Best Albums of 2009 – So Far

Whew, I’ve been wanting to get this post up for about 3 weeks now, but you know how it goes – life prevails and hobbies sometimes take a back seat. Well, here it is. My mid-year Best Albums of 2009…so far. Out of all the music I’ve sorted through thus far this year, these are the albums that bubbled to the top, the ones I happily came back to again and again.  They may not all be Pitchfork approved (or even rated for that matter), but they worked for me.

I’m not going to go through the diligence of ranking them, so I’ve listed them in alphabetical order. I’ll save the ranking exercise for the end of year round up.  Until then, I hope you find some new music to enjoy!

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Band of Skulls
Baby Darlin Doll Face Honey
“Death by Diamonds and Pearls”

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Cymbals Eat Guitars
Why There Are Mountains
“And The Hazy Sea”

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Dan Auerbach
Keep It Hid
“The Prowl”

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Fever Ray
Fever Ray
“If I Had A Heart”

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Foreign Born
Person to Person
“Vacationing People”

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Grizzly Bear
Veckatimest
“Ready Able”

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J. Tillman
Vacilando Territory Blues
“First Born”

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Leopold and His Fiction
Ain’t No Surprise
“Broke”

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Papercuts
You Can Have What You Want
“Future Primitive”

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Speck Mountain
Some Sweet Relief
“I Feel Eternal”

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Shadows on a River
Shadows on a River
“In Business”

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The Veils
Sun Gangs
“The Letter”

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White Rabbits
It’s Frightening
“The Salesman”

Album of the Week: Cymbals Eat Guitars

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Artist: Cymbals Eat Guitars
Album: Why There Are Mountains
File Under: Indie Rock
Recommended if You Like: Pavement, Built to Spill meets The Polyphonic Spree
Featured Tracks:

“And the Hazy Sea”

One of the drawbacks of travel when you’re a music snob is losing control of your musical destiny.  Such was the case the other day as we were sailing around the Aegean Sea being force fed hefty doses of Cheap Trick. (By the way, if that’s the worst form of suffering I have to endure on this trip, I’ll take it.) After the third listen, I couldn’t help help but kindly suggest that maybe the captain might like this new band called Cymbals Eat Guitars?  The band name is certainly kick ass enough for his classic rock sensibilities anyway.  And their sound kind of has that Cheap Trick meets Polyphonic Spree meets Built to Spill vibe.

I don’t know if he’ll follow up on that suggestion but he should.  Cymbals Eat Guitars’ debut release Why There Are Mountains is likely one of the best ‘Indie’ releases this year.  And I say Indie in the true sense of the word because the album was actually independently released.  I’ve been listening to it repeatedly on this trip and it’s really grown on me.  A real grower, not a shower as they say.  This is indie rock at it’s finest, folks. Their songs are ambitious and epic (most tracks clocking in at more than 5 minutes each), with waves of smashing guitars and distortion that ebb and flow as effortlessly as the Agean Sea we’re sailing on.  Brilliant.