I’m in the midst of an Animal Collective relapse, as you can see. On repeat.
2009
While most journalists like to end the year in October with their best of, I’m a serial procrastinator and leave it until New Years Eve. My favourite albums of the year because I love them and the worst because I love hating them. Here’s last years list.
Best
The Horrors - Primary Colours
This is exactly what you want in a Shoegaze pop album. Brooding vocals, synth riffs and tight pants.Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion
Animal Collective have proven many times that they can construct a great pop song, but it’s the textures and palette of beautiful samples that sold it.Dan Deacon - Bromst
Converting the dense textures of Spiderman Of The Rings into a more atmospheric, crescendo-ing masterpiece via a marimba, a player piano, and an ensemble of samples.Mika Miko - We Be Xuxa
Los Angeles ramshackle punk that captures a girl band having fun makingYACHT - See Mystery Lights
Jona Bechtolt’s first album was a tedious affair. This year he decided to make dance music instead.
Worst
k-os - Yes! Lazy, near offensive Canadiana wrapped in tired beats and borrowed time. Rap white people like, but not even. Rap stupid, racist people like.
Owl City - Ocean Eyes
YouTube music.U2 - No Line On The Horizon
If they’re going to tour all over the world with a giant television screen, choking up the stratosphere, they could at least stop being the most boring band in the world.Fever Ray - Fever Ray
Why is my Bjork record out of tune? Minimalism at the cost of music.Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It’s Blitz
Their early work put through this sterile, sequenced formula looking for a style of electronica that’s already tired. Put away the synthesizer and turn the guitar back up.
Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit (Live on Top of the Pops)
From the Wiki:
In Nirvana’s only performance on Top of the Pops, frontman Kurt Cobain “played” his guitar with his fingers inches away from the frets (and occasionally clutched the microphone to make it obvious that he was not playing), drummer Dave Grohl danced around in his seat for most of the performance, and bassist Krist Novoselic waved his instrument around his head. Cobain also sang in a low, dramatic opera voice, later claiming he was trying to impersonate Morrissey.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
69 Boyz - What You Want For Christmas (download link)
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Cymbals Eat Guitars - And the Hazy Sea (download link)
I missed their awesome album Why There Are Mountains this year but thanks to Greg Kot and the Sound Opinions podcast, I’m in the loop and you are too.
Pearl Jam - Yellow Ledbetter (Nurnberg ‘00)
Pearl Jam always reminds me of this one summer when I was on a competitive sailing team. I think that might be the first time I’ve mentioned that. More on that later.
Anyway, most weekends were spent zig-zagging across the province to a steady soundtrack of CD-Rs. One was about half Tragically Hip, half Pearl Jam and we wore that shit until some tracks refused to play.
I seem to remember playing it in the middle of nowhere on the 401 on the way to Sarnia, Ontario. Yellow Ledbetter was one of the louder ones.
I still have no idea what he’s singing, though.
Temple of the Dog - Hunger Strike
Man what an epic song. Cheesy, yes, but epic. Two of the biggest rock vocalists of the 90s trying to out-grunge each other before they were two of the biggest rock vocalists of the 90s.
This is basically November Rain through a thin flannel shirt.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Liars - Scissor
The first track off their forthcoming album Sisterworld is everything I had hoped it would be.
