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Well I think we are almost halfway there and I have listened to around 10 records this year, most of which are not overly blowing my mind, but here are my thoughts so far. In no order and doesn't include Wilco (The Album) since it hasn't been officially released. Of course I can change my mind at any time.

 

 

Ben Kweller "Changing Horses" B+ I love the old LP concept/sequencing and I think this is a strong country pop record

 

M. Ward "Hold Time" B Nothing wrong with this record, but at this point I think "Transfiguration" and "Transistor Radio" were his peak and "Hold Time" makes me wonder if I really need more M. Ward records (in a bad way)

 

Great Lake Swimmers "Lost Channels" C- Never a hardcore fan, but the first single made me excited, but this one falls real flat for me, especially lyrically at times

 

Gary Louris & Marc Olson "Ready For The Flood" B+ A pleasant surprise with some outstanding songs. A little long winded and samey, but nice

 

Dan Auerbach "Keep It Hid" B Once again nothing wrong here, and I like the diversity. A little dark sounding at times for my taste? and why isn't this a Black Keys record? Sounds the same to me

 

Vetiver "Tight Knit" B I dig this on most levels, but am ultimately left not being moved in any great way. Smooth, psych/folk.

 

Bonnie "Prince" Billy "Beware" C I want to appreciate this and I like the direction he went musically, but this one is off lyrically for me

 

Phosphorescent "To Willie" B+ Cool concept and great execution. Any fan of good country music would love this.

 

Justin Townes Earle "Midnight At The Movies" A Really nice record with a few of my favorite moments of this year ("Mama's Eyes"/"Midnight At The Movies") This one catches me at times on an strong emotional level

 

Hayden "The Place Where We Lived" B Ok, I'm a diehard fan and I give Hayden the benefit of the doubt up from a B-. Nothing new here and I would pay 10 bucks for "Never Lonely" by itself. I think he is content and found his safe zone, of course that can be limiting

 

 

Iron & Wine "Around The Well" A+ Ok, not sure if I can count this due to it being a Bsides/rarities thing. But this should blow people's minds at how good his cast off or forgotten songs are.

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2009 - no order yet, but these are in my top plays:

 

Justin Townes Earle - Midnight At The Movies

 

Phoniex - Wolfgang Amedeus Phoniex

 

A C Newman - Get Guilty

 

Telekinesis - Telekinesis

 

Wilco - The Album

 

Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career

 

Doves - Kingdom Of Rust

 

Sonic Youth - The Eternal

 

M. Ward - Hold Time

 

Dan Auerbach - Keep It Hid

 

Sparklehorse/Danger Mouse/David Lynch - Dark Night Of The Soul

 

St. Vincent - Actor

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I on the other hand have thought this year has been great for music.

 

These are all great

 

Animal Collective- Merriweather Post Pavilion

 

Allen Toussaint- The Bright Mississippi

 

Bob Dylan - Together Through LIfe

 

Elvis Costtelo - The Secert Profane and The Sugarcane

 

Grizzly Bear - Veckamest

 

M. Ward - Hold Time

 

Mos Sciocious- Ibble Dabble

 

PJ Harvey and John Parish - A Woman And A Man Walked By

 

Ramblin Jack Elliot- A Stranger Here

 

Sonic Youth - The Eternal

 

Tortoise - Beacons Of Ancestorship

 

Wilco - Wilco (The Album)

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Wilco - Wilco (The Album)

 

Bob Dylan - Together Through Life

 

Heartless Bastards - The Mountain

 

Elvis Costello- Secert, Profane and The Sugarcane

 

M. Ward - Hold Time

 

Dan Auerbach - Keep It Hid

 

Ramblin Jack Elliot- A Stranger Here

 

William Elliott Whitmore - Animals in the Dark

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My tops, in some sort of order, with some sort of grading:

 

Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca (96/100)

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion (93/100)

Grizzly Bear - Vecaktimest (88/100)

Wilco - Wilco (the Album) (87/100)

Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (84/100)

Bob Dylan - Together Through Life (84/10)

 

It's been a stellar year thus far in music. These are the ones I've heard thus far.

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1) Rock Plaza Central - In the Hour of our....

 

Fuck, just look at the reference to the source material:

 

Do you write the music and lyrics at the same time?

 

CE: Yeah. I mean for the most part. They normally come together like one or two of the lines of lyrics, with a [musical] phrase and then the rest would probably come later. Like actually finishing the lyrics and stuff. Like “Oh I can” that just came out of a show one night, uhh, on that tour while we were reading the Faulkner book. And it had come out just in another song, I just started singing “Oh I can” and we did it together, and just the harmonies sounded so good that we just kept doing it. And then one night, the last night of that tour, there was a part in Light in August where this one character he’s forgotten something and he has to go back and tell somebody something, but it’s uphill. And he knows that doing it is really going to ruin his life, but he decides to do it. He’s like “I can bear a hill; a man can bear a hill.” That sort of thing. And the end of that too, “I can give down and cry,” I think that’s a direct lift from the novel, “I can bear down and try, but I won’t bear down and cry.” I just happened to have read that that day, and so then all of the sudden at the show I started singing those things, and it sounded good. So that’s how the song came about, and we were in the studio the next week, so . . .

 

2) Brakes - Touchdown

3) Jon Rae Fletcher - Oh Maria

4) Deep Dark Woods - Winter Hours

5) Woodpigeon - Treasury Library Canada

6) AC Newman - Get Guilty

 

 

 

top three are interchangeably good.

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at the moment:

 

Handsome Furs - Face Control

Obits - I Blame You

Megafaun - Gather, Form, & Fly

The Antlers - Hospice

Red Cortez - Hands To The Wall EP

Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Akron/Family - Set 'em Wild, Set 'em Free

Cymbals Eat Guitars - Why There Are Mountains

Strand of Oaks - Leave Ruin

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - S/T

Fanfarlo - Reservoir

The Wooden Birds - Magnolia

Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

The Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca

Brakes - Touchdown

P.O.S. - Never Better

Screaming Females - Power Move

Dinosaur Jr. - Farm

Sonic Youth - The Eternal

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

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There are a few albums I've been wanting to check out that I haven't gotten a chance to yet, but so far these are my favorites of the year:

 

Sonic Youth--The Eternal

Nels Cline--Coward

Andrew Bird--Useless Creatures (the bonus disc for the deluxe edition of Noble Beast, which I think is a lot better than the album itself)

Neko Case--Middle Cyclone

Wilco--W(TA)

M. Ward--Hold Time

 

Things I've liked but haven't loved:

U2--No Line on the Horizon

The Hold Steady--A Positive Rage

Alex Cline--Continuation

Bobb Bruno--Dreamt On

 

I got that Ben Kweller album from Amazon as one of their daily deals. I can't get into it. It's not horrible, but I think it's far from his best. It's Ben Kweller trying to sound like Bob Dylan, and I can't get past that. I give him credit for the big departure from his usual style, though. Carla Bozulich's Evangelista has an album coming out sometime this fall. Considering how much their first album rearranged my universe, I have high hopes for this one, too, and expect it will be in my top three, along with The Eternal and Coward.

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Here are some of my favorites in no particular order, so far, in my opinion:

 

Boston Spaceships - The Planets are Blasted

The Thermals - Now we can see

Animal Collective - Merriweather...

Phoenix - W.A.P.

Wilco - The Album

Son Volt - American Central Dust

Morrissey - Years of Refussal

Wavves - Wavves

Sonic Youth - The Eternal

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - S/T

Jason Lytle - Yours...

Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit - S/T

Handsome Furs - Face Control

 

There are so many more records that I just haven't had time to listen to them all or had enough time top spend with them. Lots of new stuff coming out before the end of the year: new Boston Spaceships, Band of Horses, Dinosaur Jr., Lou Barlow, and some I can't even think of. 2009 is turning out to be pretty good.

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I'm quite suprised at how many good to great records that have been released so far this year. Usually it's difficult to come up with a halfway decent list until the fall records start pouring in.

 

Here's my favourites so far this year in no particular order:

 

Dark Was The Night - Various(I know it was a compilation, but COME ON!)

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix - Phoenix

Veckatimest - Grizzly Bear

Why There Are Mountains - Cymbals Eat Guitars

Merriweather Post Pavillion - Animal Collective

Tonight! - Franz Ferdinand

It's Frightening - White Rabbits

Keep It Hid - Dan Auerbach

Together Through Life - Bob Dylan

 

Still need to listen to:

Wilco (The Album) - Wilco (No Spoilers!)

Post-Nothing - Japandroids

The Mountain - Heartless Bastards

 

Upcoming releases:

Band of Horses

Blitzen Trapper

The Dead Weather

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Iron & Wine "Around The Well" A+ Ok, not sure if I can count this due to it being a Bsides/rarities thing. But this should blow people's minds at how good his cast off or forgotten songs are.

 

Of all the records I've heard this year, this one is head and shoulders above the others (IMHO). I know, I know - collection of rarities, et. al., but this is just so friggin' sweet. Again, I know its a cover, but I gotta nominate "Love Vigilantes" for the song of the year (so far). Just beautiful (and sad, too.).

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My favorites thus far in no particular order:

 

William Elliott Whitmore - Animals in the Dark (I think it's his best easy)

Steve Earle - Townes

Wilco - Wilco

Sparklehorse - Dark Night of the Soul

Patterson Hood - Murdering Oscar

Son Volt - American Central Dust

Justin Townes Earle - Midnight at the Movies

The Evening Rig - Is Doin' Stuff

Dexateens - Single Wide

Cracker - Sunlight in the Land of Milk & Honey

Dawes - Dawes

 

Need to listen to the new Eels and Elvis Costello a bit more but like what I hear thus far.

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Tortoise- Beacons of Ancestorship

Tim Hecker- An Imaginary Country

The Mars Volta- Octahedron

Dan Deacon- Bromst

Cursive- Mama, I'm Swollen

Casiotone For the painfully Alone- Vs Children

The Bird And the Bee- Ray Guns are not Just for the Future

Beirut- Real People EP

Antony & The Johnson- The Crying Light

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Only one single album that stands out for me this year, and which gets more than random listens:

 

Morrissey - Years of Refusal

 

I haven't really had time to check more stuff out, but what I did check out didn't really get me that much.

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* Sparklehorse - Dark Night of the Soul

* Various Artists - Dark Was The night

* Jason Lyttle - Yours Truly, The Commuter

* M. Ward - Hold Time

* Wilco - Wilco (The Album)

* The Decemberists - Hazards of Love

* The Felice Brothers - Yonder Is The Clock

* Eels - Hombre Lobo

 

All good!

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Dan Auerbach "Keep It Hid" B Once again nothing wrong here, and I like the diversity. A little dark sounding at times for my taste? and why isn't this a Black Keys record? Sounds the same to me

 

 

It amazes me when people say this. Saying it sounds like a BK album is like saying Wings sounds like the Beatles to me. Its a completely different thing. He's got a full backing band...most of the songs are in a completely different style. The voice is always going to be there but I don't think the Keys have done anything like "Trouble Weights a ton".

 

This is my album of the year so far..others are

 

M Ward

Dylan

Sonic Youth

Eilen Jewell

Wilco

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My 10 favorites so far:

American Central Dust/Son Volt

Murdering Oscar/Patterson Hood

Wilco (The Album)/Wilco

Middle Cyclone/Neko Case

Singlewide/The Dexateens

Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit/Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit

Farm/Dinosaur Jr.

Keep It Hid/Dan Auerbach

Written in Chalk/Buddy & Julie Miller

Midnight at the Movies/Justin Townes Earle

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It amazes me when people say this. Saying it sounds like a BK album is like saying Wings sounds like the Beatles to me. Its a completely different thing. He's got a full backing band...most of the songs are in a completely different style. The voice is always going to be there but I don't think the Keys have done anything like "Trouble Weights a ton".

 

 

 

totally agree. i love the black keys but i don't think keep it hid sounds like a normal BK album. i actually prefer keep it hid to any BK album.

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yay! someone else who agrees Useless Creatures is WAY better than Noble Beast too :D

 

 

:yes

 

 

 

Umm...favs so far (Top 5, no order)

 

Phoenix WAP

Dark Night of the Soul

Dan Auerbach's Keep it Hid

Antlers Hospice

Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest

 

Really digging the Dirty Projectors Britte Orca too, but I just got around to it only last week.

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01. son volt - american central dust

02. el goodo - coyote

03. tim easton - porcupine

04. outrageous cherry - universal malcontents

05. neko case - middle cyclone

06. eels - hombre lobo

07. telekinesis - telekinesis

08. the milk & honey band - dog eared moonlight

09. wilco - wilco (the album)

10. m. ward - hold time

11. vetiver - tight knit

12. the heartless bastards - the mountain

13. robert pollard - the crawling distance

14. cheap star - speaking like an elephant

15. dexateens - singlewide

16. justin townes earle - midnight at the movies

17. boston spaceships - planets are blasted

18. dangermouse/sparklehorse - dark night of the soul

19. hayden - the place where we lived

20. roman candle - oh tall tree in the ear

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