Journal

Honorable Mentions:
A.C. Newman - Get Guilty
Atlas Sound - Logos
Built to Spill - There Is No Enemy
Clues - Clues
Cymbals Eat Guitars - Why There are Mountains
Dinosaur Jr. - Farm
Handsome Furs - Face Control
Lotus Plaza - The Floodlight Collective
Metric - Fantasies
A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Ashes Grammar
Thee Oh Sees - Help
Why? - Eskimo Snow
Wilco - Wilco(The Album)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!

15. Super Furry Animals - Dark Days/Light Years

It was a big fucking mountain

This album was my first experience with SFA , but it won’t be the last. Their brand of quirky psychedelic rock is easy to love. The riffs are great, the lyrics amusing, and the album never drags even at its 1 hour length. The middle two tracks best sum up the album. Cardif In the Sun] is an eight minute chilled out psychedelic jam, and The Very Best Of Neil Diamond is…well another psychedelic jam but has one that has hilarious lyrics.


14. Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs


Popular Songscan be divided into three parts;Here to fall, the next 8 tracks, and the last 3 tracks. Here to fall is the opener and is utterly badass. Just a spectacular bassline accented by great drums and some nice strings. The next eight tracks are either effortlessly good or the slightest pieces of music Yo La Tengo has created. I agree slightly more with the former position. The middle of the album is really a hodgepodge of the numerous styles Yo La Tengo has dabbled in over the last 20+ years. By Two’s would effortlessly slide into the middle of And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out, Nothing to Hide could be added in to Fakebook quite easily, and so on. But the tracks are good to great and are for the most part worthy additions to the Yo La Tengo catalog. The last three songs are all 9 minute or more epics. More Stars Then There Are in Heaven is a just gorgeous atmospheric guitar and vocal piece. The Fireside is this minimalistic little acoustic guitar piece. Then And the Glitter is Gone is a noisy guitar jam a la Pass The Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind. All three work well to some extent but More Stars is the highlight. Just a beautiful piece of music. All three of these parts combine to a very good, if not great album

13. City Center - City Center


I described Bleed Blood as part Panda Bear part Disco Inferno. That really holds true for the whole album. A sample based record with pretty vocals reminiscent of Person Pitch which uses some rather intriguing sounds reminiscent of Disco Inferno. All of this is accompanied by some pretty guitar work. The album succeeds in creating a great atmosphere. Plus one half of City Center is Fred Thomas of the Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor area, so it’s the closest thing to a local artist that I’ve been a big fan of which is kind of cool.

12. Timber Timbre - Timber Timbre



Timber Timbre succeeds in being evocative of a particular sound in atmosphere. It’s a combination of Taylor Kirk’s haunting voice and the production in which every instrument is pristine and which creates the feeling that the band is playing right behind you just out of sight. Think kind of a more folk version of the Walkmen. Where the Walkmen feel like a drunken night in the city Timber Timbre are more of a drunken night in the wilderness. The album is at turns haunting, creepy, and badass. It is a subtle album but one that rewards repeated listens.

11. Reigning Sound - Love and Curses


Is there another lover in your room? Does he even know about me!?

It is really hard to argue with infectious and energetic garage rock music like Reigning Sound make. The songwriting and music alone would be enough to keep me coming back but it’s all topped off with Greg Cartwright’s voice, which is in turn raspy and endearing, and the simple but touching lyrics.

10. Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish I Were An Eagle


I ended up in search of, ordinary things, like how can a wave possibly be?

The first thing that needs to be mentioned about Bill Callahan is his voice. It’s powerful and commanding in a way only Leonard Cohen does better. Whether he’s properly singing or doing more of speak-sing his voice just demands your attention. The vocal highlight for me is on My Friend which delivers in a downright sinister voice. I’ve only just started to explore Bill Callahan/Smog’s back catalog so I can’t comment on how this compares musically to his past work, but there is a great use of strings on this record to accent the guitar and percussion.

I used to be sort of blind, now I can sort of see

Callahan lyrically is great. He has a penchant for little throw away lines akin to Destroyer that reveal themselves over time has being brilliant. Each time I listen to the record I find some new lyric to love. A slow burner is a good way to describe the record as a whole. I’ve found it impossible to get sick of this record.


9. Ganglians - Monsters Head Room


Take myself out to pasture, smoke my reefer in the back room

Yeah I think that lyric about sums it up. For the most part Ganglians are making chill as fuck smoking music. Very Beach Boys vocals and I’m still not sure that To Juneisn’t sampling some long forgotten Pink Floyd song. They certainly have a bit of weirdness to them with some odd noises thrown into the music like the middle of The Void. They also rock out from time to time to great success. I haven’t listened to their s/t yet so I don’t know if that is something new for them. The contrast between the more rocking out parts and the chill rest of the record is great though.

8. The Antlers - Hospice


Hospice was a very refreshing listen for me because it is such an “indie rock” album of the kind that I don’t listen much to anymore. When people think of indie rock they generally think of these little pussy singer songwriters and bands like Death Cab for Cutie, and they pay nice acoustic guitar, throw in some piano, have pretty voices, and sad lyrics. Now The Antlers aren’t some guilty pleasure, they are a great band, but on first listen there is a passing familiarity to the standard “indie” sound. But Hospice succeeds for several reasons. Frontman Peter Silberman has a great voice that lends the perfect level of emotion to the, yes rather sad, lyrics. Musically The Antlers are more about creating an atmosphere then a pretty little pop song. A good portion of the songs throw in a decent amount of noise and distortion into the mix.

Hundreds of thousands of hospital beds, and all of them empty but mine

Hospice is one of the more depressing concept albums out there. It tells the story of a man in love with a women dying of cancer. Silberman pulls it off well, mostly due to a great vocal performance and keeping away from too many clichés in the lyrics.


7. Japandroids - Post-Nothing


She had wet hair I don’t care what you say I couldn’t resist it
Let’s get to France so we can French kiss some French girls

Japandroids for the most part like to pound on the drums, turn the guitar up to 11, and shout, mostly about girls and getting girls. It’s a very earnest coming of age record. It really is the earnestness that saves them, that and the really catchy song writing. Nearly all of the lyrics repeat in the songs which is befitting considering their simplicity. But the singing is so heartfelt that they really are quite touching. Mostly the songs do a great job of evoking a feeling of nostalgia for youth. It’s somewhat depressing that I already relate to this at age 20. Musically Japandroids are like a more accessible version of No Age. The guitar sounds less like noise and more like guitar. But for two guys they really do make an incredible amount of noise. They were the band that I regret not seeing most at Pitchfork Music Festival.

It’s raining in Vancouver but I don’t give a fuck

The second half of the record does take a darker slightly quieter turn but the general structure of the songs isn’t that different. Just replace lyrics about going out and getting girls, with lyrics about heart break and how things aren’t working out anymore. The same earnestness is there as is the noise.


6. Neko Case - Middle Cyclone


The next time you say forever I will punch you in your face

Neko really isn’t doing anything here that she didn’t do on Fox Confessor or Blacklisted. Despite that fact Middle Cyclone may be her best work. Her songwriting is better than ever and perfectly accents her amazing voice. She mixes in two covers with her twelve original pieces, including a fantastic cover of Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth. Middle Cyclone has an undeniable charm from the ridiculously awesome cover to the touching lyrics.




5. Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport


This certainly came out of left field for me. I downloaded and listened to this on a complete whim, I don’t even remember the exact reason. I don’t listen to either noise or much electronic music or anything that you really want to qualify this as. Basically it is rather symphonic yet heavily distorted electronic music. I had never heard anything quite like it yet I found it immediately catchy in way. At the very least it is engrossing. More than anything that I’ve listened to in a long time Tarot Sport is easy to get lost in.

4. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix


Lisztomania and 1901 are really fucking great but I’m going to ignore those two songs for a moment. The rest of the album is nearly as great. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix doesn’t quite perfect the 4 minute pop song but it comes damn close. I think people get to Love Like a Sunset Part 1 realize this isn’t like the first three songs and give up on the album. There are two problems with this. First Love Like A Sunset is fucking great, second if you can suffer through the excruciatingly long 5:39 run time of Sunset then the rest of the album continues in the vein of the stellar first two tracks. Lasso is just as catchy as Lisztomania and Girlfriend makes you want to dance just as much as 1901. The second half isn’t quite as cheery as the first three songs(except for Lasso which is maybe the cheeriest song on the album) but if you give it a few listens it’s just as infectious.


3. The Flaming Lips - Embryonic


you see, that's the difference between us

From the very first notes you know this isn't Yoshimi. This album is dark, psychedelic, and scary. The album is mostly noisy jams grooving around a bass line. Wayne Conyne's vocals resemble his symphonic efforts on Yoshimi only a fraction of the time. The rest of the time his voice sounds distant and awkward has he howls and yelps. It really is something that you have to get on board with. The album succeeds in creating an atmosphere but more then that in succeeds in being exciting. Maybe this shouldn't effect the merits of the album but for The Flaming Lips to make something at this stage in their career is amazing. Personally I feel like they took a big chance and it really worked well.

When she's high

Embryonic does poke its head out of the depths every once in a while for great effect. I Can Be A Frog starring Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeah's is the most light hearted affair on the album. It works well as a breath of fresh air going into the last quarter of the album. Silver Trembling Hands is the closest the album gets to the symphonic pop of Yoshimi. But even that song is rather tense, with the rapid drum beat propelling everything forward. Finally we have closer Watching The Planets. You really need to listen to this song with decent speakers/headphones otherwise your missing the point of the song. The percussion in this song is unreal. The whole album has this really primal feel to it, but this is the first track that really revels in that fact and celebrates it.


2. Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer


I certainly have a slight bias for anything related to Spencer Krug. He’s unquestionably my favorite musical artist of the last half of the 2000’s. But my confidence in him producing great music was somewhat lessened leading up to the release of Dragonslayer. After making me fall in love with him in 2005 with Apologies to the Queen Mary Krug solidified that love with the first proper Sunset Rubdown, the brilliantly quirky Shut Up I Am Dreaming in 2006. He proved that he literally could do no wrong in my eyes with his spectacular contributions to Beast Moan and another Sunset Rubdown album Random Spirit Lover in 2007. But then At Mount Zoomer came out, and while it is certainly a good record, was a letdown compared to Apologies, and his contributions to the second Swan Lake record which came out early 2009, were not as good as the tracks on Beast Moans. Then the track list comes out and there are only 8 songs, one of which was already on the Swan Lake record. But whatever trepidation I had went out the window when the record leaked and I just listened to it. My first impression was that it was very good, but certainly in 3rd place behind Random Spirit Lover and Shut Up I Am Dreaming. Most of this had to do with my lukewarm feelings towards the closing track, Dragon’s Lair, which with a 10:28 run time consisted of over 1/5 of the forty-eight minute album.

Maybe these days are over over now

Dragonslayer feels like a more mature Sunset Rubdown. Random Spirit Lover was a dense, chaotic, heavily produced, clusterfuck of an album. Dragonslayer is more restrained, slower, and clearly designed to be played live. But the gorgeous melodies are still there, Spencer Krug still yelps(though not as much), and he still sings about ridiculous things. His lyrics still sit on that border between gibberish and genius. Like Random Spirit Lovers he still touches on musicians, acting, and of course lyrically seems to inhabit a world of mythology and mysticism. The lyrics are meant to be taken seriously but Krug obviously has a slight sense of humor about them as evidenced by making the last track title a stupid(yet amusing) pun that plays off the title of the album.

It’s time for a bigger kind of kill

Dragon’s Lair is what ended up changing my opinion album from, “obviously 3rd place”, to certainly on par with Shut Up I Am Dreaming, or close to it at least. The song is reminiscent of stuff off At Mount Zoomer in that it is very prog rock. At first it didn’t seem to deserve its ten minutes but in the end the song is just refreshingly deliberate. It builds up its melody slowly and the payoff is worth it. Krug has already tackled the dense hyperactive song that does ten different things in 30 seconds.Silver Moon opens up the album expressing that an era is ending. Dragon’s Lair closes by proclaiming that its time to do something bigger. It’s very fitting and I’m excited to see what that something is.

1. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion


If I could just leave my body for the night

Every time I really sit down and listen to Merriweather Post Pavilion I realize that In the Flowers is way more awesome than I give it credit for. If I were to redo my songs of 2009 list right now In the Flowers would make the top ten. My love of this album can really be summed up by my love of the opening song. A little over a year ago this album hilariously and fittingly leaked on December 25th, 2008, Christmas Day. In the middle of the day, after I had opened gifts in the morning but before guests came over for Christmas dinner, I sat down, downloaded, and listened. I was somewhat smirking as the pretty little synth, sample, keyboard, whatever emerged out of the slightly noisy beginning to the record. However I just burst out smiling at 2:31. A lot of hyperbole surrounds this record but that one moment is one of the most spectacular things I’ve heard. I think it’s rare that a song is built around one moment like In the Flowers obviously is. But that moment really does set the stage for Merriweather. From that point on the listener knows what to expect.

Just one sec more in my bed

The rest of the album continues the success of In the Flowers. Interspersed throughout the record are moments of bliss similar to that 2:31 mark. The start of the second part of My Girls, the “and I have a question” part in Also Frightened, the last half of Daily Routine, like all of Bluish, and the breakdowns in the first and last thirds of Brother Sport. Consistency is what saves Merriweather from its own hype, song after song they keep the promise they made with In the Flowers.