List (yay!).

Oy!

I haven't posted anything for some time now. 'Cause I've been busy! Busy! Making a list! List of my personal favorite albums from the year that has almost passed. Because you love lists. And you know that you love lists. So, here's a list!

20:
Atlas Sound - Logos

Another solo outing from Deerhunter's Bradford Cox, and another great one this is. This guy just knows what he's doing. It reminds me of Deerhunter but that's just the vocals (since they're the same, duh) and the beautiful pop songs. My Halo, Quick Canal and the title tune are all truly great.


19:
Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca

Dave Longstreth managed to pull off a brilliant mixture of...... Well, almost everything, and I have no clue how he got away with it, but he did, and that's impressing. Oh, and also, Cannibal Resource! Magnificent tune, one of the best of the year if you ask me. And you did. I made this list.


18:
Wolfmother - Cosmic Egg

You might want to shoot this one down because it's more of the same, and because nothing is new here, and although it wasn't as perfectly awesome as the first one, this is still a very good effort. Hard-rocking tunes with lots of testicles, as you say. Testicles.


17:
Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures

This was just meant to be brilliant - Dave Grohl, Josh Homme and John Paul Jones together in one ass-kicking rock 'n' roll trio. I mean, like, heeelllooooooo! How could this NOT be good? Mind Eraser and New Fang especially are worth of a trio consisting of these names. I mean, Queens Of The Stone Age, Led Zeppelin and Foo Fighters together. Heellooooo!

16:

The Big Pink - A Brief History Of Love

British duo mix industial, shoegazing, noise rock and pop. Killer tunes are plenty: Dominos, Velvet, Crystal Visions, Frisk, Tonight and Count Backwards From Ten are especially taking my breath away. A very promising debut album!


15:
Peter Bjorn And John - Living Thing

Nothing here is the new Young Folks, but overall, the songwriting has improved a lot since their last album. Nothing To Worry About, Losing My Mind and The Feeling are all fantastic little pop tunes, just to mention a few. Probably the best thing that has come out of Sweden this year. There you go, Sweden.


14:
Flaming Lips - Embryonic

Wayne Coyne and band returns to their old, more acid-y-ish-like sound on Embryonic, and yes, it's weird and crazy, and yes, it's a blast. So much fun to listen to but it seriously demands your attention. Pay some attention to this one, listen to it a couple of times, you won't regret it.



13:
The Vandelles - Del Black Aloha

This might be the most noisy album of 2009. Surf-garage-rock with SHIT LOADS of distortion, reverb and white noise. Tunes like Lovely Weather and Get Down are cool, LOUD and cool. This is simply badass. You know you want to be badass. Listen to this one. It's pretty badass.


12:
Singapore Sling - Perversity, Desperation And Death

Icelandic garage-rock-band fronted by a deep-voiced man. This is just plain rock as it's supposed to be: loud, cool, simple and absolutely amazing. You go fetch this one as quick as you can if you like garage-rock with a little hint of acid to it. And you do.


11:
Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

A truly brilliant album - organic pop tunes and some of the best choir arrangements that I've heard in a long, long time. Tunes like Two Weeks and While You Wait For The Others are both among the best tunes of the year. So catchy, and oh, the choir! I love this. Also, Ed Droste's singing gives me creeps. So beautiful.

10:
... And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - The Century Of Self

These guys just always deliver. Amazingly epic, well-written rock tunes with impressive amounts of soul and energy to it - sounds like they really mean it. Oh, and the cover was done in blue ballpont pen by the lead singer. That's just a sign of a lead singer having too much time on his hands. Looks great, though.


9:
Art Brut - Art Brut Vs. Satan

Catchy garage rock tunes mixed with amazingly hilarious lyrics delivered with a perfect British accent by frontman Eddie Argos. Alcoholics Unanimous is such a funny rock song, and then it's damn catchy. Also, The Passenger about public transportation is fantastic together with the album closer, Mysterious Bruises that clocks in at over 7 minutes. Nice going.

8:
Sonic Youth - The Eternal

It's hard not to love the kings of noise rock, Sonic Youth, they just keep on going, and they deliver every time. The Eternal is their best effort in a long, long time, though. Calming The Snake, Malibu Gas Station and Sacred Trickster prove why they are worthy for their title as the kings (and queen) of noise rock. Living legends right here.


7:
Maribel - Aesthetics

This one really, really surprised me. I had no clue who these guys were - turns out that they're from Norway and play brilliant, powerful noisepop, like My Bloody Valentine minus some of the pop. This is an impressing first effort - well-crafted songs like Ecstatic and Deflowers prove that this band is a band worth checking out in the future.

6:
Wilco - Wilco (The Album)

Jeff Tweedy and the rest of alt. country heroes Wilco gave us what might just be their best album since their masterpiece Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Wilco (The Song), Bull Black Nova and their deeply and awesomely fantastically beautifull ballad, One Wing are among the best songs on this beautiful release. I kinda like the cover too.

5:
Heartless Bastards - The Mountain

A mesmerizing female vocal guides you through this album filled with psychedelic country-ish tunes. The title tune is incredibly good with magnificent vocals, a fantastic riff and great dynamics. You can't ask for more really. They keep the pace throughout the album, and that's what makes The Mountain of the best albums of the year.

4:
I Was A King - I Was A King

This self-titled album is also from Norway (way to go, Norway!) and what a great listen it is. This is noise pop in a very non-My Bloody Valentine-ish way, it's more psychedelic and garage than it's wall of noise and boy-girl vocals. This album might be the most charming listen of 2009. Really, really well-written songs here, too. Check out It's All You, you'll love it.

3:
Lotus Plaza - The Floodlight Collective

Deerhunter guitarist Lockett Pundt's solo effort is amazing. Psychedelic, reverb-soaked pop songs, most of them without the extreme amounts of distortion that usually fit these songs so amazingly well. Truly beautiful and kind of hypnotizing - you sort of get lost on this one, which is a brilliant thing. All of a sudden, the album has finished, and you want to put it right back on.
2:
The Horrors - Primary Colours

On Primary Colours, these British lads finally prove that they're much, much more than just skinny-legged style icons. This is an amazing effort, and tunes as the catchy Who Can Say and the absolutely amazingly fine Scarlet Fields make this album a truly fanastic thing to listen to. Haven't heard such a leap from one album to another since Radiohead's The Bends.

1:
Fleeting Joys - Occult Radiance

I really, really just want to say that this couple is My Bloody Valentine anno 2009. 'Cause that's pretty much what they are - of course you think that's not any original at all, and you're right. But this album would seriously be worthy of being a My Bloody Valentine-album. Fleeting Joys do their thing SO well, and there's not a tune here that can't be loved. If you've ever just liked or listened to the likes of a noise pop band of your own free will, go buy this. I think I just came a little.

Download their cover of Bob Dylan's Masters Of War (not featured on the album)


Cheers.