The Best Albums Of 2009: Top 30

A Happy New Year to all! We’ll start 2010 in our time-honored tradition of presenting our favorite albums from the year past. During December, with a record-breaking 32 posts in 31 days, we presented our choices for the Best Albums of the Decade and focused on some of the highlights of 2009. We have already presented our Top 50 Tracks of the Year, the 10 Best Debut LPs and yesterday we posted the bottom half of our Top 60 Albums list. Time to finish this marathon by unveiling today, first day of the year and the new decade (!), our 30 favorite albums for 2009.

Our choice for "Album of the Year" is not going to be a surprise for anyone who’s been following this blog. As early as January I’ve been praising Telepathe’s debut "Dance Mother", placing it at the top of our first "Listening Habits" list for the year, ahead of the critic’s darling for 2009, Animal Collective’s "Merriweather Post Pavilion". By July "Dance Mother" was leading our First-half of the Year album selection proving that the spell Telepathe had casted could stand the test of time and by December it was our choice for "Debut of the Year". This is how I tried to explain the unique charms of this extraordinary avant-pop masterpiece in earlier reviews: "The two exceptional singles that Telepathe released in 2008, "Chrome's On It" (their most pop-friendly moment so far, with playfully melodic vocals and unusual, hip-hop influenced beats) and "Devil's Trident" (The Slits meet Kraftwerk in a haunted disco) along with the information that the multi-talented Dave Sitek of TV On The Radio had undertaken production duties for their debut album, made "Dance Mother" one of the most anticipated releases of 2009. Our expectations were completely fulfilled upon listening to the album…Ethereal, dark melodies that draw inspiration from both the trip-hop of Portishead as well as the gothic charm of Cocteau Twins, combine with experimental rhythms, inspired by New York's hip-hop radio stations, and repetitive, trance-inducing, tribal percussion. The electropop sounds of the early '80s intertwine with the feminist DIY punk aesthetics of the late '70s and the result is a unique, truly inventive sound- the sound of 2009!"

The only other album that was able to compete with "Dance Mother" for our "Album of the Year" title was the recently released sophomore effort of A Place To Bury Strangers. The not unreasonably dubbed "loudest band in New York" offered us "Exploding Head", an excellent gift to noise-rock fans everywhere. As I was writing in November "...the band's sound remains rooted in their love for the "Psychocandy" wall-of-noise with its buried pop melodies while paying close attention to Kevin Shields' guitar effects, Sonic Youth's sonic assault, Big Black’s shattering rhythms and the gothic new wave atmospherics of the early '80s… The amazing "To Fix the Gash in Your Head" was the track that showcased what this band was really capable of, and this potential is fully realized this time around resulting in a thrilling noise trip that renews and revitalizes the genre." The mind-blowing live performance that we witnessed here a few weeks later was the confirmation that A Place To Bury Strangers is the most exciting new noise-rock band in existence right now.

Of course, the band that started all this gloriously apocalyptic guitar noise a few decades back could not be absent from our list, especially when it has presented us with its best work for the '00s. Sonic Youth’s "The Eternal" was at the top of our June playlist and the band was also responsible for one of the most thrilling gigs we saw in 2009 with their headlining performance at the Primavera Sound festival in May.

Among the top albums of the year we also have Metric’s self-released fourth LP, the wonderful "Fantasies" (it was our "Album of the Month" in March, while "Help I’m Alive", its first single, topped our Tracks of the Year list), the second Bat For Lashes effort, the pop masterpiece "Two Suns", which was among our favorite releases of April along with Yeah Yeah Yeah's dance-frenzy mayhem of "It’s Blitz!". Animal Collective also gets respect here (although not the Pitchfork-style "We’re not worthy!" acclaim), as does the magnificent, otherworldly Fever Ray debut (read here our initial reaction upon hearing this unique sound for the first time). Our Top 10 is completed with The Dead Weather’s blues-heavy "Horehound", our "Album of the Month" in July, yet another project of the workaholic Jack White (it would be impossible to pair Allison Mosshart’ lung power with White’s mad skills and not have a Top 10 worthy album in my book), and with the euphoric indie-pop of the self-titled debut of The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, our second choice in the "Debuts of the Year" list. Here’s the complete Top 30:

Top 30 Albums of 2009

1. Dance mother - TELEPATHE
2. Exploding head - A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS
3. The eternal - SONIC YOUTH
4. Fantasies - METRIC
5. Two suns - BAT FOR LASHES
6. It's blitz! - YEAH YEAH YEAHS
7. Merriweather Post Pavilion - ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
8. Fever Ray - FEVER RAY
9. Horehound - THE DEAD WEATHER
10. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART
11. A brief history of love - THE BIG PINK
12. Get color - HEALTH
13. Only built 4 Cuban linx… pt. II - RAEKWON
14. Embryonic - THE FLAMING LIPS
15. I'm going away - THE FIERY FURNACES
16. Marry me tonight - HTRK
17. Face control - HANDSOME FURS
18. Post-Nothing - JAPANDROIDS
19. Fits - WHITE DENIM
20. Popular songs - YO LA TENGO
21. Futuro - THE LOW FREQUENCY IN STEREO
22. Dragonslayer - SUNSET RUBDOWN
23. Six - THE BLACK HEART PROCESSION
24. Farm - DINOSAUR JR.
25. Dim light - GUN OUTFIT
26. Everything goes wrong - VIVIAN GIRLS
27. Rose city - VIVA VOCE
28. XX - THE XX
29. Tonight: Franz Ferdinand - FRANZ FERDINAND
30. Humbug - ARCTIC MONKEYS

Our list of the Best Albums of 2009 can also be found here, where it's going to be updated with the albums that I'm sure we are going to discover later on. When it has been finalized, it will also be posted in Cool Music Database, the place for all the lists of our favorite music from the late '70s to the present day (the project is currently at the 1993 list, but I'm going to pick up the pace in 2010 - one of my new year's resolutions).

The Best Albums Of 2009: 31 to 60

Tomorrow's just another year. That's when we are going to present our Top 30 Albums of 2009. For today, as we're unwrapping our gifts (oh look! Santa brought me the latest Oneida, Lightning Dust, Atlas Sound and Cold Cave albums - what a good taste in music he has!) and keeping the champagne on ice, we'll unveil the rest of the list: the next 30 favorite albums of the year, what's going on just under no. 60, plus some of the records that I still didn't have the chance to listen to properly (or at all) and I'm planning to do something about it in the new year. So, this is what our list looks like from numbers 31 to 60:

Top Albums of 2009: 31-60

31. There is no enemy - BUILT TO SPILL
32. Dos - WOODEN SHJIPS
33. Primary colours - THE HORRORS
34. Lungs - FLORENCE + THE MACHINE
35. Radio wars - HOWLING BELLS
36. Years of refusal - MORRISSEY
37. The ecstatic - MOS DEF
38. Dark night of the soul - DANGER MOUSE AND SPARKLEHORSE
39. Balf quarry - MAGIK MARKERS
40. Sewn together - MEAT PUPPETS
41. Broken - SOULSAVERS
42. Monsters Of Folk - MONSTERS OF FOLK
43. Outer south - CONOR OBERST AND THE MYSTIC VALLEY BAND
44. Wilco (The album) - WILCO
45. The hazards of love - THE DECEMBERISTS
46. My old familiar friend - BRENDAN BENSON
47. Middle cyclone - NEKO CASE
48. Sometimes I wish we were an eagle - BILL CALLAHAN
49. I blame you - OBITS
50. King of jeans - PISSED JEANS
51. Them Crooked Vultures - THEM CROOKED VULTURES
52. Broken side of time - ALBERTA CROSS
53. Phrazes for the young - JULIAN CASABLANCAS
54. In and out of control - THE RAVEONETTES
55. Til the casket drops - CLIPSE
56. Bitte orca - DIRTY PROJECTORS
57. My maudlin career - CAMERA OBSCURA
58. Swoon - SILVERSUN PICKUPS
59. Now we can see - THE THERMALS
60. Spinnerette - SPINNERETTE

Who says there's no more than 50 or 60 good records released in a year? Here's the rest of the albums I've enjoyed in the last 12 months that didn't make it in the Top 60:

Baby darling doll face honey - BAND OF SKULLS, Further complications - JARVIS COCKER, Kingdom of rust - DOVES, A woman a man walked by - P.J. HARVEY & JOHN PARISH, Beware - BONNIE PRINCE BILLY, Petits fours - GRAND DUCHY, Backspacer - PEARL JAM, The century of self - …AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD, 200 million thousand - BLACK LIPS, Travels with myself and another - FUTURE OF THE LEFT, Ignore the ignorant - THE CRIBS, Art Brut vs. Satan - ART BRUT, In this light and on this evening - EDITORS, Julian Plenti is… skyscraper - JULIAN PLENTI, Love hate and then there's you - THE VON BONDIES, Yours truly, the commuter - JASON LYTLE, Goodnight unknown - LOU BARLOW, Varshons - THE LEMONHEADS, The spirit of Apollo - N.A.S.A., I feel cream - PEACHES, Music for men - GOSSIP, Hush - ASOBI SEKSU, Dear John - LONEY DEAR, The airing of grievances - TITUS ANDRONICUS, Tentacles - CRYSTAL ANTLERS, Grace / Wastelands - PETER DOHERTY, JJ no2 - JJ, No one's first and you're next - MODEST MOUSE

Wait, there's more! Here's the "To Do" list - albums I have yet to listen or that I need to listen more carefully before deciding if they have a place in the final list (the one that's going to be posted in Cool Music Database in due time):

Rated O - ONEIDA, Infinite light - LIGHTNING DUST, Logos - ATLAS SOUND, Love comes close - COLD CAVE, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix - PHOENIX, Tarot sport - FUCK BUTTONS, Why there are mountains - CYMBALS EAT GUITARS, Big Sexy Noise - BIG SEXY NOISE, Bird-brains - TUNE-YARDS, Hot wax - GRANT HART, What will we be - DEVENDRA BANHART, Seek magic - MEMORY TAPES, Hospice - THE ANTLERS, Album - GIRLS, Checkmate savage - PHANTOM BAND, Dark days/Light years - SUPER FURRY ANIMALS, West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum - KASABIAN, Two dancers - WILD BEASTS, Wall of arms - THE MACCABEES, Jewellery - MICACHU & THE SHAPES, Nests - SHE KEEPS BEES, Actor - ST. VINCENT, Manners - PASSION PIT, Only revolutions - BIFFY CLYRO, Outside love - PINK MOUNTAINTOPS, Pine/Cross dover - MASTERS OF REALITY, Harum scarum - JOE GIDEON AND THE SHARK, Psychic chasms - NEON INDIAN, Born like this - DOOM, Begone dull care - JUNIOR BOYS, Three EPs - SHACKLETON, Ambivalence avenue - BIBIO, Cassette city - LUSHLIFE, SyMptoMs - MORDANT MUSIC, Rain Machine - RAIN MACHINE, All aboard future - THESE ARE POWERS, Under and under - BLANK DOGS

Wait for the Top 30 tomorrow before you tell me what I have missed. We leave 2009 with the cool video for one of the best tracks of the year, "Stillness is the move" by Dirty Projectors (if there were more like this one on "Bitte Orca", the album could have gone higher on our list, too). For now, have fun at your New Year's Eve parties or Happy New Year if you happen to be located to our east!

Dirty Projectors - Stillness Is The Move

2009 Highlights: Debut Albums of the Year

Before we present the list of our favorite albums of the year, let's take a closer look at some of the best debuts of 2009. After all, new bands are the future of music and they deserve our special attention. Last year almost one-third of our Top 30 consisted of first-time efforts. This year the percentage is lower, but we did have some pretty impressive debuts that will leave their mark on 2009's musical landscape. Here are our 10 favorite debut LPs of the year by new artists (meaning that we excluded the debuts of new groups that consist of already established artists like The Dead Weather or Fever Ray) based on what we've been able to listen to so far:

1. Dance mother - TELEPATHE

They say that once you're in love, you're unable to see the flaws of the object of your affection. I guess it must be true because if there were any imperfections to "Dance Mother", the David Sitek produced debut of Brooklyn newcomers Telepathe, I just wasn't able to spot them. Mind you, this is not some passing infatuation as I have been listening to this album from the start of the year and its spell remains unbroken. More about Telepathe very soon... (MySpace page)

2. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART

Another New York band that left us an excellent first impression. We've seen them live twice this year (read our Primavera Sound review here and the review of their Athens show here) and both times they knocked our sock off. Indie-pop is back, sounding as vital as ever. (MySpace page)

3. A brief history of love - THE BIG PINK

The best electro-pop album of the year with plenty of feedback to satisfy our noise needs. (MySpace page)

4. Marry me tonight - HTRK

My answer is yes, without a second thought. From Australia with love. (MySpace page)

5. Post-Nothing - JAPANDROIDS

An exciting recent discovery. Mind-blowing noise-rock from Canada. (MySpace page)

6. Dim light - GUN OUTFIT

Why this band still hasn't got the acclaim of No Age ("Dim Light" was released on PPM label which is co-run by Dean Spunt of No Age) or Japandroids is beyond me. Only seven friends on Myspace including me? This needs to change now!

7. XX - THE XX

I bet you know all about them by now. (MySpace page)

8. Lungs - FLORENCE + THE MACHINE

Florence Welch deserves to be a massive pop star. (MySpace page)

9. Broken side of time - ALBERTA CROSS

Neil Young-inspired epic guitar-rock. (MySpace page)

10. Baby darling doll face honey - BAND OF SKULLS

Another recent discovery. White Stripes influenced garage-rock from the UK. (MySpace page)

Listen to a playlist with tracks from our Top 10 Debuts of the Year here.

2009: Top 50 Tracks Of The Year

It doesn't really feel like Christmas without a Festive 50. So, after careful consideration and losing several hours of sleep, I finally managed to narrow down a really long list of favorite tracks to the Top 50 you see below. I'm not saying that these are the absolute best tracks of the year but it's a very good sample of the music I've listened to and enjoyed the most over the last 12 months. As usually, there are some rules that I tried to follow in order to make the final selection. The first one was to include only tracks that were released as singles (in some shape or form) but I have to admit that I broke this rule on a few occasions and I have included a handful of indispensable album tracks that I feel they would have made killer singles (perhaps after reading this post - illusion of grandeur alert! - the relevant artists will realize their mistake and make amends). Anyway, the way things are going it seems likely that in the near future there will be no more albums and all songs will be downloadable digital files for mobile multitasking contraptions, so this singles-only rule starts to feel very 20th century. The second rule (which I did manage to follow) was to include only one track from each artist or band in order to have a wider spectrum of music represented in the Top 50. So, it's safe to assume that several artists in here could have more tracks in this list, but only my favorite from each one made the final cut.

The top spot of our 2009 Top 50 Tracks list goes to "Help I'm Alive", the lead single off Metric's excellent fourth album, the rocking "Fantasies". The song got its first digital release a year ago (on December 23rd, 2008 in Canada and on January 1st, 2009 in the US) and later on it was also released as a good old-fashioned 7" vinyl single. The opening galloping drum beats set the frantic pace of the song as Emily Haines expresses her existential angst in a sweet, desperate voice. As the rhythm shifts gears, the panic builds up and when the Pixies-like guitar kick in you know from the very first listen that you're dealing with a classic song that's going to stay with you for years to come.

Cool Music Central's Top 50 songs of the year are the following:

Top 50 Tracks of 2009

1. Help I’m alive - METRIC
2. So fine - TELEPATHE
3. Daniel - BAT FOR LASHES
4. Zero - YEAH YEAH YEAHS
5. Sacred trickster - SONIC YOUTH
6. Young adult friction - THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART
7. Ambling alp - YEASAYER
8. Seven - FEVER RAY
9. My girls - ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
10. Die slow - HEALTH
11. In your heart - A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS
12. Dominoes - THE BIG PINK
13. Stillness is the move - DIRTY PROJECTORS
14. I was born - HIGH PLACES
15. Islands - THE XX
16. Disco - HTRK
17. Hang you from the heavens - THE DEAD WEATHER
18. Death bells - SOULSAVERS
19. Black hearted love - P.J. HARVEY & JOHN PARISH
20. Ulysses - FRANZ FERDINAND
21. 1901 - PHOENIX
22. First communion - GANG GANG DANCE
23. I’m confused - HANDSOME FURS
24. Troubles like mine - GUN OUTFIT
25. Over it - DINOSAUR JR.
26. Sea within a sea - THE HORRORS
27. Departure - CRYSTAL STILTS
28. Feel like taking you home - BRENDAN BENSON
29. People got a lotta nerve - NEKO CASE
30. French navy - CAMERA OBSCURA
31. Rabbit heart (raise it up) - FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE
32. Digital hearts - HOWLING BELLS
33. Got nuffin - SPOON
34. The rake's song - THE DECEMBERISTS
35. Something is squeezing my skull - MORRISSEY
36. Angela - JARVIS COCKER
37. Panic switch - SILVERSUN PICKUPS
38. House of flying daggers - RAEKWON (Feat. GHOSTFACE KILLAH, INSPECTAH DECK, METHOD MAN)
39. Life in marvelous times - MOS DEF
40. Ecstasy - JJ
41. Frost - SALEM
42. Wolf cub - BURIAL & FOUR TET
43. These are my twisted words - RADIOHEAD
44. Bye bye bayou - LCD SOUNDSYSTEM
45. Dancing choose - TV ON THE RADIO
46. Walkabout - ATLAS SOUND (Feat. NOAH LENNOX)
47. The end is near - THE FIERY FURNACES
48. Mykonos - FLEET FOXES
49. Cornerstone - ARCTIC MONKEYS
50. 11th dimension - JULIAN CASABLANCAS

Metric - Help I'm Alive

Listen to our top tracks of 2009 at MySpace Music here.

Meanwhile Dandelion Radio, the internet radio station that continues John Peel's tradition of the annual Festive 50, has just started broadcasting on a daily basis the results of this year's poll. Go here to listen to the complete list and check out below the tracks that make up 2009's Top 10:

1. There are listed buildings - Los Campesinos!
2. Young adult friction - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
3. My girls - Animal Collective
4. Surf solar - Fuck Buttons
5. I'm here to see the clouds of blood - The Chasms
6. I am Grimaldi - Nightingales
7. Whirring - The Joy Formidable
8. Cougar - The Brownies
9. The sea is a good place to think of the future - Los Campesinos!
10. Murder music - Ste McCabe

Los Campesinos! - There Are Listed Buildings

2009 Highlights: Sonic Youth & A Place To Bury Strangers

Seeing our recently completed list of the Top 25 Albums of the Decade some might rightfully wonder where the heck are the Sonic Youth albums. Fear not, Sonic Youth fan, Cool Music Central has not forgotten the band who took the guitar sound to other dimensions and beyond. It's just that this list is only a first draft and, as we've already explained, it doesn't include any 2009 albums at this moment. And since the best Sonic Youth album of the '00s, in our opinion, was released this year, it just hasn't found its rightful place in the decade's list just yet. You can expect, however, to find the glorious guitar noise of "The Eternal" in a prominent place of our 2009 list, which is currently under construction. Meanwhile, you can check out here what we had to say about the album in June and see below a performance of one of its finest tracks, "What We Know":

Sonic Youth - What We Know

And speaking of glorious guitar noise, here's the video for the brand new A Place To Bury Strangers single "Keep Slipping Away" from the excellent "Exploding Head", another strong contender not only for one of the top positions of our 2009 list, but for a place in the final '00s list as well.

A Place To Bury Strangers - Keep Slipping Away

Links: "Exploding Head" review here, live review of their recent incendiary performance in Athens here.

2009 Highlights: Telepathe

A brief interview with Telepathe (from the German on3radio.de) giving us some insight on how they created one of the best albums of the year, the magical "Dance Mother". Here's how their shoegaze-hip hop was born:

For more Cool Music Central posts about Telepathe click here. And here's a live performance of "Threads and Knives" at Studio B, Brooklyn, Apr 5 2007:

2009 Highlights: Raekwon & Mos Def

Hip Hop albums of the year? I certainly think so.

Throw your Ws up for Raekwon and his Wu buddies in the ace "Only Built For Cuban Linx Pt II":

Raekwon - New Wu (featuring Method Man & Ghostface Killah)

And now it's time to get ecstatic with Mos Def's "The Ecstatic", his best album since "Black On Both Sides" from 1999:

Mos Def - Supermagic

2009 Highlights: The Fiery Furnaces

The presentation of our favorite albums of the decade is approaching its dramatic climax as we're about to reveal our Top 5 over the next 5 days. In the meantime, we are preparing our lists of the best albums and tracks of the year, so this is a good time to start remembering some of the highlights of 2009. Among those is "I'm Going Away", the most pop-friendly album of The Fiery Furnaces. Here you can read our first impressions of the album from October's "Listening Habits" and below is the new video for the track "Even In the Rain", where the Friedberger siblings create their own "Easy Rider".

The Fiery Furnaces - Even In the Rain