Rich Bradley: The Blog » 2009 http://www.richbradley.org/blog In blog form at last Sun, 09 May 2010 20:45:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 The Best Songs of 2009 http://www.richbradley.org/blog/2009/12/the-best-songs-of-2009/ http://www.richbradley.org/blog/2009/12/the-best-songs-of-2009/#comments Thu, 31 Dec 2009 20:08:16 +0000 admin http://www.richbradley.org/blog/?p=108
  • Animal Collective – What Would I Want? Sky
  • Grizzly Bear – Two Weeks
  • Animal Collective – My Girls (one Avey song, one Panda song, from separate releases — I’m pretending this doesn’t break my one song per artist rule)
  • Destroyer – Bay of Pigs (link must be an edit — full track is a wonderful 13 minutes and 39 seconds)
  • Phoenix – Lisztomania
  • A.C. Newman – All of My Days and All of My Days Off
  • St. Vincent – The Party
  • Dirty Projectors – Stillness is the Move
  • Julian Casablancas – 11th Dimension
  • Portishead – Chase the Tear
  • Girls – Lust for Life (INSANELY NSFW video)
  • Thom Yorke – Hearing Damage
  • The Flaming Lips – Watching the Planets (also really NSFW, I swear this is just coincidence)
  • Washed Out – Feel It All Around
  • Neko Case – This Tornado Loves You
  • The xx – Crystalised
  • Dinosaur Jr. – Pieces
  • Camera Obscura – French Navy
  • Wilco – Bull Black Nova
  • The Big Pink – Dominos
    • ]]>     http://www.richbradley.org/blog/2009/12/the-best-songs-of-2009/feed/ 0     The Best Albums of 2009 http://www.richbradley.org/blog/2009/12/the-best-albums-of-2009/ http://www.richbradley.org/blog/2009/12/the-best-albums-of-2009/#comments Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:23:02 +0000 admin http://www.richbradley.org/blog/?p=105
  • Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion It’s always boring to go with the consensus choice, but what can I do? It’s probably one of the top three of the decade. I was not an AC convert prior to this record, and part of me was kind of proud for being a holdout. Turns out I was just being stupid. Still don’t like Feels though.
  • St. Vincent – Actor Just so thoroughly great from start to finish. Our generation so badly needed somebody to make Disney songs from hell.
  • Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest This was by far my most eagerly anticipated record of the year. And while it might not be the complete, unparalleled classic I’d hoped for, it’s still ridiculously good.
  • Girls – Album Simple, catchy guitar pop on the surface, but the album reveals surprising depth with repeat listens.
  • Neko Case – Middle Cyclone Best overall release by a New Pornographer in 2009, and that’s actually no small feat when you consider Dan Bejar put out one amazing, epic single and A.C. Newman had a solid solo LP.
  • Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca Ends on kind of a weak note, but a really impressive breakthrough for these guys regardless.
  • The Flaming Lips – Embryonic Some hate it, and it’s not exactly and easy listen, but it’s so much better (and so much more Flaming Lipsy) than everything they’ve released since Soft Bulletin.
  • Washed Out – Life of Leisure EP A very rewarding, appropriately brief collection of intimate bedroom synthpop.
  • Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix Not every song is a standout, but when these guys are on they’re making some of the best pop music you’ll ever hear.
  • Neon Indian – Psychic Chasms Kind of like Washed Out, but a little more angular and goofy. I mean that as a compliment.
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