Todd Miller: Blog

(Maybe) The Best Music of 2009.

Especially this year, for as many people who are putting certain records, Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavillion and Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest specifically, on their “Best of 2009” lists, a lot of people are also putting those records on their “Not Best of 2009” lists. Some of these people are people I know and I know that they know good music.

So, why go as far as to say that these records aren’t any good? Independent music listeners have a long history of going against the mainstream, turning on bands or artists that have “sold out,” even if they are still producing worthwhile music. The only thing I can think of is that these bands have gotten too “big” for people who want to be on the fringes more than to be a part of a large group. Maybe they just want their lists to be different from everybody else’s lists. There could be a bunch of reasons for people turning on these genuinely great records, but whatever they are, it’s happening. So, put these records on your on your “Not Best of 2009” lists, but I will not. These two records in particular were records whose release dates I anticipated and they were records that did not disappoint and they were records that I am still going back to, months after their releases.

Best 10 Records, in my opinion, of 2009

1. Grizzly Bear- Veckatimest

2. Dirty Projectors- Bitte Orca

3. Phoenix- Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

4. Animal Collective- Merriweather Post Pavilion

5. Peter Bjorn and John- Living Thing

6. Acron/Family- Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free

7. Raekwon- Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Pt. 2

8. Tortoise- Beacons of Ancestorship

9. The Very Best- Warm Heart of Africa

10. Mos Def- The Ecstatic