Friday is Falling Down Five Flights of Stairs
I am stumbling towards the Christmas break like a punch drunk boxer dreaming of the bell. I made up my to-do list for the rest of the year and it’s pretty fucking terrifying. Still, time spent in France with my Mum fussing like a bloody mother hen and being determined for Christmas to be just so and me ruining it by being rude and too busy to be festive.
There tend to be some musical disagreements in our house around Christmas time. Mum likes her festive shit, even if it is bordering on being a parody of itself at times. I like what I consider to be relaxing music – that downbeat, morose stuff which is both warm and comforting. Stuff like The Willard Grant Conspiracy, Micah P. Hinson, Leonard Cohen, that kind of stuff – The Boatman’s Call by Nick Cave is a favourite, for example. Not for Mum, though, it seems.
So we both have pretty definite ideas of what kind of music should be played around Christmas time, but it just happens to be in total opposition to the other’s. The difference being, of course, that I am right and she is not.
Last week we had the top five songs vote, probably just shaded by something by Withered Hand, but I’ll do all the proper counting before the new year and make some grandiose declaration of electoral triumph. Which leaves this week for us to vote for our favourite album of 2009. So that’s all the Friday Fives are this week – just list your favourite five albums released this year. And for anyone wondering, voting for The Low Anthem is just fine, if that’s one of your favourites primarily because I can’t be arsed splitting hairs about self-releases, re-releases and all that other shit. So please de-lurk and say hello and have a vote – these things are always more fun when more people join in.
Meursault – Salt Pt.2 2008
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Grinderman – No Pussy Blues 2007
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The Veils – Not Yet 2006
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The Decemberists – We Both Go Down Together 2005
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Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Cannibal’s Hymn 2004
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the leg- whatever happened to the shrunken head of tina turner
casiotone for the painfully alone- children
animal collective- merriweather…. (christ! all these albums have stupidly long titles)
dead mans bones- self titled
grizzly bear- veckatemist (tried to avoid being obvious but this is just awfully good).
Withered Hand – Good News (obviously)
Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More
The Antlers – Two
My Son’s Home – Roadside Graves
And I also had Meursault’s Nothing Broke EP in my top five RELEASES of the year… so you can count that one as well if you like!
Ooh, Dead Man’s Bones?
Because you like Ryan Gosling?
That should be
Roadside Graves – My Son’s Home.
I might be a wee bit pissed.
Röyksopp – Junior
Fever Ray – Fever Ray
Soap & Skin – Lovetune for Vacuum
The Rural Alberta Advantage – Hometowns
Florence & the Machine – Lungs
Off the top of my head, in no particular order, and I’m sure I’m forgetting something.
i do love all things gosling….regardless though, this record is just great! it was one that i expected to really dislike given that it seemed overly thematic and featured a childrens choir…but i warmed to it instantly and it hasn’t been off the stereo since.
oh and….FIVES!!!!
Crap. It should also read
The Antlers – Hospice
Fuck.
I’ll stop now.
But it’s breakfast time you mentalist!
(Bloody timezones!)
I don’t actually have that many complete albums from 2009.
BUT.
1. Can’t Maintain – Andrew Jackson Jihad
I don’t understand why more people haven’t heard of/become madly enamored with this band. Everything they do is wonderful and amazing.
2. ‘Em Are I – Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard
It is not my favourite Jeff Lewis album – he sings for a lot of it, and what’s up with that? But having fallen asleep on coaches to ‘roll bus roll’ about a billion times, I think it should go on here.
3. Mimicking Birds – Mimicking Birds
Um, not an actual album? 23 tracks of awesome that they put up on Virb.
4. Bad Children – Navigator
5. Dark Night of the Soul – Dangermouse & Sparklehorse
Um, a compilation album. But there are 4 or 5 tracks that I love and have overplayed to the point I can no longer listen to them, so.
Yes, Voldermania, shame on you.
I watched Lars and the Real Girl yesterday, and it rekindled my Gosling love.
I think the theatrics of Dead Man’s Bones are what makes it better.
i totally agree, which is strange as normally if a record is overly theatrical i run a mile!
Ha!
9:09 pm here. Christmas party last night, another one tomorrow night so it’s a quiet one tonight. Music’s loud though. And beer is obviously flowing!
Navigator? Fucking hell, are they acutally quite popular, secretly? Good choice.
it would seem that ‘toad’ is once more loving the fact that he doesn’t have to 5 like the rest of us…..douche!
craig (of ‘the craigcast’ fame) tells me that his brother got him into navigator about a year ago! and he’s not the only one I’ve spoken to recently who already knows them. weird. goood, but weird.
I don’t have to obey the law. I AM THE LAW!
no matthew, i think your getting yourself confused with Robocop……again!
So do you think Mr. Braden McKenna of Bone Valley, Utah knows that he’s secretly quite famous in Scoland?
1. Joe Gideon and the Shark – Harum Scareum
they win this years best album by a country mile it has to said. I also recomend people try and catch them live the’re just fab.
2. Withered Hand – good news
a much anticipated album and for me it did not disapoint, well done guys
3. Eels – Hombre Lobo
a nice return to form with this album, although not quite as good as Souljacker
4. Wild Beasts – Two dancers
This has really grown on me and I was a fan to start with. Another band worth catching live
5. Twilight Sad – Forget the night ahead
maybe not as immediately catchy as the 1st album but there are some great tracks on this (especially if you turn it up LOUD!)
mentions should also be made for The Low anthem, The horrors, manic st preachers (if only for the packaging which was very nice), XX, the dead weather and grahan coxon oh and noiserv whos cd was really nice.
I think he can feel it in his pancreas.
Erm…
I’m a bit stuck on this one because I haven’t really been pursuing albums as a hobby this year.
I’ll say Withered Hand, Broken Records, Mumfords, erm..
Oh yeah, AnotherDave said Rural Alberta Advantage, they’re fucking great so I’ll have that.
and…
er…
Shirley Bassey?
I knew i’d forgotten someone
Timber timbre – timber timbre.
I think this should go in at No. 2 actually so everything else gets shifted down. This is such a nice album and one I discovered thanks to this fine website (see it does work somtimes all this reviewing lark) so cheers matthew.
There weren’t that many albums that really grabbed me this year – especially compared to 2008 – but there were a lot of albums that I enjoyed.
Popular Songs, Yo La Tengo
Bonfires on the Heath, The Clientele
Farm, Dinosaur Jr.
Love Is Not Pop, El Perro Del Mar
My Maudlin Career, Camera Obscura
1 Withered Hand – Good News
2 The Fall – Last Night At The Hammersmith Palais
3 Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport
4 Clubroot – Clubroot (director’s cut)
5 Daughter Of The Industrial Revolution – Variable Resistance
AAAHHHH DINOSAUR JR. !!!!!!! HOW COULD I FORGET!
Mr. Bear! You are confusing Robocop with Judge Dredd!!!
Yay – Toad Points for Wilf. That Timber Timbre album is brilliant.
Madcow – RULES! Where are your five? Pish-talking only after you’ve done your five young man.
1) The Decemberists — The Hazards of Love. That’s right, laugh it up. Seeing this performed live in its entirety with Shara Worden and Becky Stark was the gig highlight of the year, hands down. The most satisfying record of the year for me by a wide margin.
2) The Flaming Lips — Embryonic. Great headphone record. This is the indie rock Bitches Brew. I love that these guys have continued to innovate well into their greybeard years.
3) Mumford & Sons — Sigh No More. I finally managed to overcome my mental block against this lot. I never really listened to their EPs properly because I couldn’t get past the fact that the timbre of Marcus Mumford’s voice reminded me of Dave Matthews. My epiphany came when I listened to it during my pre-dawn commute on a rainy morning.
4) The Twilight Sad — Forget The Night Ahead. I am one of those weirdos who actually prefer this record to the first one. I love loud, distorted guitars and walls of grimy feedback. Plus, Scissors is the best instrumental pop song since Treefingers.
5) Richard Hawley — Truelove’s Gutter. Like smooth whiskey and a crackling fire.
Close runners-up:
The Clientele — Bonfires on the Heath (album cover of the year)
Sufjan Stevens — The BQE
Haruko — Wild Geese
What’s a Toad Point?
Can you collect them at your local petrol station and save them up for a cut-glass decanter and glasses or a Black & Decker strimmer?
Ahem, C&B, it’s Dave Fucking Matthews.
The Timber Timbre record certainly has some great moments. Demon Host and Trouble Comes Knocking in particular. I listened to it a lot this year. But I’ve never come to love for some reason.
Dylan, you trade them in for Tanqueray at your local Peckham’s.
Fucking Dave fucking Matthews, C&B, the Welshman is right.
A non-UK year for me:
1 St Vincent: Actor
2 Dirty Projectors: Bitte Orca
3 Flaming Lips: Embryonic
4 Japandroids: Post Nothing
5 Fever Ray: Fever Ray
DfM, of course. Of the DfMfB. I promise to do better.
I would put my 5 up here Toad….IF I had 5 to put up!!!
I am an anomaly I guess. I am totally out of touch with almost all new music. Completely and utterly. The only way I get exposure is playing in the Foxx. I can only associate with either old crosby, stills and nash stuff or random old stuff. I mean – one of the things I listen to a lot is a band called Area Code 615 who were a bunch of session guys in the 60s who made a bluegrass/?”country funk”? album of cover songs. There is some cool stuff on there. Recently I have been walking to work obsessing about the best of the Proclaimers interspersed with the soundtrack to Warren Beatty’s movie “The Parallax View”. What’s with that?
I find myself immersed in the Foxx stuff maybe. Maybe that’s why I don’t seek anything out. So nothing colours what I put into it. But I am just drumming so HEY! it doesn’t matter too much.
Basically, I am trying to say I am shit
Campfires & Battlefields, I’m with you on The Hazards of Love – maybe Colin Meloy’s stuff is a bit over-wrought, but their take on British folk stuff – especially Annan Water – appeals to my Borders roots.
I have yet to finalise these for the blog but it’s looking like:
1. Broken Records – Until the Earth Begins To Part
2. Telefon Tel Aviv -Immolate Yourself
3. The Very Best – The Very Best
4. Luke Haines -21st Century Man
5. Mono- Hymn To the Immortal Wind
Hope all well…Ed
1. Dark was the night – various
A bit patchy in places but a stellar line-up with some total gems on it.
2. Sleight of Hand & Into the Wild Eps- sparrow & the workshop.
As discussed on Wednesday I’m going to cheat and combine this into 1 album! Hah, I’m a law unto myself!
2. The XX – The XX
After initial scepticism this has really grown on me. Having said that I don’t know about it’s longevity so will probably regret that choice in a couple of months.
And I’m glad you said re-issues are now allowed, so for laziness:
4. The Man Machine- Kraftwerk
5. Trans-Europe Express – Kraftwerk
both pretty self explanatory!
Woohoo for eaglepwl tonight!
Fucking Dave fucking Matthews and the fucking Dave fucking Matthews fucking Band.
Madcow. Rules are there for a reason.
Yeah Dylan….to be ignored/flaunted/broken
REBEL ALLIANCE
But since I am spineless I will list these:
1. Hannah Montana – The Soundtrack
2. Lady Gaga – Is that a Little Tiny Penis or are You Just Happy to See Me?
3. Girls Aloud – If We Were Mingers No-one Would Care
4. Jesus H. Foxx – We Really Only Need One Drummer
5. The Douglas Firs – Half the Number of Drums, and Still Better Than the Other Bloke
Sorry, ‘eagleowl’. Bloody iPhone.
And that’s what happens when you break the rules. The pwn is brought down like a sack of spanners.
Ian like totally pwned Eaglepwl!
Matthew, you big bum face with all jobbies on it.
It’s actually quite accurate. Except apparently I am the drummer for Douglas Firs should Insh get it off the ground soon…..sooooooo MEH!!
1. Sunset Rubdown – Dragonslayer
2. Broken Records – Until The Earth Begins To Part
3. My Latest Novel – Deaths And Entrances
4. Beerjacket – Animosity
5. Fanfarlo – Reservoir
Now for the shameful self-promotion…
…Top 20 can be found here —> http://bit.ly/8U5RuA
Mr. Insh needs to make that album. He already has a waiting public, which is more than a lot of bands can say for their debut albums.
Hi Kowalskiy – spam away. It’s not really spam under these circumstances though is it, especially considering all the support you’ve given the label this year (thanks for that).
I am a bit ho-hum about Fanfarlo, to be honest. I never really got past the ‘this sounds okay’ stage.
5. Jamie T – Kings & Queens
4. Cats On Fire – Our Temperance Movement
3. Airborne Toxic Event – Airborne Toxic Event
2. Butcher Boy – React or Die
1. Slow Club – Yeah, So
There are reasons but I’m very ill right now and looking at a screen for too long might make my head implode…
Tis my pleasure. You’re label is pretty damn good you know!
5. You Already Know – Stop Whispering
4.The Gothenburg Address – The Gothenburg Address
3. De Rosa – Prevention
2. Lord Cut Glass – Lord Cut Glass
1. Beerjacket – Animosity
Ah, that Lord Cut Glass album is really good.
Chris Cellar Door – I am amazed at you liking the Slow Club album so much. I really wanted to and really didn’t. I was gutted too, because they are such incredibly nice people.
I kept putting in albums from last year, I’m hungover so you get this bunch of commercially successful/critically acclaimed ditties:
Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport
Let’s Wrestle – In The Court Of Wrestling Let’s
Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
The XX – XX
Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion
1. Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
2. St. Vincent – Actor
3. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz!
4. Withered Hand – Good News
5. The XX – XX
Y’know there have actually been a lot of great albums this year. Fuck buttons, the Gothenburg Address, Animal Collective, St. Vincent, Big Pink, Nathan fake – it has actually been an awesome year for music.
The Thermals – Now We Can See – Seriously good pop punk.
Spiritualized – Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space Deluxe Edition (is this cheating?) – uh… yeah. This is probably me favorite album of all time and this deluxe edition is massive.
The Protomen – Act II: The Father of Death – great power rock opera.
MONO – Hymn to the Immortal Wind – Definitly best post rock album in a while.
Dan Deacon – Bromst – This makes me want to dance every time I put it on. But not dance in the conventional sense. More like flail around like a mad man.
and if that Spiritualized album is cheating than Dinosaur Jr. – Farm gets thrown onto the list. J Mascis is a god when it comes to guitar play, and it’s one of their few albums where I can clearly see Lou’s handiwork as well.
In no particular order:
Engineers ¦ Three Fact Fader
Kings of Convenience ¦ Declaration of Dependence
Mumford & Sons ¦ Sigh No More
Withered Hand ¦ Good News
Yeah Yeah Yeahs ¦ It’s Blitz!
Hmmmm,
1. Reservoir – Fanfarlo.
2. Deaths and Entrances – My Latest Novel.
3. Dark Was the Night – various.
4. Flick the Vs – King Creosote.
5. It’s Blitz! – Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
I was sure this list was going to be more obscure and “interesting” but whilst this year’s been rather good for music – with plenty of good albums – properly great albums (ones that deliver all the way through) have been rather thin on the ground…
1. The Mountain Goats – The Life Of The World To Come
2. The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love
3. The xx – The xx
4. Fever Ray – Fever Ray
5. The Twilight Sad – Forget The Night Ahead
Crap, can I also add Butcher Boy – React or Die to that list? Cheers!
…and to answer your being “ho-hum about Fanfarlo”, Matthew; I don’t really think the individual songs on it are all that amazing, but it is consistently good all the way through and it stands up well as a single piece of work. This is something that I think a lot of good 2009 albums have fallen down on – I think Mumford’s Little Lion Man on it’s own is better than anything on Reservoir, but the M&S album didn’t have the consistency.
1. The Wife by The Great Park (Woodland recordings)
2. King James album (tour only, online release early 2010)
3. The Sleeper by the Leisure Society (Willkommen)
4. Mumford & Sons – Sigh no more
5. Fink – Sort of Revolution
or at least, that’s my list for this 5 minute slot
It’s funny how that Mumfords album is being perceived after they chose Little Lion Man as the lead-off single.
I actually think that song’s one of the weakest tracks they’ve released to date, it’s certainly eclipsed by most of the rest of the album.
I wonder if it’s just benefitting from having a prominent “fuck” in the chorus..
…what Tom said except Harold T Wilkins.. is better than anything on “Sigh No More” in my opinion!
I’d agree with you, Dylan. It’s also got a very traditional verse-bridge-chorus structure which seems to work better for singles. Some of their other songs are miles better.
Tom – I have a few albums like that this year; ones which I really like as a whole but which provide absolutely none of my songs of the year.
Incidentally, I think the albums vote is proving far less parochial/insular/nepotistic than the favourite songs vote, is that fair to say?
It’s also got a very traditional verse-bridge-chorus structure which seems to work better for singles.
It’s like James and Sit Down all over again!
It would be dead easy to accuse me of being nepotistic for one of my choices, my cousin was in the band!
(That wasn’t actually a factor, but I’ve not had any abuse all week, so go for it)
1. Steel Panther. – Feel the Steel….http://www.gigwise.com/photos/50957/6/The-13-Worst-Album-Covers-Of-2009-So-Far
2. Jonas Brothers – Lines, Vines and Trying Times.
now seriously….
1. Withered Hand – Good News
2. J Tillman – A Year In the Kingdom
3. The Antlers – Hospice
4. Peter Broderick – Music For Falling From Trees
5. Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson – Self titled.
Lots of the ones you’ve all mentioned already and
British Sea Power – Man of Arran
Pains of Being Pure at Heart – PoBPaH
Akira the Don – The Omega Sanction
Florence and the Machine – Lungs
The Young Republic – Balletesque
but really I think Withered Hand is out on it’s own. I know that’s 6, steal my beer if you must.
Pretty sure Bromst was ’08 Simon, it’s one of the albums I picked initially then dropped.
Oh, it was ’09, I’ll have that as well then – not sure what I’d drop in favour of it though…
I HEREBY CLAIM COGSTAR’S BEER.
Don’t worry, Tim.
I had seven songs in my Friday five last week and no-one seemed to mind.
bugger ………I’ll send it up for the your new year party
I should probably attempt to justify these, but not being coherent at the best of times, I’ve been unable to come up with anything more than ‘I just like them…’
5. Kurt Vile: Childish Prodigy
4. The Yellow Moon Band: Travels Into Several Remote Nations Of The World
3. St Vincent: Actor
2. Phantom Band: Checkmate Savage
1. Wild Beasts: Two Dancers
Kurt Vile and Wild Beasts – both absolutely excellent albums.
What other reasons are there than ‘I really like it’?
Mumford and Sons – Sigh No More
The Felice Brothers – Yonder is the Clock
My First Tooth – My First Tooth and Rubies
Withered Hand – Good News
Broken Records – Until the Earth Begins to Part
Looking at this an realize that the Low Low Lows and the Avett Brothers really are owed an apology because both my top fives were they same. Those two should have been represented las week, as all I clearly just picked my favourite songs from my favourite albums. Toad, I have ruined the purity of your experiment.
Royksopp – Junior
The Low Anthem – Oh My God, Charlie Darwin
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Its Blitz
Richard Hawley – Truelove’s Gutter
Julian Plenti….is Skyscraper
1. “Good News” – Withered Hand
A very late entry and straight to the top of the list; I think time will show this to be a very special record, the nearest comparison being Neutral Milk Hotel’s “In The Aeroplane Over The Sea”. Yep, that good!
2. s/t – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
The most innocent joyful noise of the year, sheer indie pop glee!
3. “Flick the Vs” – King Creosote
There’s no such thing as a bad KC record, and this one has a couple of his very best songs on it. Fab bonus disc too.
4. “A Brief History of Love” – The Big Pink
This record sounded like a greatest hits of all the indie/shoegaze I listened to when I was a teenager. The loudest played record of the year.
5. “Waxing Gibbous” – Malcolm Middleton
Ahhhh. Malcy Walcy – you miserable old git. Cheers!
6. “Pissing on Bonfires/Kissing with Tongues” – Meursault
Cracking circuit-bent messed up folk tunes.
7. “Checkmate Savage” – The Phantom Band
PJ Morricone Moog of Mogwai Doo-Wop Doom, if you like that sort of thing. I know I do. Every song sounds different to the last. Their next LP will be mind-blowing.
8. “Secret Soundz” – The Pictish Trail
“Let’s have a disco, with all of these people, in our front room”
9. “The Airing of Grievances” – Titus Andronicus
This record sounded like Andrew WK having a fight with Bright Eyes in that car park behind the Queen’s Head. Bloody ace. Bloody. And ace!
10. “Sigh No More – Mumford and Sons
As good as Camera Obscura or Health, who both just missed out, only cos I’ve listened to this a wee bit more.
Oh shit!
Flick the Vs was this year wasn’t it!
What a tit!
Can I have that instead of – oh I don’t know – Shirley Bassey maybe?
1. Steel Panther. – Feel the Steel….http://www.gigwise.com/photos/50957/6/The-13-Worst-Album-Covers-Of-2009-So-Far
I had the unfortunate fortune to have to listen to this album on a work journey to Melrose. I can honsetly say it was the shitest sexist pile of crap i have herd i a very long time.
6. “Pissing on Bonfires/Kissing with Tongues” – Meursault
wasn’t this out last year, unless you count the reprinting as this year?
I will be claiming my toad point, just got to figure out what it gets me now !!
Excuse the spelling there, i’ve just had my afternoon nap zzzz
Andrew Weatherall A Pox on the Pioneers
Fuck Buttons Tarot Sport
The Horrors Primary Colours
Joe Gideon and the Shark Harum Scarum
Billy Chilidsh & The Chatham Singers Juju Claudius
I think…
Quite liked Richard Hawley too
“Bonfires” … released two weeks before the end of last year, I don’t feel got its props in 08. Ditto the Pictish Trail..
Now, Blimpy, when I call these posts the Friday Five you er… oh never mind.
Yeah – if Blimpy’s getting ten I want to keep Flick the Vs and Shirley Bassey!
Well, Pissing/Kissing was first out as a self-release by the band in March 2008, and we re-issued it in December 2008, whence it made its way onto a surprisingly large number of end of year lists, given the lateness of the release.
So there has been no release of it in 2009 at all, and I don’t think it really counts. Still, you listed so many that a few were going to be snipped from the list anyway.
I posted my top 15 albums list. The top 5…
1. Kurt Vonnegut & Dave Soldier: Ice-9 Ballads
2. Great Northern: Remind Me Where The Light Is
3. Vienna Teng: Inland Territory
4. Gaba Kulka: Hat, Rabbit
5. Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears: Tell ‘Em What Your Name Is
I think that list is 100% unique on this thread. Everyone else has some crossover!
1. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
2. Paul Curreri – California
2. Sunset Rubdown – Dragonslayer
3. Alasdair Roberts – Spoils
5. M Ward – Hold Time
Also enjoyed the new Doves, Jason Lytle & Bonnie Prince Billy.
Top 5 in no particular order:
Fugees The Score
Sleater-Kinney Call the Doctor
NOFX Heavy Petting Zoo
Beck Odelay
Scud Mountain Boys Massachusetts
Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears: Tell ‘Em What Your Name Is
Jaydiohead: Jay-Z x Radiohead
The Phenomenal Handclap Band: The Phenomenal Handclap Band
Nico Vega: Nico Vega
Them Crooked Vultures
1. We Were Promised Jetpacks – These Four Walls
2. Jamie T – Kings & Queens
3. Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More
4. The XX – XX
5. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – Children
Not finalised for the blog yet though…
In no particular order:
King Creosote – Flick the Vs
Howard Eliott Payne – Bright Light Ballads
The Unthanks – Here’s the Tender Coming
The Leisure Society – The Sleeper
Broken Records – Until the Earth Begins to Part
Top 5:
1. Tonight: Franz Ferdinand
2. Treasury Library Canada – Woodpigeon
3. Fever Ray – S/T
4. Kabukimono – Rainbow Arabia
5. Night Bats EP – Loch Lomond
Still fooling around with the order of 6 through 10 :
Broken – Soulsavers
Feel.Love.Thinking.Of. – Faunts
March of the Zapotecs – Beirut
Checkmate Savage – The Phantom Band
Face Control – Handsome Furs
I just this minute found Withered Hand’s EP on U.S. Amazon, so I haven’t really considered it. I wasn’t thinking of Rural Alberta Advantage or Airborne Toxic Event because those were released last year, but I see they have re-released new versions, so I will have to think about that. I know it won’t affect my top 5, however. The top 4 have been my firm favorites for months.
On the same basis as last week and just to confuse anyone who starts reading the answers at the end of the thread…
1. Elvis Costello – Imperial Bedroom
2. Elvis Costello – Blood and Chocolate
3. Elvis Costello – King of America
4. Elvis Costello – Armed Forces
5. (Controversially, as it is actually from this year) Madness – The Liberty of Norton Folgate.
Mad Cow is my new favourite posting person on this board, just for “I would put five up if I had five to put up”
1. micachu and the shapes – jewellery
2. the field – yesterday and today
3. fever ray – fever ray
4. tim exile – listening tree
5. DOOM – born like this
solo artists 4 lyfe etc.
Yeah Yeah Yeah — It’s Blitz
St. Vincent — Actor
Animal Collective — Merriweather
Meursault — Pissing on Bonfires/Kissing With Tongues
Franz Ferdinand — Tonight
I would probably add “Sigh No More” Mumford and Sons if I weren’t too completely lazy (and cheap) to order things off of amazon.co.uk…
You can have it instead of Meursault, which was a 2008 release.
J-Cloth v. Radiohead?
Where can I get a copy of that?
Oh, hang on. Just checked. That’s actually gonna be stupid.
Not that anyone will probably read this now but Her Name Is Calla re-released the heritage mini album on vinal recently so I should have put that in my list at no. two. watch out for these guys in 2010.
dirty projectors – bitte orca
animal collective – merriweather post pavillion
bill callahan – sometimes i wish we were an eagle
tim hecker – an imaginery country (this was january’s soundtrack, which seems an almost frighteningly long time ago)
fennesz – the black sea (this may have been late late 2008, i’d have to check, but it was very much early 2009 for me)
I’ll read it Wilf – I have to count these bastards, remember. No vote is over until perennial latecomers Tart and Adam have spoken.
1. Butcher Boy – React Or Die
2. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion
3. Fever Ray – Fever Ray
4. Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career
5. We Were Promised Jetpacks – These Four Walls
my number six is Scottish too, an amazing year for Scottish music as far as I can tell.
Oh OK then since you didn’t ask, it’s the Dananananaykroyd.
what? 105 posts and no tart?….what’s going on?
Oops, sorry! annual shopping trip then trapped in bed xo
Withered Hand Good News
Mumford & Sons Sigh No More
Bombadil Tarpits and Canyonlands
The Antlers Hospice
Meursault Nothing Broke EP
Decemberists Hazards of Love
Ice Palace Wonder Subtly Crushing Us
Pure Reason Revolution Amor Vincit Omnia
One Hundred Hurricanes Sixty Years Under The Stars
White Denim Fits
Honorable mention:
Phil and the Osophers Parallelo
BUT: I’ve got about 15 that I wish I had the time to really spend on and I think they would be favorites.
i take it the whole concept of the number 5 has kind of gone out the window?
No, I will still only count the first five on anyone’s list.
Whether they can bloody well count/read or not.
Which fortunately means I get snip that Decemberists snooze-fest off Tart’s list. What a splendid coincidence!
Mount Eerie – Wind’s Poem
Peter Broderick – Home
Navigator – Bad Children
Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More
Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
Sorry I’m late.
“Which fortunately means I get snip that Decemberists snooze-fest off Tart’s list. What a splendid coincidence!”
The fix is in, I see.
By the way, I just got around to downloading that Navigator record, six months or so after you reviewed it. It’s amazing. And it’s still free, which is even more amazing.
It really is fucking good isn’t it, as well as some of his other projects which are also up there for download.
It’s no fix – I said at the very start of the thread that if anyone listed over five I would just stop counting after the fifth in the list, so it’s no mystery.
late to the party also…..hardly bought any albums that were released this year, mostly singles, these are the ones from 09 in order of whats been played the most….
1. Phantom Band ‘checkmate savage’
2. White Denim ‘fits’
3. The Horrors ‘primary colours’
4. Noah & The Whale ‘first days of spring’
5. Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
So does that rule about cutting off after five mean I’ve voted for Flick The Vs or Shirley Bassey?
I think I’ll give you Flick the Vs. Did Shirl even release an album this year?
animal collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion (though new ep is genius)
Moderat – Moderat
Jim O’rourke – The Visitor
Grizzly Bear – Veckitamest
Ben Frost – by the throat
and too many more…. amazing year for records. So this list is for today. And i wanted to join in.
and Mew, fennesz was this year. Amazing record.
Well, thank fuck Murso just made it then!! Yeah, that’s my ten, in no particular order, as submitted to the Scottish bloggers symposium for which I’ve been made an honorary member (how’d ya like them apples eh?!?) kisses, darlings
Ahem – rather fashionably late, but then I have been in BERLIN..
In no particular order (as it rather depends what mood I am in)..
Withered Hand
Wild Beasts
The Horrors
Joe Gideon and the Shark
Timbre Timbre
With honourable mentions to Noiserv, if only for the amazing artwork (shallow, moi?), ditto the Singer by Teitur. Also a nod to the Dead Weather (I thought they were amazing live at the HMV), the Low Anthem and the XX.
I think though that as Wilf said last week, it’s been a really good year for EPs, topped for me by Sparow and The Workshop. Looking forward to hearing more from them in the New Year.
Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion
Grizzly Bear – Veckitamest
Withered Hand – Good News
Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport
Twilight Sad – Forget the Night Ahead
FAIL. I shouldn’t have linked to facebook.
Broken Records
Twilight Sad
Phantom Band
Withered Hand
Fever Ray
plus mentions to:
the low anthem
the xx
Mumford and sons (who seem to be on the verge of being fucking huge over here in ozland)
David Rawlings.
I’m coming home boys!!!! See you all soon!
Re Dylans Mumford and Sons comment re Little Lion Man….they come across like right frightened rabbit copyists…..
Home run you fucker!!!
Oh Christ.
It’s been awfully peaceful while you’ve been away Chutters.
I saw a Mumford & Sons fucking TV advert last night.
On the fucking TV!
An advert!
For Mumford & Sons!
Well they are on Island these days.
I heard Mumford over the loudspeaker in Sainsburys…inbetween Mika and some god-awful R&B spraf.