Time to put a ribbon on this year and finish it up. It was the most amazing, wack, gorgeous, painful, perfect, and most screwed up year I have ever had. In short, it was just as life usually is…life in a blender anyway.
The one constant, of course, was my music and I honestly think…deep breath…that 2009 has been the best year for music during my lifetime (1977-2009). There were more sick incredible albums released this year, covering every type of musical style, that I honestly have just lost track and became disoriented in my musical ecstasy. I was left speechless again and again by each band’s new offering and I felt like a kid on Christmas…all year long.
With that said, here are my MUST HAVE picks for this year, with the absolute “go out and get these albums immediately if you don’t have them already in your collection” grouping right up on top. Truly incredible stuff…
Here’s to ending this decade, having a safe New Year’s, and perhaps if we are all lucky, a little less tumultuous year waiting for us in 2010, and a lot more love…
Dig into this stuff!
Silversun Pickups, “Swoon”
Passion Pit, “Manners”
K’naan, “Troubador”
Muse, “The Resistance”
Iron & Wine, “Around The Well”
Dave Matthews Band, “Big Whiskey & The Groogrux King”
Them Crooked Vultures, “Them Crooked Vultures”
Dredg, “The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion”
U2, “No Line On The Horizon”
Zero 7, “Yeah Ghost”
Phish, “Joy”
Pearl Jam, “Backspacer”
Monsters of Folk, “Monsters of Folk”
Kid Cudi, “Man On The Moon”
White Lies, “To Lose My Life”
Animal Collective, “Merriweather Post Pavilion”
Green Day, “21st Century Breakdown”
Jay-Z, “The Blueprint 3”
Doves, “Kingdom Of Rust”
Colin Hay, “American Sunshine”
Bruce Springsteen, “Working on a Dream”
Bruce Hornsby, “Levitate”
Ben Harper, “White Lies For Dark Times”
Alice In Chains, “Black Gives Way To Blue”
Florence and the Machine, “Lungs”
The Flaming Lips, “Embryonic”
Paramore, “Brand New Eyes”
Dead Weather, “Horehound”
Eels, “Hombre Lobo”
peace…& cheers,
J