How Good Was The Year (in music) - 2009?

Music
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Leaderboard:

Rank Year Rating Top Album Top Song
1 1997 8.60 Radiohead - OK Computer The Beta Band - Dry The Rain
2 1967 8.48 Love - Forever Changes Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood - Some Velvet Morning
3 1976 7.47 David Bowie - Station to Station Bob Dylan - Hurricane
Premise

Rate the music of the year out of ten, based on the albums, singles, gigs, whatever that stand out for you that year. Non-musical nostalgia is welcome in the thread but that’s beside the point of the poll.

Everyone may nominate one album and one song from the year which will then be collated into side-polls on the final day of the thread (in one week) - please make it clear when you post a nomination for the poll, e.g

Nominate Album: Artist - Title
Nominate Song: Artist - Title

Otherwise feel free to just spam the thread with chat about as much music from the year as you like.

This week we leap thirty-three years into the future to 2009.

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It was the year Barack Obama was worn in as the USA’s first African-American president, the swine flu pandemic hit the world, UK Members of Parliament’s expenses abuse scandal was revealed and the first block was launched in the Bitcoin blockchain; and the year we lost Michael Jackson, Patrick Swayze, Natasha Richardson and Jade Goody.

How good was the music?

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My top 12 of 2009 was:

Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM
Fever Ray - Fever Ray
Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
Junior Boys - Begone Dull Care
Lady Gaga - The Fame Monster
Nedry - Condors
Royksopp - Junior
St. Vincent - Actor
Super Furry Animals - Dark Days / Light Years
The Whitest Boy Alive - Rules
The xx - xx
Wild Beasts - Two Dancers

Decent stuff in there ain’t there.

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Links for inspiration.

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Well, this has destroyed my theory that the years were being chosen on the basis of UK victories in the Eurovision Song Contest:
1997: Katrina & The Waves
1967: Sandie Shaw
1976: Brotherhood of Man

So I was fully expecting some Bucks Fizz skirt-ripping 1981 action this week, but I was wrong!

A very creditable 5th place for Jade Ewen in the 2009 contest though, with a decent power ballad.

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Great album

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NOMINATE SINGLE

No explanation needed

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Thanks for your nomination!

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Not a bad year. It’s Blitz and Two Dancers probably top 2 for me so I’ll Nominate album - Two Dancers - Wild Beasts

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Not a year I would think of as vintage when I look through the lists but of course there are always a few gems:

Nominate album: Fever Ray

Nominate song: Joker - Digidesign

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Great year, my favourite albums were / are:

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - S/T
Dananananaykroyd - Hey Everyone!
Fever Ray - Fever Ray
Future Of The Left - Travels With Myself And Another
Manic Street Preachers - Journal For Plague Lovers

Favourite track is one of these:

Also caught the following bands live:

Summary

Orphans & Vandals
Trail of Dead
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Future Of The Left (plus Pulled Apart By Horses)
Oasis
The Rakes
Pixies
This Will Destroy You
Dananananaykroyd
Blk Jks (plus Japandroids)
The Dead Weather
Glasvegas
Carter USM
A Place To Bury Strangers
ATP Nightmare Before Xmas
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart
The Horrors

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Nominate: Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

Get the feeling they’re not as loved as they once were but this album was and is absolutely excellent, one of the peaks of the white guys with guitar pitchfork lads era.

Haven’t done one of these threads yet but imagine MPP and Two Dancers and Tarot Sport will all get nominated by someone right?

brand new - daisy was a biggie for 16 y/o tuna.

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You’d guess so but nobody nominated Velvet Underground & Nico or Sgt Peppers in the 1967 thread so it’s possible not. I considered adding some of the obvious albums to the poll by default but I actually quite like the idea that we might exclude some of the established canon from the polls if nobody’s coming forward and saying it’s their favourite.

edit: forgot that I did actually put VU &N in the poll as NeilYoung posted it as first in a list of albums he mentioned, though he didn’t specify a nomination.

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Everyone here pretends not to like MPP so it’ll probably get missed but that’s fine

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The Lisbon Maru is in my top 10 tracks of the year, but I didn’t get into that record until quite recently

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Oh, song. Bad Romance innit, but have this

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oh shit someone nominate Hospice! Thought it was 08.

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Lots of amazing individual tracks but not many of my all time favourite albums. Definitely still plenty of gold though…

Nominate Track - Maybes - Mount Kimbie

Nominate album - The Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns

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Aargh, Hometowns rereleased in 2009. Not sure if it counts

In that case

Nominate Micachu Jewellery

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Looks like it was a pretty obscure release in 2008 and wasn’t picked up for major reviews until the re-release in 2009 (Pitchfork reviewed July 2009) - your call if you want to switch to Michachu and keep this for a 2008 thread or you can put it in now if there’s something else you’d want to nominate for 2008 when that comes.

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I’m not sure what my nomination for single will be but I’m just going to be true to myself and say that, against critical opinion, I do not particularly enjoy Bad Romance (it’s decent but it’s one of her worst early singles, and the kind of song where being overplayed does kind of kill how enjoyable it is) but I love Fireflies by Owl City. It’s such a wholesome rush of euphoria and warmth!

Fever Ray is a great shout for album and is my runner up choice but my nomination is Smith Westerns’ self titled debut. I don’t think anyone else will vote for it or anything but it reminds me of being on holiday in Italy a few years later and listening to it on repeat. Dreaming and particularly Girl in Love are wonderful, listen to that syrupy guitar :heart_eyes:

@Octobadger you will need to give me a heads up before the 1994 thread because shitloads of my favourite albums were released that year

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