The Best of 2009 so far (part 1): The Albums

Lists presenting the best albums of the first half of the year have become as inevitable as a heat wave in July. And since this blog is known for never missing an opportunity to create a "Best of" list (as you may have guessed, we’re big fans of "High Fidelity"), this is exactly what you’re going to get.

The music of the first half of 2009 hasn’t exactly been spectacular, but there are at least 15 albums that meet our excellence standards. Dinosaur Jr., Morrissey, Franz Ferdinand and The Decemberists weren’t able to surpass their previous efforts but their latest albums were strong enough to be included in 2009’s elite. Handsome Furs turned to ’80s electropop for inspiration in their sophomore work with impressive results. Norwegian post-rockers The Low Frequency In Stereo offered their best album to date by using krautrock and noise-pop influences to shape their propulsive sound. Career highlights were also achieved this year by Animal Collective, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Metric. Animal Collective’s years of experimentation have crystallized into a futuristic psychedelic gem, while Yeah Yeah Yeahs continued their shape shifting, this time turning into the queen and kings of indie-disco dance. Metric turned their amps all the way up to 11 for their most rocking effort to date, their best work since their awesome "Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?" debut from 2003. And talking about rocking efforts, Sonic Youth delivered the goods once again in their first indie album in twenty years, which happens to be their best work of this decade. Natasha Kahn is slowly but surely turning into the brightest star of alternative pop. Her second album under the Bat For Lashes moniker is simply stunning as was her appearance in the recent Primavera Sound festival.

As always, we reserve a special place in our hearts for newcomers and so far this year we had four debuts that are worth writing home about. The Knife’s Karin Dreijer Andersson launched her solo career as Fever Ray with an exceptional album featuring some of the most haunting, otherworldly and addictive electro sounds you are going to hear this or any other year. A description that is also fitting for Telepathe’s first LP, the David Sitek produced "Dance Mother" where Kraftwerk meet TV On The Radio on the dancefloor of a haunted disco with ESG as the house band. And, finally, if you are looking for some feverish guitar sounds, you should definitely check out fresh-faced indie-pop sensations The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart and “just-gimme-indie-rock” noiseniks Gun Outfit. The ’80s indie scene obviously played an important role in the upbringing of these talented youngsters, with the C86 British sound and Sarah Records being at the core of the pure hearts of the former and the U.S. underground guitar noise of bands like Dinosaur Jr. or Meat Puppets dominating the record collection of the latter.

The Top 40 albums of the first half of 2009, based on what we’ve been listening to so far and in a not so random order, are the following:

Top 40 Albums

Dance mother - TELEPATHE
It's blitz! - YEAH YEAH YEAHS
The eternal - SONIC YOUTH
Two suns - BAT FOR LASHES
Fantasies - METRIC
Merriweather post pavilion - ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
Fever Ray - FEVER RAY
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART
Futuro - THE LOW FREQUENCY IN STEREO
Face control - HANDSOME FURS
Dim light - GUN OUTFIT
Farm - DINOSAUR JR.
Tonight: Franz Ferdinand - FRANZ FERDINAND
Years of refusal - MORRISSEY
The hazards of love - THE DECEMBERISTS
Radio wars - HOWLING BELLS
Balf quarry - MAGIK MARKERS
Dos - WOODEN SHJIPS
Outer south - CONOR OBERST AND THE MYSTIC VALLEY BAND
Middle cyclone - NEKO CASE
Sometimes I wish we were an eagle - BILL CALLAHAN
Primary colours - THE HORRORS
Now we can see - THE THERMALS
Swoon - SILVERSUN PICKUPS
The spirit of Apollo - N.A.S.A.
I feel cream - PEACHES
Petits fours - GRAND DUCHY
A woman a man walked by - P.J. HARVEY & JOHN PARISH
Kingdom of rust - DOVES
Further complications - JARVIS COCKER
My maudlin career - CAMERA OBSCURA
Beware - BONNIE PRINCE BILLY
200 million thousand - BLACK LIPS
Art Brut vs. Satan - ART BRUT
Love hate and then there's you - THE VON BONDIES
The century of self - …AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD
Hush - ASOBI SEKSU
The airing of grievances - TITUS ANDRONICUS
Tentacles - CRYSTAL ANTLERS
Dear John - LONEY DEAR

Our favorite tracks of the past six months will be the subject of our next post. Meanwhile, here's one of the latest additions in our Killer Tracks Hall of Fame, Sonic Youth's "Sacred trickster", the opening track of "The Eternal":

Sonic Youth - Sacred trickster