Noise from the Basement

So the year’s over, and while I’ll always be a TV guy, I’ve found myself increasingly interested in music, buying almost 200 albums this year when usually I’d be content with a few dozen.  Of course, most of those didn’t come out this year, so I’m not exactly the strongest source for this.  Still, I’ve listened to enough to feel comfortable forming a list for my favorite albums of the year.  At first I made a top-10 list that didn’t really work for me.  It didn’t succeed in capturing the year in music as I saw it.  So I made this list, which numbers, 1-5, things that felt great about this year in music.  Each number is represented by at least two albums, and there’s a few honorable mentions at the end that didn’t quite fit on this refined list (and in only one case was on the original top 10 list).

1. Merriweather Post Pavilion and Fall Be Kind EP, by Animal Collective

The band that owned 2009.  How did they do it?  They’ve always made music in more interesting ways than anyone else, but here they refined techniques that were incredibly innovative with songwriting that towered over the competition.  Every year has its popular indie albums (see #3), but rarely does it feel like one of them is going to go down as an all-time classic.  But few albums ever have the makings of a classic like Merriweather Post Pavilion and its twin EP, Fall Be Kind.  For newbies, download “My Girls,” “Summertime Clothes,” and “What Would I Want? Sky.”

2. Seek Magic, by Memory Tapes, Psychic Chasms, by Neon Indian, and Life of Leisure EP, by Washed Out

A new genre emerged this year, chillwave, and it rocks.  Although “rocks” is the exact wrong word to describe its sound.  Chillwave is hard to define, and various names have tried.  Popular ones include glo-fi, dream-beat, and hypnagogic pop.  It sounds dreamy, has beats, glows, is hypnagogic, but really, chillwave is the most accurately evocative, even though only half of it can actually be used to describe the sound.  It’s music that takes influence from 80s pop but transforms it into a new aesthetic, something soothing but captivating.  It creates a soundscape that you can dance to or fall asleep to – kind of remarkable.  And these were the three best chillwave releases this year.  Memory Tapes is my favorite, but Neon Indian and Washed Out are a little more popular.  They’re all fantastic though.  If you’re looking for an entrance point, download Memory Tapes’ “Bicycle” and “Stop Talking,” Neon Indian’s “Deadbeat Summer” and “Mind Drips,” and Washed Out’s “Feel It All Around” and “You’ll See It.”

3. Bitte Orca, by Dirty Projectors, Veckatimest, by Grizzly Bear, and Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, by Phoenix

These were the Indie buzz albums of 2009 – albums that would probably stop gathering new fans in a few years if the bands responsible ceased producing new albums that people were interested in.  But for this year, this was the music that occupied our hipster consciousness, and we were thankful for it.  The Dirty Projectors were the most innovative, and give a lot of promise to the future of indie pop.  Grizzly Bear indicate that pure beauty will not leave the genre any time soon.  And Phoenix argues that an art pop group that has existed under the surface for a decade has potential to explode into a mainstream sensation when no one expects them to.  Together, they were a finer collection of buzz albums than many other years manage, and I’m glad to have spent the past twelve months with them.  If you didn’t, it’s not too late to – download Dirty Projectors’ “Cannibal Resource,” “Stillness Is the Move,” and “Two Doves,” Grizzly Bear’s “Two Weeks” and “While You Wait for the Others,” and Phoenix’s “Lisztomania” and “1901.”

4. Ayrton Senna EP, by Delorean, and Aim and Ignite, by fun.

The #4 and #5 entries on this list, while each containing more than one album like #1-3, don’t quite have the thematic unity of the previous entries.  These two especially have very little in common musically.  Delorean’s instrumentation is electronic, full of synths, and their songwriting highlights repetition.  fun.’s music doesn’t incorporate many modern sounds but it uses old ones in interesting ways, and their songwriting is gorgeous and melodic.  But they fit together in terms of what they make you feel.  These are joyous releases, albums that inspire nothing but good vibrations.  They’re not the best albums of the year – Ayrton Senna is an EP with only four tracks, and one is a remix (although the iTunes version has a good bonus track), and Aim and Ignite, while awesome overall, only has maybe four or five great songs.  But the feelings they inspire makes any weaknesses irrelevant.  Check out Delorean’s “Deli” and “Seasun,” and fun.’s “Be Calm,” “Benson Hedges,” and “At Least I’m Not As Sad (As I Used to Be).”

5. jj n° 2, by jj, and xx, by the xx

I had a list of albums I loved from this year, and when it came to finding a group to form #5 on the list, these two stood out.  Like Delorean and fun., they don’t have much in common in terms of instrumentation, and unlike Delorean and fun. they really don’t make you feel the same way.  But they stand out together for a many reasons: they’re both very mellow and occasionally melancholy, neither surrounds their music with instrumentation that clutters the gorgeous songs, although they each strive for a very different ambience, they’re both remarkably fully-formed debut albums, and, oh yeah, the names.  Of course, it took me a few days to remember I’m not the first person to group these two bands: they themselves did, announcing earlier this year that they’ll be doing seven shows together in March and April.  Sweet.  Check out jj’s “Things Will Never Be the Same Again” and Ecstasy,” and the xx’s “Crystalised” and “Basic Space.”

Honorable Mention
Album, by Girls
See Mystery Lights, by YACHT
Tarot Sport, by the Fuck Buttons

-Zach