top-ten

Sometime in June, I think, someone asked me for my to date list of albums of the year. Save one obvious choice, I couldn't rattle any more off the top of my head. And for two good reasons: very little I'd heard at that time really resonated with me and 2) only a few of the forthcoming Top 10 were released in the front half of the year. So that's where I stood mid-year...stuttering, confused, and truth be told, a little sad. But I'm happy to report, and as this list will evidence, 2009 was yet another year of outstanding music. We've come a long way, baby!

10: Metric - Fantasies

How I came to be a fan of Metric is a perfect example of the power of social media. It may seem fairly basic to many people, but profound nonetheless.

We have a friend named Natalie who works for the EMI record label out in LA. I respect her taste in music very much. Sometime earlier this year she posted something on Facebook about how excited she was to go see a band called Metric play live. I'd never heard of this band before and was intrigued. I surfed over to last.fm (a social community for music fans), pulled up their profile, scanned their genre tags (indie, rock, female vocalists, alternative, electronic), similar artists (Stars, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Rilo Kiley), and decided they were worthy of a download and listen. This process is fundamentally exemplary of how social media influences commercial decisions. Anyway, on to the album...

While Karen O and her Yeah Yeah Yeahs reigned in their due acclaim in 2009, it was this female lead pop/rock band that laid claim to a spot in my top ten albums of 2009. "Fantasies" is a very straightforward listen...nothing overly complicated in production or mixing and nothing that presents a challenge requiring multiple listens to "get it." An upbeat, polished pop/rock album, Fantasies has a bit of a post-punk edge but also displays the catchiness of a Killers record without going all Brandon Overdrama Flowers on it. Frontwoman Emily Haines coy voice commands attention, especially when she goes off about hearing people "f**k through the wall" on Satellite Mind. I thoroughly enjoy this release and there are a bunch of solid remixes floating around too. And now that you too have been socially influenced...go check out Fantasies by Metric!

Date of Birth: 14 April 2009

Superlatives: Cuter than Karen O

9: La Roux - La Roux

For the longest time, the term "pop" made me want to wretch. I associated the genre with Billboard Top-40, bubblegum, and Brittney Spears (how about that for a shittacular alliteration). All the 80's crap my wife listened to in high school...? Vomit! Michael Jackson (RIP) was always welcome on my hi-fi, but he was the king and the rest was just rubbish. But somewhere along the way, either the genre underwent a reinvention phase or I began tuning my ears to higher quality pop artists. Yeah, right, the "good" pop. Is this a different pop or are my musical tastes changing? This album helped clarify things. When I took my first cruise through this eponymous release, I loved it and declared it was "currently my favorite pop album." The album is infectiously dancy and Eleanor Jackson's vocals are crystal clear, exhibiting tremendous range. La Roux received a ton of plays throughout the year and also caught on with a large contingency of my friends. Validation. Fascination still sits as one of my favorite tracks of the year.

Date of Birth: 29 June 2009

Superlative/s: Best Pop, Best Hair

8: jj - jj n° 2

I've heard so much great music come out of Sweden in the last couple years (see Miike Snow, Tough Alliance, Air France, Annie, Robyn). Seems disproportionate for a country with only nine million inhabitants. Also counter-intuitive is the feeling of warmth reflected in the work of many of these artists when their homeland seldom breaks 75 degrees (F) on summer days. That said, this album froths over with summery, island sounds (steel drums, bongos, acoustic guitars, yes, but are those castanets and is that a xylophone?) with vocals that feel like they are floating down, emanating from that single cloud hanging out over the water. So there you are, laying in the sand, day-dreaming through the first two tracks...and then..."Ecstasy." You've reached a special place...hard to believe it was created by none other than Lil' Wayne! Like many others, this is the track that lured me to the album and it's terrific. The album is thoughtfully framed around it. By the time your tropical stroll nears its end( ), the summer months are over, the goodbyes begin, and you reflect with great sentiment...what an awesome season it's been.

Date of Birth: 1 July 2009

Superlative/s: Best Seasonal Album

7: Mew - No More Stories / Are Told Today / I'm Sorry / They Washed Away / No More Stories / The World Is Grey / I'm Tired / Let's Wash Away

Ok, so what the f**k is "prog" anyway and why am I musically prejudiced to dislike it? This cracked.com article, while fabulously hilarious, does very little to bring me closer to an answer. Jethro Tull? Love me some Tull. Atomic Rooster? Not in my collection (had to do a quick search to verify this). But reconciling the teachings of the article against the album tags alone does render a hit. The exceedingly, obnoxiously, horribly long album title. Ahhh, we might be on to something here... I remember sampling Mew's previous record, "And The Glass Handed Kites," and not hating it, but not really liking it either. So with reluctance and the aforementioned "prog prejudice" I pressed play on 2009's "No More Stories..." I'm greeted with the psychedelic effect of halfway reversed vocals over deliberate percussion, and deep, bassy synths. It's an experience akin to listening to Sigur Ros in that 1) I have no idea what they're are saying but 2) the trippy yet heavy atmosphere is immediately indulgent. The mood breaks, then continues in a funky, syncopation laden jam with fluctuating time signatures and lyrics that are not only intelligible, but catchy. The "prog-like" arrogance of grandeur takes a back seat to the incredible talent on display in its musicianship and songwriting. There are enjoyable moments throughout: of tenderness, of fun, of heart race, and heart break. Although this album certainly isn't for everyone, Mew have made me a believer.

Date of Birth: 24 August 2009

Superlative/s: Most Syncopated, Most Artistic

6: The Clientele - Bonfires On The Heath

I've been in on these guys since their debut "Suburban Light" appeared in 2000. However this, their fifth album, is the first I felt compelled to share as a recommendation with my friends. It's not to say their prior releases were poor or even mediocre in the slightest. So what was preventing me from telling my musical circles, "hey, check these guys out" ? I think this album achieves the collective of all things The Clientele have been playing with but have not perfected to date. Where their previous releases rarely diverged from formula (lush, hazy, 70s style psychedelics) , Bonfires expresses a subtle diversity not found earlier in the catalog. It's just got a different buzz to the whole deal, starting with the first track "I Wonder Who We Are." A tender little jam with trumpets accenting the end of each chorus, head bobbing the whole way. Several songs evoke splashes of the White Album, and the influences, while clear, are not overdone. And this diversity and its throwback roots are what elevates the album from good to great.

Date of Birth: 6 October 2009

Superlative/s: Most Ethereal

5: Freelance Whales - Weathervanes

When I begin putting this list together each year, typically in early November, I surf through my most trusted music publications to refresh my memory on what they rated highly in a feeble attempt to ensure I don't miss anything truly outstanding. This typically results in "list paralysis" syndrome which merely makes tough choices even tougher thereby delaying the whole process. Rarely do I discover or rediscover anything that captures me. This year was different, as only recently, I happened upon Weathervanes by Freelance Whales. The band, currently operating out of Queens, are best known locally for playing ad-hoc, busker-type performances on street corners and entrances to subway escalators. The quality of this self-released album tells me their status as "little known" is about to change. A hybrid of Sufjan Stevens, Postal Service, Passion Pit, and other bands on the tip of your tongue that you can't quite recall...acoustic folk and electronic synthesizers, this is truly remarkable stuff. So glad to have found them. The most unique listen of the year.

Date of Birth: 18 October 2009

Superlative/s: Sleeper of the Year, Best Instrumentation, Best Lyrics

4: The xx - xx

Alright, let's just get this out of the way. The blogosphere has been knob-slobbing this album since it first leaked. So. Much. Hype. So being the jaded "yeah right" kind of listener I am (or aspire to be, rather), I fully expected this to take it's place in the long line of over-hyped indie records that either boringly drag along (Grizzly Bear) or straight up hurt my ears (Animal Collective). Much to my surprise, this album delivered the goods. Quiet and dark it is. Boring and painful it is not. The album begins like a ship coming to port in the darkness. Wordless voices appear beneath a simple guitar melody and you immediately want more. Sly but soulful male/female vocal tradeoffs work wonderfully in building the mood. The songs maintain their simplicity but the attention to detail in the arrangement is remarkable. For their haunting, tender efforts, The xx, a group of four twenty-somethings from London, find a well deserved spot in this year's top 10.

Date of Birth: 17 August 2009

Superlative/s: Best Male/Female Vocal Duo, Delivered On The Hype Award

3: White Rabbits - It's Frightening

2009 - another year passes without a proper LP release from Spoon. Luckily, White Rabbits treat us to the next best thing. It's Frightening, their sophomore effort, blasts out of the gate with rapid tom-tom percussion, manifesting the frantic imagery on the album cover. A funky guitar riff is dropped and we're off to the races on a kick-ass indie rock adventure. "Rudie Falls," the second track, is an absolute gem. The comparisons to Spoon are both logical and fair, as Britt Daniel (Spoon frontman), had his hands all over this in the studio while serving as producer. His influence is perhaps most pronounced on "Lionesse," both in the song's style and the ghostly, aching vocal delivery. Despite a few forays into the melancholy, the album maintains its overall pace, yet another hallmark trait of that band from Austin.

But that's not to say this is entirely a retread of the same old idea. It's Frightening brings creativity and freshness to an established and frankly, well embrace sub-genre. This is an excellent listen from top to bottom, and one that you shouldn't shy away from playing for your friends with more conservative (read: mainstream) tastes in music. Here's hoping that White Rabbits build on this and break more of their own while they grow as a band.

Date of Birth: 19 May 2009

Superlative/s: Best Rock, Best Percussion

2: Editors - In This Light And On This Evening

"London's become the most beautiful thing I've seen," chants Tom Smith as if he's gazing over the city from a distant tower, watching the whole thing burn in apocalyptic glory. And then an explosion. Soaring electric guitars. Morse-code blipping a helpless SOS. This is epic stuff; part Homer Odyssey and part Dante Inferno. The album continues: a delightful, engaging combination of Joy Division (by the way, have you seen the movie "Control"?), Depeche Mode, and Interpol. Densely layered, powerful songs that exude confidence and elicit fear. This album caught me totally by surprise and blew me away. Even the more lackluster tracks, suffering from occasionally poor lyricism, find a way to escape from mediocrity with shifting time signatures, dramatic crescendos, and Smith's persistent and confrontational voice. Once I decided on my top ten, began to juxtapose the order, and gave everything several more listens, this album kept creeping up the chart.

Date of Birth: 12 October 2009

Superlative/s: Most Epic

1: Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

I glommed on to an extremely early leak of this album and immediately started playing it for anyone and everyone who would listen. And everyone got hooked. Wherever I threw this album on, people always stopped and asked, "who is this band?" "Phoenix...French...these guys are gonna blow up this year," I told them. And though my prognostication came true, it was a bittersweet victory. You see, it's sorta tough to let "everyone else" in on your little secret of a band, despite the facts: 1) Phoenix wasn't truly much of a secret to begin with and 2) yes Candice, you were the one to originally turn me on to the band (via Too Young on the Lost In Translation soundtrack). Now to the album. I'd be frightened to learn the total number of times I've played 1901 and Lisztomania. Last.fm alone has tallied 38 and 24 respectively. At the surface, the songs carry themselves with such ease it's hard to believe some of them took three years to record (check out their interview on pitchfork.com). But do a little digging into a song such as "Love Like A Sunset," and the Thom Yorke-ish complexity and perfectionism becomes apparent. And that is some musical company in which to rub your shoulders.

Date of Birth: 26 May 2009

Superlative/s: Album of the Year

So here we are. We have an xx and a jj. We have real animals (rabbits, whales), mythical animals (phoenix), and the sound of animals (Mew). We have editors working in the metric system for their clientele, and a french name from the UK. Never would have guessed that's how the year would unfold. Here's to those that missed the cut, and those forthcoming in 2010!