Panopticon Blog

As much as I’d like to think there’s great variety in my musical taste, it’s inevitable that this annual list of Best Albums will only cover a small cross-section of what 2009 had to offer. Unintentionally or not, this list mostly neglects Hip-Hop, R&B, Pop, World Music, Country, Classical, Techno and many, many more genres. That being said, it’s amazing how, since the advent of file-sharing and ITunes, “genre” has become more and more fluid — many musicians on this list have borrowed tools from wildly different sources in the never-ending quest to find something indelible. Here are albums that have succeeded in 2009:

Honorable Mention: (alphabetical by artist)

The Antlers — Hospice

Do Make Say Think — Other Truths

Fever Ray – Fever Ray

Maxwell — BLACKsummer’s Night

Mos Def – The Ecstatic

THE TOP TEN

10. The Twilight Sad – Forget the Night Ahead

The best of the Glaswegian neo-shoegaze movement, The Twilight Sad anchors dread soaked lyrics to soaring, My Bloody Valentine symphonies of noise.

9. Isis – Wavering Radiant

If Isis is the Radiohead of their admittedly small genre of post-metal, and Oceanic and Panopticon are their OK Computer and Kid A, respectively, then Wavering Radiant is Isis’ In Rainbows. The record touches on the heaviness of The Red Sea and the post-rock psychadelia of Panopticon and with its stunning climax, “Threshold of Transformation,” reaches new heights all it’s own.

8. Arbouretum – Song of the Pearl

Like their last album, this one’s a grower – initially a bit too mellow for my taste, it’s become one of very few records this year I’m willing to sit down and enjoy at any time of the day or night. Dave Heumann remains one of indie-rock’s least appreciated guitar talents.

Down by the Fall Line by Arbouretum from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

7. Converge – Axe to Fall

Quite possibly the best hardcore punk band of the 00s. Axe To Fall is the most immediately gratifying, punch-a-hole-in-a-brick-wall metal album of the year. Jake Bannon and company have never sounded tighter than opening track “Dark Horse,” with it’s crazed polyrhythmic drumming and stuttering guitar solos, and draw inspiration from both Tom Waits and Neurosis in the album closing pair “Cruel Bloom” and “Wicked World.”

6. Bat For Lashes – Two Suns

Delivers on the potential of first album, Fur & Gold, in a big way. From the opening strains of “Glass,” where Natasha Khan whips up an afternoon’s worth of D&D’s worth of fantasy imagery with her soaring vocals and grandiose production, to the left-right stereo rolling thunder of “Siren Song” to the perfectly crafted goth disco-pop of “Daniel,” Two Suns proves itself one of the year’s most rich headphone albums. Two Suns is the kind of sonically immersive pop that Bjork put out through the 90s, with a hint of Tori Amos’ gothic femininity.

5. Future of the Left – Travels with Myself and Another

Future of the Left are a leaner, meaner, catchier monster than Andy Falkous’ previous band, Mclusky. As in the past, Falkous’ lyrics are both brilliantly idiotic (“You need Satan/more than he needs you”), and idiotically brilliant (“slight/bowel movements/preceded/the bloodless coup”). But it’s the musical chops on display here that really thrill. From the soaring intensity of opener “Arming Eritrea” to the throat-shredding roar and muscular punk rock of “Chin Music,” to the synths-from-Hell boogie “You Need Satan More Than He Needs You,” Future of the Left work with such confidence that, after your first listen, you’ll wonder why they’re not much bigger rock stars. The first seven songs on the album are absolutely flawless, and the rest ain’t too bad either.

4. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion and Fall Be Kind

Let it be known, I had not formerly been a supporter of Animal Collective – their earlier work struck me as intentionally difficult. But this year, they’ve turned me around pretty much completely. Maybe I just finally “get it,” or maybe Animal Collective have just buckled down and steered their considerable artistic talent in a more accessible direction. With its sunny, druggy harmonies, Merriweather is their Pet Sounds – domestic bliss seen through the liquid of a lava lamp – and “My Girls” is their “Wouldn’t It Be Nice.” Fall Be Kind, their EP released just before year’s end, might actually be even better – five perfect songs, with the good vibes of “What Would I Want? Sky” practically oozing out of your stereo and “On a Highway” exploring the darker side of being a traveling band.

3. Lightning Bolt – Earthly Delights

In Lightning Bolt, two guys named Brian make music that sounds like it’s being played by nine guys named Brian. Almost universally acclaimed for their crazed, down and dirty live performances, Lightning Bolt’s albums have sometimes felt like afterthoughts. Not so with Earthly Delights, an album whose songs flow forth from, rather than serve as an excuse for, the Brians’ technical virtuosity. “Colossus,” with its locked-in groove, is practically a stoner rock song. “Funny Farm,” on the other hand, is like a bi-polar hoedown that’s neglected its schizophrenia medication. And the album’s final track, the marathon, 13-minute “Transmissionary,” is the closest the band’s ever gotten to capturing its live fire on a record – it also goes to prove to whomever is still unconvinced that Brian Chippendale is the best drummer in the business.

2. Grizzly Bear — Veckatimest

Veckatimest is a record so perfectly crafted that it already felt like a classic when it was first released. What sets Grizzly Bear apart from countless other Beach Boys worshiping, oh-so-polite indie rock bands is the musical muscle of each of its four members. Just listen to singer Ed Droste’s cooing baritone on the blissful “Two Weeks” and the elegiac “Foreground”; and guitarist/singer Daniel Rossen’s off-kilter strums on the jaunty “Southern Point” and the thunderous “Fine For Now”; and bassist/multi-instrumentalist Chris Taylor’s inventive production on the swirling “Ready, Able” and his smooth backing vocals on “All We Ask”; and how drummer Chris Bear expertly goes between spacious syncopation on “Cheerleader” to thunderous rolls on “I Live With You.” Each member sings in beautiful close harmony, and when each member of the band brings his strength to album highlight “While You Wait For the Others,” the results are nothing short of astonishing. This was my album of the 2009 by a country mile for most of the year, at least until…

1. The Flaming Lips — Embryonic

The Flaming Lips came back from the dead. After the spectacularly uneven At War With the Mystics and some lackluster singles, the Oklahoma veterans roared back with their most ambitious, craziest album to date. Embryonic blissfully floats like early Pink Floyd and stings like the drug-soaked psychadelic epics of Can – sometimes all in the same song, like “Silver Trembling Hands” – but with lyrical motifs and rock-solid songwriting that’s strictly Flaming Lips. Swaggering out of the gate with the paranoid “Convinced of the Hex,” it’s instantly clear that these aren’t the Flaming Lips of the sugar coated classics The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Songs like “Worm Mountain” and “See The Leaves” almost approach metal in the stuttering drum bursts of Kilph Scurlock, and “Scorpio Swords” and “Aquarius Sabotage” are pure free-jazz madness. Even when Wayne Coyne warbles his way through the album’s most accessible song, “I Can Be a Frog,” there’s a madness bleeding around the edges that makes it one of the most uncomfortable lullabies in recent memory. In the age of the single, Embryonic is a cohesive album experience – musical figures and lyrical motifs concerning insanity, death and transcendence fade in and out throughout the album’s 18 tracks. The journey concludes with the tectonic “Watching the Planets,” one of the most propulsive tracks in the band’s impressive catalogue. It’s time to start mentioning The Flaming Lips in the same sentence as Radiohead – what other band can you think of that has four of the greatest albums – Transmissions of the Satellite Heart, The Soft Bulletin, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and now Embryonic – of the last 20 years?