Top 9 Albums of 2009

Adequate: as much or as good as necessary for some requirement or purpose.

Adequate; it’s the only word that comes to mind when describing the music of 2009. It certainly wasn’t a bad year for music. No colossal letdowns from favourite bands. No nauseating ‘group of the moment’ hogging the spotlight. But was it really a great year? The old bands were solid, the new bands were interesting. But no one sound roped our collective ears by the guitar string. It was simply a satisfactory 12 months of audio digestion that left us no better or worse. Full, sure, content, yes but maybe a little wary of opening our mouths about it; not unlike a tuna melt.

9. Joel Plaskett - Three

If only he’d named this album 1 it would have been a classic. Instead it’s just great. A 3-disc follow-up to his fan-dividing Ashtray Rock album was a bold move by Mr. Plaskett and a dud would have surely spelled the end for everyone’s favourite Nova Scotian. Instead we got more than a solid helping of classic Plaskett sprinkled liberally throughout the first two discs and offered as a full course with the third. “Rewind, Rewind, Rewind”, “Through & Through & Through” and “Lazy Bones” can all be added to his greatest hits list.

8. Devendra Banhart - What Will We Be

Being at the forefront of the freak folk movement must really place a lot expectations on one’s shoulders. You have to imagine that uber-weirdo Devendra Banhart must feel obliged to act like a psycho just to keep his fanbase in check. That’s why it’s all the more pleasurable to see Devendra finally shed those expectations on What Will We Be and produce an album full of plain old beautiful music. One might not  call this album traditional, but it’s not hard to see how a pop masterpiece like ‘Baby’ could fit snugly into a Motown playlist.  The whole thing smacks of happiness, ass-shaking good times and genuine musicianship. Finally, a Banhart album that can play from end to end.

7. Dan Auerbach - Keep It Hid

Being a true bluesman is something many musicians strive for and often claim to be, but a title so few can truly hold. Unlike John Mayer and Eric Clapton (bold I know) Dan Auerbach is not a fake bluesman. He is the real deal, and this album more than anything serves as proof. With his high, rough, restrained, emotive, unleashed but hidden vocals, plus fingers full of licks, Dan Auerbach cleans out his mind and wrings out his soul on this album. The genre jumps from folk, to rock to blues to dare I say golden oldies R&B, yet what remains constant is the passion. “Street Walkin’” and “Goin’ Home” will stun you.

6. Arctic Monkeys - Humbug

A grower not a shower.  This album is a much slower version of the Monkeys, a darker tone pervades, and gone are Alex Turner’s everyman scribblings of a poet on the street. What Humbug the band’s third album supplies instead is an incredibly textured group of songs that dig a little deeper into themselves than one would expect.  While there are still plenty of gorgeous melodies and quotable phrases to be found, this album is less about painting a picture for their audience but rather joining in the crowd and gazing back upon the scene themselves.

5. The Lonely Island - Incredibad

When these guys wrote, recorded and released this album it was with the understanding that the whole thing was one big joke. It didn’t matter if it came off a little silly, it was intended to make you laugh and keep you watching SNL. Fortunately for us, somewhere along the way, they got so caught up in making a parody of hip-hop that they accidentally released one of the best albums the genre has seen in years. It’s nuanced, hilarious satire all wrapped in an infectious, musically-sound package. Hip-hop is supposed to be about being clever, having fun and enjoying tunes no matter who made them or how. If we’re judging this album by that criteria; it’s a masterpiece.

4. Tegan and Sara - Sainthood

In recent years, Tegan and Sara seemed to have ditched their perfect pop sensibilities in favour of self-pitying wank sessions with Death Cab for Cutie. With Sainthood they’ve pushed all that behind them and returned to their bad-ass lesbian twin selves. This time around, the sisters have managed to marry their heart-on-the sleeve poetry and enchanting melodies with Chris Walla’s fantastic ear for inventive sounds and song structure in a way The Con never did. It’s loud, it’s passionate, it’s sad, it’s angry. It’s Tegan and Sara, and it’s very good.

3. Julian Casablancas - Phrazes for the Young

With the Strokes on hiatus and all of his former bandmates releasing solo projects it was high time for Julian Casablancas to head back to the studio after 3 years of silence. For fans of the man, it was well worth the wait. Experimenting with electronica sounds, traditional song structures and a boatload of snyths, Phrazes for the Young is an eclectic and interesting LP. While Casablancas familiar phoned-in vocals will bring you into a comfort zone, the rest of the sounds, rhythms and tones will try their best to force you out of it. Some melodies are off-key, most songs finish far from where they started, but every track is fascinating and well worth ditching your expectations for. A pre-Strokes reunion purge or not, this album is a welcome surprise and proof that JC has more than one trick up his sleeve.

2. Monsters of Folk - S/T

When you combine three of indie rocks greatest talents (I’m being gracious M. Ward) and one incredibly gifted studio musician it’s hard to fuck up an album. Though the Traveling Wilbury’s proved that less can often be more, Monsters of Folk manages to pull off the supergroup with relative ease by sticking to their strengths individually, while operating as a collective. Conor Oberst lends his genius words, M. Ward his deft musicianship, Jim James his angelic voice and Mike Mogis fills in the blanks. The album doesn’t drown itself in introspective vulnerability nor does it pretend to be a rocking good time. It’s just good music. These guys play to their strengths and more importantly off each others. Let “Temazcal”, “His Master’s Voice” and “Map of The World” rope in you in.

1. Pete Doherty - Grace/Wastelands

While certainly not everyone’s cup of tea, within the trainwreck that is Pete Doherty lies a brilliant musician and poet. These talents were certainly on display with the short-lived Libertines, but began to fade with new band, Babyshambles. Plus with the ever-growing fear that he’d wind up on the cover of a newspaper with the headline “Dead of Heroin Overdose” many if not most, had given up on Pete Doherty. Perhaps that’s what makes this album so impressive. That from the haze of drugs, of public meltdowns and high-profile romantic collapses and having one foot in the grave he can still produce 12 brilliant, albeit simple songs that prove he’s from far finished. The man has a way with words and when mixed with clean yet not polished production his poetry is allowed to live and breathe and leave an indelible mark. It’s a graceful, beautiful album that should not be wasted.

- Sam Stilson