Rockfeedback Records of the Year 2009 #30-21
By: Stephen Maughan, Sofie Jenkinson, Liam Manley, Sian Norris, Dan Monsell, Alex Hibbert, Chris Helsen, Thomas Hannan
30) Dinosaur Jr. – Farm (Jagjaguwar)
Why was Dinosaur Jr.’s 9th album one of the best of 2009? Maybe it’s nostalgia, maybe it’s the relative lack of quality big loud guitar rock this year – more likely it’s the fact that when J., Lou and Murph do what they do, they just sound great. Anyone witnessing a 2009 live show will have seen that, despite Mascis’ hair being a few inches longer and somehow even more silver in hue, they were the same visceral force as back in 1985. This was maintained on Farm with their trademark wall of noise, classic rock melodies and Mascis just generally wigging out sounding both exhilarating and familiar, but never tired. [CHRIS HELSEN]
29) The Big Pink – A Brief History of Love (4AD)
The catalyst for such a bewitching brew as this? What else but love. “Love for all” they proclaim, but really that outburst feels churlish, as A Brief History of Love doesn’t feel particularly loving. Instead inside beats the heart of a malcontent, mixed with the sounds of a melancholic majority bursting out of dimly lit rooms and turning faces away from passenger windows – though The Big Pink are in essence a duo, their sound is nothing but huge – defining an experience that consistently amazes in its assured-ness. [ALEX HIBBERT]
28) The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (Fortuna Pop)
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart hits you like a warm rush up the spine, or like kissing someone you really like but also know really well - there's a sense of comfort there, but still tons of excitement too. Unashamedly similar to The Wedding Present or the sound of My Bloody Valentine when they were still very much part of the C86 pack, songs like 'Come Saturday', 'This Love Is Fucking Right!' and 'Hey Paul' are all particular stand-outs on an album that never veers far away from muffled pop songs full of side-to-side head swinging smiley faces all round. It's a lot cooler than that sounds. [DANIEL MONSELL]
27) Lightning Bolt – Earthly Delights (Load)
Before 2009, the story of Lightning Bolt records went like this – a scuzzy, poorly recorded and largely improvisational first LP, a huge leap forward to a thrilling second, a genre defining classic of a third and a slight retread of the new ground it broke with a slightly underwhelming fourth. All had some merit, all had kick ass artwork, all were accompanied by tours in which Lightning Bolt confirmed themselves to be one of the most unique live discoveries of the decade. Then came Earthly Delights. It too had merit, kick ass artwork, awesome accompanying gigs. But its riffs were bigger, its noisy bits noisier, its place in the qualitative hierarchical structure of Lightning Bolt albums... well, it’s better than Hypermagic Mountain and certainly than Lightning Bolt, probably about as good as Ride the Skies, but not quite up to Wonderful Rainbow. Anyone with a knowledge of those records however knows just how awesome that means Earthly Delights is. [THOMAS HANNAN]
26) Annie – Don’t Stop (Smalltown Supersound)
Who could fail to love Annie? An artist who has kept true to her pop artistic integrity, who, despite creating one of the defining pop albums of the decade, was inexplicably dropped, only to get re-signed, storming back on to the pop platform where she belongs. Don’t Stop is indeed a non stop pop machine. With production from luminaries such as Richard X and Xenomania, every song sounds like a hit. Showing Gaga and the Saturdays how it’s done, Annie’s sweet Scandinavian voice whispers and breathes over stomping basslines and tinkling synths to pumping effect. Whether teasing a love rival that “you’ll never have my hips” or teasing a lover that she “doesn’t like your band”, this is clearly the pop album of the year, placing Annie firmly at the top of pop world. [SIAN NORRIS]
25) HEALTH – Get Color (City Slang)
For some reason there have always been sceptics of sorts surrounding Health. Upturned naysayer noses have often raised issue with the band's strong fashionable visual presence (both as individuals and on their widely popular, awesome T-shirts), and the band's supposedly non-purist ability to make "pop" out of "noise" music. Quite the opposite is in fact true. Health's music is a progressive step for the usage of heavy, more industrial drone sounds in rock. They create music that can get a club of chin-strokers to lose their sh*t and fucking dance. Nothing seems to highlight this better than this album's lead single and dance-floor filler ‘Die Slow’. In total, Get Color, Health's second album, is once more a fantastically exuberant proclamation of noise, rock and electronic splendour. The record is a celebration of sound; pretty, harsh, soft and basked in a blanket of ethereal vocals. In amongst singles like Die Slow, there's still some fantastically colourful textual noise experimentation that remains carefully focused to make a great album of material. You can either drive your car really fast to it, or sit at home and marvel with headphones. By the same token, it's great to see this very unique band mataining a total balance, taking forward strides to fulfilling their potential to become a widely popular rock band, whilst rightly remaining the darlings of the more leftfield appreciating (ATP) crowd. [DANIEL MONSELL]
24) Oneida – Rated O (Jagjaguwar)
Knowledgeable that people don’t listen to albums any more, Rated O was three whole CDs of entirely new, largely instrumental, doggedly experimental and forward thinking work that sat on the fence between fields marked ‘impenetrably brilliant’ and ‘brilliantly impenetrable’. Dancehall, drone, math rock – it’s all in here somewhere, hidden amongst metal, psychedelia and paranoid noise freak outs, and it makes for an excellent, excellent album that stands thus far as Oneida’s crowning glory. Listen to it from beginning to end without a break (it takes about two hours), and I’ll buy you a beer. In fact, come listen to it from beginning to end, with me, AND a beer. [TOM HANNAN]
23) Kong – Snake Magnet (Brew)
Like A Clockwork Orange remade with labourers, Kong steam out of a Transit van sporting boiler suits and Hi-Vis jackets, Gibby Haynes masks glued-fast to their faces. The threat of violence and stink of paranoia clings to this Manchester three-piece, sweated out through the convulsions of their debut Snake Magnet. Commanded with psychotic impulse, spasming Albini hold/release riffs clamour with bellicose (David) yowling, all under-pinned by rubber bullet blast-beats. When not wielding their Shellac and Jesus Lizard influences like scaffolding pipes, Kong use synths to gurgle and whirr in manic morse code, like The Locust drugged and locked in the basement. [LIAM MANLEY]
22) Anni Rossi – Rockwell (4AD)
Give it some time to sit, and Rockwell will start to take on a shape of its own, unlike any (OK, many) other records you’ll have heard. Raw, certainly and experimental often, it frequently takes you by surprise. It’s off beat like a jazz sandwich rather than an ill advised teenage band, and certainly not all neat little melodies tied up with ribbon. That said, there is a certainly similarity to each small work on the album, something which offers an element of familiarity throughout its course, echoing the simpler raw beauty of vocalists gone past such as Joni Mitchell, though her cute, gutsy lyrics have more modern roots. She’ll make a classic one day, this girl. [SOFIE JENKINSON]
21) Mumford and Sons – Sigh No More (Island)
Musically, Sigh No More is an ambitious mix of folk which verges on bluegrass, acoustic, country, even pop, with the good old banjo thrown in to electrifying results. It really is quite a breathtaking album, both lyrically and musically bursting with ideas and enthusiasm. At the end of the 47 or so minutes you forget it's a date so futuristic as 2009, such are the timeless issues of life, hope, grace, and death which Mumford & Sons deal with on Sigh No More that you can imagine a gang of brothers singing this in the middle ages marching to a hopeless battle. [STEPHEN MAUGHAN]
Artists in this article: Mumford and Sons, Anni Rossi, Kong, Oneida, Health, Annie, Lightning Bolt, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, The Big Pink, Dinosaur Jr