Gabriel’s Top 10 of 2009

1. Little Foot Long Foot – Harsh Words

From the get-go, this is a band that grabs you from the shoulders and screams “Agggghhhh! Fun time!” Or, something to that effect one would suppose. They are a band with country swagger married with traditional garage rock sounds that are sure not to take themselves too seriously as they skew topics [of various subject matters. Quite simply, this album is full of dirty guitar that’s just trying to have some fun. This duo of Toronto natives deserve every ounce of audience they can get their hands on.

2. Amy Millan – Bruised Ghosts

Amy Millan takes a step up from Masters of the Burial and manages to produce a slow, steady, and soulful introspective country album full of indie spirit. This album proved to be much more consistent and cohesive than her previous one. This uniformity in style and message allows for the album’s theme to come across much more clearly, and encourages the listener to follow the music much more deeply. The lyrics even prove to be more emotionally potent and eerily reach a touching strata of the soul.

3. The Flaming Lips – Embryonic

Continuing their streak of psychedelic journeying rock that has become a niche market belonging almost entirely to them, The Flaming Lips continue to evolve into a greater height of emotional maturity while still enabling themselves to embrace their inner star-child. This album is pure starburst candy for the musically adventurous.

4. 500 Days of Summer Soundtrack

Songs randomly pulled out of the ether of musical existence to be pooled together in a collective that act as a supplement to a film dedicated to the idea of telling a simple story of two people from the moment the entered each other’s life, to the moment they left these lives. This disc comes at that story from the side, and helps tell it from an angle we often wish could be applied to our own life, the appropriately compiled soundtrack. Together, these aptly picked tracks dance around an unspoken centre, and through their own unique sense of character help paint an image of this undefined yet implied presence.

5. Lullabye Arkestra – Threats/Worship

This doom-bringing, metal-loving, jazz/r&b-influenced outfit hit all the right spots that one would expect salt-of-the-earth neighborhood thrash fans to produce. In this, their inaugural release on Vice Records, they’ve proven yet again they can produce a reality-encompassing and emotionally laden piece of music capable of bringing the house down, all with the most minimal collection of tools. They are local heroes, and should be treated as such.

6. Zoe Boekbinder – Artichoke Perfume

Pop, folk, and blues composed by a princess of geek rock. Despite her youthful age she sings and crafts lyrics that speak of a creative sophistication way beyond her years. Zoe’s works are playful storytelling sessions rooted in playful barbs and occasional sadness. She’s a nerdy young woman that is remarkably in touch with a heart that simply wants to be loved.

7. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz!

Not a lot that can be said here that wasn’t already mentioned in extensive minutia of detail by every music outlet out there. Don’t be dissuaded by that however, as all that attention was truly merited. At the age of 30, Karen O. straddles that line between a rock-loving scamp and the seasoned woman becoming more hardened by experience. While it’s laden in pop synthesizers, it’s a blossoming experience of maturity and introspection that seeks to take a break from it’s earlier hedonistic adventuring.

8. Neko Case – Middle Cyclone

An album about the weird American wilderness of the mind. In this single album she transforms from a cyclone, to an elephant, to killer whale, before moving on to dove and magpie. In her continuingly impressive and haunting lyrics she travels across the countryside of the mind with a presence only akin to the idea of nature itself. Like it, she acts with both love, and a power for destruction (good or bad). She tells a story as she sings, but does so in a way that almost makes one curious if she’s aware the rest of us are listening.

9. Them Crooked Vultures –Them Crooked Vultures

Deep, dark, dank-filled dirty rock music made by a collective of musicians that one can rest assured have a love for the medium perhaps deeper than any of us can come close to truly fathoming. What happens when music comes from this unique place is an album that truly grows into something most unique to the ears. In this album is the tradition and spirit of rock and roll we all sincerely hope continues to exist despite the deluge of watered-down material growing exponentially in the mainstream.

10. Sky Larkin – The Golden Spike

A wee li’l pop alternative punk band from Leeds that have managed to tour with just about every conceivable popular indie band out there on the market today. The Golden Spike is a wonderful example of their rock-embracing pop sensibilities that just makes for a damned good time. This album is intense, fun, honest, and comprised of intelligent and deftly composed lyrics that offers England yet another up and coming band to be proud of.

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