Favorite Albums of 2009
1. The Ecstatic - Mos Def
Cerebral enough to ward off some of its audience, eccentric and self-referential enough to escape the lame “conscious” moniker, this album does what albums with real staying power must: it challenges. Nobody should feel at ease listening to The Ecstatic, even passively, and that’s what makes it great. Every song contains rhymes, hooks, samples and changes you’ll be itching to replay halfway through your first listen—and by the same token, there’s a lyric or verse in every song that will probably alienate you. (One key moment for me comes in “Twilite Speedball”: “The city breathing all down your neck/Bad news and good dope, special effects/And reality’s teeth/Bright, black, sinking in deep/Who ain’t shy of the pain? Who ain’t shy of the pleasure just the same?”) Consider also that a lot of these tracks don’t top two and a half minutes. What you get is an album that never settles anywhere, almost to the point of being unfulfilling, leaving you disarmed but craving more. It’s got the same punch as 2004’s The New Danger and it’s barely two-thirds as long.
Like all Mos Def’s work, The Ecstatic is part autobiography. Allusions to Bed-Stuy crop up throughout, peaking with the single “Life in Marvelous Times,” when we get this gem: “More of less than ever before/It’s just too much more for your mind to absorb/It’s scary like hell, but there’s no doubt/We can’t be alive in no time but now.” “Pistola” and “History” are also delve into the personal. But by and large The Ecstatic is marked by a worldliness that’s not present on Mos Def’s other albums. The bulk of it is in the samples, which flow seamlessly from Afro-beat to Middle Eastern to West Indian to soul. It’s in the verbal content, too, though to a lesser degree. A call to action from Malcolm X—”I don’t care what color you are, as long as you want to change this miserable condition that exists on this earth”—introduces the explosive first track; “Auditorium” (featuring Slick Rick) brings us to the streets of Baghdad; “The Embassy” cleverly takes on internationalist prestige; and Mos Def sings “No Hay Nada Mas” in Spanish.
The complexity of The Ecstatic has kept me listening to it straight through for a couple months now. My reaction’s different every time, a new song sticking with me, a new insight giving me pause. “Casa Bey” drifts to a close and I’m never satisfied, always want to start it over. And that’s more than I can say about most albums that have come out in the past ten years.
2. Amnesia, Surrender EPs - Paint It Black
Serious experimentation by a group that’s turned into an institution. Seven years of bellowing, cramming 20 songs into 25 minutes, touring extensively and Den Yemin hasn’t lost an ounce of energy or originality. See my best of the decade list for more. Hits: “Salem,” “Bliss,” “Cipher.”
3. Tell ‘Em What Your Name Is - Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears
Unembellished funk-soul throwback that transcends mimicry but has yet to reach full maturity. My worry is they’re too genuine to catch on with the under-25 crowd, which could mean they’ll disband before they get there. Still, the charm of this album is that they play with one foot in the garage. Hits: “Gunpowder,” “Sugarfoot,” “Get Yo Shit.”
4. Farm - Dinosaur Jr. 
J Mascis has experienced heartbreak, and he reminds us of it across a dozen tracks like he’s the first artist to have tapped into the subject. He doesn’t write about it particularly well. His thoughts are underdeveloped and his analogies are pretty low-hanging (“I’ve been out lookin’ for somewhere to hide/There’s been a mix up somewhere deep inside/I feel the ocean inside of your heart/Just takes a doubt to come smash it apart”). But you know what? I could give a fuck on this album. Mascis’s guitar playing on Farm is as inventive as it’s ever been without losing that fuzzy wall-of-sound trademark, and Farm’s true emotion is in the songs themselves, not the lyrics. Far from perfect, but it’s been enough to make me a Dinosaur Jr. fan again.
5. Lost Art - Cloak/Dagger
Wait, you mean fun/dangerous things are happening in punk rock besides Paint It Black, even though Fucked Up didn’t put out a full-length this year? I didn’t think so either, until Lost Art came out last month. All you nonbelievers go give this raucous piece of work a listen. Especially: “Dead Idols,” “Don’t Need A,” “Dead Town Beat.”
Honorable mentions:
Bitte Orca - Dirty Projectors
Groovy. See dishonorable mentions for more.
Now We Can See - The Thermals
Not as raw musically as their last, somewhat deeper lyrically: “We were born in the desert/we were reared in a cave/We conquered in the sun/but we lived in the shade/Yeah baby we were savage/we existed to kill/Our history is damaged/at least it was a thrill.”
Deflorate - Black Dahlia Murder
Rather than overshooting, BDM has decided to let ferocious-meets-catchy age. It’s working. But whatever’s next will have to bring something new to the table or I’m gonna lose interest.
They Came From the Shadows - Teenage Bottlerocket
Takes some risks as a pop punk album, and those are the better tracks. The rest is run-of-the-mill. The ones I don’t skip over I play at full volume. Hits: “Don’t Want to Go,” “Forbidden Planet,” “Fatso Goes Nutzoid.” Duds: “Bigger Than Kiss,” “Not OK.”
Endgame – Megadeth
Twenty years ago would anyone have said Dave Mustaine would still be alive by 2009, let alone putting out albums that make Metallica sound like a bunch of old men? Hits: “This Day We Fight,” “Head Crusher.” Duds: everything else.
