The Top 5 "Well, duh!" Albums of 2009

I'm not going to be anything but glaringly obvious in this list of my 5 favorite albums of 2009. If you know me at all, then these picks will be pretty straight-forward. Fortunately for most everyone, you don't know me very well, yet, and my top two choices are much different from those of the more mainstream music blogs.

I have ranked these, but let's be honest, it doesn't really matter. So, let's just jump right into it.

#5 - Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest

When Grizzly Bear buzz was at max for their last release I gave it a listen, I just could not get into it at all. I tossed it aside without even a second chance.

When I heard Two Weeks on All Songs Considered, though, I loved it. So I gave them a second chance with Veckatimest. Even as a someone who normally listens to pretty strange music to most, it took me a little while to permeate this album. Still, I found myself drawn back to it often.

Nowadays, it not only gets regular rotation, but their video for Ready, Able gets played constantly on YouTube when my nearly 2 year old daughter comes up to me while on the computer and wants to watch something. She is entranced by that video, almost as much as Shakira's gyrating hips, something I'd like to ween her off of in the near future.

Continue Reading------>

Ready, Able

#4 - The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love

I'm a really big fan of concept albums as I tend to become really engrossed with the stories and analyze them obsessively. I loved The Crane Wife, but when Decemberists made an entire rock opera out of Hazards of Love, I was hooked from the first listen.

The story behind this album is like that of an old fairy tale, simultaneously beautiful, touching, and strange as hell. Girl stumbles upon shape-shifting fawn-man in the woods, gets busy with said creature, becomes pregnant, gets captured by a douchebag that killed all of his kids, fawn-man makes deal with a river to chase after her, saves her from douchebag, and both of them die together in the river upon return.

Yeah, it's a bit weird, but poetic and touchingly delivered. If you're really that hung up on this story, then don't even try to analyze the stories of a Mars Volta CD. Those things are DARK AND TWISTED.

The Hazards of Love 2

#3 - Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

Past Animal Collective releases have been sound collages of a more traditional sense -- a more straight-forward band set-up. This time, one member down, they ditched all but the drums and synthesizer and then threw another synth in for good measure.

The result is much more electronic sounding then before, but there is no mistaking that it is Animal Collective through and through. Sounds of crickets chirping blends with a driving drum beat, a melody, and the haunting vocals to make music just as original and creative as before.

In the Flowers

#2 - Propagandhi - Supporting Caste

How many times have I written about Propagandhi on this blog? Not enough. They are the best punk band around right now. They've grown and matured with every release, but manage to still make you feel like an angsty teenager blasting music from your bedroom and jumping around like an idiot. Lyrics challenge your way of thinking, while the music makes you instinctively throw fists in the air and yell along at the top of your lungs.

How have they managed to find this magical way of becoming better with every release, rather then fading from your memory as you grow up and your musical tastes mature *cough* NoFX *cough*, or just tread water and cater to the next set of angsty 16 year olds with each new release *cough* Anti-Flag *cough*? Simple, they take their sweet time.

There were four years for me to wait in agony after Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes, blew me away, but Potemkin City Limits raised the bar to the ceiling. Five excrutiating years later, Supporting Caste has blown it through the roof. Will they be able to top themselves again? I'd like to think if they couldn't, they would just call it quits and we would never know they had lost their music making skills. And then I would rant about them breaking up for decades later.

Supporting Caste

Sorry for the live version but their American distributor blocked all studio version cuts of the album from viewing in America. I'm sure Propagandhi loved that.

#1 - The Paper Chase - Someday This Could All Be Yours

If there is a god -- which I'm pretty sure John Congleton is out to disprove with the upcoming Vol. 2 of this CD -- then he made The Paper Chase just for me.

They are the combination of every single thing that I enjoy most in music -- collages of unique sounds (scissors, phone hang-up tones, knives being sharpened, pigs squealing), interesting creepy or cool sound-bytes, concept albums, dark atmosphere, very dark concept album stories, great lyrics, and just plain old overall creativity and originality.

With every Paper Chase release, it usually takes me 3 or 4 listens before I start to get into it. But by the time I've learned some of the songs, I am completely hooked. I love picking apart the stories of a new Paper Chase album, and analyzing all the different sounds I am hearing at once.

What makes this particular album all the better, is that for waiting an extra year then then normal release schedule for the band, we are apparently getting a Vol. 2 of this CD. Considering the story for Vol. 1 seems to be; everything is going to shit, natural disasters are everywhere, people are dying and God is a complete asshole -- I can't even begin to imagine what will happen next.

I'm Going to Heaven With or Without You (The Lightning)