Tiny Mix Tapes' Favorite 50 Albums of 2009

Tiny Mix Tapes' Favorite 50 Albums of 2009

Original Source →

50.

January 20, 2009
Critic Score
81
33 reviews

If you let it work its magic, it will -- no matter how unfashionable or cloying it may seem at a glance. It’s music to get absorbed by.

48.

August 17, 2009
Critic Score
84
28 reviews

46.

Ducktails - Landscapes
August 6, 2009
Critic Score
72
2 reviews

45.

September 8, 2009
Critic Score
77
23 reviews
HEALTH have established themselves as one of the most consistently engaging of their peers in the L.A. noise rock scene, and perhaps one of the few who will stay with us for the long haul.

44.

Sun Araw - Heavy Deeds
August 4, 2009
Critic Score
80
1 review

40.

April 21, 2009
Critic Score
76
30 reviews

My Maudlin Career may not be the kind of album that breaks new ground or does anything particularly forward-looking musically, but what it lacks in that department it more than makes up for with intelligent pop hooks and some of the loveliest string arrangements of recent memory.

39.

September 1, 2009
Critic Score
80
5 reviews
Whether or not this album is for you, I have been profoundly affected.

38.

May 5, 2009
Critic Score
80
30 reviews
Annie Clark possesses a talent far beyond those of many of her contemporaries and clearly isn't just another girl-with-a-guitar singer/songwriter.

37.

November 17, 2009
Critic Score
75
15 reviews

Real Estate might not be the best classicist-leaning pop record of the year, but it certainly is the most confident, the most assured, and the most unassuming.

34.

June 23, 2009
Critic Score
78
22 reviews

Whether Dragonslayer is as great as any other work is almost irrelevant; it is great and it is grand, and it is all too welcome.

33.

Social Junk - Born Into It
January 1, 2009
Critic Score
80
1 review

30.

Black to Comm - Alphabet 1968
October 26, 2009
Critic Score
75
4 reviews

29.

Jon Hopkins - Insides
May 5, 2009
Critic Score
79
8 reviews

Craftsmanship sets him apart, and allows Insides to be as incredibly moving as it is and always will be.

28.

John Wiese - Circle Snare
June 9, 2009
Critic Score
80
1 review

27.

Wolf Eyes - Always Wrong
May 11, 2009
Critic Score
74
1 review

25.

January 12, 2009
Critic Score
82
26 reviews
Fever Ray is a growing, living, breathing document of what electronic music can be.

24.

October 20, 2009
Critic Score
81
27 reviews

For about an hour, if you can allow Fuck Buttons to control your responses, to embrace the clusterfuck of noise and emotion, then Tarot Sport might be one of the strongest albums of this year.

23.

Julian Lynch - Orange You Glad
August 1, 2009
Critic Score
68
1 review

22.

September 8, 2009
Critic Score
81
10 reviews

21.

March 24, 2009
Critic Score
73
18 reviews

Born Like This is simply not as forward-thinking as his best works.

19.

September 22, 2009
Critic Score
80
25 reviews

Even if Album doesn’t turn out to be all it’s been made out to be by the reams of hype already bestowed upon it, it’s certainly working at the moment.

18.

Blues Control - Local Flavor
July 14, 2009
Critic Score
68
3 reviews

16.

March 3, 2009
Critic Score
82
27 reviews

Hospice is a work of rare beauty and a watershed moment in The Antlers’ career. 

15.

March 24, 2009
Critic Score
79
25 reviews

It’s the hyper-distinguishable leap from idiosyncratic-but-lovable to just-plain-lovable that makes Bromst -- and Danny Boy himself -- of increased import.

12.

May 26, 2009
Critic Score
86
38 reviews

A piece of art that had too much pressure ascribed to it, that found its creators trying too hard to make a masterpiece when they could have followed a more natural progression.

11.

January 27, 2009
Critic Score
76
4 reviews

10.

October 6, 2009
Critic Score
72
12 reviews

With Childish Prodigy, his debut for indie-juggernaut Matador, Kurt Vile stretches and pulls the increasingly annoying “lo-fi” tag into interesting new shapes, distancing himself from his Woodsist-kin.

9.

Lightning Bolt - Earthly Delights
October 13, 2009
Critic Score
75
16 reviews

8.

October 20, 2009
Critic Score
78
26 reviews

Logos is an admirably worn, carefully composed record detailing a kaleidoscope of sound.

7.

August 18, 2009
Critic Score
84
11 reviews

If you’re looking for an argument for the full-length album, Wind’s Poem is a slam-shut case; anyone who would be foolish enough to listen to these tracks out of sequence would miss the point completely.

6.

October 13, 2009
Critic Score
76
33 reviews

What The Flaming Lips have accomplished with Embryonic is impossible to ignore: an ambitious double album in an age where the single is making a comeback, a collection of music that makes a 25-year-old band sound vital and new.

5.

September 8, 2009
Critic Score
86
21 reviews
All hotly (strangely this descriptor seems almost an understatement) anticipated albums should deliver so profoundly.

3.

May 26, 2009
Critic Score
85
17 reviews

Monoliths ends up standing tall not only as a watershed moment in metal, but also as a 21st-century artistic statement in general. And it may just be sunn 0))))’s strongest album to date.

2.

June 9, 2009
Critic Score
86
38 reviews

While still retaining that exacting focus that has made Dirty Projectors the unplaceable enterprise that it is, Bitte Orca is merely the sound of an extremely talented group of musicians tweaking and, to an extent, reinventing their approach, stepping a little further away from left field.

1.

January 6, 2009
Critic Score
92
37 reviews

On Merriweather, their art reminds us that immersion in Western tropes need not be met with scorn, that not all of its idioms have yet been exhausted, that embracing optimism and melody can still be so relevant -- and it aches in the most soulful of ways.

Original Source: http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/2009-favorite-50-albums-2009
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