As I mentioned when counting down my favorites from the decade, I don’t want to confuse the idea of “my favorites” with “the best”. If you meet someone who says otherwise, DEMAND to see their ENTIRE music collection…and give no leeway for “guilty pleasures”. Such solipsists deserve none! I think I have better taste than most, but I don’t think I know enough to know what from recent history will stand the test of time. I only know what I happen to like. As was the case most of the decade, I have been liking the Indie Rock stuff quite a bit; and to that end, 2009 was a pretty good year after a string of more than a few pretty good years. Yay for ears!
Portland's Jona Bechtolt of Yacht
On with the countdown:
10. Jeffery Lewis – Em Are I: No real musical chops to speak of. Not trail-blazing. The album title sucks, and indeed, Mister Lewis comes off as an over-simplifying snotty little smug artiste-type; but there is more going on than meets the eye for this moonlighting graphic novelist . The songs are deceivingly tight and there are many an earworm here that will sneak up on you over time. He is no Elizabeth Cotten, but pickin’ grows on you too. (Politically, not going to be a big favorite for those on the right, but I have to guess if you love music and have a right-wing orientation, you already know how to separate the politics out.) Perhaps for the uninitiated or disinclined it may prove enough that he is really just a big fan of music who happens to be having fun making it. Key cuts: Bugs & Flowers, If Life Exists?
9. Franz Ferdinand – Blood/Tonight: I prefer the dub version (Blood), but only because the original songs are so good. It may lack the killer single their first two albums came with. There is more to their white-boy post-punk/funk formula than one might have suspected early on. If you are so inclined, try digging up their live run through Blondie‘s Call Me from the 2009 charity compilation War Child – Heroes, Vol. 1. It fills out an iPod playlist nicely.
8. Bob Dylan – Together Through Life: Together Through Life compares favorably with his recent output as far as general sound and arrangement goes. I myself think this album catches him having some fun, taking some chances, and making one of the better albums for a long drive than anyone did this year (all albums should be road-tested to fully grasp their value.) As a bonus, this year actually saw two Dylan albums of new material; and while Together is the heftier of the two offerings, you’d be wrong to write-off his Christmas album as just another confused failure of self-editing. Many of the songs fit his recent focus on popular American music of the first half of the 20th Century, and his performances are inspired and appear to be a labor of love. Key cuts: My Wife’s Home Town, Must Be Santa.
7. Handsome Furs – Face Control: There were some harsh reviews of this disc, and while I admit the concept underpinning the lyrics and structure on this release is lost on me (something about post-Communist EU/RU – I think?), I didn’t buy this expecting a post-punk revival’s stab at besting The Wall (it sounds more like the Cars circa 1985 than high-concept Pink Floyd circa 1980.) The pop and synth backbone here will be familiar to anyone who picked up their previous album, and while this might be a shade or two behind Plague Park for overall power, I think time will be more kind to this album than it will be to At Mount Zoomer, the sophomore effort from singer Dan Boeckner’s other group, Wolf Parade. Key cuts: I’m Confused, All We Want, Baby, Is Everything.
6. El Perro Del Mar – Love Is Not Pop: Something about the Scandinavian weather must make humans dour. On this release, Ms. Assbring is clearly loosening up and having a little more fun with things, but there is still that sad undercurrent to the whole album. It is nice to hear her broaden her sound, although in this case “updating” her sound means moving from middle-ages hymns and fifties pop to an SPF-90 take on early 80s synth-funk. She is very close to putting something big together out of a synthesis of all these things. I hope she ends up finding the wider audience she deserves. If you can, try to track down her split single with Lykke Li from 2009 Record Store Appreciation Day as well. Key cuts: A Better Love and (At Your Best) You Are Love from the single.
5. Various Artists – Yeti 7: This was a pretty good year for compilations. Dark Was The Night was an excellent cross-section of the NPR-wing of Indie music, but the Yeti magazine‘s sampler CD #7 single-handedly put together the definitive comp of indie-Indie, lo-fi stuff so big this year. Yeti collections are usually excellent, and many swear by Yeti #1 (which is huge), but this has come to be my favorite (for now, anyway.) Key cuts: Dutchess and the Duke – Living This Life, Woods – Get Back.
4. Girls – Album: I think the comparisons to Elvis Costello are fair and unmistakable, but it does these younguns a disservice to force them to have to compete with that. They may not prove capable of it, and they wouldn’t need to be in order to have a run of top-flight albums. I would also be very surprised to find out that they were huge devotees of EC – the similarities seem more accidental than anything. They certainly don’t seem to obsess over the songs, and at the end of the day, these awesome little pop performances feel as easy and organic as EC’s early stuff felt wound tight and hammered out. The non-album cuts from the singles are up to the quality of the album material. Key Cuts: Lauren Marie, Lust For Life, Hellhole Ratrace.
3. St. Vincent – Actor: Watching Annie Clark play this material on Austin City Limits might be the best intro to it – especially if you want to match the songs to a visual of the artist. In the live setting, you get a little better sense of some of the tension and drive of this album. This isn’t noisy stuff, nor does it meander into any prolonged white-girl funk workouts, but it does “rock” and it does “groove” and can get angular without losing focus. Better yet, throughout its various stylistic turns it leaves plenty of room for the feminine touch that distinguishes it, and in doing so, makes the whole feel most refreshing in an era in which there are just too many middling she-folkies and mopey synth-ballad girly bedroom albums out there. Better yet, in following her nascent career, one definitely gets the sense she has only begun to develop her considerable powers and talents. Most won’t get this good at their peak. Key cuts: The Strangers, Marrow.
2. Wooden Shjips – Dos: Simple variations on a theme, often cooked up low-n-slow from a single groove; never given any sort of bombastic, cathartic release or even covered up by fretboard-workout soloing or ponderous lyrics (no small feat for a band who have had the term “prog” used to describe them!) I don’t hear “prog” so much here; there is too much real groove to their stuff. It’s big and warm and analog, and on Dos, they pick up largely where their debut left off, getting tighter and more singular in pursuit of everything the cold laptop clinicians hooked up to Garageband are doomed to miss. At the same time, they may be a little too blurry and psych at points to appeal to the lovers of 6-string-razor garage band purists either. Take it out on the open road and give it some volume and you’ll either get it or you won’t. Key cuts: Down by the Sea, Motorbike.
1. YACHT – See Mystery Lights: Portland, Oregon punches WAY above its weight when it comes to its music scene, and what is great about it is the fact that they are not locked into any particular sound. For all the great alt.rock stuff and folkie stuff to come from Portland in recent years, YACHT seems to borrow little from those genres. If there is any Portland connection to the content on this album, it might be the politics. For all the rancor of the GWB years, it is surprising how little great art was made in reaction to the highly polarized political environment of the decade (I admire the Dixie Chicks for not making nice I guess, but in eschewing “nice”, they opted out of the only thing they seemed to do even partially well; but I digress.) Perhaps in time, the current administration will inspire a great creative spurt of one orientation or another since GWB’s really didn’t. In any event, if no other album springs forth in reaction to the GWB years than See Mystery Lights, then at least the limited responses to his terms will have finished strong. While decidedly unsympathetic to the Red State ‘Murika worldview, YACHT also tends to avoid the sorts of ABC After School Special morality plays which tend to make a lot of politically-focused stuff so bad. I think they avoid a lot of the cheap/easy/obvious stuff for the right reasons (to put it in their terms, because to do so “is boring, it’s boring, it’s boring!”) The politics are more nuanced than the simple “right = bad, left = good” variety; and I think I would have loved this album had it been about nothing. (Lest ye think it is all political, they did put out an all-instrumental version of the album for free download, and I think it holds up well enough sans lyrics to be quite pleasurable in that form as well.) Politcs aside, the music here leaves behind some of the more abstract and noisy elements found in previous YACHT releases, and does so without making it just another poppy dance record. The addition of Claire Evans as a full-time partner, plus the statement of YACHT as a true collaboration, is the real revelation. It’s fun to dance to, the arrangements are smart, and the flow of the song sequence has yet to produce even slight fatigue to my ears, this after months of end-to-end playback.
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Up next, best reissues and songs.
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Rudy Grahn Jr. is a former talk show host turned writer turned analyst who currently writes primarily on the personal on his weblog Rudayday.com. Rudy is also a digital photographer whose work has been featured on PBS, NBC, and web outlets like BoingBoing.com and The Morning News. His nickname “Rudayday” was conferred upon him by John Romano in the 20th Century. Rudy Grahn article archive.
