Lists and Numbers
2009 WB Album of the Year - 40 - 31
Featuring: The Crayon Fields, Bibio, Bat for Lashes, The Flaming Lips, Bill Callahan, Arctic Monkeys, The Very Best, Wild Beasts, My Latest Novel, Leader Cheetah
Written by: Wireless Bollinger
Published: Feb 25th '10
Many of you may have noticed the absence of Wireless Bollinger from your computer screens over the past several months. That gaping void in your musical web-surfing experience didn’t mean that we had stopped listening. No, we here at WB are tirelessly consuming every scrap of music we can lay our ears on, whether we can share with you or not. Now that we have returned, bigger and better, we finally have a chance to unleash all of our pent up opinions on the music from 2009.
The result is the list we present for you now: the (belated) 50 best albums of last year as voted by the WB staff. While there seemed to be universal consensus on some of the biggest albums of the year, quite a few surprises popped up in the lower rungs. So, please accept this as an apology for our prolonged hiatus. Sit back, relax, and reminisce with us as we take you through our favourite music from 2009…
40. The Crayon Fields – All the Pleasures of the World
Melbournian nerdpop-folksters The Crayon Fields have been quietly building momentum – and a following – for years now, and their second release set about building on that base. Here, nothing stands out more than the boy-to-man transition undertaken by lyricist and frontman Geoff O'Connor. He finds himself on the dancefloor more than once; uncomfortable, out of place, but developing a strange sense of belonging. Supporting this growing maturity came a step forward musically, too. New neighbour Jens Lenkman's fingerprints are all over the album, and the Crayon Fields may have just established themselves as Australia's band-you-should-know-but-probably-don't.
39. Bibio – Ambivalence Avenue
Prolific UK electro-folk producer Stephen Wilkinson put out three full-length releases in the 14 months to December, and Ambivalence Avenue is comfortably the best; the one where his voice found the proper niche in amongst his skittering acoustics. The one where his incorporation of nature sounds walked in step with his similar subject matter and pastoral instrumental inflections (read: flute). What really pushes this one ahead of its siblings, though, was Bibio's incorporation of elements of hip-hop, adding bounce and verve to an already eclectic, enticing package.
38. Bat for Lashes – Two Suns
Natasha Kahn, aka Bat for Lashes, was a fairly polarising figure upon the release of her debut, Fur and Gold, in 2007; winning acclaim – and a Mercury Prize nomination – for her nouveau-hippie synth-pop – a ‘genre’ whose title tends to encourage sneers before a note is played. Two Suns went a long way to mollifying the haters, elevating her hook-driven songcraft to the fore and favouring proggy concept album themes. Which was less hippy. Oh, and she scored another Mercury nomination.
37. The Flaming Lips – Embryonic
The fans had been losing hope – At War With the Mystics was, frankly, a mess, and Coyne and Co. seemed to be being overwhelmed by their quirk and their pop cuteness. So, in 2009, The Flaming Lips stopped trying to make 'Do You Realize' again, and burst onto the scene with a vigour and weirdness that a bunch of guys with twenty-six years and twelve albums under their belts had any right creating. Embryonic's name is suggestive of so many things, but more than anything, it is a rebirth of sorts for the band, abandoning their old shell for a new, heady mix of paranoid kraut-rock and delicious in-studio rock. The Lips are back.
36. Bill Callahan – Sometime I Wish We Were an Eagle
The nonsensical grammar of Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle, Bill Callahan’s second post-Smog release, is the first indication that this album is something quite special. His usual lo-fi, sparse instrumentation is complemented here with well-judged lashings of strings and French horn. Callahan remains a compelling lyricist (he has a singular knack for a killer, memorable line), with his sometimes-confessional, sometimes-cryptic musings ranging from the droll (‘Eid Ma Clack Shaw’) to the profound (‘All Thoughts are Prey to Some Beast’). His trademark melancholic baritone is also put to good use on the repeated, imploring mantra “It’s time to put God away” on the closer ‘Faith/Void’.
35. Arctic Monkeys – Humbug
Arctic Monkeys have, to some extent, become victims of their early success. The furious hype that accompanied their debut set expectations for successive albums ludicrously high. Even worse, it created a second-tier fan base whose loyalty seems dependent on recreating Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not. Which is a shame, because as the Monkeys have aged, they – in particular frontman Alex Turner – have added amazing amounts of subtlety and nuance to their cockney wordplay and knack for songcraft. Humbug sees the band embracing their Bacharach-leaning tendencies to terrific effect, nowhere more so than the stunningly earnest ballad 'Cornerstone'. While they are unlikely to ever replicate their debut success, the Arctic Monkeys have proven that they are going to be around for some time yet.
34. The Very Best – The Warm Heart of Africa
Afrobeat may have been flavour of the month recently, but no one had the balls to embrace it as fully, as enthusiastically and as wonderfully as did Esau Mwamwaya who, with Swedish production duo Radioclit, form The Very Best. From the bombastic (read 'Circle of Life'-era Elton John) of opener 'Yalira' to retro beats to modern minimalism to traditional tribal chants, The Very Best infused everything they did with a thrilling, reverential sense of place. Even better were the guests, M.I.A. and Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig (appropriately) bringing an added layer of Western melodic sensibility to leaven the faithfully recreated sounds of Malawi.
33. Wild Beasts – Two Dancers
Those of us wondering where British indie music was heading in 2009 had our questions answered with the arrival of the sophomore album from Wild Beasts. Their debut had shown delightful flashes of an eccentric and literate pop sound but with Two Dancers they took those simple pleasures and fleshed them out with a bare-boned and stately collection of sparkling pop songs. The vocals were shared between Hayden Thorpe and Tom Fleming, both possessing spine tingling falsettos and an angular dictionary approach to lyrics that steered clear of shallow rhymes. With songs like the single 'Hooting & Howling'
and the surging melody of 'We Still Got The Taste Dancing On Our Tongue' the quartet showed that quirky and exciting English pop is still alive and well.
32. My Latest Novel – Deaths & Entrances
The second album of Glaswegian five-piece My Latest Novel is a more mature and assured effort than their interesting, eccentric debut Wolves (2006). The lush orchestration, anthemic choruses, and impeccable vocal harmonies – the band’s key strengths – are built upon here, but gone too are the more offbeat, spoken-word elements of the earlier album.
Deaths & Entrances is named after a volume of poetry by Dylan Thomas, but the obvious literary sensibilities of the band are best displayed on ‘Lacklustre’, about the beautiful young suicide victim L'Inconnue de la Seine, whose death mask adorned early twentieth-century bohemian Parisian homes and inspired numerous literary works. My Latest Novel’s trademark Scottish folk rock sound swells and soars on Deaths & Entrances and will repay repeat listens.
31. Leader Cheetah – The Sunspot Letters
Out of the Adelaide hills came Leader Cheetah in '09. Sounding fully formed with their debut album they released one of the strongest Australian releases of the year. Leader Cheetah are a band that display their influences and their evolution for all to see. There is the bruised Americana of 'Fly, Golden Arrow Parts 1 & 2' that seeks wide open spaces with a Neil Young tug on the heartstrings. Their 'radio hit' came in the form of 'Bloodlines', a surging dark anthem with that "blood is only half to blame" chorus. Singer Dan Crannitch is at times a dead ringer for Brian Molko but in the context of indie/country rock it takes on a different feeling entirely. It will be fascinating to see if they can deliver a better album than their debut.
