2009 recommendations please!

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

Dear poptimists,
I am going to stay with my folks for a few days, where I will be largely cut off from the outside world i.e. the internet, which is an excellent opportunity to catch up on albums from 2009 that I have not yet caught up with. So far I have heard a few things that people have been shouting quite loudly about e.g. Electrik Red, Blaqkout, Rick Ross for some reason, and Silversun Pickups. Hmm... apparently I have only been listening to Lex and Moggy's advice so far this year. Any suggestions welcome.... and if I was to try and listen to something by this Michael Jackson fellow we've been hearing a lot about, I assume Off the Wall is the place to start? Thank you in advance,
yours with an enquiring mind
byebyepride

Comments

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

The Keri Hilson & Ciara albums are definitely worth a punt.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Oh and the Cascada album is out this week I think! Haven't heard it yet but 'Evacuate The Dancefloor' is immense enough to warrant a listen I think.

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

Good call on Cascada! Will definitely check it out. I have the Keri Hilson and Ciara, erm, 'filed' for listening too.

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

The Oi Va Voi, Passion Pit and Royksopp albums are all excellent.

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

I have never heard of two of those so this will clearly be an oi-va-voyage of discovery!

[meserach.livejournal.com]

I know essentially nothing about your taste save what I can percieve from this post, but the Yeah Yeah Yeah's album "It's Blitz" is my current album of the year.

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

Thanks! The YYYs has been on Freakytigger's last fm chart more than I had expected - I don't really know their stuff so although my knee-jerk reaction is 'urgh - indie', I'll give it a whirl.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I have tried their earlier stuff and it ranges from OK to rub. This album is pretty much all gold electropop.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

For my money the best album of 2009 so far is by Madness, so I suspect my recommendations are not the sort you're after.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Stuff which you didn't mention...

UGK, UGK 4 Life
The Juan Maclean, The Future Will Come
Meanderthals, Desire Lines
Courtney Love, Nobody's Daughter
Toddla T, Skanky Skanky
Gucci Mane, The Writing's On The Wall and assorted random leaks
Nicki Minaj, Beam Me Up Scotty
Jamie Foxx, Intuition (first half for sure)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

OHHHH and the Black Meteoric Star album - Gavin Russom's banging side project.

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

ta!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

This is a very useful thread.

The only stuff I really like so far this year is Elektrik Red, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Quik and Kurupt and erm Morrissey, who frankly won't be about to convert any unconverteds.

Oh you should hear that 30 minute Guido mix Lex (was it Lex?) posted a while back, it's excellent, the melodicism reminded me of Omni Trio a bit. Dunno where the link is though...

[ms-bracken.livejournal.com]

I made a new one. (http://senduit.com/d11ea2)

Depending on how much you like listening to mixes and / or dubstep (this very morning I got a dissing for "being down with the wrong sorts of kids", thanks co-workers!) this Cookie Monsta mix is pretty great (http://senduit.com/86fc52). Assuming you like both to at least some extent.

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

I like both mixes and dubstep so this is a win-win reply! cheers.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I think you prob got that off Dancox's Grau article! Yeah, the whole Bristol Guido/Joker/Gemmy axis is essential for this year too.

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

Perhaps I will post a follow-up when I get back giving my thoughts on these records. Chances of me meaning to do this and never in fact getting around to it = c.95% but it's a good idea.

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

I second Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Quik/Kurupt, Ciara, Keri Hilson. Does Jazmine Sullivan's album count as this year? I have a feeling it may not, but it is wonderful in a classic-soul kind of way.

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

Dude, the Keri Hilson album is unlistenable. I'm a Poptimist as much as the next man, and I tried, I gave it a chance, but it lasted about 3 weeks before I was forced to delete it from my iPod.

[koganbot]

Somehow in this thread you and Lex have both managed not to mention The-Dream's Love Vs. Money, which is sex slush for the first six songs, then it explodes on us, then it returns to the sex slush but wised-up and tenser and more potentially explosive and quite funny. And there's this chick Lily Allen whom you may have heard; her album is called It's Not Me, It's You; and there's Ashley Monroe's Satisfied, sorta half way between Dolly Parton and Jewel; I've been plumping for it since hearing the advance copy three years ago and it finally actually got released in May, though it's download only; also, I think Lex is going to insist that Taylor Swift's Fearless counts for 2009 since that's when it appears in Britain; I was fazed originally 'cause its hooks didn't hook me even though I enjoyed wallowing in its swamp of feelings, and then the hooks hooked me anyway. And if you're a mixtape fancier, there's Federation Presents TNT: Three The Hard Way (TNT being Timberlee, Natalie Storm & Tifa), that's actually another Lex choice, scattershot in quality like a lot of mixtapes but has hunks of good stuff including "Kuff" and and the dancehall-goes-Valley Girl "Heels."

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

Have 'obtained' but not listened to The-Dream; have heard (and enjoyed) the singles from Lily Allen and Taylor Swift; had not heard of Ashley Monroe or the TNT but sounds interesting! ta.

[edgeofwhatever.livejournal.com]

I will second the recommendation of Lily Allen; the singles are good on their own but much more interesting/effective in the context of the entire album.

[koganbot]

Here's the title song to the Ashley Monroe, back from before they originally shelved the album.

[infov0re.livejournal.com]

Electro stuff I liked: another vote for Passion Pit, and also the most recent Junior Boys (Begone Dull Care) and the Friendly Fires album. No, really.

Oh, and the new ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - The Century of Self - is cracking, if you like that stuff.

Obv not very poppy.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

For fans of cheery indie-pop I'd still recommend The Bird and the Bee's "Rayguns Are Not Just the Future" (still the best of its kind I've heard this year); for fans of angsty teenpop with an affection for bar band rock (er, pub rock?) try Meg and Dia's "Here, Here, and Here"; for fans of Gucci Mane et al try what is inexplicably the strongest of these albums, Gorilla Zoe's "Don't Feed Da Animals"; for fans of being a super-contrarian type poptimist try Marilyn Manson's "The High End of Low" or Chris Cornell's "Scream." And I personally love that Ida Maria album, but piratemoggy will protest, so I'll leave it unsaid (woops).

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

I second The Bird and the Bee.

The rest of my top five for 2009 not counting reissues / mixes:

V/A - 'Le Disco: Tele Music Remixed' (2CDs of awesome disco edits of French library music from 1979)
Holden - 'Fantomatisme' (French pop with a mild electronique twist c/o Atom™)
Ciara - 'Fantasy Ride'
Faze Action - 'Stratus Energy' (space disco)

[credoimprobus]

TWO FINGERS
TWO FINGERS
TWO FINGERS

I already went on a bit (lazily) about it here, but it bears repeating!

Chrisette Michele's 'Epiphany' is very enjoyable, and I still really love the Ryan Leslie album (although others have not been as impressed). On the less pop side, Hudson Mohawke's 'Polyfolk Dance' ep is pretty awesome (reached me in a way the Flying Lotus album failed to quite do last year).

Minimal + dubstep bobbins: Gui Boratto's 'Take My Breath Away', lovely lovely Boxcutter's 'Arecibo Message' (Moggy has mentioned this one as well), and Martyn's 'Great Lengths'. And one I can't vouch properly for just yet but that seems cracking from the bits I've heard: Falty DL's 'Love Is a Liability'.

(I'd also be tempted to rec AGF/Delay's 'Symptoms', but I can't even decide myself how I feel about it. Heh. Also, definitely not the sort of thing that's everyone's cuppa.)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

The AGF/Delay album is great. Caveat: I haven't gone back to it at all in the past few months but can't work out whether that's because it's the kind of album one doesn't go back to, or because it's such a cold, wintry album which would have been inappropriate recently.

[credoimprobus]

I, on the other hand, keep endlessly returning to it! Mind this has as much to do with the CAN'T FIGURE OUT HOW I FEEL ABOUT IT as anything else, but it also has some undeniable nagging quality that draws me back time and again. It's such a puzzle of an album, somehow.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I went and bought the Gui Boratto album and have listened to it precisely ONCE. I should just turn in my Ubercoolische Minimal Bosh membership card now, shouldn't I?

[meserach.livejournal.com]

I'm quite digging Metric's album "Fantasies" also. Start with "Gimme Sympathy":

http://open.spotify.com/track/2wwawmt8WDEOx1ZCxw9rLD

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

I have been insufficiently banging on about the Toddla T album which has crept into my Top 3 for the year. Not 100% sure it will be to your taste but I yet to tire of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D24CdJSrvEg&feature=related

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

mastodon- crack the skye (it is pop dammit, there's not even anything longer than nine minutes)
func spec- the spice

& agreed on the toddla t. the dream does absolutely nothing for me whatsoever tho.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

looks like i'm the only pmist whose fave album of the last 7 months is The Juan Maclean's 'The Future Will Come'