OT: The Music of 2009

by Wes Cox on Dec 30, 2009 4:33 PM CST

It's not really the end of a year without every blog on the internet posting the best albums of the year etc... Here is my top ten, with a clear number one, an easy 2-4, and then it's sort of a toss up after that...

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion
Real Estate - LP
GIRLS - Album
Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - up From Below
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz
Passion Pit - Manners
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
The Smith Westerns - S/T
Holiday Shores - Columbus'd The Whim

Read on for 30 of my favorite songs from the year with embedded audio. They are not in any particular order, and to make the list more interesting I didn't include more than two songs from one album. This definitely isn't a personal Top 30 list -- just more of a list of 30 songs that I happened to listen to a lot during the last 12 months.

Real Estate - Beach Comber
The Mantles - Don't Lie
Animal Collective - What Would I Want? Sky!
Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Hysteric
Girls - Hellhole Ratrace
Animal Collective - Bluish
Girls - Lust for Life
Fever Ray - When I Grow Up
Beach Fossils - Daydream
Andrew Cedermark - Hard Livin'
Phoenix - 1901
The Middle East - Blood
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes - 40 Day Dream
Passion Pit - Little Secrets
Woods - Suffering Season (Daytrotter Session)
Mos Def - Auditorium
Here We Go Magic - Tunnelvision
Toro Y Moi - Human Nature (MJ Cover)
Atlas Sound - Walkabout (w/Noah Lennox)
Beach Fossils - Vacation
Kid Cudi - Pursuit of Happiness (w/MGMT & Ratatat)
No Age - Losing Feeling
Smith Westerns - Imagine pt3
Animal Collective - Summertime Clothes
She & Him - Let Me Get What I Want (Smiths Cover)
Beirut - My Wife Lost in the Wild
Holiday Shores - Bradley Bear
Love Language - Lalita
Neon Indian - Should Have Taken Acid With You

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awesome list. I recommend the xx-“crystalised” and blakroc-“on the vista”

by aarontangsays on Dec 30, 2009 7:52 PM CST reply actions

no Muse song?

HEADING STRAIGHT FOR THEM, I PRESS DOWN MAH GUNS!

by BenjiDoc on Dec 30, 2009 9:39 PM CST reply actions

great list

I definitely echo Animal Collective and Girls, both terrific albums. I don’t know if I’d go so far as to “rank” them, but the ones that really stood out for me this year:

Girls-Album
Antlers-Hospice
Flaming Lips-Embryonic
Very Best-Warm Hearts of Africa
Camera Obscura-My Maudlin Career
Animal Collective-Merriweather Post Pavilion
St. Vincent-Actor
Sufjan Stevens-BQE
xx-xx
Dirty Projectors-Bitte Orca

by Alan Smithee on Dec 30, 2009 9:59 PM CST reply actions

Is Animal Collective really as awesome as people say it is?

Not really sure, but I think Bitte Orca was my favorite album this year.

There is also a pretty long fanpost at LSB about this topic too.

Remember to retire Fin's number, Mark.

by jonthefon on Dec 31, 2009 1:50 AM CST reply actions

I think I am the only person who doesn't like Animal Collective

Just not a fan.

Loved Phoenix’s album this year. Also big fans of Silversun Pickups (Swoon) and Thrice (Beggars).

by The Barea Bunch on Dec 31, 2009 2:46 AM CST up reply actions

love silversun

thought, aside from panic switch, that Swoon was garbage.

The Dream Shake ...on Twitter.
"I think girls are probably just better shooters." - Steve Novak

by Tom Martin on Dec 31, 2009 1:15 PM CST up reply actions

Swoon wasn't as good as the first album

But it was still damn good.

There’s No Secrets This Year was probably my favorite song of the year.

by The Barea Bunch on Dec 31, 2009 5:25 PM CST up reply actions

I don’t love everything they do, as some of their music is a little too repetitive for me, but they are prolific, and at their best produce some transcendent material.

by Alan Smithee on Dec 31, 2009 3:40 PM CST up reply actions

I haven't been able to get into Animal Collective

Bitte Orca was quite good though. I got into Dirty Projectors after their track on Dark Was The Night. …Was DWTN this year? If so, I think that would take album of the year for me.

Girls, Grizzly Bear and YYY’s would probably round out my top 5. Glitter and Doom by Tom Waits gets my nod for live album. I’ve had terrible luck trying to catch Tom live. My parents live in Dallas, and I lived in Missouri when the Glitter and Doom tour was going on, but I somehow ended up in Dallas when Tom was in St. Louis, and in Missouri when he was in Dallas.

Now I’m in Tennessee, so I’m hoping he’ll come to Nashville sometime soon.

by MeanMr.Mustard on Jan 3, 2010 7:16 PM CST up reply actions

I too had Animal Collective as my #1, though my top 20 looked mostly different from yours.

Shameless link to my music post

Lisa, if the Bible has taught us nothing else - and it hasn't - it's that girls should stick to girls' sports, such as hot-oil wrestling, foxy boxing, and such-and-such.

Rock Flag & Eagle Radio: Thursdays, 10 PM - 1 AM, on FM 88.7 The Choice, or online @ ktcu.net!

by Maximilian on Dec 31, 2009 8:50 PM CST reply actions