Jonny Leather’s 25 Favorite Albums That I’ve Listened to This Year, based on My Own Personal Taste

When someone has the balls to make a list called "The Best of..." the results are always a very subjective cross-section of their own personal tastes. The best lists are always generated by consensus of a large collective of people well-informed about the subject they're ranking. Music is my oxygen. Without it I suffocate, so I listen to a lot of new music every year. That said, it's all restricted to my tastes, what I have access to/know about, and my moods. Like everyone, I have favorites and I'd like to spread the word about the records I love, but I won't dare call them the best records of the year. It amazes me how so many "Best of 2009" lists completely lack genres, as if to say that indie rock is the ultimate form of music. My favorite records of the year are a variety of rock records. Almost embarrassing that it lacks hip hop, jazz, classical, soul, and other genres, but rock is where I was with my head this year and this isn't a best of list, it's a completely subjective list of my favorite records—a list that probably wouldn't be exactly the same tomorrow.

1. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion
   

   It's gonna be almost everyone's choice for album of the year, and that makes me not want to make it #1, but the fact is that Animal Collective has made an uncompromisingly great record that should withstand the test of time and inspire musicians for many more years.

   Best track: My Girls

2. Capybara - Try Brother

   Why all of the music media missed this one is beyond me. Combining elements of Sufjan, Arcade Fire, Dirty Projectors and many more, the refreshingly diverse Try Brother is easily the year's best debut record.

   Best track: Cutaway Kid

3. Swan Lake - Enemy Mine

   Beast Moans only hinted at what the combination of Krug, Bejar and Mercer would be capable when joined together as indie supergroup Swan Lake. As three of the most talented and unique songwriters in the world, they seem to mesh perfectly, and in the end it's Mercer who shines most brightly with a huge voice that sounds like a really crazy drunk Bowie.

   Best track: Peace

4. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

   I've said it before and I'll say it again, Phoenix are the best pop band of our time, and it's about time people realized it. "Love Like A Sunset pts 1 & 2" is the perfect centerpiece, pulling a 5:40 second instrumental before eclipsing into pure bliss.

   Best track: Love Like A Sunset pt. 1 & 2

5. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca

   The fully realized masterpiece that Dave Longstreth has hinted at for years, thanks to some of the tightest harmonies ever caught on record.

   Best track: Useful Chamber

6. Pink Mountaintops - Outside Love

   As if Black Mountain's To The Future wasn't great enough, Stephen McBean's other project outdid them.

   Best track: Vampire

7. Flaming Lips - Embryonic

   No one expected this. Just when Wayne Coyne and Flaming Lips had seemingly grown out of their extreme weirdness, they go and release their most bizarre record since becoming indie rock icons.

   Best track: Evil

8. Deleted Scenes - Birdseed Shirt

   Diverse, desperate, and genuine—Birdseed Shirt is a rock record with a soul and humanity, during a time where humanity gets lost behind effects or sounds forced.

   Best track: Fake IDs

9. Hooray For Earth - Momo EP

   Just a hint of what's to come, Hooray For Earth has worked out the ideas of their earlier releases and created their own unique sound that is able to combine loud and heavy with poppy and danceable.

   Best track: Get Home

10. Bear in Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth

    A psychedelic headtrip unlike any I've ever heard before.

    Best track: Ultimate Satisfaction

11. Built to Spill - There is No Enemy

    All it takes is that opening riff to let you know that this is Built to Spill's best album in 10 years. It's a return to form for one of the indie rock's elite bands.

    Best track: Aisle 13

12. Loxsly - Tomorrow's Fossils

    If Flaming Lips got too weird for you, Loxsly may be able to fulfill the need for Soft Bulletin-era Lips. Not many bands can debut with a concept album. Fully developed at the starting line, Loxsly's not like many other bands.

    Best track: As The Constellation's Arms Uncurled

13. The Veils - Sun Gangs

    You feel every word that Finn Andrews sings, because he delivers them with the type of intensity that can rip your soul to shreds.

    Best track: Sit Down By The Fire

14. Harlem Shakes - Technicolor Dream

    Harlem Shakes first and most likely last full length is a fun, uplifting record about change.

    Best track: TFO

15. The Antlers - Hospice

    A big sweeping record filled with emotional despair.

    Best track: Sylvia

16. The Big Pink - A Brief History of Love

    Sure, The Jesus & Mary Chain chain did it first, then Black Rebel Motorcycle Club picked up the torch, but A Brief History of Love is about as big and wonderful as anything either of those bands have released.

    Best track: Velvet

17. Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers - A Fish Hook An Open Eye

    Shilpa Ray has quickly emerged as the best female vocalist in New York City with brutally honest lyrics that come from a much darker dirtier place than her peers.

    Best track: What The Fuck Was I Thinking

18. Wild Beasts - Two Lovers

    An album full of spinning webs of vocal theatrics.

    Best track: This Is Our Lot

19. We Were Promised Jetpacks - These Four Walls

    Every second feels genuinely passionate and filled with immediacy.
    Best track: It's Thunder and It's Lightning

20. Foreign Born - Person to Person

    A sophomore record that actually improves upon the debut in all the right ways.

    Best track: Vacationing People

21. Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer

    The 2nd of 2 Spencer Krug related albums to make this list just goes to show how prolific of a songwriter he's become.
    
    Best track: Nightingale/December Song

22. Dappled Cities - Zounds

    Could be heard as the Australian brother of Wild Beasts.

    Best track: The Night Is Young At Heart

23. Islands - Vapours

    They ditched the strings for synths, and when doing so Nick Diamonds returned to a more upbeat place. It's the closest thing he's done to that now legendary Unicorns record.

    Best track: EOL

24. Wye Oak - The Knot

    With The Knot, Wye Oak filled out their stripped-down bass and guitar duo sound and let the guitar scream a bit louder.

    Best track: Take It In

25. John Vanderslice - Romanian Names

    After 6 overlooked gems, veteran songwriter John Vanderslice signed to Dead Oceans and released the rest record of his career.

    Best track: Too Much Time

Honorable Mentions:

• Loney, Dear - Dear John

  Best track: I Was Only Going Out

• DeVries - Death to God
  

  Best track: What A Wasted Life

• Kurt Vile - Childish Prodigy

  Best track: Freak Train

• Pains of Being Pure at Heart - s/t

  Best track: You Adult Friction

• Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - Up From Below

  Best track: Up From Below

• Dan Deacon - Bromst

  Best track: Snookered

  Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!

  Best track: Skeletons

• Marissa Nadler - Little Hells

  Best track: Ghosts & Lovers

• Mew - No more stories Are told today I'm sorry They washed away No

  Best track: Repeaterbeater

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Dec 21, 2009 | Categories: Album Reviews, Critical Differences, Features, Year End 2009 | Tags: albums, animal collective, antlers, bear in heaven, Best of 2009, big pink, built to spill, capybara, dappled cities, deleted scenes, dirty projectors, flaming lips, foreign born, harlem shakes, hooray for earth, islands, john vanderslice, loney dear, loxsly, merriweather post pavillion, phoenix, pink mountaintops, rock, shilpa ray, swan lake, veils, we were promised jetpacks, wild beasts, wye oak | Leave A Comment »