JR's Best Albums in the First Half of 2010

Well - it's been awhile since I last posted due to a number of things keeping me busy, but I wanted to share a list of my favorite albums that arrived in the first half of 2010. Last year, there was a single standout album that stuck for me immediately and was never superseded at any point after it came out. In fact, if it came out this year, it would also be the best album in the first half of 2010. And that album would be............Bitte Orca by Dirty Projectors. But I digress. This post is about new music, not year-old music that still blows my mind over a year later. Here is my top 10 in order from best to 10th best:

1. Teen Dream by Beach House

What an amazing album by Beach House. I can honestly say that I like every single track. Definitely my favorite so far this year, and very cool DVD that accompanies the vinyl copy of this album containing a different music video for each song. I also *saw* them in concert earlier this year and they sounded awesome live. I use the term "saw" loosely since the concert was at Diesel and the stage is only viewable for approximately 25 people after they renovated the place to make it awful for concert viewing. I was not one of the 25.

2. Brothers by The Black Keys

But for Teen Dream, this would be my favorite album by a long shot. There is a significant gap between my first and second choices and the remaining eight. I feel like this is potentially the Keys' masterpiece. Everything is really working for them on this album and I love the fact that they stuffed the album with 15 tracks, none of which are filler in my opinion even though some "professional" critics have said that the album is too long. Sometimes people feel like they need to say something negative for credibility purposes, but I have nothing negative to say here. The riffs are sweet and the use of falsetto on several of the tracks adds a new dimension to the Keys sound that works really well. A five star effort in every respect. Great music videos too, especially the one for "Tighten Up".

3. Expo '86 by Wolf Parade

A great effort by Wolf Parade after At Mount Zoomer, which was a bit of a letdown.

4. Forgiveness Rock Record by Broken Social Scene

I've been coming back to this album a lot lately. It's definitely an improvement over their last self-titled album and over Brendan Canning's lead effort. I would still rank it a notch below Kevin Drew's album and it's not nearly as good as You Forgot It in People, but not much is from the last 10 years!

5. Treats by Sleigh Bells

6. Astro Coast by Surfer Blood

7. Gorilla Manor by Local Natives

8. Fang Island by Fang Island

Just saw Fang Island with The Flaming Lips and they were a great opening act. Awesome energy and incredible guitar work. Anytime you have three dudes dueling on the guitar and it doesn't come across as cheesy, you're doing something right. Very nice debut album. "Life Coach" is one of my favorite tracks of the year, even if it sounds a little like "You Make My Dreams" by Hall & Oates (as my fellow blogger Roberto so astutely pointed out before the show - Fang Island, not Hall & Oates).

9. Heartland by Owen Pallett

10. King of the Beach by Wavves

I also have one honorable mention that is growing on me and might be a lot higher on my end of year list: Mines by Menomena. Also, it hurt me not to put This is Happening by LCD Soundsystem on the list, but it really lost some steam for me as of late. I like three tracks a lot, but the rest of the album just doesn't do it for me.

Rock on!

Jimmy's Best Albums of 2009

Ok, so there are like three weeks left until the end of the year, and something great might come out in those three short weeks, but I'm not gonna sweat it. I also like to get a jump up on the competition, so before anyone can say, "you just copied [insert random blog or music site]'s list", I wanted to clear the air with my Best Albums of 2009 list. I have ranked, what I consider to be, the 20 finest albums released during the 2009 calendar year, along with the top 5 eps. Each album is ranked with the first being the best. There are also a few honorable mentions that didn't quite make the top 20, but were close, so I need to give them their props.

Top 20 Albums of 2009:

1. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca


To me, this album stands out as being far and away better than the rest this year. Now, don't get me wrong, I loves me some Animal Collective, and Merriweather Post Pavilion has some incredible tracks (and will no doubt top many a list this year); but as an album, nothing works better than Bitte Orca. The technical proficiency of the instrumentation is extraordinary and the harmonies are just absurd. I'll go out on a limb and say that this is going to fall into the realm of classic. It just works on every level and when I first listened to it, I felt like I was hearing something completely new and mind-bending. This was the feeling that I had when I listened to albums like The Soft Bulletin, Kid A and Doolittle for the first time and those have all fared pretty well in retrospect. Sometimes albums grow on you after awhile and then become your favorite, and sometimes an album is so damn awesome it just hits you in the mouth and blows your mind the first time you hear it. The former is a good album, the latter is the best of the year. Bitte Orca has quite a left hook.

2. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion


3. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
4. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
5. Atlas Sound - Logos


6. Bear In Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth


7. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Self-Titled
8. The xx - Self-Titled
9. A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head


10. Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer
11. Cymbals Eat Guitars - Why There Are Mountains
12. Neon Indian - Psychic Chasms
13. The Big Pink - A Brief History of Love
14. Washed Out - Life of Leisure
15. Memory Tapes - Seek Magic
16. Alec Ounsworth - Mo Beauty
17. The Antlers - Hospice
18. Dan Deacon - Bromst
19. Built to Spill - There is No Enemy
20. Andrew Bird - Noble Beast

Honorable Mentions: Jay Reatard - Watch Me Fall; Heartless Bastards - The Mountain; M. Ward - Hold Time; Morrissey - Years of Refusal; Donora - Self-Titled.

Top 5 EPs of 2009:

1. Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind
2. Bon Iver - Blood Bank
3. No Age - Losing Feeling
4. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Higher Than The Stars
5. Deerhunter - Rainwater Cassette Exchange

Honorable Mention: Death Cab for Cutie - The Open Door

If you strongly disagree with any of my choices, I would love to hear it. Also, if there are any glaring omissions, drop me a line.

Cheers and Orcas!

Seis.

Downloads:
Dirty Projectors – “Six Pack” (Mediafire link)
Filligar – “Lot Six” (Mediafire link)
Explosions in the Sky – “Six Days at the Bottom of the Ocean” (Mediafire link)