Nine For ‘09: Best Albums of 2009
I usually do 10 best-of’s in an annual list, along with another 10 runners up. I’d like to say that I decided on nine for 2009 because it sounds more poetic and clever and whatnot, but that’s bullshit. Truthfully, I had a hard time finding 10 records to put on the list this year, and Nine for ‘09 sounded pretty good so I just left it at that. I’m sure I could have found at least one more, if not 11 more records that I really liked in 2009 — the year can definitely claim its fair share of good music — but this list is composed of the nine albums that never really left my rotation once they hit. So there you go.
In no particular order, I give you my list of the year’s best albums: Nine for ‘09…
Raekwon
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Pt. 2
ICEAL
Released September 8, 2009
One of the most revered and solidly talented MCs from the Wu Tang Clan, Raekwon released this sequel to his ‘95 solo debut the same day that Jay-Z’s blockbuster Blueprint 3 came out, and Linx Pt. 2 stands in stark contrast to Jay’s high-polish example of the pop sub-genre that most mainstream rap has become. There’s nothing here targeted at MTV, nothing for your teenaged daughter, and nothing that the Grammys are going to be interested in. This is rap music for rap fans. Rae revisits the subject matter that he does best, the stuff that put Wu on the map, criminal theme songs and stories from the street that ring as equal parts pulp fiction and urban reportage — a.k.a. storytelling, an increasingly rare and highly impactful style. With production from RZA, J. Dilla (this record has been in the works since 2005, before Dilla passed), Eric Sermon, Pete Rock, Dr. Dre, Marly Marl and more; and gust spots from Wu founders RZA, Ghostface, Method Man, Inspectah Deck, Cappadonna and GZA, as well as Jadakiss, Beanie Segal, Slick Rick and more, there’s not a single throwaway track on this record. It’s as close to an instant classic as rap is gonna offer at this point in the game.
Raekwon, “New Wu” feat. Ghostface Method Man, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Pt. 2
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Pissed JeansKing Of Jeans
Sub-Pop
Released August 18, 2009
Pissed Jeans’ brand of punk rock foregoes the fashion accessories and cookie cutter songwriting format that have become synonymous with the genre and focuses instead on music that’s dark, brooding, ominous and unpredictable. Screaming feedback and a drunken, growling caterwaul provide the musical punctuation throughout this album, and the songwriting is far more interesting than most of what’s considered punk rock these days. Passages of heavily lumbering bass lines explode into flat out riffage, if only momentarily; interesting timings wrap around unexpected starts and stops; and non-standard choruses signify a seemingly intentional aversion to anything overtly catchy. Yet something familiar and attractable unmistakably shines through the left-of-center approach — a rhythmic pulse and bottom-ended groove that represents a common trait of all good rock music: It just feels right.
Pissed Jeans, “R-Rated Movie,” King Of Jeans
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ObitsI Blame You
Sub-Pop
Released March 24, 2009
On this debut LP Obits displays a new blueprint for contemporary Americana rock music. This Brooklyn, NYC based quartet, boasts guitarists / vocals Rick Froberg (Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes) and Sohrab Habibio (Edsel)…and at the risk (if not the direct intention) of revealing a slight bias here, all anyone had to tell me about this group before this album was released was that it was a Froberg project. There’s a lot of giddyup in this music (it’s mostly up-tempo) but the overall tone is classic and wide open; driving riffs — equal parts clean and slightly distorted guitar — are underpinned by thumping yet melodically hooky bass lines and dead-on drum parts. The strength and demand behind Froberg’s scratchy scream resonates a little more strongly than Habibio’s smoother croon, but the two work well on different songs here, and the overall impact is solid all the way through this record. The sound is open, bright, harsh and exposed, yet invitingly picturesque.
Obits, “Two Headed Coin,” I Blame You
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Lightning BoltEarthly Delights
Load Records
Release October 13, 2009
This noise rock duo has long been heralded as having one of the most engaging live shows on the indie tour circuit, often foregoing a venue’s stage to set up and play on the floor, with the audience packed in tightly around them. Earthly Delights, the band’s fifth release, offers some sense of what that must feel like. There is, of course, no substitute for the live experience, but there’s a frenetic, in-your-face immediacy to this music that evokes an undeniably visceral reaction, like something big and ugly is coming around the corner to mow you down, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. Bassist Brian Gibson weaves deeply fuzzed out, rhythmically swelling and sonically rotund bass riffs while drummer Brian Chippendale fills every nook and cranny of the remaining space with unrelenting yet precise drum patterns and vocals slathered in so much reverb they sound like cryptic rantings in an unintelligible language. As close to controlled chaos in musical form as it gets, Earthly Delights is not a casual or even entirely comfortable listening experience, but that kinda seems like the point. This shit will peel your cap back.
Lightning Bolt, “The Sublime Freak,” Earthly Lights
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ExileRadio
Plug Research
Released February 24, ‘09
Recycling is at the core of hip-hop music. From the earliest days of the genre, DJs and producers have created music by sampling and manipulating audio from various sources, and 2009’s finest example of music made from found sounds is Exile’s Radio, which is built entirely on samples he captured from the frequency dial in the greater Los Angeles area. Naturally there’s a fair amount of vocal cuts — everything from political punditry to religious fervor, DJ request call-in, on-air chatter, promotional cart samples and everything in between — but it’s assembled amid a pastiche of musical samples (or samples freaked to sound musical), drums of all flavors, horn and string section stabs, synth runs, sirens, and myriad other rhythmic and melodic elements culled from the airwaves. The result is a timely and fresh, oddly hip head-nodder all the way through.
Exile, “It’s Coming Down,” Radio
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Big BusinessMind The Drift
Redeye / Hydrahead
Released April 14, ‘09
Big Business — Jared Warren (Karp, The Whip, Melvins) on bass / vocals, and Coady Willis (Murder City Devils, Melvins) on drums — added guitar player Toshi Kasai (Altamont) to the lineup and became the only three-piece duo in existence. See, even though the addition of guitar adds a consistent high-end to the music, it’s still very much about the chemistry of the rhythm section. Jared is a full-spectrum bass player who lays down massive low end, hammering though chords and splitting his signal for high and low frequencies, while Coady fills the space within, around and over the bass with some of the best drumming in the game. Of course, that’s not to say that Mind The Drift doesn’t benefit from the addition of the guitar layer. It definitely does. This third layer lends itself to the continuing evolution of the band, allows for more ambitious songwriting and just brings the thunder that much more. Plus, Toshi’s backup screaming nicely complements Jared’s uncanny ability to scream in key. This is a huge sounding record.
Big Business, “I Got It Online,” Mind The Drift
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UGKUGK 4 Life
Jive
Released March 31, ‘09
It’s a little eerie to hear Pimp C. say, “Back from the dead…” in the intro of UGK 4 Life UGK. Before the MC’s untimely death in 2008, he and UGK partner-in-rhyme Bun B held it down for Texas rap for years, consistently releasing excellent records, deftly riding the line that separates independent credibility and mainstream success, and Pimp’s swan song release solidifies UGK as one of the greatest rap groups of all time. Lyrically, this record covers the standard faire — women, cars, Port Arthur and Houston, Texas, pimpin’, weed, the finer things in life and the getting thereof, etc. — and it’s what Pimp and Bun do best, especially backed by veterans like Snoop Dogg, Too Short, E-40 and B. Legit. From heavy-hitting to synthed-out, light and bouncy to Deep South funk and soul, this record is so good, even a horrible guest spot from Autotune crooner Akon (the record’s one notable low point) couldn’t knock it outta my favorite nine of ‘09. RIP Pimp C.
UGK, “Everybody Wanna Ball,” UGK 4 Life
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BaronessBlue Record
Relapse
Released October 13, ‘09
There’s plenty of heaviness here, but there’s also plenty of room in Baroness’ brand of rock for catchy, smart melodies. So while giant riffs tower among requisite metal elements like screaming dual guitar solos and lilting, at times acoustic, intros and interludes that explode into massive anthemic movements, this record also has hooks in the all the right places. It’s a rare thing for metal to contain as much pop sensibility, and even rarer that it works well within the boundaries of what actually constitutes metal. But here you have it: the kind of heavy metal that adheres to the classic tenets of pentatonic madness, yet offers up more than enough infectious melodies and choruses. The deluxe edition of the CD contains a second disc of live material, which is a nice way for the band to prove that, on stage, they’re everything this album promises and more.
Baroness, “Jake Leg,” Blue Record
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FinaleA Pipe Dream and a Promise
Interdependent Media
Released April 7, ‘09
There was a fair amount of buzz around this record, but I’m surprised I didn’t hear more about it in the music press. Then again, I’m not all that surprised. As much as Finale stands for straight up working man’s hip-hop, that’s not generally what music press (especially most hip-hop press) is interested in. But determined honesty, good music and skill on the mic is a winning combination every time, and Finale’s got plenty of all of the above. Eschewing the lines that divide the subgenres of hip-hop (commercial, underground, backpack, etc., etc.), this former auto mechanic from Detroit represents his city and his state of being more than anything else. There are no club bangers on A Pipe Dream and a Promise, no gangster songs and no R&B ballad numbers, instead this record is full of dope, organic sounding mid-tempo jams lyrically populated with reality. Finale’s debut is refreshingly straight forward and immaculately produced, it’s familiar, classic and accessible without being a thoughtless golden-era throwback, and it’s contemporary and fresh without an iota of feigned “next level” effort.
Finale, “Style,” A Pipe Dream and a Promise
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Good list. I still haven’t got my hands on the Raekwon, which is a shame. I just made a mix of a lot of the stuff I wrote about/listened to in 2009, and I rediscovered that Obits record. Damn good.
[...] out back in September of ‘09 and I wasn’t aware of it — it surely would have made my Best of ‘09 list — but, hey, these things happen. I’m just glad to know about it [...]