i listen to a lot of music. but i rarely listen to whole albums. most just can't hold my attention that long. more often than not, i end up liking only a few songs of an albums. and those are the tracks that i listen to from then on. but every once in a while, i get obsessed with a band and listen to them non stop.
these were the albums of 2009 that got my attention.
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9. jay-z - blueprint 3 it took me a while to believe and accept it, but ya, jay-z is king of hip-hop. he pretty much carried hip-hop this year. from killing auto-tune to reviving one of my fav 80's songs, hov was everywhere. and paired up with kanye and alicia keys, this album was destined to be played over and over. |
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8. pete yorn - back & forth i dont know where the album came from or how it snuck onto my playlists. but it did and never really left. i played the shit outta this album. the acoustic rock melodies were perfect for background noise at work as well as the commute. |
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7. built to spill - there is no enemy i've never been a huge built to spill fan. i've liked a couple songs here and there but as a whole, they never did much for me. till i heard there is no enemy. songs like 'life's a dream', 'things fall apart', 'done' &'hindsight' are just so hauntingly sad & beautiful, they make me want to curl up into a lil ball, hide under the covers and just listen to them over and over until i feel better again. |
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6. mayer hawthorne - a strange arrangement soul music hasn't sounded this true since raphael saadiq's album last year. mayer may be only in his 20's but he channels the spirit and sound of the mowtown greats on songs like 'a strange arrangement' and 'let me know'. and also pulls in some funk on 'the ills' and 'your easy lovin aint pleasin.' |
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5. k-os - yes i'll bet you didnt know hip-hop's savior is from the great white north. yes, canada. and yes, im totally serious. canada has some serious hip-hop acts like swollen members & kardinal offiishall, but their greatest is easily k-os. oh you've never heard of him? not surprising since this is his 4th full length album and he still gets no respect or airtime. if you like hip-hop at all, do yourself a favor and check out k-os. full of energy and amazing lyrics over great beats, he'll make you feel good about hip-hop again. |
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4. phoenix - wolfgang amadeus phoenix they should have just called the album phoenix fucking rules. |
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3. miike snow - miike snow i may have been lured to miike snow by a mark ronson remix, but i slowly fell in love with every song on this album. and just about every mashup/remix i heard. i really couldn't get enough of these guys. |
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2. the gossip - music for men like phoenix, the gossip do not disappoint. every song on music for men delivers. strong, anthemic, fun, pop rock that kept me dancing, singing and rocking out all summer. |
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1. xx - xx from the moment i heard the xylaphone on the intro to 'vcr', i was hooked. and when she started singing...it was all over. i was in love. that voice. the beats. the lyrics. they just oozed sexiness. i couldn't get enough of them. i may not believe in love at first sight, but i sure as hell do believe in love at first listen. i haven't fallen in love with an album so hard so fast in a long time. |
my fav songs of 2009 didn't all come out this year. hell one song goes all the way back to the early 70's and another isn't even released yet. but these are my songs of 2009.
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death - politicians in my eyes i think 3 brothers from the not too distant future created a time machine, travelled back in time to the 70's and recorded a punk album. and it now, suddenly gets 'discovered' cause of their time travelling shinanigans. sounds too far fetched? well listen to this track and tell me how death, a punk rock group from detroit (in motown's heyday) recorded this punk rock record before the ramones, the clash or even the sex pistols existed. |
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lykke li's "little bit" was already a pretty amazing song, but adding drake to it just pushes it over the edge. i had never heard of drake before this song so i don't know if his lyrics on this song were written just for this song as a duet. or someone mashed one of his songs with lykke. either way, it's fucking amazing. |
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this song by lostwars makes me feel like i'm back in pennsylvania reliving all those hot sweaty summers spent driving everywhere and nowhere, swimming in lakes, making out in cars, keggers in the woods, hiding from cops, jumping off bridges, laying around staring at the stars... |
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kid cudi, mgmt & ratatat - pursuit of happiness for a while there, i almost o.d.'ed on this song. as soon as it ended. i had to play it again right away. i was a junkie jonesing for a fix of this song. |
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drake, kanye, lil wayne & miike snow - cult logic forever the original version of this track is soo boring, i can't even listen to it for more than a few seconds. i never would've even listened to this version if the hood internet didn't mash it up with miike snow's "cult logic". and speeding it up a bit makes it listenable. i love this version so much that i actually got annoyed when the original miike snow song came on instead of this mashup. |
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i absolutely loved sean kingston's "beautiful girls". it mixed hip-hop with 50's soul/doo-wop. so what the hell is deer tick doing covering it? i dunno but it fucking works. and i dig it more than the original. this version sounds has even more of the oldies feel to it. like it should've been included in the dirty dancing sound track. i love when a cover captures the feel of original but the band makes it their own. and i esp love the stand by me ending. |
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jay rhyming over one of my favorite 80's songs. how could i not love this? |
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i promised myself i'd only pick one song from xx to post as my fav songs. otherwise, they'd just own this list. |
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the hardest working band in hip-hop is at it again with a new album... soon. but thank to the wonders of the internet, we get a taste of what we can expect. and wow. this song is so damn good/catchy its as epic as 'the seed'. i cannot wait to hear the rest of this album. |
