WHO DOESN’T LIKE A LIST? | Best of ’09

It’s that time of year: Above are some of my favorite albums of 2009. Currently, the best thing I’ve heard is probably Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson’s “Summer of Fear”. The album is about as ambitious as it gets in music. It’s a gorgeous, sprawling, beautiful cumulus. Even some of the cliches and messy parts are endearing because this album so honestly strives to be great. It’s antecedent rich: It is part Bruce Springsteen’s lyrical quirkiness and obsessive alliteration on ‘Asbury Park’, part Tom Petty’s swagger, part Bob Dylan’s quirky expansiveness (an 11-plus minute “More Than a Mess” doesn’t get written without Dylan’s “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands) — with some of Elvis Costello’s vocal mannerisms. It has darkly-tinged atmospherics that remind me of Counting Crows’ ‘August & Everything’ — and the horns are pulled straight out of Van Morrison’s ‘Moondance’ playbook. MBAR is a master. Note: I’ve only heard four songs off Amy Correia’s upcoming release. She is still in the process of recording the album. All four tracks would make my best songs of 2009. So, my guess is the rest of the album is going to be sweet.

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson “Death by Dust” (MP3)

Best of the Rest: Albums of the Year (So Far)
Here are some other good albums out this year, in no particular order:
• Brazos “Phosphorescent Blues”
• Cymbals Eat Guitars “Why There Are Mountains”
• Freelance Whales “Weathervanes”
• Handsome Furs “Face Control”
• Double Dagger “More”
• Passion Pit “Manners”
• Various Artists “Dark Was the Night”
• J. Tillman “Vacilando Territory Blues”
• Eilen Jewell “Sea of Tears”
• DangerMouse “Dark Night of the Soul”
• White Rabbits “It’s Frightening”
• Wilco “Wilco (The Album)”
• Grizzly Bear “Veckatimest”
• Ryan Bingham “Roadhouse Sun”
• Casiotone for the Painfully Alone “Vs. Children”
• Cass McCombs “Catacombs”
• Neon Indian “Psychic Chasms”
• Crocodiles “Summer of Hate”
• Dan Michaelson & The Coastguards “Saltwater”
• Frontier Ruckus “The Orion Songbook” (Nov. 2008)
• Laura Gibson “Beasts of Season”
• Nosaj Thing “Drift”
• Buddy & Julie Miller “Written In Chalk”
• Great Lake Swimmers “Lost Channels”
• Sarah Jarosz “Song Up In Her Head”
• Camera Obscura “My Maudlin Career”
• Julie Doiron “I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day”
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs “It’s Blitz!”