Zac Sewell, bassist for Pianos Become the Teeth and an all around awesome guy, recently emailed me his best albums of ’09 list. If you have the chance, go say hi to Zac and the rest of the Pianos guys because they are on tour right now.
*Click the title to d/l*
P.O.S – Never better
This album was actually a tie for first with Defeater’s Lost ground EP but with that being Chad’s number one I figured Id go with P.O.S. This album is indie hip hop at its finest. A punk and hardcore fan to the bone P.O.S mixes that in with his songs on Never Better. With songs about politics, the state of hip hop in satirical fashion and last but not least the fear of getting old without ever loving someone and being forgotten. I highly suggest this for anyone who has even the slightest interest in hip hop.
Defeater – Lost Ground
This EP blew me away at first listen. The story and all the intertwining of other aspects like friends, family and religion that pop up at different times throughout the album are amazing. The writing makes you feel like you know this fictional person better than some of your closest friends by the end of the album. Couple that with the instrumentation that is so thought out and interesting you have one of the best things to be put out by a hardcore band in a long time.
Brand New – Daisy
As many people who know me have found out Brand New is my favorite band. They have grown leaps and bounds with every release and their albums have always come out at times in my life that they have been able to affect me in profound ways. Daisy is different. When I first listened to this album I got a sinking feeling in my stomach because for the first time their album did not immediately blow me away. I thought for the first time they had dissapointed me. Luckily with every listen this album grew on me. A lot of the textures and noises of the instruments take a while to sink in or even be heard. Now I love this album and love it more and more. Darryl Palumbo once said that if you love an album the first time you hear it, its probably a pile of shit. You will forget about it just as quickly. That is not true for every album but definitely this one.
Astronautalis - Pomegranate
Andy a.k.a Astronautilus has done a lot of growing up and getting creepy. Astronautilus started out as a normal rapper rapping over normal beats and was pretty good at it. Then Pomegranate came out of nowhere. The album has beats pulled out of sometimes indie songs and sometimes country songs. There is not as much rapping and the lyrics are sung with a raspy growl. The album is very hard to explain all I have to say is that it is great.
Touche Amore – To the beat of a dead horse
This band came out of nowhere for me. While pianos was on tour this summer we encountered countless people talking about them or wearing their shirts. So as soon as I came home it was the first thing I downloaded. The album blew me away not only for how strong the actual songs were but for the way it was recorded and the tones. The guitar tone is raw and lacks any resemblance to what you think is a modern hardcore guitar tone and the drums sound like they were recorded in a closet. But for some reason it not only works but sounds perfect.
Manchester Orchestra – Mean Everything to Nothing
I am a sucker for country style rock/folky whatever you wanna call it. Andy Hull’s southern sing yell vocal style mixed with his writing makes Manchester a special band. Mean everything to Nothing is a great follow up to Like a virgin losing a child with the songs being more streamlined and to the point.
Converge – Axe to fall
It’s Converge. what more could you possibly want. In my opinion the best and most important Heavy band of our generation has never dissapointed and with this CD continues to hone their craft and make their strong points stronger.
Tags: best of 2009
