There are more albums this month than there are licentious, secretary-lassoing Frenchmen in positions of authority. There is, of course, a potential that this is because I might have forgotten/did not have time to continue this groundbreakingly original feature last month. Maybe. So for the sake of our collective sanity, I’ll keep it brief, but if you’re a real fan of brevity, just do yourself a favour and go and buy/steal them all. Especially Austra and The Antlers. We don’t have an “Album Of The Month” title like everyone else, but if we did, we’d have to share it between those two.
Arctic Monkeys – Suck It And See
They got beards, and they sound like it. Their morphosis from cheeky Sheffield chaps being chased by chavs with pool cues to hairy psychedelic rock druids popping pills with Josh Homme was most unlikely, but Alex Turner’s words have never bitten more keenly than on “Suck It And See”. They’re pushed to the fore of the trippy guitars here, and really dig into your brain. They’re no longer the Arctic Monkeys of 2005, and haven’t been for quite some time; they’re muscular and mature and just keep getting better and better.Arctic Monkeys – The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala by Not Many Experts
Bon Iver – Bon Iver
On the subject of beards, Justin Vernon has still got his wiry asset, but that’s about the only thing that hasn’t changed on “Bon Iver”. His newly positioned band take his emotive wanderings and twist them with orchestral crescendos, deafening drums and even, in one troubling moment, 80s inspired keyboards. It’s all quite unsettling, but once past the shock that this is not “For Emma, Forever Ago Continued…”, moments like “Perth” start sounding like some of his most beautiful moments. The poignancy of his debut, though, was never going to be re-created.
Now that the entire list has been written, posted and embarrassing spelling mistakes removed, leaving me genuinely sweating from writing and with a body of text that is, depressingly, longer than any essay I have ever done before, I thought that I would paste the whole thing together for the completist in everyone. Anyone who notes the correctiveness (irony?) of the possessive apostrophe in the title wins a prize for pedants everywhere. The honourary mentions can be found in the #27 – #14 list, here.
Condensing an entire year of music that you’ve listened to is an absolutely impossible task. And yet, it’s so tempting to gaze at the year that hasn’t even gone and attempt to squash it all into one post. At the same time, end of year lists are exceptionally popular, and yet all anyone seems to do is complain about them. “What the hell? I was expecting your top 50 to be exactly the same as mine!”. Which, blatantly, is a ridiculous way to look at things. Personally, I think that end of year lists are more than a romantic glance back at a year, they’re simply the best way to introduce people to music that they might have missed. I guess that it’s also a great way to stimulate debate about albums, and an interesting way to think about the ways that we find music. For example, I had something of an epiphany back in 2007 when everyone’s end of year lists made me realise that I had better start using blogs to find music and the NME only for mopping up spilt coffee.
Most of all, though, we’re all guilty of using end of year lists as a sort of test. How many of my favourite albums are there? All I can ask is that you take into account that I am not saying that these are not the best albums of 2009. They are my favourite albums of 2009, nothing more. I’m sure you’ll disagree, and I’d love to hear your thoughts below. However, at the end of the day, I couldn’t allow myself to be anything less than 100% honest. These lists aren’t the place for posturing or flexing your musical muscles; the only question I asked myself when ordering these incredible albums was which one I liked more. At the end of the day, the whole compiling of end of year lists process is very time consuming and complicated, but it really shouldn’t be anything more complex than a question of which albums you liked the most. And that is all I intended this to be, so please let me hear your thoughts and which albums I missed that would be on your list, but all I can say is that I am absolutely and completely correct, because these are my 27 favourite albums of 2009:
Condensing an entire year of music that you’ve listened to is an absolutely impossible task. And yet, it’s so tempting to gaze at the year that hasn’t even gone and attempt to squash it all into one post. At the same time, end of year lists are exceptionally popular, and yet all anyone seems to do is complain about them. “What the hell? I was expecting your top 50 to be exactly the same as mine!”. Which, blatantly, is a ridiculous way to look at things. Personally, I think that end of year lists are more than a romantic glance back at a year, they’re simply the best way to introduce people to music that they might have missed. I guess that it’s also a great way to stimulate debate about albums, and an interesting way to think about the ways that we find music. For example, I had something of an epiphany back in 2007 when everyone’s end of year lists made me realise that I had better start using blogs to find music and the NME only for mopping up spilt coffee.
Most of all, though, we’re all guilty of using end of year lists as a sort of test. How many of my favourite albums are there? All I can ask is that you take into account that I am not saying that these are not the best albums of 2009. They are my favourite albums of 2009, nothing more. I’m sure you’ll disagree, and I’d love to hear your thoughts below. However, at the end of the day, I couldn’t allow myself to be anything less than 100% honest. These lists aren’t the place for posturing or flexing your musical muscles; the only question I asked myself when ordering these incredible albums was which one I liked more. At the end of the day, the whole compiling of end of year lists process is very time consuming and complicated, but it really shouldn’t be anything more complex than a question of which albums you liked the most. And that is all I intended this to be, so please let me hear your thoughts and which albums I missed that would be on your list, but all I can say is that I am absolutely and completely correct, because these are the second 1/2 of my 27 favourite albums of 2009: (read choices #27-#14 here)
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