Best albums of 2009 - a photo on Flickriver

Best albums of 2009

***It's always weird for me to see these kinds of best lists...this is really just one girl's opinion about the albums she liked. I may be missing more great albums that are on import only or I haven't had access to. Please feel free to share your best albums as well so that I can discover more music! :) ***

*photo by Cinchel

1. Fanfarlo (Sweden,London): Reservoir

I hoped like mad these guys would come to Chicago after hearing their fantastic album. The group is so dynamic with each member playing such an instrumental role on stage and on the album. The songs are both complex and catchy live and on their recording. In other words, they aren’t ruined by too much added to them. It works the way a band of their size should work, emphasizing all the right kinds of melodies and memorable chords. This album clicked with me immediately but I can see it also being a grower for some. It’s warm and sing songy in a way that makes it very accessible. At the same time, the more you listen to each song, the greater you sense their heartfelt appeal and long to hear them for repeat listens. The album is also solid in a way where each moment seems quite magical and never dull even when it’s not the catchiest part of the song, it still feels essential in a way. Truly an accomplished work here!

Myspace: www.myspace.com/fanfarlo
Live photos and a review from their Schubas Tavern Chicago show here: www.soundcheckmagazine.com/reviews/concert-reviews/1832-r...
Portrait shots of Fanfarlo here: www.flickr.com/photos/kirstiecat/sets/72157623045722600/

2. The Veils (NZ,London): Sun Gangs

Finn Andrews has the ability to be so emotionally labile it’s awe striking in it’s incredibility. Take the edginess of “The Letter” and “Three Sisters” here and contrast it with the sad lullaby of “Larkspur” for instance. Always engaging in both his stage presence and his albums, Andrews has a passionate way of writing songs in a way that makes you feel he was born to create them, as if he has lyrics instead of oxygen filling up his bloodstream. The Veils are the kind of band that, once you discover them, can truly change your life.

Myspace page: www.myspace.com/theveils
Photos and a review of their Empty Bottle show in Chicago: www.popmatters.com/pm/post/109329-the-veils-23-july-2009-...
Photos of The Veils when they opened for Liam Finn at Lakeshore Theater: www.flickr.com/photos/kirstiecat/sets/72157607737076026/
Portrait shot of Finn Andrews: www.flickr.com/photos/kirstiecat/3751570369/

3. Rural Alberta Advantage or RAA (Canada): Hometowns

I feel like this album may not technically qualify as a 2009 release. It was definitely released in 2008 originally in Canada and was re-released this year on Saddle Creek records. In any case, I’m a little embarrassed to say I hadn’t heard this album until 2009. I had heard of the band early in the spring and have not been disappointed in seeing them live twice this year. The songs really feel like intriguing personal stories from lead singer Nils Edenloff. There’s a very Neutral Milk Hotel essence to Edenloff’s voice and a few times songs hit on a twinge of the catchy urgency that characterizes The Arcade Fire’s songs. Mainly, however, there’s a real sense of rich human story and sincerity here that wholly completes the album.

Myspace: www.myspace.com/theraa
Favorite photo of RAA at Pritzker Pavillion: www.flickr.com/photos/kirstiecat/3856085832/
Review and photos of RAA at Schubas Tavern in Chicago: soundcheckmagazine.com/featured-content/1774-reviewphotos...

4. Pains of Being Pure at Heart (American) (self-titled)

It’s ok, friends, we don’t have to invent a new genre of music every other minute. Sometimes, it’s just so ultimately reassuring to have the genres we have brought to their best. I found out about Pains of Being Pure at Heart in the early spring just when the harshness of winter was ending. It’s the time when you start to remember what it’s like when everything seems new again and long for it desperately. If life is sort of like one epic mood swing mirrored by the seasons with late fall the ultimate devastation and spring bringing a sense of balance and everything right within the world, this album fits perfectly within that context. In mid February, they were playing Schubas and by July they had secured a prime spot at Pitchfork Music Festival.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart album is intelligently romantic, full of a lighter and sometimes ethereal shoegaze that seems to brim with bliss and shimmer as the best dream pop does. Missing is any sort of caustic sense to it. It’s what My Bloody Valentine may have created if they were young again and extremely wistful. You know the perfect way a bar of chocolate dissolves on your tongue during a warm afternoon? That’s the way listening to the Pains of Being Pure at Heart makes you feel. It helps you feel good in all the right places.

Myspace page: www.myspace.com/thepainsofbeingpureatheart
Live photos and a review of their show at Logan Square Auditorium: www.popmatters.com/pm/post/111312-the-pains-of-being-pure...
Portrait shots of the band: www.flickr.com/photos/kirstiecat/sets/72157613715361287/

5. Sharon Van Etten: (American) Because I was in Love

There’s something about folk singer Sharon Van Etten that is incredibly impossible to put one’s finger on. The lyrics aren’t complex or even all that abstract but it’s the perfect music to listen to in the middle of the night and feel so very deeply. Sharon Van Etten is one of the nicest people and though her sense of being feels quite subtle and understated, she still manages to impact you as you go through your daily motions. Somehow, her songs feel unforgettable. There are no catchy choruses but you’ll long to sing along. There are no rock rifts but you’ll remember the chord progressions intimately. Much like Sibylle Baier’s Colour Green album, there are no frills needed. This is just a woman who overall knows how to make it work when she puts together her songs and the effect is very genuine and touching, which is frankly a relief in this postmodern world we live in.

Myspace page: www.myspace.com/sharonvanetten
Portrait shot: www.flickr.com/photos/kirstiecat/3912145659/
Live review with photos: gapersblock.com/transmission/2009/10/18/sharon_van_ettent...

6. Dead Man’s Bones: self titled (Canada, Los Angeles)

Stop groaning! Yes, yes, it’s another actor in a band and Ryan Gosling has been in both dismal maintream flicks as well as arty films that made me weep so loud in the theater I embarrassed myself and everyone around me cough Lars and the Real Girl cough. Anyhow, I greeted these songs with extreme skepticism as I rarely like bands that actors are in. Even Juliette Lewis, whose performances on stage are always striking and powerful, is not someone who has the studio material to match the greatness one sees live. However, this album is a real win. It captures all the best aspects of fall and Halloween in a way no other album I own can do. It’s spooky, catchy, and has songs elevated by the use of the Silverlake Conservatory of Music Children’s Choir. (Gosling used Children’s Choirs in different cities when he performed live, which made the performances equally amazing.) This is honestly a real treasure that, at the very least, you’ll yearn for every time Autumn comes rolling around

Myspace page: www.myspace.com/deadmansbones
Photos and a Review of their Schubas in Chicago show: www.soundcheckmagazine.com/reviews/concert-reviews/1808-r...

7. I Was a King (Norway):s/t

So fuzzy and friendly…a little like Teenage Fanclub in their best moments. It’s incredibly catchy and likeable and fills you with a lighthearted sense that everything is going to be alright. It’s sugary but not too sweet. It’s pop but with enough guitar effects to recall some of the highlights of 90s alternative songs. In any case, it’s accessible music that one can’t help but feel incredibly nostalgic about even upon first listen. The lovely female/male vocals from Strømstads and Anne Lise Frøkedal definitely work together to make this record a real win, though they were definitely more pronounced/audible when I saw them live!

Myspace page: www.myspace.com/iwasaking
Portrait Photo: www.flickr.com/photos/kirstiecat/3574325766/
Live review of Empty Bottle show with photos: www.popmatters.com/pm/post/94232-i-was-a-king-26-may-2009...

8.Viva Voce (American): Rose City

I wouldn’t call it psychedelic if it wasn’t great. Viva Voce are one of those bands who should have become much more famous by now. Anita and Kevin Robinson certainly aren’t suffering from lack of talent and they’ve proven themselves to be very hard workers, touring and releasing five solid albums in the last 11 years. They know how to bring the gentle and the fierce but always take enough time developing each so that they hit you with their fullest capacity. This album has it’s mood swings but most of the time is the sense of lushness between slower and more savory songs like “Flora” and the songs more filled with obvious psychedelic rock such as “Die a Little.”

Myspace: www.myspace.com/vivavoce
Photos of Viva Voce at Do Division Festival in Chicago: www.flickr.com/photos/kirstiecat/sets/72157618985524901/

9. Marissa Nadler (American): Little Hells

There’s always something so beautiful about Nadler and so intrinsically intimate and special…she seems removed from everything modern when she sings about death and intimacy. She’s not doing anything incredibly different or out of the ordinary when she sings these songs but she fills them with such melancholy longing that you won’t be able to resist them very easily. Nadler demonstrates the capacity for great feeling in the sense of experiencing all kinds of moments that befall us in life. It’s folk music but it’s also something with immense human value to it. Nadler is full of shy and wonder. It’s a great honor to try to understand the world through her eyes, despite the pains it must take her to share it with us.

Myspace: www.myspace.com/songsoftheend
Review and photos of Marissa Nadler at Schubas Tavern in Chicago: www.soundcheckmagazine.com/reviews/concert-reviews/1839-r...

10. Kurt Vile (American): Childish Prodigy

I’ve been intrigued by this record for some time now. Some of the lyrics come back to haunt me when I least expect them. I can almost picture a lonely guy in the middle of the desert, playing to sand with all his heart, which is strange as he’s from Philly. I can also picture listening to this during an epic sort of road trip when you leave everything behind and nothing else matters. It has elements of both psychedelic rock as well as folk music and all the songs just work really well as part of the overall album.

Myspace: www.myspace.com/kurtvileofphilly

Honorable mention: Here are some albums I really enjoyed that didn’t quite make the cut.

Howlies: Trippin’ With the Hollies
Raveonettes: In and Out of Control
St Vincent: Actor
Vivian Girls: Everything Goes Wrong
Phoenix: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Edited to add:
Sonic Youth: The Eternal (also a great record)
Le Loup: Family

Taken on: December 13, 2009

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I Was a King

Marissa Nadler

Little Hells

Kurt Vile

Childish Prodigy Fanfarlo Reservoir The

Pains

Being

Pure

Heart The

Veils Sun

Gangs Sharon

Van

Etten Because

Was

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Voce Rose

City pscychedelic folk rock Rural

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Dead Man's Bones

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Rose City

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The Pains of Being Pure at Heart « less

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