T. Cole Rachel’s Top 10 Albums of 2009
By T. Cole RachelPersonally, I hated much of 2009. Too many cool people died, my house burned down (well, the top floor of it, anyway), my freelance work was sketchy (except for Critical Mob, natch!) and my personal life was perpetually in shambles. One of the only bright spots in my year happened to be the stream of awesome music that drifted across my eardrums. Just like it was back in my weepy, gothy teen years, music was one of the few things that actually made me feel better last year. Listening to the Fever Ray record totally touched that same clove-smoking, eyeliner wearing part of myself that loved Siouxsie and The Cure when I was 16, while the Washed Out EP made me wish I still took extasy and hung out in the "chill" tent at raves. The Grizzly Bear record made me feel both emotional and in touch with my art school, sweater-wearing college self (which is both sweet and vaguely tragic), while listening to Animal Collective and seeing them play live actually made me feel like some contemporary version of a hippie (god help me). More than anything, I needed music to help take me away from real life during 2009, and lucky for me there was plenty of gorgeous music to do just that.
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 Fever RayFever RayBeautiful, frightening, and incredibly fascinating. >> |
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 VeckatimestGrizzly BearAmbient meets acoustic in a bewitching sonic space >> |
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 Merriweather Post PavilionAnimal CollectiveFocuses freewheeling experimentalism into relatively concise song structures >> |
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 XXThe xxPerfectly composed and intensely subdued pop songs about sex and longing and sweet sweet angst. >> |
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 LogosAtlas SoundBradford Cox's most assured release to date: equal parts dreamy bedroom noodling and moody, indie-pop perfection >> |
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 Real EstateReal EstateSuburban melancholy done right. >> |
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 You Can Have What You WantPapercuts |
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 The Pains Of Being Pure At HeartThe Pains Of Being Pure At Heart |
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 Three Fact FaderEngineers |
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 CatacombsCass McCombsShaking off some of the aggressive quirkiness. >> |
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