BEST ALBUMS OF 2009 — #15-11

Well, folks, that time of year is upon us yet again. The Animal Show returns from its examtime hibernation to bring you our favorite albums of 2009, giving you a handy guide for using all the iTunes, Amazon, and local independent record shop gift certificates you got for that holiday you just celebrated.

This is how this is going to go down: today, we’re counting down from #15 to #11. Tune in at this time tomorrow for numbers #10 to #6. Then, on the day after that, we’ll hit you up with #5-#1, and then finish out the week with our favorite songs and mashups of the year.

Unlike last year, this year’s list had input from all of the writers (even that asshole icebergxc, who cast votes for one album and 20 mashups). We split up the blurbs between writers, so that whoever was most excited about the albums at hand ended up writing about them. Make the jump to see the first five

#15: Tarot Sport – Fuck Buttons

Fuck Buttons won over my heart in 2008 with Street Horrsing by booming with an electro beat while humming with a brutal harsh noise that commanded you to turn your speakers to 12 or 13 or whatever was higher than your highest setting. Well executed and masterfully mixed, the record was unique in that the only critique I could launch at it was that it was too expansive, lacking the cohesiveness of a more mature album.

2009’s Tarot Sport accentuates the British duo’s spectacular ability to clash beautiful melodies with crushingly heavy drone and noise, while adding the sense of cohesiveness that their 2008 debut lacked. My favorite moment of the album comes two songs in: after establishing a sense of energy on the first two tracks, the album slows a bit, opening up into a deep groove on ‘The Lisbon Maru’, which builds upon itself in both layers of sound and intensity, until it explodes into a gooey and dreamy mess of high pitched screeches, low drones, and the continually marching melody. Be careful with this album, it’s easy to put it on only to realize that 58 minutes have slipped away from while you floated along with this masterpiece. – Marquis Meowmers IV

Fuck Buttons – The Lisbon Maru (YSI)

#14: Up From Below – Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros

Edward Sharpe & rhe Magnetic Zeros blew up the only way a band playing a jangly brand of alt-country influenced pop could: by genuinely professing their emotions with simple vocal hooks and extremely catchy melodies. On From Below’s opening track, lead-vocalist Alex Ebert professes, “I’ve been sleeping for 60 days / nobody better pinch me / bitch I swear / I’ll go crazy,” a seemingly goofy line, with such honesty in his voice that it’s impossible to not feel an emotional connection with him (assuming that you have a. the capacity to feel and b. that you have experienced [or wish to experience] the kind of love he is describing). Of course, it helps that his female vocalist and frequent duet partner Jade Castrinos is his current love interest, making their chemistry on songs like ‘Carries On’ and epic closer ‘Om Nashi Me’ simply sublime to hear. The album’s peak is the mind-blowingly catchy ‘Home’, a track on which Jade and Alex trade expressions of  love for one another with such authenticity that it is nearly impossible to not feel the hairs on your neck stand on-end as you recall the last time you entangled your limbs with those of a significant other’s. This album is an ode to true love, and one of the most honest portrayals of an emotion that is notoriously difficult to express. – Marquis Meowmers IV

Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros – Home (YSI)

#13: Dragonslayer – Sunset Rubdown

If I were to describe this album in one word, it’d be “epic.”  If you were to give me multiple words, I’d say, “Almost every song is like Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Jungleland’ in proportion and ambition.”  I’ll come back to the one word again.  “Epic.” – Dave

Sunset Rubdown – Silver Moons (YSI)

#12: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

I can’t necessarily speak for their hearts, but their sound is pure.  And by pure, I mean pure The Cure-type alt-rock.  They almost sound late 80’s-mid 90’s to me.  Add some Cranberries to The Cure.  I don’t mean that to discount what they’ve accomplished here on their debut album.  This is an awesome album that’s great to listen to, and they’ve even managed to pull off the coming-of-age love story thing without seeming cliché.  They are lyrically clever on tracks like “Young Adult Friction.”  The sound is catchy and untiring, as there are many layers here, yet they all lie flat and seem distinct.  My main complaint with the album is that, unlike a debut album like Why There Are Mountains by Cymbals Eat Guitars, the diversity of the sound just isn’t there.  It feels like they picked one thing and stuck with it.  But why am I complaining?  What they stuck with is pretty damn good. – Dave

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Young Adult Friction (YSI)

#11: When I See the Sun Always Shines on TV – Nadja

When I See the Sun Always Shines on TV is, indeed, Nadja’s attempt at a compilation of covers, an endeavor which often ends tragically for most artists. The album opens with a reinterpretation of dream-pop’s most iconic moment: the 1-2-3-4 count off on the snares before Kevin Shields and co. launch into the opening track of Loveless, ‘Only Shallow’. Nadja slows this to half-time, and reduces the dreamy nature of MBV’s layered guitars, replacing them with a simplistic heavy drone, which literally crushes the listener with an immense weight. This isn’t to suggest that the album is aggressive; on the contrary the only song which sounds remotely threatening is the Slayer cover (which is to be expected, it’s motherfucking Slayer). The album is simply heavy, using low tunings and tons of distortion (but never hitting the point of gratuity) to create a unique reading of each song’s source material. And, of course, the sources are unique. Acoustic numbers like Codeine’s ‘Pea’ and Elliott Smith’s ‘Needle in The Hay’ get elegantly loud drone metal treatments, while faster or upbeat numbers like the aforementioned cover of Slayer’s ‘Dead Skin Mask’ and A-Ha’s ‘The Sun Always Shines on TV’ are slowed down and reduced to slow and heavy melodies. The fantastic thing about Nadja’s sound on this album is that the Canadian duo refuses to remain rooted in drone or stoner or dream metal, adding in elements of shoegaze (‘Only Shallow’), grunge (‘The Sun Always Shines on TV’), death metal (‘Dead Skin Mask’), and straight rock (‘Needle in The Hay’) making each song sound unique while never losing a sense of cohesiveness. Having sampled some of Nadja’s other work, I can safely say that When I See The Sun Always Shines on TV is both their most accessible and accomplished album, and possibly one of my favorite albums of the decade. - Marquis Meowmers IV
Nadja – Only Shallow (My Bloody Valentine) (YSI)