This marks the fourth in a 10-day series of posts on For Those About to Rock celebrating the year and the decade in film and music. Today's installment looks at my top 10 favorite records from 2009. Tomorrow, a look at the rise and fall of the garage rock empire in the 2000s ...
Honorable mention: Andrew Bird, Noble Beast; The Dead Weather, Horehound; The Flaming Lips, Embryonic; Muse, The Resistance; Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix; Them Crooked Vultures, Them Crooked Vultures; M. Ward, Hold Time; Wilco, Wilco (The Album).
10. Cymbals Eat Guitars, Why There Are Mountains [Self-released]
For a self-released debut, Cymbals Eat Guitars is as brash as the roar that opens the record on "And the Hazy Sea." There are murky bubbles of moody discontent, but there are also great stretches when this Staten Island indie rock outfit is perfectly comfortable with letting 'er rip. If they're this daring on their debut, what comes next?
Sample this track: "Wind Phoenix"
09. Antony and the Johnsons, The Crying Light [Secretly Canadian]
The warbling falsetto of Antony Hegarty isn't for everyone, but it's impossible to hear it and not know who's singing. Wearing his heart on his sleeve as much as ever, Hegarty is about subtlety and texture here, although it's perfectly believable that someone could hear this and discern no noticeable change from I Am a Bird Now. Still, no one does baroque pop that sounds like this.
Sample this track: "Aeon"
08. Various artists, Dark Was the Night [4AD]
Brothers Aaron and Bryce Dessner from The National guide a compilation whose tracklist reads like a "who's who" of the indie rock scene: Bon Iver, Grizzly Bear, Iron & Wine, Arcade Fire, Yo La Tengo, Blonde Redhead and more. Some covers, some re-recordings but mostly new material, nearly every offering on this double-disc fundraiser for the Red Hot Organization, which raises funds for HIV and AIDS, is no throwaway.
Sample this track: The Decemberists' "Sleepless"
07. Bob Dylan, Together Through Life [Columbia]
Continuing his late career turn into blues-infected folk, Dylan adds Los Lobos' David Hidalgo to the mix on accordion and puts a banjo in backing band member Donnie Herron's hands to shake things up. With a few more great additions to an already overstuffed catalog in "Life is Hard," "Jolene" and "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'," Dylan and that craggy voice seem set to ride eloquently on.
Sample this track: "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'"
06. Laura Gibson, Beasts of Seasons [Hush]
There's a warmth and sincerity that belies the quiet, confessional tone of Beasts of Seasons, which isn't to suggest its coffeehouse schlock. Many will dismiss it as that, but Gibson has too firm a hold on her craft. These tracks flutter gently just above the stereo, feeling as though Gibson and her music are never really within our grasp.
Sample this track: "Spirited"
05. Dave Matthews Band, Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King [RCA]
The Virginia rock/jam band writes its finest collection of tunes in nearly a decade on a record dedicated to its late saxophonist. After spending much of the decade discarding road-tested tunes for new tracks written hastily in the studio, DMB takes more than four years to craft a slab that finally finds the intersection between their pop rock side and their ambition.
Sample this track: "Why I Am"
04. Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion [Domino]
Undoubtedly many publications will call this the album of the year and it's hard to dispute it MPP is a very good record, although not Animal Collective's best. That distinction goes to 2007's Strawberry Jam. But where Strawberry looped addictive beats around noise, Merriweather tries to cast a wide net and draw in some new listeners without sacrificing their unique style.
Sample this track: "My Girls"
03. Isis, Wavering Radiant [Ipecac]
There's pretty stuff, which sounds weird to say about a group that uses everything from guttural, growled metal voices to elements of Explosions in the Sky-type post rock. It'd be unlistenable if they didn't pull off every transition and style well, but they earn a lot of respect because they do and can do it. This isn't interested in being something you can mosh to, although it has that capability. This is trying to make metal sound is this possible? pretty.
Sample this track: "Hand of the Host"
02. The Antlers, Hospice [Frenchkiss]
A concept album about a friend dying from cancer. The music is as spooky as the ghosts inhabiting its lyrics, Hospice is both vibrant and achingly sad. The back story makes it sound as though it emerged from the same sort of "social isolation" that fueled Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago last year. This is mood poetry, with the music and whispery vocals trying to make you experience the sadness of loss rather than explain it to you. The year's most impressive debut.
Sample this track: "Bear"
01. Mastodon, Crack the Skye [Reprise]
The concept's so complicated, it's not worth it to try and track it. Fortunately, it's unnecessary because the Atlanta metal band's fourth record works without it. The band expands its vision and its direction without sacrificing itself, taking a left turn into clean vocals and prog rock elements. It's big, epic and raw with a rich, surging vein of intellect coursing through it. Bringing on Brendan O'Brien (Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen) as producer made some cry sell out, but if metal's your bag, this is a good one to put on and lose yourself in.
Sample this track: "Oblivion"
Comments