Fittingly, a great decade of music ended with a great year of music. I’ve selected only nine albums here, not because “Top Nine of 09″ has a pleasant ring to it, but because picking a tenth just became too hard (and a twelve-way tie for tenth seemed silly). Besides, I always regret my final choices because I don’t hear about some albums until it’s too late—for instance, I just bought Animal Collective’s highly-touted Merriweather Post Pavilion and gave Charlotte Gainsbourg’s IRM to my wife for Christmas and though I like what I’ve heard, it’s too early to put either of them on this list. So this way I’m leaving a spot open.
Here are my favourite albums of 2009:
• xx, The xx
Feel free to make all the jokes you want about this band having just one song—and doing it eleven times on this album—but this is a fabulous debut. I listened to it a lot
• The Life of the World to Come, The Mountain Goats
I’ll admit it: I was skeptical when I heard John Darnielle was using biblical passages for song titles, but as the year ended, it was probably the album I was listening to the most
• Wilco (The Album), Wilco
Oh, sure, the music critics whined that Wilco didn’t break any new ground with this album, but I figure that was the only way they could avoid raving about another brilliant offering from this brilliant band—oh, and seeing Feist sing “You and I” with Jeff Tweedy at the second Massey Hall show was such a treat
• Infinite Light, Lightning Dust
Put me in a mood
• Veckatimest, Grizzly Bear
I found this album annoyingly hard-to-spell, but surprisingly fun and fascinating to listen to
• Beware, Bonny Prince Billy
I listened to this a lot in the spring before I went to see him and then forgot about it, but toward the end of the year, I listened to it again and realized just how good it really is
• Hospice, The Antlers
Took me a while to get into this one, but once I did, I really did
• Middle Cyclone, Neko Case
Okay, so it’s not Furnace Room Lullaby, but it’s still lovely (so was her Trinity Church gig)
• Noble Beast, Andrew Bird
Another impressive album from this impressively talented guy
Oh, and one other thing, one that made me feel like both a middle-aged man and a teenager: after reading so many raves about Tarot Sport by the Fuck Buttons, I went to eMusic and downloaded it. But when I tried to listen to it, I really felt middle-aged. And then I felt like a teenager for believing all the hype. No wonder my wife says I am highly susceptible to peer pressure.
I welcome your own lists (of whatever length) as well as your comments, complaints and condescension.
I Am Fuel, You are Friends has a great old post with more than forty covers of the Sam Cooke classic “Bring It On Home to Me.” The post is actually from last April, but I just noticed it when Heather Browne, the Colorado blogger behind the site, linked to it from a more recent post highlighting a live version by My Morning Jacket. Alas, she didn’t include Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee’s great blues version.
My wife gave me my first iPod for Christmas in 2001, just after Apple released the insanely great gadget. It was 5GB and, compared to today’s versions, big and boxy, but I loved it from the first time I touched it. For years, I used a cassette adapter when driving, but eventually, the cassette player in my car stereo ate the adapter. I switched to an FM frequency adapter, which I hated as much as I loved the iPod. It sounded terrible and I kept having to seek empty frequencies. Before I went on my road trip for DRIVE, I bought a new car stereo with an input jack — that was the only way I was going to be able to survive driving across the continent and back. When I bought a new Mazda3 in 2007, it came with an iPod jack conveniently placed in the storage compartment that sits between the two front seats. But this is what I’ve wanted all along. How could something so obvious take so long to arrive?
Given that one of the best albums I heard this year was Rodriguez’s Cold Fact, a reissue of a 1970 record, I guess it’s fair to say 2008 was not the strongest musical year. Still, I’ve managed to come up with a top ten list (and seven honourable mentions):
• Stay Positive
The Hold Steady
Not as consistently brilliant as Boys and Girls in America, but the presence of “Constructive Summer,” “Sequestered in Memphis” and “Lord, I’m Discouraged” (as well as “One for the Cutters,” “Magazines,” “Joke About Jamaica” and “Slapped Actress”) made it a lot of fun to listen to this summer. And I listened to it a lot. Still do.
• April
Sun Kil Moon
Mark Kozelek served up a wonderful, moody album. My wife thought it was too depressing, but I couldn’t get enough of it.
• For Emma, Forever Ago
Bon Iver
Impressive debut from a guy who spent four months in a Wisconsin cabin writing and recording this lovely album.
• Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes
Another fine first album, this time from a Seattle band.
• Dig, Lazurus, Dig
Nick Cave
The old master still rocks.
• Dear Science
TV on the Radio
I have to admit the charms of this Brooklyn band eluded me until I heard this album.
• The Stand Ins
Okkervil River
Not quite as good as The Stage Names, but a fine follow-up.
• Carried to Dust
Calexico
Another excellent offering from one of my favourite bands.
• Everything that Happens Will Happen Today
David Byrne and Brian Eno
Apparently the two giants, who reunited for this project, are calling it
“folk-electronic-gospel.” Whatever it is, it’s a delight.
• Volume One
She & Him
A bit of a guilty pleasure, but a pleasure nonetheless.
Among the other CDs I also enjoyed listening to this year were Bonnie Prince Billy’s Lie Down in the Light, Ra Ra Riot’s The Rhumb Line, Aimee Mann’s @#%&*! Smilers, Cat Power’s Jukebox, Death Cab for Cutie’s Narrow Stairs, Frightened Rabbit’s The Midnight Organ Fight and Elvis Costello’s Momofuku.
What did you dig this year?
Over at Wired magazine’s Autopia blog, there’s a top ten car song list. Four of them — Little Red Corvette, Radar Love, Crosstown Traffic and No Particular Place to Go — also made the 19-song car song playlist I created for DRIVE.
“Measure for Measure: How to write a song and other mysteries” is a excellent blog about songwriting on the New York Times site. One of the contributors is Suzanne Vega and this week she offers a great post called “Tom’s Essay.” Without being self-aggrandizing, she tells the story — or stories — of her song “Tom’s Diner,” which, as she says, “wasn’t just a plain ordinary hit, if there is such a thing. To this day it is sticky with the modern issues of technology and copyright law.” Along with being often remixed, the song was instrumental (no pun intended) in the creation of the MP3. In fact, some people consider Vega the “mother of the MP3.”
Pitchfork reviews The Hold Steady’s brilliant new album Stay Positive, which comes out tomorrow (though it’s been available for a month on iTunes).
I guess Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild” is still about motorcycles, but according to this story from the Toronto Star, John Kay was thinking of his first car — a used Ford Falcon — when he wrote it.
Stay Positive, the forthcoming release from The Hold Steady won’t be out for a month, but it’s streaming on the band’s myspace page and I’ve listened to it countless times over the last few days. Unfortunately, some of the songs — including the title track — are no longer up, but check out “Sequestered in Memphis.” An instant classic.
Let’s just say it’s going to be a great summer. Now if only the band would add Toronto to its tour.
Ever notice that good indie music stores exist in walkable parts of town and not in suburban sprawl? Today is Record Store Day across North America, so please stroll — or cycle or take transit — to your favourite independent music seller. If you’re not sure what to buy, may I suggest Sun Kil Moon’s April.
Okay, this is disturbing. According to this site that lets you find out what song was number one on the day you were born, I came into the world to the strains of “Purple People Eater” by Sheb Wooley.