Revisionism: This list goes to 11.

Well, this is embarrassing. After writing an epic 4-page post as my valiant return to the "blogosphere" (N.b.: I hate that word), I realize that I have made an omission. A major, embarrassing omission. Like, my second-favorite album of the year. Seriously.

My excuse: I used my iTunes as a reference in creating this post. However, I neglected to tag this album with the year. Therefore, when I filtered for 2009 albums, this album did not come up.

With that said, I will first present the amended list (now expanded to 11, because, well, this list goes to 11), and I will then proceed to say a few words over the album that I fell in love with so much that I had completely forgotten that it only just came out a few months ago.

1. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
2. The xx - xx
3. Yo La Tengo – Popular Songs
4. Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
5. The Flaming Lips – Embryonic
6. John Vanderslice – Romanian Names
7. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
8. Vic Chesnutt – At the Cut
9. The Mountain Goats – The Life of the World to Come
10. Antony and the Johnsons – The Crying Light
11. St. Vincent – Actor

I resisted the hype for the longest time. I didn't know anything about them, but the blog hype and pitchfork adoration was enough to turn me off. I was just not interested. Over time, however, the mysteriously sparse cover started to pique my curiosity. Because they are distributed by Beggars Group USA, a label group whose webpage I visit frequently due to their distribution of the Mountain Goats, I was being constantly confronted with that oddly alluring cover. Finally, one day, I listened to a sample clip from the song "VCR" on the Beggars Group page.

Within thirty minutes, I had ordered a copy of the album from the label.

I don't know what I was expecting from the xx, but whatever it was, it certainly wasn't what I got. For all the hype, they seemed oddly unfashionable. The most immediate reference point I latched onto was Young Marble Giants. Subsequent listens revealed shades of the Cure and the Chameleons, some New Order/Joy Division basslines and atmospheres, Interpol-esque guitar lines. The vocal delivery is low-key and somewhat detached, but in a compelling way, as if the detachment is not true disengagement but a defense mechanism. Some of the songs simply ooze with sexiness, and the ones that don't writhe with an uncomfortable sexual tension between the vocalists that draws you in to the drama. This young band has created a surprisingly fragile, delicate, deliberate, and well-crafted album that somehow feels like a moment that will burn out quickly. As much as I love this album, this seems like a band that perhaps only has this one album in it before it falls apart. If that is indeed the case, then I feel grateful to have been here for it.

I'm coming home, I'm coming home.

Hello there, internet. It’s been a while. I’d be lying if I said that I always had a good time during my absence, but I’d also be lying if I said that it was all doom and gloom. I will just say that a good, head-clearing, life-redefining catharsis can be a positive thing every now and again. Now that I am more or less back to being settled after all that, I hope to maintain a more regular presence here (and, hey, maybe even over at my other blog as well!) in 2010.

I won’t spend a whole lot of time, as I’ve already lost over 6 months. There is a lot that I want to touch on, but for now I will ease my way back in by picking up right where my last entry left off and try to give all you beautiful, beautiful people a kind of hastily-written, knee-jerk, and likely shortsighted yet completely honest retrospective of what were, to me, the highlights of the year in music. Before I attempt to rank them, here is a brief, chronological rundown of some of the contenders

• Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion: Everything I said last time continues to hold true about this album, although as the year progressed this seemed to become a bit less of a standout in my mind. In a way, the move of dropping Fall Be Kind so late in he year, when critics would be finalizing their end-of-year lists, was an ingenious move that guaranteed a strong bump in this album’s status; it gave critics an opportunity and excuse to re-evaluate the album and rediscover what was so great about it. As for myself, I have not heard Fall Be Kind yet, but if it is anywhere near as good as I have heard, I know I am in for a treat.
• Bon Iver – Blood Bank: This one didn’t make so big an impact on me at first, but it grew on me. Short and sweet, and if you try to tell me that “Woods” is not the best and most inventive use of Autotune ever, then I will call you a goddamned liar. In fact, “Woods” may be my favorite song of Vernon’s. No lie.
• Antony and the Johnsons – The Crying Light: Another one that took some growing. While I would not describe its predecessor as fragile, there was a certain stateliness to it that gave it a disingenuous veneer of delicateness. The Crying Light quite simply eschews any pretense of fragility and presents itself as an audacious, bombastic, and stunningly ambitious record that demands to be listened to on its own terms.
• Various Artists – Dark Was the Night: This was definitely the year of the all-star indie rock collaborative compilation album, and of all the examples, this one remains the first and the best, even if it was eventually lost in the shuffle when the year-end retrospectives came out. You can’t argue with great music for a great cause.
• The Mountain Goats & John Vanderslice – Moon Colony Bloodbath: These two need to collaborate more often. I would love to see their long-rumored Comedians band come to fruition.
• Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – Vs. Children: Nine months later (ha ha), I still think the smoother and more embellished production was the right decision for this album. Sue me.
• St. Vincent – Actor: I sincerely hope that the title of this record is another Arrested Development reference. Geeky pop culture references aside, I have three points to make that I didn’t make last time. 1) Here is where you will likely hear the most compelling and freshest-sounding guitar playing of the year. 2) I DARE you to listen to “Marrow” and not dance. I don’t dance, but I can’t resist the urge to move when I hear that song. 3) Umm, yeah. I’m kind of in love with this woman. That is all.
• John Vanderslice – Romanian Names: Definitely one of my top five of the year. Everything I said before, or in my recommendation on the other blog, holds true. Rather than repeat myself, I will just entreat you to please read what I’ve already written about this album and, for the love of God, go listen to it!
• Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest: It cannot be stressed enough that 2009 was, improbably, Grizzly Bear’s year. I don’t know how or why it happened, but I’m not complaining. It’s fun to watch deserving bands have semi-meteoric rises.
• Rhett Miller – Rhett Miller: I was not a fan of Rhett’s previous two solo albums. I was prepared to ignore this one. Then I saw him live, solo acoustic, opening up for his own band, Old 97’s. I was floored by how good these new songs were. These were genuinely some of the best songs I had heard from Mr. Miller in quite some time. I expected the studio versions to be overproduced to the point of being unlistenable, but surprisingly found the album presentation to be tasteful and appealing. “Like Love” would possibly be my single of the year if the label would see fit to release it as a single. Is anyone listening? Seriously, people: a 7-inch of “Like Love” with a live version of “Another Girlfriend” on the flip. Get it into the right hands and it could be a hit. Screw it, I’m gonna start my own label. Grumble grumble grumble.
• Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca: I continue to be amazed by this album. Inaccessible artsiness has perhaps never been so appealing. I can admit when I’m wrong about a band (although I’m still not delving into the back catalog just yet).
• Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse – Dark Was the Night: Besides appearances from two other artists with albums on my 2009 shortlist (The Flaming Lips and Vic Chesnutt), the involvement of David Lynch and the multimedia nature of this project/experiment ensured that it would be intriguing. It’s a shame that the legal grey (album) area of this (non)-release means that most people will never get to hear it.
• Dinosaur Jr. – Farm: Perhaps not quite as strong an album at the end of the year as it had seemed when I first listened to it, but I maintain that these guys have still got it. As far as reunion albums go, this is one of the best. I wish I could say the same for the new Mission of Burma, which seems like a bit of a misstep to me.
• Wilco – Wilco (the album): Not necessarily one of their best albums, but one has to admire the cultural currency that Wilco has achieved, and which they use to their advantage most effectively here. Wilco has reached a place where the band can do whatever they please. They have a comfortably sized fan base that allows them to make a living off of music, and that is loyal enough to ensure that wherever the band goes, the audience will follow. This album was not profound, but was a great jab back at the critics who accuse them of self-importance or lacking a sense of humor. The juxtaposition of songs such as the murder narrative “Bull Black Nova” ensure that tension remains part of the dynamic. Oh, and “I’ll Fight?” One of the best songs of the year, I don’t care what anybody says.
• Yo La Tengo – Popular Songs: This one came out of nowhere. Over the years, Yo La Tengo has consistently proven that it is capable of anything; on this album, it sets out to prove it in the space of four sides of vinyl. Progressing from spy-movie-strings-embellished psychedelia to warm indie pop to Motown bass and organ genre exercises to almost ambient soundscapes, the band here blend disparate sound palettes into a surprisingly coherent, engaging, and fun album. The pacing feels a bit odd with its obviously front-loaded tracklisting, placing the three long and quiet tracks at the very end, but that is ultimately the only criticism I am able to level at this almost-perfect album.
• Vic Chesnutt – At the Cut: Hyperbole and discussion of the tragedy of his recent loss aside (that is another topic for another blog post), this is one of the most visceral and heartbreaking albums of the year, perhaps of the past several years. With members of Godspeed! You Black Emperor, A Silver Mt. Zion, and Fugazi as his backing band, Chesnutt crafts stunningly haunting and uncomfortably frank collection of odes to pain and death. The fact that “Flirted with You All My Life” was intended to be Vic’s “breakup song” with death and to signify that he was done with suicide attempts gives the album an even more grim and oppressive shadow to an already overwhelmingly powerful album.
• The Mountain Goats – The Life of the World to Come: I have a complicated relationship with this album. This is my Get Lonely; the album that I just did not (and to this date still do not completely) get. Seeing the songs performed live have helped with some of it, but I still have problems. I have problems with some of the ultra-glossy production touches. I have problems with what seems to me at times like lazy songwriting; a lot of the guitar songs sound like conscious attempts to write a tMG song. Ultimately, though, I recognize that there is something compelling about this album that is pushing me to make the effort to try to get it, which is a sure-fire sign of a worthy piece of art. Even if I can’t keep all of those damned Bible verse track titles straight.
• The Flaming Lips – Embryonic: I was ready to give up on the Flaming Lips. The Soft Bulletin was, I thought, one of the best albums of the ‘90s, hands down. I was disappointed in Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, but I stuck with them. I flat-out hated At War with the Mystics. It sounded awful and the songwriting – well, I would criticize the songwriting, but I remain convinced that there are no actual songs on there. I was hopeful concerning Embryonic, but cautiously so. I am happy to report, however, that this is perhaps an unprecedented return to form. The album is noisy, scattershot, rough around the edges, and certainly not for everyone. What it reminds me of the most, however, in spite of all the noise and sound experiments and utterly unique touches, is early Pink Floyd – think a cross between Barrett-era soundscapes such as “Astronomy Domine” and “Interstellar Overdrive” with, say, Meddle. It’s a completely psychedelic album, and it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine that if Pink Floyd were just starting today, with access to contemporary technology and musical influences, they may have sounded something like this.

There were, of course, other albums that caught my ear and tickled my fancy this year, but these are the ones that stand out the most standing here, almost a week into the new year. And now to rank the top ten:

1. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
2. Yo La Tengo – Popular Songs
3. Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
4. The Flaming Lips – Embryonic
5. John Vanderslice – Romanian Names
6. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
7. Vic Chesnutt – At the Cut
8. The Mountain Goats – The Life of the World to Come
9. Antony and the Johnsons – The Crying Light
10. St. Vincent – Actor

As for what I am most looking forward to in 2010, here’s a taste of the albums coming out just in the first quarter:

Owen Pallett, Beach House, The Magnetic Fields, Spoon, Shearwater, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Los Campesinos!, Retribution Gospel Choir

!!!

I have missed you all, and I hope you enjoyed slogging through this monster of a post (4 full pages in Microsoft Word!). I will talk to you all again soon – maybe even tomorrow? In the meantime, I invite you all to weigh in with your thoughts on my list or with a list of your own.

Obligatory Mid-year Round-up.

Well, it's that time of year - the time when all pretentious would-be music critics (yours truly inclusive) sharpen their pencils (so to speak) and start to take stock of what the year has had in store for us. And thus far, the year has had quite a lot to offer; more so than the past several years, so far as I can remember.

In any case, you know the drill, so without much further ado, here are the ten records that, at this point, represent the cream of this year's crop so far, arranged alphabetically by artist:

• Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion: Yes, it's kind of the hipster-contingent frontrunner at this point for album of the year, but it's also a fun, playful, and highly listenable album that is light years removed from their earliest work. It plays out almost like a greatest-hits album in a blender; the Collective borrow elements from each of their previous releases and sew them together into new pieces. Contrary to the impression such a description may give you, however, these sound not like pastiches or tapestries but like the fully-formed songs they are. A fun listen for the more adventurous or open-minded listener, and deserving of the increased mainstream exposure the band has been receiving.

• Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Vs. Children: Owen Ashworth's songwriting is more cutting than ever here, his pathos more affecting, and the production more ambitious and ornate than ever - a fact that may represent a point of contention for some long-time fans, but to my ears, the warm sound of the production helps draw the listener into these songs, and Owen sounds at home in this environment. Besides, the cold, harsh lo-fi setting of his earlier material may have been too alienating to really engage listeners in this album that my friend Jess aptly describes as being about "what happens when those barely past childhood have children themselves."

• Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse - Dark Night of the Soul: Technically speaking, this album has not been released. Not officially, anyway. The project, a multimedia collaboration between the two principal musicians to whom the album has been credited, David Lynch, and several like-minded musicians such as the Flaming Lips, James Mercer, Gruff Rhys, Iggy Pop, Black Francis, and Jason Lytle, among others, was originally announced to a near-instant fever-pitch of excitement and anticipation early in the spring. Soon, however, it was announced that the music would NOT see official release due to a dispute between EMI and Danger Mouse; Burton made a statement that he feared he could not release the album for sale without being sued. Therefore, the art exhibit opened, and the coffee-table book of Lynch's photography was indeed released, accompanied by a blank CD-R, labeled "DNOTS," that the consumer is advised to "use as you see fit." Take that how you will; I'm sure the man who created the Grey Album would never really encourage piracy, right? Anyhow, enough about the back story; the music creates a wonderful sustained mood, without the jarring effect of contrary styles from which various-artist collections often suffer; Burton and Linkous are the sonic putty that holds everything together and smooths over the disparate styles and tendencies. At current, you can stream the entire album from NPR's website; if, however, you would like it in more permanent form, don't panix; with a little searching, I am sure you can find a solution and perhaps even a way to use that pretty little CD-R artifact.

• Dinosaur Jr. - Farm: Beyond was a solid enough album that picked up right where Bug left off, but I never saw this coming. J. Mascis, Lou Barlow, and Murph have decided to make this album live up to the title of its predecessor by venturing outside of the usual moods of your standard-issue Dinosaur Jr. album. Rather than settling with what they know, the band has honed their glorious squall into a more pastoral, relaxed record. For the first time, Mascis doesn't just sound like a bored, discontented teenager in his songs; apparently he just needed to wait until he was 43 before his songwriting started to mature. Noise, distortion, and guitar solos galore, but from a slightly more pragmatic point of view and with a more laid-back mood. "Plans" may well be Mascis's finest song yet, and will likely be near the top of my list of my favorite songs of the year come December.

• Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca: I didn't want to like this record, but David Longstreth didn't give me a chance to hate it. When Bill and I saw this band a few years ago, the willfully detuned and off-key chords, relentlessly lazy and lugubrious rhythms, and Robert Palmer-esque backing band led Bill to proclaim that the band had "broken indie rock." Then came the irresistible David Byrne collaboration on the Dark Was the Night charity compilation, and then came the brilliant single, "Stillness is the Move." Finally, the girls in the band are revealed not to be the props they appeared to be on the Rise Above tour, but rather Longstreth's secret weapon. Gifted with Kate Bush-inspired vocal acrobatics, an impressive range, and some actual inventive pop structure instead of discordant avant-trash, Longstreth and crew have crafted the year's biggest surprise by giving us a big, fun summer pop record.

• Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest: These past few years Grizzly Bear has proven to be the Little Band that Could, displaying enormous leaps of growth in their soundscaping and songwriting prowess, and readjusting their ambition level accordingly. With this most recent album, Grizzly Bear have seemingly created an opus of incredible beauty, both gossamer and watertight at the same time. Chris Taylor's basslines, Christopher Bear's deft drumwork, and gorgeous four-part harmonies work together to draw listeners into a trance-like state, and the psychedelic influence shines through a bit more than it had on Yellow House. The only question this album leaves the listener with: where does the band go from here?

• the Mountain Goats and John Vanderslice - Moon Colony Bloodbath: A 7-song limited-edition, tour-only, collaborative concept EP that is long on concept and backstory and short on real action, this is possibly the most controversial work I am including on this list. And perhaps it was inevitable that I should include it; after all, my adoration for both of these artists is a matter of record, and the intense anticipation for this record, not to mention the tribulations involved in actually securing a copy, threatened to overshadow the material itself. Fortunately, the material shines through strongly; the record is richly imagined, the concept and story thought out in some painstaking detail, and while there may not seem to be much of a payoff to deliver on the promise of the concept, I prefer to think that it is deliberately left open-ended so the one can use one's own imagination to fill in the sordid details. Not to mention, it's exciting to hear two such well-developed and idiosyncratic artists push and pull at each other, gently luring the other out of his respective comfort zone.

• St. Vincent - Actor: Marry Me was a highlight of 2007 and one of the strongest and most self-assured debut albums in recent memory. With her new album, Annie Clark has dialed up the volume, fleshing out the arrangements with lots of prettiness (violin, clarinet, and flute arrangements ahoy!) before blasting them all to hell with squalls of violent guitar noise. The whole thing sounds a little dangerous, unstable, and unhinged, a perception that song titles like "Laughing With a Mouth of Blood" do nothing to refute - Clark's songwriting persona seems to have gone from the slightly creepy menace of "Now, Now" into flat-out terrifying mode. As far as not-quite-resolved tension through compressed layering of discordant sounds goes, it's tough to beat the end of "Black Rainbow."

• John Vanderslice - Romanian Names: You may have already seen my thoughts on this album, so I will keep this brief. JV has outdone himself in terms of songwriting and attention to sonic detail, and the seeming incongruity between the painstaking sculpting of the sounds with the relaxed songwriting makes the songs even more compelling and appealing. The best album yet in a seven-album career, John Vanderslice continues to be the perennially overlooked and underrated workhorse, the stalwart and remarkably consistent and dependable indie rock nice guy. Between this and Moon Colony Bloodbath, if 2009 does not prove to be his breakout year, then there may truly be no justice in the world.

• various artists - Dark Was the Night: This charity album was/is an indie rock fan's wet dream. Thirty-one exclusive tracks from some of indie rock's biggest names, all coming together courtesy of the efforts of The National's Dessner brothers to raise money for AIDS relief. There were collaborations, some likely (Grizzly Bear and Feist) and some not (Dirty Projectors and David Byrne); phenomenal new tracks from out of nowhere (seriously, "So Far Around the Bend" by the National?!?!?); surprises in the form of older unreleased tracks (Arcade Fire's "Lenin"); a 12-minute Sufjan cover of a Castanets song; and, as is to be expected in such a voluminous project, a couple of disappointments or missteps (Conor Oberst covering himself, and does anyone else find the Spoon contribution somehow lacking?). All in all, though, this project feels important and all-encompassing when one listens to it, like it's truly an event and not just another various-artists charity collection. Hats off to the Dessners, the Red Hot Organization, and all of the artists who devoted their time and energy to this project.

Curious why you didn't see your favorite album of the year so far on my list? Let me know what I missed! Please discuss below, and tell me what album I need to hear or what album I need to listen to again and re-evaluate! For the record, this is the pool of releases so far this year that I have heard. Note that in my world, Live albums, reissues, and odds-and-ends collections are generally not eligible for general list honors, and an EP needs to be REALLY impressive in order to rank:

Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
Antony and the Johnsons – The Crying Light
Art Brut – Art Brut vs. Satan
Bat for Lashes – Two Suns
Beirut/Realpeople – March of the Zapotec/Holland
Andrew Bird – Noble Beast
Andrew Bird – Useless Creatures
Bowerbirds – Upper Air
The Boy Least Likely To – The Law of the Playground
Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career
Neko Case – Middle Cyclone
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – Vs. Children
Jarvis Cocker – “Further Complications.”
Elvis Costello – Secrets Profane and Sugarcane
Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse – Dark Night of the Soul
The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love
Depeche Mode – Sounds of the Universe
Dinosaur Jr. – Farm
Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
Bob Dylan – Together Through Life
Franz Ferdinand – Tonight: Franz Ferdinand
Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
Handsome Furs – Face Control
PJ Harvey and John Parish – A Woman a Man Walked By
Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 – Goodnight Oslo
Jeffrey Lewis and the Junkyard – ‘Em Are I
Rhett Miller - Rhett Miller
Morrissey – Ringleader of the Tormentors
Marissa Nadler – Little Hells
A.C. Newman – Get Guilty
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Beware
Sonic Youth – The Eternal
Bruce Springsteen – Working on a Dream
St. Vincent – Actor
Stardeath and White Dwarfs – The Birth
Sunset Rubdown – Dragonslayer
Swan Lake – Enemy Mine
John Vanderslice – Romanian Names
M. Ward – Hold Time
Wilco – Wilco (the album)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz!
V/A – Dark Was the Night
V/A – War Child: Heroes
V/A – Score! The Covers

EPs:

Bon Iver – Blood Bank
The Breeders – Fate to Fatal
Death Cab for Cutie – The Open Door EP
Deerhunter – Rainwater Exchange Cassette
the Mountain Goats and John Vanderslice – Moon Colony Bloodbath
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Chijimi
Sleep Whale – Sleep Whale

Reissues:

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – From Her to Eternity
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – The Firstborn Is Dead
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Kicking Against the Pricks
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Your Funeral… My Trial
Rodriguez – Coming From Reality
Wwax – Like It or Not

Live Albums:

Leonard Cohen – Live in London
The Hold Steady – A Positive Rage
Mark Kozelek – Lost Verses Live
Mark Kozelek – Find Me, Ruben Olivares
My Morning Jacket - Celebración de la Ciudad Natal
Superchunk – Clambake Vol. IV

Odds-and-Ends Collections/Remix Records:

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – Advance Battery Base Life
Comet Gain – Broken Record Prayers
Franz Ferdinand – Blood
Iron & Wine – Around the Well
The Vaselines – Enter the Vaselines