The Top Albums of 2009

Or, as I should call it, the "I MUST BEAT PITCHFORK EDITION!" It's 11:45 pm Tuesday night, I have been drinking boxed wine and watching TV for hours. Yes, it's my day off tomorrow. I put an incredible amount of thought into my best of the decade list. In contrast, my best of 2009 compilation was mostly scrawled on squares of notes at Samarkand YDC, and yet I feel compelled to make a few snap decisions tonight and publish the final list. Away we go...

Obligatory intro- Before I composed the final version of this list, I had a feeling I just couldn't shake: 2009 was a weaker year for music compared to 2008 and my first real decade as a human being in the music world would culminate in a fucking lachrymose whimper. Weaksauce, right? But in between chugs from numerous glasses of Franzia's boxed Sangria I finally came to the wise decision to reconsider the year's body of work before I perpetuate a pathogenically bullshit meme of that nature. Here's what I decided--2008 was a deeper year overall; however, 2009 is fucking top-heavy in a way 2008 cannot compare. After all, 2008 was the year that heavily disco-influenced music stormed back. As much as I love Hercules & Love Affair and Cut Copy, shouldn't I have known they were just biding time?

So, here's the double D's I couldn't tear myself away from in 2009.

20.) Woods - "Songs of Shame"
My low-fi guilty pleasure of the year. You have to live in North Carolina, the "land of the long-leaf pines," to truly know what's it's like to mainline home-brewed coffee while burning through speed traps in brutal fog to truly appreciate a driving record like this bastard.

19.) Sister Suvi - "Now I am Champion"
I'M AN AMERICAN. I WANT TO RIP OFF YOUR HEAD JUST TO SEE YOUR GUTS. 2009 may eventually be known as the definitive year of fucking brilliant one-liners in indie-rock and I'm going to let my list start right here. How couldn't I?

18.) Grizzly Bear - "Veckatimest"
How the fuck did "Two Weeks" charm the hell out of everyone? I know it's an fantastic single, but the audience it reached just slays me. And yet, for my sentimental "bang for my buck," the album's opener--Southern Point--is the best track. Perhaps that's due to the fact that it's been the theme of the past four months of my life. (Just change Southern Point to Southern Pines and you can probably guess why.)

17.) Bon Iver - "Blood Bank EP"
YOU SAID, “AIN’T THIS JUST LIKE THE PRESENT TO BE SHOWING UP LIKE THIS?” If this four track EP had been a full length album with the same momentum, it could have cracked the top five. In an unprecedented move, I will say an album this “low” on the list has a “top three” song, which would of course be the eponymous track.

16.) Built to Spill - "There is No Enemy"

FINALLY DECIDED, AND BY DECIDE I MEAN ACCEPT, I DON’T NEED ALL THOSE OTHER CHANCES I WON’T GET. SO WHY ROW ON? That line crushes me, and probably always will. 2009 will always be the year in which I had to accept that there’s things in life I want, but I want them on my terms in my own due time, and as such I might have to turn down those awesome “things” because the timing isn’t right. I accept there may be no other chances at them. So why row on? Because I don’t *need* those other chances I won’t get, I’ll keep going just fine, but it doesn’t mean I won’t get them. Thank you Built to Spill, a top 5 group from the 90s.

15.) Camera Obscura - "My Maudlin Career"
This is the kind of album you listen to while sitting around drinking gin and smoking cigars. Every year needs one of those albums, and this year it came from a very unlikely source. And although I settled for my first (and only) pack of Camel Royals in two years, I will never forget smoking and driving through Jackson National Forest with the windows down while this album roared to Dixie. Just think about that.

14.) Wilco - "Wilco (The Album)"
Oh, Wilco, I love you babe. Fucking sue me, I like Wilco.

13.) Fever Ray - "Fever Ray"
A funny psychological game I play with myself is wondering how much higher I would rate this album if it had been listed as “The Knife –‘Fever Ray’.” It certainly feels like the follow-up to Silent Shout to me. Hell, I would love to have experienced “Concrete Walls” at 4am in Scotty and C Murder’s apartment after a particularly brutal night of being lit up.

12.) The Bats - "The Guilty Office"
AND I COULD TAKE YOU THE GUILTY OFFICE FOR A DAY. Maybe you have to be a part of the horseshit corporate Starbucks/Enron/Keslar accounting world, but I think most people who graduated in 2007 have a guilty office by this point. The great part about this album is that it is a critique of our lifestyle framed through a 1968 style and lens, which either makes it ironic or fucking depression. Fortunately, the music is so good I convince myself it’s ironic.

11.) The Rural Alberta Advantage - "Hometowns"
THEN YOU FOUND ME ALONE ON A FRIDAY, NOW, SOMETHINGS MOVING OUT HERE. In 2009 I also moved from one rural area to a completely foreign rural area and if you have ever done this, you can completely appreciate the opening track to Hometowns. This album makes it so high on the list because, above all, it reminds me of a 2009 version of In The Aeroplane Over the Sea.

10.) Wavves - "Wavves"
I’MMMMMMMMMMM SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BOOOOORED. I wish I could have a fucking drug induced melt-down in Spain while my most accessible song was about being bored as a result of skateboarding too much. Then again I didn’t play Pitchfork with a fucking broken hand wrapped in a big cast, I only got drunk there and bemoaned the state of hipsters who frothed at the mouth for draft Sparks.

9.) The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - "The Pains of Being Pure at Heart"
In part two of our three -part Pitchfork commentary, how the fuck did that broad sound so fucking bad during Young Adult Friction? Despite that giant misstep, The Pains were an 80s throw-back and I hope to god they have a follow-up album that does this effort justice.

8.) Matt & Kim - "Grand"
In part three of the Pitchfork commentary, allow me to say this—MATT & KIM FUCKING ROCK. Forget the fact that every show/commercial bought their music. Just forget it. PLEASE. Just forget it. This is a great fucking band and if you don’t believe me go back to their self-titled debut. I know the Star-Fucking Mainstreamers love Daylight (which is a good fucking pop song), the closer (I’ll take Us Home) capture everything the album does strongly, and makes it perfect: harmonizing, a chorus hook, steady percussion, the synth—IiiiIiiiIIiiiiiI WILL TAKE US HOME, CUT DOWN THE BLINDS FROM MY WINDOWS.

7.) Bat for Lashes - "Two Suns"
TIL THE SIREN COME CALLING, IT’S DRIVINGME EVIL-EVIL. True fucking story: Shortly after moving into my NC apartment , I got black-out drunk and passed out on my computer. Now, if you are a former roommate of mine, ex-girlfriend, or my mom you won’t be surprised by this. The hook here is that my 85 year old next door neighbor had to call management and complain because I had Radiohead’s “The Bends” blaring on vinyl four inches away from computer speakers REALLY FUCKING BLARING Bat for Lashes. This is just an incredible album. Almost any other year it could be number one, but this is the top-heavy 2009. Still, Siren Song is the reverse androgynous anthem of the major relationship in my life the past two years. (And if that’s the case, The National’s “Baby We’ll Be Fine” is the particularly poignant narrative of everything that’s happened since.)

6.) The Flaming Lips - "Embryonic"

When we first heard Silver Trembling Hands at Pitchfork I had an inkling that they would be back, but holy fuck, this is what I have been waiting for since the Soft Bulletin. Yoshimi was great (not amazing), and At War with the Mystics was a struggle. This—THIS—was the Lips record I needed. Unfortunately for an unabashed Lips promulgator, there was just better music this year

5.) Yeah Yeah Yeahs -"It's Blitz!"
DRIPPING WITH ALCHEMY—SHIVER STOPSHIVERING. Wait a minute…. Is this mainstream? I cannot believe that for a second. And if that’s the case, I don’t know whether to be sad or fucking pissed.

4.) The XX - "XX"
I’m not going to lie—this is what sex sounds like in my head. So, uh, yeah… if you ever read this and you are someone who has/did/are/will have sex with me… this album pretty much sums up exactly what is going through my cephalic head. Beyond my personal connection to the sound of this record… oh fuck it. I honestly don’t care. Thankfully, for me & my indie cred, pretentious journalists love this album. If they didn’t, I’d have to make a ton of excuses because this recording feels so personal. Dear god, make their follow-up just as good.

3.) Girls - "Album"

This is the real nitty-gritty: the hardest internal debate I had was over which album would be 3 and which would be 2. It was tough—TOUGH—like picking between favorite stories from living in the Barn. Honestly, what finally hurt this record was completely irrelevant towards the sound: the intended video for Lust for Life is honestly gay porn. And that makes me really uncomfortable. I went to Michigan. I’m not a complete bigot. I love Lust for Life as a song. But I don’t need homoeroticism (LITERALLY!) pointed towards my gullet.

2.) Phoenix - "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix"

DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN 21 YEARS WAS OLD? What’s the best track on this record? Lasso? Rome? Countdown? Love like a Sunset Part 1? Part 2? The hits—Lisztomania? 1901? Ok, so maybe the debate between #2 and #3 wasn’t as close as I initially thought. Maybe it came down to the fact that I either needed to support an album whose music I loved but the accompanying imagery made me uncomfortable, or an album whose music was featured in a car commercial. And guess what? I fucking sided with Cadillac. I kind of hate myself right now. Or, I would hate myself, except I don’t think anyone can deny how incredible this record is. And honestly, it’s all about the music because the lyrics are quite pedestrian.

1.) Animal Collective - "Merriweather Post Pavilion"

In the Flowers. Summertime Clothes. Bluish. Guys Eyes. And, oh yes, the song /video of the year (decade?), My Girls. Animal Collective, the fucking kings of pretentious bastards of no reproach, finally released and album which was remotely accessible. This album came out early in 2009, and there was pretty much never a question of whether or not it would be album of the year. I will never forget that I purchased it from Best Buy (wow!) on the second awful Valentine’s Day in a row I spent with the elven kiddo. That particular weekend was so awful I tried to leave at 3am completely drunk (which would have been a 4 hour cross-state drive) while she berated me in nothing but her sexy red underwear in 30 degree weather. Considering the circumstances, this album only grows in importance.