After much close listening, half-way listening, breakfast listening, dinner listening, concentrated listening, headphone listening, annoyed listening, enthralled listening, these are the records I enjoyed the most last year.
1. Hildur Guðnadóttir - Without Sinking
…dark and lovely Scandinavian melodicism, landscaping with cello…
2. Califone - All My Friends Are Funeral Singers
…dusty, evocative Americana created by aliens on a distant planet…
3. Isis - Wavering Radiant
…always a huge fan, I was blown away by their live show…
4. Baroness - Blue Record
…most enjoyable metal I’ve heard in a while, psyched to see ‘em in Berlin…
5. Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
…sounds like 30 years in the past and 30 years in the future…
6. Mountain Goats - The Life of the World to Come
…would that more Christians would make music like this…
7. Om - God Is Good
…meditation music by blissed out metalheads, like Ravi Shankar and Ozzy…
8. Moderat - Moderat
…the zoomy Berlin sound done right, sprinkle of dubstep, accidental classic…
9. Flaming Lips - Embryonic
…some bands should be allowed to jam just as much as they like…
10. Tom Russell - Blood and Candle Smoke
…if Cormac McCarthy were still a songwriter he’d be Tom Russell…
My methods of analysis are, of course, completely scientific and non-arbitrary. This list is the absolute truth. There’s no hip-hop because last year was a really bad one for hip-hop. No jazz ’cause I only listen to the old stuff.
One thing in indie music from 2009 that came to a boil were bands that sound like they’ve been listening to a lot The Band and CSN, like pastoral country bumpkin campfire music from the early 70s. Maplewood, The Clientele, Blizen Trapper, Megafaun, Midlake, Akron/Family, etc. I guess I like it, but it reminds me a lot of the late 90s alt.country thing, except this time more cosmic than cow punk. These things must be like economic cycles. More power to ‘em. I’m just glad they haven’t developed a genre name for it yet.
Also, I really liked a Lady Gaga song—but I won’t say which one.
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