[The top two: Not fitting a category, just ... good]
What ties these two together is that they're my two clear favorites of the year. Both are interesting, creative releases that are solid start to finish. They also compliment each other well, with Merriweather a hot, Brooklyn summer yin to Fever Ray's cold, Scandinavian yang.
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
What more can I say? It's just an amazing album straight through. It keeps impressing me and I only like it more the more I listen to it.
Fever Ray was my most listened to album in 2009 and I haven't stopped putting it on. It took some time to grow on me, but it's been a favorite ever since hearing "Concrete Walls" on shuffle. The pitch shifted vocals took some getting used to, even after years of listening to Ween and autotuned club hits. But they’re used to excellent effect. Again, "Concrete Walls" is a good example, projecting Karin Dreijer Andersson's words over the murky music.
Trip hop fans should enjoy it. Fever Ray's debut is atmospheric but well paced, without getting lost in soundscapes. "If I Had a Heart" is tremendous opener and sets up the American Indian vibe that appears throughout the music and the project's aesthetic.
Andersson's lyrics are intriguing, such as: "I learned to not eat the snow / My fur is hot, my tongue is cold." Live, she appeared dressed as what I can only describe as hulking and shaggy buffalo robot. Seeing her perform solidified my opinion that Fever Ray is a highly unique and impressive project. Their performance stands up as the best I saw in 2009, and the album remains in my top three of the year.
[The brand new heavies (same as the old heavies)]
Heavy sounding releases from Josh Homme and Jack White, who were in about 17 different hit-making bands this decade, all of them good. Seriously, besides these new efforts, Homme was in Eagles of Death Metal and Queens of the Stone Age, plus his countless Desert Sessions, while White was in The Raconteurs and that other band with his ex-wife/sister that made a bunch of albums. Keep up the good work, dudes.
The Dead Weather - Horehound
TDW and Wolfmother duked it out for a spot on this list, and the former won based on its heavy vs. hard standing. I've spent an inordinate amount of time pondering the difference between heavy and hard music, and I'll spare The Paulies my breakdown. Suffice it to say I prefer heavier Horehound to Wolfmother's more hard than heavy Cosmic Egg. If you want a clear cut comparison, contrast the '92/'93 releases "Green Machine" by Kyuss (heavy) and "Livin' on the Edge" by Aerosmith (hard). No disrespect to hard rock -- I just prefer the heavy these days. Chuck Klosterman also tackled this in Fargo Rock City; click here for the Google reprinted (huh?) excerpt.
This was the most straight forward album on my 2009 list. It's a collection of dirty, electrified blues rock. Horehound sounds like an updated and highly refined Blue Cheer album to me, which I'm all for. Dylan-cover "New Pony" is my favorite horse-related song since Tennessee Stud. "60 Feet Tall" keeps fading away only to return and rock you stronger.
Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures
This one's got me conflicted. Three artists from some of my short-list favorite bands (Queens of the Stone Age, Nirvana and Led Zeppelin) got together and made an album, and my expectations were of course really high. Early listens brought mild disappointment, but I've since begun to appreciate the album a lot more. Granted, much of it sounds like a middling QotSA album; Josh Homme's singing/playing/writing dominates the sound and Dave Grohl sounds much as he did on Songs for the Deaf. But the collaboration shines on the tracks where Homme, Grohl and John Paul Jones are all given space to demonstrate their unique talents.
"New Fang" is a stand out track -- the bass is mixed high and the trio actually sounds a lot like like Zep+Queens with Grohl on the drums. Bonus points for the "Paradise City"-sounding riff during the bridge. "No One Loves Me, and Neither Do I" is equally awesome, and gets really nasty around 2:40. "Caligulove" could easily be a B-side from Era Vulgaris if not for Homme's falsetto in the chorus, plus John Paul Jones' brief organ solo and the "Kashmir"-like Eastern-sounding bridge. "Gunman" has a great riff riding a disco beat during the verses.
A good but really Zeppeliny riff carries the beginning of "Elephants," then it becomes an interesting listen with the song quickly transitioning from Zep to Grohl-controlled territory with some double-time rocking, then a lot of half-time quarter note grooving before a QotSA+LZ bridge. This track's all over the place but it's a fun ride with splashes of all three members' influences shining through at unexpected moments. For an interesting example of what Foo Fighters and QotSA might sound like combined, listen to "Mind Eraser (No Chaser)." "Interlude (With Ludes)" has a great name but is basically a pilled out version of "I'm Designer." Anyway, this isn't quite the mind-blowing effort I was hoping for, but it is a top-10 album from a dream team supergroup, and I hope they work together more.
[Hip-Hop: "The year I stopped worrying and learned to love Rhymesayers"]
Against my expectations, 2009 became a great year for hip-hop. Besides the entries below, Red and Meth put out a great followup to their original Blackout! collaboration, Raekwon added another strong entry to the Wu canon, and Jay-Z continued his hit-making post-retirement trajectory with his third Blueprint album. I've never gotten into much from the Rhymesayers collective, yet they released my two favorite hip-hop albums this year. Now I'm sold.
Murs and Slug - Felt 3: A Tribute to Rosie Perez
Chalk this one up as the most pleasant surprise of the year for me. With MCs Murs and Slug, and Aesop Rock producing, this had a lot of potential as collectively, these artists have made some of my favorite hip-hop albums of the decade. Yet they've all been on a downward trajectory since their classics. I loved the original Felt (Christina Ricci), but I couldn't get into Felt 2 (Lisa Bonet), and I haven't liked much of what any of them has done since Murs: 3:16, God Loves Ugly and Labor Days. Even worse, I stopped liking Ase Rock's output since he started producing, so I wasn't thrilled with his presence here.
All my doubts were unfounded. This is a great album featuring flawless chemistry between the MCs, and intricate, interesting, head-nodding beats. "Ghost Dance Deluxe" recalls Labor Days with its horns and cinematic feel. The following track, "Revisiting the Styleetron," has a hard-hitting futuristic vibe and includes shout-outs to the oft-overlooked heads of Boise, Omaha, Salt Lake and Sioux Falls. The bass line on the slightly menacing "The Prize" is nasty.
Felt 3's deep, by which I mean it's chock full of good songs without much filler. 21 tracks with little in the way of segues or skits is impressive considering the quality remains consistent throughout.
If you want a taste, the band's currently offering a free download of the opening track "Protagonists" here.
Brother Ali - Us
Again, I didn't expect much from this and ignored it until I read enough hype to check it out. It's produced by Ant, whom I generally don't like (he produced the one Felt album I didn't dig), and Brother Ali's always been an MC I respected but didn't listen to.
Even so, Us grabbed me out of the gate with the gospel introduction slamming into a hot party vibe on "The Preacher." Ali's energy is infectious and served well by the direct, driving beat, and the funky, grooving horn section and bass. The next track "Crown Jewel" takes it down a notch with all the instruments settling into a laid back groove that's equally satisfying. From there Us remains remarkably consistent until the end. It's well paced and Brother Ali shows a lot of versatility in his raps, which alternate between bragadociousness and earnest concern for society and history's downtrodden. Somehow it all fits and feels totally cohesive. Other standout tracks include "Fresh Air" with its Stevie-sounding clav, and "Bad Mufucker Pt. 2," which simply rules.
Us brought me back to my college-era hip-hop listening times. There are lots of positive vibes on this album; it's reminiscent of the best of the late 90s/early 00s conscious hip-hop. All the hype for Us is well-deserved, and I'll pile more on here.
[Bands I already liked]
This category belongs to bands I love who put out good, but mostly unremarkable albums. They're not the best albums of the year, or the best by these artists even, but they still rank among my favorites from 2009. I'll point out some of the better tracks in case you haven't heard these and want to look into them.
Mastodon - Crack the Skye
This is my favorite in this category, and is the only album I liked as much as Fever Ray and Animal Collective's. It kicks off with no hesitation and finishes with an epic closer that could probably be snipped into five songs, but still doesn't get tiresome. Crack the Skye's been derided as an unwanted departure into prog rock and granted, the nearly 11 minute "The Czar: Usurper/Escape/Martyr/Spiral" is as prog as it gets based on the title alone, and for plenty of other reasons. But that's also an amazing track. This album has oodles of classic Mastodon riffage and intensity, but adds some more non-screaming vocals and longer songs. Fine. Unlike Slayer (see 1994-2006), Mastodon's a band that can grow their sound and experiment without sucking. Skye's not as good as decade finalist Leviathan, but it's still a tremendous effort and completely worthy of any fan's time. "Divinations" is a tidy example of where the band's been and where they're at with this album. "Oblivion" is apparently the single and the video is kind of hilarious to me. This video from the Leviathan era better explains why I care about the band. Best of all, a moment I couldn't have predicted before 2009: Mastodon rocking Jimmy Fallon's ass off:
Slayer - World Painted Blood
I don't expect this will win any new Slayer fans. But World Painted Blood kicks ass and I suspect anyone who enjoyed Christ Illusion will like this one. I read a few reviews suggesting this was a failed revamp of Reign in Blood, which is unfair and ridiculous. This album's nowhere near their classic, as they'd surely admit, but there are plenty of songs that recall the Reign era. "Unit 731" and "Snuff" are straight from their golden days, and "Public Display of Dismemberment" recalls "Piece by Piece" in both sound and subject matter. More importantly, this is Slayer being Slayer, and that's all I need.
The Bird and the Bee - Ray Guns Are Not Just the Future
The Bird and the Bee is the duo of the lovely voiced Inara George and Lily Allen producer Greg Kurstin, who was apparently in Geggy Tah.
This is a fun, nearly pop album featuring a lot of different feels. It evokes several musical eras (from the modern sounding "My Love" to the retro torch song "Witch") while remaining within the keyboards and programmed drums framework for the most part. I bought this on the strength of a single song, "Polite Dance Song," which won me over in a huge way. It is exactly what the title says it is. The song builds and builds to a big finish, and features a hypnotic organ riff, a jerky beat complimented by some polyrhythmic clapping, and lyrics like "I tried to be as coy as I can, but I want to see your naughty bits."
That track's awesomeness is unmatched on the rest of the album, though "You're a Cad" is excellent, as is the apocalyptic yet upbeat closer "Everything is Ending." "Diamond Dave" is best appreciated in video form.
PS: You can download their beautiful Rihanna cover free here.
The Bird and the Bee - Polite Dance Song from Eric Wareheim on Vimeo.
Flight of the Conchords - I Told You I Was Freaky
Another diverse set of funny, well-crafted tracks from these two goofs. I found myself listening to these songs from their show's second and final season over and over this year. FotC exists somewhere between Tenacious D and Ween; the characters are the main joke, but they parody musical genres at the same time. The album's about 50-50 great songs and clunkers. Some highlights are "Sugalumps" (about 7 million times more listenable than its "My Humps" inspiration), the Maxwellesque "We're Both In Love With A Sexy Lady, (just found out this is a spoof on R. Kelly & Usher's "Same Girl," making it even funnier to me), the Police-channeling "You Don't Have To Be A Prostitute," and of course "Too Many Dicks [On The Dancefloor]."
The joke will probably get old, but lines like "How'd you magic my clothes off? ... Your breasts are balls of flame, and I'm burning my hands playing this ballgame" from "Demon Woman" still make me laugh. And I really love Jemaine's ex-girlfriends' singing.
[On the cusp]
I don't know if the music was actually better this year or I just listened to more than I did in 2008, but I had a hard time narrowing my best of 2009 to 10 albums. Here are some others I liked that didn't quite make the cut.
- Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue
- Wolfmother - Cosmic Egg
- Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II
- Method Man & Redman - Blackout! 2
- The Flaming Lips - Embryonic
- Air - Love 2
[I would be remiss if I didn't mention ...]
Massive Attack's Splitting the Atom EP
Massive Attack put out an EP teasing their new album Heligoland, and it has me crazy excited for what's on the way. Mezzanine probably ranks in my top 10 albums of all time, but I've been mostly indifferent to what they've done in the interim, excepting their understandably slept on score to the Jet Li vehicle Unleashed, AKA Danny the Dog. The throbbing title track rates with their Horace Andy-sung classics. The powerful "Pray for Rain," featuring TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe, is incredible. "Bulletproof Love" is so-so, but "Psyche" is quite good. The latter features Tricky's early vocalist Martina Topley-Bird and is mixed by Flash, who produced half of the Fever Ray album. The result sounds a hell of a lot like Fever Ray with Topley Bird subbing for Karin Dreijer Andersson.
The fact that apparently Tortoise released a new album(?)
I just learned Tortoise released an album called Beacons Of Ancestorship over the summer. I haven't heard it yet, but this almost surely would have bumped one of the albums in my "Bands I already liked" category. How did I miss this?
The Grizzly Bear track with Michael McDonald
Veckatimest still doesn't do it for me, but I had to hear the B-side to "While You Wait for the Others" featuring Michael McDonald. I've listened to it roughly a million times and it may get me listening to their other work yet. It's a fantastic song ... still, I listen to the non-Doobified version and can't get into it. If MMcD became their full-time lead singer, Grizzly Bear would become one of my favorite bands, no doubt. They should ask him if he'd be interested.
2 comments:
Thanks for finding and posting a photo of Fever Ray in all her buffalo robot glory. It's hard for me to pick a favorite single from that album, but you called out two of the definite best--If I Had a Heart and Concrete Walls.
I'm surprised more people didn't mention this as a top album of the year, both on this blog and in the general media. Oh well. It's great. End of story.
this was excellent, a great overview of the year. i will be listening to a number of your suggestions.
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