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Top 10 Albums of 2009:
1. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
So Sentimental! Not Sentimental, No!
What band has the audacity to juxtapose their album title with Mozart? None other than those dashing Frenchmen in Phoenix! This album absolutely epitomizes the mantras of CSotD — All of the songs on the album are lighthearted, not-too-complicated, upbeat and straight up danceable. Having had the pleasure to attend a Phoenix concert this year, I also have to add that they are one of the few bands that I can honestly say gives you even more at their performances than they do on their album.
Lisztomania! Think less but see it grow!
The best thing about this album is that it is not only a fun and playful album, but it is thoughtful and historically reflective as well. While Cadillac might proclaim otherwise, 1901 is actually about how the band members of Phoenix think that Paris in 1901 was “way cooler” than it is now (SPIN magazine interview). Yet you can get all of this without thinking too deeply about the lyrics on the album — a hallmark of memorable albums.
When it’s all over we can barely discuss // For one minute only // Not with the fortunate only // Thought it could have been something else
I don’t believe that I can say that any other album in this decade has made me laugh, reflect, dance and reminisce simultaneously.
- Tarun
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The reason this blog was started was to convince people to expand their musical horizons. We post catchy music is because we think it is the best kind of music for this - it convinces people the quickest. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix has more universal appeal than any album this year, an album where every track embodies the ethos of this blog. However, this alone would not have put it at number one on this year’s top ten. What did, was that it was my favorite album to listen to, hands down. As for why, who knows? It was just that thoroughly enjoyable.
- Juan
2. Empire of the Sun - Walking on a Dream
While everyone knows of Empire of the Sun due to their emphatic lyrics, astounding costumes and never-ending stream of remixes, Walking on a Dream (the album!) actually presented the world with a popular, remixable introduction to Australian electropop. The year began with remixes of Walking on a Dream from the likes of Sub Focus, Shazam and Kids at the Bar floating around on various mix magazines and Pete Tong radio shows. By the end of the year, clubs from New York to Ibiza were bouncing to the Shapeshifters Vocal remix of We are the People. No other album came close to being this popular throughout the world this year, via the conduits of the internet and mashup artists. As a catchy, marketable refinement of PNAU’s harsh sounds and The Sleepy Jacksons’ psychedelic beats, Empire of the Sun helped push forward the remix and mashup in a year that quite frankly served as a weak way to cap off an otherwise remarkable decade.
- Tarun
Empire of the Sun - We Are the People (Shapeshifters Vocal Remix)
3. Matt and Kim - Grand
I have never wanted to play the drums so bad after listening to this CD. Before I started listening to Matt and Kim, I would’ve thought a pop duo with only drums and a synth would have sound empty - like something was missing. Well, I would’ve thought wrong. These two brooklyn hipsters do so much with so little, creating such a full sound that amounts to some of the catchiest, most energizing, pop music of the decade.
- Juan
Matt & Kim - Good Ol’ Fashioned Nightmare
4. Passion Pit - Manners
Love ‘em or Hate ‘em, Passion Pit has definitely left a mark on both the musical and commercial landscapes of 2009. The distinct, high-pitched voice of lead singer Michael Angelakos led to the international popularity of the song Sleepyhead. From FIFA 2010 and Gossip Girl to Palm Pixi ads, Passion Pit found a way to place their mark on quite a few bastions of modern society. In fact, by the Cornell metric that Juan and I occasionally use, Passion Pit has “made it” because it was played at Cornell Frat parties and we have both overheard people talking about Passion Pit. As for the Ithaca restaurant metric, I’ve heard everything from Swimming in the Flood (my favorite song on the LP) played at Stella’s in Collegetown to Sleepyhead played at the Big Red Barn. I honestly found myself enjoying the upbeat nature of Passion Pit during my low-point of the year and because of that they hold a special place in my heart. Having had the privilege of being able to see them twice also gave me a slightly negative perspective of the band, because quite frankly they don’t come close to replicating the cacophonous ordinality of either the EP (Chunk of Change) and the LP live. Yet, there are still days of the week I find myself inexplicably saying, “you’re gonna drive me crazy // you’re gonna drive me mad // you got an angel on your shoulder // makin hairpins outta glass” to myself. This band is here to stay and I only wish them more success (and hopefully more tracks like Swimming in the Flood!) in 2010.
- Tarun
Passion Pit - Swimming in the Flood
5. Harlem Shakes - Technicolor Health
This CD was my summer. When stumbled upon this in mid-july, I burned it and threw in my car almost immediately. I really didn’t listen to anything else for a week. Most of the time, when I go on single artist music binges, I get permanently sick of said artist (see: Metric). The Harlem Shakes were the exception to the rule - I give Technicolor Health a monthly listen-through, and it still find myself singing and whistling along. I almost had to exclude them on a how-the-fuck-does-a-band-break-up-at-the-peak-of-its-success vengeance trip, but I just threw on Strictly Game (and Sunlight) one more time and knew I couldn’t do it.
- Juan
6. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
Honestly, the first time I came across this album in January 2009, I was anything but amazed. The band seemed to try too hard lyrically and I wanted to write Grizzly Bear off as another Brooklyn-based, Pitchfork-fueled band lost in an amalgamation of hype and an “experimental” label. But slowly, Grizzly Bear became so increasingly ubiquitous and unavoidable such that by the time the Fred Falke remix of Two Weeks leaked, I was hooked. Quite honestly while I still don’t really care too much for the lyrics, I know that no matter where I’m going, I can always throw in a live recording of Grizzly Bear and be set musically for my journey, because its so easy to get lost in Grizzly Bear’s trip-inducing sound. And this is precisely why this album is so great — it never sounds the same and goes well with any environment (sans bar or club). As for being catchy, this album certainly does take a little time to grow on the listener; yet there have been so many great remixes from the likes of Girl Talk, Neon Indian and The Hood Internet that there is an outlet for anyone to fall into Veckatimest. For me, 2009 in Veckatimest culminated in Mark Johnce’s excellent remix of Lily Allen’s Not Fair and the aforementioned Fred Falke remix of Two Weeks. So if you’re sitting on your ass and wanting to escape from reality, take a trip with Veckatimest; I guarantee that no matter what type of music you dig, it will take you somewhere you haven’t been before.
- Tarun
Grizzly Bear vs. Lily Allen - Two Fair Weeks (Mashup by Mark Johnce)
7. Bombay Bicycle Club - I Had the Blues but I Shook Them Loose
No top ten list for any year of this decade could be complete without an album from at least one British Indie Band. For 2009, we have the band Bombay Bicycle Club whose debut album feels like the bastard child of Turn on the Bright Lights (Interpol, 2002) and The Back Room (Editors, 2005). The almost eerie sound of Jack Steadman’s voice adds a resonant quality to tracks such as Magnet, Always Like This and Ghost; the lyrics are easily stuck in your head, regardless of how sad, complicated or convoluted some of the band’s ballads are. Moreover, the Xylophone-driven beats in Autumn are so damned beautiful that you can’t do anything but hum, whistle and sing along. If I were to be a castigator, I would certainly love for some of BBC’s songs to have more lyrical depth and memorability. But of course, maybe they intended for a smooth, not too light and not too hard (to paraphrase a Bud Light commercial) album — after all, there is a song titled Emergency Contraception Blues on the album.
- Tarun
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I feel like the “indie rock” label gets thrown around really loosely, and people just slap it on any rock band that does something a little different. This works fine, until the band blows up, and they are no longer indie. Part of me anticipates this happening with BBC, and when it does, they might get some credit for not just being indie rock, but for actually moving rock music forward, in the same way Arcade Fire has.
- Juan
8. Kasabian - The West Rider Pauper Lunatic Asylum
I love this album because it makes me want to dance and kick someone’s ass at the same time. Maybe its the distorted guitar riffs, maybe the funk-inspired bass lines, but I can’t sit still and listen to it. It’s the kind of album that would serve well as the original score to a Guy Ritchie movie. Like Locked Stocked, or Snatch aren’t “great” films, The West Rider Pauper Lunatic Asylum might not be a ”great” album, but its great fun. However, in the end, we watch movies and listen to music for the same reason - for the enjoyment, and this album brings plenty of it.
- Juan
9. Florence + the Machine - Lungs
Female vocalists are an odd breed that lack definite categorization; For example, in 2009, we’ve seen productions from the likes of Karen O (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and Jenny Lewis (Rilo Kiley) to LIGHTS and Imogen Heap. And of course we can’t forget the upcoming works from the bad-ass bitches of the world, namely Uffie and Peaches. Yet, Florence + the Machine appears to fit none of these stereotypes; she sings powerful ballads on her own with little instrumentation and more importantly without contempt for her listeners. One who listens to Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up) or You’ve got the Love takes away a simple message purveyed by a beautiful voice that has all of Lily Allen’s dynamic range with none of the attitude. Anyone who loves female vocalists has got to love the renaissance in female vocalists that we’ve seen in the past couple years and for 2009, Florence is leading the pack. As for remixes, the P.E.S.T. and Switch remixes of Rabbit Heart are damn good vocal house tracks that have been spun everywhere from Pacha (NYC) to Club Ivy (Goa, India).
- Tarun
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I didn’t like m’ girl Flo too much at first because it always sounded like she was yelling a little bit in all of her songs. But then I actually listened to them, and I realized she could really, really sing. You’ve Got the Love is my favorite, and though she didn’t write it, she sings the shit out of it.
- Juan
Florence + the Machine - Rabbit Heart (Raise it up) (Switch Remix)
10. Tie - The xx - xx
This is a rare example of album that I can listen to when I’m do anything: studying, falling asleep, driving, coolin’ it with the homies, etc. It rides the fence between up-tempo and down-tempo perfectly, as well as consistently. It is one of the few albums this year where I rarely had to press the skip button while giving it a listen.
- Juan
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When I was 19, I spent my time canoodling with a certain long-lost someone and pouring through the basement of analytic mathematics in the form of Big Rudin (Rudin’s Real and Complex Analysis). When the members of The XX were 19, they redefined the musical rags-to-riches story for the internet generation; they used Vint Cerf’s/Al Gore’s invention, Starbucks and iTunes to go from a virtually unknown pack of teenagers to a band of international acclaim. Alas, that acclaim cost them a keyboardist but not before the band self-produced a gem of an album. Their (almost) self-titled album is a joy to listen to because having both male and female “frontpeople” leads to the beautiful intonation of splendid lyrics. The curt, frank riffs and smooth, relaxing rhythms that are found in Crystalized and Shelter are a testament to human ingenuity’s ability to transcend age. I hope that you’ve had a chance to listen to them, because I have no doubt that they can only continue to produce even greater works of art if given the resources, time and most importantly the amount of love and dedication that their debut album contains.
- Tarun
10. Tie - Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
Every time I play Camera Obscura for someone for the first time, they immediately remark “This sounds like, old,” and then most follow up with a “…but I like it.” Camera Obscura has a very retro feel, but if someone asked me to describe them in one word, I wouldn’t say “retro,” I’d just say “good.”
This album is full of love songs for the broken hearted, but the lyrics aren’t too cutesy for those who haven’t had their heart broken. Each song is so complex, with a wide assortment of instruments providing backing to Tracyanne Campbell’s soft vocals. It is a formula which I thought would be hard to replicate in a live show, but after I saw them play live in November, I developed a new respect as they were even better live than on their studio recordings.
- Juan
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Honorable Mention: Peter Bjorn and John - Living Thing, The Bloody Beetroots - Roborama, Way Out West - We Love Machine, Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion, The Rifles - The Great Escape, The Temper Trap - Conditions, French Horn Rebellion - French Horn Rebellion, Neon Indian - Psychic Chasms, Metric - Fantasies, Wale - Attention Deficit, Girls - Album, The Antlers - Hospice, Andrew Bird - Noble Beast, Röyksopp - Junior, The Bird Day - The Bird Day EP, Junior Senior - Begone Dull Care, Vampire Weekend - Cousins EP, LIGHTS - The Listening, Little Dragon - Machine Dreams
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