True fact: music bloggers love December. After a whole year of listening and reviewing and so forth, we finally get to write up organized lists, showcasing what we feel has been the best music of the past twelve months. We wait all year for this chance to arbitrarily declare one album better than another, then brace ourselves for the inevitable deluge of outraged comments. Maybe it all sounds dumb and a bit pointless, but there’s something strangely thrilling about lists, countdowns and crowning one specific set of songs the “Album of the Year.”
I’ll be counting down my twenty favorite albums of 2009 over the rest of this week, but to start things off, I’m sharing the 1st Annual Pretzel Awards, showcasing some of the best non-album accomplishments in music this year. So, without further ado, I give you the best music of 2009:
Best Songs of the Year (alphabetically by artist):
-“My Girls”, Animal Collective, from Merriweather Post Pavilion
-“Least Favorite Rapper”, Busdriver, from Jhelli Beam
-“A Machine For Loving”, Iggy Pop, from Préliminaires
-“Fuckingsong”, Jarvis Cocker, from Further Complications
-“Oblivion”, Mastodon, from Crack The Skye
-“Belvedere”, Patterson Hood, from Murdering Oscar (And Other Love Songs)
-“Black Hearted Love”, PJ Harvey & John Parish, from A Woman A Man Walked By
-“These Are My Twisted Words”, Radiohead, non-album single
-“House Of Flying Daggers”, Raekwon, from Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II
-“Hooting & Howling”, Wild Beasts, from Two Dancers
Short-Form Release of the Year:
-Fall Be Kind EP, Animal Collective
Musician of the Year:
-Noah Lennox, for having a hand in Animal Collective’s amazing album-and-EP one-two punch, as well as his winning guest vocals on Atlas Sound’s “Walkabout”.
Music Video of the Year:
-“House Of Flying Daggers”, Raekwon, dir. Erick Sasso and Brian Wendelken
Debut Album of the Year:
-Fever Ray, Fever Ray
Most Promising New Act:
-The xx
Best Opening Track of the Year:
-“Oblivion”, Mastodon, from Crack The Skye
Best Closing Track of the Year:
-“Foreground”, Grizzly Bear, from Veckatimest
Most Disappointing Album of the Year:
-Begone Dull Care, Junior Boys
Acclaimed Album I Didn’t Understand of the Year:
-Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, Phoenix
Single Worst Thing to Happen to Music This Year:
-Auto-Tune reaches its maximum cultural saturation point
I’ll be counting down my twenty favorite albums of 2009 over the rest of this week, but to start things off, I’m sharing the 1st Annual Pretzel Awards, showcasing some of the best non-album accomplishments in music this year. So, without further ado, I give you the best music of 2009:
Best Songs of the Year (alphabetically by artist):
-“My Girls”, Animal Collective, from Merriweather Post Pavilion
-“Least Favorite Rapper”, Busdriver, from Jhelli Beam
-“A Machine For Loving”, Iggy Pop, from Préliminaires
-“Fuckingsong”, Jarvis Cocker, from Further Complications
-“Oblivion”, Mastodon, from Crack The Skye
-“Belvedere”, Patterson Hood, from Murdering Oscar (And Other Love Songs)
-“Black Hearted Love”, PJ Harvey & John Parish, from A Woman A Man Walked By
-“These Are My Twisted Words”, Radiohead, non-album single
-“House Of Flying Daggers”, Raekwon, from Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II
-“Hooting & Howling”, Wild Beasts, from Two Dancers
Short-Form Release of the Year:
-Fall Be Kind EP, Animal Collective
Musician of the Year:
-Noah Lennox, for having a hand in Animal Collective’s amazing album-and-EP one-two punch, as well as his winning guest vocals on Atlas Sound’s “Walkabout”.
Music Video of the Year:
-“House Of Flying Daggers”, Raekwon, dir. Erick Sasso and Brian Wendelken
Debut Album of the Year:
-Fever Ray, Fever Ray
Most Promising New Act:
-The xx
Best Opening Track of the Year:
-“Oblivion”, Mastodon, from Crack The Skye
Best Closing Track of the Year:
-“Foreground”, Grizzly Bear, from Veckatimest
Most Disappointing Album of the Year:
-Begone Dull Care, Junior Boys
Acclaimed Album I Didn’t Understand of the Year:
-Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, Phoenix
Single Worst Thing to Happen to Music This Year:
-Auto-Tune reaches its maximum cultural saturation point
Erick Sasso and Brian Wendelken directed a Raekwon video? Holy shit, those guys went to high school with me!
ReplyDeleteDear simon, Auto-tune is frickin HILLARIOUS.
ReplyDeleteso is 80's jazz-rock fusion. for the same reasons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSJYlfHjrTE
its so over the top and ridiculous no one could ever take it fully seriously. at the same time, there are important or at least original/innovative musical things going on beneath the humor. [don't knock the pop music just because it isn't art music yet. classical, jazz, and rock were all pop and dance genre's at one point, hip-hop is getting there and so is whatever you call today's electronic based...post-rap]