Best Music of 2009: #15-11

#15. Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion (listen to it here and buy it here)
This album had a lot of hype on its release and had several critics calling it 2009's best album before February even began.  That's just crazy.  I waited until March or April (of '09) to [legally] download it and I enjoyed it.  It's not my favorite album of the year, but it's good and "My Girls" was one of my favorites from the year (as I listened to it about 200 times):


#14. David Gray: Draw the Line (listen to it here and by it here)
I've been a big DG fan since White Ladder -- which isn't saying much since he had some great albums before that -- but Draw the Line was a Gray's first album since 2005 (Life in Slow Motion) and far better than 2002's New Day After Midnight.  I'm not sure if Gray will ever recapture the magic of Sell Sell Sell (my personal favorite), but DtL is a decent record and I hope Gray continues to make music like "Jackdaw":


#13. Dan Auerbach: Keep It Hid (listen to it here and buy it here)
I love me some Black Keys, so I was excited when I heard Dan was striking out on his own.  His solo stuff is different (rootsier?) than TBK and that's fine (why make a solo album that sounds like your other stuff?).  I still prefer TBK, but Dan's solo work on KIH is good and is worth a listen for any TBK fan, especially to stand-out tracks like "Heartbroken, in Disrepair" (which is one of the more TBK-esque tracks):


#12. Royal Bangs: Let It Beep (listen to most of it here or buy it here)
I didn't come across this until April of 2010, so I'm glad I waited to make this list.  Beep was produced by Patrick Carney, the drummer from TBK.  However, unlike Britt Daniels' influence on White Rabbits, the effort from Royal Bangs sounds nothing like TBK and that's absolutely fine.  They rock out, but there's an electronica aspect that's absent from TBK's sound, with some jam band tendencies to boot.  This album also had some songs that had to grow on me (mental note: catch these guys live!), but "War Bells" was love at first sound:


#11. Choir of Young Believers: This is for the White in Your Eyes (buy it here)
I've already written about this album, so I won't say much more.  I've grown a little tired of it since that post, but I still think these guys are way under the radar and I can't wait to see what tragically gorgeous tunes they produce next if they keep putting out songs like "Why Must it Always Be this Way":

Choir of Young Believers: This Is for the White in Your Eyes

Choir of Young Believers does't have the weirdest name in indie rock, but it's kinda up there (Architecture in Helsinki or Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin have that honor). What is a bit weird--in a good way--is their sound. I'm not sure how to describe it, but if I had to give it a go, I'd say it's part Fleet Foxes (lead singer's voice/lots of reverb) with an Arcade-Fire-on-horse-tranquilizers backing band. The band's label says CoYB makes musical nods to influences diverse as Roy Orbison, Pixies, The Beach Boys, and Hank Williams (and you thought Arcade Fire on horse tranquilizers was weird!).

CoYB is fronted by Jannis Noya Makrigiannis. Jannis was involved in Copenhagen's underground indie scene for a few years before he took a Justin Vernon-esque trip in 2006 and isolated himself to discover his new sound. Instead of a cabin in Wisconsin, Jannis took refuge on the Greek island of Samos. When he returned to Denmark, Jannis formed CoYB, which is sometimes just Jannis on guitar and a cellist (see YouTube video below), but at other times the CoYB stage contains seven other musicians in addition to Jannis (see Vimeo video below).

"Action/Reaction," the album's upbeat single, is in stark contrast to the rest of the album, which often showcases a melancholy melody and lyrics from "Next Summer": "Next summer I will return, / I'll be back, / I'll break your heart." Sometimes the song titles are enough to depress you ("Hollow Talk" and "Why Must It Always Be This Way" for example). Unlike Phoenix--a band that also doesn't sing in their native tongue--CoYB's straightfoward lyrics don't come off as cheesy: "Where do you go when it all goes down, / You battle ballance, your patterns, / Back to all the thoughts that they killed your youth, / No one deserves this" from the track "Claustrophobia."

Even though the album seems full of downers, it doesn't depress me. The music is gorgeous and the lyrics are cunning. I would've loved it if some of the faster-paced tunes from previous EPs (Burn the Flag) would have made cut, but I'll settle for these ten tracks.

Blurb: This Is for the White in Your Eyes wouldn't make the best background music at a party (see above: Phoenix), but it's a good album and one of 2009's best debuts.
Grade: B