Post Nothing"
Surely an oversight right?
For me
This list lacks
Fat Freddys Drop - Dr Boondigga and the Big DW
I thought that it was an amazing follow up to Based on a True Story
Albums that we will be looking back at in the future
Will mostly likely be from the lo-fi category of the pains of being pure at heart, wavves and crystal stilts etc. Bands who nobody saw coming, the xx and the horrors, and the biggest success story of the year animal collective.
that's a spot on saying.
i land mostly on the "a lot i agree with" side of it. definitely one of the better year-end lists i've seen. i've also been digging mog's year-end poll of 800 blogs, http://mog.com/posts i got a lot of listening ahead of me before the end of the year...
Hmm
Surprised that there was no room for "Face Control' by Handsome Furs. I'd have that as my #1. It's been my go to album this year, by a massive distance.
All Will Be Well
I find it incredible Custom Blue's second album 'All Will Be Well' didn't make anyone's top 50 personally..
wow..
i own one album from that list. I'm in serious danger of becoming cool.
shit year
1)leonard cohen- live in london
2)future of the left- travels with myself and another
3)sunset rubdown- dragonslayer
4)the horrors- primary colours
5)tune-yards- bird-brain
thanks anyway
...
1. The Hazards of Love (The Decemberists)
2. Primary Colours (The Horrors)
3. Actor (St. Vincent)
4. Bromst (Dan Deacon)
5. My Maudlin Career (Camera Obscura)
6. Popular Songs (Yo La Tengo)
7. Merriweather Post Pavilion (Animal Collective)
8. Hospice (The Antlers)
9. It's Blitz! (Yeah Yeah Yeahs)
10. Hymn to the Immortal Wind (Mono)
(*)
1. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!
2. Worriedaboutsatan – Arrivals
3. Fanfarlo – Fanfarlo
4. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
5. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
6. The Duke and The King - Nothing Gold Can Stay
7. Elvis Costello - Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
8. The Low Anthem - Oh My God, Charlie Darwin
9. Justin Townes Earle - Midnight at the Movies
10. Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
(*)
1. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!
2. Worriedaboutsatan – Arrivals
3. Fanfarlo – Fanfarlo
4. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
5. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
6. The Duke and The King - Nothing Gold Can Stay
7. Elvis Costello - Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
8. The Low Anthem - Oh My God, Charlie Darwin
9. Justin Townes Earle - Midnight at the Movies
10. Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
I got one
On my stunningly apt blog, which looking at the lists on here, would seem to suit a lot of peoples musical taste, I got one album out of my album of the year list that is on the DiS one. For my top 5 I have gone for (in no particular order)
A balloon called moaning - the joy formidable
I speak fula - bassekou kouyate
Found Songs - Olifur Arnalds
X - The XX
Riceboy Sleeps - Jonsi & Alex
For a more in depth reasoning why, check out
and love it.
just finished my list
The top 10 looks like this:
10. frYars - Dark Young Hearts
9. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
8. Julian Casablancas - Phrazes For The Young
7. Passion Pit - Manners
6. Jamie T - Kings & Queens
5. Zomby - Where Were U In '92? (i know it's from 2008, but only actually listened to it this year)
4. The-Dream - Love vs. Money
3. jj - Nº 2
2. Erik Hassle - Hassle
1. The Horrors - Primary Colours
Full top 30 list in my blog (http://randomtypes.blogspot.com)
Happy new year everyone!
phoenix number 1?????????!
They're french but they sing in fake american accents... and you thought you'd put them at number one? The mind boggles
Well, ok, so 'ere's me list. Not quite 50, and not in any particular order, just the best albums off last year in my humble opinion. And just for the record (no pun intended, or is it?) I haven't listen to all recs previously mentioned in the above posts or article, though some I've heard and some have entered my list, and some haven't...
A Wake a Week – Little Black Cloud
Beirut – March of the Zapotec...
Ben Frost – By the Throat
Clues – Clues
Codes In The Clouds – Paper Canyon
David Cunningham & Yasuaki Shimizu – One Hundred
David Sylvian – Manafon
Expo 70 – Night Flights
Fever Ray – Fever Ray
Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport
Future of the Left – Travels With Myself and Another
Grammatics – Grammatics
HEALTH – Get Color
Hauschka – Snowflakes and Carwrecks
Hildur Guðnadóttir – Without Sinking
Jóhann Jóhannsson – And in the endless pause, there came the sound of bees
Kronos Quartet – Floodplain
Kyte – Science For The Living
Madness – The Liberty of Norton Folgate
Micachu – Jewellery
Mokira – Persona
Monokle – Tesaurus
Nick Cave, Warren Ellis – White Lunar
Nils Petter Molvær – Hamada
Ólafur Arnalds – Found Songs
Pastels/Tenniscoats – Two Sunsets
Peter Broderick – Music for Falling From Trees
Prefab Sprout – Let’s Change The World With Music
Question and Freddie Joachim – Study Guide
Riceboy Sleeps – Riceboy Sleeps
Robert Logan – Inscape
Soap&Skin – Lovetune for Vacuum
The Archivist – The Keeper of the Library
The Phantom Band – Checkmate Savage
The Phenomenal Handclap Band – The Phenomenal Handclap Band
These Are Powers – All Aboard Future
Tiny Masters of Today – Skeletons
Tortoise – Beacons of Ancestorship
UUVVWWZ – UUVVWWZ
Vessels – Retreat
Wavves – Wavvves
Years – Years
Years – Years
Zelienople – Hollywood
Zu – Carboniferous
The True Best Albums of 2009!
1. The Antlers-Hospice (not even in your top 50?)
2. The XX-XX
3. The Horrors-Primary Colours
4. St. Vincent-Actor
4. (tied) Girls-Album
5. Grizzly Bear-Vickatimest
6. Animal Collective- Merryweather Post Pavillion
7. Japandroids-Post/Nothing
8. Fanfarlo-Reservoir
9. Kasabian-West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum
10. Mew-No More Stories are Told Today....(etc.)
I know it's really eleven, but they're that good!
great
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're french but they sing in fake american accents... and you thought you'd put them at number one? The mind
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Good covers but I don't recognize most of those albums.
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this a very nice list of the best 50 albums. good work my friend. thanks
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for this great album, and your choice of it as the best of the year.
Well done
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Have to agree with Phoenix in the top spot. They had a great year in 2009.
If you enjoy your music lists as much as I do check out the following link: http://www.thegoodmusicguide.com/2011/08/best-songs-of-2011-august-edition.html
It's all very subjective I know, but it wouldn't be the same as my list.
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my top 10...
1. The Leisure Society - The Sleeper
2. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
3. Telekinesis - Telekinesis!
4. The Horrors - Primary Colours
5. Patrick Wolf - The Bachelor
6. ...Trail of Dead - Century of Self
7. Woodpigeon - Treasury Library Canada
8. Fanfarlo - Reservoir
9. Phoenix - WAP
10. Idlewild - Post Electric Blues
2009 was not a great year for music
No great releases that year, except for the re release of Temple Of the DOg
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Can't believe the Phoenix album was almost 2 years ago!
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I miss 2009
We were so much more innocent back then.
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