Albums of 2009: Empire of the sun- Walking on a dream

O.K here it comes- my albums of 2009! It's been a great year. Last year spawned great albums from vampire weekend, mgmt, nick cave and the bad seeds and my #1- gaslight anthem. Yeah it was good but this year? Spewing quality out of every orifice. Maybe I should rewrite this intro and not use words like spawn or spew... Either way I should probably just get on with it- these are in no specific order (except for fanfarlo at #1 :p) as you should get them aaaaall.

Empire of the sun- Walking on a dream

Tracklisting-

1. Standing On The Shore
2. Walking On A Dream
3. Half Mast
4. We Are The People
5. Delta Bay
6. Country
7. The World
8. Swordfish Hotkiss Night
9. Tiger By My Side
10. Without You

Essential Downloads: 1, 2, 3, 4, 8

As the year begins you tend to think there's no way this year can be better than the last one and you become a little despondant. The first band I got excited for this year were joy formidable and have seen them live maaaany times since then. The first album on the other hand was this, empire of the sun's walking on a dream. I remember hearing it for the first time lying on the couch and rating the first 6 tracks on my ipod and being like this is brilliant as I was injected once more with faith in new music.

"This was the first album to make an instant impact on me this year, they're dreamy and psychadelic like MGMT, write killer and are Australian. What's not to like?" ~ Outroversion Feb '09

Classic Band/Ablum #4- Nick Cave Dig Lazarus Dig

This is a tricky time of the week as I kinda want to do pink floyd, led zeppelin, Dylan, the clash, mott the hoople etc but I figure everyone knows more than I could ever begin to say, I'm pretty sure I'm going to dedicate it to awesome albums instead. I'd call them classic but I really wanted to do a post on this album from last year-













Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds- Dig Lazarus Dig

This album came out at the same time as MGMT's Oracular Spectacular and this album is the exact reason I didn't get that into MGMT right away because I was blown away by this. I assumed it would be topping all the album lists but even the most generous ones put at number two to MGMT.

The first track I heard from this album was life changing. "more news from nowhere". A track based completely on mythology, taking themes that were written centuries ago and turning it into a masterpiece. My description at the time was "this is what i'd expect if Mars sent us the best track from their version of the rolling stone's from 2070" it sounds absolutely out of this world, like he isn't bound by the restrictions of time, space and lyrical themes. A layer of amazing music with such incredible and profound lyrics strewn over the top in a knowing yet haphazard way. I listened to this 9 minute track 20 times in a row that first day.

I pretty much bought a ticket to a gig in hammersmith on the stregnth of that one track, turns out the rest of the album is just as incredible. Nick Cave's labido infused lyrical grinding and backed by a group of hiiiiiighly talented instrumentalists. Creative, innovative, genius.

They came out to night of the lotus eaters a clanky, ambient track which set the tone for the performance. As Nick said of, we call upon the author, "this song is worth the entrance fee" I hadn't given the song that much attention due to it's mammoth elder sibling of news from nowhere. Well this track was just as incredible and unique, there's one part in particular,

"well my friend doug's tapping on the window *taptaptap* Nick: Well hey Guys: Hey doug Nick: He brings me a book of holocaust poetry and tells me to get ready for the rain, and again I called upon the author to explain"

Like how can you write this kind of stuff? It's incredible, it's profound and deep, at the same time as being nonchalent, off the cuff and uncaring. I could go on and on and on about the lyrical themes in this album but they are incredible, his best work in my opinion.

Dig Lazarus Dig
Night of the lotus eaters
Call upon the author
Jesus of the moon
More news from nowhere

Best of yesteryear

Yesteryear is an anomoly for clearly, it means last year, like yesterday means the day before today and indeed the etymology backs this up but due to it's archaic usage it is linked with the times that it was more likely to be used.

Oh, big shock i'm a nerd about language. So the best albums of last year, in my opinion, yeah i'm about 3 months late with this but whevs I'm a little bit too cool to be on time (These are all torrents in a way i apologise for that but in another way it saved me a buttload of time and is also legal, right pirate bay?! ;))

Vampire Weekend/Vampire Weekend-

This album is great, I've already mentioned them on this blog with the track ottoman which isn't on this album, very preppy, great vocals, original guitar stylings, been listening to it loads recently, someone I don't like once said it was a great album to drive to, I completely agree!

Nick Cave & the bad seeds/Dig lazarus Dig-

When I first heard more news from nowhere I listened to it about 20 times in a row and for a 10 minute song that takes alot of doing! At the time I described it as sounding like "if we got a radio signal from mars and it was playing the red planet's very own rolling stones with the lyrics of the most tripped out lennon/mcartney", I went to see them live based on this and that made me see how fantastic and original the entire album is. Alot of old people at the gig though, i hope i always find that weird.

MGMT/Oracular Spectacular-

O.K So it won NME album of the year and single of the year, at the time it came out I thought nick cave was better, as an entire album I still do. In terms of singles, this wins for sure and well done on them for that because with 4 songs they've made a lot of people forget about the rest of the album and just remember the highlights, I'd feel dirty if I ever made an album like that.

Death cab for cutie/Narrow Stairs-

There are some really flawless tracks on this album, yeah, it's not their best album, yeah it's probably their worst, yeah it has a couple of the worst tracks ben's ever written on it (Twin sized bed, talking bird, pity and fear) but the other half of the album is IMMENSE! Bixby Canyon Bridge which is probably one the most highly anticipated tracks in their history, Cath, You can do better than me, the latter which sounds like the beatles could have done it, the only track off the album not to be played live. look I love death cab, they had to go in here- shoot me.

Lightspeed Champion/Falling of the Lavender Bridge-

He's on conor obert's label, I believe this album incredibly went to #1 in the shitty pop obsessed country of england. He's a great lyricist, thinks about music all day every day, original and a cool guy. Seen him a couple of times live, first time supporting bright eyes second time in leicester. he used to be in test icicles and got to see him play guitar with ox.eagle.lion.man that night and he just watched the gig with everyone else before then.

Last Shadow Puppets/Age of the understatement-

I was in canada while they were doing their thing so I didn't get to see them live, if miles kane was talented they could be the next lennon and mccartney, unfortunately he's not so don't get any big ideas! Fortunately Turner is and he's as forward thinking as lennon, this album shows this, I don't think anyone else coudl have gotten away with this but he did with applomb, that's right applomb...

Courteeners/St Jude-

After leaving their gigs I tend to call them the next libertines, NME don't like Liam Fray and he's not on drugs and can play the guitar (Disclaimer: I loved the libertines and pray for the day they get back together) but none the less this albums brilliant and killer live, check it out.

I'll be back with the best of 09 next week...