EPT
![[image loading]](http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y150/Stormalong/treehugger-regular.jpg)
Earlier this year, Vekzel made a great music blog where he listed his favorite albums from this year of music. I wasn't ready to tip my hand yet, but I was intrigued by his choices, and inspired to post my own list of music. After an exhaustive (read: relaxing and wonderful) few days of catching up on all the music I missed this year; I present (Treehugger's) Best 10 Albums of 2009!
Music is a hit or miss business, but I hope that at the very least I will mention something that's new for you, that turns out to be just what you were looking for.
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#1: The Hazards of Love by The Decemberists
![[image loading]](http://thefulmerazzi.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/album-cover.jpg)
This is not an album for the morning commute. The Hazards of Love demands a lot of effort from the listener. For one, it's essentially all one, hour-long song, with 17 tracks that meld seamlessly into each other. And secondly, it's all one epic story about a shape-shifter, a damsel in distress, a forest queen, a murderer, and... well you get the idea.
This is an incredibly ambitious record, that just works perfectly. Best listening with the volume high, and the lights off, and even better live. (I've been twice.) All in all, it's simply glorious.
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How do I choose a track from an album that's all one track? Start from the beginning:
#2: Hospice by the Antlers
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I didn't hear this album until shamefully late in the year, but I'm incredibly thankful that I found it. This album hits all the notes, it can be upbeat, it can be catchy, and it can be tender and sad. Mostly the latter. There's a story behind this album as well- it tells the story of a friend dying from bone cancer, and it's done so realistically, I don't care what really happened. What's most striking about this album is the raw emotion it contains. There's so much going on in each song.
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Perhaps this isn't a song that catches you immediately and makes you jump up and buy the record, but give it time, it's sincere, and the album's best song.
#3: Troubador by K'naan
![[image loading]](http://www.bscreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/k-naan-troubador-300x300.jpg)
There really isn't a hip-hop artist quite like K'naan. His childhood growing up in Mogadishu, Somalia gives him the kind of perspective that dwarfs that of nearly any other rapper. Perhaps because of that, K'naan eschews attempts to dump him in any specific genre. He appeared one week with the 'Rock the Bells' hip-hop festival, and then the next with Jason Mraz. His music is versatile, genuine, and really fun to listen to.
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This is my favorite song of this year, and K'naan's best. He knows it too, because he always ends his sets with a quiet, acoustic freestyle, and then rolls into this song. It's a classic.
#4: Far by Regina Spektor
![[image loading]](http://democracysmores.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/regina-spektor-far.jpg)
This album felt like a change of pace from Regina Spektor, which might sound odd because the soviet-born artist seems to change her tack every other song. But while her last release; the fantastic Begin to Hope was an album that won you over with quirk, and idiosyncrasy, Far is a more pop-style record which mixes great fun sounds, with Spektor's great little oddball sounds and lyrics. I started playing this album when it came out, and then halfway through, I had loved every single song. I felt like maybe I wasn't in the right mood to listen objectively.
Not at all- this album is still great.
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This is the album's first song, and I love how it welcomes you into the album, arms wide, and just makes you want to hear more.
#5: Middle Cyclone by Neko Case
![[image loading]](http://www.freewilliamsburg.com/archives/neko-case-middle-cyclone.jpg)
Neko Case writes fantastic lyrics, and backs it up with a potent voice that rings out like a clarion call. This album is my favorite of her albums to date, because I think the stand-out songs on this album are the best she's ever done. And the overall quality of every song on this album is just excellent.
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I've already linked this song in a previous blog, but it's good enough to feature again.
#6: Throw Down Your Heart by Béla Fleck (and others)
![[image loading]](http://auralstates.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/bela-fleck-throw-down-your-heart-cover.jpg)
I saw Béla Fleck live in Central Park, New York City where he was performing along with the absolutely brilliant Kora player Toumani Diabate, and it was mesmerizing. Fleck is a banjo virtuoso from the United States who traveled to Africa a few years ago and just jammed with famous African musicians. A documentary and an album came out of it, and it's all just wonderful music. Each track is unique, because it's a collaboration with a different artist, and yet the album is held together wonderfully by Fleck's incredible ability to pair his banjo with different instruments. I never thought I'd recommend a banjo album, but this is just an ode to string instruments everywhere.
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This is a cut from the documentary version of Throw Down Your Heart, just a small piece of the whole concert.
#7. Hold Time by M. Ward
![[image loading]](http://popmusicology.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/m_ward-hold_time-art-300x300.jpg)
Hold Time was on my list for a long time, and has never really left it for me. M. Ward has a really old voice and his lyrics and songs have old souls. There's just something really warm and comforting about his songs, and there's sincerity in the delivery that is so winning.
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This song has a funny build to it, but it's more than worth it. Great stuff.
#8: Wind's Poem by Mount Eerie
![[image loading]](http://www.thesirenssound.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Winds-Poem.jpg)
This album has my favorite cover art of the year, and is also another record that I just discovered way too late. It's hard to know what to make of this. Mount Eerie is a one man band with a guy named Phil Elverum, and there's almost too much on this album to digest. There's metal tracks- just saturation with a quiet little voice in the back singing tender poetry. Then there's quiet songs filled with ambient noise of birds, and crickets, and the wind. Oh, how the wind howls through this album...!
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There's the metal sound in this album (the song is: "Wind's Dark Poem") but this album's most distinctive feature must be its endless quiet and the gusts of wind that punctuate its songs. This is a song that has all of that.
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There's a bonus in the song "Wind Speaks"
One of the lines goes "I am the tauren of terran flame.."
One of the lines goes "I am the tauren of terran flame.."
#9: Sometimes I Wish I Were An Eagle by Bill Callahan
![[image loading]](http://whitenoiseofeverydaylife.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/bill-callahan.jpg)
Bill Callahan is a poet, first and foremost, and you get the feeling that only he could make his lyrics fit with quiet the comfort that he does. He's has the kind of voice that comes after years of smoking (I don't know if he does, but, as an aside, he used to make music under the name 'Smog' ) and I never get tired of how his songs unfold. It's impossible to be impatient with his music.
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This was the first song I heard from the album, and it's just great how hear play out, there's so much repetition, and I never care.
#10: Incredibad by The Lonely Island
![[image loading]](http://www.mp3boo.com/cover-album/incredibad.jpg)
This is the successor to last year's "Flight of the Conchords"- a clever comedy album that is totally underrated musically. This isn't a complicated album by any stretch, but great music doesn't need to be particularly heady. This is an album that was fun to listen to, but had the lyrics, and a gift for production, that made this more than just a parody album. There's nothing lazy about these songs.
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Of course, I'm On A Boat.
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This was a fantastic year for music. In past years, I felt like getting up to ten albums has been a bit of a stretch. This year, I'm annoyed at who I left out.
Here are a bonus five songs:
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Telekinesis - Coast of Carolina
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Fanfarlo - The Walls Are Coming Down
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Andrew Bird - Anonanlimal
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Noah and the Whale - Blue Skies
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Speech Debelle - Spinnin'
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Hope you found some new music. Feel free to tell me I'm an idiot who likes indie hipster garbage. Tell me what I totally missed!
EDIT: I'm editing already. Marianne Faithful had a great album of covers called "Easy Come, Easy Go", and "Dark Was the Night" was probably the greatest charity album I've ever heard, 'Ocean Eyes' from Owl City was excellent as well.
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Other lists!
Vezkel
JWD
The_Conclave
snowbird
Pyrrhuloxia
