HT 25 Best Albums of 2009: Numbers 11-15

14) Bob DylanTogether Through Life

Key Tracks: My Wife’s Home Town, If You Ever Go To Houston

Sounds Like: Zimmy with some Southern swing

bob-dylan-together-through-life

Skinny: While critics want to christen this another “creative period” for the legendary singer-songwriter, after forty-plus years recording and an astounding studio output has there ever been a time when he wasn’t creative? For Dylan’s 33rd record, as if he needed any help writing songs, he recruited none other than Robert Hunter as a writing buddy. Dylan also moved away from the jump blues sound that he had fallen in love with this decade courtesy of David Hidalgo of Los Lobos fame who added his accordion skills, giving Together Through Life the feel of hanging out in a dusty saloon somewhere deep in the Southwest.

13) Grizzly BearVeckatimest

Key Tracks:
Two Weeks, Foreground

Sounds Like: a more acoustic Radiohead, Band of Horses

grizzly-bear-veckatimest-cover

Skinny: Grizzly Bear may possess the only album whose acclaim could compete with Animal Collective’s, which largely comes as a tribute to the group’s attention to detail on Veckatimest – which easily doubles as the year’s hardest album to spell. Let there be no denying that critics are suckers for walls of effects and layered harmonies (especially if they’re from Brooklyn and employ  a choir), but Grizzly Bear deserves their lauding as this album has that interest building quality that comes only when the details can be peeled away in layers and reveal themselves over time.

12) Andrew BirdNoble Beast

Key Tracks: Souverian, Anonanimal

Sounds Like: Sufjan Stevens, but with more whistling

12605-noble-beast

Skinny: After adding masses of fans with a much more  accessible Armchair Apocrypha, Andrew Bird simultaneously stepped back from the featherweight fans and stepped it up for those interested in seeing what he could really do compositionally, as he went for more symphonic arrangements. Lots of changes – both within songs and from one to another – abound. Less hit singles make for a more forgettable reception, but Noble Beast represents no less of an achievement.

11) Monsters Of FolkMonsters Of Folk

Key Tracks: Say Please, Whole Lotta Losin’, The Sandman The Breakman & Me

Sounds Like: M. Ward, Bright Eyes & My Morning Jacket – duh

20090915_monstersoffolk

Skinny: Consider the Monsters Of Folk the Voltron of indie-rock – as separately the members of the band (Conor Oberst, M. Ward & Jim James) have put out some of the best albums of the decade, but when their powers combine they have the potential to become an unstoppable force. You’ve got everything you’ve come to expect from their solo work – wordy songs via Conor, sepia-tinged Americana from M. Ward and a dose of Jim James’ Southern outer-space soul – just often times within one song.

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3 Responses

  1. Huge Dylan fan here and there have certainly been periods when he phoned it in (Mid 80’s anyone?) he has even said as much in interviews. I gotta say Together Through Life is his weakest studio effort since Knocked Out Loaded…(hmm there’s that mid 80’s period again) don’t know if it deserves a spot on the year end list.

    Fun list by the way, keep up the great work.

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