2009 Top 50 Albums
Creating a Top 50 Albums list is never easy. You have to battle with what you think the world believes, and what you truly believe in your heart, to be solid jams. We have even more trouble because we have to three writers, all who have different ideas, and we have to make those ideas fit into a neat box. Well, we got it done, and honestly, our criteria was based on two things: how great we thought the album was, artistically speaking, and how long we listened to it without getting bored. That’s it. It’s fool proof; you might not like it, but it’s our list, so here it is…
50. Future of the Left – Travels with Myself and Another
49. David Bazan – Curse Your Branches
48. Cymbals Eat Guitars – Why There Are Mountains
47. Vetiver – Tight Knit
46. White Rabbits – It’s Frightening
45. The Dodos – Time to Die
44. Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band -s/t
43. The Raveonettes – In and Out of Control
42. Molina and Johnson -s/t
41. Pants Yell! – Received Pronunciation
40. Why? – Eskimo Snow
39. Fruit Bats – Ruminant Band
38. Cursive – Mama, I’m Swollen
37. The Big Pink – A Brief History of Love
36. Iran – Dissolver
35. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion
34. Sonic Youth – The Eternal
33. The Twilight Sad – Forget the Night Ahead
32. Tegan and Sara – Sainthood
31. The Strange Boys – …and Girls Club
30. Blank Dogs – Under and Under
29. Generationals – Con Law
28. Foreign Born – Person to Person
27. Bowerbirds – Upper Air
26. Jay Reatard – Watch Me Fall
25. Dent May and His Magic Ukulele – The Good Feeling Music of Dent May
24. Ola Podrida – Belly of the Lion
23. The Antlers – Hospice
22. The XX – s/t
21. I Was a King – s/t
20. My Latest Novel – Deaths and Entrances
19. Cats on Fire – Our Temperance Movement
18. Patrick Wolf – The Bachelor
17. Jarvis Cocker – Further Complications
16. The Thermals – Now We Can See
15. The Dutchess and the Duke – Sunset/Sunrise
14. Thomas Function – In the Valley of Sickness
13. God Help the Girl -s/t
12. Papercuts – You Can Have What You Want
11. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
10. The Cave Singers – Welcome Joy
9. The Great Nostalgic – s/t
8. Richard Hawley – Truelove’s Gutter
7. J. Tillman – Year in the Kingdom
6. Girls – Album
5. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
4. Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
3. Glasvegas -s/t
2. Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career
1. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – s/t
Esser – Braveface
Matt And Kim – Grand
That matt and kim album comes up again and again on the internets.
Interesting approach, and probably more honest, to take into account replayability of these albums when making the list. Though it discounts the early 2009 discs, either through overplaying or popular backlash. Call it the Phoenix Collective syndrome.
It makes sense though. Which of these will stand the test of time, be listened to again in a year.. or 5 or 10?
Animal Collective? Griz?
Blackroc.
Dark Was The Night.
oh yeah. blakroc. dass nice.
agree with everything above…
joe pug – in the meantime EP
the sounds – crossing the rubicon
lucero – 1372 overton park
john k. samson – city route 85 EP
p.o.s. – never better
rancid – let the dominoes fall
the flaming lips – embryonic
westbound train – come and get it
m.ward – hold time
speech debelle – speech therapy
I realize this is way late, but I totally agree with #2 and #5. Loved them both.