The 2009 Baker's Dozen

It’s that time of year again, the annual Baker’s Dozen Best Albums of 2009. The 13 best albums of the year-with an extra 13 Honorable Mentions that I couldn’t let go unnoticed.
The idea being that you should at least get hip to a new album every month and then try to nab another one from your friend’s cassette carrying case in his 1982 Subaru Brat.
Yeah, the entire notion of a year end list is laughable provided that 1.) people don’t actually buy records any more and 2.) the art form that is a long-player is quickly becoming obsolete.
But I’m taking a staunch view of the album in the sense that I will continue to support it as a necessary art form for music, if only for the fact that it is all I know. I’ve never lived during a time when albums didn’t exist. Maybe my folks can relate to an era of “singles only,” but a huge chunk of my life has been broken out in 30-45 minute intervals and I kind of like the notion of a band scrapping together ten or twelve songs in a package that says “Here’s a few tunes we’ve been working on this year!’
The collected tunes below are really good and deserve your attention. Find a way to check them out and consider them. There’s a brief blurb about the release and a link to a review if applicable. Observant readers may even notice that the list changes over the years in a futile attempt to look halfway relevant.
Seriously. Check out my list from 1989 and notice how the number one album went from White Lion Pride to Sonic Youth Daydream Nation.
For now, the following pleasured my earhole in 2009:

1.) Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
Gingerly accessible while exposing an incredible array of complexities that only seem to reveal themselves after each subsequent listen. There’s a feeling that this album holds something very special and the joy is how it doesn’t present itself as such on first spin.

2.) The Flaming Lips – Embryonic
The Lips finally return to organic territory and make the album that longtime fans have been patiently waiting for. It’s a record that steers them away from their recent notoriety as festival closers and it brings them back towards the darker side of recreational drugs and humanity itself.

3.) Sonic Youth – The Eternal
S.Y. have released a lot of good albums since Daydream Nation but the argument can be made that they haven’t release and great albums since that landmark some twenty years ago. Until now; The Eternal is efficient, smart, and uniquely melodic. Jams run free, but here they’re branded with the band’s growth as musicians and reflect a maturation that doesn’t necessarily mean they need to change from ‘Sonic Youth’ to ‘Sonic Dad.’

4.) Baroness – The Blue Album
I have no idea what’s in the water around the Atlanta area, but its fueling one of the best metal scenes in some time. Baroness obviously are taking Mastodon’s lead and have managed to release their first great album in about the same amount of time as their homies. By incorporating metal with psychedelia and a hint of southern rock, Baroness is already on their way in mirroring their older brother’s creative statements and establishing their city as the new capitol of metal.

5.) Polvo – In Prism
It’s not just the fact that the band sounds like they haven’t missed a beat since their last album some 12 years ago, it’s the fact that it’s better than their last album some 12 years ago. In Prism is a big sounding record by Polvo’s standard and that newfound fidelity allows listeners to fully hear what they’ve been missing since these math rock pioneers carried Sonic Youth’s alternate tuning crown for the better part of the 90’s.

6.) Fever Ray – Fever Ray
Recorded while Karin Andersson was gestating her own little one, all of those hormones helped create an album that’s quirky, lightly arranged, and strangely infectious. A near-perfect Nordic electronic album that reflects the tundra it was created on. I once drove in a snowstorm with this playing and had to shut it off because I kept thinking shit was jumping in front of the road.

7.) Blue Roses – Blue Roses
Blue Roses’ debut is so eloquently arranged and surprisingly mature that it’s hard to believe that Laura Groves hasn’t been doing this for longer than what she has. The comparison to early Kate Bush isn’t a burden, it’s a responsibility. Laura Groves sounds up to the challenge and she’s come out of the gate with a debut that rivals The Kick Inside.

8.) Japandroids – Post Nothing
Look, there’s little that’s really new in Japandroids’ sound-how much can you do with a drum and a guitar-but what’s awesome is how that doesn’t seem to bother them as they belt out songs about girls. How much can you do with a drum and a guitar? Quite a bit if the mood fits and the motivation is real.

9.) Mastodon – Crack The Skye
We’re right around …And Justice For All era Mastodon and they’re still releasing more consistent albums with more complex performances and better arrangements. Mastodon is at a point where the only way down is if they record a blatantly commercial record geared for people with more accessible tastes. Crack The Skye doesn’t sound like they’re ready to do that.

10.) The XX – XX
Mega infectious primitive electronic pop that sounds like it clandestinely recorded the thoughts of a young couple on the verge of parting. With everything slowed down and to a whisper, this band manages a rapt audience for a half and hour with almost an immediate need to hit repeat after the first play.

11.) Slayer – World Painted Blood
The fact is, Slayer could have stopped caring about their releases and they’d still be a revered as ever. World Painted Blood sounds like they give a shit and it also points out how great they are when they really try. This is dryly recorded and drummer Dave Lambardo is back and way up front in the mix. Awesome stuff.

12.) The Church – Untitled #23
The idea that The Church could produce an album this focused and well-executed at this stage in their career says a lot for the spirit of the band and for the power of what rock music can do to a few high school friends. They’re still at it, still better than most bands half their age, and still releasing albums that rank with their finest.

13.) The Clean – Mister Pop
Albums from The Clean don’t come around that often so when they do-even when the material seems a bit wary compared to other releases-it’s a celebrated thing. Why? Because they’re a band that’s influenced countless others, some of which may not even be aware of it. Mister Pop may be down a ways on the catalog relevance, but it sounds better than the imitators and has enough charm to warrant repeated listens.

Honorable Mentions (the other 13):

Them Crooked Vultures – Them Crooked Vultures
Woods – Songs Of Shame
Tune Yards – Bird Brains
Black Moth Super Rainbow – Eating Us
Allen Toussaint – The Bright Mississippi
William Elliot Whitmore – Animals In The Dark
Golden Silvers – True Romance
Spiral Stairs – The Real Feel
Richard Hawley – Truelove’s Gutter
The Dead Weather - Horehound
Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions – Through The Devil Softly
Robyn Hitchcock – Goodnight Oslo
Heaven & Hell –The Devil You Know

Quit rolling your eyes and talk back with your own list.