Nine for 2009

Let's be honest. I missed the window for 2008 best-of lists (which is essentially what this is). So, I contrived this "Nine for 2009" thing so I wouldn't look like such a procrastinating chump for not getting this list done before the new year.  If you haven't outfitted your iPod with new music recently, here are a few albums you shouldn't miss:

Vampire Weekend – Mansard Roof
Vampire Weekend was the most hyped band of 2008 and deservedly so. Mansard Roof, the band's debut, packs more fun, exuberance, and sheer musical pleasure than any other album this year. Stop worrying about whether the lyrics make any sense (I'm pretty sure they don't) and shake it like you know you want to.
SAMPLE TRACK: "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa"

Emily Wells – The Symphonies: Dreams Memories and Parties
She's a violinist who makes music with a drum machine and covers The Notorious B.I.G. This sounds like a huge mess -- an ill-advised experimental jaunt by some self-indulgent kid trying to be different -- but, against all odds, it works.
SAMPLE TRACK: "Symphony 6: Fair Thee Well & the Requiem Mix"

Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid
What a sweeping grand album this is. Listening to the production on The Seldom Seen Kid -- the way the sound is put together, the way a large array of instruments and vocals are laid on top of each other just so -- is like admiring the detailed brushwork of a master painter. Plus, the songs are really pretty even if they can be a bit mopey sometimes (being a band from Manchester, this couldn't be helped).
SAMPLE TRACK: "Grounds for Divorce"

Drive By Truckers – Brighter than Creations Dark
Drive By Truckers wowed me with their 2001 epic Southern Rock Opera, a brilliant concept album that tells the story of a 1970s Southern rock band through the lens of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Since then, I've enjoyed but never really connected with subsequent albums -- that is until Brighter Than Creations Dark. There is something about this album that evokes the South of my youth in a mysterious and intangible way. Like certain smells awaken powerful memories, this disc takes me back to those high-school summer nights on the back roads of North Carolina and, for a time, makes it feel like I never left.
SAMPLE TRACK: "The Righteous Path"

REM – Accelerate
Man, has it been frustrating to be an R.E.M. fan over the last decade. Don't get me wrong; I love R.E.M. I buy every album. But, since New Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996) it has been awfully hard to enjoy anything they've produced. I bought Accelerate hoping to just find something I could listen to without forcing myself to like it out of respect. But when I took it for a spin, I discovered something not heard for a very long time -- a real R.E.M. album. Finally.
SAMPLE TRACK: "Supernatural, Superserious"

Alejandro Escovedo – Real Animal
Real Animal is among the finest in a catalogue of very fine albums from Alejandro Escovedo, the Austin legend and mainstay of "most overlooked artist" lists. Real Animal reflects the variety of Alejandro's musical experience from the Tex-Mex-accented alternative country he's known for to rockers with a punk edge (Escovedo fronted a punk band called The Nuns early in his career).
SAMPLE TRACK: "Always a Friend"

Coldplay – Viva La Vida
Maybe it's not cool to like Coldplay, but I can't ignore that this album is very, very good. Some bands don't scale up well, but Coldplay seems to take advantage of every opportunity their success has afforded to make bigger and better-sounding albums. Just listen to the title track "Viva La Vida" then listen to "Yellow," the single that made them famous. Both great songs. But when your singles are topping charts around the world, you can afford to hire Brian Eno to produce your album. This is a band that uses everything available to make more and more spectacular music. Just when I thought I'd never want to hear another Coldplay album, Viva La Vida comes along.
SAMPLE TRACK: "Viva La Vida"

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals – Cardinology
Damn this guys' good … and not just because he dated Mandy Moore. No one produces more great music than Ryan Adams. He redefines prolific. Every year he releases an album, sometimes two, and maybe an EP or two to boot. While there is a white noise in all that volume, at 35 he's made more great music than many artists manage in a lifetime. With his latest album, he reaches past the country ballads of his solo work to big glamorous rock songs…and he doesn't miss.
SAMPLE TRACK: "Fix It"

MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
MGMT's new album is a funky, electronic, and yes, spectacular riot of an album that sounds like nothing you've ever heard. The swaggering single, "Time to Begin," a satirical ode to rock star egos, is such a grand song that it seems a shame to play it anywhere smaller than, like, a stadium. "Electric Feel" reinvents the best of 1970s funk in a thoroughly modern way. I don't even know what I mean by that … just listen to the album.
SAMPLE TRACK: "Electric Feel"

SPECIAL BONUS! COMING TOMORROW....ALBUMS THAT ARE LIKELY VERY GOOD BUT I NEVER GOT AROUND TO LISTENING TO