bread 'n butter

Ah, 2009, the year that Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear grabbed the internet by the beans like Scorpion in Mortal Kombat - the year of shitgaze, chillwave, lo-fi, DIY, and beach-rock. It's always difficult to narrow down all of the music you like into a concise list of 10 albums-proper that can rightly be called your favorite, but everyone's a critic right, and this is what critics do right??? So, for what it's worth, here is my Top 10 of 2009. These are only officially released albums - no EP's, reissues, cassettes, 7"s or comps. even though there were some pretty awesome ones this year. Maybe I'll do something with those later...

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10. Old Canes - Feral Harmonic

Old Canes isn't for everyone. It's for people who were into Dashboard Confessional and Bright Eyes 8 or 9 years ago, but grew tired of the former's juvenile pretty-boy whining and the latter's adult alternative country a long time ago. From the rib of Appleseed Cast, Chris Crisci has created acoustic "emo" music for grownups. These songs are about selfishness, sentimentality, drinking, fighting and self-loathing, but with the worldliness of a gray-bearded songwriter who knows what it is to be heartbroken a little better than you do.

9. Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns

The Rural Alberta Advantage are really what indie rock should be about in this day and age. They don't have any gimmicks, they're not crazy hipsters, they're just three musicians from Canada who wrote an honest album about where they came from and the people they knew. They're not doing anything groundbreaking, but they tour heavily and consistently win fans with their earnest live shows and general adorableness. They've probably got more indie-folk goodness in them for years to come and if they stay on the right path, they're going to get bigger and bigger on the steady path that they've created for themselves.

8. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca

Dirty Projectors have out-Grizzly Beared Grizzly Bear this year. Both bands have a history of crafting baroque pop music heavy on multi-part harmonies and challenging melodies, but Dirty Projectors have found a way to balance their sound between digestible pop and obtuse musical posturing for an entire album. Bitte Orca probably alienated a lot of their previous fans because of it's apparent accessibility and may still be confusing to potential fans with Dave Longstreth's meandering guitar playing and melodies, but for those who recognize the sweet middle ground, this is a near perfect album.

7. Ganglians - Monster Head Room/Self-titled

This is my one exception the album proper rule. The self-titled vinyl was technically an EP but it was released in such close succession with Monster Head Room that it's hard to separate the two. The self-titled EP was more of a barn-burning trip down beach-punk lane while Monster Head Room took its time settling into Pet Sounds-esque harmonies and breezy pop melodies. Both albums are a little weird but equally good. In my opinion, they set Ganglians up as THE band to watch in 2010.

6. Sun Araw - Heavy Deeds

Sun Araw is a band that has to be heard to be understood. I don't even know what to call their sound. Swamp-funk comes to mind, but there are just too many layers of chanted vocals, guitar effects, and rhythmic grooves going on here to call it anything. It's like staring at the sun for too long and then shutting your eyelids and watching the colors pulse and fade. Let's call them the number 2 band to watch in 2010.

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

Sometimes I Wish I Were An Eagle may be my favorite Bill Callahan album yet. It's certainly his best album since dropping his Smog moniker in 2007. To use the ol' music writer's plea for consideration, this album "rewards repeat listening." It's been overlooked by too many reviewers this year, possibly because it's a near polar opposite to the lush soundscapes of Animal Collective and their sycophants, or maybe because Woke On A Whaleheart was such a letdown. Either way this one's a keeper.

4. Real Estate - Self-titled

Real Estate pretty much defined the beach-rock genre this summer. So many terms like hazy, chill, jammy and psychedelic have been thrown around to describe Real Estate's sound and they're all accurate. It might be lazy journalism to just recycle the same adjectives but it's hard not to when you listen to Real Estate. Everything about them says, "let's go to the beach and have fun." And for that, they deserve a spot on everyone's list.

3. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

In Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, Phoenix have produced one of the best straight-up pop albums of this or any decade. Unabashed feel-good pop music isn't always my thing, but this album is just undeniably good. It was clear from the first bouncy strums of their now famed SNL performance that this album was going to be a monster. So it is, and so it shall be. This is a fucking great album, start to finish.

2. White Denim - Fits

White Denim only made it to #3 on my list last year. I feel like a criminal for that because both of the bands that topped them last year (Dodos and Bon Iver) were relative letdowns in 2009. These guys pulled a total 180 on me though. Not only did they release Fits in the U.S., but they also released it as a double album with last year's Exposion! Fits seems like a logical progression from Exposion. Their loosely built garage-funk jams have been toned down on certain songs, like stand-out "Regina Holding Hands" but their raw energy is still present at every moment of this album. I've been told that they sound a lot like Frank Zappa. I'm not a Zappa fan, but if he sounds anything close to this then I need to have a listen.

1. Kurt Vile - Childish Prodigy

Kurt Vile exemplifies what 2009 is, or at least, should have been about: the culming of diverse influences into a new, wholly original sound. I guess that's what all music is unless it's completely original, but that's like a theoretical absolute or something isn't it? Yeah, I went to college, what of it? Kurt's influences range from classic to ultra-modern - Reed, Dylan, Springsteen, Young to Ariel Pink, Sonic Youth, Robert Pollard, and about a million bedroom recordings stars. Even while these influences are whispering in Kurt Vile's ears he continues to make music that somehow defies categorization and easy description. His sound is tender and haunting, but with the hard edge of a blue-collar, east-coast workman's ethic and if anyone up there in the big blue sky cares about me, THIS is what the future of music will sound like and not the loop-sampled-lifted pastiche of Animal Collective.

Here are a few honorable mentions to be thorough: Entrance Band, Wye Oak, Low Anthem, Alela Diane, Sharon Van Etten, Crystal Antlers, Woods, Grizzly Bear, Beirut, Ducktails, Cass McCombs, A.A. Bondy, Japandroids, A Place To Bury Strangers, Cold Cave, Golden Birthday, Blakroc, Girls, Raekwon, Clipse, Wale, Dinosaur Jr., Mayer Hawthorne... did I miss any?