The AFIN Team's Top Albums of 2009

This is potentially a part 1 of 2, there may depending on additional contributor selections (Christian, Jonathan, and our two new contributors, Ben and Dorian!). Carry on and check out what we've selected, and let us know your favorites of 2009 in the comments!

• Marilyn's Picks
  

1. The Horrors - Primary Colours
2. TwinSisterMoon - The Hollow Mountain
3. Manic Street Preachers - Journal For Plague Lovers
4. The Flaming Lips - Embryonic
5. Fever Ray - Fever Ray
6. Natural Snow Buildings - Daughter of Darkness
7. Blank Dogs - Under and Under
8. La Roux - La Roux
9. Natural Snow Buildings - Shadow Kingdom
10. Franz Ferdinand - Tonight: Franz Ferdinand

Top 10 Independent Artist Submissions 2009:
1. Panda steps in chocolate - Creep of the Crop
2. Dead Times - Midnight Glass
3. E.K. Wimmer - The Invisible Audience
4. Caddywhompus - EPs
5. Oh Ne - Netzeband Gliterwelt
6. L'Avventura - Your Star Was Shining
7. The Long Afternoon - Signifying Nothing
8. Jordan Galland - Airbrush
9. Anton Rothschild - The Diffident
10. Seeland - Tomorrow Today

Top 3 EPs:
1. Spectrum - War Sucks
2. Spider and the Flies - Something Clockwork This Way Comes
3. John Carpenter - Possibilities


And why...:
2009 was an excellent year for music...and, I've often thought to myself, it's too bad the populace doesn't know it! This has also been a year of widespread confusion in the music industry as far as how to market music, lots of changes in how music is promoted, an influx of independent musicians doing whatever they can to get recognized in the vast flood of all that's out there. I predict that these things will be better sorted out in the coming 10's (seems odd seeing that in print) - a new decade brings new possibilities and lots of new, wonderful music to come.

Before our 2000s decade retrospective, we're going through our favorite albums of this year. I listened to more music (current and older) this year than I ever have in my life. According to my Rate Your Music profile, I've heard around 1,000 this year alone - scary! As I have said many times in the past in giving an explanation for the reason behind exploring all of this music, I'm honestly trying to find as much of the greatest music that exists out there as I can. I don't see why I should stick to a narrow range (not that I ever have!) when there is always more brilliance to discover.

2009 has been a year of finding new favorite bands as well, particularly The Horrors, Manic Street Preachers, and Natural Snow Buildings. The Horrors' Primary Colours has gotten a very mixed reception (to the point of me writing a Making the Case for the Horrors article on SleepWalking Mag in their defense) - if I hear one more person accusing them of ripping off Joy Division and/or Can and/or NEU! I might do something...drastic; their influences are actually quite varied (I went so far as to make a list on RYM), and their sound comes across as a combination of what they've absorbed, with their own unique flair...and they're all very attractive, that's important too!

I'd checked out the Manic Street Preachers a few years ago because of my quest to complete Robert Dimery's 1,001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, though it wasn't until the end of last year and the beginning of this one that a true frenzy began to take hold, thanks to AFIN contributor John here sending a high-quality version of The Holy Bible along to me, Journal For Plague Lovers being wonderful, co-running some Manics-related Tumblrs, setting up a links directory (VISIONBLURRED), and seeing them live in San Francisco when they came back to North America after a 10 year-long absence. I think all that fanaticism ought to speak for itself!

And then Natural Snow Buildings...what a brilliant discovery! I was randomly browsing a recommendations thread and happened upon the suggestion of their Daughters of Darkness release from this year, and, as I said in the artist feature I wrote on the band at SleepWalking Mag: "From the title track, with its unusual textures, persistent glittering hum, and subtle sound changes, I was drawn in completely." Mehdi and Solange are responsible for making thoroughly unique, mystical and transcendental music, and in unbelievably vast quantities. Three albums from the world of NSB appear in my list for 2009: TwinSisterMoon's The Hollow Mountain and Natural Snow Buildings' Daughter of Darkness and Shadow Kingdom. The band have been extremely cool to me, sending along albums and nice responses, and I was considerably overjoyed upon finding The Hollow Mountain, which I would consider amongst my favorite albums ever, in my mailbox unexpectedly just the other day!

Furthermore, this was an extremely important year for me connecting with fellow independent musicians. This was the year that I released my first LP (after a series of EPs and compilation), first single, and I'm now in the midst of launching my own record label (more on that in the future), which is entirely due to running A Future in Noise, promoting, and getting artist submissions. All of the artists in the independent album picks are those I've gotten to know on a more personal level through keeping in touch with them or through PR groups that have been personable and sent me great stuff consistently. I can only wonder what the year to come will bring!

• Ian's Picks

1. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
2. The Horrors - Primary Colours
3. Marilyn Roxie - New Limerent Object
4. Japandroids - Post-Nothing
5. Panda steps in chocolate - Creep of the Crop
6. Atlas Sound - Logos
7. The Very Best - Warm Heart of Africa
8. Bat For Lashes - Two Suns
9. Patrick Wolf - The Bachelor
10. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
11. (Honourable Mention) Florence + the Machine – Lungs

And why...:
2009 was actually a really awesome year for new music, but between the death of Michael Jackson, the reissue of the Beatles catalogue and the inexplicable pop-chart dominance of Lady GaGa (more on her another time), you’d be forgiven for not realising it. It was actually a bit of a chore to narrow it down to ten. Since there was no new No Age record this year, Vancouver’s Japandroids (3) more than filled the void of lo-fi noise-punk goodness. Bat for Lashes (8) and Patrick Wolf (9) are both really just Kate Bush acolytes, but they brought a since of adventure and fantasy that pop desperately needed this year. Bradford Cox issued his side project’s second record (6), a set of ethereal mood music that’s probably better than the last record by his main band. Panda steps in chocolate (4) made one of the best bedroom-electro records since Arular, a delightfully poppy, effervescent set that evokes childhood innocence. Of course, the debut album from AFIN’s own Marilyn Roxie (2) was breathtaking, an hour of hypnotic reverie from California’s own Brian Eno.

But it was the top two albums that caused me the most grief when assembling this list. The Horrors’ second album, which Marilyn reviewed upon its leak in April (and then kindly sent my way), basically takes all the post-punk and shoegaze revivalism of the last decade and pisses on it all, whilst Animal Collective’s record (leaked on Christmas Day 2008, and released the day of President Obama’s inauguration) is unlike anything else, a culmination of the band’s outré early career with the most perfect pop melodies and harmonies one could imagine. I listened to both records a ridiculous amount this year (to illustrate just how much, my boyfriend hums ‘My Girls’ in his sleep and when tornado sirens went off recently, my aunt thought I was playing ‘Scarlet Fields’ at top volume) and love them both nearly equally. However, I have to give the edge to Animal Collective. It’s an avant-garde album, so much so that the band aren’t even placed in a genre by the press. It’s contemporary pop, every bit as catchy and stylish as Beyonce and Lady GaGa. It’s world music, with hints of Chinese, Indian and Brazilian music poking through here and there. It’s psychedelia, head music in every sense. It’s a Rorschach test, allowing the listener’s mind to evoke the images rather than explicitly defining everything (for example, Marilyn thought of snow and ice upon hearing ‘No More Runnin’ where I think of meditating with Buddha). No other record this year (and few this decade) has contained so much within its running length.

• Andy's Picks

1. The Whitest Boy Alive – Rules
2. Bill Callahan – Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle
3. Lungs – Florence & The Machine
4. The Phenomenal Handclap Band – The Phenomenal Handclap Band
5. Nathan Fake – Hard Islands (EP)
(/and from the world of under-represented music…/)
6. Marilyn Roxie - New Limerent Object
7. Orioles – Let me be your partner
8. Jack Mountain – Conquest of the Planet of Rockers

And why...:

Okay so I admit 2009 ain’t exactly been my year for albums.  SONGS?  Whoa yes, there’s a ton of great songs - but albums?  /Albums that are actually good all the way through/?  Eek, I’m stumped...  I struggled enough to come up with a list of 10 for the decade (which I hope to cover later) so 2009 is looking sparse indeed, in the world of signed artists that is… although having said that, the art of albumcraft appears to be alive and well amongst the independent/free download community, which is why my list a is a 50/30 split between the two, with one EP and two albums missing!  The Whitest Boy Alive’s /Rules/ (1) further refines the devastatingly economical pop explored on their 2007 debut /Dreams/ – ideal for our frugal times, there isn’t a single surplus note or lyric. This was the first time I was excited by the release of a new album in I don’t know how long.  Bill Callahan, the artist formerly known as Smog (TAFKAS?) is bound to get a mention from me.  He’s consistently inconsistent, but when he hits the mark, it’s something else.  Arguably this album (2) goes a little downhill after the opening track, “Jim Cain”, possibly one of his finest moments, but is a strong addition to his canon.  Florence’s /Lungs/ (3) did not fulfil my high hopes after “Rabbit Heart” but still, this is breathtaking, exhilarating pop – sure, it owes a little to Kate Bush, but we all owe something to Kate, huh? The Phenomenal Handclap Band (4) is a more interesting than exceptional record, melding as it does 80s hip-hop, 70s funk and 60s psych into something enjoyable, if a little /too/ clever.  As an avid follower of all things electronic I felt I had to include something here but it’s not been a great year for electronica (at least not album-wise) so I’ve had to cheat and include Nathan Fake’s EP-come-mini-album /Hard// Islands/ (5). From a background in neo-trance turntable epics Fake’s 2006’s /Drowning In A Sea Of Love/ was an unexpected slice of feel good indie-tronica.  Defying expectation again, Hard Islands is an initially impenetrable mix of synchopated glitch and sideways references to his house music.  What emerges though, on (many) repeat listenings, is some truly transcendent electronica.

Turning to the world of the free, unsigned and those generally /deserving of more recognition than they currently enjoy/ I must make mention of the truly excellent releases from fellow blogsters Marilyn and Christian with /New Limerant Object/ (6) and /Let Me Be Your Partner/ (7) - from Christian’s side-project Orioles - respectively.  Marilyn’s record has a breadth and depth of sound that takes it beyond her earlier instrumental sketches into cohesive work, its knowing acknowledgement to kraut/synth rock never outweighing its ability to sound excitingly contemporary.  Let Me Be Your Partner is a fantastic, almost tribal incantation - a kind contemporary equivalent of /My Life in the Bush of Ghosts/.  Jack Mountain continues his “Planet of Rockers” series with /Conquest of the Planet of Rockers/ – a series of releases of such gritty grandeur that even Chuck Heston would have approved.  Mountain’s sound, technically a kind of lo-fi slacker rock (8), is also hard-bitten in a way that lends it an intensity that goes beyond this categorisation.  Musically speaking the latest instalment is more diverse, with several atmospheric instrumental pieces thrown in (at times reminding me of the later-period Beach Boys). I urge you to check out the entire ‘Rockers’ series. 

• John's Picks
  

1. R. Stevie Moore - Sentimental Ties
2. Marilyn Roxie - New Limerent Object
3. Julian Casablancas - Phrazes for the Young
4. Charlotte Hatherley - New Worlds
5. Micachu - Jewellery
6. Chester French - Love the Future
7. HEALTH - Get Color
8. John Frusciante - The Empyrean
9. Manic Street Preachers - Journal For Plague Lovers
10. Blank Dogs - Under and Under
11. (Honourable Mention) The Powdered Cows and the Toy Throat Alarm Clock - S/T

And why...:
For what it's worth, here are my 2009 top 10. And by top 10 I mean (more or less) the only contemporary albums I downloaded/bought this year. With all the streaming facilities I find it's difficult to acquire anything truly awful. You can judge for yourself if I am in sync with the interweb's omnipotent tastemakers/popular opinion/label PR. The list is in order of preference at time of submission, but this is definitely not fixed and essentially liable to shuffle on a daily basis.

Nothing from the world of hip-hop piqued my interest in 2009, and no complete albums of non-Western origin have reached my ears... So what we have here is, broadly, a pop/synth/rock affair. Among them ambitious epics (3, 4, 6) and some melancholy, idiosyncratic (8) and experimental (5) records in that ballpark. A lushly textured, otherwordly electronica album comes courtesy of Herr Roxbot of course; there's also a hard-rocking return to form by some old hands (9), sublime noise pop (7) and an offbeat lo-fi racket (10). One of my favourites though has to be an airtight collection of R. Stevie Moore's collaborative tracks cherry-picked from the last 30-odd years. Moore sings on few tracks but, true to form, does the rest; and his magic touch combined with the broad range of guests is refreshing and highlights his innate mastery of songcraft and production. It's short, to the point, genre-defying and a bit good.