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the way i see it: the 40 very best records of 2009 based on some arbitrary criteria
with the rise of the interwebs, and twitter, and facebook, and every magazine and blog under the sun (and in darkened dorm rooms), there certainly is no shortage of end-of-year music lists. i actually believe there may be more end-of-year music lists than there were records released in 2009.
regardless, i pulled together a list of the records that i thought were the best of 2009. these are the records that i simply enjoyed the most, with some weight added (or subtracted) based on some vague factors like: execution, craft, expectation (or lack thereof), originality, and, of course, the use of auto-tune.
i feel obligated to disclose the fact that this was one year that i felt quite out-of-synch with a lot of the music-listening public. so many of the records that people went ga-ga for this year did very little for me, and quite often just confused me. for the most part, i took this as a sign that i'm growing old and am settling into an oncoming, lengthy appreciation of 'dad-rock,' and telling kids to turn that racket down. so, if you find any glaring omissions here, you can probably assume that i did listen to it, and it simply didn't do it for me. i listen to a shit-ton of music. probably at least five hours a day. often while working. and i'm sure that my listening environment has a lot to do with my tastes. if you only listened to music while at the dentist, then i'm sure your idea of tolerable would change somewhat.
so, here goes. a best-of-the-decade list is on its way soon.
1 Yo La Tengo Popular Songs
2 Dananananaykroyd Hey Everyone
3 Neko Case Middle Cyclone
4 AC Newman Get Guilty
5 7 Worlds Collide Sun Came Out
6 St. Vincent Actor
7 The Phantom Band Checkmate Savage
8 Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca
9 Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit
10 Brendan Benson My Old, Familiar Friend
11 Wilco Wilco (The Album)
12 Allen Toussaint The Bright Mississippi
13 Meat Puppets Sewn Together
14 Yeah Yeah Yeahs It's Blitz
15 Califone All My Friends are Funeral Singers
16 Dinosaur, Jr. Farm
17 Andrew Bird Noble Beast
18 Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
19 Polvo In Prism
20 Asobi Seksu Hush
21 Japandroids Post-Nothing
22 …And You Will Know Us by The Trail of Dead The Century of Self
23 Beck Modern Guilt
24 Cinemasophia Fits & Cycles
25 Sondre Lerche Heartbeat Radio
26 The Clientele Bonfires of The Heath
27 The Dodos Time To Die
28 Lou Barlow Goodnight Unknown
29 Jason Falkner All Quiet on the Noise Floor
30 Antony and the Johnsons The Crying Light
31 Bob Dylan Together Through Life
32 The Very Best Warm Heart of Africa
33 Jay Reatard Watch Me Fall
34 Alela Diane To Be Still
35 Bill Callahan Sometimes I Wish I Were An Eagle
36 Buddy and Julie Miller Written in Chalk
37 Bonnie Prince Billy Beware
38 M. Ward Hold Time
39 Ida Maria Fortress Around My Heart
40 John Zorn O'o
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