2009: Some good music

December is upon us! This year went by mightily fast. I've put together by Best of '09 show; a Top 10 list with a couple of other tracks to round out the hour. But what of all the other stuff I enjoyed from this year? Here's a list of albums from this year that aren't shit:

• Ian Brown - My Way (Stone Roses singer is still alive. And making half-decent pop -- if entirely pompous.)
• Lotus Plaza - The Floodlight Collective (Ambient rock record by Deerhunter's Lockett Pundt)
• The Horrors - Primary Colours (Formerly shit band grow up, call in Portishead's Geoff Barrow. Pretty fantastic, really.)
• Atlas Sound - Logos (Not as good as Microcastle/Weird Era Cont., but not a misstep either. That song with Panda Bear is incredibly irritating, though)
• Ladytron - Live at London Astoria 16.07.08
• The Flaming Lips - Embryonic (Impressive, manic piece of psychedelic catharsis.)
• Chet - Chelsea Silver Please Come Home (The best local band puts out a beautiful folk rock album. If you've a soft spot for falsettos, check this out)
• Tonstartssbandht - An When (Imaginative lo-fi fucks that are bound to blow up one day. Or revel in their obscurity and be poor.)
• James Husband - A Parallax I (Jeremy from of Montreal compiles all of his solo works, a nice collection of psychedelic indie rock)
• The Pastels / Tenniscoats - Two Sunsets (Glasgow mainstays team up with a Japanese pop group to create a dreamy twee/folk pop record)
• Kid Cudi - Man on the Moon: The End of Day (Makin' cash, and a few solid tracks on the way)
• Sally Shapiro - My Guilty Pleasure (Italo Disco 'n' shit. Good)
• Tim Hecker - An Imaginary Country (Ambient electronics)
• Japandroids (Ludicrously excitable fellows. See "The Boys Are Leaving Town")
• Paten Locke - Super Ramen Rocketship (Soulful hip hop. Dilla-esque? I have no idea what I'm talking about)
  
• Q-Tip - Kamaal the Abstract (Jazzy hip hop, but actually has its garagey moments!)
• Raekwon - Built Only For Cuban Linx II (Solid Wu album)
• The Twilight Sad - Forget the Night Ahead (Dark shoegaze. With Scottish vocals.)
• The xx - xx - (More hype to be believed.)
• Filthy Dukes - Fabriclive 48 [DJ compilation]
• You Say Party! We Say Die! - XXXX
• Mos Def - The Ecstatic (A solid album, although Mr. Most Definitely's idiotic rants on Real Time kind of ruin it for me)
• Plastiscines - About Love (French girls that think they're Elastica)
• Girls - Album (Elvis Costello impostors LOL, believe some of the hype)
• Jern Eye - Vision (Great underground hip hop)
• Patrick Wolf - The Bachelor (More operatic rock from the young master of the genre, though he does his best here to emulate Billy Corgan)
• Sunset - "Loveshines II" - 7" (Bill Baird and co. put out one of last year's best albums, and this single is more of the same. It's too bad Gold Dissolves to Gray, the album they put out after this, is pretty subpar...)
• St. Vincent - Actor (She plays guitar and doesn't comb her hair)
• The Clientele - Bonfires on the Heath (Breezey, soulful folk rock)
• Thavius Beck - Urban/Subsonic (Experimental, ambitious electro)
• Black Mold - Snow Blindness Is Crystal Antz (Chad VanGaalen fucks around with electronics in his basement, which actually makes for a pretty good album).
• Health - Get Color (Noise! Not really. But good!)
• LCD Soundsystem - 45:33 The Remixes (Songs are too long, but some of it, like the Prince Language Remix, are absolutely killer)
• Deluka - Deluka EP (Chart fuckery by myself helped this go #1 back in late October! Danceable, arrogant synthpop to be enjoyed by danceable, arrogant types)
• Various - Eccentric Soul: Smart's Palace (A fine Numero Group compilation. Is it just me or did they release a lot more stuff in 2008 than they did this year?)
• Madlib - Beat Konducta Vol. 5-6: A Tribute To... (Hip hop. Yes. Madlib, yes.)
• Arctic Monkeys - Humbug (Brit Rock superstars offer both their most solid, and mature record to date)
• The Happy Hollows - Spells ("Tambourine", really. Fun, girl-fronted, noisy indie rock)
• Blur - All the People: Live at Hyde Park 02 July 2009