Album of the Year

These next blog post's are dedicated to all my favorite things involving the year 2009. From albums to movies everything may vary. I am doing it on the first day of 2010, happy new years to all by the way, because 2009 is not finish until December 31, 2009 at 12:59:59AM. I could not do it last night because I could not help watch Kathy Griffin and Anderson Copper countdown on CNN (Big fan of both). So let's start with album of the year.

Album of the Year-



Phoenix has gain a lot of popularity with their newest album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix during the last quarter of the year, mainly because of their synth bass heavy hit single "1901". Funny story though, the album was released May 25, 2009. Shouldn't it have been a popular album during the summer? For hardcore Phoenix fans and Daft Punk fans who go crazy over Daft Punk affiliations (such as myself) it was. During the time I had this album on heavy rotation I was attending a summer institute at the U of A. Let me tell you something, there is nothing better than starting your day with the melodic dynamics of "Lisztomania". While reading an article I found out that the vocals of the band, Thomas Mars, was reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (one of my all time favorite novels) for the first time when he was writing the lyrics to this song. After listening to it closely a good hundred times I can argue that there are some allusion to the novel. To follow up, there's nothing better than to hear the guitar from "Lisztomania" but complemented this time with an aggressive synth bass in the song "1901". Talk about a smooth move. Not only is the element of dynamics there but the lyrics are just amazing. "Girlfriend oh your girlfriend is drifting away/ Past and present 1855-1901", beautiful. "Fences" does a great job of mixing disco, folk, and indie music. Fans of pitchfork.com, you cannot go wrong with that song. "Love Like A Sunset Pt. I and II" I usually skip if I am on the move or washing the dishes. The song takes a cinematic theme, mainly consisting of build ups and loops that drift you away to outer space. With me, I only listen to it when I have a good handful of hours to myself. "Lasso" is one of the first songs I heard from Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. This is the type of song that gets you singing the chorus loudly, even when you are not by yourself. "Rome" seems corny at first but 29 seconds into the song Thomas Mars's vocals assure you that it is not. The New Wave inspired guitar riffs and the dynamics that are recognizable from "Lisztomania" top off the assurance. "Countdown" is, in my opinion, the best example of odd drum patterns producer Philippe Zdar ,again in my opinion, intended for. It is also the only song I usually skip. "Girlfriend" is one of my favorite songs in the album. Even though it losses its meaning when the closest thing to girlfriend is that girl you dream of endlessly when your looking at her myspace pictures it precisely carries the same musical elements from "Lisztomania" and "Rome". Also, this is another song that has one of those choruses, but puberty does not let me keep up with parts of it. "Armistice" starts with a Mission Impossible feeling. When the drums hit it reminds you again that it is an indie album. The high but consistent energy that this song has makes it a perfect song to end the album of the year for 2009, that surprisingly consisted of only 9 songs. Unusual for today's albums. Next, I am just waiting to see them live.

Albums That Made The Decision Difficult-
Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II
Brother Ali - Us
Mayer Hawthorne - A Strange Arrangement
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

Albums That Made The Decision Fairly Easy-
Kid Cudi - Man on the Moon: The End of Day
Asher Roth - Asleep In The Bread Aisle
Basically, every mainstream hip-hop album. Yes, even The Blueprint 3.