And today we wrap up a look back at 2009 by listing via//chicago's 50 favorite albums of the year. Away we go...
50. Glasvegas - Glasvegas (Sony)
49. Tombs - Winter Hours (Relapse)
48. Handsome Furs - Face Control (Sub Pop)
47. Fever Ray - Fever Ray (Mute)
46. K'naan - Troubadour (A&M)
45. Arctic Monkeys - Humbug (Domino)
44. Jay Reatard - Watch Me Fall (Matador)
43. Mayer Hawthorne - A Strange Arrangement (Stones Throw)
42. Telekinesis - Telekinesis! (Merge)
41. Real Estate - Real Estate (Woodsist)
40. Mos Def - The Ecstatic (Downtown)
39. The Horrors - Primary Colours (Beggars/XL)
38. Electrik Red - How to Be a Lady, Vol. 1 (Def Jam)
37. Wilco - Wilco (The Album) (Nonesuch)
36. Lindstrom & Prins Thomas - II (Eskimo)
35. The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love (Capitol)
34. Dam-Funk - Toeachizown (Stones Throw)
33. Hatcham Social - You Dig the Tunnel, I'll Hide the Soil (TBD)
32. Bowerbirds - Upper Air (Dead Oceans)
31. Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Lynx Pt. II (Iceal)
30. The-Dream - Love vs. Money (Def Jam)
29. Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer (Jagjaguwar)
28. OM - God is Good (Drag City)
27. Atlas Sound - Logos (Kranky)
26. Grizzly Bear - Vecaktimest (Warp)
25. Stardeath & White Dwarfs - The Birth (WEA/Reprise)
24. Maxwell - BLACKsummer'snight (Columbia)
23. Nomo - Invisible Cities (Ubiquity)
22. Sonic Youth - The Eternal (Matador)
21. Coalesce - OX (Relapse)
20. Cobalt - Gin (Profound Lore)
For my money, Gin was one of the most forward looking extreme metal album of the year - absolutely dense and crushing throughout and never relying on any genre cliches.
19. Dinosaur Jr. - Farm (Jagjaguwar)
And the trio's amazing comeback continues by stretching everything out to a dizzying degree - song lengths, solos, trippy cover art, etc. Farm is certainly an overwhelming album, but allowing it to just wash over and consume you is the best way to absorb the genius.
18. Bat for Lashes - Two Suns (Astralwerks)
I was already infatuated with Natasha Khan after her excellent debut, but Two Suns pushed things so far forward that she is now my number one musical crush. Even without the album's engaging dark vs. light conceptual bent, Khan's skills would still make this one of the most listenable albums of the year.
17. Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport (ATP)
I really hate when I read these guys being dismissed as "noise" because I think that potentially puts a lot of people off the album before they've even had a chance to absorb how truly gorgeous it is. In fact, this duo might need a new genre tag, might I suggest "euphoric noise"?
16. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz! (Interscope)
I'm dumbfounded that this album wasn't blasting out of speakers everywhere this summer, it was easily one of the easiest pop albums to love all year. It was yet another stylistic shift from the band, but damned if they didn't pull it off like it was nothing. Truly one of the decade's most versatile and lovable bands.
15. Isis - Wavering Radiant (Ipecac)
Isis is one of those genre defining bands that gets a lot of guff for the lackluster bands they inspire, but this fantastic album goes a long way to helping us understand why - most young bands would kill to sound this hauntingly beautiful.
14. Wooden Shjips - Dos (Holy Mountain)
Another killer album of krautrock meets Velvet Underground in the psychedelic garage from these San Franciscan neo-hippies. Breathtaking stuff.
13. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (Glass Note)
Really this album could have been "1901" and "Lisztomania" repeated five times each and it would have been a lock for my top twenty, but thankfully the band added about four or five other infectious pop tunes and a few surprising rhythmic twists and instrumental turns.
12. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca (Domino)
The two most engaging elements on this entire album (Dave Longstreth's twisting guitar leads and the soaring harmonies of Amber Coffman and Angel Deradoorian) come from such different places that it is amazing how well they blend together over the course of this brilliant album.
11. Kylesa - Static Tensions (Prosthetic)
Its about time these southern psychedelic stoner sludge purveyors got their due, but truth be told - this really is their greatest album yet. The two drummer attacked is deployed perfectly and the band's musicality is what really pushes them above and beyond many of their peers.
10. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (Slumberland)
Perfect proof that timeless indie pop will never go out of style. Hazy, shimmering guitar pop that recalls hundreds of bands that did time on labels like Sarah fifteen plus years ago but with an entirely original spin that places them in the here and now.
9. Shrinebuilder - Shrinebuilder (Neurot)
A rare example of the supergroup that actually ends up being more than a well-intentioned disaster, Shrinebuilder combines the extreme talents of Wino (The Obsessed, Saint Vitus), Al Cisneros (OM, Sleep), Scott Kelly (Neurosis), and Dale Crover (Melvins) in a way that allows each to contribute in their own signature way while melding into a powerful, unique voice.
8. Converge - Axe To Fall (Epitaph)
You know a new Converge album is going to be all kinds of great, but who knew they were going to top their previous standard-bearer Jane Doe? Not me, but damned if this isn't one hell of an album. Axe to Fall contains much of the breakneck post-hardcore we've come to expect, but its the slower experiments that really make this such a tough album to top.
7. The xx - xx (XL)
Every so often a new, young band emerges from the ether and manages to point in an entirely new direction and helps you realize that not everything has been done before. Sure, there are obvious touchstones buried throughout xx, but the icy minimalism and the male/female vocals bring something altogether refreshing and new to the table.
6. Oneida - Rated O (Jagjaguwar)
Well, this was certainly unexpected. Three full discs of Can inspired freak-outs? Each disc with its own distinct theme and vibe? Wow, and every single track a killer. One of the few albums on this list worthy of being called a "journey"... but one well worth taking. Stellar in every possible way.
5. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino)
A band that continues to evolve in completely new and exciting ways on each consecutive release. This time out we find the guys experimenting a little more with rhythm and dance music signifiers, but in a way that could only be Animal Collective. Most surprising, however, is just how damned poppy and accessible it remains throughout. Another winner.
4. Sunn O))) - Monoliths & Dimensions (Southern Lord)
By now, these guys are so far beyond being a mere "metal" band that we are going to have to just consider them their own genre entirely. This album, their boldest and best yet, plays more like a avant classical album full of jazz turns and ambient drones, with sparse hints of metal influence to pepper the mix. There's a reason one of the tracks is called "Agartha".
3. Mastodon - Crack the Skye (Reprise)
In which Mastodon drops all pretenses of being "prog inspired" and just goes all out prog. A complicated concept album about czarist Russia and astral planes with songs clocking in at 14 minutes? YES please. And oh, how well they do pull it off without losing a speck of the intensity that made them so great in the first place.
2. Baroness - Blue Record (Relapse)
What a fantastic leap this Savannah band has made from the tremendous Red Album to this instant classic. With its intertwining themes and repeated motifs, this album demands to be experienced as a whole and pays off those who pay attention over repeated listens. Its a shame that the "metal" tag will scare off so many people that would otherwise adore this type of thing.
1. The Flaming Lips - Embryonic (WEA/Reprise)
While a lot of thought and second-guessing went into composing this list, there was absolutely no doubt at any point as to what the number one record would be. I returned to this thing so many times over the last few months since its release, at first to figure out just what the hell was going on and later to absorb every possible detail I could, that there could be no other album to point to as my favorite of 2009. Embryonic is dark, mysterious, massive, insular, and a downright masterpiece of psychedelic rock.
And, to wrap things up, a few honorable mentions:
YOB - The Great Cessation (Profound Lore)
Girls - Album (True Panther Sounds)
Japandroids - Post-Nothing (Polyvinyl)
Brand New - Daisy (DGC)
The Gates of Slumber - Hymns of Blood and Thunder (Metal Blade)
Deer Tick - Born On Flag Day (Partisan)
The Obits - I Blame You (Sub Pop)
Super Furry Animals - Dark Days/Light Years (101 Distribution)
Augury - Fragmentary Evidence (Nuclear Blast)
Obscura - Cosmogenesis (Relapse)
Mount Eerie - Wind's Poem (P.W. Elverum & Son)
Dan Deacon - Bromst (Carpark)
Wild Beasts - Two Dancers (Domino)
Future of the Left - Travels With Myself and Another (4AD)
Krallice - Dimensional Bleedthrough (Profound Lore)
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