Chris' Top 10 Albums of 2009

1. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest:

Aside from all the hype this album received and doing away with any biases, this album is incredible. It sounds like it is from a completely different decade, and like any good album, it took time to grow on me, seemingly song by song. I regret missing this band open for Radiohead, but they’ve proved to go on fine without me. I encourage you to listen to this band a second time if you didn’t ‘get them’ the first time.

2. Bon Iver - Blood Bank:

I'm one to view music as a complete work; that means the music and the artwork, and I think this simple 4-track EP is the perfect example of why I love this album. It's a great follow-up from 'For Emma, Forever Ago' released last year, and it includes one of my favorite songs of all time, 'Blood Bank.' Oh yeah, and I almost forgot, the awesome use of an auto-tuner on ‘Woods.’

3. Russian Circles - Geneva:

So I once saw the artwork for this album online somewhere, thought it looked cool, and bought it blindly at Newbury Comics because it was a Staff Pick. One of the best blind buys ever. Russian Circles combines great drumming, a distinct bass tone, and strings to create one of the most powerful instrumental bands I've heard. The music ranges from heavy and driving, to soft and melodic; a perfect mix. [ALBUM STREAM]

4. Passion Pit - Manners:

After hearing about this band from a few friends and latching on as soon as I first heard 'The Reeling,' I decided to investigate. I'll say that the band is probably most known for 'Sleepyhead' but this album is filled with so much more. Extremely poppy and catchy but "so much fun to listen to," as Barnesopolis puts it. Another band that makes me think 'genre' is an unproved theory.

5. Frank Ramz – Make the Road by Walking ft. The Menahan Street Band:

What can I say? As The Menahan Street Band’s album alone stands as an incredible album, Frank Ramz adds so much more to it. I kept listening to this album and picking up on his lyrics bit by bit. It rarely seems that he struggles to make it work; it just flows naturally with the music. He finds a good balance between getting a meaningful point across and delivering it in a poetic and sometimes humorous way.

6. Cymbals Eat Guitars – Why There Are Mountains:

Another album I didn’t really know about until I got it. There are so many different sounds on this album; songs slow down, speed up, and change shape. The lead singer has a certain intensity reminiscent of older Modest Mouse albums. There are some awesome, interesting uses of instrumentation, and every song gets better with each listen.

7. M. Ward - Hold Time:

I've been listening to M. Ward for a couple years now, and it seems that on every album there's something new and fun to listen to. Hold Time is no exception with great songs like 'Rave On,' 'Jailbird,' and a perfect instrumental to close. This seems to be an album I kept going back to throughout the year.

8. Mesita – No Worries EP:

I came across this solo artist out of Colorado after looking around the ‘Loophole’ forum on ateaseweb.com. He had recently put out this EP (self-released) and I enjoyed the music enough to buy one of the mini-CD packets he made, and it quickly got better with each listen. He’s a great multi-instrumentalist and the effort he puts into his music can easily be heard through this short EP which is also up for streaming.( http://mesita.bandcamp.com/)



9. Andrew Bird – Noble Beast:

I’ll admit I looked past this album many times before picking it up later this year, not expecting to like it as much as I did. Bird does a great job with his signature whistling and awesome violin playing (especially the use of pizzicato) throughout the album. The backup vocalist provides some great harmonies as well. No shortage of good tracks on this album, some powerful, some mellow.

10. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix:

I didn’t get this album earlier in the year, so I didn’t get to let it set in as much as I could have; However that doesn’t take away from the well-deserved attention it has gotten. An interesting sound that I think of as synth-indie. I have no doubt songs from the album will make it onto my ski playlist for the winter. I’ve already heard one of them in a ski movie.