<10>> Richard Swift, "Atlantic Ocean"
On last year's head-turning “Ground Trouble Jaw” EP Swift switched things up, ditching the midtempo piano ballads for strutting, ersatz blue-eyed soul and warbling in a killer, outrageously goofy Frank Zappa-meets-Bobby Darrin falsetto over loving recreations of Spencer Davis Group oldies. The EP was slight but unexpectedly winning, and it signaled a shift in direction that sets the stage nicely 
<09>> Dan Deacon, "Bromst"
Dan Deacon has matured tenfold since his first commercially released album, "Spiderman of the Rings." And not that Rings didn't have some choice cuts, but ultimately it was a little more goofy than it needed to be and I found myself skipping to certain tracks. On his next album, Deacon has upped the craftsmanship and possibly made his masterpiece. This isn't to say that "Bromst" is for everyone... it's not. Electronica is only loved to a certain degree anyway, but 
<08>> Wild Beasts, "Two Dancers"
New Yorkers may have produced the most music I love this year, but the Brits aren't far behind. And this young Lake District foursome's bookishly erotic and fanciful musical history lesson surpasses them all. In the band's previous form as a duo called Fauve (French for Wild Beasts), their most striking weapon was the eccentric falsetto wail of lead singer Hayden Thorpe. "Two Dancers" succeeds so wildly due in large part to the addition of bassist Tom Fleming's 
<07>> Blakroc, "Blakroc"
Blakroc is a rap rock collaboration album by Ohio-based blues rock band The Black Keys and several hip hop and R&B artists. The project has been overseen by Damon Dash, co-founder and formerly owner of a share in Roc-A-Fella Records. The album was recorded at Studio G by co-producer Joel Hamilton. Album guests include Raekwon, RZA and the late Ol' Dirty Bastard of the Wu-Tang Clan, Jim Jones and NOE of ByrdGang, Mos Def, singer Nicole Wray, Pharoahe Monch, 
<06>> Phoenix, "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix"
I’m as shocked as anyone who grew up listening to nothing much other than 80's metal to now love an upbeat, radio-friendly, pop record, but"Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix" is a near flawless one. It doesn't have a bad song on it. "Listomania" and "1901" have been their huge hits from this album, and they are fantastic (especially "1901”), but sometimes I think I prefer the slow burner of "Fences" or the incredibly hooky 
<05>> Girls, "Album"
Another daring debut tops my list, this one from a couple of San Francisco transplants brashly reappropriating rock and roll through the prism of every untouchable icon from Elvis Costello and Roy Oribison to Buddy Holly and Brian Wilson. This is a kind of California beach album that drowns "those summer nights" of "Grease" in a breakdown-defying sneer. Young frontman Christopher Owens has seen a lot of life -- lurid and lusty and just plain rough stuff -- and his simple yet secret songs are deftly enhanced through the production of co-Girl Chet "JR" White. Their live performance I saw in November perfectly demonstrated what I find to be so unique about this band and this album. They started out playing their cleverly catchy short tunes note for note, Owens even wearing a letterman's jacket draped over his shoulders as though he were waiting to be asked to dance at the sock-hop. Most of the audience, perhaps drawn as much by Owen's traumatic history as by the music, quickly lost attention and started chatting. Gradually -- nearly infinitesimally-- the songs and performance grew in intensity, and by the time they finished the 7-minute-long album highlight "Hellhole Ratrace" the crowd was mesmerized by the slow rhythmic cacophony of the music expressing the spirit of Owens' lyrics: "But I don't want to cry my whole life through. I wanna do some dancin' too, so come on come on come on, come on and dance with me."
There is something hauntingly optimistic about Girls' sound, and I can't wait to hear what is pulled next from the store of hunger and talent and adventurousness that is all but bursting from this rambunctious new band. -Kiersten Lawson
for the grander affair that is “The Atlantic Ocean,” his first proper full-length since 2007's “Dressed Up For the Letdown.” Wisely keeping the looseness he found on “Ground Trouble Jaw,” Swift spruces everything else up with the sort of painstaking classicist touches that overly ambitious singer/songwriters have spent hours in the studio refining since at least ToddRundgren's “Something/Anything?.” -Pitchfork.com
when you throw in computerized vocals that wind up sounding like a small child that has just inhaled helium, then you can really get people running for the exits.
The record starts out with the slow build of a looped voice, followed by a distant chant of Deacon himself and then a ragtime piano repetitively pounding out chords to the backdrop of staccato horns. It becomes an exercise in repetitive minimalism and produces an upbeat tempo that is downright intoxicating. The song is titled "Build Voice" and it's a great opener to let all those involved know what they're in for and if they need to bail then now is a good time.
The true genius of the piece comes in the song "Snookered," which left me breathless after hearing it. The first three minutes are very calm, beginning with what sounds like a triangle being played, followed by a rather maudlin yet soothing arrangement of instruments, including a drum beat that slowly builds to a vicious circle, and eventually leading to the greatest cacophony of broken vocal samples being brutally hiccupped for nearly a minute without any other accompaniment. It's literally my favorite musical moment in 2009, and the overall song is only tied with "My Girls" by Animal Collective as the best of the year.Obviously, I could go on and on about this album and its wonderful imagination, but I'm hankering for a cocktail and to go put this on the turntable. I only heard a few musical works this year that I would classify as great art, and this was one of them. -Scott Morris
gorgeous baritone, with which he takes the lead on nearly half the album's tracks. The two voices stroke and gyrate against one another so cleverly (one reviewer said "It’s like listening to Ted Hughes read poetry in the drawing room while Maria Callas has a breakdown in the kitchen"), and the music is so audacious in its inventive poppiness, it takes a while to realize how much social commentary may be disguised by the buoyantly jaunty affair.
The two-part title track, for instance, recounts a violent attack that could be set anywhere from medieval to modern times. It is unclear who the protagonist is or where our sympathies should lie, a feeling encouraged by the plaintive tone of the lyrics and the excited driving build of drums and guitars. I'm left feeling the intent is less a simple deploring (or celebration) of misogyny and more an earnest exploration of what we are (and always have been) capable of as humans. Throughout all these compelling and intelligent songs, these wee British bairn seem to be questioning how far we have evolved from wild beasts after all. And the sound is sheer rejoicing. They're keeping my brain working and my hips swaying -- it's a thrilling combination and one of the most original and exuberant albums I heard all year. -Kiersten Lawson Ludacris, Billy Danze of M.O.P., and Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest -from Wikipedia,
"Lasso." Just a superb work from start to finish from this always reliable French band. -Scott Morris
<04>> Grizzly Bear, "Veckatimest"
Music should be about substance. Artists coming together for a pilgrimage of mutual trust. Throwing concern for intangibles aside and investing in the work. But it doesn't hurt to have really cool aesthetics involved either. “Veckatimest” is truly satisfying on both these accounts. Brooklyn-based Grizzly Bear traveled north to conceive, write and record this follow-up to their critically acclaimed debut, “Yellow House.” First to upstateNew York and then on to band member Edward Droste's grandmother's home off Cape Cod. Photographer Hisham Bharoocha accompanied the band during these sessions. A series of his photos of the group and entourage relaxing and exploring are included in the LP of “Veckatimest,” making it easily the most pleasing tactile and visual packaging of the year.
The video for '”Two Weeks” is another aesthetic wonder. A visualization of what Pitchfork described as Grizzly Bear's democratic leanings. Four equal partners side by side. The transformative force that subtly affects them is hard to determine as malignant or benign, ecstasy or misery. But their lush Brian Wilson-esque vocals and sanctuary setting give the song and video a rapturous feel. It is the undisputed high water mark of the entire album. “Veckatimest” is certainly substantial but it does ebb and flow, which is strangely a relief at times. There are three or four songs that have such weight it tends to bring the adjoining songs down with them, giving the listener a respite to reflect. These four boys seem so open to the creative process and also patient enough to take the time to dial things in. I can't help but highly anticipate the next album.I can't
get out
of what I'm in
to with you
-Kasey Lawson
<03>> Dirty Projectors, "Bitte Orca"
Trying to describe Dirty Projectors' sound is quite the conundrum. Any genre you use to describe them tends to work but at the same time doesn't. Here are some words I could use to describe their music, which would be accurate at least at some point in their latest album: whimsical, indie pop, R&B, avant-garde prog, electronic, doo-wop, funky, chamber pop, and experimental rock. Yes, they all work but you couldn't use just one to explain what they sound like, it would only be the tip of the iceberg.
"Stillness Is the Move" is definitely the record's highlight and what shot them into indie stardom. But with other fantastic gems like "Temecula Sunrise" and the gorgeous "Two Doves," this is far from a one-hit LP. The mastermind of the Dirty Projectors, David Longstreth, may have made the most accessible album so far in his career, but it's also the most artistically creative and endlessly fascinating. -Scott Morris
<02>> Antlers, "Hospice"
It seems impossible to objectively review an album which has transfixed me so intensely from the instant it caught my ear on an unseasonably warm evening in October after a long day at the hospital. An album that makes me alternately go limp in awe and bury my face in my hands in sorrow. Touching a nerve that is so new, raw and unknown. A twelve-step program in ten acts documenting a story so specific, yet open to varied interpretation.
The Antlers are the brainchild of Jonathan Silberman, who after a personal tragedy had moved to New York, intentionally isolating himself from friends and family. In his seclusion he began to write a series of individual songs woven together to tell the story of a hospice nurse caring for a patient with bone cancer whose death is imminent. The first-person confessional account of this intimate relationship is laid out in a frank and unabashed manor. The couple's love is fully fleshed out, expressed as devotion and commitment, but also bitterness and hopelessness. In the end, what remains is Silberman's depressingly evocative character study of the caregiver's/lover's sublime nature. Simply there, regardless of the inevitable. "I'm bound to your bedside, your eulogy singer. I'd happily take all those bullets inside you and put them inside of myself."Within the larger story are placed two songs which are unrelated, yet still integral to the larger motif. “Sylvia” is an homage to the tragic life and eventual suicide of Silberman's muse, the American poet Sylvia Plath, whose confessional writing style is evident as a major influence on the Antlers' frontman. (On a quick distressing side note, Nichloas Hughes, the son of Plath and her former estranged husband, poet Ted Hughes, hung himself this year after a long battle with depression.) In “Bear” the narrator is transformed into a Greenwich Village bohemian whose girlfriend’s abortion and the couple’s subsequent disintegration is revealed through a beautiful pop hymn with an unforgettable chorus and lyrics that cut to the quick: "And all the while I'll know were fucked and not getting un-fucked soon."To say that I relate to the work of an artist who in the midst of a journey of isolation intimately examines, through music, a cancer that is killing a loved one is an understatement. A fellow contributor asked me if my personal experience skewed my high regard for this album. Of course. But regardless of personal bias, “Hospice” stands out as a compelling personal revelation. -Kasey Lawson
<01>> Animal Collective, "Merriweather Post Pavilion"
Behold the masters of the immersive loop universe. This definitive pop opus downright bathes the listener, with water sounds, shimmering instrumentation and even an optical illusion on the album art that undulates like waves. Brian Wilson meets Jules Verne. The inspiration for what the band calls their "best-recorded album" was a group vision of them performing at the titular landmark amphitheatre, only submerged in a lagoon. Oh and they wanted the vocals to sound like "they were in a frying pan." You've got to hand it to these barely-30-year-olds -- they may be facing down real fame as a result of this phenomenal record, but they still dance -- or float -- to their own singular tune.
And what a hypnotic tune it is. This album was produced by Ben Allen, an engineer with roots in hip-hop and R&B who helped perfect the warm, accessible sound of "Pavilion." Another differentiator is the fact that the guitarist, Deacon, sat this record out, leaving an empty sonic space which Panda Bear, Avey Tare and Geologist filled with spiraling textures flowing with glistening vocal reverb, pulsing percussion and unusually intimate lyrics. Simple statements like "I want to walk around with you" or "open up your throat" become dizzyingly gleeful mantras awash in electronic instrumentation, drum machines and samplers. It's fitting that the band which most influenced indie music in the aughts closes out the decade with such a towering achievement. There is a lot of debate now over what is next for the band. Will they dissolve into Panda Bear's and other solo projects, splinter, get totally electronic and weird on us again? Personally I hope for A and C, but regardless, we can always return to this deliriously conjured album. -Kiersten Lawson | ||||
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