Spin's 40 Best Albums of 2009

40.

October 5, 2009
Critic Score
65
10 reviews
It's a breath of fiery air, then, that their latest is as close to a return to classic form as anyone could reasonably expect.

39.

June 30, 2009
Critic Score
75
33 reviews

Wilco (the album), the band's seventh studio effort, treats verse-chorus-verse basics like holy truths. The result is the rare rock album about acceptance. And it's fantastic.

37.

May 5, 2009
Critic Score
71
13 reviews

36.

Brakes - Touchdown
April 21, 2009
Critic Score
72
19 reviews

His lyrics remain as brashly entertaining as ever: A Poconos swami tells of a thief and his child bride in "Ancient Mysteries," a track that gives Men Without Hats' "Pop Goes the World" an appealingly pessimistic twist.

35.

June 9, 2009
Critic Score
70
15 reviews
Both the production and Wyatt's shape-shifting croon are so butter-smooth that it takes repeated plays to sense the hurt that hides behind these dance-floor lullabies. Hooky on the outside, bruised within, it’s club-pop for introverts.

34.

September 1, 2009
Critic Score
79
6 reviews

On Mariachi El Bronx, these West Coast bad boys retain their lyrical grit — one tune is called “Cell Mates” — but trade the bruisingly metallic Black Flag guitars for the kind of thrumming acoustic arrangements that have long been a part of Southern California’s sonic landscape.

33.

September 29, 2009
Critic Score
74
18 reviews

More than anything, I and Love and You proves how miscast the Brothers were as folkies, because their ambitions are so much larger.

32.

March 3, 2009
Critic Score
71
30 reviews

With coproducers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois explicitly included in the songwriting, it’s an effort to tinker and rough up and refine anew their music’s essence — with nobly sketchy results.

31.

June 9, 2009
Critic Score
86
38 reviews
Longstreth's prickly surface belies a bright pop center: tart, sweet, and gushing all at once.

30.

November 3, 2009
Critic Score
70
27 reviews

The effect is more Tokyo neon than Lower East Side leather. Surprisingly, the sonic leap forward intensifies Casablancas' greatest gift -- melody.

29.

November 17, 2009
Critic Score
75
28 reviews

Believe it or not ... this appealingly lightweight set of funky robo-rock jams actually makes good on Homme's promise.

27.

May 19, 2009
Critic Score
72
27 reviews

Neither Cocker's chewy structures nor his voice's subtle shadings are particularly well suited to Albini's you-are-there engineering. Fortunately, this collection of surging and reeling tunes is the former Pulp frontman's strongest since Different Class.

26.

October 6, 2009
Critic Score
77
22 reviews
Turn to the Good Book for context — it’s only the basis for most Western lit, people — but there’s more than enough here (fear, love, spray paint, etc.) for the most devout atheist.

24.

Wolfmother - Cosmic Egg
October 26, 2009
Critic Score
61
18 reviews

23.

May 5, 2009
Critic Score
80
30 reviews
She’s always juxtaposed the cruel and the kind, and here, the baroque arrangements are even more complex and her voice even prettier, with both only underlining the dark currents running through her songs.

22.

October 27, 2009
Critic Score
72
21 reviews
Tegan and Sara's music may no longer be the stuff of teens, but its strength remains in how much it feels like two people talking.

21.

September 8, 2009
Critic Score
86
21 reviews
While the songs may lack the original’s wild-eyed narrative, they still contain some of his most rewind-worthy bars in years.

20.

September 29, 2009
Critic Score
74
16 reviews

The singer hunts slightly bigger game on Paramore’s follow-up, brand new eyes, which, at a moment of wet-and-wild Warped Tour cynicism (see Cobra Starship and 3OH!3), offers a principled reminder of a more earnest, honest age.

19.

February 10, 2009
Critic Score
70
35 reviews

While there's nothing quite as hugely hooky as Alright singles "Smile" and "lDN," the album feels more confidently complete.

18.

January 20, 2009
Critic Score
81
33 reviews
Antony and the Johnsons' third full-length wisely focuses on the frontman's enormous talent, with Nico Muhly's classical arrangements plinking and waltzing but never overpowering.

16.

April 28, 2009
Critic Score
80
24 reviews
Japandroids have a point of view (young, male, infatuated with the promise of the present) and an M.O. (excellently fuzzed-out garage rock played as if at the apocalypse), but more impressively, they've mastered another secret to swaying the public: confidence without smugness.

15.

March 3, 2009
Critic Score
78
27 reviews

Middle Cyclone carries case's unique vision one step further: here, she truly embraces the beast within.

14.

November 17, 2008
Critic Score
83
18 reviews
The follow-up (without Chao) is a more straightforward Afro-pop record, with a few exceptions.

13.

August 18, 2009
Critic Score
78
30 reviews

Watch Me Fall is even more melodic. Reatard classes up the joint a bit, smearing organ, hard-strummed acoustic guitar, and strings on the unrequited-love epic 'I’m Watching You.'

12.

Ida Maria - Fortress Round My Heart
July 28, 2008
Critic Score
69
23 reviews
Ida Maria throws herself into every song as if it's all a big finale, which makes for an auspicious beginning.

11.

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson - Summer of Fear
October 20, 2009
Critic Score
65
6 reviews
Lyrically, Robinson still seesaws between accusation and pity (“I don’t know anybody who couldn’t let me down,” from “The 100th of March,” passes for a worldview), so it remains to be seen if he’s capable of doing more than excavating his pain. I think so. I hope so.

9.

September 15, 2009
Critic Score
72
3 reviews

8.

July 6, 2009
Critic Score
79
33 reviews
She always makes you feel something -- even if that “something” is suicidal.

7.

June 9, 2009
Critic Score
78
30 reviews

The Ecstatic is easily his finest full-length since Black on Both Sides, his 1999 solo debut.

6.

April 7, 2009
Critic Score
79
34 reviews
Two Suns is the rare concept album that's better for the bedroom than for bong hits.

5.

September 22, 2009
Critic Score
80
25 reviews

4.

May 26, 2009
Critic Score
86
38 reviews

Even as they feature orchestras, women’s choirs, and Beach House singer Victoria Legrand on Veckatimest, the album is still an intimate, ascetic affair.

3.

May 26, 2009
Critic Score
81
30 reviews

These arch Frenchmen make precision-tooled pop that somehow retains a sense of urgency and playfulness — an impressive balancing act consistently slam-dunked by effortlessly ingratiating choruses.

2.

March 31, 2009
Critic Score
80
35 reviews

The result is the alternative pop album of the decade-one that imbues the Killers’ Hot Fuss and MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular with a remarkable emotional depth and finesse.

1.

January 6, 2009
Critic Score
92
37 reviews

Merriweather plays like the summation of a long, strange trip, combining the group’s career touchstones: harmonic Beach Boys pop, African tribal chants, minimalism, minimal techno, psychedelia, and dub.

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