Back to 2009 (Re-Ranking the Best of Lists) • Page 2

2009 was such a great year.

Fireworks- All I Have to Offer Is My Own Confusion
Broadway Calls- Good Views, Bad News
Kid Cudi- Man on the Moon
The Swellers-Ups and Downsizing
Silverstein- A Shipwreck in the Sand
Set Your Goals- TWBTDOU
Dangerous Summer- Reach For The Sun
P.O.S.- Never Better
Alexisonfire- Old Crows/Young Cardinals
Japandroids- Post Nothing
A Day To Remember- Homesick

 

Fav album of 2009 at the time: Mean Everything to Nothing by Manchester Orchestra, or 21st Century Breakdown by Green Day.

Fav album of 2009 now: The xx by The xx or Reach for the Sun by The Dangerous Summer.

Most underrated then and now: 1372 Overton Park by Lucero. Their best album, and one I discovered through this website.

Albums I tried hard to like but are more "I accept this is good" than "I really like this", ranked: Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective; Bitte Orca by The Dirty Projectors; Embryonic by The Flaming Lips.

Album I forgot about but damn the singles were amazing: Album by Girls.

Most disappointing then and now: In Search of Solid Ground by Saosin.

Best songs of the year: Lust for Life by Girls, I Can Feel A Hot One by Manchester Orchestra, I Can't Feel A Thing by Lucero.

Best moment of any song from 2009: "Total collapse of an overreactioooonnnnnnn -- YOU WERE THE CANCER" by Thursday.

2009 re-ranked:
1. The Dangerous Summer: Reach for the Sun
2. The xx: The xx
3. Manchester Orchestra: Mean Everything to Nothing
4. Lucero: 1372 Overton Park
5. Green Day: 21st Century Breakdown

 

Okay I can't fall asleep now that I'm here. 2009 was another formative year when I think about it. My former list would overlap with this one A LOT, which shows how much I had shaped my musical personality around ap.net and the scene overall by then. I became a regular at the time, mostly posting in the messy front page, and starting to wander around the forums. I was continuing to expand my musical tastes, and would become obsessed with Nine Inch Nails and School Food Punishment among others.

What I remember the most are the early leaks, which is unfortunate. Thrice, Dance Gavin Dance, and Finch's unreleased album come to mind, and seeing the community melt down for all of them was something. I remember falling in love with every band I would find through myspace and itleaked, or ripping 30 secs snippets from Amazon or other retailers and listening to them on my MP3 player over and over again, potentially ruining my initial album listen (sorry, Common Dreads).

I became accustomed to Radio 1 for the "exclusive world premieres" of new singles with Zane Lowe or Daniel P. Carter. That's how I first heard new Enter Shikari, Gallows, Alexisonfire, The Blackout, Funeral For A Friend, etc. For the latter host's show, I'd have to stay until 1 am to hear these new songs, which was nothing for geek-y 15 year old me. All that for something in low quality!

I also started the habit of staying up all night to watch the Reading & Leeds livestreams and that year's edition was so memorable and important. I posted about The Gaslight Anthem's performance on another thread, but I remember Gallows also tearing it up. For a moment, even from a different continent and watched at 240p through my cheap screen, I felt not only part of the crowd, but part of a scene that didn't exist where I lived. That meant the world to a teenager who dreamed of having a band and living the same life as all those guys.

Enough sappiness, here are the albums I considered my favorites but and might still would today:

• He Is Legend - It Hates You
• Alexisonfire - Old Crows / Young Cardinals
• Thrice - Beggars
• Architects - Hollow Crown
• Thursday - Common Existence
• Metric - Fantasies
• Junius - The Martyrdom Of A Catastrophist
• Brendan Rivera - Body Of Land
• Enter Shikari - Common Dreads
• Defeater - Lost Ground
• As Tall As Lions - You Can't Take It With You
• The Chariot - Wars And Rumors Of Wars
• The Sleeping - What It Takes
• Harvard - The Inevitable And I
• Converge - Axe To Fall
• Bad Rabbits - Stick Up Kids
• Alice In Chains - Black Gives Way To Blue
• Young Guns - Mirrors
• Say Anything - Say Anything
• Poison The Well - The Tropic Rot
• Funeral For A Friend - Your History Is Mine (those 4 new songs)
• Paramore - Brand New Eyes

Honorable mentions (or albums that I loved but barely revisit anymore):

• AFI - Crash Love (End Transmission and Beautiful Thieves aside, I'd rather hear the bsides)
• Dance Gavin Dance - Happiness (Hard to admit, but I gravitate more towards Instant Gratification these days)
• The Dangerous Summer - Reach For The Sun (I prefer War Paint)
• Evergreen Terrace - Almost Home (It's very of its time even if I still like it)
• Memphis May Fire - Sleepwalker (Duh)
• August Burns Red - Constellations (Duh x2)
• Oh, Sleeper - Son Of The Morning (I prefer Children Of Fire)
• The Blackout - The Best In Town (This band has aged poorly)
• Oceana/Polyenso - Birth.Eater (I did give it a fresh listen two weeks back, and it holds up better than most metalcore of that time)
• There For Tomorrow - A Little Faster (Not sure about this, I think I was disappointed at the time)
• Gallows - Grey Britain (Samesies)
• Madina Lake - Attics To Eden (Samesies?)

On the top off my head, albums I would have to add now:

• Perfume - Triangle
• Lady Gaga - The Fame Monster
• Silverstein - A Shipwreck In The Sand (Which is weird as I liked it at the time and it already fit my tastes)
• Relient K - Forget And Not Slow Down
• Mutemath - Armistice
• Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You
• Cartel - Cycles
• Every Time I Die - New Junk Aesthetic (My love for this band was a very long grower)
• Florence + The Machine - Lungs
• Karnivool - Sound Awake
• What else came out in 2009 that isn't ap.net friendly? Seriously, I was such in a bubble with this community and stuck in its main genres that I have no idea what was around... and it's embarassing. Even mainstream wise, the only thing I can immediately recall is Taylor Swift's infamous VMA moment.

Oh and the entire debacle around New Again was hilariously stupid. It's such an inoffensive album! I do think it contains career highlights, fillers, but also many excellent bsides. I still like it much more than the first reunion album.

And Paramore's chat thing was one hell of a ride.

That was way too long, sorry for anyone reading this.

 

That Saosin album still baffles me. The S/T is just incredible. I've never seen such a steep decline. Even the one they released a few years ago I found pretty mediocre

 

honorable mentions: isis - wavering radiant; kevin devine - brother’s blood; rx bandits - mandala
25. grizzly bear - veckatimest
24. conor oberst - outer south
23. poison the well - the tropic rot
22. kasabian - west ryder pauper lunatic asylum
21. david bazan - curse your branches
20. clipse - til the casket drops
19. thursday - common existence
18. baroness - the blue album
17. monsters of folk - monsters of folk
16. dinosaur jr - farm
15. converge - axe to fall
14. dawes - north hills
13. every time i die - new junk aesthetic
12. silversun pickups - swoon
11. local natives - gorilla manor
10. japandroids - post-nothing
9. robert francis - before nightfall
8. manchester orchestra - means everything to nothing
7. the antlers - hospice
6. phoenix - wolfgang amadeus phoenix
5. the dead weather - horehound
4. thrice - beggars
3. them crooked vultures - them crooked vultures
2. arctic monkeys - humbug
1. mastodon - crack the skye

 

"This is a Vagrant Records promotional stream."

I mostly haven't paid attention to these, but since 2009 is the year I joined AP.net, feels like a good year to look back on.

Here's what my top 10 of the year looked like back then, according to my Facebook notes:
10.) Eye Alaska - Genesis Underground
9.) Regina Spektor - Far
8.) Molly Berg + Stephen Vitiello - The Gorilla Variations
7.) The Fauns - The Fauns
6.) Project 86 - Picket Fence Cartel
5.) Relient K - Forget and Not Slow Down
4.) Cursive - Mama, I'm Swollen
3.) David Crowder*Band - Church Music
2.) Thrice - Beggars
1.) Bradley Hathaway - A Mouth Full of Dust

(I like that I listed them in that order to count down to #1, lol.)

Anyways, if I were doing this today... Hm... I guess it'd look something like this?

1. Thrice - Beggars
2. Relient K - Forget and Not Slow Down
3. The Fauns - The Fauns
4. Selena Gomez & the Scene - Kiss & Tell
5. David Crowder*Band - Church Music
6. Converge - Axe to Fall
7. As Cities Burn - Hell or High Water
8. The Antlers - Hospice
9. Jars of Clay - The Long Fall Back to Earth
10. Paramore - Brand New Eyes

 

Jason why is P.O.S. not cancelled my dude???

Surprised no As Tall As Lions, but really happy to see Hockey.

 

It's addressed in the article.

 

Gotcha, sorry I missed that part.

 

Love so many from this list. TDS, Cartel, mewithoutyou, ETID, paramore.

One that's popped back around for me is hell or high water - as cities burn. i was so bummed they stopped touring before i could see them play that record.

 

2009 is such an interesting year for me. The albums on the top of this list I love so fiercely, and associate with very specific moments from that year. 2009 was the year I graduated from high school and headed off to college, so the albums I was listening to at the time really capture that sense of change. ESPECIALLY Reach for the Sun, which I've written about at length (in one of my favorite retrospectives I've done for Chorus).

But then I go deeper into this list and a lot of the albums on here are things I discovered years later. Dawes, Jason Isbell, Miranda Lambert: these are huge artists for me that I definitely was not listening to in 2009. I spent 2009 really diving deep on Springsteen's discography (perfect for senior year of high school), and I think that took away some of the attention I would have normally paid to new music.

Definitely a special year, though. The Dangerous Summer, at this point, were one of the first new bands to come along in a long time and really knock me on my ass. And I think there are some forgotten or overlooked classics here (The Wreckage or One Last Century) as well as kind-of-underrated albums from established artists (Alter the Ending and Battle Studies don't tend to be the first Dashboard or John Mayer albums anyone brings up, but I really love both of them).

1. The Dangerous Summer – Reach for the Sun
2. Will Hoge – The Wreckage
3. Mat Kearney – City of Black and White
4. Dashboard Confessional – Alter the Ending
5. John Mayer – Battle Studies
6. Boys Like Girls – Love Drunk
7. The Damnwells – One Last Century
8. Relient K – Forget and Not Slow Down
9. Green Day – 21st Century Breakdown
10. U2 – No Line on the Horizon
11. Michael McDermott – Hey La Hey
12. Third Eye Blind – Ursa Major
13. Dawes – North Hills
14. Ingrid Michaelson – Everybody
15. Switchfoot – Hello Hurricane
16. Jason Isbell – Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit
17. The Fray – The Fray
18. All Time Low – Nothing Personal
19. Fun. – Aim and Ignite
20. Miranda Lambert – Revolution
21. The Swell Season – Strict Joy
22. Matt Hires – Take Us to the Start
23. Rob Thomas – Cradlesong
24. Sherwood – QU
25. Manchester Orchestra – Mean Everything to Nothing
26. Bruce Springsteen – Working on a Dream
27. Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More
28. Silversun Pickups – Swoon
29. The Alternate Routes – A Sucker’s Dream
30. Dave Matthews Band – Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King

 

The new one took me a while to get into, then I liked it fine. But have never felt compelled to listen to it again since.
The S/T was one of my absolute favourite albums and I still rate it very highly. In Search of Solid Ground was such a letdown. It felt like they were just striving to replicate the success of You're Not Alone but without the hooks or energy. And by 2009 the days of an emo-adjacent power ballad performing well on the charts were all but over anyway.
I will always stick up for Cove as a live vocalist though. I know others weren't always impressed with him but I thought he was great every time I saw him except the very last time which was right before he left the band so it makes sense he was flat then.
A lot of bands get hype then end up being a flash in the pan. I don't think that's the case for Saosin. I think their career and impact was more substantial than that. But it is what it is, they had one great EP and one great album.

 

hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Saosin's s/t is not good

 

2009! I went to so many concerts that year.

I remember skateboarding around downtown LA with ‘Nothing Personal’ on repeat. To this day that album brings back so many awesome memories of that time just enjoying college and living on my own.

 

random thoughts:

overall this wasn’t a huge year for me besides a few releases

That swellers cd was the tits - ATAL and Armistice were great but TDS def was my top. Always preferred Virgin to METN. Saw Eye Alaska in someone’s list and hell yeah to that! Anything 3EB is always high but I love Ursa. That dashboard release was great but I don’t come back to it often. Wasn’t big on Daisy regardless of his bullshit. ADTR release hooked me hard as did the SYG release. When was transit?

 

God I loved that record going on beer runs in college lol

 

I remember hearing weightless and being knocked on my ass and then being slightly let down by another ATL release lol

still love cycles from cartel to this day though

 

Then coming home to my apartment and blasting Brand New Eyes. I introduced my roommates to so much music during that time. 2009, what a year for me musically and personally...

 

I worked at a Gold’s Gym for my first year of college and they played Saosin soooo much. Especially this album.

 

Brand new eyes is the last thing Haylie made that I genuinely really loved.

 

Is this a year after the last Academy is record? I actually liked the high school concept

 

Good to see TFT mentioned! They were super underrated. You should give A Little Faster another chance.

 

I'm fully on board with Anthony Saosin when the band gets fuckin WILD, but Cove Saosin is just.... a shell of what they could be