The end of year list I did for Rare.FM. Unfortunately, the Rare website is really fucked up right now, so none of my recent reviews have gone up yet. Including this end-of-year list I did. And listen to me on Tuesday! 12pm GMT/1pm Holland time! (copy this url in your WMP/Winamp/Realplayer/whatever:
http://stream.rarefm.ucl.ac.uk:8000/stre
Ah, end of year lists! Some will claim it’s a mild form of OCD, while others look forward to them all year and use them to get through the dark days around Christmas. Well, that and a vast amount of various alcoholic beverages, but let’s give the whole process of list-making some credit here. Now some of you might say that they’re called end of year lists for a reason, and that publishing one in February might be a bit like predicting who’s going to win the World cup after the final’s been played, but to those people I’d like to say that sometimes you just need some distance to really appreciate what has been. Also, publishing an end of year list at the start of the next year gives one the opportunity to take a peek at the lists that others have come up with, and that’s always a good way to discover some albums you first missed out on first time round.
However, that extra bit of perspective did not lead to a very surprising album to top our Rare FM top 30. Yes, it is fucking Animal Collective, as one or our reviewers replied when I threatened I would name Merriweather Post Pavilion ‘album of 2009’ if more people wouldn’t send in their lists. Unfortunately for that one reviewer, that mail-out had rather the opposite effect leading to a landslide victory for Animal Collective. But rejoice! There are another 29 excellent albums in the final list, and non of them are AC related in any way!
So here it is then: the list of the best 30 albums of 2009 according to Rare FM’s own reviewers. Marvel at albums we dared to include, complain on the omission of some of last years essential musical pieces of art (the original list contained 74 albums, choices had to be made), but most of all: try to discover some exciting new music.
1. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
2. The XX – The XX
3. Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca <- that's me
4. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest <- also me
5. Patrick Wolf – The Bachelor
6. The Antlers – Hospice
7. Andrew Bird – Noble Beast
8. Sunset Rubdown – Dragonslayer <- my number one of 2009
9. jj – no.2
10. Wild Beasts – Two Dancers
11. Noah and the Whale – The First Days of Spring
12. Yo La Tengo – Popular Songs
13. Arctic Monkeys – Humbug
14. Memory Tapes – Seek Magic <- was also on my list
15. Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career
16. Woodpigeon – Treasury Library Canada
17. Bat for Lashes – Two Suns
18. Leisure Society – The Sleeper
19. The Felice Brothers – Yonder is the Clock
20. Bob Dylan – Christmas in the Heart
21. Various Artists – 5: Five years of hyperdub
22. Paolo Nutini – Sunny Side Up
23. Mew – No More Stories Are Told Today I'm Sorry They Washed Away No More Stories The World Is Grey I'm Tired Let's Wash Away <- my number 2!
24. Tom Waits – Glitter and Doom
25. Wiley – Race Against Time
26. Devendra Banhart – What Will Be
27. Florence and the Machine – Lungs
28. Former Ghosts – Fleurs <- and my nr 3, though it would have been at 2 if I had to redo my list
29. Bruce Springsteen – Working on a Dream
30. Bombay Bicycle Club – I Had the Blues But I Shook Them Lose
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