Best Albums of 2009

[I included some rules for compiling "best of the year" lists with my 2008 favorites. Most of them still apply, so I'm repeating them with minor modifications...]

For any dj, compiling a year end best of list is tricky business. Obviously, the primary goal is picking the best albums of the year, but it isn't the only one. In addition, you want to show that you're aware of the prevailing trends without being a slave to them. So, typically, an indie dj's top ten list features the following ingredients:

• A couple of easily identifiable, but critically respected albums (the kind of music that is frequently lauded by mainstream-but-arty sources such as NPR.) But which ones? They should be popular, but not too popular. And, deciding what not to include is important too...Can I afford not to put the universally acclaimed Animal Collective album on my list?
• At least one completely contrary choice. E.g., everyone else hates the new Scarlett Johansson album, but you know better. Alternatively, you can diss a critical favorite: "These are not the Japandroids I'm looking for."
• One or two extremely obscure choices that prove that you can keep up with the hip kids at Pitchfork Media.
• Some cultural and geographic diversity that says, "I'm no cretin."

Obviously (or, at least I hope it's obvious) this is all a bit tongue-in-cheek, and yet I suspect its true for some year-end roundups. I'll leave you to decide if it applies to my top ten...

10. Various Artists: Dark Was The Night

This compilation serves as a yearbook picture for the indie class of 2009, featuring such names as Feist, the Dirty Projectors, Grizzly Bear, the Decemberists and Sufjan Stevens. A surprisingly high hit-to-miss ratio for an anthology and the proceeds go to the Red Hot Organization, which funds AIDS relief worldwide.


9. Ida Maria: Fortress 'Round My Heart

These Norwegian newcomers by turns over-the-top manic, saucy, and elegiac. The rapid moodswings could make for a schizophrenic mess, but somehow it all works.


8. Yonlu: A Society in Which No Tear Is Shed Is Inconceivably Mediocre

Yonlu, a Brazilian musician and artist created songs in his bedroom and shared them with friends on the Internet, all the while grappling with depression that ended in suicide at age 16. Thanks to David Byrne's Luaka Bop label for bringing this fanciful, melancholy songs to a wider audience.


7. Yo La Tengo: Popular Songs

YLT is one of my favorite bands, but I'll admit they lost me (or maybe I lost them?) at the turn of the decade, when they started releasing gentle, introspective albums that didn't register with me. But now they are back with music that's varied and fun to listen to--songs that deserve to be popular.


6. Iron & Wine: Around The Well

Sam Beam has been releasing backwoods acoustic folk since 2002 and I've always enjoyed what he's had to offer, but never so much as with this two-disc collection of odds and ends recorded over the space of several years. Around The Well features concert favorites (the quietly epic "Trapeze Swinger"), clever covers (New Order's "Love Vigilantes") and a host of lovely leftovers superior to most artists' main courses.


5. Mulatu Astatke & the Heliocentrics: Inspiration Information, v. 3

Ethiopian bandleader Astatke first came to my attention on the groovy mixed tapes Bill Murray listened to during his travels in Jim Jarmusch's "Broken Flowers." This new collection of moody, noirish tunes is a collaboration between Astatke and U.K. acid jazz group the Heliocentrics . Listen here.


4. Tune-Yards: Bird-Brains

Merrill Garbus (a.k.a. Tune-Yards) has a laptop, a ukelele, and a powerful voice, and she's not afraid to use them.

3. Dirty Projectors: Bitte Orca

Way back in June, Stereogum asked, "Wait, is 'Bitte Orca' the best album of 2009?" and they weren't kidding. With six months to go, it was a good bet that this thrilling, idiosyncratic album would show up on lots of best of lists. I saw them on open for TV on the Radio and DP's performance won the night hands down.

2. St. Vincent: Actor

Annie Clark first hit the scene as a backup vocalist for the likes of Sufjan Stevens and Polyphonic Spree. It is fortunate that she stepped out on her own. The drama she creates makes me think of Kate Bush c. 1985. The video for "Actor Out Of Work" is my favorite of the year, and no album has been in more frequent rotation on my iPod, with the possible exception of...

1. Neko Case: Middle Cyclone

[I know, I know. Amazon.com, the top site for selling product on the Web also selected Middle Cyclone as the best album of 2009. So sue me.] It has been said that this vocalist or that could sing the phone book and it would still sound lovely. This is certainly true of Neko Case, but just as important are her songs, which you'll find yourself humming in the shower for days on end. Opener "This Tornado Loves You" gets my vote for song of the year--what will make you believe me?

That's my list--so what am I missing?

Listen to all these artists and many more on Radio Sweetheart's best of mix, playing all this week.