Back to 2009 (Re-Ranking the Best of Lists) • Page 5

2009 is the year I graduated from high school and my first year at Michigan State. Beggars remains my favorite album of all time. The memories i have of that year and that album. Goddamn.

I’m sure I’ll take the time to rank the rest but for starters it would be:

1. Thrice - Beggars
2. Manchester Orchestra - Mean Everything to Nothing
3. Silversun Pickups - Swoon
4. Passion Pit - Manners
5. Thursday - Common Existence
6. fun. - Aim & Ignite
7. Alexisonfire - Old Crows / Young Cardinals
8. Junius - The Martyrdom Of A Catastrophist
9. mewithoutYou - It’s All Crazy!
10. Kid Cudi - Man on the Moon
11. Say Anything - Say Anything
12. Mastodon - Crack the Skye

 

How great is common existence tho

 

I was in 7th grade in 2009 haha

 

Same

 

I started college in fall 2008 and joined the college concert commission next semester. Picked up a lot of indie I otherwise never would’ve heard. the Phoenix show we put on was one of the best I’ve been to. Also finally got into John Mayer. Seeing all these releases is a really precise throwback.

 

I was in... 15th grade, I think that math checks out

 

I never gave The Dangerous Summer proper attention during this time. I guess too many bands were (wrongly) grasping my attention during this time because I don’t even listen to most of them now ha. Silly me, but now I’m finally listening to Reach for the Sun and I am all in on this record.

Better late than never?

 

Another Junius fan! There are dozens of us

 

So many great albums! I got my driving license back then and released my first shitty studio EP with my own band. I remember listening to lots of tunes in the car, making new lists and burning CD compilations, I made plenty of them, having 2 different songs off of some new albums. Also, Alexisonfire with an outstanding album that brought me to have my first tattoo.

 

Also that's probably a starting point with some important trips for me made just to see shows - Paramore with Now, Now, Paper Route and You Me At Six in Berlin. Oooor getting to a weird festiwal to se mewithoutYou and it was really special! Whenever I hear those albums by Thrice, The Dangerous Summer or Paper Route I'm reminded of driving in my dad's car with my compilations hahh.

 

I certainly agree that Martin Johnson is a great writer. BLG's self titled is a fantastic album, but outisde of Someone Like You and the title track, there just aren't any catchy songs on Love Drunk to me. Their third album is even worse. And I'm surprised Mayday Parade doesn't appear to be popular on this website. I'm not a die hard fan or anything. I haven't been really enjoyed their music as a whole since Jason Lancaster left, but you can't tell me Jamie All Over isn't a catchy song. Or Take This To Heart, Ocean and Atlantic, I'd Hate To Be You etc. Just goes to show how how subjective music is. I wonder if you re-listened to ALIR if your opinion would change.

 

I decided to reply to this one just because it was so important to my musical tastes, but 2009 was a tulmultuous year for me personally, and those memories are etched into the albums from this time. I still look back on some of 2009 fondly, but I do avoid some songs/albums when I don't want to dwell on the past. That doesn't take away from the greatness of these albums - several of these are all-timers as far as I'm concerned.

1. Anchor & Braille - Felt
2. John Mayer - Battle Studies
3. Mae - (m)(a)(e) (there's some debate as to the release year of this "album," but I consider it a 2009 album)
4. Vertical Horizon - Burning the Days
5. MuteMath - Armistice
6. Thrice - Beggars
7. Barcelona - Absolutes
8. Deas Vail - Birds & Cages
9. Paper Route - Absence
10.Better Than Ezra - Paper Empire (the first album of theirs that missed my tastes, somewhat)

 

Which version of that Barcelona album do you listen to? There’s two — one has Stars at track 3 and the other Stars at track 11

 

Track 11, though I have copies of "Time to Mend" and "You Will Pull Through." If I recall, you like the older version better? I just love the band in general, though I'm not sure they'll make any more albums with SYML seeming to have such success (comparatively).

 

Yeah that’s right, good memory as always! I don’t know if I was previously aware that the one I liked was the older one actually! That makes a lot of sense that the one on streaming services would be the newer one though. But I agree, they were really really great. Never got into their second as much, but the EP they put out toward the end was soooo good

 

Not Quite Yours is great, though my least favorite of their work. When you say EP, do you mean The Melodrama 3-part EP series? It's stunning! (Part I: Love Me is my favorite.) They also put out an LP in 2016 called Basic Man.

 

Oh yeah, completely missed the word “series” there hahah. Love Me was my favorite too though! I couldn’t believe it was the same band that put Absolutes in a lot of ways — very transformative

 

Haha, no problem. I so wish that they'd continue writing music, with a main reason being I want to hear how that sound develops for them.

Other than Not Quite Yours, Basic Man is the only album of theirs I own on vinyl. Absolutes needs a repress. Sigh.

 

2009 was kind of a rough year for me for personal reasons but I remember music being a great place of comfort then. I was a junior in High School that spent a lot of time burning CDs to play in my car - ADTR, Enter Shikari, and Set Your Goals were hands down my most played records.

2009 (Re-ranked with 2020 eyes):

1. A Day to Remember - Homesick
2. Kid Cudi - Man on the Moon: The End of Days
3. Bomb the Music Industry! - SCRAMBLES
4. Portugal. The Man - The Satanic Satanist
5. Taking Back Sunday - New Again
6. Lil Wayne - No Ceilings
7. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion
8. Drake - So Far Gone
9. Brand New - Daisy*
10. Manchester Orchestra - Mean Everything To Nothing
11. Thrice - Beggars
12. As Tall As Lions - You Can't Take It With You
13. The XX - xx
14. Set Your Goals - This Will Be the Death of Us
15. The Antlers - Hospice
16. Say Anything - Say Anything
17. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
18. The Dangerous Summer - Reach For the Sun
19. Paramore - Brand New Eyes
20. Enter Shikari - Common Dreads
21. J.Cole - The Warm-Up
22. Raekwon - Only Built 4 Linx 2
23. Every Time I Die - New Junk Aesthetic
24. All Time Low - Nothing Personal
25. Jay-Z - The Blueprint 3