Albums I've Liked This Year

*** 1/27/10 NOTE: Two albums would be added and are better than two of the albums on the list below. I'm just gonna name 'em here and not fuck with the other list.

"The Visitor" - Jim O'Rourke (ur ears aren't the same after)
"Farm" - Dinosaur, Jr. - great guitar shit ***

Here are some albums from the past year that I thought were really good:

"Merriwether Post Pavillion" - Animal Collevctive
"Phrazes for the Young" - Julian Casablancas
"Bitte Orca" - Dirty Projectors
"Actor" - St. Vincent
"Embryonic" - The Flaming Lips
"Album" - Girls
"Face Control" - Handsome Furs
"Post-Nothing" - Japandroids
"Wavvves" - Wavves
"Songs of Shame" - Woods

I don't know. Ho-hum. There's a lot of good stuff on my list (though, maybe it's more telling that there's a lot of music from 2009 that I have stock piled, waiting to listen to. I get so much music and it takes me so long to get to it all. But don't worry, I dig, I test.) but after I looked at it I kind of had the feeling like, These are the best?

Then again, these are all really, really good albums. I think they're just not the kind of albums I, myself, Dan Grgas, usually find myself listening to over and over again. But they ended up being the best this year.

However, one does stick out.

"Phrazes for the Young". Criminally underrated album this year. This is a classic. This is a statement. This is a man with a vision. These are catchy, classy tunes. They sound VERY DIFFERENT THAN WHAT ELSE IS OUT THERE. This is a bigger jump than so called "experimental" albums out there because it does pop music straight while resynthesizing the old through the lens of, I don't know, whatever it is The Strokes started in 2001. Garage rock. Whatever. The point is, I'm a firm believer that sometimes what is not obviously "out there" or "weird" - something that plays it kinda straight during a time where the biggest praise from the hip critics is shit that's unconventional - and while slightly turning the medium on its ear - that's where it's at for me.

This album reminds me of something that is special. Casablancas is getting fucked critically. I mean, this album is really, really good. Better than "Merriwether" and "Bitte Orca".

Oh, well, that's OK. He's better off. But the list is good. Good stuff. Maybe I'll augment it when I listen to some more shit from 2009.