2009.

Well another year over....a year of travels for myself seeing parts of the world I have never seen before, and along with this came a load of great music. 2009 was a year of a lost faith- MP's expenses, the incessant global recession, Copenhagen, and 2010 seems to be a year of uncertainty, and the feeling of inevitable disaster is high, but a year of great music is inevitable (article coming soon). But alas, here are the albums that have made 2009 pretty great in hindsight:

2009 started with a plethora of pretty exciting albums from a host of american artists who, in my eyes, were on the cusp of releasing their most important record. Records from Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, Dan Deacon, and Dirty Projectors heralded in the new year in fine form. The year also had a smattering of great records from hip-hop artists such as Mos Def, Raekwon, Q-Tip and DOOM, and also the Bike For Three record was a really interesting electronicy album with the prolific Buck 65 lending his words. The year was also rich in minimal techno/IDM/dance/whatever you want to label it, records; with the Cold Cave sounding just like their name, the brilliantly/naggingly addictive Memory Tapes record, the cool Trentmoller-esque Arrivals from worriedaboutsatan, and the in-hindsight disappointing The Field album (but how could it ever top From Here We Go Sublime). My favourite record of the year came very late, as I only discovered it in early December, but upon about 3 or 4 listens it was easily my favourite album of the year. Tim Hecker's An Imaginary Country is the most engrossing, overwhelming album I have heard this year, and its depth, clarity and bleakness cannot be matched by any other album of 2009. Every listen brings new experiences, and I could go on and on, but check out my review from further love for the album (http://the-fastidious-assassins.blogspot.com/2009/11/tim-hecker-imaginary-country.html)

1 Tim Hecker- An Imaginary Country

2 Mount Eerie- Winds Poem

3 HEALTH- Get Color

4 Oneida- Rated O

5 Bibio- Ambivalence Avenue

6 DOOM- Born Like This

7 Why?- Eskimo Snow

8 Cold Cave- Love Comes Close

9 Former Ghosts- Fleurs

10 Japandroids- Post Nothing

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11 Q-Tip- Kamaal The Abstract

12 Cymbals Eat Guitars- Why There Are Mountains

13 Animal Collective- Merriweather Post Pavillion

14 Dirty Projectors- Bitte Orca

15 Tortoise- Beacons of Ancestorship

16 Fever Ray- Fever Ray

17 Emeralds- What Happened

18 Mos Def- The Ecstatic

19 Lightning Bolt- Earthly Delights

20 Raekwon- Only Built For Cuban Linx II

21 Bike For Three!- More Heart Than Brains

22 worriedaboutsatan- Arrivals

23 Shield Your Eyes- Shield 'Em

24 The XX- S/T

25 Flaming Lips- Embryonic

Honorable Mentions

Bugskull- Communication

Memory Tapes- Seek Magic

Juan Maclean- The Future Will Come

The Field- Yesterday and Today

Kong- Snake Magnet

Zola Jesus- The Spoils

M.Ward- Hold Time

Clark- Totem's Flare

Whilst a good year of records, the year was lacking in some really strong debuts, and there have been some great singles- such as Lust for Life- Girls, from poor albums. But here are my top tracks of 2009:

Oranges- Shield Your Eyes

I Became A Prostitute- Twilight Sad

Life Magazine- Cold Cave

Red F- Dan Deacon

Collusus- Lightning Bolt

Cannibal Resource- Dirty Projectors

Ostia- Zu

Ghost In The Room- Oneida

Pleasure Race- Pissed Jeans

Antibodies- Sky Larkin

The Mouth Of The Sky- Mount Eerie

Lust For Life- Girls

Die Slow- HEALTH

All The King's Men- Wild Beasts

Evil Dogs- worriedabousatan

Arming Eritrea- Future Of The Left

Six Feet (From My Baby)- Zola Jesus

Pieces- Dinosaur Jr

House of Flying Daggers- Raekwon

Poison Arrow- Sonic Youth

The Ego's Last Stand- Flaming Lips

Relentless Fours- Grammatics

Prepare Your Coffin- Tortoise

Wet Your Knives- Kong

Peeled Apples- Manic Street Preachers

Brothersport- Animal Collective

Ready, Able- Grizzly Bear

Lost Feeling- A Place To Bury Strangers

Sugarette- Bibio

VCR- The XX

Young Hearts Spark Fire- Japandroids

Yessir Feat. Raekwon- DOOM

Supermagic- Mos Def

Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime- The Field

Pink Sabbath- Danananananaykroyd

Us and Now- Former Ghosts

Hazy Window- Bugskull

If I Had A Heart- Fever Ray

Dirty Sun- Part Chimp

100 Years Ago- Tim Hecker

I Say Fever- Ramona Falls

The year has also seen a pretty good range of movies at the cinema, with movies such as Up, A Serious Man, Where The Wild Things, Inglorious Bastards and Coraline, particularly exciting me this year, and DVD releases of Let The Right One In, Hunger, Synedoche New York and Waltz With Bashir also making 2009 a good year of cinema.