Best Albums of 2009 (#10 -#1)

10. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz!

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have extracted the essence of 80s synth-pop and refined it by blending in their own arty garage-punk sound and seasoning it with shoegazing swirls and buffing it up with glossy production. The songs pulsate with jagged hooks and sharp, danceable rhythms while Karen O’s crystalline voice and sexy snarl is the nectar that sweetens this winning formula. It’s Blitz! expands the Yeahs’ sound with more sophisticated songwriting that’s polished with a hyperized, electric sheen. The upbeat tunes have a swagger and punch that’s greater than the sum of their parts while the slower tracks come brilliantly alive with sweetly chugging guitars, dazzling synth chords and hooky choruses. It’s Blitz! is packed with a distinctive, slick neo-new-wave sound that is so full and rich it begs to be blasted at full volume over and over again! – Matt the Raven

9. Dinosaur Jr. – Farm

I can’t even begin to explain how awesome it is to have Dinosaur back in action with the original lineup. I know you’ve all heard about how this is supposed to be the way that these things should work out, but seeing it in action – more importantly hearing it on Farm – is flooring. J Mascis cranks the guitars to eleven and grinds out catchy nuggets of noise pop like “Pieces” and “Over It.” Just as impressive is the quality of Lou Barlow’s tracks on here, “Your Weather” and “Imagination Blind” are some of the best songs he’s written since Sebadoh’s Harmacy.  I laughed out loud the first time I saw the ridiculous weed monsters on the front cover carrying children through a fog of ….well…you can use your imagination. Rather than playing Bug to Beyond’s You’re Living All Over Me, Farm ups the ante proving once and for all that old adage about getting better with age. – Joe Davenport

8. St. Vincent – Actor

Those unfamiliar with St. Vincent’s Annie Clark before 2009 were presented with a remarkable album to chew on. Unfairly overlooked after 2007’s outstanding Marry Me, Clark was just one of many artists who fully broke onto the seam with an album that conveyed all of her strengths into one heaping ball of magic: Disney-inspired, orchestral and downright superb, Actor made sure there was no way we could overlook the beautiful Annie Clark. Her voice is a special gift, ornately wrapped in a sly combination of high, controlled pitches and sexy, sultry sounds. “Actor Out of Work” presents her guitar-shredding musicianship and “Laughing With a Mouth of Blood” finds her morbidly sneaky to the support of gleaming percussion and lavishly swirling strings. When you’re able to keep everyone at your beck and call and, even more impressively, do so at your own discretion – unfiltered, unchanged, unmasked (as noted on her open outlook on the cover) – then you know you’ve achieved greatness. Foreboding, with a continuous amount of pressure, there is also a calculated amount of excellence brimming at the sides of Actor. – Bryan Sanchez

7. Bibio – Ambivalence Avenue

Let’s get all of the redundancies out of the way: Bibio’s Stephen Wilkinson had a banner year. While his first album, Vignetting the Compost, was an impressive portrayal of lo-fi in the summer, and his most recent output, The Apple and the Tooth, was still one of the better electronic releases, there is something jubilantly exceptional about Wilkinson’s best album of the year, Ambivalence Avenue. Further smudging the line between hip-hop and electronic music, Wilkinson goes one further and blends both aspects into Ambivalence Avenue. There’s still quite a bit of ambience and atmospherics hidden deep within the cavities but what surprisingly works for Wilkinson is his crafty way of melding big, booming beats with splendid samples. “Fire Ant” is a fine addition to Warp’s catalog; it’s wrapped in a lush amount of female vocals, stuttering stomps and bumping forces. And elsewhere, on the melodically dazzling “Lovers’ Carvings,” Wilkinson finds time to paint a loving picture of a couple carving their initials into a tree with a shimmering guitar before justly adding snare taps, hand claps and his own fitting singing. It was with Ambivalence Avenue’s head-nodding, headphone-wearing luster that we all fell in love with Bibio. – Bryan Sanchez

6. Atlas Sound – Logos

The second album from Atlas Sound, the solo project of Deerhunter frontman and guitarist Bradford Cox, is a magnificent blending of space-rock and dream-pop with a delicate balance of indie-rock experimentalism, swirling dream-pop melodies and hazily, percolating atmospherics. With waves of layered guitars and a whirlpool of echoes and snappy rhythms, the songs on Logos can be overflowing with thick and complex guitar swirls or awash in soft and airy synth lines. There are moments of pure pop bliss as well as opportunities for daydreaming. From the pensive strums and squelchy electronics of opener “The Light That Failed” to the fading guitar squalls of the closing title track, Logos is filled with dreamy space-rock that glistens and shines as much as it snaps, crackles and pops. Mostly though, this ethereal mix of multi-layered and textured dream-pop is frothing with jangly and heavily reverbed guitars, amid shoegazing drones and electro-style beats, that displays Atlas Sound’s sense of adventure and pop experimentation while providing the listener with countless entertaining spins. – Matt the Raven

5. The Flaming Lips – Embryonic

How many times can you go back to the well before it runs dry? Apparently there is a spring in Oklahoma that runs deep enough to feed endlessly into The Flaming Lips’ canon of classic albums. Embryonic marks their second triumph this decade after Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots. When it was released this fall, it provided a reason not to give up hope after the disappointing At War With The Mystics. Here the band takes a turn away from the futuristic pop of past efforts toward a mishmash of krautrock and space-age psychedelic electronics brandished with a tendency to experiment that this works highly in favor of these compositions. Add to that an instantly iconic and awesome album cover (possibly the year’s best looking one) and you’ve got yourself another winner. Embryonic is may easily their best album next to The Soft Bulletin and its mythic status. Let’s hope they can keep this momentum going for another decade. – Joe Davenport

4. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

I remember seeing Phoenix at the Austin City Limits Festival and being awestruck with their energy. Not only did they play as many songs as they could but they played with the kind of intensity that bands with something to prove perform with. And the thing is, Phoenix has been a band for quite some time now, with or without Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix; they had nothing to prove. But forget all of that for a moment because nonetheless, they bestowed an album that borders on being downright perfect. The singles are everything yes, but everything from the song selection, to the seamless sequencing to the overall sound is splendid. If you’ve ever gotten the chance to sit down and take in “Love Like a Sunset,” parts one and two, in their all-encompassing selves then you know what musical radiance is; enchanting, startling and superb, Phoenix didn’t have anything to prove and still, they delivered a marvelous achievement. At that aforementioned performance, Thomas Mars continued to thank the crowd for coming out: “We’ve never played to a crowd this big before, thank you so much!” he would say in between almost every excellent song. No, thank you for making such uplifting, absolutely enriching and outstanding music, don’t ever stop. – Bryan Sanchez

3. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest

If you were one of the rare few who waited until release day to listen to Veckatimest then you were resoundingly rewarded. An album that both excites and intrigues with its exceptional musicality, features two of the best lead singers currently making music and furthermore, is easily one of the most gorgeous works of music created in the past year, Veckatimest is truly something special. After the brooding and spectral radiance of Yellow House, the Brooklyn band took a clear turn with their Friend EP. Showcasing orchestral variations and four-part harmonies, Grizzly Bear has delved into a new realm many bands will never view. “Ready, Able[‘s]” ending is, without a doubt, an unforgettable musical experience and the album’s two closing songs – the calamity and clash of Daniel Rossen’s “I Live With You” and the solemn magnificence of Ed Droste’s “Foreground” – are what make Grizzly Bear unlike any other band. Their two lead singles that premiered more than a year ago on late night shows are obvious champions but it’s the aesthetic experience of Veckatimest that make it an absolutely stunning display of beauty. – Bryan Sanchez

2. Neko Case – Middle Cyclone

Those towering, amazingly dazzling pipes, her gift at combining metaphors with vivid imagery, her especially blissful instrumentation…in short, Neko Case is a jack of all trades. With a solo career that now carries into two decades, there’s really nothing she can’t do. And if you ever came across her fans then you’d realize that each and every single one of them has a different favorite album by her. Middle Cyclone is not only an album that holds its own against her immense catalog but it rightfully belongs in any music catalog. The self-titled track finds her in enlightening openness as she sings with the support of her acoustic guitar, chiming bells and again, that voice. But what really encapsulates you into another joy is the rousing opener, “This Tornado Loves You.” To the support of driving drums and propulsive guitars, Case takes the roll of a vicious tornado that will tear everything apart in complete destruction to get what she wants. And yet, she sounds beautifully sincere when she sings, “I miss…how you’d sigh yourself to sleep.” When the tornado is that beguilingly lovely, she can destroy whatever she wants to get to me. – Bryan Sanchez

1. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

Maybe Feels had the best songs, maybe Strawberry Jam was the most volatile, but Merriweather Post Pavilion found Animal Collective unearthing their most complete, most rewarding album to date. “In the Flowers,” “My Girls,” “Summertime Clothes,” and “Brother Sport” stood out, but each song connected with a transcendent flow and atmosphere that made Merriweather an aquatic dream. Relative to each album’s greatness, Strawberry Jam, Sung Tongs, and Feels could not match the consistency of MPP, which made it such a great front-to-back listen. The album, however, was not just one long drone, but instead, a collage of exuberance, anxiousness, wooziness, and daydreaming. Merriweather is immensely textured and dense, captured from samples, amazingly arranged in a cohesive melody. Avey and Panda harmonize better than ever on the album, supplementing each other’s brilliant melody, with another brilliant melody. You can imagine how that must sound. Panda and Avey let you dream with them on “Daily Routine” and “Bluish,” but let you celebrate with them on “My Girls,” “Brother Sport,” and “Summertime Clothes.” Electronic arpeggios, watery undercurrents, and that infectious boom-bass tie all of the songs together into one trippy, entrancing, and total sunburst of an album. Animal Collective spent the entire decade establishing their brilliance, and with Merriweather Post Pavilion, they left no doubt who was on top. – Bradley Hartsell

Best Albums of 2009 (#20 – #11)

20. A Place To Bury Strangers – Exploding Head

What’s that old phrase about there being nothing new under the sun? Fact of the matter is that even though My Bloody Valentine pretty much cornered the market on shoegaze back in 1991 when Loveless came out that there can still be surprises left in the genre to this day. It’s become a template for developing new and exciting forms of psychedelia this decade. NYC’s A Place To Bury Strangers add a little more New Order and Ministry flavor to the recipe. The band’s self titled 2007 debut was a raucous and ear damaging affair that delighted many including myself. Despite the mixed reactions of a few publications, Exploding Head pretty much trumps the debut. The first time I heard the last few seconds of “I’ve Lived My Life To Stand In The Shadow Of Your Heart” push its noise levels to near Merzbow levels of cacophony my jaw dropped. – Joe Davenport

19. Pelican – What We All Come To Need

What We All Come To Need finds Pelican continuing in much the same vein as previous endeavors, though this is still a heavy and intriguing listen. Combining a more realized sound from the rhythm section with Pelican’s penchant for the riff, has resulted in the band’s most inspired and confident release to date. Crossing a couple genres (yet not being bogged down by any one in particular), What We All Come To Need is what Pelican is all about, and is most certainly worthy of a listen…and another, and another, and another. – Kyle O’Donnell

18. Superchunk – Leaves In The Gutter

Sometimes the greatest testament to a band’s longevity is when listening to their newer stuff is when you can’t place what era it sounds from. At times Leaves in the Gutter sounds like where Superchunk left off in 2001, the time of their last full length, and at times like gems from 1993’s On The Mouth. Mac McCaughan’s guitar lines buzz across the odd rhythms of Jim Wilbur’s guitar, cymbals come crashing down on every minor chord like only Jon Wurster can do, and there’s Laura Ballance’s bass, forcing you to at the very least tap your feet, if not outright jump around the room. Collecting last year’s single “Misfits & Mistakes” as well as paying homage to the college rock of the 80’s with “Screw It Up,” and adding new soon-to-be ‘Chunk classics like “Knock Knock Knock” and “Learned to Surf,” the band hasn’t lost a step. While their peers may be reforming all left and right, Superchunk continues to stay vital by never going away. If the rumors of a new album in 2010 come true, then this EP is a welcome sign of what’s to come. – Matthew Smith

17. Mastodon – Crack the Skye

With all due respect to Isis, Baroness, and Converge, Mastodon was the metal band of the year. The Atlanta four-piece built upon their breakthrough album, Blood Mountain, and went even weirder and heavier with Crack The Skye. Adding additional vocalists, 11 minute suites, and Rasputin to the mix they somehow managed to sound a little more… acceptable.  Making metal sound properly heavy again, not to mention melodic, (the vocals on “Oblivion” are a masterful touch,) Mastodon is not to be messed with. Lars Ulrich told the band after the release of Blood Mountain he felt Metallica was passing the torch and we can certainly hope so. Not only are they more powerful and innovative than Metallica were, there’s little chance of them becoming watered down versions of their former selves. And if they were Crack The Skye would still have more force than Master of Puppets. – Matthew Smith

16. William Elliott Whitmore – Animals in the Dark

Whitmore is the real deal – his seemingly effortless songwriting skills, adeptness with a banjo (or guitar), and that set of pipes that command notice. Animals in the Dark is a natural progression from Whitmore’s previous stripped-down affairs. You get the feeling that Will has exorcised a few demons from his past, and has moved on to more external themes. It has always seemed that William Elliott Whitmore’s music transcended mere genre classification and “for fans of” suggestions, and that continues to be the case with this album. While the music is based in more traditional styles (folk, blues, etc.), the voice and lyrics have much broader appeal. Will’s success playing shows with bands that couldn’t be more different in style speaks to this. Don’t think because hardcore is your thing that you can’t love the punk appeal of this tattooed farmer who gives the tree new roots. – Jenn O’Donnell

15. Six Organs of Admittance – Luminous Night

Six Organs of Admittance’s Ben Chasny has always walked a thin line between modern folk and abstract drone. His earlier works like Dark Noontide and School of the Flower saw him at his most diaphonous and may still be his best but Luminous Night sees him venturing even further into the more traditional song structures that he began to gravitate toward on Shelter From The Ash. Whether you like it more or less will depend on your personal penchant for both Chasny and this type of work in general. Listening to it now, it’s easy to see how so many young guitar slingers might want to get in on this school of Tacoma inspired fingerpicking. Even though he was kind of lumped into that whole “freak folk” thing a few years back, Six Organs of Admittance continues to grow and surprise in far better and more rewarding ways than many others affiliated with the movement. – Joe Davenport

14. The Decemberists – Hazards of Love

The Decemberists flirted with a concept album in 2006 on The Crane Wife, where a handful of songs were based on a Japanese folk tale, while the rest of the album was a trumped up version of their signature folk-pop. This year, Colin Meloy and his Decemberists have eschewed the pop song altogether in favor of a full blown concept album rife with bewitching characters, a twisting plot and a grand musical score that is equal parts artistic and captivating indie-rock, intricate and complex prog-rock and quaint folk-rock, all without losing their distinctive charm. With bouzoukis, hurdy-gurdys, upright bass, glockenspiel, hammered dulcimers and pedal steel spun together with indie-rock guitars in their unique and dramatic style, and expressively and articulately sung not only by the periphrastic Meloy but with spectacular guest vocalists Becky Stark (Lavender Diamond) and Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond), The Hazards of Love is intelligent, effusive and exquisite and easily one of the year’s best albums. – Matt the Raven

13. Sunset Rubdown – Dragonslayer

If you’ve ever had the chance to watch Sunset Rubdown live then you’d be well aware that Spencer Krug is a unique fellow. He’s provided his own fan to blow in his face, he’s rather shy and somewhat timid but when the music’s flowing, he’s undeniably magnetic. To begin Sunset Rubdown’s fourth album, Krug creeps in with a twinkling piano melody before gradually swelling into the soaring acceptance of “Maybe these days are over now,” before sneaking back to his piano. Fittingly so, that’s what Dragonslayer is about: finding your confidence, attempting new heights and, in turn, achieving them with monstrous results. Epic, sprawling, musical…it’s everything you could ask for in an album and more. For a man of such coy demeanors – he’ll come out at the end of the show and say “So what do you all think of the new album? Critics say we’re an eight out of ten. I’m not sure what that means – I never thought of my band as a number” – he’s gloriously delivered his best album to date, and deservedly so; here’s to pleading that these days never, ever end. – Bryan Sanchez

12. Morrissey – Years of Refusal

Check out Morrissey on that cover – one of the best covers of the year by the way – he’s confident, holding a baby in one arm, cool and collected and his chin firmly elevated as if saying, “So what’s next?” It’s a fantastic image because of the kind of life Morrissey has lived: his music aches with heartbreak and of never being accepting and at the same time, he’s deeply resurrected his career. With that said, Years of Refusal is just as much a strong shift towards moving on, as much as it is an outstanding array of music. He’s still very much rebellious but his diction has always stood out from the other high-caliber singer-songwriters. When recounting how life is too short to cry over a lost love, he sings “So yes, there are things worse in life than never being someone’s sweetie” and elsewhere, he sings, “Oh, something is squeezing my skull, something I can barely describe, there is no love in modern life” before demanding “don’t gimme anymore!” Ultimately, he’s hit a new stride in his career, one that showcases a fittingly poised Morrissey and why not, Years of Refusal is downright excellent. – Bryan Sanchez

11. Big Business – Mind the Drift

Two years ago the drum and bass duo of Jared Warren (bass, vocals) and Coady Willis (drums, vocals) released the monstrous Here Come the Waterworks. Hard rock hadn’t sounded this unique in ages and the group’s 2009 release was highly anticipated by fans. Mind the Drift continues this powerful, melodic edge with the addition of a guitarist, Toshi Kasai. Although parts of the album needed multiple listens to latch on – due to the aforementioned guitar, mostly – the end result is another winner. The band is just so infectious and the song’s interesting lyrics create a great departure from the droll stuff churned out in the scene today. Who knew something so heavy and so deeply imbued with sludgy bass and rapid fire drums could sound so, well, melodic? Rock ‘n roll ain’t dead, it just got pummeled into something different by this band. Any fans of the kind of rock that gives you goose bumps must check this out. – Jenn O’Donnell

View albums #10 – #1>

Best Albums of 2009 (#30 – #21)

30. Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career

Will men please quit breaking Tracyanne Campbell’s heart?? Sure we benefit from it but think of the toll it’s taking on the poor girl! Campbell and her group jumped labels, from Merge to 4AD, and turned in their finest effort of 60’s girl group pop, twee-ish rock, and even a little bit of country & western. No one can get their heart broken as easily and no one can make you feel so bad yet still make you smile like Campbell. Though My Maudlin Career didn’t feature a big pop number such as “Lloyd, I’m Ready to Be Heartbroken,” it was the type of subtly nuanced and well crafted pop album we didn’t know we needed them to make. It showed great growth from the band in fine song craft that began with Let’s Get Out Of The Country and shows even more promise for the future. – Matthew Smith

29. Monsters of Folk – Monsters of Folk

Affectionately acknowledging the super-group of precedents of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and The Traveling Wilburys, whilst asserting and combining their own individual talents, Matt Ward (M Ward/She & Him), Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes), Jim James (My Morning Jacket), and Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes/producer-for-hire) delivered a rich and diverse debut as The Monsters of Folk. Masterfully mixing Byrdsian country-rock (“The Right Place”), red raw bluegrass (“Man Named Truth”), careening Crazy Horse crunchiness (“Losin’ Yo Head”), beatific folk rambling (“Sandman, The Brakeman, and Me”), blissful Sun Records rockabilly (“Whole Lotta Losin’”), Beach Boys indebted harmonizing (“Temazcal”), and even a touch of blue-eyed soul (“Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.)”), the quartet emphatically quashed any fears of egoism disjoining proceedings. Almost without question, the foursome’s seemingly effortless comradeship fashioned a collection that delighted and cross-pollinated inherited fanbases with ease. Arguably too, Oberst, Ward, and James even surpassed their own recent solo wares, suggesting that together with Mogis they could breeze into an even stronger sequel with everyone’s interests intact and satisfied. – Adrian Pannett

28. Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca

There was a time when Dave Longstreth’s Dirty Projectors project seemed destined to become the next Red Krayola instead of the next Technicolored, pop-smart, art-rock act. But somewhere between 2005’s The Getty Address and 2007’s Rise Above, as the band’s lineup started solidifying, he started channeling his restless giddiness into more tasteful and maximal arrangements. Being responsible for crafting music for a stable band seems to provide Longstreth the limit he needs to focus his powers, as Bitte Orca is crafted from elements entirely recognizable in his past work, but which jumps off the page bursting with wildness and confidence. The only concern on first hearing it was whether or not it had any heart. After the initial wow of technical details and off-beat stylistic mixtures fades into memory, the heart reveals itself, somewhat ironically for Longstreth’s reputation for obscurantism, as a will to be heard clearly and to find joy in simple expression. To follow along, just accept their invitation in “Temecula Sunrise”: “Definitely you can come and live with us / I know there’s a space for you in the basement, yeah / All you gotta do is help out with the chores and dishes / And I know you will!” – Greg Argo

27. Bear In Heaven – Beast Rest Forth Mouth

Bear In Heaven have created an album that resembles their name. It’s a beast of a record that rocks with a blissful mix of strident tones. Beast Rest Forth Mouth journeys over a sonic landscape that’s a gauzy mix of hypnotic synth washes, pounding rhythms and shoegazing guitar noise wrapped around melodic and sharp indie-rock. With a creative use of distorted guitars, tape loops and echoboxes, a mysterious mix of background noises, mock choir choruses and a dreamy ambience provided by sporadic rays of shimmering guitars, Beast Rest Forth Mouth is like a ménage à trois of Garbage, Cocteau Twins and Asobi Seksu executed with the bombastic flair of The Arcade Fire. It may be difficult to absorb this murky mix in one sitting, but if you allow the sound to fill the room with a few attentive spins, it will become evident that Bear In Heaven have fashioned a clever and brilliant album that won’t soon be forgotten. – Matt the Raven

26. Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport

After Street Horsssing’s blistering histrionics, one would be excused from expecting that Fuck Button’s follow-up, Tarot Sport, would be any easier to listen to. But, the enchanted twinkling intro to lead track “Surf Solar” (reminiscent of the incidental music from the dreamy scenes of The Goonies) serves notice that this is a more enchanted, slick, and melodic affair. That’s relatively speaking, of course. These tracks still aim to overwhelm, and each time you think the duo can’t add another more intense layer, they can. Instead of being hooked up to filters, it sounds like their keyboards are patched through a church’s pipe organ, and much of the background space on these tracks is filled with long-sustained chords. The pace here is more indebted to techno and house, all precision and endurance. Really though, it’s the hooks they drop this time out, from the Gary Glitter robotics of “The Lisbon Maru” to the singing phased glory-mongering of “The Olympians”, that show Fuck Buttons’ desire to be enjoyed by a wider audience this time around. If they aren’t, it’s not because they put out a difficult, noisy record. Tarot Sport is bursting with head-nodding, earsplitting delights. – Greg Argo

25. Converge – Axe To Fall

Converge is nearly two decades old and still pushing the boundaries of metalcore – and themselves.  Some crown them as the saving grace of a now dirty word.  Wherever you stand, their consistency cannot be ignored.  The frantic music video for title track “Axe to Fall” has a man belted to a chair with his eyes forced open and tubes in his mouth.  Imagery you’d expect from a band that hasn’t lost its bite with age.  Kurt Ballou’s shredding metamorphisizes into a few variations before a grand staircase spiral of power chords, a sludgy and crushing breakdown reminiscent of You Fail Me.  The new ground lies deeper in the tracks.  Before its abrupt transition into comfortable Converge territory, “Dead Beat” is vocally longing and instrumentally similar to the Dischord post-punk that Jake Bannon is said to favor.  “Slave Driver” is a filthy one night stand between Doomriders and These Arms Are Snakes.  Nothing sticks out more than “Cruel Bloom” and “Wretched World,” respectively a deserted piano-driven melody seasoned with crooning from Neurosis and an atypical closer with dream-like and atmospheric layers.  Four bands worth of guests contribute to the record from the likes of Cave In, Entombed, Pg. 99, and 108.  Converge continues to expand on its proud history with the help of a few friends.  If you’ve been keeping tabs since Jane Doe, hearing this should be a no brainer. – Brian Kraus

24. Tim Hecker – An Imaginary Country

Although Tim Hecker’s latest album wasn’t quite the revelation of his noisier works like Harmony in Ultraviolet or Mirages it does have a lovely character all its own. Perhaps the most engaging aspect was the addition of mellotron on cuts like “100 Years Ago” and “200 Years Ago.” The slowly pulsating patterns of these pieces bookend another excellent addition to the Canadian musician’s catalog. In between Hecker takes the listener on a musical journey with “A Stop At The Chord Cascades,” “Sea of Pulses,” and “Paragon Point.” It’s a more laid back affair for sure but no less affecting in the end. Some might even call it a “grower.” While there are tons of guys with laptops out there aping this style right now, Hecker has been around the block and he knows his way with a melody far better than just about anyone. – Joe Davenport

23. Bon Iver – Blood Bank

After the demonstrative success of his lush debut, For Emma, Forever Ago, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon knew he had to cash in on that praise. Blood Bank is a wonderful extension of the solemn, personally careful music Vernon is fully capable of. While the first two songs place the focus on chugging guitars and drums and on Vernon and his band-mates’ harmonious singing, there is a strong shift on the second side of the EP. “Babys” starts with a relentlessly fast-paced piano that treads back and forth from uncertainty to blunt clash, and even though Vernon brings his gutsy falsetto to the front, it’s an unusual sound for him. Perhaps nothing could be farther from the unexpected than the auto-tune on “Woods.” Quivering and alone, Vernon sings with a reflection, in repetition, of forever stopping time; and with each passing verse, a new octave, a new voice, a new tone is added to create a mountain of sound that cascades all over you. And that’s exactly what an EP should be: a reminder of what we first loved about you and a few new touches to excite – Blood Bank is all of that and more. – Bryan Sanchez

22. M. Ward – Hold Time

It’s not as if M. Ward has ever tried to come off as anything other than a terrific singer-songwriter with apt sun-drenched melodies with folksy narratives – Hold Time is no different. There are ballads that sound like they were carved from homemade sentiments and regrets, upbeat bluesy tunes that recall images of Americana-Tom Waits and covers that not only provide a new twist but with genuine, earnest, poignant reflection, provide an immense amount of passion. The smooth blend that caters to the transitions allows the album to feel like one long-playing recording with Ward’s voice revealing a perfectly poetic amount of tenderness throughout. Through all of the covers and guest appearances, Lucinda Williams’ fragile vocals on Don Gibson’s “Oh Lonesome Me” further present a heart-wrenching despair. The two sing separately, before meeting at the middle to sing the depressing declaration of “Oh but I still love her so. Oh and brother, don’t you know, that I would welcome her right back here in these arms.” It’s various moments like these that help remind us of Ward’s virtuosity and on Hold Time, it’s utterly exceptional. – Bryan Sanchez

21. ISIS – Wavering Radiant

Somehow just like Portishead in 2008, ISIS managed to take elements from bands that they had obviously influenced and fold them back into their own music. Some of the arpeggios and crescendo riffing on Wavering Radiant sound like they came out of the Explosions in the Sky, Pelican, and Mogwai playbooks. The difference is that ISIS was able to arrange them inside of well written songs that only add these parts for further emphasize features that are already great. The band operates like some kind of amorphous blob, taking on whatever features will suit it best for that particular album – aspects of The Cure on 2004’s Panopticon or Tool on 2006’s In The Absence of Truth. While some might decry this album as ISIS playing pop, it works well and sees the band in a rare moment of shimmering transparency. – Joe Davenport

View albums #20 – #11>

Bear In Heaven – Beast Rest Forth Mouth

Bear in Heaven are southern transplants living in Brooklyn, a beast evolved from a sprout in the bible belt that Jon Philpot started with in 1998. This album is apparently a culmination of what’s happened since then. Well, good job. They have created something beautiful here. Something that really can’t just go by the wayside. Beast Rest Forth Mouth lands like an alien spacecraft and towers in our world, certainly coming from somewhere else whose limits and boundaries are not understandable in three dimensions, between subterranean and cosmic, taking everything in between into the tesseract it either comes from or creates, or both.

Every song on this album streams into the next with an effortlessness so painstaking it’s surprising that it only took ten years to culminate into what it is. It begins with the stomp of “Beast in Peace”, a nice piece to give an idea of what exactly the album is going to bring around, as well as get the mental march to make the long haul that gets lost in the modern listening experience, what with iPod induced trackjumping and blogs with single tracks. There’s this vastness to it, yet it’s so simple, as if Van Gogh had painted an entire Subterranea simply for this to pop it’s head out of. Flow into the second track, “Wholehearted mess” – while the former track may have simply popped it’s head out, this track grabs you by your curious ankles and takes you into it’s whole new reality. The opening guitar recall Built to Spill until the buzzing synths come in, there’s a full stop for a door to open and then Bear in Heaven push you on a train and take you on a crazy Space Mountain metro ride into the truths stranger than fiction that the rest of the album creates. The next couple tracks blend together, though not because they aren’t remarkable, more so that they are so kindred in their remarkability it provides a nice leeway into the modest epics that make up the B side of the record.

“Dust Cloud,” one of these epics, is a swooshy shoegaze infected cosmic crawl which takes and gives much delight in the symptoms of it’s infection: consistently bending pitch atmospherics, as if in the previous subterranean experience you had blinked your eyes a couple times in a daze and woke up afloat in the interstellar medium; in, well, a dust cloud. A cloud of drums and hymns. “Drug A Wheel” follows the slow burn of Dust Cloud, ending in sheer bliss. “Deafening Love” begins as a slow motion walk down a hallway toward the climax that follows, a place where the thoughts of countless protagonists don’t get past a tough façade pacing toward a door. It transmogrifies as it gets farther and farther down that hallway, as if it were a warning to what’s going to happen next. Regardless, the door at the end of the hallway is opened, and thus begins the Tarantino-esque climax of “Fake out”. It ends with “Casual Goodbye”, which is how any experience this excellent ends; luckily, unlike in real life, this one’s rewarding.

Bear in Heaven have really done the closest thing to something new I’ve heard since I first started reading postmodern theory. There’s countless reference points, ways to describe their sound: if someone threw good old fashioned krautrock sensibility, some shoegaze swagger, the synth buzz that is the common thread in EBM and italo disco, LSD tracers and the ozone layer in a blender, you might get something close. But it’s not any of those things. It feels as if it would have taken a decades long glacial crawl had there been ego tripping and deadlines to be met to achieve something this good, and while it’s not everything I’ve ever wanted in an album, it’s a gorgeous example of something done right.

Robert Schneider (The Apples in Stereo) Side Project

Lo-fi heavy psych-pop acid rockers Thee American Revolution began as a home-recording collaboration between Elephant 6 co-founder Robert Schneider and brother-in-law Craig Morris. Schneider is best known as front-man of The Apples in Stereo, and producer of many beloved records, including both Neutral Milk Hotel albums.

The band’s highly anticipated debut album is built upon slabs of fuzz guitar and reckless troglodyte drumming, soaked in Mellotron seas, bright harmonies and bursts of pure noise. The record joyfully explores the terrain between Blue Cheer and The Beatles, with songs ranging from druggy pop to sloppy biker-rock anthems. Featuring album artwork by W. Cullen Hart (Olivia Tremor Control/Circulatory System) and bearing the classic Elephant 6 logo, Buddha Electrostorm is certain to turn on fans of garage rock and psychedelic pop.

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http://www.gardengaterecords.com/

Boy Without God releases new digital EP

All-new digital EP by BOY WITHOUT GOD: Eight Delicate Olives Slowly Chewed at Midnight

Eight Delicate Olives… is a collection of home recordings composed of intimately recorded instrumental one-offs and songs written and recorded by Gabriel Birnbaum in Copenhagen last fall. Featured track, “R. Frank & Son,” was written about the photographer Robert Frank and cobbled together out of actual Frank quotes and pieces of a Vanity Fair article about him by Charlie LeDuff.

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http://www.boywithoutgod.com/know/know.html

Best Albums of 2009 (#40 – #31)

40. Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound – When Sweet Sleep Returned

This San Francisco band’s third release, When Sweet Sleep Returned, is a psychedelic rock album thick with heavy grooves. Fans of this 70’s style throwback shouldn’t miss this one, even with the stoner rock label thrown around so frequently. While this could certainly be a good soundtrack to a blissed-out burn session, it can’t be dismissed as simply this when there is so much more substance to this collection of eight songs. The music is more relaxed, with a spacier feel than predecessor Ekranoplan, but that doesn’t mean the hooks aren’t there. It’s as though the amps have been turned down just enough to let the true intention of each track shine through. The seven and a half minute jam, “Two Birds”, is worth the price of admission alone, but the whole thing digested at one time is an intricate and starry-eyed affair. Grab your headphones and get carried away in the California haze. – Jenn O’Donnell

39. Fever Ray – Fever Ray

I didn’t expect a new album similar to her work in The Knife from Fever Ray’s Karin Dreijer Andersson. The music on her self-titled debut is different enough for most not to confuse it with the work she creates with her sibling. It’s slower for one thing and more austere for another. You won’t find anything that comes close to the power of Knife singles like “Heartbeats” or “We Share Our Mothers Health,” but “If I Had A Heart” and “Triangle Walks” can stand on their own. As for the somewhat unfortunate looking cover art, that’s another story. Andersson has such a unique voice and even here continues to filter it through enough effects to make it seem like there are at times two or three others involved with the project. But just like The Knife took three albums to make the masterpiece that was Silent Shout, it may take a few more tries for Andersson to really strike the right balance with her solo work. For now we’ll be content with this because it’s really quite great already. – Joe Davenport

38. Band of Skulls – Baby Darling Doll Face Honey

The freewheeling jams of England’s Band of Skulls caught on just in time for the band to land a spot at this past summer’s Lollapalooza festival. Specializing in a gritty blend of blues rock and stylish atmosphere, the Southhampton-based trio had already garnered comparisons to The Kills and Black Keys with their iTunes-hyped single “I Know What I Am,” but the stateside release of their debut this past July really ignited the blogosphere. With vocal duties typically split between guitarist Russell Marsden and bassist Emma Richardson, Baby Darling Doll Face Honey is the sound of a band reveling in aggressive and occasionally cathartic grooves, like the White Stripes with a bit more dominance from the rhythm section. The irresistably synocopated rhythms of the aforementioned “I Know What I Am” and the garage rock stomp of a song like “Hollywood Bowl” are visceral examples of why trios usually have the word “power” affixed to them. – Adam Costa

37. Heartless Bastards – The Mountain

The Mountain is a nice return to the more urgent, dirtier work of the Heartless Bastards’ 2004 debut Stairs and Elevators. Erika Wennerstrom’s voice is as soulful as ever and the group (with a new rhythm section) sounds really tight. Erika’s songwriting skills keep evolving and the choice of blues and country infusions over pure pounding garage rock is a slick move that works well on this release. Erika Wennerstrom is quiet and unassuming in person – and she may shy away from this labeling – but it’s women like her that give chick rock solid legs to stand on. – Jenn O’Donnell

36. Apse – Eras

Forget the comparisons to contemporaries. Let’s not even begin to discuss the gorgeous gatefold sleeve this record comes in. Why? Because neither of those things will matter once the music on Eras hits your ears! A living, breathing, fully organic journey – Eras guides the listener through landscapes, starscapes, soundscapes, and soulscapes. Constantly shifting and seething, heaving and swirling, evolving and degenerating, this album is as cohesive and complete in its scopes as one could hope. Its nuances and complexities become even more apparent and varied with repeated listens, as any great album should. Eras has something for everybody and should not be overlooked by anybody. – Kyle O’Donnell

35. Polvo – In Prism

As far as reunion albums go, they seem to fall into three categories: triumphantly faithful facsimiles (Dinosaur Jr.), thanks-for-trying failures (Pink Floyd), or straight-up cash-ins (Smashing Pumpkins). Polvo’s In Prism is a different animal, a triumph but not a facsimile. On the familiar tip, Ash Bowie and Dave Brylawski sound like the same boyish young men who sang “Can I Ride” and “Time Isn’t On My Side” so many years ago in Chapel Hill. With their trademark guitar strangling and tempo shifts leading the way, this is obviously Polvo, but instead of resurrecting their more slap-dash sounding formative years or their late 90’s dalliances with different styles, they come out sounding rock solid, especially on hard-charger “Right the Relation” and the monolithic “Beggar’s Bowl”. Elsewhere, they transform their old Eastern-vibed riffs into murkily mysterious, full-bodied Eastern atmospheres on “Dream Residue/Work” and the brutally mournful “Lucia”. So, by both successfully slipping right back into its own skin and pushing the sound in a new direction, Polvo have offered the best reunion album one could hope for: one that’s both unique and of the essence. – Greg Argo

34. Jarvis Cocker – Further Complications

Jarvis Cocker simplifies it on Further Complications, forgoing the musical melange of his self-titled debut and taking his cues from his bandmates (“Angela” features a Black Sabbath inspired riff). This is Jarvis in bold, rockin’ mode and his sharply enunciated ruminations come off more direct, fitting hand in glove with the rock format, as he shakes off the lethargy and staidness of certain songs on his debut album. There are few slower numbers here, including the mellow and fluid 1970s groove of “Discosong” and the ironically smirking ballad “I Never Said I Was Deep.” But the songs that stick are the rockers like “Homewrecker” with its Batman TV show theme song intro, the strutting gusto of “F***kingsong,” the exasperated rant of “Caucasian Blues” (although nothing tops the ferocious howl of “Running the World,” the hidden track from his debut), and Jarvis getting his rock on (or is that rocks off?) on “Futher Complications.” – Jen Stratosphere Fanzine

33. Sunn O))) – Monoliths & Dimensions

A few years ago, no one would have dared to use the word beautiful as a an adjective to describe the music of Greg Anderson and Stephen O’Malley. Monoliths & Dimensions marks a distinct change from the ultra bleak Black One and its black metal bent. Brass work from Julian Priester, choral arrangements that wouldn’t sound out of place in an Arvo Pärt composition, and baritone incantations from Mayhem’s Attila Csihar all find a place within these new Sunn O))) songs. If I would have previously described the band’s sound as that of being buried alive and spending an eternity in hell (in a good way of course) then Monoliths is where this music ascends instead. To use a words like “lighter” or “airy” would really do this injustice. What we’ve got is them making good on a promise to keep challenging themselves and us at the same time. As long as these challenges continue to be this engaging, I know I’ll come back time and again. – Joe Davenport

32. Mono – Hymn to the Immortal Wind

To mark the ten year anniversary of making massive, sweeping, emotive music, Mono has outdone themselves, once again, with Hymn to the Immortal Wind. Expansive, beautiful, dramatic and complex, this album is the most mature and fully realized composition from Mono to date. Intricate orchestral arrangements matched with Mono’s trademark wall of sound create a dynamic feel that is warmly intimate and frighteningly colossal all at once. A must for any fan of lush, engaging, beautiful, instrumental music! – Kyle O’Donnell

31. Fruit Bats – The Ruminant Band

Eric Johnson returns for a fourth album of folky rock as Fruit Bats. Unfortunately, Johnson has never received the exposure or credit he deserves, despite sharing a label (Sub Pop) that has had success elevating the profiles of some rockin’ folkers. I suspect it’s because his musical personality is so consistent and agreeable instead of edgy. Sure Tweedy put out a few classics, but as soon as he put away the drugs and lost his foil, Wilco lost its vitality. James Mercer (who hired Johnson for the Shins in 2007) got a little recognition and all of the sudden he’s firing his band, acting in indie flicks, and working with Danger Mouse. Sam Beam is becoming a world musician. Johnson, on the other hand, just keeps smiling, singing his heart out, and cranking out melodically interesting and catchy tunes without gimmicks, here employing a full band that gives this collection a jaunty, country rock feel. But really, Fruit  Bats secret weapon is the infectiousness of Johnson’s positive attitude, which comes through with high fidelity. Fruit Bats never forget the necessity of the listener to music, and encourage you to feel like part of the fun. – Greg Argo

View albums #30 – #21>

Best Albums of 2009 (#50 – #41)

As this year and this decade come to a close, we begin first by taking a look back at some of our favorite albums of 2009 at DOA. I’m sure it will come as no surprise to many of you that the album at the top of this list is pretty much a forgone conclusion since it topped nearly all of the lists that I saw in every other publication print and online as well. It’s a fantastic album by a band that will most certainly be seen as one of this generation’s most definitive acts. The most fun I had reading these other “Best of 2009″ type lists this year was seeing all of the other albums that ended up making the cut. Hopefully you’ll see some things here that will turn you on to something else new. – Joe Davenport

50. Mr. Gnome – Heave Yr Skeleton

Mr. Gnome casts a surreal spell, creating an eerie, unsettled atmosphere where songs segue from reverie to nightmare and back again, conjuring up a (dis)enchanted Alice lost deep in Wonderland, sipping from the “Drink Me” bottle and hallucinating white rabbits. Singer and guitarist Nicole vocally goes from breathy and ethereal to bristling and razor-sharp in an instant, striking out with serrated guitar riffs while drummer (and keyboardist) Sam reins it in or rocks out with quicksilver timing, unleashing battering drum and cymbal upheaval or tempering the tempo to a pervasively hazy sway. The best songs, like “Spain,” “Slow Slide,” Plastic Shadow,” and “Sit Up & Hum” commandingly meld equal measures of the soft and the rough, with the mercurial Nicole’s dreamy, airy singing shifting to fiery cries amid fuzzed-out guitar lines, galloping drum beat, and cymbal swells. Like Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, Nicole and Sam know when to hold back and when to charge ahead full force, carving out foreboding lulls that heighten the impact of the ensuing turmoil. – Jen Stratosphere Fanzine

49. Glen Johnson – Details Not Recorded

Glen Johnson has appeared so regularly on this writer’s pages across DOA over the last year or so, that it’s almost embarrassing.  But then we shouldn’t be self-conscious about digging-up the rich produce of a fertile creative mind, however prolific.  Through scribing his still passionate/provocative Anything But Silence blog, leading yet another spine-tingling Piano Magic LP, sneaking out blink-and-never-hear-‘em wares from his electro-ornithological Textile Ranch project and co-founding DIY boutique label Second Language, Johnson hasn’t wasted a nanosecond in the last 12 months.  On top of all this, the crowning glory of Johnson’s illustrious ongoing reign as a quiet Renaissance man is undoubtedly his long-awaited solo debut, Details Not Recorded.  Recorded mostly at home, the long-player adroitly takes in skeletal Kraftwerkian electronica, Leonard Cohen-indebted folk-noire and dreamy ‘80s 4ADisms to paint from a peerless lyrical palette infused with venom, wit, romance and brutal honesty.  It’s the kind of modern day classic that may only be properly recognised in twenty years time, but should be snapped-up now, so you can feel heartily smug about it come the day.  Masterfully, Details Not Recorded also in avertedly includes the best line to describe Glen Johnson’s overlooked omnipresence in 2009; “The one who leads the way, is leading from the back.” – Adrian Pannett

48. Odawas – The Blue Depths

Ever felt like you might enjoy the sounds of new age but didn’t want to be lulled into a healing fugue, become one with anything, or feel like a shamanistic flautist was pushing you toward a heightened state of awareness? If you said yes, the Odawas ‘ fourth album, The Blue Depths, is just the thing for you. Taking the essence of the disturbed-mystic songwriting of their past work, boiling off the left-field freakouts, and moving forward with a full commitment to a production aesthetic aiming to integrate far-flung inspirations like Vangelis, Dennis Wilson, and ’80s mood music, Odawas succeed in repurposing new age-isms to meet the needs of their songwriting style, and make one of the most gently gorgeous records in recent memory. Theirs is a fantasy world constructed of lush strings and radiant synths, where one muses on thoughts light and heavy, about “picking the turnip of our dreams” and the thought that “we all must die for anyone to survive.” Both surreal and comforting, The Blue Depths envelopes the listener as it soundtracks a dazed float through the deepest ocean and widest skies. – Greg Argo

47. Leyland Kirby – Sadly, The Future Is No Longer What It Was

For the better part of this decade, James Kirby has been recording under the moniker of The Caretaker. It’s a reference to the Stanley Kubrick film version of Stephen King’s The Shining. Just as a scene from that movie combined disturbing imagery of Jack Nicholson slowly losing his mind with blurry ballroom dance music from the beginning of the 20th century so did Kirby smear old ballroom LPs using modern software to create a drift of fog that barely resembled the original recordings. Taking his grandfather’s name as Leyland Kirby, this time he has created every sound on this six LP set himself. It’s the kind of modern ambient music that can lean heavily into a vast cavern of noise without giving up the ability to be both haunting and sad. It’s a monumental statement of intent from a musician at the peak of his powers. – Joe Davenport

46. Nirvana – Live At Reading 1992

I clearly remember the summer of Nevermind back in my adolescence. My friends and I spent a significant portion of 1991 and 1992 basking in the glow of that album’s rough and tumble jams. Needless to say, I loved that album and that goes double for its successor, the incalculably brilliant In Utero. Hearing Nirvana performing songs from these albums as well as tracks from both Bleach and Incesticide here on Live At Reading serves as yet another in a series of exclamation points that highlight a career ended too soon. It would be impossible at this point to individually name the extremely important lessons that myself and many others learned from this band. I could easily call them the gateway drug that lead me starting at age eleven down a path from which I never turned away. It’s less telling to me that Nirvana managed to knock Michael Jackson from the top of the pop charts than that I learned about hardcore punk and twee from Kurt Cobain. If From The Muddy Banks of the Wishkah was kind of a let down when it came out, this should serve to put things right. Live At Reading is Nirvana real and raw. And as those who were  old enough to remember at least some of it as it happened, an accurate depiction of one of the greatest groups of all time. – Joe Davenport

45. Circulatory System – Signal Morning

Eight years! I still find it hard to believe we got an album out of them at all! Circulatory System’s self-titled album was released to much fanfare in 2001, and the years following were replete with rumor, false release dates, and unbearable delays. So, it’s odd that the band’s most grand irony, having made the passage of time such a notable aspect of the recording process, is that this album, finally released in September, sounds positively timeless. Signal Morning is 46 minutes of jittery, wide-awake goodness. Will Cullen Hart – mastermind of this group, and previously Olivia Tremor Control – peppers the album with ho-hum pantheistic platitudes (“let’s try breathing along with the universe”), but even such lyrical missteps can’t falter his ear for a powerful pop melody or a truly affecting voice with whom few frontmen in the underground can compete. Fuzzy but not incoherent, Signal Morning summons ’60s psychedelia and ’90s tape-based indie experimentation into one of the year’s more uplifting records, even if the circumstances under which it was recorded were painful. – Jacob Price

44. Wilco – Wilco (The Album)

Following the sleepy and lackluster Sky Blue Sky, Wilco needed to change things up once again. Sure, it had its moments, but there was something missing and that something was the actual Wilco touch. Wilco (The Album) is a step in the right direction with an album that features their playfully heartfelt side (“Wilco the Song”), further experimentation with sound, a la “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” (“Bull Black Nova”), and a sincere ode to the military (“I’ll Fight”). And still, we find touches of that older Wilco with various shades of genius interspersed throughout the album. The metaphorically creative “One Wing” follows a relationship that is slowly breaking down and before you know it, “we can only wave goodbye” and at the end, on “Everlasting,” the band glows with influence from none other than The Beatles. Everything from the piano, to the guitars’ sound, to the way the drums come from around the corner the way Ringo’s did on “A Day in the Life,” you’d swear it was them. Maybe they’ve re-found something or maybe they’re just content with their arch but whatever it is, Wilco (The Album) is a welcoming and welcome album to love. – Bryan Sanchez

43. Arctic Monkeys – Humbug

There’s nothing wrong with changing up your sound, especially when you have impressive musicianship in your band. After two raucous, upbeat, storming albums of frenetic music, England’s Arctic Monkeys significantly alleviated their sound on Humbug. Mostly recorded with Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, the album features a distinct difference from what had made the Monkeys such a loveable act. Yet, even with these kinds of changes, there is nothing that can deter them from still being able to write marvelous music – loud or not. Attracted by the atmospherics, they filled the spaces on the outside with somewhat cloudy production that only back-dropped their goal with tremendous results. Still, the novelty of the Monkeys is Alex Turner’s compelling accent; whether he’s singing about a torrid love game on “Crying Lightning,” or asking all of his new affairs if he can call them by ‘her’ name on “Cornerstone,” this is gripping music. And that’s just it, very few bands have this kind of stellar musicianship and too bad because it makes Arctic Monkeys that much better and Humbug’s the proof. – Bryan Sanchez

42. Lightning Bolt – Earthly Delights

Lightning Bolt’s previous four album titles – Lightning Bolt, Ride the Skies, Wonderful Rainbow, and Hypermagic Mountain each reached skyward from our paltry terra firma, as if the two Brians (Chippendale on drums, Gibson on bass) harbored some sort of heavenly aspirations that only punky, proggy rock could substantiate. A big deal, here, then: Earthly Delights. Do these words portend some sort of stylistic sea change (Ooh, the sea! That’d be a prime idea for the next record!) for our favorite disorderly duo, a monkey wrench in the aloof machinery? Ha ha, no, and we’re probably fortunate for it. Earthly Delights is, save a few refinements and tweaks to the group’s standard operating procedure, the same album they’d already recorded numerous times in the past. Lightning Bolt still present an unabashed, unpretentious barrage of instrumental noise (aside from Chippendale’s incomprehensible caterwauls), and the results couldn’t be better. – Jacob Price

41. Mos Def – The Ecstatic

Dante Terrell Smith-Bey had an interesting decade. Amazing with 1999’s Black on Both Sides, the future appeared promising. But, on the contrary, the decade was mired with an album that was criticized for its genre-blurring (The New Danger) and another album that was poorly constructed and released amidst a label dispute (True Magic.) But even with the aforementioned negatives, there was no reason why Mos Def wouldn’t come up swinging with a decade-ending triumph in The Ecstatic. For the first time in almost ten years, Mos Def sounds exuberantly alive, fully displaying his skills for all to admire. Whether he’s touting his Boogie Man demeanor with the ominously looming “Twilite Speedball” or channeling his inner Casanova with his Spanish-versed “No Hay Nada Mas,” there is an incredible amount of brilliance sprinkled all over. Assured and full of swagger, there is no better way for The Ecstatic to close than with the speedy, white-hot and nostalgic “Casa Bey.” Mr. Smith-Bey leaves us with a strong foray of creativity – as if we actually needed to be reminded of his capability. – Bryan Sanchez

View albums #40 – #31>

Interview with My Milky Way Arms

Delusions of Adequacy:  Hi Chase!  How are you doing?

Chase Hill:  I’m doing great! Thanks for doing an interview. I hope all is well in your parts.

DOA:  I heard your gloriously buoyant and blissful self-titled EP a while back and was immediately hooked, and now your debut album, Lightsaber Circuit Breaker, is available, and I noticed a shift in tone and instrumentation from the radiantly laid-back, but gorgeously uplifting approach of the EP to the playfully manic, prismatic, intergalactic electro-pop sonics of this album.  Why the change in tone between the EP and the album?

Chase:  Well, I wanted to try and write some faster, more fun tunes that would be really fun to perform. And with a title like Lightsaber Circuit Breaker, I think I had to take things up a notch.

DOA:  When the EP was released several months back, My Milky Way Arms was a duo and now it’s become a solo project.  What happened in the space (well, the time) between?  Is it a challenging or liberating experience to be flying solo and creating the tunes on your own?

Chase:  My Milky Way Arms has essential always been just myself. I recently moved up to Austin from Houston, and had to pretty much start over. It took me a while to get settled and focus on finishing the album. I had most of the songs from Lightsaber written when the EP was released, I just got really caught up with moving and settling in. I pretty much finished the album in one intense week of finishing vocal parts and recording because I had already set a release date for the album, ordered the CDs, and booked a tour to support it. I had to set a now-or-never timeline for myself, but I’m glad I did. Otherwise the album would still be just a few files on my computer.

DOA:  On Lightsaber Circuit Breaker it sounds like you’ve jettisoned into deep space and crash landed in the center of an alien carnival that’s packed with arcade games and flashing Lite-Brite signs.  LOL  The songs are composed of an electronic sugar rush of crystalline blips and bleeps with bright, but agitated vocals peppering the mix.  What types of instruments do you use to create all those crazy electronic sounds?

Chase:  I used the software Reason to do 90% of everything. It’s just a whole bunch of synthesizers and sequencers. It is essentially just like writing a song on a piano, but the piano is in the computer and you can really tweak every little detail of it. All of the songs were transposed from their original analog versions into super-tweaked, dense digital versions. It helped speed along the recording process and produce a better quality-sounding album since I have such limited recording equipment.

DOA:  The album features two instrumentals (“Corellian Bloodstripes” and “Early Retirement”) and the remainder is graced by your voice.  What is your take on song compositions that are totally instrumentals versus songs with vocals?  Do you have a preference between the two?

Chase:  I don’t have a preference, sometimes a song just doesn’t really need vocals. Although it can be difficult to know when to hold back. I tried to put vocals on “Early Retirement” but nothing was working, so I opted out. I think it turned out to be a good decision. Instrumental tracks let the imagination run wild and become more emotional and personal. Sometimes words ruin a song.

DOA:  You have a wonderful voice that brings to mind a hybrid of Rivers Cuomo of Weezer in plaintive mode (particularly on “Fillenium Malcon” and “Eleventeen”) and the lightness and delicacy of Jonsi of Sigur Ros (like on “Control Room Ecstasy”).  The songs also sport interesting lyrics – but I feel that your voice is buried too much in the sonic escapades!  How come your vocals are buried so deep down in the mix?  You should let them shine!

Chase:  Thank you! I guess it’s just a personal preference of mine. I treat my vocals the same as any other part of the song, they don’t really take center stage. I’m tempted to bump them up a bit. I guess since I already know the lyrics I feel like they are distinguishable enough in the mix.

DOA:  Along that same line, your songs incorporate strong, catchy melodies in the classic sense, but, once again, it seems like the traditional pop song structures you’ve created end up, at times, embellished to excess.  Do you ever feel the urge to keep a song stripped down and more direct?

Chase:  I like to have my tracks super-dense and thick with as much as I can cram into each song obviously. With so much going on you really get swept up in it. I think it’s a little more engaging for a listener to try and pick out everything going on. I still pick out parts of the song I don’t remember writing.

DOA:  The running theme, at least from the loopy song titles and percolating electronics, seems to be sci-fi and space, as in “The Final Frontier”.  There are references to X-Men on “Colossus”, R2-D2 bleeps on “Helicopter”, and, well, “Fillenium Malcon” just goes without saying.  When you were a young, impressionable lad what sci-fi shows, movies, comics, etc…were your touchstones?  Mine were Star Wars (the Luke, Leia, and Han Solo ones), Aliens, Battlestar Galactica (the 1970s one, where Starbuck is a guy), Blade Runner, and Star Blazers, and has continued over the years with Farscape, a bit of X-Men, The X-Files, and Battlestar Galactica (the 2000s one, where Starbuck is a girl).

Chase:  Obviously the original Star Wars trilogy, X-Men, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the list could go on and on. I was definitely indulging in my childhood favorites for this album.

DOA:  I’m digging the cool artwork for both the EP and album, and IMO the EP cover is stellar and ranks up there with best artwork of all time with all those breath-taking, vibrant, saturated colors.  Did you design both covers?

Chase:  Thank you! I designed the EP cover, but my friends Alex and Andrea Nguyen did the fantastic artwork for Lightsaber. I just said two words, “space” and “slime” and that’s what I got.

DOA:  The EP and album are available for purchase at Milky Syndication at http://www.milkysyndication.com/ What is your involvement with this record label?

Chase:  Milky Syndication is my own label. If you can’t be on one, start your own.

DOA:  What is the live My Milky Way Arms experience like?

Chase:  I have a live drummer now, which is super-awesome, and far too many amps. We try to be as loud, energetic, and fun as possible. Things are still a relatively new for band so we are still growing and trying to figure out and incorporate more things to help entertain and engage the audience.

DOA:  You have a new song up at your MySpace profile at http://www.myspace.com/mymilkywayarms titled “Southern Comfort”, an instrumental with a glitchy bent of peppy blips that reminds me of the artist Ades, but there is also a strong underlying rhythm and melody that pull it all along.  Is this the current direction you’re going in musically?  Are you working on new material at the moment?

Chase:  “Southern Comfort” is a track I had a lot of fun with and is a little too silly to go on an album. None-the-less I thought it was a fun tune and I couldn’t “leave it in the vault”. I’m not sure of what direction MMWA will go next. I’ve trying my best to start working on new stuff, but life keeps me busy with other priorities at the moment.

Morningbell – Sincerely, Severely

If I kept a “Best Albums of the Year” list, then Sincerely, Severely would have taken one of the top spots for 2009. Maybe the top. Morningbell’s fourth album is simply irresistible.

These fourteen fetching tracks reveal a sharp, talented band that must be at the top of their game because, if they got any better, it would be scary. Funky, soulful tracks dominate Sincerely, Severely, but Morningbell approach this music with sweetness, rendering their songs more lovable than sexy or seductive. Not that this quartet can’t sound sexy: “Stay in the Garden”, track six, unfolds a sultry little tale, sung with an understated charm that snakes under the a mysterious, brassy atmosphere of simmering organs and an alluring acoustic bass.

But tracks like “Soul Ma’am” and title track “Sincerely, Severely” better represent the album. The first song glides, carried by wafts of 60’s pop, an infectious rhythm and confident falsetto. “Sincerely, Severely” revisits the best of soulful am radio with another patient falsetto singing, “I wouldn’t waste a minute, it’s true / I’d get right down to loving you”. The bass shines, here and throughout.

Morningbell are equally adept at stringing together catchy indie rock songs. Opening track “Let’s Not Lose Our Head” boasts a fuzzy electric sound that’s designed to bring smiles. Especially effective is the song’s break, at which the vocal resumes singing, “A crumbling empire, like being seasick on board a ship that is sinking and crashes into another sinking ship, and they burst into flames / But the bands don’t care, they just play back the songs with shorter names”. Sincerely, Severely’s rock songs span pop, noise rock, and blues.

Here, Morningbell have made some of the best music of 2009. They have a strong musical presence, composing and playing songs that are inviting and entertaining but never cutesy. Start off 2010 off with one of the best of 2009.

Morningbell’s website
Orange Records of Gainsville

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