Best Of Oh Nine: Megan Edition

Do you guys realise it's been ten years since every time you turned on the radio that 'we're gonna party like it's 1999' song was playing? I can not tell you how thankful I am that no 80s rockstar decided to write a song about '09. Could you just imagine the Bon Jovi ballad, 'it's already 09 and we still don't know what to call this crazy decade?'

In the absense of that smash hit, let me share with you now my favourite music of the year that I had to make do with:

5. The Love Language - The Love Language
I blogged about this one already, a few months back, and it's continued to grow on me ever since then. This has got to be one of the most underrated, or at least underexposed, albums of the year. Listening to this album is like catching a sonic glimpse of another time. Not the past, neccessarily, these melodic, fuzzy little tunes could just as easily be coming from a future where waltzing is back in vogue. (Oh, wouldn't that be lovely?)
Night Dogs


4. Monsters of Folk - Monsters of Folk
Most pleasantly surprising album of 09, for me anyway. The obbssevive completionist who dwells in my soul insisted that I buy this album on account of Conor Oberst's presense in it, despite the fact that I wasn't hugely impressed with his past two non Bright Eyes releases. (Not that they were bad, they just left me all... eh). But this! Such a beautifully crafted meloncholy buy stubbornly hopeful little album! From the obvious single 'Say Please' to the classicly Oberstian 'Man Named Truth,' I loved every second of it. Having such big solo personalities (M. Ward and Jim James or Yim Yames or Y. Diddy or whoever he is now being the other two, well and Mike Mogis but outside of Bright Eyes I don't think he's so well known) could easily have ended in an ego-copalypse. It's a credit to all of them that this thing turned out so well.
His Masters Voice


3. The Killers - Live at Albert Hall
I have loved me some Killers this year. I'd have put Day & Age on the list, but that came out at the end of 08, even though I didn't come to really appriciate it this year. And in case it wasn't until I saw the Killers live at V Fest in April that I shifted from 'oh, yeah the Killers, they're pretty ok,' to 'wow, the Killers, yeah those guys are awesome.' See, I'm used to indie music, where the music is delicate and often restrained. All the bobbastic synth of Killers distracted me from the fact that, woah, Brandon Flowers can actually sing. He did this accoustic version of Sam's Town at the festival and I was just blown away. Plus, he has a southern accent and you know how I am with accents.
For Reasons Unknown (live at the Albert Hall)


2. The Mountain Goats - The Life of the World in Flux
No, I've not made an embarresing error and got the name of The Life of the World to Come wrong. The Life of the World in Flux is the bonus album that you got if you ordered the album from London's Rough Trade store. (See, when the new mountain goats album gets released two days before your birthday you can ask to have it expensively shipped across the glove to you!) With every album the goats get a little more polished, which isn't neccessarily a bad thing. But sometimes I miss the crackle and yowl of ye olde mountain goats, you know? Which it is why the demo and outtakes version of the new album has made my list in place of the album proper. Just Mr. JD and his voice and his guitar and his genius.
Psalms 40-2


1. The Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer
I simply can not say enough good things about this album. I am baffled, BAFFLED, as to why not everyone is raving about it at every chance they get. I love every song, from the first note to the last. I'm not kidding, there is not one moment of this album that I don't wholeheartedly love. You know how many other albums I can say that about? Two: Aoeroplane Over the Sea and The Sunset Tree. Seriously. I LOVE this album. I love that each song seems to almost tell the part of a larger epic narrative that I can almost but not quite grasp. I love the imagary, the atmosphere, the sweeping epic moments and the quiter ones, the recurring images and themes, everything everything everything. Seriously people. You know what, you should go elsewhere for information about this album, because you not going to hear anything other than 'buy it! it's awesome! why haven't you bought it yet!'
You Go On Ahead (Trumpet Trumpet II)