NME's 50 Best Albums of 2009

NME's 50 Best Albums of 2009

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48.

October 20, 2009
Critic Score
78
26 reviews

Cox may have tagged Atlas Sound as just another side-project, but ‘Logos’ is a clear indication that his solo creative output is just as richly rewarding as what came before.

47.

April 14, 2009
Critic Score
70
21 reviews

46.

May 5, 2009
Critic Score
71
13 reviews

‘Grey Britain’ has important things to say, but due to the lack of any direction or mission, it allows itself to be eaten up by the anger that fuels it.

44.

Oneida - Rated O
July 7, 2009
Critic Score
67
14 reviews

43.

January 27, 2009
Critic Score
69
35 reviews
This might not be the ‘music of the night’ that rotund talent show type Lloyd Webber and his phantoms had in mind, but based on the majority of this album Messrs Kapranos, Hardy, McCarthy and Thomson can definitely take us out tonight.

41.

November 9, 2009
Critic Score
77
18 reviews
Can you hear it? It’s here! Biffy finally make that sprint-burst into the rock stratosphere and trample over the competition like badly tattooed elephants smashing through dead branches.

40.

Crystal Stilts - Alight of Night
October 28, 2008
Critic Score
71
15 reviews
The crepuscular glow of this quartet should be embraced.

39.

April 28, 2009
Critic Score
80
24 reviews
Their debut is a gale-force riot, a virtual tempest of joyous abandon.

38.

August 18, 2009
Critic Score
77
19 reviews
What makes it so compelling is the simplicity of concept: like everyone, they get pissed off by jerkish behaviour, subdued by small misfortunes and comfort themselves with life’s small pleasures.

37.

May 19, 2009
Critic Score
76
29 reviews
There are times when the album feels strangely medicated; the positivity, when heaped upon the listener in brutal doses, makes you feel trapped in one of those American self-help groups.

36.

The Drums - Summertime!
September 11, 2009
Critic Score
75
8 reviews

35.

June 9, 2009
Critic Score
75
34 reviews

Both cerebral and corporeal, sacred and profane, ‘The Eternal’ sees this band approach the level of The Velvet Underground, where chaos and beauty ravish each other within the same song. Clever old sods.

34.

May 26, 2009
Critic Score
81
30 reviews
The real star of the show isn’t the often-bloodless figure of Thomas Mars, it’s the brilliantly detailed production, centred around the dovetailing drum and guitar chops, best heard via headphones for the full stroboscopic effect.

33.

September 8, 2009
Critic Score
68
28 reviews

Despite bringing in all these names to make it an event album, ‘The Blueprint 3’ delivers because of hefty beats and quality rapsmanship, nothing else.

32.

October 6, 2009
Critic Score
64
22 reviews
They have done a hell of a lot of growing up. An immense album.

31.

March 9, 2009
Critic Score
79
18 reviews

30.

September 8, 2009
Critic Score
72
24 reviews
This is The Cribs’ best album to date.

29.

November 3, 2009
Critic Score
70
27 reviews
Recorded under the radar with producer Jason Lader and Bright Eyes collaborator Mike Mogis, it’s a strange little album, just eight songs long but deceptively dense with ideas.

28.

April 21, 2009
Critic Score
76
30 reviews

‘My Maudlin Career’ is the kind of record that exists to reward those both mad, and sad, in love.

27.

March 31, 2009
Critic Score
69
27 reviews
Polly’s second joint album with Parish couldn’t be more eclectic in its breadth and scope.

26.

July 6, 2009
Critic Score
79
33 reviews
If only it was a thread long enough to weave through the whole album and tie it together… as it is, it may be breathtaking in places, but Flossie’s ‘Lungs’ are just a bit too full of bluster.

25.

February 10, 2009
Critic Score
70
35 reviews

[Greg Kurstin] helped deliver everything both artist and mercenary label boss could wish for. Songs that are ultra-modern and instantly accessible, fun but never cheesy, experimental but rarely try-hard.

24.

November 3, 2009
Critic Score
71
12 reviews

23.

April 7, 2009
Critic Score
76
29 reviews

Whatever way you look at ‘Kingdom Of Rust’ it’s a magnificent rock record, one which will delight the faithful and also surely see them pick up new devotees.

22.

April 7, 2009
Critic Score
79
34 reviews
‘Two Suns’ is epic in scope and ambition and requires a similarly epic patience to unravel its charms.

21.

September 8, 2009
Critic Score
77
23 reviews
You’ll find HEALTH under your skin, at the end of your bed, everywhere you’re not looking, drenched in red mist.

20.

June 9, 2009
Critic Score
86
38 reviews
The 2009 Projectors have adopted a more enjoyable model, thanks in part to Longstreth holding back that horn.

19.

May 4, 2009
Critic Score
74
13 reviews

18.

June 22, 2009
Critic Score
81
22 reviews

As ’80s revivalism hits its self-fellating peak, it’s a pleasure to hear an album that knows escapism isn’t dressing up like a fucking unicorn – it’s shutting your eyes and screaming until your throat burns.

17.

September 22, 2009
Critic Score
80
25 reviews
Girls are genuine drop-outs, bona-fide freaks who’ve made a record far removed from the predictable cycles of the music industry. Now that’s a real story.

14.

May 19, 2009
Critic Score
80
26 reviews

‘Journal For Plague Lovers’ is an outstanding album in its own right and is not ‘The Holy Bible’. But then again, what is?

13.

September 29, 2009
Critic Score
69
23 reviews
Remarkably, with this astounding debut, an unassuming 21-year-old from SW2 has revitalised a forgotten form to make one of the finest forward-thinking British pop albums of recent memory.

12.

August 25, 2009
Critic Score
77
40 reviews
They’re fatalistic, smirking sceptics who’ll never, ever take the soft option. They’re exactly the sort of rock’n’roll band you shouldn’t put your life in the hands of. And that’s exactly why you should love them even more.

11.

June 9, 2009
Critic Score
67
25 reviews
Sounding more like Animal Collective than The La’s, in these times when one wrong move is seeing bands of Kasabian’s stature sink like stones, it seemed a brave comeback.

10.

October 6, 2009
Critic Score
78
19 reviews

9.

January 12, 2009
Critic Score
82
26 reviews
Karin Dreijer Andersson sounds demented on this album. Not in a keeping-a-woman-down-a-well kind of way.

8.

October 20, 2009
Critic Score
81
27 reviews
Whereas Mogwai’s more recent work threatens to make a formula familiar, Fuck Buttons’ fizzling DIY laboratory still has the invention and ingenuity to surprise.

7.

September 22, 2009
Critic Score
73
25 reviews

Beneath the dissonance, the artful posturing and the pop hooks is something far more enduring: these guys have got a soul and they’re not afraid to bare it.

5.

January 6, 2009
Critic Score
92
37 reviews

‘Merriweather Post Pavilion’ is a crate-digging, blog-reading, lost treasure-unearthing music nerd’s world of influences distilled into something that anyone, people who don’t even know what a blog is, can get immediately, and keep on getting at different levels.

4.

September 8, 2009
Critic Score
81
29 reviews
Wild Beasts have undergone a sea change, and this beautiful album is a treasure that deserves plundering.

3.

March 31, 2009
Critic Score
80
35 reviews

It’s no revolution, but It’s Blitz!’s heartfelt love letter to the transcendent possibilities of the dancefloor is an unexpectedly emphatic reassertion of why Yeah Yeah Yeahs are one of the most exciting bands of this decade.

2.

August 17, 2009
Critic Score
84
28 reviews

It’s strange that such a traditional set-up (drums, bass, keys, guitars, voices) has resulted in one of 2009’s most unique debuts.

1.

May 5, 2009
Critic Score
79
28 reviews

Time will tell how ‘Primary Colours’ stands up to the likes of ‘Loveless’ or ‘Psychocandy’, but right now, this feels like the British art-rock album we’ve all been waiting for.

Original Source: http://www.nme.com/list/50-best-albums-of-2009/159978
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