top 10 albums of 2009 - kate miles

[10] S/T - PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART: This album has trickled down my list over the weeks as I've listened to it more. I got it last March and have enjoyed the hell out of it, but geez, "Gentle Sons" sounds a helluva lot like "Just Like Honey". Either way, I'm going to take a leap of faith that if your first album sounds a lot like Jesus & Mary Chain then maybe your second album will sound original, amazing, and just Jesus & Mary Chainish.

[9] 'EMBRYONIC' - THE FLAMING LIPS: When the Vatican reviewers described Avatar as "bland," Conan O'Brien remarked that perhaps the Vatican folks forgot to get stoned before the movie like they were supposed to. A similar train of thought could be used in discussing the Flaming Lips; is Embryonic more enjoyable if you're listening to it with My Little Pony on mute while 2/3rds through a tub of oriental cracker mix? Fortunately for government employees and non-dope dabblers, the Lips ignore the fact that they could easily make one-dimensional albums that appeal mainly to their more fragrant fans; instead, Embryonic is thoughtful, layered and "Convinced of the Hex" is the best 'track 1' of any album I heard in '09.

[8] 'MANNERS' - PASSION PIT:

Since "Sleepyhead" is now on an endlessly played Palm commercial and other tracks from Manners are constantly looped on the crappier FM stations, I now feel obligated to defend my choice of this once little-known Boston band. The reason why Manners appears on my list is pretty simple: I was one of those people who listened to the Postal Service's Give Up all summer long in 2003 and I hadn't heard an album at all like it till a friend in Somerville told me about Passion Pit. It's the perfect music for times of high sentimentality. Listening to "Live to the Tell the Tale" from the pre-Manners Chunk of Change EP was the perfect song for packing for my first x-country move; in the song, Michael Angelakos does *not* tell God to bless inanimate objects (thanks, 'anonymous'). Either way, I *still* highly recommend Passion Pit for weddings, moves, babies being born, funerals, or any other "crossroads" moment. So there.

[7] 'GET GUILTY' - A.C. NEWMAN: Why the hell is everyone now so jazzed about A.C. Newman? Does no one remember 2004's The Slow Wonder? Or did everyone I know just hate that album? (I'm including "Miracle Drug" in my music playing gizmo as a reminder of that album's awesomeness.) Anyway, Get Guilty was my favorite of the New Pornographer alum offerings this year; if you're working more hours at your job than you'd rather be, "All of My Days and All of My Days Off" is the perfect OT anthem.

[6] 'RESEVOIR' - FANFARLO: It kind of sounds like the lead singer of Arcade Fire playing with Jens Leckman's band, which makes for an album that doesn't exactly sound like something brand spanking new, but is still worthwhile through its neat lyrics and use of unexpected instruments.

[5] S/T - XX: I'm not sure what more I can add about this album since it's appearing on lots of lists. If you haven't hopped on the XX bandwagon yet, here is the video that introduced me to them and subsequently got me hooked:





[4] 'NEVERMINT' & 'LOUISE' EP - GRAND LAKE:

You know those asshats who, for no apparent reason what-so-ever, will just announce that they "saw Modest Mouse play an acoustic show at the Middle East downstairs in 1997"? I'm quite sure I will be one of those asshats in the coming years when discussing Grand Lake. Nevermint arrived on my doorstep as a gift when I was still living in Boston last summer and I have been listening to it constantly; it's fun, clever, new - it has many original qualities that have been lacking in a lot of other 2009 offerings. The Louise EP has a Silver Jews cover that is sung with the authority of someone not doing a cover; it causes the people in the metaphorical bleacher seats to perk up and see what's going on. Now that I live out in Oakland they're my new favorite local band, and I have no doubts singing their praises to snooty Brooklyners and picky Bostonians; it's solid stuff.

[3] 'POPULAR SONGS' - YO LA TENGO

Yo La Tengo's Popular Songs is to this year's music as George Clooney's performance in Up in the Air is to this year's movies. Clooney didn't do any press for Up in the Air because he decided it's a been there/done that thing, he's above it/over it, and he's fucking Clooney. But his absence from the press circuit coupled with having been hunktastic and charismatc since the '90s doesn't make his skilled performance any less exciting or pertinent. The members of Yo La Tengo - the fellas now speckled with Clooneyish salt and pepper hair - have also been hot shit since the 90s, and their consistency doesn't diminish that the under-hyped Popular Songs has some of the catchiest ("Periodically Double or Triple") and most moving ("More Stars Than There Are in Heaven") songs of the year.

[2] 'ASHES GRAMMAR' - A SUNNY DAY IN GLASGOW: I wasn't sure what to expect when I sat down for my first listen of Ashes Grammar. On one hand, 2008's Scribble Mural Comic Journal had the hypnotic "5:15 Train," which, incidentally, is a most appropriate song to accompany the wind-down of the evening rush hour. On the other hand, a start-to-finish listen of Journal makes you feel like you're shopping in a hot, overly lit boutique that sells $180 skinny jeans. I was pleasantly surprised - and very wow'ed - that I can listen to Ashes Grammar over and over again. If you like "Two Doves" from the Dirty Projectors' Bitte Orca (which was the only song from that album I enjoyed), then Ashes Grammar will flat out floor you.

[1] 'VECKATIMEST' - GRIZZLY BEAR: This was easy! I had been lukewarm towards Grizzly Bear for a couple of years; as a regular listener of All Songs Considered I knew that Bob Boilen loved them. I thought their cover of "He Hit Me (And it Felt Like a Kiss)" was creepy and mesmerizing. They crept onto my iPod via collaborations with Feist, Dntel, etc. (Lots of this backstory is just to annoy a certain anti-Grizzly Bear creator of this blog, by the way.) But then the Treasure Island Festival in San Francisco happened in October. They opened the show with "Cheerleader," the clouds parted from the sky and the sun came out (literally) and everything changed:



Take *that*, Mr. Jackson. When I returned home from Treasure Island, I was a full fledged Grizzly Bear freak. I asked PGJ if he had ever seen his fellow Brooklyners perform (though Ed Voste is a Cambridge native, yay) and his reply was "ew no". Shit man, even Jay-Z loves Grizzly Bear:



Last thoughts:
I was underwhelmed by Dark was the Night, with the exception of Feist and Ben Gibbard's "Train Song". That duet, in combination with Grizzly Bear being on perpetual tour with Beach House, made for a great year for male/female duets; I haven't been this excited since Peter Cetera and Amy Grant sang "Next Time I Fall" in 1986. Grizzly Bear's "Slow Life" with Victoria Legrand for the New Moon soundtrack is a perfect example of the duet-y awesomeness out there, and the snobs at Pitchfork need to pipe down with their bitching about the New Moon soundtrack. The '00s were filled with horrible movies that had great, memorable soundtracks (I never saw Wicker Park but the soundtrack was all I listened to in the fall of '04), and we shouldn't hold grudges against artists who lend original songs to less-than-hip movies.

And that's all!