| The Top 50 Albums of 2009 |
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| Written by onecaseman | |||||||
| Wednesday, 13 January 2010 | |||||||
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Here at The Music Lobby is over, we like to wait until the year is over before we reflect on the music that's been released over the past year. This gives us time to absorb as many releases as possible as well as those with late release dates, and really get a sense of what the year had to offer. With this year, it certainly was variety. But 2009 had more than that. The top albums created a sense of newness, with sounds that really looked forward and didn't sound like anything released before. We saw this trend in hip-hop, techno, and indie circles alike. Artists in all genres really pushing sounds in new directions and defying any previous categorization. Are these albums a gimpse of what we'll hear in the new decade , or just a blip of experimentation at the end of a very successful decade for music. At The Music Lobby, we certainly hope the latter.
50 A Camp, Colonia [Nettwerk]Nina Persson's second album as A Camp saw her solicit a little help. The self-titled debut was an out-of-nowhere solo altcountry experiment that guided later albums by The Cardigans. Colonia adds her husband Nathan Larson and Niclas Frisk in the mix to become another "band", but, to be honest, they both helped produce and played instruments on the first album. Their more "official" addition to the project certainly make the A Camp sound more versatile though, as the country and folk sound of the debut is combined with a 60s pop rock feel that is pretty damn unique, but very accessible. Nina's songwriting continues to be strong, and her voice is as lovely as ever. It's amazing what can happen when talented musicians collaborate with no rules and still make pop music. It makes us remember why we still like pop music sometimes. As the lead singer of The Cardigans, Nina's always been considered to me one of the most underrated songstresses out there. The A Camp project has only made me more sure of that statement. ~ onecaseman Download: The Crowning
49 Cortney Tidwell, Boys [City Slang]Born of a musical family, Cortney Tidwell is a special type of musician. A schoolteacher in Nashville, Tennessee, her family steeped in country tradition. There's a stroke of altcountry and folk in every note Cortney sings, but it's coupled with a deep appreciation for artists like Bjork and Mazzy Star as well. Because of this, Cortney has some very stripped down country songs as well as more produced electronic productions, both on the poppy and esoteric side. Altcountry and electronic pop playing off each other on an album for all intensive purposes should be a disaster, but both on her debut EP, and both of her albums, Tidwell has made it seem like a winning formula. "Watusii" is the most poppy on the album, with its hyperspeed video boring that premise out (one of the better videos of 2009, in my opinion). Opener "Solid State" and "Being Crosby" come more from her roots, and "17 Horses" is a much darker rock tune with driving percussion and guitar shreds, showing Tidwell epxanding her base in new ways. I could partition out each individual track like this and talk about its virtues, but there's simply not enough time. Don't Let Stars Keep us Tangled Up suffered from a too strong frontside and weaker backend, but Boys is a much more solid and varied experience throughout.~ onecaseman Download: Oslo
48 Rameses III, I Could Not Love You More [Type]Rameses III has been releasing music for a little over five years now, but they really started to make a name for themselves with their first release on Type, a collaboration with The North Sea called "Night Of The Ankou." It had never occurred to me that "folk ambient" could be a genre, but Rameses III are perhaps the only group to have made it there. Their earlier material had slightly more of an emphasis on the folk, but "I Could Not Love You More" is all soaring, achingly beautiful ambience. The best ambient music tends to lend itself easily to visualization, and (at least in my case) this is particularly true with this album. ~ playbynumbers
Download: All Shall Be Well
47 City Center, City Center [Type]Type Records continues to challenge itself by releasing records from all over the sonic palette. City Center is another foray into the experimental indie rock space. City Center is Brooklyn duo, and there's a lot over overlap with what they're duo and some of the popular experimental indie acts such as Animal Collective and the first album by Atlas Sound. Drowned out, esoteric pop mixes with long stretches of ambience. Sounds that won't please radio listeners enough, but will make more open minds step back and truly absorb. Something about the sequencing of this album makes the appearance of simple acoustic guitar emerging from the ambience a real revelation. It's like rock stars emerging from the haze of a fog machine. The songs contain that same repetitive and anthemic quality of, say, a Panda Bear tune, but the acoustic guitar takes the tracks elsewhere, and there's still much more an element of freeform and ambience than anything the Animal Collective have done in quite a while. This certainly won't be a record for everyone, but if you're someone that loves Animal Collective, El Guincho, and the like, this is another facet of that sound you need to hear. ~ onecaseman Download: Bleed Blood
46 Jon Hopkins, Insides [Domino]This is the third album by Jon Hopkins, and his first in four years, though a couple of EPs were released in the intervening period. Hailed as a young prodigy, time seems to have matured Hopkins considerably. A good analogy for this album is Ulrich Schnauss's "Far Away Trains Passing By"; in both cases, a producer whose earlier material consists of uber-cheesy techno manages to create a breakthrough album with the cheese dialed down just enough for a result that's still techno-ish, and maybe a little overemotional or "obvious," but incredibly exhilirating and beautiful. ~ playbynumbers
Download: Wire
45 Dr. Who Dat?, Beyond 2morrow [Lex]Jneiro Jarel's second release as Dr. Who Dat? is a far cry from the laid-back and lackadaiscal style of Beat Journey. Beyond 2morrow is dark and serious, a style he hinted at in Shape of Broad Minds, but always covered up well with the following track. Here's there's no relief to hardcore beats, not emotionless, but certainly not uplifting. Much less vocal interruptions and samples; this is Jneiro before his morning coffee. Jneiro's productions, even without his sense of humor, are slick. The beats are crunchy and mechanical as all hell, and a more inclined to score a dystopian sci-fi flick than a house party. These tracks are very short, but evolve in interesting ways, almost as if they're decaying until they interweave into the next track, which reinvents the whole thing. It's interesting to hear Jneiro take his music exactly in the other direction of some of his past work. It really shows his range as a producer, and hints at the sort of magic he can make when he balances things out. ~ onecaseman Download: Viberian Twilight Part 2
44 Boxcutter, Arecibo Message [Planet Mu]Matchmaking the ultimate marriage between IDM and dubstep, Barry Lynn creates one of the most interesting electronic albums of the year. Incorporating elements ranging from glitch to acid, and of course deep and dirty bass, Arecibo Message begs to be played over and over. With a nod to a few 8-bit and old-skool rave genres, Lynn masterfully encapsulates the music into one stylistically exciting experience. With a few drops of vocals, he even attempts to bridge to a pop territory. This is a must have for those a bit tired by the constant dubstep grind, and want to add a little spice into their daily muddled wobble. Good to know that someone keeps the genre on the edge of experimental electronica. If you like your dubstep with a zing, then Boxcutter is for you! ~ Headphone Commute Download: A Familiar Sound
43 Ritornell, Golden Solitude [Karaoke Kalk]Ritornell is a duo of two musicians from Austria that combine live instruments with hip-hop beats and electronic sounds from computers. Gerold is jazz pianist, and Eigner is a sound designer, both with some solo work and supporting work being released in the past, but Ritornell is their time to finally shine. Golden Solitude plays like avant garde jazz album with tones coming from different angles out of the speaker. It reminds me of Dictaphone, but amplified about three or four times, and that's a good thing. Ritornell float in and out of traditional sounds into sounds that are not lounger-based at all, and that's the real appeal here. It doesn't sound quite like what you'd hear in jazz club, quite like what you'd hear in a hip-hop set, or quite what you'd hear off a laptop. It takes elements of all three to make a completely new sound. For all of the "future jazz" that was being released a couple of years ago, there's been a real lack of quality material in that area for some time now, and Ritornell has given the sound a real shot in the arm with something new. ~ onecaseman Download: Golden Solitude Pt. 1
42 Risil, Non Meters Volume One [Important]Risil is a supergroup lead by Guillermo Scott Herren containing members from Battles, Sunn O))), Pivot, Savath y Savalas, School of Seven Bells, et al. The album is sort of a free-jazz inspired post-rock outing full of electronics and many, many layers. And melody too. Alejandra Deheza, Eva Puyuelo Muns, and Tyondai Braxton echo single words and noises over very unique soundscapes. Definitely not one for the radio. Great for the headphones though, this one hasn't left my player. ~ gravelheadwrap
Download: Was Once For Zanzo
41 Japandroids, Post-nothing [Unfamiliar]So many bands get touted undeservedy as the next big thing it's easy to overlook the ones that really are worth paying attention to. That almost happened to me with Japandroids, a vancouver-based duo entrenched firmly within the "noise punk" subgenre, but that seems to have much more commercial appeal than a No Age or Wavves. The feedback is there, but manageable by noise punk standards, and the vocals drag everything back into pop territory quite easily. The songs are suprisingly strong, even though the vocals are occasionally a bit teenage. Post-nothing has a vocal and lyrical approach you probably haven't heard with this type of music in maybe ten years, and for that reason, they seem to get away with it, because what they're talking about is probably the same things you were ten years ago. I'll make more declarations of this record having a higher purpose than being quality indie rock you can maybe sing along to if you're not too self-conscious, but hey, that's a high enough purpose for me. ~ onecaseman Download: Young Hearts Spark Fire
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