Sunday, December 20, 2009

I am new to this whole blogging thing so bear with me as I get the hang of it. Don't know how often or what I'll be posting about. For my first post I thought I'd post my best records of the year list. I have listened to a lot more that are on the list but these are the ones that stood out the most. Feel free to comment on these or add your own. A special mention of Jim O'Rourke's The Visitor must be made. Is sounds much better than anything else I have heard all year. It was not mastered "hot" like everything else these days. Every instrument is clearly heard as well as all the sonic nuances. He chose not to release it as a compressed mp3 which was a smart move. Too much music is listened to in lossy formats that people have forgotten how good music can sound. Everything on the list except The Beatles re-masters were purchased on vinyl for maximum fidelity. A movie list will follow in January as CLE gets some films later than bigger cities. 

Top 20 Records of 2009

1. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
2. Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
3. Tyondai Braxton - Central Market
4. Sonic Youth - The Eternal
5. Tortoise - Beacons of Ancestorship
6. Rain Machine - S/T
7. Do Make Say Think - Other Truths
8. Tom Waits - Glitter and Doom Live
9. Jim O’Rourke - The Visitor
10. Mono - Hymn to the Immortal Wind
11. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimist
12. Girls - Album
13. Bob Dylan - Together Through Life
14. OOIOO - Armonico Heva
15. Blackroc - S/T
16. Drummer - Feel Good Together
17. Micachu - Jewellery
18. The Swell Season - Strict Joy
19. Robyn Hitchcock - Goodnight Oslo
20. Boredoms - Super Roots 10

Top 8 Reissues, Compilations and Soundtracks

1. The Beatles - Mono Box set
2. The Beatles - Stereo Box set
3. Tom Waits - Orphans vinyl box
4. Various Artists - Dark Was the Night
5. Various Artists - Inglourious Basterds soundtrack
5. Beck - One Foot in the Grave
6. New Order - Movement, Power, Corruption and Lies, Low-life, Brotherhood, Technique and Republic vinyl reissues
7. David Byrne & Brian Eno - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts vinyl reissue
8. The Breeders - POD and Last Splash vinyl reisues

And finally my guilty pleasure record of the year: Major Lazer - Guns Don't Kill People...Lazers Do