See also: Artrocker.com’s own Top 12 albums of the year so far list
Whether it’s from phenomenal debut albums or continued greatness from reliable favorites, one thing is for certain, 2009 has already been a very exciting year for music. This is my annual mid-year recap of what I believe to be the best albums of 2009 so far. As I’ve done from this site’s inception, I’m including 12 and a half entries, exactly half the amount I’ll be counting down in my annual year-end list. The twelve albums and one EP (that’s the half) are listed in chronological order and include my favorite albums released in the first six months of ‘09.
The Coathangers
I can’t go to SXSW this year as I have no money. That’s the naked truth of the matter.
What I can do, is trawl through the enormous list of showcasing bands, and make some recommendations based on the music available on each band’s website.
In part one, I give you recommendations for bands A through to C, with some tasty tracks to download. More in the weeks leading up to the festy.
Gavin: A lot happened in 2008. It seems so long ago now. Like any blog worth it’s salt and peppa though, we have decided to put together our best/worst gigs and albums of the year and used our clever little thinking boxes in our heads to have a guess (/dictate?) who will be floating boats in the next twelve months or so. Have a read and put us in our place about your favourite albums and who you think will storm 09…
We’re nearly three weeks into 2009, but you could argue that the year (in terms of music) officially begins this week. Lots of big name players have albums out this week and trying to single out just one to purchase wouldn’t be fair. New stuff from A.C. Newman, Animal Collective, Andrew Bird, and Antony and the Johnsons? Just those alone would make it a worthwhile week for most, but that is in fact just from the letter “A.” It’s silly, isn’t it?
Firstly, I wanted to focus on real stand-out tracks. Therefore you’ll not see any songs from my top two albums, mainly because they’re all so good that none in particular stand out, and I couldn’t populate the list with tracks from my top five albums. I’ve also tried to avoid including particular artists more than once (I know I have, but it’s a collaboration…). But even with these rules, how do you order 50 tracks? The top 10, maybe even the top 20 follows some sort of rough merit, but after that the list pretty much stays in the same arbitrary order that I first wrote down off the top of my head. So it’s safe to say that there’s little to separate any of these songs, and if I had to do it again starting from scratch, it would probably look quite different. What you should remember is that these are all GREAT SONGS.
And so we’ve reached the end of this year’s journey through my top albums. Before we get into the top eight, I’ll try to sum up which albums released in the last few months of 2008. September brought offerings from Jenny Lewis, Mercury Rev, People in Planes, Butch Walker, No and the Maybes, Glasvegas, Santogold, Jon Ryman, Metallica, Chairlift, Kings of Leon, and a sophomore record from former Suede frontman, Brett Anderson. There were also a few that have already made this countdown, including TV on the Radio, Ladyhawke, and Okkervil River.
October’s albums was jam-packed with records from Empire of the Sun, Department of Eagles, The Sea and Cake, Eugene McGuinness, Of Montreal, Kaiser Chiefs, Keane, Euros Childs, Bloc Party (the physical version), Los Campesinos!, and AC/DC with their long-awaited return. There were also a couple of disappointments from The Cure and Cold War Kids. Snow Patrol demonstrated that they couldn’t compete with Chasing Cars while Oasis produced another unneccessary album. And there were several antlered mammals afoot with releases from Deerhoof, Deerhunter, and The Dears. Again, there were several released in October that you’ve already seen in this series, namely, from Simon Bookish, Maps of Norway, Polarkreis 18, and Twig.
November saw records from We Are Standard, Glass Candy, Razorlight, Threatmantics, Max Tundra, Thieves Like Us, Kanye West, and The Killers. Of course November was also the momentous occasion of Guns ‘n Roses’ Chinese Democracy. I apologize, but as the year wound down, I didn’t note any albums released in December except for an inexplicably successful comeback from Britney Spears.
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