You know the world has to be ending, this is actually going up at a fairly relevant time. Considering I finished my top albums of 2008 in November of 2009, I’m rather happy with myself. Anyway, as anyone who knows me has had to have realized by now, my musical taste is a bit… lets just say strange. I’m sure many of my friends and internet buddies have different and more colorful words for it, but I’ll stick with strange. The reason is that I’m a music pack rat. Regardless of what the genre or opinion of the public/hipsters actually is, I’ll give it a shot. This leads to me downloading or getting an enormous amount of music, like more music than anyone actually has any use for. On top of that, it makes it absolutely impossible for me to ever put my mp3 player on shuffle. Either way, my taste is terrible eclectic enough that pretty much anyone is going to be able to find something here they probably want to listen to. I’m also pretty fucking horrible when it comes to writing about music, which is kind of ironic since the first freelance gigs I ever got oh so long ago were music stuff, but at least I’m well aware I have no talent when it comes to describing aural sensations. So keep the flaming to a minimum- I do this all for you, kind readers!

Without further ado;

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz!

This is my favorite Yeah Yeah Yeahs album, but I guess that doesn’t mean much since I met their previous ones with scorn and dislike. They did, eventually, grow on me slightly, but I still wouldn’t have considered I would ever hear something by them I found enjoyable. I know it is super cliche of me to find the most enjoyment out of their most mature and cohesive effort, but this is by far the only thing they’ve done that shows these people can write interesting songs. I’m actually halfway curious to see what happens from here. I still won’t ever see them live though, they probably still play Maps. Terrible.

The Casting Out – Go Crazy! Throw Fireworks!

This might be a bit of a nostalgia pick for me, but so what. It is super great to hear a band with Boysetsfire members in it that isn’t the last couple Boysetsfire albums. There is a little bit much Alkaline Trio worship here, and I’ve had too many exgirlfriends ruin Alkaline Trio for me to even remotely find them entertaining, but this sounds so good I don’t care. The production is great, the band is polished, and the type of pop/punk/post hardcore they play is also great. It really does sound like what BSF would have been if they didn’t take themselves serious. If you are morally opposed to nodding your head in time to music and being in a good mood, this probably isn’t for you.

Mew – No More Stories / Are Told Today / I’m Sorry / They Washed Away // No More Stories / The World Is Grey / I’m Tired / Let’s Wash Away

I figured I would get the ridiculously long album title out of the way early this year, which was made easy by the fact Marnie Stern didn’t have an album out to top “This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That” this year. Mew has been playing very dreamy indie pop for a while now, and they do it well enough to have earned a pretty large following. “No More Stories” is no different. You get the feeling that they kind of want a chunk of the Animal Collective fame but would also rather, you know, play music instead of just drown themselves in pretentious garbage. So instead of nonsense, you get a very pretty, albeit predictable, dream pop album. One of the better ones this year though.

Mission of Burma – The Sound the Speed the Light

I was always pleasantly surprised with the material Mission of Burma came out with after their long hiatus. They were such a fantastic product of the 80s and their innovation for post punk and eventually post hardcore (before it became whatever the fuck it is today) is pretty amazing. I don’t think “VS” has ever left my proverbial turntable for more than a couple of days at a time since I can remember. They put a lot of themselves into the music, and they don’t half ass a single thing. These guys are all like a million years old and have more energy in their songs than 90% of what is out there now. This is the weakest of their return releases, but it is still head and shoulders above a lot of stuff. It is super refreshing to hear a band that disappeared for so long still making music that sounds like they did when they left. Yeah, I’m fucking looking at you Lifetime. Take note of this and stop hanging out with Pete Wentz.

Swan Lake – Enemy Mine

While I constantly make sure anyone within earshot knows I feel that Krug, Mercer, and Bejar’s first album as Swan Lake, Beast Moans, was a misunderstood masterpiece, I also understand it was a difficult listen to a lot of people. It was steeped in experimentation and general strangeness that ended up working so well it created a dark, haunting, genius album that pushed indie into the point of being “indie” with ironic quotation marks. Enemy Mine is more accessible of an album, but I don’t find it as creatively engaging as the original. Still, what is here is pretty fantastic and it shows how impossible it is to hide the talent of these dudes. Still weird, still quirky, and still smart as hell.

Posted under Music, Music Features