Track 11: "I Walk Alone" by Music Go Music

Expressions would be pretty high on my list if it weren't for that fact that it's merely a collection of singles and b-sides from the band's three 12" releases and that I included one of them on last year's mix. Still, it is nice to finally see all the songs in one place. The Los Angeles-based (of course) trio administers a dose of vintage, sugary 70's pop a'la ABBA and ELO in such a convincing manner, it might be mistaken for something found in a dusty thrift store bin. Surprisingly there is no guilt involved or at least I don't feel any.

Despite an elaborate set-up that begins with alias and ends with live performances on a staged, made-up program, removing the curtain, you will find members of the group Bodies of Water accompanied by a revolving door of other California bands noted for their own love of retro pop. I sort of loathe the attempt to be anonymous as it seems to suggest there is intentional irony. I want to believe someone loved this music and is trying to create the grandest tribute to it. Gala Bell aka Meredith Metcalf has one of the most enchanting voices you will ever hear and the rest of Music Go Music do a fine job at dousing out those burning disco albums and giving them a second life.



I think I've posted most of the songs on the album at one point or another. I choose this one because as Expression's opener, it does a fairly good job at shaking up the mood at the half-way point of the mix...where things start to take a dancier turn.

11.) "I Walk Alone" by Music Go Music


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Track 10: "I Want You To Know" by Dinosaur Jr.

Farm sounds like a vintage Dinosaur Jr album sacrificing nothing despite a two decade lapse and even exceeds their first reunited effort, 2007's Beyond. That album blew away everyone's expectations and brought new life to a band seemingly doomed to be remembered for it's internal strife rather than as one of the most influential underground bands of the late eighties. This is no longer an unlikely reunion, but a revitalization.

Where Beyond was a return to early Dinosaur and it's masterful distortion, this album offers a listen into what may have been if Lou Barlow had not left the band and continued into their nineties output. It was then that group finally found the right balance between noise and melody. Shredding guitars wait for the right moment to tear away on a solo as Mascis' underrated songwriting carries an emotional weight as wrenching as the feedback. And yes...Farm did have the best cover art of the year.



"I Want You To Know" sounds like it was lifted off the classic Where You Been album that brought the band commercial notoriety amidst the alternative boom of the early nineties. The group sometimes jokingly undersold the genesis of their sound being a love of metal and and a discovery of jangly pop. While they in fact listening to a very diverse list of bands, there's no doubting this is awfully catchy for something awfully heavy.


10.) "I Want You To Know" by Dinosaur Jr.

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2009: The Best They Had to Offer ( Josh Chimes In)

Hi there. Does anyone still visit these parts? I continue to not be so much up to the task of going into depth about my favorites. I'll just drop this list and wish '09 good riddance.

9 for '09:

01. Silversun Pickups "The Royal We". Swoon was a great, cohesive album from beginning to end and I know that I will continue to listen to it for many years. They deserve all the success and related accolades they received this year

02. Bill Callahan "Eid Ma Clack Shaw" Not a big Smog fan but I'll be darned if I didn't love Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle, this one track in particular which is brilliantly conceived and thoroughly outstanding.

03. The National "So Far Around the Bend" The National continue to do no wrong. Forget that they wrote and sang the line "Praying for Pavement to get back together" in a year when just such a venture was put into action (wouldn't it be great if Stephen and company covered this in the Park next year?). The Nats' Aaron and Bryce Dessner compiled the best Red Hot compilation in like forever with artists that really mattered. New album allegedly on the way and I can't wait.

04. The Rural Alberta Advantage "Don't Haunt this Place" Great song that I will forever associate with getting back on the dating wagon in 2009. Didn't make it past the 2nd date but at least for once some gal introduced me to a cool new band!

05. The Cave Singers "Beach House" Each Cave Singers album has been good for one song that completely blew my mind. This was the culprit this time around.

06. The Boy Least Likely To "The Boy Least Likely to Is a Machine" The first band Jay and I wrote about on Audio for Drinking returned with an excellent 2nd disc. There were many stand-out tracks on the disc but this brilliant number stands out for its hypnotic use of the banjo.

07. The Avett Brothers "I And Love And You" You had me at Brooklyn.

08. Scotland Yard Gospel Choir "One Night Stand" Imagine you made an excellent new album and while on the road to promote it your fan flipped over and nearly killed you. That is the horrible fate that befell this Chicago group in 2009. They are still all recovering. I had tickets to see them here in Brooklyn and then again in Chicago and hope I'll be able to see a fully recovered kick-ass performance from the group in the near future.

09. Destroyer "Bay of Pigs" Mesmerizing. (Originally available only on vinyl you can find this single over at the iTunes store)

A Few other honorable mentions: Dinosaur Jr.'s released Farm which was thoroughly classic Dinosaur, Andrew Bird's Noble Beast satisfied year long, Brendan Benson's "Feel Like Taking You Home" and "A Whole Lot Better, AC Newman's "There Are Maybe Ten or Twelve", The Decemberists' Hazards of Love which renewed my faith after losing me at The Crane Wife, Neko Case for covering Harry Nilsson so brilliantly, Noah and the Whale for a top notch break up album (The First Days of Spring), Portugal the Man, Richard Swift, Elvis Perkins' "Shampoo", "You Never Know" which was the first Wilco song to excite me in long while, Steve Earle's astonishing ode to friend and mentor Townes Van Zandt, guilty pleasure Muse and "Ships With Holes Will Sink" a great song title from a band with a great name: We Were Promised Jet Packs. Lastly (literally), the last album I've bought this year, Joe Henry's Blood From Stars is as good as his Scar, one of my favorites of the last decade which is a whole other list.

If the forthcoming Midlake album which I've already heard is any barometer, 2010 shall be f'n awesome.

By the way, in case anyone is curious as to what I've done to fill the empty space in my ego since we stopped regularly contributing to the world of music blogging, you can check out the Present music seres I've been curating for the last 5 years over at joshmueller.com.

Track 9: "Tightrope" by Yeasayer

My #2 album of the year is the double-disc album Dark Was the Night, curated by members of The National to benefit the Red Hot Organization on it's 20th anniversary. The album raised thousands to fight AIDS/HIV while offering a bountiful collection of original music and covers from a generation's worth of notable independent artists. The list is mind-boggling and there is nary a throwaway track...hardly believable to you hear it.

Uber-hyped Dirty Projects start things off, collaborating with long-time Red Hot contributor David Byrne. Sufjan Stevens' provides the 10-minute epic "You Are the Blood." The unholy alliance of Feist and Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard put together a fitting hymn about loss. Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon makes two appearances. My Brightest Diamond puts together a powerful rendition of the signature jazz tune "Feeling Good" that is remarkably faithful to the greats that have done it before. Long-time faves such as Spoon, Arcade Fire, Decemberists, Iron & Wine and Yo La Tengo also make appearances.



In arranging DWtN, the National's Bryce and Aaron Dessner have even surpassed the amazing collection of artist's found on 1993's No Alternative, that decade's "it" indie benefit album. An amusing side-note several reviews pointed out: Pavement notably name-dropped REM on their No Alternative track and here the National slyly name-drop Pavement, singing "praying for Pavement to get back together" (which they coincidentally did months later).

Despite all the big names associated with the project, my favorite track would be a toss-up between that of the project's curators* and this one from the experimental, polyrhythmic tinkerers, Yeasayer. One of many indie darlings in 2007, they contributed this track while putting the finishing touches on their delayed 2010 sophomore album.

9.) "Tightrope" by Yeasayer

*My brother should drop the National track on the site soon (it's #17 on my mix)


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Track 8: "True or False" by Bishop Allen

As my brother and I discussed potential bands of the decade, with a prerequisite of four solid albums, I had to wonder if I could use Bishop Allen's appearance in the movie Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist as number four because I've really enjoyed their three albums. That particular high-profile moment led to several publications feeling obligated to review their latest and subsequently thrash it as being too simple, too twee, too cute, too condescendingly pop. Of course I've long shared my favorite of the five digits with any critic that thinks music must be challenging to be good. Spin called it a "charming diversion" as if that was a bad thing.

Grrr may not sound as immediately pleasing as the band's earlier efforts, but I feel like the decision to strip down to this type of simplicity is intentional as the group put together something pure fun after the well-reviewed Broken String and their expansive EP project. I'm not saying the album isn't overtly cute, but it is deceptively pulled together by a menage of folk instrumentation behind the sugary pop. It's hard to not have fun listening to Bishop Allen.



I purposely choose this song because I struggled with accepting songs where Justin Rice wasn't the primary vocalist. I certainly can't profess that a band is allowed to change it up every now and then and not be okay with this change of pace. Though, for the record, my favorite song on the album is "South China Moon."

8.) "True or False" by Bishop Allen


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Track 7: "When We Swam" by Thao with the Get Down Stay Down

A good album about bad relationships. That is the best way to sum up Know Better Learn Faster. I'm left wondering if it's strange that I find Thao Nguyen singing about failed relationships so seductive. It's the way she can hang on a syllable and make you want to dance even when the topic is sad sex. The songs as a whole capture an accurate portrayal of love lost as she pleads with the lover to stay one moment and needs them to go the next. It is one of the most familiar, but interesting observations within the "moving on" process and shows what a keen eye as a songwriter that Thao has on the human experience.



7.) "When We Swam" by Thao with the Get Down Stay Down

Everyone obsessively latched themselves to "Bag of Hammers" off the previous album and "When We Swam" seems to be fan favorite here despite the official single being the title track (featuring Andrew Bird). It's the "bring your hips to me cooing no doubt.

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Track 6" "Islands" by The XX

Sex in the dark, drum machines and a Young Marble Giants-like aesthetic of less is more sums up this massively hyped debut album. With a tribute to R&B re-imagined as minimalist post-punk, the XX have self-produced an album worthy of pre or post coital playback. I just hope there's someone special in your life because this one deserved repeated listens. It somehow manages to lack the pretension or excess you'd expect from such a youthful group. Each track seems to have been calculated carefully to appeal both lyrically and as a mood. The XX have tapped into something beyond their years.

In the short between the albums release, cataclysmic explosion of blog coverage and their recent prepping for a Spring US tour (with former classmates Hot Chip), the group lost their keyboardist to exhaustion and will continue on as a threesome. One can only hope the shake up won't affect the emerging sound of a band that's earned its countless end-of-year nods.



While many have agreed about the album's status as one of this year's best, there's quite the argument going about the signature track. There's the commercially successful “Intro” as well as the tidy "Crystalised," but I have to side with fans of the album's cool cucumber love song featuring dueling vocals.


6.) "Islands" by The XX


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Track 5: "Monday to Saturday" by The Legends

The Legends have been around for seven years and it seems every time they release an album, it's met with some minor critical praise, but never enough rightful adoption by US-based music fans. In fact I've already seen this year's Over and Over mentioned on two "albums you might have missed" end of year lists. The group has become the primary musical outlet of Labrador Records founder and Swedish indie mainstay Johan Angergård, who has a revolving membership of friends performing his latest creations. Noted for dramatic shifts in muscical styles, over the course of four long-form releases listeners have been treated to four different sounding albums. They've accurately described the music as a "modern mix of white noise, 60’s girls pop, indie, ambient and krautrock."



This may be the nosiest album to date for The Legends, where Angergård's typically polished pop production is intentionally washed in ear-cracking cacophony. Songs range topically from drugs, heartache and sadless to the impending results of old age. The gratuitous noise for the sake of noise has put off a lot of listeners, especially those who expected more of the new wave sheen found on their previous release. Ultimately, the groups unsettled nature will be deemed genius by some and waved off by others as ego and unnecessarily mischievous. I choose to see it as a wry smile worn by the gifted, but typically ABBA-clean pop visage of Sweden.

Once again I'm arguably paying a great disservice to the album by including an atypical track on my mix. "Monday to Saturday" moreso sounds like it might have been a holdover from one of Angergård's earlier projects, specifically the also under-looked Acid House Kings. The C86-inspired singalong also features guest vocals from Karolina Komstedt, who with Johan performs as Club 8 (aka my favorite Swedish group).

5.) "Monday to Saturday" by The Legends

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Track 4: "are you still in vallda?" by jj

It's not a complete year-end list until I've included an obscure Swedish release (this year I have two). Nearly no information regarding the group jj or where they're from aside from Sweden at large exists. jj released their debut single jj n° 1 early in 2009 and released their debut album jj n° 2 months later. The female vocalist has been identified as "Elin" but it's unsure if that's made-up. What is know is that the album was release on the label started by Swedish electronic pop duo The Tough Alliance. This has lead many to believe the group is simply TTA with a female singer. Given that group's propensity for bizarre on-stage antics, it certainly would make sense.

The album's initial appeal comes from my adoration of the famed twee pop label, Sarah Recordsl, only jj have both revitalized and revamped the sound. The vocal style is in place, but here they take a trip around the world, infusing the lo-fi pop with the gentle electronic ambiance of fellow Scandinavians as well as series of emerging global percussions akin to hip hop beats.




"are you still in vallda?" may not be the best representation of the album's diversity, but it was the first song I heard off the brief offering (the album comes in at under 30 minutes) and thus the first I fell in love with. The contrast of such a beautiful voice with the cheese of the synths and MIDI is worth a deconstructive listen before you move on the rest of the album.


4.) "are you still in vallda?" by jj


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Track 3: "A Teenager in Love" by The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

Now here's a real throwback beyond the sound. It's been over a decade since I regularly scooped up anything and everything released by Slumberland Records. Furthermore, we have an album recorded by Archie Moore, formally of Velocity Girl, which takes me all the way back to high school. Slumberland delivered a healthy dose of twee pop back in the nineties, including many bands that tried to disguise the cuteness with some vintage Jesus and Mary Chain reverb and fuzz. Another jumping off referential point may be the sadly under-looked Slumberland alums Black Tambourine, which without coincidence featured the aforementioned Moore.

The interesting band name, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, comes from an unreleased children's book by the lead singer. It's charming and eye-grabbing, but for some may have suggested another sound entirely. Yes the album is youthful and is filled with it's share of heartache, but it sounds...well, pure...and beyond cliches. While I littered my take on the album with comparisons, after seeing them live at Monolith this Fall, I sensed an earnestness and that they weren't recycling retro just to get noticed. Some folks have lumped this Brooklyn quartet with other acclaimed borough favorites (Crystal Stilts, Vivian Girls), but with a debut this impressive I really hope they don't suffer from that here today, gone tomorrow trend common to burgeoning, of the moment scenes.



I could have very easily gone with the popular "Young Adult Friction," however, nostalgia pulled me towards the upbeat "A Teenager in Love." It probably the poppiest on the album, but you simply can't have a band compared to JAMC and not include a track that references Christ or Jesus.

3.) "A Teenager in Love" by The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart


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Track 2: "The Sweetest Thing" by Camera Obscura

My Maudlin Career was my favorite album of the year. I can recall spending a good deal of the Spring driving around at night listening to the album on repeat. That culminated in my seeing the band live in June. The album stabilizes the polygamous marriage of twee pop, Motown adoration and Phil Spector vibes hinted in previous efforts. The group has finally climbed out of the shadows of lazy comparisons to Belle and Sebastian and other cutesy-clever pop bands. My Maudlin Career is sentimental, catchy and given a little something extra by way of string and horn arrangements by Björn Yttling (Peter Bjorn and John).

Like many of my favorite albums, this one takes you on a topsy-turvy ride through the highs and lows of being a hopeless romantic. Singer Tracyanne Campbell delivers the throwback radio pop bounce with a sly and sometimes bitingly honest infliction.



It was difficult to pick just one song from the album to include with my mix. I somewhat coincidentally decided upon making the album's second track my second track. I grow easily attached to lyrics and it came down to the "I was criticized for letting you break my heart" line of French Navy versus the bitter salvo of "I'm going on a date tonight to try fall out of love with you" found here.

2.) "The Sweetest Thing" by Camera Obscura


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Track 1: "Blue Skies" by Noah and the Whale

First Days of Spring is the second studio album from English band Noah and the Whale. It's instant appeal to me and I imagine other lovelorn folks is that it is one in a long line of break-up albums. In fact it is arguably my favorite break-up narrative committed to music since Of Montreal's A Bedside Drama. It's true-to-life roots result in the departure of the group's sole female presence, who is the subject of frontman Charlie Fink's laments here.



"Blue Skies" is the single off the album. It's opening invitation of "this is a song for anyone with a broken heart" quickly asserts this as an anthem for those who let such things get the best of them. What makes this particular break-up song worthy is it's message of inevitable resolution. For all the orchestrated moppiness, this track appears later in the album with the first signs of optimism. I choose this track for my Best of 2009 mix because I feel as if I spent much of the year looking to identify a true turning point...a sign that the weight of an emotional past is truly behind me and good things lay ahead.

1.) "Blue Skies" by Noah and the Whale

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