I’ve been procrastinating publishing this latest post for several weeks now. I’ve had ample time to write it; that’s not the problem at all. No, I simply find it painfully, frustratingly difficult to narrow my collection down to only a handful of records, especially in a year with so many fantastic releases to choose from.
I began making a mental draft a couple of weeks ago and sketched out my initial list a week later. Since then I’ve revised it six or seven times (and grew the list from five spots to ten in the process), but I think I’ve finally locked it down. Here, then, are my picks for the 10 best albums of 2009 (sorted alphabetically):
- The Avett Brothers - I and Love and You
- Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears - Tell ‘Em What Your Name Is!
- Discovery - LP
- Girls - Album
- Monsters of Folk - Monsters of Folk
- Passion Pit - Manners
- Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
- The Thermals - Now We Can See
- Wilco - Wilco (the album)
- The xx - xx
A lot of the folk/rock influence comes from listening to NYC’s best music radio station, WFUV, and indeed, four of my top 10 albums are also on the listener’s best of 2009 poll. I’m actually a little surprised that Black Joe Lewis didn’t make it into their top 50, given how much they played it over the summer, but there’s still lots more great music on there.
Here’s some more of mine that didn’t make it the top 10 but were also in heavy rotation this year:
- Andrew Bird - Noble Beast
- Bell X1 - Blue Lights on the Runway
- Ben Kweller - Changing Horses
- The BPA - I Think We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat
- Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
- The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love
- Fanfarlo - Reservoir
- Felice Brothers - Yonder is the Clock
- Gomez - A New Tide
- Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
- Heartless Bastards - the Mountain
- The Low Anthem - Oh My God, Charlie Darwin
- Miike Snow - Miike Snow
- Mos Def - The Ecstatic
- Röyksopp - Junior
- Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It’s Blitz!