via//chicago

2009 Year in Review I: The Introduction

I hate to say it, but I'm glad 2009 is almost over. It certainly wasn't one of the best years on record for me personally, so I'll be thrilled to wave it goodbye and welcome 2010 with open arms. Sure, it wasn't all horrible, but losing my job back in October certainly cast a long shadow on a year that was otherwise filled with a lot of exams to push my career forward. Sort of ironic. Musically, 2009 was a mixed bag of a year. I heard a lot of fantastic new music and fell for a patch of new artists, as well as some older ones I wish I'd have discovered sooner. It was definitely an "album" kind of year for me, most of the things I loved the most were full-lengths and I'm left hoping that rumors of the death of the album format are premature. I think my love for albums this year was due to two main causes - 1) a lot of artists released fantastic statements meant to be devoured as a whole (The Flaming Lips, Mastodon, Baroness, etc.) and 2) mainstream pop absolutely sucked this year. And I think the latter had the biggest influence on my listening habits throughout these past 12 months.

Typically there is one pop artist that really engages me, or at least a handful of singles that really come to define the year, but I don't really think either of these was the case this year. Sure, Lady Gaga was a huge pop story this year, but I came to her late via "Bad Romance" and still haven't warmed to her earlier singles from '09. The usual suspects released singles and albums that either disappointed or didn't hit my pop pleasure points like they might have before - Kelly Clarkson had a string of average singles, Beyonce was on to the tail-end singles from last year's album as was Kanye West, and I just can't get down with the Black Eyed Peas, Chris Brown, Miley Cyrus, or Jeremih. I tried. So it was a rather boring year for mainstream radio pop.

Of course that doesn't mean there wasn't fantastic pop out there, they just didn't come from the most expected sources. Phoenix released two killer pop tunes early in the year and while SNL fell hard for them, neither "Lisztomania" nor "1901" dominated the airwaves like I hoped they would. And, much to my surprise, I think Jay-Z was the most dependable pop purveyor of the year for my money. Looking back, both "Run This Town" and "Empire State of Mind" were my favorite songs to hear on B96 all fall. As much as I thought "Love Story" would be all the Taylor Swift I'd ever need, damned if "You Belong With Me" didn't charm the hell out of me. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs managed to release one of the best pure pop albums of the year, even if not enough people noticed. So while I found the radio to be a wasteland much of the year, it wasn't a complete and total twelve-month drought.

When the year started I was still writing album reviews for Metal Edge and really enjoying it, but sadly that was another victim of the economy. But thanks to my connections there I continued my ongoing love affair with metal. As indie music continues to get more boring and predictable, I've found metal to be the one genre I can count on to continue to thrill, startle, and challenge - which will definitely be reflected in my list of albums of the year. Old favorites like Mastodon, Converge, Sunn O))), Isis and Black Sabbath (well, sorta) continued to impress; while new bands and new discoveries like Shrinebuilder, Cobalt, and Augury made for some fantastic listening.

All in all, it was another year of ups and downs. New bands impressed, old bands disappointed. Old bands surprised, new bands stunned. As usual it was the surprises that made the year for me... The xx and Dam-Funk came out of nowhere to thrill, The Flaming Lips blew minds again, Robert Pollard had one of his best years since Guided by Voices broke up, Oneida and Wooden Shjips kept krautrock alive, the Smashing Pumpkins released an engaging new track... it was the unexpected that made 2009 great. As, I think, it should be.

Enjoy our look back on the music of 2009 this week and come back for the next three parts as we unveil via//chicago's top selections of the year. Part II will be up tomorrow, followed by Part III (the top 100 singles) and Part IV (the top 50 albums).

A quick look back at past year's number ones:

albums:
2003: Outkast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
2004: Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who Love Bad News
2005: Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
2006: Mastodon - Blood Mountain
2007: Battles - Mirrored
2008: Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)

singles:
2003: "Hey Ya" - Outkast
2004: "Take Me Out" - Franz Ferdinand
2005: "Since U Been Gone" - Kelly Clarkson
2006: "When You Were Young" - The Killers
2007: "Stronger" - Kanye West
2008: "Time to Pretend" - MGMT