2009-the albums

Following up last week’s best tracks of the year, I present to you my favorite albums of the year. Granted, I don’t have enough time to listen to everything that gets released, but I think this is a pretty good cross section of some great albums.


10. Sonic Youth – The Eternal
SY’s first album after leaving Geffen, The Eternal fits squarely in the middle of their catalogue. It’s not up to par with their classic albums, but is solid from front to back, ending with one of the most dreamy songs they have ever done, “Massage the History.” The Eternal isn’t much of a departure for the band, but a solid Sonic Youth album is still better than a lot of what’s out there.


9. The Horrors – Primary Colours
More accessible than Strange House, Primary Colours is the album that got the Horrors opening for Nine Inch Nails and a guest spot on the next Gorillaz record. Part goth, part shoegaze, Primary Colours is a moody, atmospheric gem of an album.


8. Dinosaur Jr. – Farm
Between this and 2007’s Beyond, Dino Jr. is enjoying quite the renaissance more than twenty years after their debut record. Catchy while remaining gritty, some of Farm’s best moments come when they decide to take the listener for a ride (see the superb “I Don’t Wanna Go There”). Much like Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr. have aged much better than many of their more famous contemporaries. Maybe that lack of mainstream fame is what have kept them sounding good all these years.


7. Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport
While not as immediately intimidating or dense as last year’s Street Horrsing, Tarot Sport is equally as impressive. That’s not to say that this is an easy listen, because it’s not. But Tarot Sport had me doing something that I never thought I would listening to a Fuck Buttons album: nodding my head and wanting to dance.


6. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion
What’s left to say about this that hasn’t already been said? This is Animal Collective’s game changer, by far their most accessible, but at the same time, best, album. While I don’t agree with all of the “second coming” type praise that has been bestowed upon it, Merriweather is a damn good album and begins to solidify Animal Collective’s legacy as one of the most interesting and unique bands of the last decade.


5. P.O.S. – Never Better
Promise of Skill. Piece of Shit. Whatever you think P.O.S. may stand for, his raw talent isn’t up for debate. For someone who started off as a member of a punk collective, it really says something that he is in the upper echelon of rappers this decade. While his punk rock roots come out strong on this, his third album, but they never take away from what Never Better is at it’s core—the heartfelt musings of a man who may not have all the answers, but knows who he is.


4. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Pop rock gets a bad rap. At times it can be dreadful, but when everything goes right, it can be a hell of a lot of fun. Fortunately, Phoenix fall into the later category and sound what the Strokes should have sounded like if they didn’t seem so bored.


3. Raekwon – Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…pt. II
Arguably the most anticipated hip hop album of the year delivered in spades. This is classic Wu right from the get go. All of the members shine, and Ghost more than makes up for the shortcomings of his recent R&B experiment. If you are into hip hop at all, you need to hear this album, end of story.


2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz!
From the iconic cover to the complete, yet natural feeling, change of sound, It’s Blitz! Is the sound of a band reinvigorated. While some may have worried about where the band was heading (after all, their last EP sounded more like Show Your Bones leftovers than new material), but all fears were unfounded. While the sound itself is nothing revolutionary, other bands don’t have the one thing that makes the Yeah Yeah Yeahs so great: Karen O. She’s able to run the gamut from danceable synth-pop (“Zero”) to the most heartfelt song she’s done since “Maps” (“Hysteric”) with ease. Of all the recent indie rock stars, Karen is heads and shoulders above them all.


1. Mos Def – The Estatic
What amazes me so much about this album is how natural it sounds. You know you’re listening to a great talent when it doesn’t even sound like they’re trying, which is the exact sensation you get over each of the sixteen tracks. Talbi Kweli described Mos Def as the most naturally talented person he’s ever known and The Estatic showcases that brilliantly. Mos needed a comeback after the abysmal True Magic, but I hesitate to call it a comeback because Mos has always been here. He’s just having more fun now, and it show

2009-the songs

Despite not posting on here for a year, I like to keep track of what I've been listening to over the last twelve months. These are the fifteen songs that I felt were the best that 2009 had to offer, and unless you get down to Nickelback and Jessica Simpson, I'm sure you'll enjoy at least a few of these.

15. JJ-Ecstasy




Dreamy Swedish pop that bites Lil Wayne's "Lollipop?" Yes, please.

14. Art Brut - DC Comic and Chocolate Milkshakes



A nice reminder that no matter how bad things get or how old we are, there are somethings that will always make us happy.

13. Sage Francis - Conspiracy to Riot


OK, so he was performing this song live last year, but "released" it on a mix-tape this year, so that counts dammit!

12. Raekwon - House of Flying Daggers


This unofficial Wu-Tang reunion on Raekwon's latest record is better than everything on Wu's last official album.

11. Mos Def - Life in Marvelous Times


Want to dance to how bad Brooklyn was in the 80's? Here's your joint.

10. Wavves - Gun in the Sun


Cali skater rock meets Brooklyn lo-fi. All you need to know is that it works.

9. The XX - Crystalized


Minimalist pop from the same South London area that brought us Air. The aesthetic is familiar, but fresh.

8. Franz Ferdinand - No You Girls


Franz seem to always be one step behind the trends, but catchy tunes are their fortay and this is no exception.

7. Brother Ali - Philistine David


What seems like a leftover from The Undisputed Truth sessions, it was released this year on an EP and it bangs with Ali's best.

6. Jay-Z - Empire State of Mind


I'm as sick of this as you are, but a good song is a good song. This is the best love letter to NYC in years.

5. P.O.S. - Goodbye


This is best played at exceptionally loud volumes, trust me.

4. Japandroids - Young Hearts Spark Fire


It's the lo-fi love anthem of 2009. If you're at that awkward age where responsibility starts to really call, this one's for you

3. Animal Collective - Summertime Clothes


One of many deserving songs off of their latest album, this year saw Animal Collective at their absolute best. Along with "My Girls," "Summertime Clothes" best personifies their new direction.

2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Zero


Karen O and company switched from their post riot grrl antics to straight on synth pop. Totally unexpected, but as it turns out, completely awesome.

1. Phoenix - 1901/Liztomania



These guys are so damn catchy, I couldn't pick just one. If one of these don't get stuck in your head for at least a week, check to see if you still have a pulse.

Money and the Oscars

The nominees have been announced and the time is near when we will find out what Hollywood considered the best of the best from last year. And inevitably, the complaining has already started, from who got snubbed to what isn’t deserving of a nominee in the first place. But one cry seems to resonate louder than the rest; that the Oscars have gotten to independent, that they don’t take into account what people actually go to see. These cries seemed to reach pinnacle mass last year when only one of the best picture nominees made more than $100 million in US box office receipts (Juno), while three of the remaining four netted just fifty million or less domestically (the winner, No Country for Old Men, finished up with just over $74).

Fast forward a year and we’re hearing the same things again with this year’s crop of best picture nominees. Now I know that monetary return does not equate to great art, but what if these critics are right? Has the Academy forgotten the average film goer? Are they trying to dictate what we should like instead of what we pay to see? To find out, I’ve looked at the last few years of best picture winners and nominees (going back to 2000, including this years crop) to see if there is any truth behind this claim. All numbers are from boxofficemojo.com and I’ve used the benchmark of $100 million domestic as the number for a “runaway hit.”

As I briefly went over the numbers for last year’s ceremony before, let’s start off with 2006, when The Departed took the award. Grossing over $130 million that year and finishing up just below Mission Impossible 3 in total gross that year (and ahead of Borat), this was hardly the little critical darling that could. It’s closest best picture competition? Little Miss Sunshine at $59 million. Ok, while the best picture that year was both a critical and commercial success, the other four weren’t exactly box office smashes. One film out of five is hardly keeping in line with the public, you might say. Fair enough, so let’s go back another year with Crash’s controversial victory.

The Oscars for the year 2005 might be the best case that the box office folks have, as none of the best picture nominees cracked the one hundred million dollar mark (the closest, Brokeback Mountain, pulled in $83). But like most entertainment these days, success is not just measured in how much one makes, but the buzz created by it, and the buzz created by Crash and Brokeback was immense. Crash, filmed on a budget of just $6.5 million, managed to pull in over $54 million here in the States. And other films, such as Munich, more than made up for their domestic shortcomings with very strong overseas performances (63.6% of Munich’s gross came from outside the US). Still, none of the nominees that year seemed to capture the attention of US audiences. Fair enough, a point which I’m willing to concede (the crop of films nominated that year, minus Crash and Brokeback, was also subject at best, but that’s an argument for another time).

However, going back any further on the Oscar timeline basically ruins this argument. Going back to 2000, when Gladiator won, every movie winning best picture has grossed over $100 million domestically, and there have been at least two $100+ pictures nominated each year. Not to mention that the Return of the King was the number one grossing movie that year. So is Hollywood becoming increasingly insular with its picks? The last two years of data seem to support that. So how do this year’s nominees fare?

As of this writing, only one of the best picture nominees this year has passed the $100 million mark, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The only other one that comes close is Slumdog Millionaire, with a current take of ~$61 million. Neither of the other three nominees have yet breached the $25 million mark, which would be a first in recent Oscar memory (the previous domestic low was Capote which pulled in $28 million, this year the Reader sits at $11 million). This seems pretty damning evidence. No one really cared about the movies that Hollywood thought were the best this year, making the ceremony mostly irrelevant. But my question is, what commercially successful movie would have replaced any of these films? Looking at the top twenty grossing films released last year (Benjamin Button is currently nineteenth and Gran Turino is sitting at 23rd but with a nine figure gross as well), only two pictures, The Dark Night and Wall-e really stand out to me. Is Se and the City deserving of a best picture nominee? Quantum of Solace? Four Christmases? And of the two that I mentioned, I can only make a serious case for Wall-e, which I blame the Academy’s arcane rule for not allowing animated films to garner a best picture nod.

So does this put us at odds with the Academy’s picks? I don’t think it does, or at least it shouldn’t. We don’t need anyone to tell us to go see the Dark Night or Sex and the City, those are mainstream projets that you couldn’t help not hear about. While they still may have been good films, there are ones that slip through the cracks and picking those films up and getting them recognition, I believe is the Academy’s job. If these movies are truly deserving of a best picture nomination (I have only seen tow of the five this year), then they deserve the nomination, regardless of how much they make at the box office. Good films will get the recognition they deserve, sometimes through box office returns and sometimes through nominations from their peers. While some people see the Academy as shutting out mainstream audiences, I see them as trying to expand horizons. That, and there is already an wards show that listens to the people and it’s called the People’s Choice Awards, whose favorite movie category was exactly the same as the favorite action movie category. As for my pick this year? My money’s on Slumdog, you can take that to the bank.