Diario

Well, it had taken me awhile to sift through all 250ish of the albums I heard in 2009, after listening to them again and again, rearranging like nobody's business... and then my Mac needed to be fixed slash I was lazy, sooo... better late than never, I suppose.

Top 50 Albums:

1. Fever Ray - Fever Ray
The top spot goes to an artist I feel truly captured all stages of an album, from the cohesive concept and sounds, to the quality music videos that elevated songs to new levels, and to what would've been an amazing live show if I didn't miss it (ha). Karin moved me this year so much that I own a digital copy, the LP, and the deluxe edition CD (which includes a live recording).

2. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
There's no question about it: Animal Collective is my favorite contemporary band and this album is quite possibly the most inspired pop record made in recent times. Why isn't MPP at number 1, then? I just don't think it is their best work as a group. Even if it is considered to be the album they've been working towards, I don't find It as affecting as Feels, which was my favorite album of the decade and a personally emotional powerhouse. MPP comes in second place in AC's discography and, therefore, takes the second spot on this list.

3. Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer
To me, Spencer Krug is one of the most reliable musicians in the indie world. He tells engaging stories in engaging music. It's as simple as that.

4. Wild Beasts - Two Dancers
This is the sophomore album I hoped this band would make. Limbo, Panto didn't place too high on my list last year, however, it steadily grew on me more and more. Now, it is certainly eclipsed with this release, but happily I can say the two albums rival each other in successful sonic experiments that sound natural yet fresh, and genuinely interesting lyrics backed by the sexiness of Thorpe's and Flemming's vocal talents.

5. Mew - No More Stories Are Told Today, I'm Sorry, They Washed Away
Mew and I go a long way back, and the band really holds a special place in my life... the days when I first started getting serious about "indie" music and found my way to Frengers, when the chorus of The Zookeeper's Boy was my ringtone, when She Spider unbelievably resonated with me while I studied abroad... the nostalgia that accompanies their music is of memories both warm and painful, much like what I see as an intended dichotomy within the songs and albums themselves. I am more than pleased with this album, even if I had to wait four years to hear it.

6. Bear in Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth
7. The Antlers - Hospice
8. The Field - Yesterday & Today
9. The xx - xx
10. My Latest Novel - Deaths and Entrances

11. El Perro del Mar - Love Is Not Pop
12. jj - jj n° 2
13. Fanfarlo - Reservoir
14. Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
15. Letting Up Despite Great Faults - Letting Up Despite Great Faults

16. The Big Pink - A Brief History of Love
17. We Were Promised Jetpacks - These Four Walls
18. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
19. Sweet Trip - You Will Never Know Why
20. Memory Tapes - Seek Magic

21. Real Estate - Real Estate
22. Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
23. Lotus Plaza - The Floodlight Collective
24. Islands - Vapours
25. Bibio - Ambivalence Avenue

26. The Mary Onettes - Islands
27. Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle
28. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
29. Sally Shapiro - My Guilty Pleasure
30. Antony and the Johnsons - The Crying Light

31. Venice is Sinking - AZAR
32. Patrick Wolf - The Bachelor
33. Bat for Lashes - Two Suns
34. DM Stith - Heavy Ghost
35. Annie - Don't Stop

36. Haruko - Wild Geese
37. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!
38. The Temper Trap - Conditions
39. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
40. Deastro - Moondagger

41. HEALTH - Get Color
42. Le Loup - Family
43. toe - FOR LONG TOMORROW
44. Passion Pit - Manners
45. Little Dragon - Machine Dreams

46. Dan Deacon - Bromst
47. Jonathan Johansson - En hand i himlen
48. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
49. Kid Sam - Kid Sam
50. Cinnamon Chasers - A Million Miles From Home


25 Honorable Mentions:

Asobi Seksu - Hush/Rewolf
Atlas Sound - Logos
Au Revoir Simone - Still Light, Still Night
brazos - Phosphorescent Blues
Clues - Clues
Cold Cave - Love Comes Close
The Clientele - Bonfires on the Heath
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros - From Below
Girls - Album
Holiday Shores - Columbus'd the Whim
Japandroids - Post-Nothing
Jeremy Jay - Slow dance
Junior Boys - Begone Dull Care
La Roux - La Roux
The Leisure Society - Sleeper
Marissa Nadler - Little Hells
Matias Aguayo - Ay Ay Ay
Music Go Music - Expressions
múm - Sing Along To Songs You Don't Know
Neon Indian - Psychic Chasms
Röyksopp - Junior
Sister Suvi - Now I Am Champion
The Twilight Sad - Forget The Night Ahead
Volcano Choir - Unmap
Vitalic - Flashmobs
The Whitest Boy Alive - Rules

Best EPs:
1. Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind
2. Annie - All Night
3. Delorean - Ayrton Senna
4. Au - Versions
5. The Middle East - The Recordings of...
6. Washed Out - Life of Leisure
7. Anamanguchi - Dawn Metropolis
8. Total Babe - Heatwave
9. Small Black - Small Black
10. The Radio Dept. - David
11. The Drums - "Summetime!"
12. Bon Iver - Blood Bank
13. The Octopus Project - Golden Beds

Best Compilation (in years): Dark Was The Night

Best Country Album: Miranda Lambert - Revolution