Top 14 Albums of 2009
Dec 18th
I’ve been posting my favorite artists from 2009. I’m still not done but I thought I’d go ahead and post my list of the top 14 albums of the year. Yes, 14 is a random number.
1. Paper Route – Absense
2. The Lonely Island – Incredibad
3. Them Crooked Vultures – Them Crooked Vultures
4. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
5. White Lies – To Lose My Life
6. Muse – The Resistance
7. Silversun Pickups – Swoon
8. A-Ha – Foot Of The Mountain
9. Manchester Orchestra – Mean Everything To Nothing
10. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz
11. The Temper Trap – Conditions
12. Dave Matthews Band – Big Whiskey & The GooGrux King
13. Jay-Z – The Blueprint 3
14.The Big Pink – A Brief History of Love
Best Of 2009: Them Crooked Vultures
Dec 16th
THEM CROOKED VULTURES
I like surprises. The best surprise of 2009 was Them Crooked Vultures. I’ve already ranted enough on here about the band but let me say that this album rocks. There are a lot of bands out there making good music these days but there are just as many making pure garbage. It’s refreshing to hear a band like Them Crooked Vultures on rock radio stations rather than all the whiney rock that there is out there these days. Three great musicians just jamming. Great riffs. Great fills. Good times. Rolling Stone threw it on their top underrated albums of the decade list. Might be too soon to tell for that but I don’t know. I guess you can say its underrated right now. I don’t know how it will be a year from now. There is already talk of a second album so all I can say is bring it on.
Popular Tracks: New Fang, Mind Eraser No Chaser
Recommended For Your Boombox: Gunman
Hidden Gems: No One Loves Me & Neither Do I, Reptiles, Scumbag Blues
Best Of 2009: Dave Matthews Band
Dec 15th
DAVE MATTHEWS BAND
The Dave Matthews Band’s 2009 release Big Whiskey and the GooGrux King was thier first album since the death of LeRoi Moore, their saxaphone player. The album was dedicated to Moore with GooGrux being his nickname. I remember reading an interview with Dave Matthews a month or so before this album was released and he said it was their greatest album. Thats a big statement to say from any artist. So of course once reading that my hopes were high. After my first listen through the whole thing, I didn’t know if I could agree with what he said. I thought the album was amazing. It was certainly better than thier last album, Stand Up. The more and more I thought about it though I couldn’t quite put my finger on what I thought was thier best album. Giving it another listen throughout the next few weeks I decided that this certainly was thier best album of the last ten years. It’s a shame to say that since they lost one of their members but really it makes sense. This album was for him. They brought out everything for this album. It’s a beautiful record and stands out as one of the best of the year.
Popular Tracks: Funny The Way It Is, Why I Am
Recommended For Your Boombox: Funny The Way It Is
Hidden Gems: Dive In, Time Bomb
Best Of 2009: Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Dec 15th
YEAH YEAH YEAHS
It’s Blitz! was the album we received from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs in 2009. The track Heads Will Roll stands out in my mind as one of the best tracks of the year. It’s so damn catchy. I dare say that this is probably my favorite album by them. My boombox loved it. If you missed it, get on it.
Popular Tracks: Zero, Heads Will Roll
Recommended For Your Boombox: Heads Will Roll, Dull Life
Hidden Gems: Hysteric (Download), Runaway, Little Shadow
Best Of 2009: A-Ha
Dec 15th
A-Ha
People call them a one hit wonder. Sure, they pretty much only had one hit in the U.S. with their 1985 smash hit “Take On Me” (which is one of the greatest music videos ever made). Overseas these guys were popular for years and still are today. I don’t know why they lost their appeal in the U.S. and I realize not everyone is big on groups from the 80’s but these guys are really, really talented. Some people have called them Coldplay’s uncles and with great reason. A-Ha’s latest and their final release, Foot Of The Mountain, came out in the summer of 2009 to much critical acclaim. But not in the U.S. (I don’t think it was even released over here). A few months back A-Ha announced they were calling it quits. They will be going on a huge farewell tour throughout 2010, the year that marks their 25th anniversary as a band. They’ve announced they’ll be returning to the U.S. for a two-week stay in May 2010. This marks the first time the group has toured in North America since the 80’s. That is unless you c0unt that one time they performed an acoustic set in the middle of Times Square back in 2005 in front of a small group of people. My facts may be wrong there and I’m going on what little I remember about that. At least they’re giving a big farewell tour and are going out on top. This album is very uplifting and will most likely be overlooked by many.
Popular Tracks: Foot Of The Mountain, Shadowside
Recommended For Your Boombox: The Bandstand
Hidden Gems: Mother Nature Goes To Heaven (Download), Sunny Mystery
Best Of 2009: Metric
Dec 15th
METRIC
I discovered the band Metric through Mark Hoppus on Twitter early this year. “Help I’m Alive” was catchy. I was sucked into the track by Emily Haines and her beautiful voice. Their album Fantasies became one of my favorite and most played of the year. After discovering them this year I had to listen to their older material. While I might get some negativity from some readers for saying what I’m about to say, I don’t care. Fantasies is their best album. It’s a huge step forward from their previous efforts and I cannot wait to see what comes from these guys in the years to come. Highly, highly recommended.
Popular Tracks: Help I’m Alive, Gimmie Sympathy
Recommended For Your Boombox: Sick Muse
Hidden Gems: Blindness (Download), Collect Call
Best Of 2009: Muse
Dec 4th
MUSE
I’m a HUGE fan of Muse. I bought a ticket to see them opening up for U2 this year. I bought it mainly to see Muse with U2 being a bonus. I don’t hate U2. I just love Muse. I had high hopes for their new album The Resistance. After listening to it the first time through I was blown away. They keep getting better and better. If you don’t have the album and are considering it you should get it now. I recommend the deluxe edition with the DVD. It shows the making of the album track by track and it’s very interesting and extremely entertaining. Some reason Muse has always been compared to Radiohead (which to this day I really can’t figure out) but I think they’re very original. Go ahead Radiohead fans. Bash me. I respect Muse for trying new things on each album (using a Timbalnd-ish sound on “Undisclosed Desires”). The Resistance is a great addition to their already epic list of albums. The boombox loved this one. In the top 5 of the year, for sure.
Popular Tracks: Uprising, Undisclosed Desires
Recommended For Your Boombox: Resistance (Download)
Hidden Gems: Unnatural Selection, Guiding Light, Exogenesis: Symphony, Pt. 1: Overture
Best Of 2009: The Temper Trap
Dec 4th
Here’s the first in a series of posts about music that surrounded my 2009. It’s the music that effected me the most. It’s the music I enjoyed the most. It’s the music my boombox ate up.
THE TEMPER TRAP
I can’t lie. I had never heard of this band until I saw (500) Days Of Summer. After seeing the movie I immediately went out and bought the soundtrack. Their song “Sweet Disposition” was the one track I was searching for. No disrespect to the rest of the soundtrack. It’s a phenomenal soundtrack and I highly recommend it. I had to hear the rest of their album. At first my feelings about their album Conditions weren’t the best. Some of the songs had to grow on me and I’m glad I gave it several listens. Otherwise, I would have shoved it aside and it would have gotten lost in the shuffle. This album has a few standout tracks and I’ve grown to love several of them just as much as “Sweet Disposition”. Check. It. Out. Possibly the perfect album to compliment the summer of 2009.
Popular Track: Sweet Disposition
Recommended For Your Boombox: Fools (Download)
Hidden Gems: Love Lost, Science of Fear & Fader
Song Of The Yesterday: Madness – It Must Be Love
Nov 7th
Heard this one yesterday at Buffalo Wild Wings. It came on randomly and has been stuck in my head ever since. It’s so catchy. It’s just perfect. AND it’s a cover song. It’s a rare thing to find a great cover song. The original ‘It Must Be Love’ was written and recorded by Labi Siffre. I like his version but Madness did it better in my opinion. I also find it to be better than the track they are most known for: Our House. I know where our house is. It’s in the middle of our street. You keep telling me. Over and over.
Download: Madness – It Must Be Love
Subtle Sexuality – Male Prima Donna
Oct 29th
Like comedy? How about music? What about the American version of ‘The Office’? If you answered yes to one or all three of those then you couldn’t have picked a better day to stumble across our website. The first single from Subtle Sexuality was released today. You can buy the video and the song ‘Male Prima Donna’ on iTunes right now.
Download: Subtle Sexuality – Male Prima Donna
Subtle Sexuality is Kelly Kapoor (Minda Kaling), Erin Hannon (Ellie Kemper), Andy Bernard as Nard Dog (Ed Helms) and Ryan Howard as Mr. Understood (B.J. Novak).
