LIST: Top 30 Albums of 2009 (30-16)

I have said a few times how great a year I thought this year has been for music.  I mean, obviously there are some pretty great albums that come out each and every year, you will always be able to find something to love, but 2009 in particular marked an explosion of creativity and musical achievement.  A couple of days ago I listed ten albums that I couldn’t quite put on this list, but in all honesty there were probably another dozen more that I could have happily included.  The whole year was just a real treat for fans of all types.

As I’ve said a few times now, the problem with an awesome body of work to choose from, is that it’s next to impossible to make a list that you’re entirely comfortable with.  In putting together this countdown, I’ve gone backed and re-listened to a lot of music, and discovered that doing so only made things tougher.  There are no weak albums on this list, everything here deserves mentioning.  The only criteria that I had in place was that the albums had to be full-length LPs and had to have been released in the 2009 calender year.  Everything under that umbrella was fair game.  Hopefully I was able to do the music some justice.

Now, here are the first fifteen selections in Hollering Into the Void’s countdown of the top thirty albums of 2009.

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30. Mos Def – “The Ecstatic”

While imperfect, this is inarguably mighty Mos’ best album in a decade.  It served as a reminder that while Mos may get lost in his whole acting thing from time to time, he is a rapper first and foremost, and when he’s focused, he’s one of the best in the game.  His last couple albums suffered from Mos trying to do too many different things, or what just seemed like a lack of effort.  The Ecstatic has no such failings.  His rhymes are razor-sharp on tracks like “Life In Marvelous Times” and “Casa Bey,” as his lyrics show a wittiness and veracity that have been bizarrely missing from his music for a number of years now, something that’s encouraging for a rapper who has always been a lyricist first and foremost.  But the cherry on top of the pie here, at least as far as I’m concerned, is definitely the Black Star reuniting “History.”  Here Talib Kweli and Mos Def do their best work together since Reflection Eternal, and the track sizzles to the point where it once again makes me hunger for a reunion LP.  However, even more impressively, The Ecstatic left me once again wanting to hear more from Mos Def.  Hopefully he won’t keep us waiting too long.

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29. The Avett Brothers – “I and Love and You”

The whole major labor slash Rick Rubin experiment could have gone terribly wrong.  The Avett Brother’s folksy back-home sound was responsible for most of the band’s charm and appeal, so why would you want to risk messing with that by bringing in a big time producer and a new shiny studio sheen?  Well, if listening to I and Love and You is any indicator, apparently because it would bring a new depth to their sound and create a more fully-realized album than the band had released before.  The album may not quite be the instant classic that Emotionalism, the band’s previous LP, had been; but it’s pretty damn good.  Songs like “Kick Drum Heart” and the title track flex some new studio muscle and show off Rubin’s contributions, but there are still songs like “January Wedding” and “Laundry Room” show that the Avett Brother’s have lost none of their back-to-basics folk charm.  All things considered, I would have to say that their first outing under the wing of a major was a smashing success.

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28. Jay Reatard – “Watch Me Fall”

Jay Reatard’s wild live shows and spirited garage rock has been steadily amassing a legion of devoted fans for a few years now.  But it’s only recently, after his 2008 barrage of singles, that he has started to become a household name for more mainstream music fans.  On Watch Me Fall, his first full-length solo release for Matador records, Jay also has also decided to start to add some more reigned in and contemplative songs to go along with his usually messy and rambunctious lo-fi rock.  ”There Is No Sun,” for example, is the closest thing to a lighters (or cellphones) in the air track as we’ve ever heard out of Reatard before.  But despite this slower brand of music being a bit newer to Jay’s repetoire, the song stands right up there with anything else on Watch Me Fall, including the album’s teeth rattling opener “It Ain’t Gonna Save Me.”  Don’t let that fool you into thinking that some softer tunes equals a softer Jay Reatard, though.  As recent history events have served to remind us, he still has plenty of sweat filled concerts and after show fist fights still to come.

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27. Bat For Lashes – “Two Suns”

I can hear the boos and hisses now.  Too low!  Too low!  While I found this album to be a bit too reigned in at points, I can certainly see how all of the adoration and Kate Bush comparisons heaped upon Two Suns could be justified.  Natasha Kahn is undeniably talented and she posses a distinct and definite musical vision that is both ambitious and articulate.  ”Daniel” is obviously an awesome track, but the real beauty of this album is contained in some of the “smaller” songs.  ”Glass” and “Good Love” are both songs that could easily be overlooked by listeners, but there’s more happening on these haunting ballads than most musicians can consistently muster on a greatest hits album.  The production across Two Suns is just meticulous, Khan’s in command of every second, and she’s maximizing her talent.  She was somehow able to take an already winning formula in Fur and Gold and improve upon it, can you even imagine what it would sound like if she could accomplish such a feat again?

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26. Kurt Vile – “Childish Prodigy”

In my humblest of opinions, this was the most criminally overlooked album of the year, bar none.  Like the Avett Brothers, I was a bit worried about some growing pains when Vile jumped over to a major label. However, if there were any such growing pains present, my eye wasn’t discerning enough to detect any trace of them.  From the frenetic lo-fi of “Freak Train” and the hazy soul of “Heart Attack,” to Vile getting his acoustic jam on with “Blackberry Song,” there’s a little something here for everybody, and it’s all just about pitch-perfect.  There’s music for you to trash your head to and there are songs that will send you drifting off to sleep with your feet up on the couch.  This, my friends, is the sound of a young musician who is just now starting to hit his stride.  The best news of all is that if you should listen to Childish Prodigy and discover that you’re still hungry for more, and how couldn’t you be, you can always seek out the wonderful God Is Saying This To You for more!  Not too shabby.

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25. Monsters of Folk – “Self Titled”

Now this is my kind of supergroup.  But really, when you’re combining the respective talents of Jim James, M. Ward, Conor Oberst, and Mike Mogis, could the result actually be anything short of spectacular?  From the very first seconds of “Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.),” I knew that this was going to be an album that I really enjoyed.  Despite all of the huge musical personalities looming over the project, there is a distinct lack of ego that gets in the way of the music at any point.  Everybody plays nice and shares the spotlight.  At some point everybody is at the helm of a track (and it’s the Yim Yames songs that are consistently the strongest), but everybody is making contributions to every song.  Songs like “Say Please” and “Goodway” are enough to make you completely forget that you’re listening to four musicians who all already have successful careers in their own right.  In short, for a supergroup, this just about marks perfection.

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24. Jay Z – “The Blueprint 3″

So it’s not quite on the level of the first Blueprint, too many listeners got bogged down by that fact this year and missed one of the better hip hop albums of the year.  The Blueprint 3 is clearly meant to be some kind of event album, and I would say that it largely succeeds in this aim.  Everything about the LP is grandiose, from the massive featured guests right on down to Hov’s larger than life persona.  ”D.O.A. [Death of Autotune],” has a wicked guitar line and sports a nasty sneer while “Empire State of Mind” boasts a memorable hook courtesy of Alicia Keys, and the track finally realizes Jay’s Sinatra ambitions in full.  Jay is as confident and boastful as usual, but the LP isn’t about looking backwards but rather celebrating where he’s at now, which is at the top of the rap game.  On “On To The Next One,” he sums it up pretty well in his opening verse when he says; “Hov on that new shit, niggas wonder how come / Niggas want my old shit, buy my old album.”  You can spend your time wishing for another Reasonable Doubt or Blueprint, but you’ll be missing some great hip hop in the meantime.

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23. Florence and the Machine – “Lungs”

Florence Welch didn’t just take the UK by storm, she captured the attention of the whole musical world.  In terms of raw power and volume, hers is one of the most exciting female musical voices to enter the musical scene in nothing short of years.  Her big singles, such as “Dog Days Are Over” and “Kiss With a Fist,” were everywhere this year, from television to film.  But as great as those tracks were, they only tell a part of the story.  There’s an entire album’s worth of wonderful music on Lungs, and the singles, no matter how bright and shiny, only represent the surface of it.  From the bluesy “Girl With One Eye” to the mournful “My Boy Builds Coffins,” there’s a whole plethora of different musical gems to be discovered.  And while the music is often dark, it’s seldom depressing, and it’s always engaging.  Not bad for a girl who was exclusively belting out tunes in pub bathrooms a couple of years ago.

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22. Art Brut – “Art Brut vs. Satan”

There’s a mischievous immaturity present in Art Brut’s music that the band doesn’t just accept, but it outright celebrates.  But I’ll be damned if that drunken and sophomoric boorishness that’s on display throughout Art Brut vs. Satan isn’t a whole ton of fun to listen to.  There are forgotten nights of drugs and booze (“Mysterious Bruises”), celebrations of childhood pleasures (“DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshake”), and Amy Winhouse levels of embracing excess (“Alcoholics Unanimous”).  In short, the album has everything that a thirty year old boy could ever want or need.  And oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention, it all rocks pretty hard too.  Art Brut vs. Satan gives all of us who are locked in a brutal struggle against adulthood a little hope, as Eddie Argos sings on “Demons Out!”; “The record buying public, we hate them / This is Art Brut vs. Satan!”  But he quickly reassures us, “don’t worry, we can take ‘em.”  For the sake of the juvenile everywhere, let’s hope so.

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