Album Reviews: The Best Music of 2009 – Part One (January – March)

By Travis Woods

As was the case last year, in an effort to make our obligatory end-of-the-year music lists easier to compile, and because I’m music-obsessed to a ridiculously self-parodic degree, I’ve compiled a guide to our favorite sounds of 2009 (so far).

Also: music nerds like to make lists.

Moving on, here are my picks for the best music releases, both national and local, of the year thus far. While the list may be entirely subjective, there truly has been an absolute glut of good music in 2009 (with a barrage of even more on the way, if the stack of excessively listened-to promos piling up around my desk are any indication); the next time you find yourself at a loss in Amoeba, make sure and snatch one of these records up. You won’t regret it. It’s gonna be a good year.

Note: Part Two of our Best of 2009 list is here.

Abe Vigoda – Reviver EP
Rarely does a band’s attempt at artistic riskiness equate streamlining their sound into something more accessible than previous efforts, but that’s exactly the move that L.A.’s Abe Vigoda makes on Reviver, the band’s EP follow-up to last years’ synapse-fried pressure cooker of tropical indie punk, Skeleton. While by no means middle of the road (dig the rolling crush of opener “Don’t Lie”), the band has tamed some of their wilder elements to openly reveal what Skeleton took days to make clear: beneath Abe Vigoda’s intense focus on (and love for) mind-bending and frenzied textures, there is a band hungry to evolve beyond the freak-punk genre tag immediately placed upon their implosive first three records. They even throw in a cover of Stevie Nicks’ “Wild Heart” just in case you didn’t quite get the message with such moody, psych-tinged atmospherics found in tracks like “House” and the stoner grooves of “The Reaper”—this is a band willing move forward by subverting and, even further, embracing accessibility without sacrificing what made them worth listening to in the first place.

Stream “Don’t Lie”

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Asobi Seksu- Hush
Leaving behind the sweetly guitar-crushed avalanche of shoegazed sound that dominated Asobi Seksu and Citrus, Asobi Seksu’s Hush does exactly that, quieting down and revealing a love of 4AD-styled dream pop that acts as a sonic companion and flipside to the Creation Records fetishism that dominated the band’s first two discs. While this act of aural minimalism keeps Hush from delivering a moment as indelible as Citrus’ “Thursday,” songs such as the sparkling whisper of “Layers” and the sugar rush chime of “Transparence” will stay with your ears for days, even if you do have to occasionally strain to hear the rest.

Stream “Me and Mary”

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Bonnie “Prince” Billy – Beware
A warm, whisky’d rush of eccentric, eclectic instrumentation—background choirs are just as likely to be tinged with oddball marimba lines as they are the sweet southern comfort of fiddles and steel guitars—and Will Oldham’s shakey, tremulous vocals, Beware could almost pass for a pleasant bit of minor-entry country-rock were it not for the ominous tendrils of unrest that swirl at the record’s periphery. Song titles like “You Don’t Love Me” and “You Can’t Hurt Me Now” only hint at Oldham’s mindset, but the bloodied ache of his voice and restless longing of his lyrics serve to confirm what Beware’s album cover suggests—that its enigmatic creator is, if only for this moment, surrounded by encroaching dark and, further, that it’s nothing less than art.

Stream”Your Only Friend”

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Bon Iver – Blood Bank EP
As far as stop-gap EPs go, Bon Iver’s four-song Blood Bank is fairly wonderful stuff—the first three tracks manage to both echo and shade the heartrending and frostbitten despair of 2008’s For Emma, Forever Ago without sounding entirely unnecessary or like a stunted scatter of disparate b-sides.

But as far as songs go, Blood Bank’s spectral closer, “Woods,” is truly wonderful—an a capella ballad blanketed with heavy layers of Justin Vernon’s thoroughly Auto-Tuned vocals, “Woods” is a track that shouldn’t work, as it so deeply breaks the preconceived mold of what Bon Iver’s aesthetic is; this is a song that could have easily swooned its way into Imogen Heap cheese. Instead, it stands as one of Vernon/Bon Iver’s most powerful moments, a revelation of a song that diverges into a startling different sonic direction from the creaking snowdrift acoustica of For Emma but carries with it that album’s drive to discover a quiet beauty within lonely sorrow.

Stream “Woods”

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Neko Case – Middle Cyclone
This is a looser, more mercurial Case than we’ve heard before—Cyclone is exactly that, a whirlwind that twists from one musical thread to another, from the whipping charge of “This Tornado Loves You” and the nimble skip of “People Got a Lotta Nerve” to the lonely strum of the title track and the lush country sway of “Prison Girls.” And as one song after another hums and meditates on the themes of primal instincts, one realizes that the record isn’t as fragmented as it seems upon a superficial first listen—Neko Case is no longer coloring within genre lines, whether they outline country rock or indie pop; rather, she’s allowing herself to be guided by raw intuition and musical instinct, which may prevent Middle Cyclone from featuring the harrowing, controlled depth of previous releases, but lends it a swaggering and shapeshifting power that renders it just as indelible.

Stream “People Got a Lotta Nerve”

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Fol Chen – Part I: John Shade, Your Fortune’s Made
One of the more dichotomous releases in recent local memory (and best produced), Fol Chen’s debut, Part I: John Shade, Your Fortune’s Made, is difficult to break down or summarize, Rubik’s cubed as it is with complex lyrical elements concerning the demise of a Long Island radio station, a Vladimir Nabokov character, and Fol Chen’s fictional (?) battle to save progressive radio. And confusing as the narrative may initially be, it’s inextricably interwoven into (and reflective of) the very nature and fabric of the band’s sound: a hyperactive collision of elements that don’t belong together—grinding, near-industrial dread, breathy pop, skittering and crooning funk—yet succeed in forming something that sounds jarringly new yet oddly familiar.

Stream “Cable TV”

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The French Semester – Good Friends Only I Could See
A sweet and smile-inducing blend of Guided By Voices’ ragged melodic charm with the hushed pop wits of the third Velvet Underground record, the French Semester’s Good Friends Only I Could See churns out one harmonious and guitar-jangled rock/pop gem after another—“Remembering Right Now” being the big winner—with each track’s layered loveliness capable of breaking your heart without so much as breaking a sweat.

Stream “Remembering Right Now”

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Morrissey – Years of Refusal
Continuing the roll he’s been on since 2004’s warm, stately You Are the Quarry, Years of Refusal finds the singer doing what he does best—biting lyrics (i.e.: wittily bitchy), pop pathos, that instantly recognizable croon—while making slight adjustments to the conservatism (aesthetic, not political) that has dictated his solo work since the first notes of Viva Hate: in this noisier and looser than average (for him) record, Morrissey finds comfort not in his trademarked misery and dread of aging; rather, he mocks his miserablist image in songs like the jazzy sway of “You Were Good in Your Time” and finds comfort in middle age, a sentiment that forms the bedrock of the crunching “That’s How People Grow Up” and the whiplashed “I’m OK By Myself.” Whether this most recent entry in his ongoing hot-streak is due to the confidence that stems from pop culture re-acknowledging his importance in recent years, or is simply a bi-product of maturity (not to be confused with complacency–he’s still bitchy), is beside the point—with music this uniformly entertaining, it’s best just to quiet down and let the former Stephen Patrick Morrissey do the talking, which is what Years of Refusal confirms as his greatest strength, anyway.

Stream “Something is Squeezing My Skull”

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One Trick Pony – Full of Life
Quite possibly the most accurate album title of the year—this is an album brimming with life as it skips from one gorgeous example of everything right with indie folk after another. Seriously, if you can find a prettier song than “Phonebook” being performed in a local L.A. music club, I don’t want to hear it—this record breaks my heart enough on a weekly basis as it is.

Stream “Phonebook”

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The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Sure, that’s an abysmal band name, and yes, they currently reside deep within the shadow of the Jesus and Mary Chain and the original C86 cassette; despite those knotty, problematic issues, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart is an album of lovely, fuzz-gauzed charm jacketed with youthful energy, surveying the best of ’80s dream-pop/ shoegaze with an excitement and vigor of someone just discovering the genre for the very first time–cynics may balk, but theirs is the sound of a band in love with music; with some luck, that passion will be enough to push their next record from a craftsman-like effort to a work of true innovation. For the time being, though, album opener “Contender” is lush and propulsive enough to keep your ears busy with its fizzy bustle for months to come.

Stream “Contender”

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Phosphorescent – To Willie
Though it lacks any shocking interpretations and fails to completely own any of the songs included, this collection of Willie Nelson covers still bristles with the dreamy, touching sensitivity and wit that was always at the heart of the Red Headed Stranger’s best work while converting these high and lonesome country tunes into slowsway indie-folk ballads.

Stream “Reasons to Quit”

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Red Cortez – Hands to the Wall EP
Opening with the thrashing, neck-snapped guitar rush and epic vocal cascades of “In the Fall,” Red Cortez’s first EP under their new moniker (the band released three EPs under their previous name, The Weather Underground) isn’t so much a stopgap to buy time before a full-length debut as it is a concise statement of aesthetic intent. Listen to the EP, as the jangly and nerve-spun “Fell on the Floor,” all rockabilly stomp and twist-tongued vocal delivery, flows into the oompah and otherworldly crush of “Laughing Streetcar” before the one-two punch of the pounding “World at Rest” and “All the Difference”’s lonely lullaby, and what you hear is a young band maturing before your ears—Red Cortez has wrestled the howlingly anthemic and earnest music of their early discs and fused it to a more insular, unique and personal sound, making the tunes even more heartfelt and human than the band’s previous incarnation of reaching rock ‘n soul.

Stream “Fell on the Floor”

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Bruce Springsteen – Working on a Dream
Collapsing all of his sonic musings of the past thirty years—the crooning romantic shuffle of Roy Orbison, the monolithic slabs of ringing and rattling Phil Spector production, the dark, socially conscious wit of Woody Guthrie via Bob Dylan, and the wild-eyed and blood-hot catharsis of Van Morrison-styled jukebox salvation—into a heat-blistered gumbo of classicist rock ‘n roll, Working on a Dream finds Springsteen wholly embracing the myth and expectations of being “The Boss” without succumbing to cynical rehashes or stumbling into Human Touch/ Lucky Town-era key-drenched cheese.

Powered by more inspiration, energy and sheer commitment to the act of music-making than anything he’s done since Born in the USA—the rockers explode with a youthful vitality that refuse to concede to any form of surrender or end, and coupled with his feverish drive to make such a staggeringly excellent album this late in the game (Springsteen turns 60 this year), the Boss has proven that while he might have been born long ago, he isn’t done running quite yet.

Stream “The Wrestler”

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Various Artists – Ram on L.A.
Cover albums can be a tricky proposition, an artistic attempt studded with the landmines of creative missteps, awkward new versions and flat-out misguided covers of classic music—a great swath of the best and most powerful rock albums (though not all—I’m looking at you, Bee Thousand) often contain some kind of conceptual through-line or sustained mood that holds them together, and it’s exactly that sense of cohesion that is lost in translation when an individual artist’s POV is splintered into ten or twelve separate and distinct voices under a covers umbrella.

It’s exactly that reason, however, that the Aquarium Drunkard-orchestrated tribute disc, Ram on L.A. (covering Paul McCartney’s 1971 solo record, Ram), works so well—the original album, McCartney’s second, was such kitchen-sink collusion of various rock and pop strands that the album’s through-line zigzags from one modestly ramshackle extreme to another as it skips from the whimsical strum and chug of “Too Many People” all the way down to the weary piano pop of “The Back Seat of My Car,” making stops at barnburning rock ‘n roll and country groovers along the way. So to refract it through the prism of eleven different artists covering twelve tracks serves only to enhance (though not exactly better—this is, after all, a Beatle) Ram’s endearingly cross-eyed mood and charming, wandering amble through a rustic pop landscape.

Stream “Dear Boy” by Bodies of Water

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Vetiver – Tight Knit
The album’s title is the best indication of Vetiver’s current headspace—their already streamlined and rustic classic rock is given a bright, loving sheen and tightened production on Tight Knit, while, conversely, the band expands the outer orbit of their influences with horn-jammed funk riffs and sprinkles of shuffling jangle-pop. Tight as Knit is, it features a band unafraid to loosen up and open its horizons, the sound of which is nothing less than blissful.

Stream “At Forest Edge”

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The Voyeurs – Well Known Drag
Thoroughly Kinked and corner-turning rock-pop, The Voyeurs’ stately debut, Well Known Drag, rages and swoons with a kind of laser-honed songwriting precision not usually heard outside of a lavish, Rhino-released box containing the best of ‘60s powerpop. From the whiplashed and seasick dynamics of the gnashing, near-perfect “Thing People Say” to the ominous and piano-crashed menace of “The Trouble with Jerry” to the lazy, front porch acoustic haze of “New Beginnings,” Drag does anything but as it explores ringing vocal pop and percussive, sneering rock with a dedicated and knowing edge. By the time the beerhaul jaunt of “You’re a Wreck” closes the record with a playful, Merseybeat swing, the Voyeurs have not only issued a clever and catchy catalog of powerpop’s history, but they offer it a promising future as well.

Stream “Things People Say”

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Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz!
If the sound of Debbie Harry covering “Maps” for 45 minutes is your thing—and, God knows, it should be—the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ third disc is your album for 2009 , even if it’s incorrectly labeled as their reinvention record—you know how people talk—due to the punkish band’s newfound electronic embrace. Though they may be synth-chunked instead of guitar-strangled, Nick Zinner’s riffs are as sinuous and right-angled as ever; Brian Chase’s drumming is just as adept and artful with four-on-the-floor grooves as it is with revisionist punk; and frontwoman Karen O’s voice is still as capable of embodying (and instilling) as much libidinous rage and wounded yearning above a crystalline bedrock of beepblipped buzzing as it can over gutted NYC grime-rock. So don’t be afraid—this is still the Yeah Yeah Yeahs you’ve always loved; to prove it, they even included “Hysteric,” quite possibly the most affecting and touching indie-rock ballad since “Maps” was released by, well, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Stream “Hysteric”

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April 1, 2009 | Filed Under Album Reviews, Exclusive Features, Features of 2009 

Comments

6 Responses to “Album Reviews: The Best Music of 2009 – Part One (January – March)”

  1. ScousePablo on November 18th, 2009 11:32 am

    Have only just discovered the site ( The Jeff Buckley Acoustic Live set is Amazing- Thanks !) …..Great to see Bruce S. + Morrissey Above here and will be Getting some of the albums metyioned above here …..Also
    Cheers from Liverpool , Ye Olde England

  2. the echo and echoplex » Tuesday 12.08.09: THE FRENCH SEMESTER @ echo on November 20th, 2009 2:27 pm

    [...] A sweet and smile-inducing blend of Guided By Voices’ ragged melodic charm with the hushed pop wits of the third Velvet Underground record, the French Semester’s Good Friends Only I Could See churns out one harmonious and guitar-jangled rock/pop gem after another—“Remembering Right Now” being the big winner—with each track’s layered loveliness capable of breaking your heart without so much as breaking a sweat. – Web In Front [...]

  3. the echo and echoplex » Monday 01.04.10: THE FRENCH SEMESTER @ echo on December 11th, 2009 12:38 pm

    [...] A sweet and smile-inducing blend of Guided By Voices’ ragged melodic charm with the hushed pop wits of the third Velvet Underground record, the French Semester’s Good Friends Only I Could See churns out one harmonious and guitar-jangled rock/pop gem after another—“Remembering Right Now” being the big winner—with each track’s layered loveliness capable of breaking your heart without so much as breaking a sweat. – Web In Front [...]

  4. the echo and echoplex » Monday 01.11.10: THE FRENCH SEMESTER @ echo on December 11th, 2009 12:39 pm

    [...] A sweet and smile-inducing blend of Guided By Voices’ ragged melodic charm with the hushed pop wits of the third Velvet Underground record, the French Semester’s Good Friends Only I Could See churns out one harmonious and guitar-jangled rock/pop gem after another—“Remembering Right Now” being the big winner—with each track’s layered loveliness capable of breaking your heart without so much as breaking a sweat. – Web In Front [...]

  5. the echo and echoplex » Monday 01.18.10: THE FRENCH SEMESTER @ echo on December 11th, 2009 12:40 pm

    [...] A sweet and smile-inducing blend of Guided By Voices’ ragged melodic charm with the hushed pop wits of the third Velvet Underground record, the French Semester’s Good Friends Only I Could See churns out one harmonious and guitar-jangled rock/pop gem after another—“Remembering Right Now” being the big winner—with each track’s layered loveliness capable of breaking your heart without so much as breaking a sweat. – Web In Front [...]

  6. the echo and echoplex » MOnday 01.25.10: THE FRENCH SEMESTER @ echo on December 11th, 2009 12:41 pm

    [...] A sweet and smile-inducing blend of Guided By Voices’ ragged melodic charm with the hushed pop wits of the third Velvet Underground record, the French Semester’s Good Friends Only I Could See churns out one harmonious and guitar-jangled rock/pop gem after another—“Remembering Right Now” being the big winner—with each track’s layered loveliness capable of breaking your heart without so much as breaking a sweat. – Web In Front [...]




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