2009 Music List Thread

[Lamrock]

Yep, its that time again. Post your end-of-year music lists. Not sure if Jae want a copious amount of censored mediafire links like the music recommendation, so I'll hold off for now. 2009 was a shitty year for people like me who listen to mostly indie rock. I'd probably only give my #1 album an 8.5/10.

Top 5 Albums

5. Julian Casablancas: Phrazes For The Young - Very catchy album by the Strokes frontman. Has some overlong songs, but for some reason, I like everything Julian Casablancas writes, no matter how shitty. Same goes for Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos.
4. Dirty Projectors: Bitte Orca - Its flawed and pretentious, but it will always have a special place in my heart for being the soundtrack for me getting out of a long rut.
3. Arctic Monkeys: Humbug - In my opinion, its their best album to date (and its not close). In terms of musicianship and lyrics it blows the first two out of the water. It has great staying power as well.
2. Grizzly Bear: Veckatimest - A beautiful album. In my opinion it tops their excellent debut. Its definitely not for everyone, but i really enjoy it. Fantastic hammock music.
1. Phoenix: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix - I was disappointed to find out that this wasn't the name Joaquin Phoenix's debut solo album. Instead, its a very catchy pop album. Sounds a bit like The Strokes, and has my favorite single of the year in "1901".

Other Albums I Enjoyed: Manic Street Preachers: Journal For Plague Lovers (their best album in a decade); Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion (Excellent, but not as good as Strawberry Jam and drags in the middle); Animal Collective: Fall Be Kind (loses points for being an EP, and the middle track is a little dull, but its better than MPP)

Top 5 Singles

1. Phoenix: 1901 - Catchy as fuck.
2. Franz Ferdinand: Ulysses - Fantastic lead single from their disappointing third album. C'mon lets get hiiiiiiiiiiigh.
3. Julian Casablancas: 11th Dimension - Again, devastatingly catchy. Best song on the album.
4. Animal Collective: What Would I Want? Sky - Animal Collective's second best song (behind Fireworks). Amazing.
5. Arctic Monkeys: Cornerstone - Best song Alex Turner has ever written.

Other Singles I Enjoyed: Animal Collective: Summertime Clothes (Screw My Girls, this is MPP's best track); Peter, Bjorn & John: Nothing To Worry About (the token good track on PB&J's shitty new album); Metric - Help I'm Alive (I enjoy this track in 2k10)

[J@3]

Nah go for it re: mediafire links, after I discovered all the Pinoys were making their own God-awful soundtracks for 2K and uploading them for people to download, anything illegal related to music went out the door for me.

Will post my list later on.

[Skills]

Not many of you guys are into Hip-Hop/R&B, so my lists will probably seem irrelevant when you're comparing each other's... if you even do so, considering this thread seems somewhat dead already. But whatever, here it goes.

Top 5 Albums


5. Jay-Z - The Blueprint 3 - Despite failing to reach its extremely high expectations, Jay-Z managed to put out a listenable album and shows why he's still the king of Hip-Hop. His flow and wordplay are still on point and the singles are on the album are some of his best work.


4. Day26 - Forever In A Day - Day26 is the only group/artist from my list from last year to make an album this year. They come back strong on their sophomore record, with a good, listenable amount of uptempo club bangers and low tempo ballads. Although I think they shined much brighter on their deubt.


3. Kid Cudi - Man On The Moon: The End Of Day - Kid Cudi brought a fresh breath of air to Hip-Hop this year. His different, unique sound is what made the album so appealing to listen to. Kid Cudi's adventurous, soul-searching lyrics are a great change from the average cocky, get-money lyrics you hear from the average rapper.


2. Chris Brown - Graffiti - This is easily the greatest album Chris Brown has ever put out. I love every song on the album. Chris Brown shows why he should be on top of the R&B world. It's too bad the Rihanna incident will overshadow the greatness of his album and won't achieve the success it deserves.


1. Drake - So Far Gone - OK, so I know this is technically a mixtape, but for what it's worth, it came out as an EP later on. More importantly though, it was better than a vast majority of the Hip-Hop albums of 2009. I was always a big Drake fan, and he really blew up mainstream this year. I'll be anxiously awaiting his debut album coming out in March.

Other Albums I Enjoyed:
Trey Songz - Ready (Comes back a lot harder after his last album 'Trey Day')
J. Holiday - Round 2 (Not as well-rounded as 'Back Of My Lac', but still a fairly good album)
Mario - D.N.A. (Much better than 'Go!', and a pretty good album overall, but not good enough to crack my top five)

Top 5 Singles

5. Drake f. Kanye West, Lil Wayne & Eminem - Forever
4. Iyaz - Replay
3. Jay Sean f. Lil Wayne - Down
2. Jason Derulo - Whatcha Say
1. Drake - Best I Ever Had

Other Singles I Enjoyed
Jay-Z f. Rihanna & Kanye West - Run This Town
Keri Hilson f. Kanye West & Ne-Yo - Knock You Down
Kid Cudi f. Kanye West & Common - Make Her Say
Day26 - Put It On Her
David Guetta f. Akon - Sexy Bitch

...plus so many more. But obviously, I can't list them all.

The Day26 link I posted is the version with Diddy and Yung Joc. Although I'm reffering to the unfinished version without them, but I can't find a YouTube link, so I posted the finished version instead.

[Lamrock]

Only album on your album I listened to is BP3. The one good track on it didn't make your singles list!

[Skills]

Like I said, there were so many singles in 2009 that I liked but I couldn't list them all. Although I'm starting to think that 'Run This Town' (favourite song off BP3) should replace 'Fireflies' on my "Other Singles I Enjoyed" list. Since it looks like I've played 'Run This Town' far more than 'Fireflies'. Plus, I only started getting into 'Fireflies' not too long ago. Also, I think I'll switch 'Forever' and 'Make Her Say''s spots.

So Lamrock, what was your favourite song off BP3? Besides 'Run This Town', I also loved 'Empire State Of Mind', 'Forever Young' and 'Off That'.

[Dee.]

'D.O.A' Was pretty bad-ass.

[J@3]

TOP 5 ALBUMS

1: Confession - Cancer

Genre - Hardcore
Former I Killed The Prom Queen/Carpathian/Bury Your Dead frontman Michael Crafter's new band, made up of a bunch of big names in the Aussie hardcore scene. Released an album last year that was pretty good but this blows everything away, awesome production, the songs are brutal and a guest appearance from JJ Peters of Deez Nuts/Prom Queen "fame".

2: Gwen Stacy - A Dialogue

Genre - Hardcore/Metalcore
Awesome follow up to The Life I Know and the first with their new singer, for some reason Christian metal bands kick major ass when they're not talking about God. More melodic than most hardcore bands but use enough breakdowns to not be purely metalcore.

3: And Then There Were None - Who Speaks For Planet Earth?

Genre - Electronica/Pop/Techno
Two years ago they were a pretty brutal hardcore band, now for some reason they're doing poppy electronic music. I can't explain it but I like it so it's alright. Of the three best electrocore (I guess) releases (Watchout! There's Ghosts, This Romantic Tragedy, And Then There Were None) this one stands out the most.

4: Burden Of A Day - OneOneThousand

Genre - Post-Hardcore
Doesn't touch the greatness that was Blessed Be Our Ever After but this is a decent effort. The new singer doesn't mess things up and Remember is one of the best songs they've ever done.

5: Crymurder - Above Us The Waves

Genre - Hardcore/Death Metal
They've broken up now but before that released one of the better hardcore/death metal albums to come out of Australia not called The Red Shore.

TOP 5 SINGLES
1 - Burden Of A Day - Remember
2 - Confession - Send A Meat Truck
3 - Anime Fire - On The Wings Of Hope
4 - I Explode Like - Cyborg Assassin Ninja
5 - 50 Lions - Locrian

[benji]

This is not ranked, and I'm only spending a couple minutes on it (so I know I've probably missed a lot, especially since I more or less avoided keeping up with music this year for some reason) and I know everyone will hate them (save maybe Jae on a few, though he'll reject and denounce me after this year's list) but here's the five for 2009: (Top favorite track listed first, rest in album order.)

The Bird and The Bee - Ray Guns Are Not The Future
Too gay for everyone on here but I love this album, perfect pop.
Top favorites: Diamond Dave, My Love, Love Letter To Japan, Polite Dance Song, Witch, Birthday

Breathe Carolina - Hello Fascination
Still too much screaming, but so improved over their debut and the most Blaqk Audio like pop album of the year. Simply brilliant.
Top favorites: I Have To Go Return Some Video Tapes (okay only because the entire thing is an American Psycho reference), Hello Fascination, Welcome To Savannah, The Dressing Room, Can I Take You Home?, Velvet

Two Tongues - Two Tongues
After United Nations I wasn't big on team-ups from various bands anymore. Especially good ones. I guess this proves the theory that you need really need to tap the next notch down to deliver. Is it better than the last STD album and the last two Say Anything albums? Um... Yes. The worst thing Bemis could have done was release this in the same year as his bands latest, at least Conley knew he couldn't go up against it. (Even though Daybreak has to destroy everything ever.) Speaking of Conley, he proves yet again that he can deliver at all times.
Top favorites: Back Against The Wall, Crawl, Dead Lizard, Wowee Zowee, Alice

AFI - Crash Love
Went back to the Art of Drowning to build from, and nowhere near as good as Decemberunderground but they're borderline perfect in their execution of anything they want to do anymore.
Top favorites: Okay I Feel Better Now, Beautiful Thieves, End Transmission, Medicate, Sacrilege

Thursday - Common Existence
Okay, they couldn't ever hope to compete with the last two, but this was pretty good. Geoff kills no matter what.
Top favorites: Beyond The Visible Spectrum, As He Climbed The Dark Mountain, Love Has Led Us Astray, You Were The Cancer

Cobra Starship - Hot Mess
Cobra knows pop. Not as good as their last album, but good enough.
Top favorites: Fold Your Hands Child, You're Not In On The Joke, Living In The Sky With Diamonds

I'll probably discover my real five for 2009 next year.

EP OF THE YEAR: Lets Get It - Digital Spaces
I liked this, but couldn't put it on the albums. Probably would've made top five if I wanted.

WORST ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Dead By Sunrise - Out Of Ashes
One of the worst things I've ever heard in my entire life.

SINGLE TO ADMIT UNDER WATERBOARDING IS THE BEST SONG OF THE YEAR: Lady Gaga - Bad Romance
Sorry. It's too much.

ALBUM OF THE YEAR TO PRETEND I DIDN'T LISTEN TO FIVE OR MORE TIMES: Lady Gaga - The Fame Monster
Top favorites: So Happy I Could Die, Bad Romance, Alejando, Dance in the Dark

BEST OF THE BOOTIE TRACK OF THE YEAR: Hathbanger - Party and Bullshit
Runners-Up: Dan Mei and Marc Johnce - Chasing Cars That Way, Party Ben - SIngle Ladies (In Mayberry) (and special mention to DJ Lobersterdust - NirGaga which got Copyright Attacked.)

TUBEDUBBER OF THE YEAR - Anything set to the "Perfect Sex" clip
PM FOR LINKS.

[J@3]

Ben has finally [/procrastination]'d

[Doobie]

Lamrock this is off topic kind of but I think the best song Alex turner had ever written was '505'. It didn't come out in 09 but I think it holds more to it lyrically then cornerstone does.