2009 – The Spiffing List

A little late, I know, but it would probably be more accurate if I waited until around March time, by which point I might have fully absorbed the 2009 albums I have. Can’t imagine there’d be much interest by then though, so here it is. As with last year, this is a Top 20 list of albums I’ve thoroughly enjoyed across 2009. I make no apologies for excluding certain albums that have appeared near the top of many media lists and am confident that you’ll simply look at the list as a curiosity that might make you explore one or two titles that you’ve either not heard or not spent long with. As with the 40 From The Noughties list, I fully expect many of you to heartily disagree with this list but all I’m saying is that these are my top 20 of the last year as things stand now. It may well change in time and, if you look at the 2009 albums in the aforementioned 40, you’ll see that some of them have already changed positions since I put that list together. Anyhoo, let’s get on with it, shall we?

20. Super Furry Animals – Dark Days / Light Years

Not sure how it ended up falling so low in the end. Still a wonderful album, it just didn’t have quite the staying power I thought it might have had.

19. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – s/t

 

Great fun, from start to finish. Reminds me of when the NME was published on tatty grey bog roll.

18. Atlas Sound – Logos

I was bit late to the party on this one, but was glad I finally made it. Quirky washes of sound. A bit like Animal Collective with more tunes.

17. Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career

They don’t make bad records. Every one of them is a gem. This was another quietly brilliant record.

16. Annie – Don’t Stop

The power pop album of the year. Xenomania in full flow and, in the absence of new Girls Aloud, it does the job just fine.

15. M. Ward – Hold Time

Coffee shops and Apple may love him, but that doesn’t mean you can’t. A wonderful sleeper of an album. His entire back catalogue is great and don’t forget to check out ‘Monsters Of Folk’ which just missed out on this list.

14. Magnolia Electric Co – Josephine

One of the first albums I reviewed for Clash and it’s a good ‘un. Jason Molina with his finest album in some time. He also released ‘Molina and Johnson’ this year which is almost as good and would have been No.22 had this list gone beyond a top 20. Well worth listening to both. 

13. Pet Shop Boys – Yes

Their best in some time. ‘Pandemonium’ is ridiculously over the top, but in that oh-so-forgivable PSB way. A delight from start to finish and there’s a decent track-by-track commentary on Spotify for free too.

12. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest

A great overall sound to this one. Hadn’t really bothered with them up until this, but quickly retraced my footsteps and put that right. ‘Two Weeks’ and ‘While You Wait For The Others’ were classic singles. Not on Spotify, but click the picture for the latter of those two singles on VerTube.

11. Sleeping States – In The Gardens Of The North

The first of the Noughty 40 to feature in this list also. A great record, still worthy of plenty of your time. It needs a few listens, but if it clicks, it’ll stay with you. 

10. Manic Street Preachers – Journal For Plague Lovers

The most fun you can have with a Manics album in some time. Great packaging, great songs, great performances. Check out the Saint Etienne re-tooling of ‘Jackie Collins’ too. In the aforementioned 40 also.

09. Graham Coxon – The Spinning Top

Another Noughty 40 album and one that splits opinion. I think his voice sounds charming on this record and I would argue that it’s his best by some distance. Beautiful at times. 

08. Richard Hawley – Truelove’s Gutter

An album which I loved at the start, lost interest in for a bit but have since returned to at some great length and have realised just how spiffing it really is. Should have been in the big list and is probably his second best album to date.

07. Bat For Lashes – Two Suns

One of those albums that you pootle along listening to every so often without realising how much you’re enjoying it. When it came to thinking about this list, I returned to it and it all clicked into place. This one has staying power, methinks.

06. Maps – Turning The Mind

I think I may have said enough about this one already. It’s in the big 40, and my review described it as ‘bordering on genius’. Job done.   

05. Doves – Kingdom Of Rust

Ok, so it’s no ‘Lost Souls’ but then what is? To be fair, they sound like two different bands. This is the New Order phase and it’s bloody good. CD sounds like shite though. Treat yourself to the deluxe vinyl edition. Made #20 in the 40.

04. Trashcan Sinatras  – In The Music

Still not Spotify-able but bloody lovely nonetheless. Gentle, well-crafted and beautifully sung. Just like every other Trashcans record. A welcome return and a great album. Highly placed in the 40 too. 

03. The Low Anthem – Oh My God, Charlie Darwin

There are those who’ll bang on about how this is a 2008 album because they self-released it at the end of that year, but the world only really heard it in 2009 and it was only released over here in 09, so I’m having it. A quirky cross between gentle harmonies and Tom Waits honking. Splendid stuff and a Noughties classic also. 

02. The xx – xx

Even a couple of months ago, I had no idea how high up the list this one would finish. It crow barred its way in to the Noughty 40 at the last minute and continued to impress all through December, resulting in this placement. It’s hard to define, but I had a go here.

01. Lily Allen – It’s Not Me, It’s You

Justifiably highly placed in the big list and the top of this one, ‘It’s Not Me, It’s You’ is the best pop album I’ve heard in years. The lyrics are brilliant and musically it gets every single call just right. I have never tired of it since the day I first played it. There’s a bargainous CD/DVD edition available right now for not all that much cash and I can’t recommend it enough. 

34. Sleeping States – In The Gardens Of The North

I was, I’ll shamelessly admit, pootling around the Norman Records and Boomkat websites in the hope of finding something good to buy. I was cross-referencing back and forth between their recommended lists and clicking as many audio samples as I could conceivably endure. About five albums in, I happened upon ‘In The Gardens Of The North’. The artwork, the fact it’s on the unimpeachable Bella Union label and the raving hyperbole of both sites drew me in and how glad I am that they did.

You know when one of your ears randomly goes a bit muffled for a while and it sounds like you’ve somehow shoved a pillow down there? Or when you try to put a CD on in the car on the way back from a gig? Or the sound of music early in the morning when your brain is still aligning itself with the concept of being awake? That’s kind of what this record sounds like. It’s almost deliberately ever-so-slightly out of sync with, well, something. The understated, almost mumbled vocals are beguiling and the gentle ebb and flow of much of the music is quite remarkably affecting. I didn’t for a second think that, when I ordered the CD that day, it would become one of my albums of 2009, let alone make it into this list, but it really has won me over in the dying months of the decade.

Each track is notably different and yet comfortably familiar. If you like your acoustic, melancholic indie then this is for you. But then if you like the sparse but minutely crafted soundscapes of Peter Broderick then this is also for you. It may not strike you as something remarkable on your first listen. Or your second. But give it a bit of time and it will get you. I’m sure of it. I can’t imagine not loving this record now and I know I still have many, many months more enjoyment to ring from it.

In The Rain Of The Midlands

Received the Bad Lieutenant album, ‘Never Cry Another Tear’, on Saturday but it’s really struggling to grab my attention in any meaningful way. In terms of New Order offshoots, it’s more Electronic than Monaco, but I wouldn’t want to give anyone false hope. A few tracks are sung by Jake Evans, who Bernard seems to think has a pretty impressive voice. He’s not bad. He sounds like Danny from Embrace but sings like Jimi from Doves, if that makes any sense. Essentially, imagine Danny from Embrace but less honking, more tuneful and able to convey some emotions. There you go. The ten songs pootle along nicely enough, allowing the occasional wince at some Sumner-Gold when it comes to the lyrics. To be fair, it did occasionally evince hideous memories of Barney’s drunk tramp with burnt feet dancing, but I’m not sure that’s a review that anybody wants.

Thankfully, the rest of this week’s listening has been bloody brilliant. The live recordings of Blur at Hyde Park have finally arrived and don’t sound too terrible, despite Live Here Now‘s best efforts to go for monaural dustbin production values. Still, at least they’re here.

Like a new Massive Attack song, ‘Splitting The Atom’, which received its first play from the over-excitable Zane Lowe last night. I don’t think it would be an overstatement to say that it’s outrageously good and has the nerve to sound wonderful immediately and yet also suggest it could be a grower. The beat simply lollops along from start to finish as Daddy G, 3D and Horace Andy drift in and out at different points. It was recorded with Damon Albarn and there’s a hint of the languid musical leanings of non-Blur Albarn work of old. It’s hard to know what to say about it really, as it doesn’t conform to any sound from their previous records. This is, naturally, a good thing. Some of 3D’s vocal part does sound as intense as it did on ‘False Flags’ from the ‘Collected‘ album, while the sound of Daddy G again on a Massive Attack record is just wonderful. Provided you’re reading this within seven days of August 25th, you can click here and play it in reasonable quality, otherwise you’ll need to listen to it in Myspace quality. Which is to say, low quality.

I’m continuing to thoroughly enjoy the recently mentioned Pete Molinari EP, along with the new albums from Maps and Trashcan Sinatras, both of which I’ll endeavour to do proper reviews of shortly. In addition, Lily Allen‘s rather splendid, ‘It’s Not Me, It’s You’ has been receiving another batch of repeat plays of late. It may well be the pop album of the year. Obviously, you can hear it via Spotify, but here’s a link to four ‘bonus’ tracks of hers that I’m rather fond of. Two remixes, and two covers. All that and she provided great entertainment as the lunchtime guest on TMS on Saturday, even if one numpty at The Observer didn’t quite get the right end of the stick, suggesting that Aggers‘ conduct was somehow pervy.

 

Perhaps most enjoyable of all though, has been the arrival of Sleepling States into my ears. I noticed that both Norm and Boomkat were fussing over the new album, ‘In The Gardens Of The North’, in last week’s reviews and so off I trundled to Spotify for a quick listen. After two songs I had the album ordered and after a couple more the previous album was in my shopping cart also. It may comes as no surprise to find that, the new album at least, is on Bella Union – do they ever get it wrong? – and it has appeared in the seven remaining record shops in the UK this very week. Markland Starkie (above) is apparently the man behind it all, not that I imagine such information in anyway helps you understand the music further. Both albums are worth your time and money, but ‘In The Gardens Of The North’ is a collection of absolutely beautiful music. Instruments seem to just drift in out of nowhere, often returning there with minimal fuss, songs meandering along in a slightly awkward, utterly captivating fashion. Clearly Starkie likes his slightly odd noises and some well placed drones only add to the overall atmosphere. The vocals, often layered and slightly fragile, are as much a part of the soundscape as the musical backdrop itself and everything combines to provide a hugely intimate listen. The phrase ‘headphone album’ gets bandied about a lot. It’s certainly true on this occasion. Not my most eloquent review, but should that have piqued your interest, the following pleasures are available to you:

‘In The Gardens Of North’ – latest album

‘There The Open Spaces’ – last album

‘Old vs New EP’ – 5 tracks from last year