As previously noted, it's been a great year for music, and, assuredly, this will make for some excruciatingly difficult end of the year "best of" retrospectives. In a year with so many great albums and songs, how can one possibly pick just ten favorite albums or fifty favorite songs? Furthermore, with highly anticipated releases from The Very Best, Kings of Convenience, Taken By Trees, Neon Indian and maybe Beach House (? - rumor has it they've just finished recording their third album) forthcoming, the allocation of these superlatives is hardly going to get easier. All I can say is, thank goodness it's not December. Anyhow, without further ado, here are my favorite albums (in no particular order) and my favorite 25 songs (from 25 to 1) of this still very young calendar year:
Japandroids - Post-Nothing
Chunky, noisy guitar riffage just in time for summer. Not quite as artsy as No Age and often more tuneful, Japandroids are more than just another clattering punk duo in an independent music world increasingly overrun by clattering punk duos. When the White Stripes burst on the scene in the early aughts, the duo seemed a fairly novel configuration. Now? Please make it stop. It is undoubtedly, outside of the singer-songwriter act, the easiest band to form, but the duo is often a shibboleth for talentless, confrontational, "artistic" self-indulgent caterwauling. Perhaps this is all some unanticipated and many years too late backlash to the Polyphonic Spree. Nevertheless, Post-Nothing makes me forget this nascent and increasingly intense aversion, if only for a moment. A what a sweet moment it is.
The Antlers - Hospice
A complete surprise. No one, and I mean, no one, saw this album coming. And Hospice is very much an "album." A beautiful, haunting, intermittently spare and, at times, gigantic, widescreen investigation of grief, loss and love, Hospice is this year's best indie rock success story, and a record that is meant to be felt as much as heard. Recorded over the course of two years in a bedroom as Antlers principal Peter Silberman was emerging from a period of "social isolation," this album is a devastating investigation of the complex swirl of emotions associated with the terminal illness of a child. People just don't make albums like this anymore. And that's a shame.
Suckers - Suckers EP
Just when you thought the world couldn't stand another band from Brooklyn, along come these guys. This EP, produced by Yeasayer's Anand Wilder (any Yeasayer involvement in anything is a good thing as far as I'm concerned) and Chris Moore (TVOTR, YYYs) is a succinct slice of smart, savvy, worldly pop music that, like Yeasayer, feels like indie rock played by a group of guys who happen to really love world music.
jj - No. 2
A mystery wrapped in an enigma. This album is arguably my favorite disc of 2009. It's beach-y, transglobal, ambient indie electronic folk made by two Swedes with a staggering and expressed penchant for controlled substances. In light of this rather unwieldy description, maybe I'll just put this album in the Other/Miscellaneous category. Whatever it is or whoever/whatever JJ might be, No 2 is an endlessly fascinating record that, at less than 30 minutes, begs to be replayed. The perfect soundtrack to a late summer evening or an early August morning. Tune in, turn on, drop out.
Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
A well-deserved victory lap for one of today's best indie bands (so I'm a little biased). Hailed as something of a pop record, Veckatimest is Grizzly Bear at its most focused and succinct. Gone are the rambling, moody, at times formless, almost ambient explorations of Yellow House. The first five songs are arguably Grizzly Bear's best yet, and the album itself is almost a near perfect execution of the band's trademark sound and style. It's all here: the close harmonies, the deft musicianship, the detailed production, the unique melodic sensibility. This is smart, thinking man's pop, and an album that largely delivers upon the considerable promise of 2006's "Knife".
Bowerbirds - Upper Air
Some bands just don't get any respect. Bowerbirds have now released two excellent albums (2007's Hymns for a Dark Horse and 2009's Upper Air) of tasteful, accordion-inflected folk, and, yet, they remain just some band from Raleigh. Oddly catchy and seemingly timeless, Upper Air is hardly a giant creative step forward for the band. Nope. This is just a band doing what it does best and better than anyone else. As someone once said, "If it ain't broke...."
Smith Westerns - S/T
Another pleasant surprise. Admittedly, I am something of a lo-fi fan. As I previously noted, you don't listen to this music for the virtuosity of its players, but with all things lo-fi, it seems the more you listen, the more you hear. Perhaps this explains the nascent interest in its many purveyors. In a musical landscape rife with obvious, lowest common denominator jams, these murky, layered songs are difficult, and they reward the patient and perseverant listener. What first sounds like hiss, mumbling and clatter, after a few spins, begins to bear striking resemblance to a song. By the tenth or fifteenth rotation, through some strange auditory alchemy, the noise seemingly subsides, and you actually just hear the melody. Like the sonic equivalent of a Seurat painting, what initially seems like a bunch of dots slowly comes into focus until you actually see (or hear, as the case may be) the full picture. In this world of cacophonous, squalling, deconstructed pop, Smith Westerns sounds fairly straightforward. Touching upon glam, garage, punk and other rock sonics the 50s and 60s, this album begs to play loud on a very sunny day. These amps go to 11.
Woods - Songs of Shame
To paraphrase Ryan Adams, "We started a country band because punk rock was too hard to sing." If only he would have known about lo-fi. As Woods proves, you don't have to be able to sing to play shaggy, shambolic indie rock. But, vocal limitations aside, Woods, like Hospice and Smith Westerns, is one of the surprise releases of this year (noticing a theme?). Seemingly reminiscent of Neil Young & Crazy Horse heard on a very bad radio playing in another room, Songs of Shame plots the very same gloriously ragged sound as Neil Young and his famed backing band. A further testament to the eternal promise that rust, in fact, never sleeps.
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Is it possible to be too consistent? Too good? Admittedly, sometimes Phoenix makes it sound too easy, and, two months after this album's release, it felt like people were fabricating reasons not to like it. "All the songs sound the same." "What kind of band plays on Saturday Night Live without even having so much as a radio hit?" "Just a Strokes rip-off." Really? What a shame. Much like Grizzly Bear with Veckatimest, Wolfgang is the record that Phoenix has been threatening to make for the past five years. Great as 2006's It's Never Been Like That was, it was an uneven exploration of a novel and distinctly European fusion of The Strokes' Room on Fire sonics and The Smiths/Johnny Marr guitar wizardry. Wolfgang is a succinct, buoyant, infinitely listenable pop record by the best French import since Daft Punk. The guitar-playing alone is reason enough to listen to this album. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix: Harder, better, faster, stronger.
Passion Pit - Manners
Then there are those records that swing for the fences. Every song on this album feels like it could be THE single. You've got to hand it to these guys. Just when you began to think they just might go the way of so many other over-hyped, MTV-profiled bands, Passion Pit make one of the catchiest records of the year. It's quite possible that Manners will be penalized during the end of the year superlative sweepstakes for its lack of inscrutability. It's just so obvious and catchy. Anyone can understand the appeal of this record. It certainly ain't no thinking thing. Do you have a pulse? Do you like good music? Well, do Passion Pit have a record for you.
Pains of Being Pure at Heart - S/T
Just when you thought our generation might succumb to disco fever, the eighties come storming back. Don't call it a comeback. They've been here for years. What's past is prologue, and modern independent music is nothing if not derivative. In fact, Pains of Being Pure at Heart owes such a considerable sonic debt to its alternative pop forebears, it sometimes feels like you may very well be listening to some great if entirely unfamiliar New Order B-Side. However, this staggering similarity is a testament to the skill, facility, enthusiasm and aplomb with which Pains of Being Pure at Heart mines this particular past. Assuredly, this "eighties recycle" act is anything but novel. It has been done a million times before, but rarely has it ever been done this well.
Memory Cassette - Call & Response EP
More beautiful, blissed-out, dream pop from one of Dayve Hawk's many side projects. Listening to this EP, I just wish it was longer. Between his remixes and the countless tracks strewn across the internet, Mr. Hawk can seemingly do no wrong. Given the unfailing quality of a great many of these releases, it's easy to believe a lot of these songs were ten years in the making. With an LP out this September via Acephale (Memory Tapes' Seek Magic), 2009 promises to be a very big year for the Memory Cassette/Weird Tapes/Memory Tapes camp. As far as I'm concerned, that's a great thing. After all, what the world needs now is more tasteful, electro-pop. We definitely don't need another mountain.
Fever Ray - S/T
You've got to hand it to those crazy Dreijer kids. Just when you thought theatricality in music was kaput (or only existed as nauseating, overwrought camp), along they come with their Venetian masks, concepts, cinematic soundscapes and high-production value live show. They sound like no one. They don't do anything like anyone else. Not exactly beloved by all but almost universally respected, The Knife are so wholly unique and original, you can't help but listen (at least once). I am a great lover of mood records, and there is something so chilling about this stuff. Fever Ray picks up where The Knife's Silent Shout left off, and takes that album's gothic, horror-house dystopia in a slightly more intimate, but no less frightening direction. It's almost hard to explain just what this music sounds like. The hermetic production, the vocal modulation, the nocturnal feel and the spectral atmosphere all lend a decidedly singular sonic profile to this collection (it sort of sounds like The Knife, but some weird unexpected fusion of Silent Shoutand their 2005 "pop" album Deep Cuts (of "Heartbeats" fame)).
I must admit, when I first listened to this album back in March, I couldn't really hear what all the fuss was about. It was okay, but I didn't really like any of the songs. It was just too bleak. Too dark. The lyrics too weird (how many pedestrian things can one possibly catalog - bike riding, plant tending, dishwasher tablets (!?!)). Too boring (or at least I thought). Then I heard Dan Lissvik's remix of "When I Grow Up", and I started to think I might have missed something.
Over the past few months, I have become increasingly fascinated by this record. Every few weeks or so, I'll put it on, and each time, I'll hear something new. It's just so strangely intoxicating. There have been some really wonderful records released this year, but not a one sounds anything like Fever Ray. I like The Knife, but I was way more into Deep Cuts than Silent Shout ("Heartbeats" is, in my opinion, one of the most perfect pop songs ever written). I'm even a little surprised I like this album as much as I do, but, for all its bewitching, nocturnal garb, it's really just a pop record.
In a somewhat recent P4K interview, Ms. Dreijer-Andersson cited Phil Collins' "In The Air Tonight" and Paul Wall (and the chopped and screwed scene generally) as influences and claimed to have been going for a certain "Miami Vice" feel with this record: "One thing about 'Miami Vice' which I really try to capture in music is the feeling of - that feeling when you see those guys go away on a very fast boat with big engines in the night. It's like a music video in the episode, as they play loud music and drive the boat. That looks fantastic."
I guess Fever Ray really is the soundtrack to your summer. Just a really dark summer night on a speeding boat with Don Johnson. Terrifying.
Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
Perhaps we will come to consider 2009 the year when so many beloved indie rock bands finally delivered on the promise of their finer, albeit scattered, glimpses of early genius. I'm a huge Grizzly Bear fan, but Dirty Projectors are, without a doubt, the most creative and gifted group in independent rock today. From Bitte Orca's very first moments, it's hard not to be completely blown away by the sheer musicality and seemingly boundless inventiveness of this music. Rise Above was okay and certainly an interesting concept, but it wasn't without its filler. Bitte Orca is a lean burst of the unique brand of sophisticated, left field pop that makes the Dirty Projectors so captivating. While this album feels like Dirty Projectors most direct and accessible effort to date, that is certainly a relative standard, and Bitte Orca is certainly not everyone's taste (after all, they make very few concessions to accepted rock conventions or forms). But it's hard not to think that the world wouldn't be a more perfect place if everyone listened to this stuff.
My 25 favorite songs:
Honorable Mention:
Dirty Projectors - "Two Doves"
Javelin - "Vibrationz"
Lake Hearbeat - "Golden Chain"
Neon Indian - "Deadbeat Summer"
25. Woods - "Rain On"
24. Yeasayer - "Tightrope"
23. Korallreven - "Loved Up"
22. Taken By Trees - "Watch the Waves"
21. Washed Out - "Feel It All Around"
20. Beirut - "My Night with the Prostitute from Marseilles"
19. Toro Y Moi - "Talamak"
18. Memory Cassette - "Surfin"
17. Sun Airway - "Oh Naoko"
16. Washed Out - "New Theory"
15. The Antlers - "The Bear"
14. Suckers - "Beach Queen"
13. Animal Collective - "My Girls"
12. Grizzly Bear - "Ready, Able"
11. Atlas Sound - "Walkabout"
10. Girls - "Lust for Life"
9. Japandroids - "Young Hearts Spark Fire"
8. Bat for Lashes - "Daniel"
7. Jonathan Johansson - "Aldrig Ensam"
6. Fever Ray - "Keep the Streets Empty for Me"
5. The Very Best - "Warm Heart of Africa"
4. Free Energy - "Free Energy"
3. Grizzly Bear - "Two Weeks"
2. jj - "Things Will Never Be The Same Again"
1. Kurt Vile - "Freeway"
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