When you find an album that spans every moment and perfectly backdrops your day to day, you’ve got something great. Here is a collection of albums we felt portrayed the very best of the year 2009.

lionsteeth:

#5:

Cymbals Eat Guitars – Why There Are Mountains

While lead singer Joseph D’Agostino easily keeps us entertained with a fountain of sentence heavy lyrics a band of skilled indie rock mad men back him perfectly with atmospheric psych-jams and straight up noise rocking riffs. At some points the music can be a tad dry only  to burst out at you with an epic climax leaving the listener a bit dizzy.

Cymbals Eat Guitar – Some Trees (Merritt Moon)

#4:

Dan Deacon – Bromst

The gadget wizard Dan Deacon proves to us he is a master of his craft. Layering what feels like thousands of Casio toy keyboard loops over and over to birth each song into the master piece it is, usually not realized until the resonating silence after each track. Guaranteed to get any dance party happening, also one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen.

Dan Deacon – Snookered

#3:

The Pains of Being Pure at Heat – Self Titled

An album portraying innocence at its ‘purest’ level. A mix of soft-core punk and hazy guitar rock with playful keyboard and female vocal accompaniment. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart seemed to be well on top of pioneering a genre that only seemed to grow bigger and faster as the year progressed. Singing songs about being in love with your sister however is anything but innocent…

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Gentle Sons

#2

Julie Doiron – I Can Wonder What You Do With Your Day

It’s amazing to watch an artist age like a fine wine, or scotch because you’d rather get drunk than sleep. Starting out a career in one of Canada’s premier indie bands of the 90′s (Erics Trip) obviously helps to boost musician cred, but Julie Doiron constantly delivers with every album she makes. I Can Wonder What You Do With Your Day showcases Julie at her finest, constantly strumming away a guitar with the warmest tone there is, a soft voice like a comforting lover and stories sung in ways that could bring the whole country together.

Julie Doiron – Consolation Prize

#1:

Real Estate – Real Estate

Although this album was a late bloomer, its blossom was waited upon with great anticipation. I’ve never been more happy with a wait. I’m sure I easily could have found a leaked version somewhere online but for this album I chose to wait. Real Estate wins the prize for best album of 2009 by a mile for me. Not only have they managed to perfect the lo-fi surf sound that has gained massive popularity this year, they also where able to bring something back to it that was so greatly lacking…’cool’. Yes, cool is a great way to describe this album. The music feels like a soundtrack to your life, whether your walking down a cold sandy beach, laying in bed trying to keep warm with your lover, drudging through your last couple hours of work, it all can be perfectly set to these 12 songs. Each one locks into Real Estates formula and it works perfectly. Tin can guitars, bleached out vocals and a rhythm section that could make you bob and groove no matter where you are, and that’s the key. I’m positive this album will withstand the test of time, as well as the test of internet bloggers and music snobs alike.

Real Estate – Fake Blues

Real Estate – Green River

iceonthetrail:

#5:

Volcano Choir – Unmap

Get a guitar, toss it in a blender, record the results,  then have Bon Iver sing over it.  What are you left with? Volcano Choir.  Definitely not an album for everyone, the lack of apparent structure put me off a little bit hearing for the first time, but after taking a few more listens it really started to sink in how much I loved this album.  What I like most about it is simply that I have literally heard nothing like it, and in this day and age that is impressive in itself.   A perfect album for collapsing on the couch at 3:30 in the morning after a night of dancing and heavy drinking.

Volcano Choir – Island, IS

#4:

Gaza – He is Never Coming Back

I know we don’t cover a lot of metal on Bluegrassish, but this album definitely deserves a mention. Gaza create some goddamn intense, terrifying music.  The thing that makes them different in my opinion is that they never border on cheesy.The album swaps between overwhelming rage and misanthropy, and desolate ambient interludes, never resorting to the typical metal riffs that you have heard a million times before, everything is new and different. Perfect.

Gaza – The Anthropologist

Gaza – Bishop

#3:

Califone – All My Friends Are Funeral Singers

I don’t have a lot to say on this album.  Tim Rutili has been so consistent with the quality of music that Califone produces that it defies any explanation.  This album really shows how dynamic the band can be.  I hear the movie is pretty neat too.

Califone – Funeral Singers

#2:

Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport

Fuck Buttons blew me away when I heard Street Horrrsing, and this album is even better. As with any noise band, its a delicate balance of noise, melody and rhythm. Compared to Street Horrrsing, this album seems a bit more “mature”.  Rather than layers of static over basic melody, they have managed to bring the melody more into the spotlight while still keeping it subtle. Adding the perfect amount of pop aesthetics, this album will get your head bobbing and toe tapping from the very first beat.

Fuck Buttons – Surf Solar

#1:

Kurt Vile – Childish Prodigy

In an era saturated with electronic bleeps and bloops, it’s nice to see someone go back to basics and write some seriously good rock songs. Constant Hitmaker was always a crowd pleaser and this record is no different.  The same classic Vile offering: instantly catchy riffs, fantastic vocals and the perfect mix of rock and slow jams to pump you up or chill you out depending on your mood.  On this album Vile really proves he can keep his music fresh and new, keep his signature style, and not take a trip to experimental town. Something for everyone.

Kurt Vile – Overnite Religion

slobby:

#5:

Bombay Bicycle Club – I Had the Blues but I Shook Them Loose

Do you like to dance to indie-pop?? You do? Well that’s just wonderful. I wonder where you could find some really great music to dance to? hhhhhmmmmmmm…

Bombay Bicycle Club – Always Like This

#4:

Black Lips – 200 Million Thousand

This record makes me feel drunk and stoned. A hodge-podge mix of punk, blues, doo-wop and kickass. The soul of this album exists somewhere within its raw, unpolished sound. Singer Cole Alexander’s scratchy vocals are laid back and the guitars are lazy. In a good way. It makes me feel like sitting on my front lawn on a hot summer day and drinking Kool-aide and bourbon and then going out to a sock-hop.

Black Lips – I’ll Be With You

#3:

Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest

Who doesn’t like Grizzly Bear these days, really. With ringing endorsements from Jay-z and Johnny Greenwood (guitarist for Radiohead), it would appear that these guys are ready to take over the world. ‘Veckatimest’ (named after an uninhabited island in Massachusettes) is Grizzly Bear at their finest , building off all the numerous strengths of ‘Yellow House’. Built upon swooning vocals and beautiful song arrangements, listening is like the gentle push and pull of a calm ocean, slowly bringing you up and down and up and down in one fluid motion, with the occasional swell to keep it interesting.

Grizzly Bear – Ready, Able

Grizzly Bear – While You Wait for the Others

#2:

Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion

Definitely one of the most hyped albums of the year. ‘Merriweather Post Pavillion’ was heralded as the album of a generation when it was released in January. That is some serious hype.

If you ask me, some people out there got a little bit carried away with heaping praise on this record. Like it was our musical savior here to deliver us to the promised land upon magical flying sequencers. When in reality it is just really fucking good. This is easily the most accessible Animal Collective album out there. With more genre blurring than you can shake a stick at. Catchy beats and catchy melodies coupled with the use of an extremely large array of sounds propel ‘Merriweather Post Pavillion’ into your conscience. With it Animal Collective show us that they have mastered their sound. Giving people what they want while remaining different and original. In this album exists the middle ground between mass appeal and music snobbery. It is great, original music that will leave you with a smile on your face, whether or not you buy into the hype.

Animal Collective – Brother Sport

Animal Collective – Lion In A Coma

#1:

Micachu and the Shapes – Jewellery

Mica Levi (Micachu) is the heart of this band. Before Micachu and the Shapes she was involved in the UK Garage/Grime scene as a DJ and MC, cutting a mixtape (‘Filthy Friends’) last year. Pretty impressive, right?

Oh yeah, she is also a classically trained composer and musician (violin and viola), who has written music for the London Philharmonic Orchestra. And she makes her own instruments, one of which is made out of a bow and a CD rack.

‘Jewelery’ is the first full length album from Micachu and the Shapes. Short and sweet (only two songs over 3 minutes, the longest at  3:34), it is experimental pop music at its absolute finest. Levi uses her various musical backgrounds to create her own unique sound which is quirky and ripe with variety. Upon first listen it is a bit weird, yet interesting. The second time through you will catch your head bobbing. By the third time it will be just plain good. And after that you won’t be able to stop.

Micachu and the Shapes – Lips

Micachu and the Shapes – Just In Case

artandstars:

#5:

Neko Case- Middle Cyclone

With Neko’s unmistakable vocals we come back to something familiar in Middle Cyclone. Neko loves the nature theme and revisits it over and over within the album. Her sound is always full, but may still leave something to the imagination. Her lyrics make up for it though, with lines of killer whales, animal insticts and ofcourse tornadoes. Pick this one up if you’re feeling naturally raw.

Neko Case – This Tornado Loves You

#4:

M. Ward- Hold Time

Ward never disappoints with album after album of lyrical sotrytelling, and distant melodies. He always seems to pull you in, and you find you’re constantly convincing yourself that he didnt actually write his music about you. His classic folk-rock influences come shining through on this album in tracks like “Never had nobody like you” and “Rave on”. On the other hand, the song which the album title was derived from, “Hold time”, has soft and echoey qualities that make you feel like you might be in a film about lovers spending their last moments together. after all the drama, M. Ward is dependable yet refreshing as always.

M. Ward – Rave On

#3:

Whitest Boy Alive- Rules

The first track on Rules, “Courage” reminded me why I fell in love with The Whitest Boy Alive in the first place. synths and light disco beats will always compliment Erlend Oye’s shy, yet unfaultering vocals. There’s even a 90′s jazz feel to the album which seems to push through every track. If you’re into some easy listening, this album does not disappoint.

The Whitest Boy Alive – Courage

#2:

Animal Collective- Fall Be Kind EP

Fall Be Kind flows together like one giant amazing track, in 5 melodious and noisey parts. Each track in one word? Graze is transforming, while What Would I Want? Sky is thoughtful. Bleeding is conversational, On a Highway is dulcet, and I Think I Can is uplifting. What more do you need?

Animal Collective – What Would I Want? Sky

#1:

Bat For Lashes- Two Suns

Natasha Khan has broken out of her shell that was her last album and has produced something creative, imaginative, and extraordinary. She sings about outer space, about catsles made of crystals, about love and lack thereof. I have had Two Suns on repeat for the past 3 days. With a heavy 80′s influence, romantic melodies, and her lullaby vocals, Khan offers something much more dynamic than your average musician.

Bat For Lashes – Daniel

Bat For Lashes – Glass

japan11:

#5

Julian Casablancas – Phrazes for the Young

He still does it for me. Plain and Simple. This album is ambitious as it takes queues from many different genres, stylistically. Julian’s lyrics are epic although sometimes a little preachy but I don’t care I’ll listen to anything this man has to say. I enjoy the album’s overall homage to Oscar Wilde.

Julian Casablancas – 11th Dimension

#4

The Dead Weather – Horehound

Alison Mosshart is a sexual rock goddess – it doesn’t matter if you can never see her face because her greasy black hair is always in the way, have you seen the way she handles that guitar? Jack White plays drums and allegedly punches women in the face… what can’t he do?

The Dead Weather – Cut Like A Buffalo

#3

Wild Beasts – Two Dancers

FALSETTO! My GOD the falsetto! That is frontman Hayden Thorpe… and a falsetto is something you just can’t fake. Some people find it annoying but a delicate, flighty falsetto always gets me. Bassist Tom Fleming croons quite a bit on this disc and evokes vintage Morrissey from time to time. If you are into “Baroque ‘n’ Roll” you will gobble this up.

Wild Beasts – All The Kings Men

#2

Foreign Born – Person to Person

- First thing that strikes me is the gorgeous voice and manner of singing Matt Popieluch employs; more refined, properly annunciated dylan-esque vocals?! This band is the new face of the “west coast vibe” and perhaps the beach boys would sound like this if they were still kicking it.

Forgien Born – Early Warnings

#1

Sufjan Stevens – “The BQE”

My good friend and mentor “Combine Harvester” turned me on to this album which is a beautifully arranged and executed “orchestral suite”, complete with wind and brass ensemble, string and horn sections and an “electro-gasmic” interlude. In the video game land of my subconcious these tunes have echoed across the plains for over 1,000 years.

Sufjan Stevens – Movement III-Linear Tableau with Intersecting Surprise

cutdiamondz:

#5:

Whitefield Brothers – In the Raw

For the first time ever this year new music was quite possibly less than 40% of what I listened to, maybe even less. There are reasons for this- things like not working, no computer, expensive new records, acting smug- all of which don’t really matter. The main thing is that the other 60% of listening became a cosmic scavenger hunt voyage through spacetime. This album is on here because at some point, definetely during summer, I heard this and just got completely stoked on it partly because they were just totally jamming out funky grooves like a lot of the old records I was finding at the time except raw and trippy just like you would want it to sound, but mostly because we were just hanging out getting drunk on the porch the whole time.

Whitefield Brothers – Yakuba

#4

Blank – Luminous Piles of Fir

This stuff wasn’t all necessarily recorded this year, but it’s just so amazing that it doesn’t matter (and I guess it all just came out together for the first time this year). Like warm syrup all over your hair in a good (enough) way. Dig it all here.

Blank – Syrup
#3

Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca

This band is so good that I was set on this album before I knew it existed. I’ve always been really excited about this band, every album is good, I was especially into Rise Above when it came out, it was like the perfect shit for being crazy and in high school and really into music and not having girlfriends. “Theres no girls dont wanna touch me-” To me it was like a modern punk ropera. But I also have deep emotional ties to this album. My girlfriend at the time gave me a gift certificate one time specifically to buy this record when it came out probably cause I was always talking about it or something. Either way after giving it to me she moved out of my room and out of the city, out of our relationship to go live on the sand on one of these So a few weeks later the album comes out and I spend a million nights drinking at 4am alone listening to that for fun. So good!

The Dirty Projectors – Cannibal Resources

#2

Monks – The Early Years
There are a so many sweet re-issues and issues of never issued albums that just finally got issued that came out this year, but I’m only gonna talk about one. Obviously the Monks are the first true punk band and also (arguably) the best concept and stage wear of any band. That makes me wonder if they actually wore that stuff all the time…because at least their heads would always have been shaved monk-style…which would probably still be weird in suffering post-WWII Germany…maybe…but either way it isn’t really clear what angle they were coming from, it’s just that it is almost the best music you can listen to. This album I think has some stuff that not many people have heard before this…has some oldschool rock tracks from when they were called the Five Torquays who were featured on a certain Electro-Harmonix compilation with all South American and Mexican early punk and garage bands from the 60s if you are hip to that…it’s Monk Time?

The Monks – I Hate You

#1

Destroyer – Bay of Pigs 12″
I have no idea how this ended up being my number one, I must have mixed the order up or something BUT in the end, this has to be one of the most epic tracks of all time for me so it doesn’t matter. Right now at least. Dan doing funky minimalist dance music on classic Maxi format? Really? I’m so down.

Destroyer – Chinatown

The point is, this year seemed to be a shifting in the way we listen to music directly through how it is released. So many bands seemed to be releasing singles as opposed to albums. Countless new, and genuinely good bands were filing through blogs and record stores and it was almost like I was taking much of it for granted. There are so many amazing but relatively unknown bands, especially in Canada, I hope they keep putting out more music instead of riding on one or two songs they recorded in the spring.  Especially in the summer there were so many tracks coming out by random new bands, almost every single day, all with a crazy quality to them, I was just sipping on it like Extra Old Stock no foam…dazed and comfortable…so it seems that these days how we release our music can make just as much of an impact as the music itself. There is already a clear increase at least on a local level of the number of 7″s and singles coming out from sick new bands…we’re not getting lazy? Basically now we have a whole new dimension where we can expand upon the concept of the basis of releasing a record, maybe affect the listener in a more intensely informative and abstract manner…Dalai Lama baptized 500 gram 12 1/2 inches?

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