Monday, November 2, 2009

So much music, so little time

Boy how did it get to be November already? Well since it's getting so close to year's end I thought i might as well reveal that i've started compiling my end-of-year best of 2009 albums list (as if I haven't been thinking about it since last year...)
As a kind of taster to my voracious musical appetite/eclectic tastes/point of reference for later on - I've compiled a HUGE list of all the stuff i've been listening to that was released this year. In doing so, I can still wholeheartedly say that 2009 has been a great year for music - no shortage of variety or quality here.
Where available, i've linked to where i've previously reviewed or covered artists or records on the blog; and while i'll never get a chance to cover a large portion of these releases in detail, hopefully some juicy links here will give you something exciting and fresh to discover.
Failing that, at least you can see how much thought I put into both my 'Good, Bad & The James Blunt' awards as well as my Top 15 Albums of the year.
See you on the other side

EPs
Amplifier - Eternity
Big Scary - Big Scary EP (I'll definitely be covering this great local band in detail very soon)
Bon Iver - Blood Bank
The Day Late - The Day Late
Death Cab For Cutie - The Open Door
Jónsi & Alex - All Animals
Massive Attack - Splitting The Atom
Oceansize - Home & Minor
Pain Of Salvation - Linoleum
Paul Dempsey - Counterfeits And Forgeries
A Planet In Space - As The Pieces Come Together
Rise Apollo - Issus
Streetlight - Wolf Notes

Albums
Akron/Family - Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free
Alaska Ratio - 333
Alberta Cross - Broken Side Of Time
Anamanaguchi - Dawn Metropolis
...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Century Of Self
Andrew Bird - Noble Beast
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
The Antlers - Hospice
Archive - Controlling Crowds
Archive - Controlling Crowds Part IV
Arctic Monkeys - Humbug
The Armada - The Armada
Astra - The Weirding
Bad Veins - Bad Veins
Bat For Lashes - Two Suns
Bertie Blackman - Secrets & Lies
The Big Pink - A Brief History Of Love
Bjork - Voltaic
Bloc Party - Intimacy Remixed
Blue Roses - Blue Roses
The Boxer Rebellion - Union
Brand New - Daisy
Brendan Welch - The Gleaner
Cass McCombs - Catacombs
Chris Cornell - Scream
Coldplay - LeftRightLeftRightLeft (free live album download)
Cortney Tidwell - Boys
The Cribs - Ignore The Ignorant
Dave Matthews Band - Big Whiskey And The Groogrux King
David Gray - Draw The Line
The Dear Hunter - Act III: Life and Death
The Decemberists - The Hazards Of Love
Devin Townsend Project - Ki
Devin Townsend Project - Addicted
Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
Discovery - LP
DM Stith - Heavy Ghost
Doves - Kingdom Of Rust
Easy Star All-Stars - Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band
Editors - In This Light And On This Evening
El Grupo Nuevo De Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Cryptomnesia
The Features - Some Kind Of Salvation
Fightstar - Be Human
Finale - A Pipe Dream And A Promise
The Flaming Lips - Embyronic
Flight Of The Conchords - I Told You I Was Freaky
Florence & The Machine - Lungs
Foreign Born - Person To Person
Frost* - Experiments In Mass Appeal (actually released in the limbo of 08/09 crossover but no less brilliant for it)
The Galvatrons - Laser Graffiti
Gazpacho - Tick Tock
Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
HORSE The Band - Desperate Living
Indukti - Idmen
IQ - Frequency
John Vanderslice - Romanian Names
Jónsi & Alex - Riceboy Sleeps
Julian Plenti - Julian Plenti Is... Skyscraper
Karnivool - Sound Awake
Katatonia - Night Is The New Day
Kid Cudi - Man On The Moon: End Of The Day
The Knives Of Neptune - Tasman The Sailor
Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You
The Lonely Island - Incredibad
Malajube - Labyrinthes
Manic Street Preachers - Journal For Plague Lovers
Marmaduke Duke - Duke Pandemonium
The Mars Volta - Octahedron
Mastodon - Crack The Skye
McKisko - Glorio
The Melodics - 4D
Metric - Fantasies
Mew - No More Stories Are Told Today...
The Model School - Memory Walls
Mono - Hymn To The Immortal Wind
Monsters Of Folk - Monsters Of Folk
Mos Def - The Ecstatic
Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More
Muse - The Resistance
Nobuo Uematsu - Final Fantasy: The Black Mages III - Darkness And Starlight
O.S.I. - Blood
Odawas - The Blue Depths
Orisha - Falling Open
Parallel Lions - Holding Patterns
Patrick Watson - Wooden Arms
Patrick Wolf - The Bachelor
Paul Dempsey - Everything Is True
Pearl Jam - Backspacer
Pelican - What We All Come To Need
Pet Shop Boys - Yes
Phideaux - Number 7
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Placebo - Battle For The Sun
Porcupine Tree - The Incident
Prince - LotusFlow3r/MPLSoUND
Pure Reason Revolution - Amor Vincit Omnia
Q Tip - Kamaal/The Abstract
Ramona Falls - Inuit
Regina Spektor - Far
Riverside - Anno Domino High Definition
Russian Cirlces - Geneva
RX Bandits - Mandala
Sammy J - Sticky Digits
Settle - At Home We Are Tourists
Silversun Pickups - Swoon
Soap&Skin - Lovetune For Vacuum
Steven Wilson - Insurgentes
Street Sweeper Social Club
- Street Sweeper Social Club
The Swell Season - Strict Joy
The Temper Trap - Conditions
Thrice - Beggars
Tony Allen - Secret Agent
Transatlantic - The Whirlwind
U2 - No Line On The Horizon
VAST - Me And You
The Very Best - The Warm Heart Of Africa
Volcano Choir - Unmap
Wilco - Wilco (The Album)
Wild Beasts - Two Dancers

So just a few titles then... Hell, it being November there's still a few high-profile albums to come (weezer springs to mind, and the Dave Grohl/Josh Homme/John Paul Jones supergroup Them Crooked Vultures could well deliver a late album of the year contender). Whew a music lover's work is never done.

P.S. If you've got any recommendations or thoughts, please, please, please comment below!

1 comment:

  1. I can offer 1 album Supporting Caste by Propagandhi. It probably shouldn't be in the running for years best album but it certainly should be listened to as it's one of the better punk albums i've heard in a while.

    Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest has to win though doesn't it? It has my vote. Although The Black Mages is tempting. :P

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