Fishpork’s 50 Favorite Tracks of 2009

This year really didn’t end up being that “greatest of the decade” as January-March may have suggested. With that said, our favorite tracks list became very album-heavy as it evolved throughout the year. With seven tracks from Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear in the top 20, you kinda get the point. Here is our very biased list of favorite tracks from 2009:

1. HEALTH - “Die Slow”
2. Grizzly Bear - “While You Wait for the Others“
3. Animal Collective - “Summertime Clothes”
4. Fuck Buttons - “Olympians”
5. Built to Spill - “Things Fall Apart”
6. Animal Collective - “My Girls”
7. Fever Ray - “Concrete Walls”
8. Grizzly Bear - “Ready, Able“
9. White Lies - “Farewell to the Foreground”
10. Moderat - “New Error”
11. Atlas Sound - “Attic Lights”
12. Grizzly Bear - “Two Weeks“
13. Animal Collective - “Guy’s Eyes”
14. Fuck Buttons - “The Lisbon Maru”
15. Atlas Sound - “Walkabout”
16. Animal Collective - “What Would I Want? Sky”
17. Dredg - “Information”
18. White Lies - “Death”
19. Fever Ray - “Coconut”
20. Animal Collective - “Brothersport”
21. Built to Spill - “Good Ol’ Boredom”
22. MC Rut - “I Don’t Really Know”
23. The Mars Volta - “Since We’ve Been Wrong”
24. Modest Mouse - “The Whale Song”
25. Dirty Projectors - “Cannibal Resource”
26. Deerhunter - “Game of Diamonds”
27. Morrissey - “It’s Not Your Birthday Anymore”
28. Animal Collective - “I Think I Can”
29. HEALTH - “We Are Water”
30. Dredg - “Mourning This Morning”
31. Sufjan Stevens - “You Are the Blood”
32. Fuck Buttons - “Surf Solar”
33. Phoenix - “Girlfriend”
34. The Flaming Lips - “Silver Trembling Hands”
35. White Rabbits - “Rudie Fails”
36. The Mars Volta - “With Twilight As Our Guide”
37. Radiohead - “These Are My Twisted Words”
38. Great Northern - “Fingers”
39. Royksopp - “Tricky, Tricky”
40. Dirty Projectors - “Useful Chamber”
41. St. Vincent - “The Party”
42. YACHT - “Ring The Bell”
43. Bat For Lashes - “Sleep Alone”
44. Atlas Sound - “Sheila”
45. Washed Out - “Feel It All Around”
46. Das Racist - “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell”
47. Dirty Projectors - “Stillness Is The Move”
48. Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs - “Skeletons”
49. Great Northern - “Driveway”
50. Morrissey - “I’m OK By Myself”

The Fishpork 20: Favorite Albums of 2009

2009 started off as one of the strongest years for music in the decade but then slipped into a summer that left us scratching our heads and yearning for more. An impressive set of Fall releases surprised their way onto our Favorites List and cemented 2009 as a year that will impress music lovers in retrospect. These are our favorite albums from the past year:

1. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

2. Fever Ray - Fever Ray

3. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

4. Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport

5. Built to Spill - There Is No Enemy

6. Atlas Sound - Logos

7. Morrissey - Years of Refusal

8. Dredg - The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion

9. White Lies - To Lose Your Life

10. Moderat - Moderat

11. The Mars Volta - Octahedron

12. MC Rut - Middle Class Rut

13. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca

14. Great Northern - Remind Me Where The Light Is

15. HEALTH - Get Color

16. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

17. The Flaming Lips - Embyronic

18. Bat For Lashes - Two Suns

19. Isis - Wavering Radiant

20. Royksopp - Junior

Most Disappointing Albums:

• Lotus Plaza - The Floodlight Collective
• Wilco - Wilco (The Album)

Album Review: Two Suns

Bat for Lashes’ Two Suns shows unprecedented maturity and growth that few artists achieve in their sophomore effort (especially considering the high praise her first record Horse and I received). Such did not go unnoticed among her peers, as Thom Yorke asked her to open up for Radiohead in 2007. Bat for Lashes is the moniker for Natasha Khan, who was born to a Pakistani father and English mother, and currently resides in Brighton, England. In addition to being a multi-instrumentalist, she has produced multi-media work centered around sound installations, animations and performance.  These talents lead to the fresh arrangements on Two Suns.

The opening track “Glass” sets the tone for the record with its dark, ominous drums playing behind the soft strum of guitars. The first single “Daniel” is a traditional love song and perhaps the only straightforward song on the record.  “Pearl’s Dream” is a standout track with addictive melodies. Musically, the record is rich with subtle synths and soft piano that juxtapose the grinding drums perfectly. However, it is Khan’s brilliant vocal range that stands out on this release.  Her vocals are dynamic and become the lead instrument.

Lyrically, Two Suns tells mystical stories of the chaos of the universe and the parallels to everyday life.  On “Pearl’s Dream” she sings, “Hear the desert sigh/Sing the city’s lullaby/The giant iris of the wide blue sky/Showing me the way.” She leads the listener on a voyage through the kingdoms beneath the sky, the moon and stars. The vocal comparisons to Bjork are obvious, but Khan’s songwriting puts her in a league with current female songwriters such as Lykke Li and Karen Drijer Andersson (Fever Ray).

Natasha Khan does not strive for accessibility with this record, bringing us into a her world of bright, cosmic chaos to the darkness of loneliness. Two Suns will end up on many end of year lists and will thrust Bat for Lashes further into a well deserving and brighter spotlight.  This record adds to an already amazing year for indie music.

http://www.batforlashes.com
http://twitter.com/Bat_For_Lashes
http://www.myspace.com/batforlashes

May’s Fresh Pork Cuts

Mark’s:

• Deerhunter - “Rainwater Cassette Exchange”
• Dredg - “Saviour”
• Royksopp - “Happy Up Here (Holy Fuck Remix)”
• Atlas Sound - “Time Warp”
• HEALTH - “Die Slow”

Pete’s:

• Bat For Lashes - “Pearl’s Dream”
• Isis - “Hall of the Dead”
• A Shoreline Dream - “Hypermode”
• Great Northern - “Warning”
• The Crystal Method featuring Matisyahu - “Drown In The Now”