The Noise Nest

29 Most Enjoyable Records of 2009

In no specific order

More - Double Dagger (Thrill Jockey)

"graphicdesigncore"












Born Again Revisited - Times New Viking (Matador)

A layer of lo-lo-fi fuzz on top of well written and structured pop songs






S/T - Clues (Constellation)

Taking The Unicorns' morbid sense of humor with irresistible pop melodies caked with beautiful vocals employing thoughtful, and near-sacred lyrics, Alden Penner has truly made a beautiful record.






Merriweather Post Pavillion - Animal Collective (Domino)

This album is on everyone's record of the year list for a reason, with hype for the album established for months before the release. I am guessing this is partly to with this being Animal Collective's most accessible album to date, this does not mean this record is not enjoyable to true fans of the band, every single song is very well written and memorable. "My Girls" is one of the best songs of 2009. This all being said i would trade my copy of Merriweather for Sung Tongs any day.




Veckatimest - Grizzly Bear (Warp)

There is an unbelievable clarity of sound and vision to Veckatimest: vocals (a duty shared by all band members) are sharper and more complex, arrangements are tighter, production is more venturous and lyrics more affecting. Having opened the creative dialogue at such an early stage, Grizzly Bear was able to realize these 12 songs together as a band, making it their most collaboratively compositional
album to date. - Insound



Under and Under - Blank Dogs (In The Red)

Blank Dog sounds like his influences, this record makes the familiar unfamiliar.
"The struggle to squeeze Blank Dogs into a genre is important to his project-- maybe not to the artist, but certainly to the listener: meaning can be found in each hint of music history, real or imagined. Post-punk's memorial to blighted industry is fittingly evoked here." - Pitchfork



Logos - Atlas Sound (Kranky)

Bradford Cox spending more time on his solo work since the deerhunter hiatus, picking up a few tricks and friends from touring. By tricks i mean he has broadened his sound and by friends i mean Panda Bear (Animal Collective) and Laetitia Sadier (Stereolab) which is all taking place on this album.





Help - Thee Oh Sees (In The Red)

John Dwyer has been this along time, this record shows that thee oh sees sound has not reached perfection as well they keep raising the bar. Who knows where they can go from here.







Fake Surfers - The Intelligence (In The Red)

This year a lot of lo-fi garage surf punk revival bands came out,its easy to lose sight of the good bands out there, that are working hard to make sure they are writing songs that can make us dance without sounding like everyone else. The Intelligence really want you to have a good time when listening to their music and we appreciated that the intelligence care.


Earthly Delights - Lightning Bolt (Load)

Lightning Bolt are getting louder with every release, but when you are in the business of making genre-tedering music you learn to mature and craft your sound. In Earthly Delight they certainly do that. These songs do go somewhere and they go there loud and fast






...And Girls Club - The Strange Boys (In The Red)

Every once in a while there are singers that come along that have very distinct voices. These voices may be very annoying, some times unpleasant and nasally. But it is how they use that voice that matters. The strange boys sure do write songs that are very heartfelt and humorous backed with classic garage rock.




Jewellery - Micachu (Rough Trade)

Mica Levi the mind behind micachu knows how to use her time wisely, each song no longer then 3 minutes, not a second wasted. songs filled with homemade instruments and vaccuums. One of the years most surprising and creative albums.






BiRd-BrAiNs - tUnE-YaRds (4AD)

Experimental pop featuring some impressive and beautiful yodeling recorded on a tape deck in bedrooms and it sounds like you would imagine.








Scream With Me - Pajo (Black tent)

David Pajo, i do not know much about him, except he is one of the most influential guitarists from the 80's. This is an all Misfits(danzig era) acoustic cover record that does not slaughter their songs. Pajo simply slows down the original chords and sings the lyrics. The songs retain the same emotions as a misfit song gives you along with an eerie melancholic vibe. David Pajo sounds like he has not aged a bit.


Wind's Poem - Mt. Eerie (P.W. Elverum & Sun Ltd.)

This is what i will listen to when the world is ending. In a wind's poem there will be calm moments which quickly change to become violent without warning.







Heavy Ghost - DM Stith (Asthmatic Kitten)

"He spent countless days stored away in his bedroom, sketching folk songs with epic electronic gestures, a rekindling of passions for his first familial love: music. Grappling with his inner demons, trying to capture his observations of the world with his music. His sustained period of silence, of gestation, of contemplation, was finally over." - Asthmatic Kitty




Bromst - Dan Deacon (Carpark)

"you better get some morning after pills because hes going to fuck the shit out of your ears and leave them dripping with delicious electro balls cum" - Dale

Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age - Broadcast and The Focus Group (Warp)

A soundtrack for a movie that never happened. An imaginary movie must have imaginary music. This album is an artifact of lost sounds compiled by these wide-eyed sound archeologists.






Tarot Sport - Fuck Buttons (ATP)

"an album of music made for the dance floor. That the sonic parameters have moved so far from established dance templates is testament to forward progress on Fuck Buttons’ part. But structurally, it’s the endless repetition of very simple building blocks which, like traditional house and techno, give these tracks their drive and enable them to induce that trance-like state which classic electronic dance music always aimed for. " - Cyclic Defrost



Songs Of Shame - Woods (Woodsist)

Formed in the woods, written in the woods, sung in the woods, these are the woods.










Hometowns - The Rural Alberta Advantage (Saddle Creek)

Technically this came out in 2008 but did not receive a proper release till the band signed with saddle creak. This record leaves me feeling very nostalgic,reminds me of growing up and living in Alberta. This record is my home away from home.





Embryonic - The Flaming Lips (Warner Bros.)

I'm glad the guys are taking acid again.










The Floodlight Collective - Lotus Plaza (Kranky)

Lockett Pundt also in deerhunter, hes the quiet one takes on lead guitarist and songwriting duties. Pundt creates a album with a vast amount of layers with a quiet voice that sounds like its from the 50's to influences of early 80's post punk. I am very excited to hear what is next for Lotus Plaza.




S/T - Fever Ray (Mute)

This will be the only album Fever Ray is planning to make, Fever Ray is Karin Dreijer Andersson from brother sister duo The Knife. Karin brings her sounds from The Knife and shows us a darker side. With her already-ethereal voice combined with a pitch changer, and industrial keys and bongos, Karin accomplishes her goal.



XX - The XX (Young Turks)

Hype start very early for this young band for London, England. By young i mean the band members are only 19, straight out of high school. These young minds have created a brilliant debut. With impressive minimal beats from their DJ and modern r&b lyrics. They have found a perfect balance of the two. These guys have stumbled to something very special and i just pray they do not lose it due to hype. It has already made their keyboardist leave the band because of exhaustion due to mass amounts of touring and .



Two Dancers - The Wild Beasts (Domino)

I'll admit i did not catch onto these guys till this album. Which i heard had an amazing debut with Limbo, Panto.
But when i heard the falsetto voice over the chiming guitars along with the ace lyrics. I knew this was a grade A band that just made another great album.





No More Stories are Told Today/I'm Sorry/They Washed Away//No More Stories/The World is Grey/I'm Tired/Let's Wash Away - Mew (Sony)

Another great album from the these danish rockers, this album is full of suprises a song magically becomes 2 entirely different songs. Each song is like a puzzle each song builds on itself. Complex song structures with maintain a good sound. One of the most innovative Prog rock bands out there.



Primary Colours - The Horrors (XL)

The Horrors are another band that surprised me this year, when they first came around they just seem like a fad that would fade out. But they showed us that they weren't just about hair and being spooky. With the help from Geoff Barrow(Portishead) producing it. These songs sound way more mature then their first album by a decade at least. The Horrors have matured fast and definitely deserved the Mercury Award nominations.



Beast Rest Forth Mouth - Bear In Heaven (Hometapes)

"Beast Rest Forth Mouth is as familiar-feeling as it is difficult to pinpoint. Mostly made up of textural, spacious three- to four-minute pop anthems with towering choruses, BRFM is a welcome reminder that an album doesn't have to be bombastic to feel huge and important. Take out the earbuds and let it fill a space: This is music that's bigger than your iPod—music you'll want to feel all around you. Though not quite coming out of nowhere, BRFM seems like a surprise gift—a striking consolidation of the spiky psych-prog tendencies of their debut into a pop framework." - Pitchfork

Frank, AB - The Rural Alberta Advantage

All King's Men - Wild Beasts
Spirit Parade - DM Stith
Blood Red Moon (demo) - The xx
Attitude (Misfits Cover) - Pajo
Southern Point - Grizzly Bear
Helicopter Lullaby - Double Dagger
Moved To California - Times New Viking
Approach the Throne - Clues
Who Needs Who More - The Strange Boys
Pony People - The Intelligence
Gypsy Hand - Woods
Ruby Go Home - Thee Oh Sees
JUMPINGJACK - tUnE-YaRdS
Worst Bastard - Micachu
Criminals (Electric Vers.) - Atlas Sound
A Threaded Needle - Lotus Plaza
Ancient Questions - Mt. Eerie
The Be Colony/Dashing Home/What On Earth Took You? - Broadcast & The Focus Group
Padding Ghost - Dan Deacon
Lion In a Coma - Animal Collective
The Sparrow Looks Up at the Machine - The Flaming Lips
Introducing Palace Players - Mew
Tin Birds - Blank Dogs
Who Can Say - The Horrors
Concrete Walls - Fever Ray

Dust Cloud - Bear In Heaven
Sound Guardians - Lightning Bolt
Space Mountain - Fuck Buttons

These albums I've chosen were the ones that came to mind first when making this list, they were the ones that left me the most ecstatic.

I could not possibly order these from greatest to least greatest because they all can stand their own ground on different days of the week. This of course is not the list to end all list, there are a lot great albums that came out this year, too many for me to actually have time to sit down and to absorb them all.
For I am not one of those bloggers who gets free music and gets payed to listen to records all day. That would be nice.

Please feel free to post your favorites in the comment section, I love hearing feedback.

It has been an exciting year for ears.
Merry Christmas and a happy New Years guys!