thevoid99's Top 50 Albums of 2009 Pt. 2 (25-1) Jan 03 '10    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet Popular Products in Music The Dirtchamber Sessions, Vol. 1 by The Prodigy From $11 Jersey Boys [Original Broadway Cast Recording] by Original Broadway Cast From $8 The Bottom Line 25 of the Best Albums to Come Out in 2009. (Part 2: 25-1): 25. YACHT-See Mystery Lights Jonas Bechtolt is one of the rising new talents in the American electronic music scene as his sixth studio release became the artist's breakthrough release. Featuring vocal contributions by new collaborator Claire L. Evans, the album is a mixture of dance-driven electronic music with elements of punk. The record features Evans' playful vocals with lyrics of death and partying. It is definitely one of the most imaginative albums of the genre as it definitely provides some new ideas to the world of dance and electronic music. 24. F*ck Buttons-Tarot Sport Bristol's experimental duo F*ck Buttons teams up with renowned producer/DJ Andrew Weatherhall for their second album. The largely instrumental record expands the world of trance and electronic music with elements of ambient, noise, and dance music. Featuring Weatherhall's broad production, Tarot Sport is a hypnotic album filled with suites and arrangements that really push the boundaries of what can be done to the genre. 23. Sunset Rubdown-Dragonslayer Canada's Sunset Rubdown scored a major creative breakthrough with their fourth album that has them taking their art-rock sound to new heights. Featuring quirky arrangements, Spencer Krug's haunting vocals, and esoteric lyrics. It is a record that is definitely complex in its musical presentation while displaying a melodic sensibility that most art-rock bands don't have. Particularly in songs like Black Swan and Paper Lace as it is definitely one of the best record to come out from Canada in 2009. 22. Charlotte Gainsbourg-IRM A collaboration with Beck on her third solo release, Charlotte Gainsbourg definitely expands her musical palette with elements of folk and blues to her sensual, atmospheric pop presentation. With songs and production by Beck, it is an adventurous album filled with an array of themes while Gainsbourg sings both in French and English throughout as it featured her late father Serge's weird sensual tone as well as Beck's own, abstract musical styles. The result is not just Gainsbourg's best album to date but also some of Beck's best work as a musician. 21. Fever Ray-S/T From the Knife, Karin Dreijer Andersson releases her debut solo album under her Fever Ray moniker. A dark yet moody electronic album, the record is filled with chilling arrangements, droning synthesizer riffs, and Andersson's eerie vocals. It is truly a heavy yet hypnotic album with mesmerizing songs that harkens to dark themes that is played throughout. Definitely not an uplifting album but its production and tone definitely makes it a great record to listen to at night. 20. Future of the Left-Travels with Myself & Another The Welsh alt-rock band broke through big with their sophomore release that is filled with punk-inspired tunes and performances that makes the band seem unstoppable. Featuring fast-paced rockers with furious melodies and snarling vocals, Future of the Left is a band that really takes rock to unimaginable heights. Notably for the math-rock sub genre the members of the band came from with its complex, intense melodies and riffs as it is truly one of the most intense and heavy albums that is also undeniably catchy. 19. Various Artists-Dark Was the Night A two-disc compilation to benefit the Red Hot Organization, the Dark Was the Night is a sprawling album that features new music from various acts like the Arcade Fire, Yeasayer, Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio, Sufjan Stevens, Cat Power plus collaborative tracks from the Dirty Projectors with David Byrne, Feist and Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie, Grizzly Bear & Feist, Justin Vernon & Aaron Dessner, and many others. Filled with covers and original tunes, it is truly one of the most exhilarating and ambitious compilations ever released while there is never a dull moment played throughout the album. 18. A Place to Bury Strangers-Exploding Head Noise-rock never got as heavy or as intense with A Place to Bury Stranger's second album. Filled with more electronic textures in the background, the album lives up to its namesake in its delivery. Blazing with heavy guitars, droning bass lines, loud beats, and monotone-like vocals, it is a record that is also melodic in some places while being atmospheric in others as it is definitely a record that is for those who like their music heavy and to the point. 17. HEALTH-GET COLOR L.A.'s post-punk quartet definitely raised the bar for themselves with their sophomore release. An album filled with chaotic guitar noises, hard-hitting drums, and swirling electronics. It is definitely one of the year's most abrasive and unorthodox recordings with low vocals. Notably for its performance of noise-rock with fragmented melodies and riffs that pushes the boundaries of what noise-rock can do in its performance and production scale. 16. Passion Pit-Manners From Cambridge, Massachusetts is an electronic band called Passion Pit whose 2009 full-length debut album brought a new sound to the world of dance and indie. Led by singer/songwriter Michael Angelakos' high-pitch vocals, it is an inventive yet weird dance album with unconventional breaks and rhythms along with elements of smooth electronic textures. Filled with atmospheric textures and wailing synthesizer riffs, it is definitely the year's best dance album. 15. Atlas Sound-Logos/Rough Trade EP Bradford Cox's second solo release under his Atlas Sound moniker shows the Deerhunter vocalist/guitarist expanding his esoteric sound textures to new heights. With guest vocal appearances from Noah Lennox of Animal Collective and Laetitia Sadler of Stereolab. The album has Cox taking his ambient-shoegaze sound to more ethereal soundscapes with a more layered, broader production. The accompany EP Rough Trade finds Cox delving into more abstract pieces of acoustic and electronic tracks solidifying his talents as one of indie rock's intriguing personalities. 14. The Flaming Lips-Embryonic After years of reaching a wider audience with more accessible yet quirky pop-driven songs. The Flaming Lips went back to their experimental roots with a double album that was part-psychedelia, part-art rock, and all Flaming Lips. With guest appearances from Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, MGMT, and Dr. Thorsten Wormann. The album is an exotic yet mesmerizing album that has the Lips reaching towards unconventional arrangements and ideas with little implication towards traditional melodies as such as the result is one brilliant, chaotic album from the Lips. 13. Mastodon-Crack the Skye The Atlanta-based progressive-metal band teamed up with renowned producer Brendan O'Brien for their fourth studio album. A concept album circulating around the mysterious Russian shaman Rasputin with songs about death, mysticism, and terror. Taking their sludge, progressive metal sound to new heights, the band also explored some melodic elements that they hadn't really shown in previous records for what would be their most accessible record to date. In the world of metal, it is definitely the year's best as Mastodon rose to the occasion with some good old, loud rock. 12. The Big Pink-A Brief History of Love Shoegaze came alive again through a new band called the Big Pink. A duo featuring vocalist/guitarist Robbie Furze and keyboardist/programmer Milo Cordell as they created a sonic mix of light, dance-heavy electronic backgrounds with swoon-heavy, shoegaze-style guitars along with Furze's Cockney-like vocals. Dreamy yet rhythmic, the album is definitely one of the year's most original and inspiring debut records to come out in 2009. 11. Grizzly Bear-Veckatimest One of the top indie bands to break through, Grizzly Bear scored big with their third album that was a mixture of folk, pop, and indie. Led by the double vocal power of Ed Droste and Daniel Rossen, Veckatimest is a rich, exotic album with simple, melodic-driven rock with elements of chamber pop that is reminiscent of the work of the Beach Boys. The album is truly one of the most well-crafted pop albums to be made in a year where pop music is becoming more about new trends and machines as Veckatimest makes Grizzly Bear a band that deserves to have more attention. 10. Dirty Projectors-Bitte Orca The Brooklyn-based indie pop band led by Dave Longstreth scored a major breakthrough with their seventh full-length studio album. While the band has been known with a lot of line-up changes and delving into lots of experiments. Bitte Orca shows the band taking on pop music in such quirky ways filled with sputtering guitar melodies, a plaintive folk ballad, a swirling R&B track in Stillness Is The Move. Unconventional yet accessible at the same time, Bitte Orca is the true definition of what great indie-pop is in all of its weirdness as well as its ear for great hooks. 9. The Horrors-Primary Colours The U.K. garage-band's second album showed a massive progression for the Horrors. With a broader yet heavier sound, the Horrors go all out with soothing ambient textures on some tracks along with Faris Badawan's hollow vocals. Songs like Who Can Say, Do You Remember, and New Ice Age exemplify the band's new, heavier sound with growling guitars, wailing keyboards, and punk rhythms that makes the band live up to their namesake in such a big way. 8. Girls-Album The San Francisco-based quartet led by songwriter Christopher Owens released their debut album which is a mixture of upbeat indie pop, intense surf music, atmospheric textures, and 1960s melodic pop hooks. Girls' debut album is definitely one of the most original debuts that is all out there. Whether it's the bouncy pop of Laura to the surf rock song from hell in Big Bad Mother F*cker, or the shoegaze-inspired centerpiece Hellhole Ratrace. Girls' debut is one of the most exciting albums to come out in 2009. 7. Them Crooked Vultures-S/T There's supergroups and then, there's Them Crooked Vultures. A rock trio featuring Dave Grohl on drums, Josh Homme on guitar and vocals, and John Paul Jones on bass and various other instruments. That combination itself is mind-blowing since the individuals all come from great bands. The band's debut album lives up to the hype in terms of heaviness, musicianship, and through Homme's weird, abstract lyrics. Whether it's the shimmy of New Fang, the funk-laden Scumbag Blues, or the Texas-blues inspired Reptiles. Them Crooked Vultures bring the heavy back in rock and make sure there is nowhere for power-ballad heavy rock fans to go to. 6. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart-S/T/Higher Than the Stars EP Of the new bands to come out this year, no band made an impact in the indie world than the Brooklyn-based, twee/noise-pop band the Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Part-Jesus & Mary Chain and also part-shoegaze, the band's debut album is an exciting, thrilling release with catchy songs about teen angst, love, and the joys of youth. Along with a five-track EP called Higher Than the Stars which included a remix of the title track, the album and EP is one hell of a combination from a very promising band. 5. St. Vincent-Actor Annie Clark's sophomore release under her St. Vincent moniker shows the singer-songwriter taking more chances from her 2007 debut Marry Me. With themes of childlike innocence inspired by many films. Clark's presentation for the album is a mixture of unbridled chaos in Marrow and Actor Out Of Work to more lush tunes like Save Me From What I Want with unconventional rhythms and hooks. With Clark's voice being a highlight along with her guitar playing, the album is definitely a masterwork of a female artist taking full control in an age where female musicians aren't prominent very much in the mainstream. 4. Animal Collective-Merriweather Post Pavilion/Fall Be Kind EP Before Merriweather Post Pavilion, Animal Collective was just this strange band taking on all sorts of ideas that was chaotic and abstract. Yet, the albums they were making were brilliant. When their eighth album came out, Animal Collective didn't just reinvent themselves but also made an album that really pushes the boundaries of what pop music can be. Largely a mixture of psychedelia, electronic music, avant-garde arrangements, and pop. The album is definitely a hypnotic record that is out there with singles like My Girls and Summertime Clothes show the band taking pop to a new level that Brian Wilson would probably enjoy. Along with a five-track EP in Fall Be Kind that showed the band taking on more experiments along with a track featuring a Grateful Dead sample. Animal Collective clearly ended the decade on a high note as they've laid the ground work of what can be done for pop music. 3. Yeah Yeah Yeahs-It's Blitz! After a tumultuous period that nearly broke up the NYC-based art-punk band, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs came back in a big way with their third album. An album that has the band taking on electronic music along with more melodic elements that mixes their old sound with their new sound. Singles like Zero and Heads Will Roll maintained an electronic-heavy, dance-driven sound while Skeletons is a hypnotic ballad showing the band's newfound maturity. Other songs like Hysteric and Dragon Queen also display a new progression in their mixture of electronic, funk, and rock as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs score a triumphant masterpiece with It's Blitz! 2. Phoenix-Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix Though they've been around for nearly 10 years, the French band Phoenix finally scored mainstream attention with their fourth album. A simple, melodic-driven album with guitar-chugging riffs, Thomas Mars' teenage-inspired lyrics and vocals, and bouncy rhythms. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is a record that a lot of today's pop-rock bands wish they could make with upbeat pop songs like 1901 and Armistice along with the soothing disco of Fences. Yet, Phoenix isn't some a traditional pop band as the two-part Love Like A Sunset shows the band are willing to challenge listeners with experimental suites. The entire album itself is a magnificent achievement from Phoenix who finally scores the breakthrough they've been yearning for. 1. Bat for Lashes-Two Suns I will rise now, and go about the city. In the street's broadways I seek. Him whom my soul loveth. If there was a way to open an album. Natasha Khan's opening track Glass is the best way to go. Under her Bat for Lashes moniker, Khan's sophomore release is an ambitious yet exotic masterpiece that really transcends all ideas of what indie music is as well as pop. A concept album about a woman named Pearl and dual personalities. The album is truly a mesmerizing experience with dark, ethereal electronic arrangements mixed in with organic instruments like Sleep Alone, Pearl's Dream, and Siren Song. Other songs like the single Daniel showcase Khan's mystical persona with elements of dramatic melancholia as the album is an adventurous record from track to track. Khan's earthy vocals are a highlight of the album along with musical contributions from the Yeasayers including a duet with the legendary Scott Walker on the closing song The Big Sleep. Two Suns is really one of the most original albums to come out in years as Natasha Khan in her Bat for Lashes moniker creates one of the decade's most enduring and imaginative albums ever made. Well, that is all for the top 50 albums of 2009 and what a year it was for music. With a slew of musical styles to emerge. 2009 definitely proved that albums aren't going away with more than 50 artists creating pieces of art that is likely to make someone feel excited or provide the right soundtrack in what they're going through. These albums are definitely some of the year's best and definitely will be a reminder of why it was such a great year indeed. The Best of Music 2009: Top 10 EPs - Top 50 Songs of 2009: Pt.1 - Pt. 2 - Top 50 Albums of 2009: 30 Honorable Mentions - Pt.1 - The Best & Worst of Music 2009

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