Everybody's A Critic.

BAP's Favourite Albums Of 2009 So Far
Note that I said favourite albums, and not the best albums. I am hardly qualified to pass judgement on the year's best. Also because most of the albums on the following list weren't even released in 2009. Keeping up with new music is an extremely high-pressure activity, and I prefer doing it when all the hype has died down, the Best-Of-The-Year lists have been wrapped up, and the hip kids on the music blog circuits have stopped making you feel lame for lagging behind and for thinking thoughts like "Hey, Animal Collective is pretty cool!" about 342 years after the rest of the world already ascertained it as Universal Musical Truth.

1. The Bachelor - Patrick Wolf


Epic shit of epic proportions, with more string sections than you can chuck glitter at. And yes, I know it's bad to end a sentence with a preposition. Or begin one with a conjunction. Like that. Anyway, The Bachelor is utterly massive in its size and scope and ambition and melodramacity that it can truly be nothing less than jaw-droppingly awesome, and what I humbly believe to be the man's best creation to date. And when my mother stopped to tell me how much she loved his voice, I almost exploded in pride, as if it were my own son she were complimenting or something. Yes, it teeters dangerously on the edge of being overblown, with all those strings and synths and guitars and church organs and vocal choruses and Tilda Swintons and its utter refusal to stick with a single genre for more than a song at a time. Some may find it to be more than a tad over the top, but it is Patrick Wolf we're discussing here, and he's certainly fond of giving the impression that The Concept Of Subtlety is not recognized in his perpetually marvellous glittery shiny technicoloured universe.



What did I tell you?

2. Reservoir - Fanfarlo

Having been massively in love with them for over a year on the strength of merely three demo tracks, I knew I was going to droolishly adore their full-length album regardless of whether or not it sucked. And it doesn't suck one bit. How it could it possibly suck when the album cover features Jonssi Birgisson's own little sister? That's practically a stamp of approval of awesomeness on its own. The album itself is lush and warm and homely and comfy and quite simply gorgeous, and Simon's voice can only be described as being ostensibly Scandinavian, because that's the only adjective for it.
Here they are on Bandstand Busking, performing my favourite track off Reservoir. Watch. Listen. Adore. Droolishly, where possible.



3. Dust Jacket - Joel P. West


I owe my music guru, Grace, for the heads-up about this one. The music itself isn't particularly groundbreaking or anything really; jangly guitars and mournful harmonica make up a lovely collection of melodious melancholy folk. What makes it that much more truly special is the price you pay for it. Because Mr. West wants any uploadable creative or artistic creation of your own ( a poem, a painting, a piece of prose, a photograph, a word) in exchange for a free digital copy of the album, with cover art and a booklet you print out yourself (take that, Radiohead). The only conditions are that whatever you upload for submission must be original and candid. It's all explained here, and you can even sample the first track before you decide whether or not you want to bother participating. It's not exactly an economically sustainable sales method, bearing in mind the current world climate and all, but it's such a wonderfully awesome idea that it's hard to not want to be part of something that's guaranteed to provide you with warm fuzzies every time you give Dust Jacket a (metaphorical) spin.

4. Dan In Real Life Soundtrack - Sondre Lerche


It is perhaps not that often that the soundtrack of a film has played such a huge part in my enjoyment of said film, because honestly -and with much love to Steve Carrell- Dan In Real Life would have been a very meh movie if not for the musical accompaniment of Sondre and his guitar. He manages to be quirky and yet not annoying, melancholy without ever delving into Grey's Anatomy territory, and the instrumental pieces are the kind that get pleasantly stuck in your head for weeks afterward. There is even a lovely duet with Regina Spektor (another seal of Awesomeness) and a couple of covers thrown in (including an Elvis Costello one) with a smattering of Mr. Lerche's back catalogue slipped in here and there. And the weirdness of having Sondre's rather youthful voice juxtaposed against Dan's, well, oldness, actually works sublimely well.
Here is Sondre Lerche performing my personal favourite track off the album. In black and white. Because he kicks ass like that.



5. Shallow Graves -The Tallest Man On Earth


Kristian Mattson, who goes by the moniker The Tallest Man On Earth, is what I suppose is meant by an acquired taste. His warbly, extremely UnScandinavian voice did not appeal to me at all initially, and the comparisons to Bob Dylan did not exactly help, because I really don't get Dylan (travesty, I know, but it wasn't for lack of trying). But the weird warbly voice and the lone fingerpicked guitar and the utterly illogical lyrics ("I know the runner's gonna tell you/ There ain't no cowboy in my hair/ So now he's buried by the daisies/ So I can stay the tallest man in your eyes, babe") all began to grow on me. And despite the fact that Kristian is pretty much a Swedish dude singing as though he were from the American South, there's a sense of honesty and genuineness that surrounds him, as if he were always meant to make music like this and was simply born in the wrong country through a sudden burst of Universal Divine Comedy.



6. Only By The Night - Kings Of Leon


KoL have always been one of those bands that constantly flew under my radar (quite surprising, considering how very loud they were) but Only By The Night sort of forced me to sit up and pay undivided attention. Their sound on this one just appealed to me a great deal more (regardless of what the hipsters say about the band having "sold out" and how I'm not exactly a Real Fan because I didn't listen to Aha Shake Heartbreak first, dammit) , and their haircuts now ensured that I could see their faces and thus forge some level of human connection beyond the music (read: to discover that a couple of them are really Pretty). Kings Of Leon are another bunch who aren't full advocates of The Concept Of Subtlety; as Grace so elequently put it, Caleb Followill's voice is very much of the I-Am-Smexy-Hear-Me-Rawr! variety, but it's actually nice to get that down and dirty with a band, something I've been lacking recently. Although for such a very sexed-up band, their knowledge of human anatomy is just bordering on this side of pathetic.




What forms of auditory awesomeness have been invading your earwaves over the last 5 months or so?