Russ's Best Music Of 2009
Gah, the hand-wringing. The debates. The yelling at various albums to try harder. I know several people bemoaning 2009 as a horrid year for music, but as far as I'm concerned those people basically shut down once that Animal Collective record came out.
2009 was an epic year in music as far as I'm concerned, most notably because pop got smarter, continuing to assimilate the shattered worlds of indie and electronic-whatever either of those words even mean anymore.
My best music of 2009:
Best New Band: The Bloodsugars
The Bloodsugars: Sleep Well (Cottage Industry)
What a happy little find these guys have proven to be. An incredible sugar-jolt of pop-rock that's fun and fluid and tight, I've not yet found anyone who don't come away from their first listen to The Bloodsugars without a smile. There's a reason they're headlining the soldout launch party at Santos Feb 10.
Honorable Mention Album: Tori Amos, Abnormally Attracted To Sin
Tori tried this year more than she has in ages-and, to be fair, when Abnormally Attracted To Sin first arrived, I was obsessed with it. That sneaky, aggressive synth line in the album's title track perfectly sums up what her mission statement with AATS set itself out to be, and of course live the songs translated into powerhouses. On album, though, it was too easy to start slipping out of her grip with stuff like "Mary Jane". Still, though, of her output this decade....god, that's a tough and yet interesting thing to say...AATS wins. It's a shame that compared to the 90's that's not saying much.
Top 10 Albums of 2009
10: Fever Ray, Fever Ray
A quiet meditation on femininity and motherhood that was aching, spooky and ethereal, Karin created less an album and more a post-daybreak mood piece.
9: Tegan and Sara, Sainthood
Webmistress Krystyn teased me about soldout being "Tegan and Sara magazine" very early on, but Sainthood came on like an aggressive shot. I'm not going to echo what every-fucking-one-else is saying (bla bla bla can't top The Con bla)-it's important that songs like "The Cure" and "Hell" get taken on their own accord-as great, painful little barbed pieces of pop.
8: Jay-Z, The Blueprint 3
Yeah, I'm a white kid. What of it? Hova made a record of nothing but anthems, not a single beach chair or a pair of socks with sandals to be found. If you think his hustle's slipped in his older age it's because you don't get the difference between slacking off and growing up. Besides, I dare you to find a song more fitting for the duality of 2009-full of shit and wonder-than "Empire State Of Mind" (though I'll always think the video should have followed the suggestions from The Fader).
7: Handsome Furs, Face Control
Weird that in the year that New Order finally called it quits, the best full-on homage to New Order possible was released. The duo of Handsome Furs took working class blues and indie-love angst and wrapped it all up in synth-tugging, heart-felt (or is it the other way around?) confections to make both Springsteen AND Sumner smile.
6: Drake, So Far Gone
Drake: Lust For Life
Say what you will about this being a "mix tape" and thusly ineligible for wtfever, I'm not listening. 2009 has been the year Drake has ascended the ranks into post-mod rap royalty, spitting as much self-awareness as swagger. Every song sampled on So Far Gone is ripped a new ass and given a new beating heart. Fuck your "conscious" rap-this is rap that's awake.
5: The Paper Chase, Someday This Could All Be Yours
The Paper Chase: What Should We Do With Your Body
John Congleton, The Paper Chase's visionary songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/producer, is in possession of a sick, twisted mind. That's why Someday..., The Paper Chase's most instantly accessible album ever, is also the most violently disturbing-all songs about natural disasters given human traits, in a world where a flood is a rape and swine flu can talk back. Gloriously disturbing is Congleton's brain, and we're all the aurally better for it.
4: Telepathe, Dance Mother
Telepathe: So Fine
The balls-out, take-no-prisoners, burn-the-village percussion-heavy ethereal tech approach of the girls in Telepathe, given a dark and heady sheen by Dave Sitek, is a snow-kissed punch in the gut, rough and ready for the dancefloor and yet vulnerable.
3: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, It's Blitz
So after Karen O and company showed their bones, how did they follow it up? They kept fucking going. Glitter and blood fleck It's Blitz as though they were lip gloss and beer stains from a night out. From the leather, studded collar-popping of album opener "Zero" (which has one of the greatest, most humbling lines Karen's penned to date: "what's your name/no one's gonna ask/ya better find out where they want ya to go") to the road-weary, heavy-eyed "Runaway", this is the sound of a band hitting greatness.
2: Telefon Tel Aviv, Immolate Yourself
2009 was a year tinged in tragedy in triumph for Telefon Tel Aviv. Founding member Charlie Cooper died, just as TTA released their (arguably) greatest album, on one of the greatest electronic music labels in the world (Ellen Allien's essential BPitch Control Records). Letting the music speak for itself, Immolate Yourself is classic TTA kicked up several notches-heartbreak is given the crumbling facade of joy and then propped up again. Immolate's"You Are The Worst Thing In The World" will serve as the ultimate TTA touchstone song, hope and despair raining down forever.
1: Tealights, Take Us By Sea
Tealights: Passport
I've pretty much said it all already about Tealights, the Atlanta electroclassipop quartet that released their debut E.P., Take Us By Sea, this past year-but now, at year's end, looking back and putting everything I've heard into perspective, what they've accomplished is even more amazing. Sounding like an amalgam of everything great and yet like nothing else at all, the six songs on Take Us By Sea rise to the top as the best, most creative, musically forward-thinking sounds of this year (and, undoubtedly, next). Inflections of dub and early art-school Jamestown-era 10,000 Maniacs stand next to Alan Moulder pulling the strings of mid-period Depeche Mode...and that's just the first two songs on the record. I don't know what Tealights listen to for inspiration, and frankly I don't want to-because whatever they intake, their output is massively more brilliant. Listen to that locked jam that ends "No Sound To Hear", and you'll see what I'm talking about. Tealights will undoubtedly follow a career arc that mimics, say, Goldfrapp-too forward-thinking for the time they're in, aped by everyone three years after the fact but always staying 10 steps ahead. This (yes, I'll say it again about them) is the sound of the present and the future of music.
best of 2009, best-of lists, russ 
Reader Comments (5)
Here is nice collection of music video.....
Man, I totally agree on that.
There's way too many suckers out there that can't understand.
In fact, I was arguing with my sort of friend babyjean yesterday about this, and
they wouldn't agree with me that he was wrong. Now I can just show them this blog :)
I find it amusing that the Handsome Furs aren't all that handsome.
Although, they are kinda furry.
Maybe this is me talking nonsense, but it seems like Google isn't a company run strictly by the top and they seem to be doing quite well.
did yu hear about new iphoen 4.0? For me, one of the best features in iPhone OS 4.0 is its multitasking feature. And you?
tnx