Favourites of 2009

Happy New Year everybody! I've finally gotten around to posting my list of my favourite albums of 2009. And here it is:

1. Handsome Furs - Face Control
2. The xx - xx
3. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
4. Junior Boys - Begone Dull Care
5. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
6. Patrick Wolf - The Bachelor
7. Patrick Watson - Wooden Arms
8. Fever Ray - Fever Ray
9. Passion Pit - Manners
10. Annie - Don’t Stop
11. The Raveonettes - In And Out Of Control
12. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It’s Blitz!
13. jj - jj n° 2
14. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
15. A.C. Newman - Get Guilty
16. Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels
17. Peter Bjorn And John - Living Thing
18. Silversun Pickups - Swoon
19. La Roux - La Roux
20. Young Galaxy - Invisible Republic
21. Bat For Lashes - Two Suns
22. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
23. Metric - Fantasies
24. Matt & Kim - Grand
25. Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
26. Kings Of Convenience - Declaration Of Dependence
27. Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer
28. Say Hi - Oohs And Aahs
29. Au Revoir Simone - Still Night, Still Light
30. Mos Def - The Ecstatic

Once again, as it was in 2007, my favourite album of the year belongs to Handsome Furs - Face Control. I almost didn't make it my number one just because I didn't like it as much as Plague Park. But when all is said and done, I just couldn't find an album that I enjoyed and listened to as much. A very close second (it was at #1 for most of the last few months) was the fantastic self titled debut album by the xx. Rounding out the top five were Animal Collective, Junior Boys (another strong candidate for #1) and Phoenix who had the great singles 1901 and Lisztomania. The rest of the albums follow an approximate but not exact order, since it is hard to judge certain albums against each other. There is something on each of these 30 albums that I liked, and I would recommend most of them to everyone. Biggest surprises were A.C. Newman, Phoenix and Mos Def, who delivered more than I was expecting. Albums that weren't as good as I thought they were going to be, and therefore I found to be a bit of a letdown were The Raveonettes, Kings Of Convenience and Metric, but they were still decent. Notable debuts include the afore mentioned xx as well as Fever Ray and Passion Pit.

-&Him