Last time this year I was worrying about writing an annual top 10 albums list. There simply wasn’t enough albums that I felt happy about including on the list, causing several entries to appear in the final list that wouldn’t have even dreamed of making it on any other year. In other words, 2008 was disappointing.

I’m worrying slightly again, wondering what on earth to include on this list and in what order. This time however it’s for the completely opposite reason. 2009 has been a brilliant, brilliant year in music and as I choose to see which 10 make it to the Chosen Pile, I have to look at all the ones that are left outside that group and feel sad over not allowing them a chance in the spotlight as well. There’s too much good stuff to choose and rank from!

But here we go.

A quick overall word about 09. A really intriguing thing is that this could be called the year of lyrics. Now I’m a person who does love his lyrics but I’m not a huge geek – I can safely enjoy and sing along to e.g. Red Hot Chili Peppers without having to hold back tears on what Kiedis is shrieking. However, 2009 has been packed with albums where the lyrics are an integral part of the entire thing. Albums where my personal enjoyment leaped tenfold when I stopped still and listened to what was being said, albums where the lyrics are tied to a concept integral to the album’s creation, albums where the lyrics actually became one of the main focus points and one reason why I kept on playing the albums. Even albums where I didn’t fall in love with the lyrics were still made with lyrics as a focal point: concept albums and so forth.

But the music is the main focal point. And here we go, the music. First (or last?) five are here, the next presented tomorrow. There’s absolutely no reason involving ‘keeping tension’ or any other such tripe, it’s more just the fact that my entries tend to be a bit TLDR and therefore cutting it up makes it more readable.

10.

Franz Ferdinand – Tonight: Franz Ferdinand

There was an absolutely furious battle over the #10 position, with three albums of entirely different natures racing against eachother. And like in any good 80’s teen film, the underdog beat the two old favourites. Tonight: Franz Ferdinand is simply too damn captivating.

After the terrible second album I was already about to write Franz Ferdinand as a one-album fluke (let’s not forget how the self-titled debut was a genuine breath of fresh air when it was released, and how it still reigns over all of its subsequent imitators). Tonight taking ages to record didn’t help. Yet when the band eventually emerged from the studio and showed us their new baby, this particular blogger was awestruck.

The same grooved up, funkified rhythm sections and jagged guitars are still there but this time with a new dangerous twist. Rather than tongue-in-cheekily grooving along, the Franz of Tonight is the guy in sunglasses at the middle of the night, stalking and up to no good. Tonight is the darker side of the hedonistic club life and broken relationships on the dance floor, its soundworld filled with grooves more ominuous and analogue keyboards buzzing and swirling. The centerpiece, the 8-minute fuzz bass epic “Lucid Dreams” has to be heard to be believed.

And in the end, it’s goddamn catchy and makes your body move.

MP3: Lucid Dreams

Ulysses

9.

John Frusciante – The Empyrean

The Empyrean was the forefunner favourite back when it was first released at the very beginning of the year. Now it resides at #9, which only goes on to show how brilliant this year has been.

Frusciante’s concept album about a journey to the mind or somethingorotherelsespiritual sounds like a magnum opus. Everything he has recorded during his solo career meshes into one 10-song collection that is the most ambitious solo Frusciante yet. Frusciante’s favoured home-warm production values merge with grandeur (but never epic) songwriting and scope of the songs, extended instrumental passages working together with the man’s best vocals yet. Details flutter about everywhere in sound and the flow and cohesiveness of the album is immaculate.

And it hosts some brilliant songs as well. “Unreachable” has already become something of a legendary tune among fans, the cover of “Song to the Siren” floats in the most blissful, serene way as possible, “Central” shows fierceness that Frusciante rarely shows in his solo work, “God” and “Heaven” are classic J-Fru, and “Dark/Light” takes the surprise award with its excellent switch from a murky piano introspectiveness into drum machine & synth filled choir finale.

Like Frusciante said in his own letter following the album’s release, The Empyrean is best played in a dark room either with headphones on or loudly from a stereo system. Its immensely unified, cohesive sound transports the listener to somewhere else for its length.

MP3: Central

Unreachable

8.

Kent – Röd

I blabbed about this in fair length about a month ago, so to repeat myself again would be rather daft.  That said, good things can often need repeating, so I suppose I should nutshell my feelings about Kent’s latest one month onward.

And… they haven’t changed. Except “Idioter” is somewhat more tolerable these days, even if it continues to sound badly out of place. But elsewhere Röd is a fiercely tight album, flowing perfectly and effortlessly in an unified style. Kent’s further exploration towards synthpop succeeds fiercely well and several songs are well worth of inserting into the canon: “Vals för Satan” continues to raise the hairs on the back with its awe-inspiring pulse, “Svarta linjer” dovetails gloriously in high skies and is backing vocal heaven, “Hjärta” and “Ensamheten” pulsate dramatic emotion with the former relying on a grand orchestrated ballad to do so while the latter wrecks the dancefloor.

Ultimately, despite the transformed surface of the band the basis of Röd is still the same, familiar Kent – hell, there’s still tracks on Röd that are reminiscent of their old guitar-heavier material in certain ways. But unlike many rock artists who turn to electronics for a change, Kent shows that they’re ready to absorb everything that belongs to the new world they wish to inhabit and they have the inspiration to pull it off majestically.

MP3: Svarta linjer

Töntarna

7.

Manic Street Preachers – Journal for Plague Lovers

A case in point of 2009 being a lyrical year: the entire reason Journal for Plague Lovers exists is its lyrics. Dead member Richey Edwards’ leftover rambles, lyrics and poetry was adapted by the rest of the band as a tribute. Yours truly was shaking – the band themselves were comparing the album as the new The Holy Bible (the band’s third album, cult classic and what is often hailed as Edwards’ personal album), and the last time the band was rehashing their past it turned out to be rather awkward (2007’s Send Away the Tigers that’s pretty much as stereotypic as the band can get).

But I was wrong, oh how I was wrong. A band that sounded completely out of inspiration on Send Away the Tigers bounced right back into action and if there’s anything to be compared to their youth, it’s the sheer revitalised energy. There’s very little stylistically reminiscent of The Holy Bible, but the same fierce spirit that album had is on Journal too. The Manics are back rocking and they sound damn good at it.

And while I still favour their calmer side, the one that brought us the introspective amazingness of Lifeblood (2004) and This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours (1998), Journal is simply too fun to not love. Edwards’ gloomy lyrics are put to swingin’ rocksters made to jump up and down and sing along to, while elsewhere the band treats the more darker lyrics with an equally dark approach and turn them into nigh-funeral marches and aggressive blasters.

I’m not really the biggest fan of Edwards’ lyrics, but on Plague Lovers the band’s performance is stellar, and seeing them mess about with such revitalised vigour is a wonderful sight to a fan’s eyes after last time’s bitter disappointment. Gloomy as it may be in places, Plague Lovers is fun.

MP3: Peeled Apples

Jackie Collins Existential Question Time

6.

PMMP – Veden varaan

Here’s a surprise one. For me it’s because PMMP are a group who are known to have unleash killer songs but their albums have always been lacking, and out of nowhere in 2009 they finally fulfilled all the potential they had been building up to. For you it’s because I’ve never featured it in Indie Paws and therefore this entry shall be the album’s official introduction to the IP blogosphere.

The reason for its non-inclusion in previous articles has been that I’ve found it incredibly hard to talk about the album. It’s an album where a lot of the power comes from the lyrics – the songs are brilliant musically and the vocal performances are excellent throughout, but the final nail in the coffin are the lyrics. Sad, haunting tales of everyday fates and lives: facing the dull reality of adult life, the realistically detailed relationship issues, stories of lonely people who now face a life without happiness as they’re stuck in their small towns with no future, and the desire to escape all that sad impending doom that reality throws forth. PMMP’s style of describing everything in a very everyday, painfully relatable manner makes many of the lyrics slap the listener’s face and make the audiophile feel. Few of the songs, such as the afterlife escapade “Lautturi” work on slightly more abstract routes, but even these songs find something new to say.

The problem is, it’s all in Finnish so you go on and describe all that in English in a way that makes it any justice.

Musically, PMMP continue their slightly schizophrenic style of crafting songs but bizarrely Veden varaan makes all the rowdy rockers, quiet melancholy moments, the obligatory synth-filled vicious dance pop song, finely polished keyboard-driven pop et cetera work together. However, the key thing this time is that they all work. Each song finds something completely new and inspired and the album is full of stellar moments: the fury and rage and subsequent calming down of “Se vaikenee joka pelkää”, the atmospheric wash of “Taajama”, the post-punk explosion “Kuvia”, haunting “Tulva”, the ever-intensifying “Merimiehen vaimo”…

And of course, each one (or most, anyway) comes packed with a set of words that sting your heart. If you understand it anyway.

Mp3: San Francisco

Lautturi

The final five tomorrow! Hopefully!

Tags: Franz Ferdinand, John Frusciante, Kent, Manic Street Preachers, PMMP, top 10 of 09

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 19th, 2009 at 8:01 pm and is filed under Retrospective. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.