A little over a month ago, I prematurely posted a list of the “contenders” in my annual top 5 albums list. Premature for two reasons: 1) there were almost two months left in the year, and 2) a few albums were conspicuously absent from the list, because I had suffered a hard drive crash a month or so earlier and had not yet re-ripped some of the (few) physical CDs I purchased this year.
Now, with just over a month to go in the year (still plenty of time to regret this post, too), I present this revised list of the contenders. As before, the leaders are in bold. The new additions are in italics. I am also including a separate list of the EPs I acquired this year, all good but technically out of contention as top “albums.”
- Air: Love 2
- The Bird and the Bee: Ray Guns Are Not Just the Future
- Crystal Method: Divided by Night
- The Decemberists: The Hazards of Love
- Dream Theater: Black Clouds & Silver Linings
- El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez: Cryptomnesia
- The Flaming Lips: Embryonic
- Flight of the Conchords: I Told You I Was Freaky
- Green Day: 21st Century Breakdown
- Grizzly Bear: Veckatimest
- Heartless Bastards: The Mountain
- Hypnotic Brass Ensemble: Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
- Jet: Shaka Rock
- Dylan Leeds: Bit by Bit
- The Mars Volta: Octahedron
- Phish: Joy
- Phoenix: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
- Pomplamoose: Videosongs
- Porcupine Tree: The Incident
- Prince: Lotusflow3r
- Regina Spektor: Far
- Tortoise: Beacons of Ancestorship
- U2: No Line on the Horizon
- Umphrey’s McGee: Mantis
- Various Artists: Kind of Bloop
- Weezer: Raditude
- Wilco: Wilco (the album)
- Zero 7: Yeah Ghost
Strangely, I’ve been on an old-school prog rock kick for the past month or so — really, ever since The Current drove me away with its latest pledge drive (I’m a member, which makes me hate listening to the pledge drives even more) — which makes it less likely that I’ll be discovering a lot of great new music to add to this list before the end of the year. Maybe, mid-2010, I’ll finally learn to appreciate this year’s equivalent to TV on the Radio’s Dear Science.
EPs
As promised, here are some good EPs I purchased this year.
- Bon Iver: Blood Bank
- Death Cab for Cutie: The Open Door EP
- Deerhunter: Rainwater Cassette Exchange