Thankfully, there was some excellent music to get us through. Though my list of favorite album candidates wasn't as large as it was last year, the albums that made the cut were not only great, but almost endlessly replayable. Which was a good thing, because a lot of hyper-hyped music really fizzled for me throughout 2009.
BUT. Let's move past the disappointments. Because a lot of good shit happened this year, too.
For example:
10. Dirty Projectors, Bitte Orca. "Stillness is the Move" is what saved this album for me. The fourth track on Bitte Orca, it sounds like what would happen if a disgruntled studio tech stripped four pretty good pop songs for parts and rearranged them to amuse himself late at night. The composition somehow pronounces each element of the music while simultaneously fusing them into a greater whole. The thing is: this is pretty much how the whole album sounds. I just didn't comprehend it, even on a subconscious level, until I'd been hooked by this song. And it's what makes this album frustrating, endearing, memorable, and even kind of danceable.
9. The-Dream, Love Vs Money. After reading a Rolling Stone article hyping this dude, I was skeptical, but I checked him out nevertheless. As it turns out, he's got the goods: sticky beats, anthemic choruses, and affectingly lovelorn lyrics. Dude even dares to turn the middle section into a miniature concept album with a three-song stretch about a relationship gone vile, but damned if he doesn't pull it off. Love Vs Money is seemingly generic, but actually impressive.
8. Regina Spektor, Far. I can see why some folks wouldn't like Regina Spektor's music. Her lyrics are often cutesy, and the frequency with and degree to which she contorts her voice reminds me of this dude I had classes with my sophomore year at UGA, who would walk the halls of the English department, loudly and skillfully whistling unidentifiable music that was probably from fantasy role-playing games. I mentally threw daggers at him all that year, with attached messages that read, "YOU CAN WHISTLE REAL GOOD WHAT'S THAT FROM? LET'S BE FRIENDS!"
Anyway, unlike my English dept. friend's show-offery, Spektor's contortions make sense in context. Along with her cutesiness comes a wonderment: at the small, meaningful gestures people make, at the strange details that stick in our heads, at the way we make each other feel. Her vocal wanderings indicate a sense of being overwhelmed by it all, and that the only way to release the tension is to just open your mouth and sing. I can see why some people would mind that, but I don't.
7. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, It's Blitz!. "Shake it, like a ladder to the sun." Those are some of my favorite lyrics of the year, and they kick off the Yeah Yeah Yeahs It's Blitz!, and the music that follows them fulfills that imperative. On their third album, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs grow confidently, expanding their sound to include an electro-dance influence that fits perfectly with their growly, shrieky, melodic rock. With an attitude like theirs, within twenty years they will have expanded their sonic empire to include New Wave, R&B, and even Bluegrass. I welcome our future aural masters.
6. Neko Case, Middle Cyclone. Neko Case is a powerful alt-country sorceress and I am in her thrall.
5. Mika, The Boy Who Knew Too Much. I liked Mika's previous album, but it seemed too silly to connect with on an emotional level. So why did I love this album, when it is just as silly? Well, the silliness seems a lot more personal this time, for one. On "We Are Golden," the best song on the album and one of my favorite songs of the year, Mika sings about "teenage dreams" and "We are not what you think we are/We are golden, we are golden" so passionately over such triumphant musical arrangements that you get the sense that he's wanted to sing this song for a long time.
And if the rest of the songs don't have quite the same personal urgency, they do have ridiculously catchy hooks. This is pop music that is proud to be pop music, which makes it a pleasure and a thrill to listen to.
4. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. It's the twee-est album of the year, so of course I love it. But, of course, if it were just twee, I would hate it. Get over the dorky, jokey song titles (e.g. "Young Adult Friction," "The Tenure Itch") and just listen to the music, and you'll hear some really lovely guitar melodies and an engaging vocal dynamic between the male and female singers. Like Mika, the Pains wear their hearts on their album sleeve (sorry, I had to!), and they aren't ashamed of it.
3. Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. Were there any better songs this year than "Lisztomania" and "1901"? I submit that there were not! And Phoenix created them both, and put them side by side as the openers to their album. Was that a mistake? Well, most people probably don't care, but for 1,000-year-old men such as myself who insist on listening to albums from start to finish, it may have been. Even though this album features fantastic songs such as "Fences," "Lasso," and "Girlfriend," they all pale in comparison to the two best songs of the year that precede them. It's as if the first two tracks on Stankonia had been "B.O.B." and "Ms. Jackson." Of course, Stankonia came out nine years ago (sidenote: SERIOUSLY?), when people still bought CDs.
Whatever. This is a ridiculously good collection of songs, no matter what order you put them in.
2. Röyksopp, Junior. Röyksopp makes music that sounds like the future. That's the most concise and accurate way to describe what they do, and it's probably their mantra. "Okay," they say to each other in Norwegian, as they settle themselves into the cold metal chairs in their taxpayer-provided MüsikStudiø in Bergen. "Let's make some shit that sounds like the future."
The result is, as you might expect, atmospheric and slickly produced, but it's also poignant. Other than the peppy opening track, "Happy Up Here," the songs on this album suggest loss and longing and even, occasionally, transcendence, much like Sigur Rós's music can. The difference is that Sigur Rós sounds like what has already happened to you, while Röyksopp sounds like what will happen to you.
1. Passion Pit, Manners. This pick came as a surprise to me. Going into my end-of-the-year relistening jaunt, I had fully expected to come out on the other side with Phoenix's album still at number one in my mind. But it had been a while since I had fully listened to Manners.
It's still a really exciting album, nearly a year after its release. Lord knows I love a good jam, and Manners features the jam of the year, "Little Secrets." (Note: Their MySpace URL name is passionpitjams. Cool!) I remember Ta-Nehisi Coates, one of my favorite political bloggers (who also blogs about culture), said that he liked Passion Pit but that this album was all high notes. I disagree. True, some songs on Manners are just plain gleeful, but many of them also have a strong undercurrent of anxiety. I say this without being able to recite even a significant fraction of the lyrics; the tension is all there in the slow, steady, stretchy beats and in lead singer Michael Angelakos's yearning voice.
This is a complex, inspiring, unique album, and it's my favorite of the year.
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