BEST ALBUMS OF 2009 — #10-6

The trek towards our favorite album of 2009 continues, as today we give you numbers 10 down to 6, available after the jump.

Here we go:

#10 – Circle of Fifths – Milkman

The two greatest mashup albums to date were released this year. While this is excellent news for mashup addicts and college-aged partiers alike, it’s quite unfortunate for Circle of Fifths. Because Milkman’s sophomore release arrived in the same tragic year (think Billy Mays and Tiger’s career) as Ethan Ward a.k.a E-603’s Torn Up, the Show has designated Circle of Fifths second best. Milkman is truly a master of his craft, and he creates some of the most seamless and technically sound mashups ever made. The album is perfect for those diagnosed with “musical ADD,” filled with eclectic, “Prius-shaking” tracks galore. The standout of the cd is definitely “Rap Music is Beneath Me,” featuring an unbelievable mash of “Still D.R.E.” and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” that WILL bring tears. – DFJacobs

Milkman – Rap Music is Beneath Me (YSI)

#9: Hospice – The Antlers

The first time I listened to this album, I was struck by how pleasing it all sounded, and yet, no single song separated itself from the rest.  I figured that eventually this feeling would fade, and the continuous fabric of the album would turn into patches woven together.  Even to this day, though, this has not come true.  Sure, I have songs that I like on the album more than others (the song “Bear” comes to mind), but I can’t sit down and listen to one song on Hospice without letting the rest play out.  As the title suggests, the album lyrically tracks the care of a terminally ill patient, and as the content would suggest, the narrative goes from care, to love, to death, to the deep contemplative haunting that only death can provide.  It provides it all at once, with impressive subtlety.

But it doesn’t limit itself to its own lyrical constraints.  I found out for myself one day when I was at the South Orange, NJ train station on Halloween, waiting for a train to take me into New York.  The day was gray, and all were sullen faced except for one woman in her mid-twenties on a cell phone who possessed a voice so sharp MacBeth may have effectively used it to stab Duncan.  Eventually, more people eventually filed in—groups of college age girls dressed in slutty maid costumes giggling in noisy clusters, even happier looking couples waiting with weekend suitcases.  Everybody there, from the sullen, to the content, to me, at the train station waiting to be transported somewhere else.  I watched this entire scene form before my eyes, and Hospice provided me with the perfect soundtrack to such dynamic discord.  It chronicles not only death, but a clarion clear message of displacement—a struggle to hold on indicative of today.  Its sounds echo through those train station walls as support for all of those in transit somewhere or towards something.  These days, isn’t that everybody? – Dave

The Antlers – Bear (YSI)

#8: Album – Girls

The new Girls cd was so wild that it was rumored to have been produced by Joe Francis (I apologize for making a “Girls Gone Wild” joke, but this was too easy). Indie critics and fans alike have “gone wild” for the aspiring lo-fi group who made bursting onto the Indie scene quite easy for themselves by making a truly great record. The standout for me, was the “Costelloesque” vocals of Christopher Owens. I was able to convince almost every prehistoric (over 35) family member that Girls was really a new Costello-helmed project. And really, that’s a huge compliment. I love Elvis (Costello), and Girls really took the sound so much farther than simply Costelloesque, creating a fun and promising debut. – DFJacobs

Girls – Lust For Life (YSI)

#7 Ray Guns Are Not Only Just the Future - The Bird and the Bee

It’s a clunky name, and it’s not even true: ray guns don’t exist—yet.  I voted this album as the best album of the year.  It is not.  Not even by a long shot.  But I think that The Animal Show’s scoring methods nicely balanced out my folly, and this album landed in the seventh place, where it more or less belongs.  This is me, cheating the system (and grammar rules).  In any case, this album is definitively good, in my opinion.  My only regret is not doing this for Hospice instead.  In a year where I feel as though music tried way too hard without commensurate reward, I found Ray Gun’s sound really quite pleasing, and I would much rather listen to it than, say, Merriweather Post Pavilion (and I realize this discredits my opinion and all future opinions I offer in life).  Listening to it is like transporting yourself into the opening credits of a Sean Connery-era James Bond film, and you never have to put yourself out too far to gain this experience.  While some pieces of the album have their more melodramatic moments that are worth listening to, it’s really at its strongest when you don’t necessarily think while listening.  Songs like “Diamond Dave” and “Love Letter to Japan” are great fun, and the title track “Ray Gun” has an electro-lounge cool that’s not necessarily innovative, but it’s extremely well done. - Dave

The Bird & The Bee – Ray Gun (YSI)

#6 Torn Up – E-603

It would not surprise me if, at some point in the future, I were to look back on 2009 as the year in which I last had any interest in long-form compositional sampling. There are certainly serious restrictions on the genre — namely, that there is an alarmingly finite number of good acappella tracks, and one can only hear a mashed up version of “Jump Around” so many times. However, the biggest nail in The Coffin Gillis Built may be this monsterpiece of an album, which nailed the rollercoaster ride every good mashup cd should be. Others may point to Feed the Animals as mashup’s finest hour, but I’ll hold tight to Torn Up. No mashup artist has E-603’s fine-tuned command of pairing up emotional peaks, and every ounce of tension and release possible in a song is present in Torn Up. While Something For Everyone perfectly played to the typical mashup elation of “hey, I know both these songs! And they work surprisingly well together!,” Torn Up creates a new rhythm and drama for the genre, teasing samples in and out and making the climaxes that much more example. From top to bottom, the album weaves magnificently through genres and years, all while maintaining the professional sheen and personal grace we’ve come to expect from E-603. It’s hard to imagine the genre getting taken much further. – Edward

E-603 – Lights Out (YSI)

CHECK OUT THE STUNNING CONCLUSION TO OUR LIST HERE