The Screen Door's Best Albums of 2009

The Best Albums of 2009

By Anthony Kuzminski



2009 wasn’t a great year for the long form album. I didn’t award a single album I heard all year four-stars. Considering I had a five-star and a few albums that I rewarded that half-star above four in 2008, this is a bit of a letdown. Despite this, I’d be lying to you if there weren’t a number of great albums that I heard this year. Many of the records below are growers and I firmly believe that when the dust settles, 2009 will yield quite a few classics. Sadly, I think the single is overtaking a crucial art form, top-to-bottom records that instill your soul and warrant repeat listens are few and far between these days. However, I managed to find about thirty albums worthy of your time and attention from 2009; I hope you find a few to accompany you on your journey.



10. Alice In Chains – ‘Black Gives Way To Blue’

This record shouldn’t exist, it shouldn’t be good and by no means should it be on a “best of” list. But it is. It’s an astounding testament to the core members of AIC that they were able to craft a record that captures the aura and spirit of the band without Layne Staley. Vocalist William DuVall doesn’t try to interchange Staley but merely compliments Jerry Cantrell’s vocals to send shivers down your spine. “Check My Brain” feels like a mislaid track from Dirt. Instead of trying to reinvent their sound, they forged forward embracing their shared history and have produced a record as intoxicating and fiery as any in their cannon. Black Gives Way To Blue is more than a compelling shock of grunge nostalgia, it’s a gleaming contemporary rock record that is nothing short of a miracle. (Read None But My Own's live review here.)





9. Green Day-‘21st Century Breakdown’

Deciding to follow-up ‘American Idiot’ with an album that was more large-scale should have been career suicide. A tip of the hat to albums like Bat Out of Hell and Quadrophenia, Green Day made a bold album that isn’t being as revered as it deserves to be. Following AI is akin to following Tommy, an impossible feat and one most groups wouldn’t even dare touch. Over time, the audaciousness of this record will be valued more and more and it will be seen as a classic. The production, songwriting and gusto are blazing on 21st Century Breakdown’ and the criticism towards this record is unjustifiable. The ambitiousness Green Day embraced should be heralded, not chastised. (Read their 2009 concert review here.)

8. The Damnwells-‘One Last Century’

'Century' is a prevailing record of their talent. Over the course of three records in five years, the band continually delivers music full of hooks, pensive lyrics and a straightforward sound (guitars, bass, drums) that makes you want to enter into their world and never want to leave. Lead singer Alex Dezen’s lyrics are an unyielding windstorm of sentiments that soothe you. He jerks you to life, full of realization. The authentic nature of this records rings true and they house just as many melodies as radio pop hits, yet are delivered with ten times the amount of enthusiasm. Want to know the best part of this record? It's free. Go here now and download it in exchange for an email addy.

7. Brendan Benson – ‘My Old, Familiar Friend’

Like the title suggests, Benson evokes pure nostalgia on this power pop record, his first since the two records with The Raconteurs have debuted. Here he evokes sounds like a hybrid of the Beach Boys, the Byrds, Cheap Trick, ELO and numerous other stream of consciousness artists. “Garbage Day” features a Jeff Lynne imitation that’s pure euphoria while “Don’t Wanna Talk” is a cross between Weezer and Tom Petty. Wearing your influences on your sleeve has never sounded this good. Feeling down and need a jolt of elation? Buy this record, it’s sure to rock your sadness away.

6. Lucero- ‘1372 Overton Park’

Like the Gaslight Anthem, Lucero’s love of rock n’ roll is so pure you can’t help but fall in love with them. The latest record finds middle ground between the E Street Band and Social Distortion featuring solemn spine chilling lyrics painting pictures worthy of cinema. Nichols gruff voice is an authentic and sincere one. You close your eyes and the music, lyrics and delivery transport you to a new world. It stirs up emotions and like the greatest of art, make one ponder life. (Read 2009 live review here)

5. Will Hoge – ‘The Wreckage’

Every Will Hoge record takes the listener through jarring roads, deceitful lies, cruel truths and ultimately beautifying redemption, ‘The Wreckage’ merely puts these brutal truths up front and center for one to contemplate. Make no mistake, most of the songs on ‘The Wreckage’ harbor bleak topics, but this honesty allows the listener to live in spirit of these songs evoking daunting and undeniable questions to the forefront. The ghosts of our past are never far behind and ultimately, it’s up to us whether we write a new chapter or allow ourselves to wallow in yesterday’s miseries instead of tomorrow’s triumphs.

*Read the full album review here.

*Read the April 2009 review here.

4. Glasvegas-‘Glasvegas’

Their debut album is soaked in wallowing howls and biting reverb, the song “Flowers and Football Tops” reveals profound passion through the absolute force of their performance. The heart wrenching ballad of a child who dies is delivered with furious sentiment (“My baby is gone…”). In the course of one song, the Scottish alternative band evokes devastation, consoling and ultimately prayer to heal. The song is as epic as “Amazing Grace” with a bit more bite and distortion. Look for this band to shake your foundations in the coming decade. (Read the 2009 live review here).

3. U2 – ‘No Line on the Horizon’

Most people are choosing to look at the sales of this record and not the content. After a decade of playing to their strengths, U2 dismantled their core sound once again on a beautiful collection of songs that may not grab you immediately, but will if you allow them to. There is a sweeping romantic urgency (“Magnificent”) to the songs that takes you away where you feel free and confident. It’s one thing to listen to music that you like and another to feel alive when listening to it (“Breathe”). The songs as a whole are like a great piece of architecture, to be admired for its vast and complex beauty amidst the layers of sonic textures. I hear a band not so much striving to be the biggest band in the world, but the best. When you’re the best, in my opinion, the rest will follow. The most misunderstood record of 2009. (Read their 2009 live review here and the full album review here).

2. Dave Matthews Band – ‘Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King’

The death of LeRoi Moore should have ended the Dave Matthews Band. It had the opposite affect; it made them stronger and more determined to create music worthy of their legacy. One of the complaints about the DMB is their struggle to match their live potency in the studio. The only times they have come close to capturing this greatness is on ‘The Lillywhite Sessions’ and here on ‘Big Whiskey’. Make no mistake, the band as a whole saw, strum and zoom with their exuberant defiance on “Funny the Way It Is” and “You & Me”. Instead of wrestling with their core sound, they embraced it and the songs attain the glorious highs their counterparts do in concert. The urgency of the life-affirming “Why I Am” is a contender for their greatest achievement (and one of the decade’s best songs), a tribute to their lost brother that soars. This is an album fully deserving of their “Best Album” Grammy nomination.

1. Michael McDermott – ‘Hey La Hey’

'Hey La Hey' houses a sense of love and wonderment in its songs. One route to the new found happiness would have been to write over-the-top love ballads with titles as heroic as the instrumentation. McDermott twisted the idea of love, loss and yearning on its head with delicate and supple arrangements that may not find their way to life-FM radio stations, but stick to your insides because they are drenched with enthralling emotion. The album’s proper closer, “Carry Your Cross” is a plaintive piano ballad features a tender vocal that is iridescently beautiful and may be one of the greatest declarations of resolve and awakening in all of popular music. ‘Hey La Hey’ is brimming with fiery emotions that are so undeniable they burn themselves into your mind. There’s an overriding sense of responsibility and redemption on these songs. Instead of merely longing for a lost love, these characters take actions towards emancipation and it’s this maturity that makes 'Hey La Hey' the best record of 2009. (Read the full album review here).





Runners Up: Pearl Jam –‘Backspacer’; Europe-‘Last Look At Eden’; Dashboard Confessional-‘Alter the Ending’; The Dead Weather-‘Horehound’; Weezer-‘Raditude’; Kelly Clarkson-‘All I Ever Wanted’; Ace Frehley – ‘Anomaly’; Anvil – ‘This Is Thirteen’; Tinted Windows-‘Tinted Windows’; Wilco-‘Wilco (The Album)’; Buddy and Julie Miller-‘Written in Chalk’; Dan Auerbach-‘Keep It Hid’; Jersey Budd-‘Wonderlands’; Steve Conte & The Crazy Truth- ‘Steve Conte & The Crazy Truth’; Neko Case-‘Middle Cyclone’



Anthony Kuzminski is a Chicago based writer and Special Features Editor for the antiMusic Network and his daily writings can be read at The Screen Door and can be contacted at thescreendoor AT gmail DOT com.