Some Things I Have Been Listening To In 2009
So this is really not going to be a Top 10 list because, quite frankly, I find the idea of "Top 10" lists absurd when it comes to music. Yes, I know, this is very unlike me. I have a mathsbrain and I just LOVE putting things in order, making lists, in fact half my job involves tabulating league tables. The problem is, my mathsbrain revolts at the idea of trying to quantify something which simply does not involve numbers. A proper Chart is one thing - I'm perfectly happy to discuss who has sold the most records or who has garnered the most plays, on radio or iTunes or Last.FM or wherever. These things are quantifiable and orderable.
But aesthetic quality? Emotional impact? "Importance" (either in one's own life or in general cultural terms)? These things are not quantifiable.
Also, what on earth is a year-end (or decade-end) list supposed to be tracking? "Best Of" - as in, representative of the finest musical offerings your culture has to offer? How on earth is one supposed to judge that, given that most of us can never even hope to listen to *every* record that comes out in a given year. (And that's not even getting into the complex layering of gender and race biases that dictate what is even released, let alone critically lionsised or Rated - and how those race and gender biases interplay with notions of "genre" and pidgeonholing and ghettoisation etc. etc.)
Or is it just "Favourite"? I'm going to try and go with favourite, and try only to worry about how the music I select is representative of *myself* rather than make some sweeping statement about What Music Was Great In 2009. (especially because there are quite a few records that I have *not* heard this year, which I am convinced might have been "best" had I got to hear them in time.)
Here are some albums I really loved this year, in alphabetical order.
Black Meteoric Star - Black Meteoric Star
Techno/dance music interpreted in a way that a dirty dronerock girl can understand.
Broadcast & The Focus Group - ...Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age
Odd, warped radiophonic record about EVP. It doesn't sound like an album, it sounds like an artefact you discovered in a dusty library.
Electrik Red - How To Be A Lady Vol. 1
Super-joyous, sex-positive girl group singalongs with utterly lush production.
Fever Ray - Fever Ray
The creaky, claustrophobic sound of losing your mind from cabin fever in a deep Norwegian winter.
Lindstrom & Christabelle - Real Life Is No Cool
How could Linstrom's yummy kraut-drone-cosmic-disco possibly get any better? He could add a female singer and lashings of classic 80s girlpop.
Little Boots - Hands
Bouncy electro disco-pop with songs about maths. Come on, this was made for me.
Memory Tapes - Seek Magic
Like all those odd shoegaze-tronic 4-track tapes my sisX0r and I made in my bedroom, with a chorus pedal and a 505, only much, much, MUCH better.
Phantogram - Eyelid Movies
Nu-gazetronica that actually manages to both capture the woozy boy-girl vocals and textures that I love about shoegaze *and* still hold up as a decent electronic record.
St. Vincent - Actor
The most "grown up" record on this list, but still proof that being a grown up doesn't mean you have to become boring. A real sleeper of an album full of unexpected moments of beauty.
The xx - The xx
One of those landmark "important" records that actually seems to unite disparate groups of critics coming from completely different ends. How can so many people read so much into such minimal music?
There are other records that should have been on here, had I spent more time with them (Lightning Dust, the new Raveonettes). There are artists who were omitted simply because their record was too similar to a record I had already included (I could have tipped the Annie record over Little Boots - or ASDIG or the Telepathe record over Phantogram) There are whole genres missing - despite the education about say, R&B I've got from The Lex, and about dance... bobbins from the Erol forum - firstly because those are such single-oriented genres*, and secondly because I don't think I really *know* enough about them to make an informed choice. There are people who couldn't get it together in time to get a proper album out in this year (Aeroplane, Beyond The Wizards Sleeve, I'm looking at you.) This isn't supposed to be complete, or canonical. It's just some records I really loved.
*That's another list all together
But aesthetic quality? Emotional impact? "Importance" (either in one's own life or in general cultural terms)? These things are not quantifiable.
Also, what on earth is a year-end (or decade-end) list supposed to be tracking? "Best Of" - as in, representative of the finest musical offerings your culture has to offer? How on earth is one supposed to judge that, given that most of us can never even hope to listen to *every* record that comes out in a given year. (And that's not even getting into the complex layering of gender and race biases that dictate what is even released, let alone critically lionsised or Rated - and how those race and gender biases interplay with notions of "genre" and pidgeonholing and ghettoisation etc. etc.)
Or is it just "Favourite"? I'm going to try and go with favourite, and try only to worry about how the music I select is representative of *myself* rather than make some sweeping statement about What Music Was Great In 2009. (especially because there are quite a few records that I have *not* heard this year, which I am convinced might have been "best" had I got to hear them in time.)
Here are some albums I really loved this year, in alphabetical order.
Black Meteoric Star - Black Meteoric Star
Techno/dance music interpreted in a way that a dirty dronerock girl can understand.
Broadcast & The Focus Group - ...Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age
Odd, warped radiophonic record about EVP. It doesn't sound like an album, it sounds like an artefact you discovered in a dusty library.
Electrik Red - How To Be A Lady Vol. 1
Super-joyous, sex-positive girl group singalongs with utterly lush production.
Fever Ray - Fever Ray
The creaky, claustrophobic sound of losing your mind from cabin fever in a deep Norwegian winter.
Lindstrom & Christabelle - Real Life Is No Cool
How could Linstrom's yummy kraut-drone-cosmic-disco possibly get any better? He could add a female singer and lashings of classic 80s girlpop.
Little Boots - Hands
Bouncy electro disco-pop with songs about maths. Come on, this was made for me.
Memory Tapes - Seek Magic
Like all those odd shoegaze-tronic 4-track tapes my sisX0r and I made in my bedroom, with a chorus pedal and a 505, only much, much, MUCH better.
Phantogram - Eyelid Movies
Nu-gazetronica that actually manages to both capture the woozy boy-girl vocals and textures that I love about shoegaze *and* still hold up as a decent electronic record.
St. Vincent - Actor
The most "grown up" record on this list, but still proof that being a grown up doesn't mean you have to become boring. A real sleeper of an album full of unexpected moments of beauty.
The xx - The xx
One of those landmark "important" records that actually seems to unite disparate groups of critics coming from completely different ends. How can so many people read so much into such minimal music?
There are other records that should have been on here, had I spent more time with them (Lightning Dust, the new Raveonettes). There are artists who were omitted simply because their record was too similar to a record I had already included (I could have tipped the Annie record over Little Boots - or ASDIG or the Telepathe record over Phantogram) There are whole genres missing - despite the education about say, R&B I've got from The Lex, and about dance... bobbins from the Erol forum - firstly because those are such single-oriented genres*, and secondly because I don't think I really *know* enough about them to make an informed choice. There are people who couldn't get it together in time to get a proper album out in this year (Aeroplane, Beyond The Wizards Sleeve, I'm looking at you.) This isn't supposed to be complete, or canonical. It's just some records I really loved.
*That's another list all together
posted by Masonic Boom | 11:14 am
8 Comments:
I forgot you liked Little Boots! Are you on her mailing list? Because she made a laser harp and is in the process of putting up videos, IT IS SO AWESOME.
And...I've been pretty bad about checking out new music this year (what do I know about now that I didn't know about in 2008? Lady Gaga and Sylvester), so I should look into some of the stuff on this list.
a laser harp? OK, that is so freaking cool. I get so frustrated with the way LB is marketed sometimes, as this Kylie wannabe in ridiculous fashiony clothes when she is also THE KIND OF GIRL WHO BUILDS HER OWN SYNTHESISERS.
(MarkG) Being one means she gets to do the other.
Have to say, of all the "LaRoux/Gaga/Boots" stuff, it was "Little Boots" that seemed the only one worth watching. Dunno why, and now I do.
Oh, and I take it you've heard the new LOTP single track?
whoa apologizing for extreme lateness of comment but:
what I find really interesting about Little Boots is that "the way she's marketed" is totally who she is. her style is a combination of girly and psychedelic; she has tiny unicorns on her piano and they all have names, but she also does build her own synthesizers :)
I suspect that the way that she presents herself and the way that she is "marketed" in the (UK especially) press, etc. might be slightly different.
I have heard none of the records you mention. This for me has been the year where I completely lost touch with what the Young People are listening to. The XX - have heard nothing by them, but have them down as one of those here today, gone tomorrow trend bands.
That Focus Group/Broadcast record always sounds great. I am loving Trish Keenan's new crazy lady persona.
I am drifting towards trying the Little Boots record, but am a bit put off by her glamour girl appearance.
LB isn't a glamour girl. She's a total Geek Girl who sometimes wears glittery dresses.
I think I keep seeing the same picture of her.
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