I managed to listen to every 2009 release I owned over the course of January, so I’d be prepared to come up with a well-informed Top 10 list. The first five positions were easy to come up with. These were, by far, the albums I listened to the most in 2009. The competition for positions 6 through 10 was a lot harder. There was a lot this year I liked, but wasn’t particularly fanatical about (hence the inclusion of the fairly sizable Runners-Up list).
- The Thermals – Now We Can See
Like I said, the top 5 here are the albums I listened to compulsively throughout the year, but I don’t think there’s anything I’ve come back to as much as this one. I’d been sort of on the fence about The Thermals for a while. Their previous albums seemed a little same-y, and I found them a little dull live. This album, though, is just unbelievable. Maybe it’s just because my hopefulness about my species has been pretty low lately, but an album about the death of mankind seems like just the right sort of thing to sum up the year.
- BOAT – Setting the Paces
This should come as a surprise to absolutely no one. BOAT are awesome. It did take me a while to get used to the more polished versions of a lot of these songs, especially since I’d been hearing them live for so long, but they’ve totally grown on me. Great album.
- Hiawata! – These Boys and This Band Are All I Know
What year-end list of mine would be complete without some Scandinavian indie pop? I know virtually nothing about this band. They’re from Oslo. They sound like some completely awesome blend of Ash, The Lemonheads, Sloan, and some other band that I haven’t quite been able to place. This album is incredibly solid. Pretty much the only song I ever find myself skipping is the title track. The whole album makes me feel like I’m back in high school, which is perhaps not a great endorsement, but I mean that in the best possible way.
- A Sunny Day in Glasgow – Ashes Grammar
The last Sunny Day in Glasgow album was great, but this one manages to be even better. I’m not usually the most enthusiastic listener of shoegaze, but this album is so textured it’s hard not to be impressed. They were already one of my favorite bands to listen to while writing, but this album is pretty much ideal. I can’t want to see them live this spring.
- Yo La Tengo – Popular Songs
I realize I might hold Yo La Tengo albums to a higher standard than I should. I mean, this is a great album. “Something to Hide” is one of their best mid-tempo rockers. There’s some interesting new directions in sound (like “Here to Fall,” which totally sounds like a theme song to the best James Bond movie ever. In my mind, it’s the Hal Hartley James Bond movie starring Martin Donovan (or maybe James Urbaniak)). Ira’s developed a pretty impressive organ playing style (like in “Periodically Double or Triple”) that sounds pretty much like his guitar playing. It’s undeniably a great album, but it’s not I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One. Still, I’m pretty sure it’s the best thing I think they’ve done in the last ten years.
- The Besties – Home Free
I was not overly impressed by the first Besties album. It was fine, but the songwriting just didn’t seem to be there. As a result, I kind of ignored this one when it first came out. It seemed a little more polished, but nothing that really grabbed my attention. But then the songs ended up getting stuck in my head weeks later. I figured that was a good sign, so I gave it a few more listens. I’m still not entirely sold. There’s something about the vocals that bugs me a bit, but there are some really solid songs there. “Man Vs. Wild” is the one that I spent weeks singing to myself while I desperately tried to remember who recored it, but “What Would Tim Armstrong Do” and “79 Lorimer” are both pretty great. Actually, there’s not really a total misfire on here. I wish I could figure out why I’m so hesitant to whole-heartedly endorse this band.
- Jay Reatard – Watch Me Fall
I hadn’t been paying too much attention to Jay Reatard over the last ten years. The Reatards stuff I heard in the late 90’s was decent enough, but I sort of lost interest in that particular blend of garage punk by the time I turned 25 or so. Somewhere in the last decade, Jay Reatard apparently started coming up with something fairly unique sounding. His vocals are just bizarre – there’s some 70’s punk group they remind me of, but I have no idea which. I really need to find his older stuff and see if it’s as good as this is, since, sadly, there aren’t going to be any new albums.
- Nick Garrie – 49 Arlington Gardens
I have pretty low expectations for any album recorded thirty-some years after an artist’s undisputedly best work, but this is really quite good. I probably shouldn’t be too surprised, since it’s got members of Teenage Fanclub and BMX Bandits helping out. It doesn’t have the same kind of bizarro psychedelic touches as Stanislas, but it’s a pretty solid baroque-folk-pop album with some very pretty songs. It’s hard to argue too much with “When Evening Comes.” I’m pretty sure this is the best new album I’ve heard from a 60’s icon.
- Pintandwefall – Hong Kong, Baby
Am I alone in liking this band? I have heard nothing about them, and all my attempts to get anyone else to listen to them have failed completely. Maybe I’m just totally off-base, but I really like this album. I mean, they’re Finnish, and I am clearly a sucker for Scandinavian bands, but they’ve got a nice, weird kind of post-punky rock sound that I really like. Plus they have a song about an octopus who sounds like Mr. Bean. What’s not to like?
- Jeffery Lewis – Em Are I
I kept coming back to this album throughout the year. There are some similarities to Kimya Dawson’s delivery that I found a little off-putting at first, but I can’t deny that it’s a very solid collection of well-written songs, and, more importantly, it’s a pretty fun album. Again, not really the sort of thing I usually get too excited about, but it’s been a weird year.
Runners-Up: Vivian Girls, Neko Case, tUnE-yArDs, The Clean, Skepta, A Hawk and a Hacksaw, Antony and the Johnsons, Wake the President, The 1990’s, The Victorian English Gentlemens Club.