Eric's Top 19 of '09
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Artist:
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Album:
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Track:
I know a lot of us don't do lists. I do.
Lots to explain about my list. I've been doing a Best of the year list for years now. Since 1993. I was 17 and my favorite song of that year was Nirvana "Rape Me." No, I didn't have issues as a teen. Yeah, that was th recorder mic to the cassette player year. The rules of the game have evolved over the years. I share the list making duties w/ my wife and it's a tradition we've enjoyed doing together (picking our favorite albums and songs) since 2002.
Traditionally, I compile it onto a mix (CD or tape back in the day) and give them to a few friends.
This year was one of the most difficult years. Let's start w/ the rules and then you'll see the complexity and the sheer "nobody does a countdown like this" surprise of how we come up w/ the best albums and songs of the years and their ranking.
1. We must own the album (either physical or digital version, almost always purchased legitamently)
2. The album had to come out this year in the US
3. EPs and comps are discouraged
4. We decide how many albums we're doing (typically based on the year - ie, last year we did 18 for '08 but in '02, we did 22; next year will likely be 10)
5. We individually come up with the must have albums, typically they overlap - those are the top albums. We overlapped 14 albums this year, so those were #14-1
6. We hash out which remaining albums from our must haves make the final slots
7. We rank individually and separately the overlapping albums and the additional (as this year, 5) albums that made it
8. We combine the rankings (ie for our 14 albums, if I put Doves at # 2 on my list and she put it at #1, it's a 3) and order accordingly, 14-1 (or whatever it might be)
9. For ties, (ie if Morrissey was an 11 and White Lies were an 11) - we used to default to whomever we saw the most # of times. Now I like the album play count idea - which album got more spins?
10. We do the same (ranking and combining the ranking #'s) to determine the non-overlapping songs
11. The songs are chosen mainly by "must haves" or by ones we both like a lot
12. It always works and it's a lot of fun to compile
13. It took so much time this year due to 59 albums being on the contenders list
Don't feel bad if you didn't get all of the rules. We still have to remind ourselves how it works every year.
I'm sure not everyone will agree or enjoy all of the songs, but that's OK. This is the place to share the good stuff. And this is the good stuff that I was listening to this year.
Oh yeah, here's the link to the playlist but keep in mind #19-17 (tracks 1-3 on the playlist) were "on the fence albums" that technically didn't make it. Grizzly Bear, The Big Pink and Hayden weren't available on the MOG playlist so we improvised in sharing our countdown.
Enjoy the list
#19/track 1 The Sounds "Beatbox"(2nd year::172 total plays)
from Crossing The Rubicon
#18/track 2 Grizzly Bear "Two Weeks" (1st year:: 195 total plays)
from Veckatimest
#17/track 3 The Big Pink "Tonight" (1st year:: 89 total plays)
from A Brief History of Love
#16/track 4 Patrick Watson "Where The Wild Things Are" (1st year:: 129 total plays)
from Wooden Arms
#15/track 5 Silversun Pickups "The Royal We" (1st year:: 143 total plays)
from Swoon
#14/track 6 The xx "Basic Space (1st year:: 126 total plays)
from xx
#13/track 7 Beirut " My Night With the Prostitute From Mareille" (1st year:: 119 total plays)
from March of the Zapotec & Prealpeople: Holland
#12/track 8 White Lies "Farewell to the Fairground" (1st year::93 total plays)
from To Lose My Life
# 11/track 9 MuteMath "Goodbye" (1st year:: 156 total plays)
from Armistice
#10/track 10 Morrissey "All You Need is Me" (3rd year:: 97 total plays
from Years of Refusal
#9/track 11 Passion Pit "The Reeling" (1st year:: 157 total plays)
from Manners
#8/track 12 Yeah Yeah Yeahs"heads Will Roll (3rd year:: 186)
from It's Blitz
#7/track 13 God Help the Girl "Come Monday Night" (1st year:: 398)
from God Help the Girl
#6/track 14 Hayden"Living Grows On You" (4th year:: 236 plays)
from The Place Where We Lived
#5/track 15 David Bazan "In Stitches (1st year as Bazan, 5th total:: 58 total plays)
from Curse Your Branches
#4/track 16 Mew "Beach" (1st year:: 130 from No More Stories Are Told Today
I'm Sorry They Washed Away No More Stories The World is Grey I'm Sorry I Washed Away
# 3/track 17 Phoenix "Rome" (2nd year:: 224) from Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
#2/ track 18 the Decemberists "Annan Water (1st year: 316) from The Hazards of Love
#1 Album of 2009/tracks 19 & 20 Doves "Kingdom of Rust" & Compulsion
(3rd year: :253 total plays)
from the album Kingdom of Rust
Locating MOG account...
Comments (11)
very solid list, I see a few I am going to have to check out for myself
Long time, no see. Congrats again on the new baby.
yeah, life kind of caught up to me real quick......not a lot of freetime for me to be had. I do have two weeks off coming up, you should see me around more then!
Hi Eric, I am trying to get my head around rule 8: "If I put Doves as #2 on my list and she put it at #1, it's a 3." Does that mean it gets 3 "points" on your tally and the album with the LOWEST number of points "wins"?
I like the way you selected the tracks off the albums because they are not just the singles.
Nice list! I have not heard The Big Pink and Doves yet so will look em up!
I can explain that rule, Darmuzz. It's a little tricky, but I appreciate the inquiry :)
For the sake of time, let's do the top 5 - Doves, Decemberists, Mew, Phoenix and David Bazan. This isn't how it turned out, but it'll give you an idea of how we make it fair
Me
1 Decemberists
2 Doves
3 David Bazan
4 Mew
5 Phoenix
She
1 Doves
2 Phoenix
3 Decemberists
4 Mew
5 David Bazan
Doves = 3 (1+2, not that you need to be shown the Math!)
Phoenix = 7 (5+2)
Mew = 8
Decemberists = 4
David Bazan = 8
So, the order would be Doves as # 1 (the lowest combined # - 3), Decemberists as # 2 (the second lowest # w/ 4) and so on. Once we get to Mew vs David Bazan (both have 8's), we have been doing "which artist have we seen most?" Which would be David Bazan but now, it's "Which album has the high play count?" In this case, it would have been Mew and they would have been #4 ( Phoenix w/ 7 would be # 3)
Shew! Complicated, isn't. Glad you stuck w/ it.
Thanks for the compliments. We always try to do our favorite songs off the album. Sometimes they're the singles and other times not. I try to lean towards the non-singles as it's better exposure for the songs.
Doves are fantastic as are The Big Pink. Unfortunately, The Big Pink aren't listed on the MOG player...but Doves are!
Thanks for the clarification!
MOG All Access is not available in Canada but they do plan to expand to more territories in 2010.
ah. that's right. forgot you're in Canada. The limitations, the limitations...for now.
Totally didnt even know David Bazan has solo albums out! Good stuff. After a while Pedo The Lion became a lttle boring.
It's good to see you and your wife have a lot of music in commom. My wife and I have I think 1 of the same songs on our iPods. "I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor" by the Arctic Monkeys
I always joke that I sort of control her tastes sometimes since I'm pretty much the one who controls iTunes at home. If you hear it enough times, you'll like it. But all in all, our tastes overlap nicely (w/ a few exceptions).
At our wedding, we gave away as gifts all of our "doubles" CDs - A lot of Pixies, some Cure, Radiohead, stuff like that.
Been championing Pedro the Lion for years now (since like '98). I just got his annual Christmas 7" that only presses 1,000 copies from Insound. Pretty stoked about that since I was late to the party and the pre-order/suicide squeeze site sold out of them. ebay has 'em for upwards of $20 a piece.
"I always joke that I sort of control her tastes sometimes since I'm pretty much the one who controls iTunes at home. If you hear it enough times, you'll like it. But all in all, our tastes overlap nicely (w/ a few exceptions)."
Exactly the same in our house! I took this entirely for granted for years. My wife doesn't like everything, of course, but it sure makes long car trips and house parties less contentious.
I plan to add some of your list to ours!
Nice to hear there are others out there like us. I'm the less lazy one when it comes to spinning tunes in the house. I'm told if there's something painful on that can't be listened to (happens occasionally w/ female vocalists).