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Wednesday, December 30, 2009
My Top 37 Records of 2009 My first real post in nearly 10 months will be my last Top XX of the decade. In years past, the list was meticulously calculated, culled from the nearly 100 records released in 2009 that I've listened to over the past year. It would involve scoring and ranking each record, comparing and contrasting records with tied scores, then coming up with the final list. Needless to say, it was a terribly time-consuming effort, one that befitted a music-obsessed and rather self-indulgent blogger who can take 'over-analytical' to a frightening extreme.
Appropriately, my list of top 37 records of the first year since 2001 in which I wasn't blogging regularly was created on a ferry. In less than an hour. On my iPhone. Instead of obsessing about "getting it right" by re-listening to every record -- sometimes more than once -- I just got it done. Fast. Ironically, this will be the first year in which I post this thing in its entirety BEFORE the year ends. Maybe it's my tweeting that gave me this new-found "just get it done" attitude. Or maybe I'm just getting too old to care that much.
There are several that I haven't heard yet which didn't make the list (e.g. Tegan and Sara, Volcano Choir, etc.), not to mention some major let-downs (Immaculate Machine: I'm looking at you). Noticeably absent are many hipster faves (you know what they are). This is partly due to my personal tastes, which always drift more towards MOR pop rather than the challenging arty stuff. But this year especially, I just haven't listened to that many new bands, Port O'Brien being my only real musical discovery this year. Not surprisingly, this drop is correlated with the amount of blogs I read regularly.
Perhaps this is the reason why I thought this year's releases were a bit weak, in general: the fact that I just haven't paid as much attention to "the scene" as I used to. In fact, none of the records listed here have made it into my top 37 of the 00's list (mostly because I'm limiting myself to 1 record per band). So is it me or is it the music? I'd say a little from column A, and a little from column B.
But enough of this... this blogging. Here it is, unannotated, my favourite LPs of 2009 (no links, because I'm too lazy now, in the age of Twitter):
01. Decemberists - Hazards of Love
02. Annie - Don't Stop
03. Mirah - (a)spera
04. Metric - Fantasies
05. Bat for Lashes - Two Suns
06. The Lonely Island - Incredibad
07. Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You
08. Port O'Brien - Threadbare
09. David Bazan - Curse Your Branches
10. Au Revoir Simone - Still Night, Still Light
11. Garfunkel and Oates - Music Songs
12. Laura Veirs - July Flame
13. Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
14. Various - Dark Was the Night
15. Maria Taylor - Ladyluck
16. Owl City - Ocean Eyes
17. God Help the Girl - God Help the Girl
18. Sally Shapiro - My Guilty Pleasure
19. Built to Spill - There is No Enemy
20. Emm Gryner - Goddess
21. You Say Party! We Say Die! - You Say Party! We Say Die!
22. Mindy Smith - Stupid Love
23. St. Vincent - Actor
24. Art of Time Assembly feat. Sarah Slean - Black Flower
25. Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
26. Marissa Nadler - Little Hells
27. A.C. Newman - Get Guilty
28. Mew - No More Stories...
29. Monsters of Folk - Monsters of Folk
30. Lou Barlow - Good Night Unknown
31. Amy Millan - Masters of the Burial
32. John Vanderalice - Roman Names
33. Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band - Outer South
34. Franz Ferdinand - Tonight
35. Dragonette - Fixin to Thrill
36. The Fiery Furnaces - I'm Going Away
37. Melissa McClelland - Victoria Day
NP: (nothing)
posted by Hanson |
2:28 AM
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