Heavy D’s Top 15 of 2009
Everyone is busy saying what a great year it has been for music. Here is why…
15. The Antlers – Hospice
mp3:The Antlers - Two
14. Cymbals Eat Guitars – Why There Are Mountains
mp3:Cymbals Eat Guitars - And the Hazy Sea
13. Raekwon – Only Built for Cuban Linx Pt. 2
mp3:Raekwon - Catalina ft. Lyfe Jennings
12. The Very Best – Warm Heart of Africa
mp3:The Very Best - Warm Heart of Africa ft. Ezra Koenig
11. Sunset Rubdown – Dragonslayer
mp3:Sunset Rubdown - Paper Lace
10. The XX – S/T
mp3:The XX - Intro
Late last night I was playing this record and someone mentioned how they didn’t like it much at all, that it made them feel like they were tripping out. It seems the things my friend didn’t like about the XX are exactly the same things that make me fall in with love them. Their dark, penetrating tones have a tendency to probe deep into the back of your mind. But even more important than the actual sounds are the spaces in between; The XX let you fill in the blanks, which is often more revealing than anything someone else could write.
9. Local Natives – Gorilla Manor
mp3:Local Natives - Wide Eyes
This is sort of cheating because Gorilla Manor has only been released in the UK, but I think it would be crazy to leave them out considering how much I have listened to this record. A fantastic synthesis of contemporary influences (see Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, Yeasayer) Local Natives hit all the right chords while making a sound all their own. If I had the patience to create a year-end song list both “Wide Eyes” and “Sun Hands” would be jockeying for two of the top spots. Watch out for these guys in 2010.
8. Le Loup – Family
mp3:Le Loup - Sherpa
My go to Sunday morning record. Often dismissed as Animal Collective acolytes, Le Loup have produced a surprising and wonderful record. Produced in a cabin in North Carolina, Family almost feels like it is covered in dirt and earth, like it was organically grown using just sunshine and water. On a slow Sunday, it can take you out of the city and back to that Cabin out in the wilderness. Plus, as an added bonus this Family has roots in Washington, D.C.
7. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion/ Fall Be Kind (EP)
mp3:Animal Collective - What Would I Want? Sky
I certainly don’t have anything new to add to the Animal Collective discussion so I will keep this one relatively short. Deep down I like Fall Be Kind more than MPP, but it is an EP so I just lumped them both in together. It is hard to argue that any band has had more of an impact on the indie music scene in the past couple of years and neither of these records do anything to change that.
6. Bear In Heaven – Beast Rest Forth Mouth
mp3:Bear in Heaven - Ultimate Satisfaction
When I listen to Beast Rest Forth Mouth I am shocked that nobody figured this formula out before: The guitars of anthemic-rock combined with the synthesizers of electronic. To quote Zoolander: “It’s so simple!” But it also helps that Bear in Heaven did it perfectly the first time around. Songs like “Ultimate Satisfaction” and “Lovesick Teenagers” expand and grow in your mind until the point where it gets hard to separate your own thoughts from the music. My favorite album to play while walking around the city or riding the subway, its like living in a movie with your own personal soundtrack.
5. Foreign Born – Person to Person
mp3:Foreign Born - Blood Oranges
My most played record of 2009! The afro-pop influences draw you in immediately and never seem to let go. This is a sunny, energetic record, but with a dark, meaty underbelly holding it all together. If the second half of Person to Person punched like the first, this would have moved much farther up this list.
4. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
mp3:Phoenix - Rome
I have yet to meet a person who didn’t like this album – great for parties or sitting around hung over on a Sunday morning. As much as I appreciate a band or album that forces you to expand your sonic horizons, it is refreshing to see a band perfecting their craft and writing songs that are simple and undeniable.
3. Woods – Songs of Shame
mp3:Woods - Military Madness (Graham Nash Cover)
I bought two albums on vinyl this year. One was the number one album on this list and the other was Songs of Shame. Of all the lo-fi-what-have-you that came out this year Woods was the most immediately appealing and continues to impress on every consecutive listen. Lead vocalist Jeremy Earl founded the Woodsist label in 2006 and has since helped launch the careers of fellow rockers Wavves, Ganglians, and Crystal Stilts, among others. Listening to Songs of Shame makes clear why Earl has such a knack for spotting new talent: Real recognize real. Also, my favorite album cover of the year.
2. Fever Ray – Fever Ray
mp3:Fever Ray - Triangle Walks
When “If I Had a Heart” first surfaced in early 2009 a lot of people thought it was too gloomy and foreboding, that the rest of the album wouldn’t have mass appeal. But Fever Ray’s eerily detached persona turned out to be its greatest quality. An album that was originally mistaken as cold turned out to be overwhelmingly personal. Buried underneath layers of icy tones and distorted voices is a warm humanity. Karen Dreijer Anderson is a master of probing human emotions with alien-like detachment. It is weird, but it works. Fever Ray also wins points for its originality: it sounds like nothing else out there and spawned several of the years best music videos.
1. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
mp3:Grizzly Bear - While You Wait For the Others
It seems odd that the album I was most impressed this year is the hardest to write about. Perhaps it is testament to the untold beauty contained within the 12 tracks that make up Veckatimest. That, or I am just a shitty writer. For the sake of argument, we will go with the former. I must have played this album 20 times before it was even released (guilty). Since, it has not been my most played record, but still manages to elicit the same sort of excitement I got upon first listen. I think you can tell a lot about a band from the way they perform. When I saw Grizzly Bear play in D.C. they abandoned the traditional drummer-in-back set-up and stood all four in a row along the stage; a poetic metaphor for the type of genuine collaboration that it must take to produce such a flawless album.
