In looking back on another year of music, I’m having trouble getting excited about “the album” as wholes that were released in this time period. There were plenty of songs that caught my ear, but, albums? Not as much. Nonetheless, here are my Favorite Albums From 2009, no particular order;
Scientific Maps – Hold on Whoever You Are (free download from B3nson) :: I have to admit I haven’t been taken by a Sci Maps recording until this album came out in March of this year. Another successful product of the RPM Challenge, Hold on Whoever You Are is a perfect example of what can happen when one lets go of all perfectionistibitions (yeah, I just made that word up for Aaron Smith) and surrenders to the creativity muse that drives all of us to capture our ideas in a tangible form. Over the course of nearly a half hour, the Scientific Maps unfurl a story of capture, imprisonment, planned escape and eventual resolve. Sure the sound is a bit raw, the edges are a bit rough, but the songs on this album are catchy nuggets of imaginitive pop sensations.
Rameses III – I Could Not Love You More : 2009 will go down in infamy for me as the year I went through a little unhealthy obsession with Type Records. Finally finding my way there through the music of Peter Broderick, I latched on to the gorgeous, minimal aesthetics of the music and the artwork. There were plenty of purchases to Forced Exposure and Discogs this year. For me, I Could Not Love You More was the first record in the Type Records canon to catch me completely off-guard when I wasn’t looking. Their most excellent SoundCloud / website integration had me listening through the entire label output while I was working online one day. After about ten or fifteen minutes through this gorgeous album, my ears perked up and heard the beauty underlying what seemed hidden at first. To experience this on vinyl LP was a moving moment I will not soon forget.
Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest I must admit I was a holdout for this band. There were a few songs on Horn of Plenty that I thought were OK, and a maybe a song from Yellow House that I wouldn’t skip. To me, Veckatimest cut down all of that non-love and made me a fan. In catching the band for the first time this year at Skidmore College, I felt a hunger, a mission that I hadn’t felt had been captured in any of their previous recordings. This energy is present in the songs on this record. It’s as if the band really WANTS to draw you into their world to discover the magic they are creating instead of hiding it under layers of experimenting.
Themselves – TheFREEHoudini Mixtape :: Although not really into rap so much usually, I found this mixtape from Anticon pioneers DoseOne and Jel to be most inspiring. What set this collection of jams apart from the duo’s CrownsDown LP released this year was the foil that each special guest brought to the table on the mixtape. It felt like Dose was almost outdoing himself on each cut, not to outdo the guest rapper, but to shine for his own sake while taking energy and ideas from each guest. It feels hungry and full of synergy to me, whereas CrownsDown feels overdone and intense. Favorite jams; “Know That to Know This (feat. Aesop Rock)”, “Rappin4Money (feat. Why? and Odd Nosdam)” and “Cross-section of a Wreckage (feat. Alias & DJ Andrew)”.
James Blackshaw – The Glass Bead Game Someone book this guy anywhere near where I can see him. With an orchestra. Or at least a string quartet. A choir maybe? Any which way to catch a glimpse of this deeply moving, hypnotic music. This is a “sink down deep in to your seat with headphones on” kind of record. It feels like an album that should be experienced alone, or, if with another, it should be someone who you would put your life in front of theirs if faced with death. Yeah, like that.
Kings of Convenience – Declaration of Dependence There was an air of trepidation when pressing play for the first time on this set of songs. I loved their Quiet is the New Loud album so much and equally let down by their Riot on an Empty Street album that it was almost like re-opening a wound. Thankfully this album seems to have learned from the brittle, sterile acoustic mess of Riot… swapping that out with beautiful live-sounding takes of these songs. An album that completely fills a room with its own ambience, Declaration of Dependence charmed me endlessly this fall.
Will Stratton – Vile Bodies EP Not totally sure where I came across Will Stratton’s music… somewhere internet-related, certainly, but the trail has gone cold at this point. Needless to say, this recording found me in the thick of fall, when I was busy driving around in rainy cool nights thinking about younger years. Something about Will’s voice is comforting; be it his excellent diction or the arcing melodies that seem to fit so perfectly with the music. Despite the Vile Bodies EP being a freebie giveaway, it truly feels like an album to me. We go on a lonely journey together, I listen to Will tell me things and I want to tell him things in return. I’d love to give his recently released No Wonder album some space here, but I really haven’t given it the time it deserves. For now, Vile Bodies.
Heather Woods Broderick – From the Ground This album was a long time coming. Heather posted demos of some of these songs on her MySpace page a few years ago and I’ve been craving for studio versions ever since. The album was recorded with her brother Peter and truly takes a long journey throughout its ten tracks. My favorite unexpected album left-turn of 2009 comes in the midway point sequencing of “For Misty” – a nine-plus minute bliss-out of cello and field recording gorgeousness. Six or so minutes into the piece, it’s like the fog is wiped away from the mirror and a pristine string quartet appears to then give way to a different set of field recordings and piano outro. Then what next? Oh, just my favorite song from the album – “Wounded Bird“. It’s beautiful, and highly recommended.
We Are Jeneric – Animals Are People Too 2009 couldn’t go by without another We Are Jeneric release, right? This lovely band of lovers were one of the first Capital Region bands to take on the RPM Challenge three years ago which produced their Hansel & Gretel album. The following year produced In the Parlor With the Moon. Much work for this year’s album, a tribute and conversation with the animals that live in and around Jen and Eric’s 18th Century home, happened in February during the challenge period but the final version was completed in the months following. The “release party” for Animals Are People Too occurred in that home, on their land to a semi-private audience of friends. It was the perfect setting to experience these songs which are so charming, rambunctious and exuberant! Gone is much of the melancholy of the two previous albums, replaced by a joyful, playful romp through many eclectic styles. This album receives Best Lyric of 2009 — “Too little broccoli, too much Chuck” from “Woodchuck Charles the II part II”. You have to hear it…
