Would you like to come back as a laboratory rat?

Way back in the day, I decided my cause of choice was animal rights. I don't know why. Wait, yes I do. Besides already hating meat, my official B-52's fanclub newsletter informed me that Kate Pierson was arrested for storming the offices of Vogue and protesting wearing fur (a New York Post headline read: "POLICE THROW PIERSON INTO LOVE SHACK" and no, I wish I was clever enough to make that up). I was enthralled. This phase lasted for a while, and while I still think that wearing fur, cosmetic experimentation, and vivisection are all disgusting and reprehensible, I'm certainly a lot more laid back about the whole thing these days (I still don't like meat though). When PETA and Rhino Records released a benefit CD together aptly titled Tame Yourself, I jumped at the bit.



Look at how early 90s epic this shit is. With the exception of the B-52's, who simply included a live performance of the classic "Quiche Lorraine," all the artists recorded new songs with messages of animal activism. Although the spirit of the record was respectable and the whole thing entirely well intentioned, it was a mess. The Indigo Girls AND Michael Stipe? No one can handle that. Lyrics like "Tame yourself tame/Blame yourself for you are to blame/Shame shame and with that bigger brain/You must tame yourself" kind of make me cringe to remember 1992 me thinking that this album was a stroke of genius. Yes, I thought the rhythm guitarist from the Go-Go's singing a song called "Fur" was genius. I was shocked and saddened when I couldn't buy a whole album of music by the band Fetchin' Bones. I was what you would call, a huge asshole. Self hatred aside, I found this CD in my house recently, and one great thing came out of this discovery: Lene Lovich. I'll be writing about her this weekend for the 303 countdown, but my discovery of this strange beast came from this very CD where she dueted with Erasure for the dancey number "Rage," and also with Nina Hagen on "Don't Kill the Animals ('91 Mix)." It should be noted that there are no other versions of "Don't Kill the Animals" other than the one mixed in 1991, but that is beside the point. According to an interview Lene says that she and Nina "wrote the song in about five minutes, it was actually really easy" which will soon be utterly shocking news to you as its lyrics are about as moving as a Puccini opera, and it utilizes (read: rips off) the beat from "Top That," the rap from Teen Witch. "How can that be bad?" I hear you asking. It can't. The video has Nina Hagen wearing a tail. I can't say anything to top that, so here it is:



Laugh at me, and my nine year old taste in music, I implore you. When my best friend's mother found out about my penchant for this CD however, she didn't laugh at me. She gave me Lene Lovich's Stateless on vinyl and changed my life forever (thank god).

YMD's Top 32 Albums of 2009

Considering how anal I am about making year-end lists, it's pretty lucky that the years of my life overlap calendar years by all but one day. So here are the 32 (we could have a tournament) best albums of both 2009 and my 23rd year on this Earth.

(Very good albums were also put out this year by Basement Jaxx, Dam Funk, Desire, El Perro Del Mar, the Field, Franz Ferdinand, Ghostface, Intrusion, Jeremy Jay, Keri Hilson, Lil' Boosie, Lily Allen, Lindstrøm and Prins Thomas, Luciano, Martin, Matias Aguayo, the Mountain Goats, Nomo, Omar-S, OOIOO, Redshape, Rick Ross, Ryan Leslie, Telepathe, William Basinski, Zombi, Zomby, and many others. That none of these albums made my top 32 shows how amazing of a year this was for music. Every year is a great year for music, obvi)



32. Meanderthals - Desire Lines (Smalltown Supersound)
Doesn't quite work as well in the winter, but you can't quite blame it for that.

31. G-Side - the Huntsville International Project (Slow Motion Soundz)
Huntsville's finest live up to expectations with a heavy, personal record record. Block Beataz, Mick Vegas, and others provide an ill combination of soul and southern synths.

30. Whitney Houston - I Look to You (Arista)
Some surprisingly epic jams on here. "Nothin' But Love" sounds like a Whitney/the Knife mash-up in the best way possible. Her voice isn't what it used to be, but it works for her on most of this.

29. Junior Boys - Begone Dull Care (Domino)
Not their best album, but still very, very good. The "is that a Real Instrument?!" moment on "Bits & Pieces" is wonderful, even as someone who isn't particularly impressed by Real Instruments.

28. Italoboyz - Bla Bla Bla (Mothership)
Certainly the funniest house full-length of the year, Bla Bla Bla is also one of the best. Quirky in the most positive sense of the word.

27. Cortney Tidwell - Boys (City Slang)
Skilled songwriting, a beautiful voice, and lush production, Cortney is one of the best singer-songwriters out (not my area of expertise, admittedly).

26. Moritz Von Oswald Trio - Vertical Ascent (Honest Jon's Records)
Electronic supergroup delivers 45 minutes of immensely detailed and hypnotic music. It's not exactly a masterpiece, but it's well worth exploring.

25. Gorilla Zoe - Don't Feed Da Animals (Bad Boy South/Block/Atlantic)
Zoe's album is all over the place and I think underrated because of that. Zoe has a ton of ideas that vary wildly in quality, but I find him endlessly likeable whether he's doing odd melodrama, purposeful stupidity, or just making bangers like "Dope Boy", one of the best tracks of the year.

24. Flaming Lips - Embryonic (Warner Bros.)
It doesn't necessarily sound like 80s Lips, but it's hard not to hear Embryonic as a return to that darker, more aggressive spirit. This came rather out of nowhere and has some really gnarly sounds.

23. Ciara - Fantasy Ride (LaFace)
As an album, this is perhaps tainted a little by thoughts of how great it could have been, by the year-and-a-half of awesome leaks that only made it as bonus tracks or missed out entirely, of alternate versions of songs (the better, Missy-less "Work"). Still, this is a very good R&B record.

22. Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II (Ice H2o Records)
I didn't believe that it had come out until it was pumping through my speakers. The fact that it's actually a really great Wu-Tang record is almost just a cherry on top.

21. Z-Ro - Cocaine (Rap-A-Lot Records)
Z-Ro's voice, whether rapping or singing, has that kind of ageless, been-gone-through-it quality that allows for maximum pathos. When he really tugs at the heartstrings like on "I Don't Give a Damn", with its "I Ain't Mad At Cha" quoting beat, it's almost too much to take.

20. Music Go Music - Expressions (Secretly Canadian)
I'm not sure how an ABBA tribute band that also seems to like Sabbath makes sense in 2009, but it does. MGM followed on last year's awesome "Light of Love" with a thoroughly enjoyable album. The "I emerge" bit in "Reach Out" is a moment of triumph.

19. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz! (Interscope)
I wasn't a huge fan of the YYYs' second album move away from filthy rock, so when I heard they were going synth-pop for this one I wasn't too excited. But this is very, very good, tons of hooks all around. "Zero" has more lift than British elevators/Lebron James, "Heads Will Roll" is PIL fueled gem, and "Hysteric" is the soft touch that's always been their secret weapon emerging again.

18. Rihanna - Rated R (Jive)
Ri Ri responded to this year's drama by going even deeper into her Swag Grace Jones persona and the best moments here are the ones in which that quite strong end entertaining persona rises above. "I'm such a fucking lady" might be lyric of the year.

17. UGK - UGK 4 Life (RCA/Jive)
I'll just continue to believe that they have an endless supply of deep, filthy Houston soul until the well dries up for sure. Pimp and Bun are great throughout, and they bring the best out of their guests. "Hairy Asshole" which is about (and in support of) exactly what it sounds like it's about, might be the highlight, with very good verses from Boosie and Webbie in addition to Pimp and Bun's usual awesomeness.

16. Donae'o - Party Hard (My-Ish)
The best of the few traditional full-lengths to come out of UK Funky House so far, Party Hard brings pretty great beats and Donae'o himself, who has an almost uncanny knack for conjuring great hooks seemingly as ad-libs. The title track is an anthem.

15. FaltyDL - Love Is a Liability (Planet Mu)
FaltyDL's non-album single "To London" is my favorite thing he's put out this year, but Love Is a Liability is a great, unexpected full-length. It's mostly filled with jaunty, garagey rhythms and layered, multi-textured productino. DL throws in a lot of ideas and he has a hell of a hit-rate.

14. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca (Domino)
The Projectors keep on getting better, with Dave Longstreth just writing melodies about ten times as interesting as most any other indie songwriter. I'd be lying if I said I didn't much prefer the female Projectors' singing to Dave's, but such is life.

13. Ida Maria - Fortress Round My Heart (Mercury Records)
The control that Ida has over her wounded howl of a voice is something to marvel at. She gets maximum emotion from every shriek, God bless her.

12. the Juan Maclean - the Future Will Come (DFA)
The Juan Maclean ruled lots of last year with the monstrous "Happy House", and while not all of this album is as awesome as that track, that's not exactly a terrible insult. Nancy Whang helps give the band some balance, and the duet "One Day", though too short, has gotten tons of play.

11. Jacek Sienkiewicz - Modern Dance (Cocoon Recordings)
My countryman Jacek (we're both American!) (naw I'm just kidding, I meant Poland) delivered a mixed album of his own productions in April, and it seems to have flown mostly under the radar, at least as far as critical reaction. I love this shit though, it's mnml, but definitely jacking, the highlight for me coming early on with new track "All Yours".

10. DJ Sprinkles - Midtown 120 Blues (Mule Musiq)
Terre Thaemletz's Midtown 120 Blues starts with a critique of the history of house music, the transition from specific, regional, queer scenes to a universalized ideal. You don't have to engage with the intro to appreciate the album's beauty, the detail of the sound design, the lushness of the production, but it's a hell of an extra-musical hook.

9. Gucci Mane - The State vs. Radric Davis (Brick Squad/Asylym/Warner Bros.)
It seems silly and outdated to be ranking a Gucci album, considering the sheer volume (never mind quality) of tracks that he's released this year. And yeah, I could probably construct two Gucci full lengths, made only from his 2009 material, that would be as good or better than this one. Maybe next year I'll start counting mixtapes, this year we have this, which despite having some glaring weak spots (most notably and disastrously "Spotlight), is still a very good record by prolly the current Best Rapper Alive.

8. Shackleton - Three EPs (Perlon)
After closing down his and Appleblim's Skull Disco label, Sam Shackleton went to work on this album for mnml techno label Perlon and it turned out to be a hell of a work. It's a continuation of the singular dubstep he was doing on Skull Disco, and a minor masterpiece of busy percussion, space, and mood. And then when he drops "he's got the whole wide world in is hands" it somehow makes sense.

7. The xx - xx (Young Turks)
xx is indie through the filters of 00s American R&B, modern British dance music, and, most importantly, Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game". It's a shocking debut and its success makes me very happy.

6. Maxwell - BLACKsummers'night (Columbia)
Speaking of shocking, Maxwell came back from the ether this year and put out an album to get completely lost in. That's two years in a row with amazing neo-soul album, kids, what's going on?

5. Future of the Left - Travels With Myself and Another (4AD)
These guys got much better with their second album. Granted, it peaks a few minutes in towards the end of the force of nature that is "Arming Eritrea", but the whole record is a triumph of absurdist wit and killer riffs.

4. DJ Quik and Kurupt - BlaQKout (Mad Science)
Quik and Kurupt put out the album of the summer for me. The beats here veer from traditionalist G-Funk to futurism, sometimes within seconds. Quik is on a whole other level production-wise, and both rappers are happily along for the ride.

3. Fever Ray - Fever Ray (Rabid Records)
We were waiting for a Knife album and instead we got this wonder, the most glacial, labyrinthine thing since, well, the last Knife album. But this is more personal than Silent Shout, I think. The rhythms here are almost as impressive as the melodies and textures, from the percussion that accents the arpeggiator on "Triangle Walks" to the eye-opening waltz on "I'm Not Done". Brilliant stuff, especially in the cold months.

2. Electrik Red - How to Be a Lady Volume 1 (Def Jam/Radio Killa)
This could've just been The-Dream's girl-group, but there's so much personality in these lyrics, the spoken bits, the delivery. How to Be a Lady Volume 1 (what a great title) is full of treasures: "if my body's a club you're my disco ball" on "Freaky Freaky", "(diamonds on my neck) ca-na-ry yello!" on "Drink In My Cup", the Princely electro of "Friend Lover", I could go on for days.

1. The-Dream - Love vs. Money (Def Jam/Radio Killa)
Never in doubt since it came out in March. LvM isn't perfect (that Kanye verse, the closing Lil Jon track, which I've long programmed out), but it still manages to tower above the rest of 2009 for me quite handily. Along with Tricky Stewart and LOS da Maestro, The-Dream made a masterpiece here. The three singles are up front, and then the album really gets down to business, throwing out two brilliant sex jams before the all out joy of "Take U Home 2 My Mama" ("her titties like Woo-ooh-ohh" remains the most joyful proclamation of the year). The emotion of the albums second half peaks, for me, on the bridge of "Mr. Yeah", in which Dream's post-R Kelly, sensitive loverman reveals himself most plainly through stuttering minor-key synths. Best R&B album of the decade, obvious album of the year for yours truly.

YMD's Super Sweet Sixteen: ALBUMS EDITION

So I just said, "Fuck it, let's do it live." (Too many honorable mentions to honor)

16. The Futureheads - the Futureheads (679 Recordings, 2004)
The Futureheads' combination of Wire/Go4 energy with four part harmonies produced the best album of the mid-decade post-punk revival. It turns out that having a choice of which part to sing along to in an indie rock song really does make it a billion times (or so) better.

15. The Field - From Here We Go to Sublime (Kompakt, 2007)
The brief moments on this album on when it starts to kind of come apart, like 2:30 into "Everyday" are unforgettable. That's largely due to how hypnotic and beautiful the rest of it is.

14. Joanna Newsom - Ys (Drag City, 2006)
The Milk Eyed Mender is an amazing record full of great hooks and melodies, but the ambition of Ys and how amazingly it fulfills that ambition puts it on the list. Joanna is one of our most talented songwriters and the amount of humanity she instills in the woodland creatures on this album is astonishing.

13. Isolée - We Are Monster (Playhouse, 2005)
My favorite album to come out of minimal techno is We Are Monster, by German producer Rajko Müller. It does as good a job of creating its own vocabulary of sounds and rhythms and delicious little hooks as any other dance album I've heard this decade. It's like a Miyazaki film of a minimal album, all wonder and amazement but with sufficient darkness to keep it interesting.

12. Young Jeezy - the Recession (Def Jam, 2008)
I'd say Atlanta produced more great rap this decade than any other city, and I hold this record above Stankonia, Trap Music, Let's Get It, and all the other classic ATL full-lengths. Front to back, from the opening rumble of the title track (Jeezy brings enough rumble by himself, of course, but the beats on here, from some of the south's best, kill all the way through), through Cannon's unexpectedly soulful "Circulate", through the absolute anthem that is "Put On" and, finally, the right-on-time triumph of "My President", Jeezy brings his unique, gravely charisma and brings it hard. I'm not big on end-of-decade and end-of-year records having to represent America or the World at the time but, at the very least, this is the record that defines the 2nd half of this decade of rap for me.

11. Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster... (Wichita Recordings, 2008)
At this point in my life, "four sweaty boys with guitars tell me nothing about my life" was a lyric that I would unquestionably love. That it came from a band so adept at writing hooks and other wonderful lyrics was a blessing.

10. Britney Spears - Blackout (Jive, 2007)
I shaved my head the same day Britney did. We all wanted this album to be great. And then it kind of came out of nowhere and it really was great, and looking back at it I didn't even realize back then how great it was. I still think "Toy Soldier" is a weak point, but besides that the writers and producers all play to Britney's strengths and bring their A-beats. It's as much a wonderful moment of redemption as it is an awesome pop record.

9. Taylor Swift - Fearless (Big Machine, 2008)
I absolutely love how universally loved Taylor has become in the last 12 months. She writes teen-pop better than anyone has in quite a long time. The much-lauded key change in "Love Story" makes me explode.

8. Ghostface Killah - Supreme Clientele (Epic, 2000)
A Supremely boring pick for rap record of the decade, I know, but I can't convince myself that Ghost doesn't deserve it. His solo debut Ironman is a great record, but on this one his surrealism, wordplay, alliteration, all of that is on another level. RZA and the Wu second-stringers come through with the beats here, but there's no doubt that Ghost is the star, just giving a bravura performance. The chorus to "Apollo Kids" is better than most rappers' whole life's work.

7. Beyoncé - B'Day (Deluxe Edition) (Columbia, 2007)
Some albums work thematically and flow well, some are just pop monsters. This is most definitely the latter. The Deluxe Edition's main upgrade over the original is the insertion of the Extended Mix of "Get Me Bodied", which adds a few minutes of instructed dance and is absolutely essential. But really, this record has "Beautiful Liar," "Irreplaceable," "Green Light," "Upgrade U," "Freakum Dress," and much more; it's unstoppable.

6. Lifter Puller - Fiestas and Fiascos (The Self Starter Foundation, 2000)
This album is the best thing I've ever heard or read as far as a description of partying hard and all the highs and lows that it entails. As much as I love the Hold Steady, and I really do, I don't think Craig Finn has quite scaled these heights for the whole length of an album again (though Separation Sunday is really, really close). The line "bruised hips from doing the bump too much" from the opening track is one of my favorite lyrics of the decade.

5. The Knife - Silent Shout (Rabid Records, 2006)
Deep Cuts was a very good album that contained one of the singles of the decade. The follow up is a glacial palace, an album full of basically pop-structured songs that takes the textures and rhythms of mid 00s dance music and creates something wonderful and new with them. After a hundred listens this album still sounds mysterious.

4. The-Dream - Love vs. Money (Radio Killa/Def Jam, 2009)
Forgetting for a second a few Kanye lines and the bonus tracky Lil' Jon collabo, it's hard to imagine a more perfect late 00s R&B album. Teaming with his in-house producers Los da Mystro and Tricky Stewart, Dream writes sex jams worthy of his hero R Kelly and throws in some beautiful angst to match. The key change in the bridge of "Mr. Yeah" is just-as-glorious, backwards counterpart to T-Swift's "Love Story".

3. Daft Punk - Discovery (Virgin, 2001)
In the style of an old-fashioned pop record, Discovery starts off with its four great singles and lord, are they great. The run from "One More Time", "Aerodynamic", "Digial Love", and "Harder, Beter, Faster, Faster Stronger" would, I imagine, explode most dancefloors around the world in a way that very few artists could even dream of accomplishing. The wonderful thing is that while the rest of the record might not be as huge in terms of pop, the elation after the first four songs gives you no choice but to keep dancing. And the rest of the record is HUGE in terms of dancing.

2. Boredoms - Vision Creation Newsun (Birdman, 2001)
VCN is the 00s record that sounds most like a force of nature, like galloping towards the ecstatic and sublime. Though much of the band's 90s outfit could safely be called Noise, even a genre as loosely coded as that seems too restrictive to describe this record with any degree of accuracy. It's a record to play loud over and over again and one that I can never get tired of discovering new things in.

1. Mclusky - Mclusky Do Dallas (Too Pure, 2002)
I began the decade jus starting to get into rock music and I finish it with rock music taking up as little of my new music listening as it has since in, well, about ten years. Still, Mclusky's second album is my favorite of the decade; clever, absurdist, funny, and abrasive in equal and great measure. Andy Falkous is amazing at instilling his barking nonsense with some sort of bizarre pathos, the best example being "The World Loves Us and Is Our Bitch", on which he rattles off phrases like "alcohol matters when you can't be free", "love is eternal 'til it isn't anymore" and "ky ky std" with firm and crazy conviction. There is nothing on this album that doesn't kick ass.

(Perhaps that's not the most elegant way to wrap up the decade. Eat some caviar while reading this)

So go and bring a beat machine but don't forget your shovel

Bound to be the best album of the year that includes the lyric "pop that twat" in a chorus, DJ Quik and Kurupt's BlaQKout is so perfectly suited to being played loud in the summer that it's making previous summers feel retrospectively incomplete.

Forreal tho, Quik is really magnificent here. Pretty much every beat here sounds really inspired. Wonderful surprises lie around every corner (the guitar runs on "Fuck Yall", the future-funk insanity of "Jupiter's Critic and the Mind of Mars") and, though Kurupt's rhymes are a lil' eh sometimes, this is my favorite rap record of the year so far.

Cop that shit.

Tuesday Capitalizm

I looked over today's release schedule so I could, you know, tell yall what to spend money on, and the only thing that stood out to me was Desire Lines by Meanderthals, a balearic supergroup of sorts composed of the Idjut Boys and Rune Lindbaek, who have both been cranking out super smooth edits and beach-bound tunes for a while now. This is the perfect season for music like this; an awesome record as we surf slowly towards summer. Listen to the opening track "Kunst or Ars" above and click here (or, better yet, holler at your local dealer of sun-kissed, breezy disco) to buy it.

Linking

RT: @YesMoreMaciej http://bit.ly/8K6pK Me about Miss Cortney Tidwell and her new album at Music For Perfect People

:)

The-Dream is like Woo-oooh-oooh

Tomorrow marks the release of YMD fav the-Dream's new record Love vs. Money, and I wrote a little thing about it at Music for Perfect People. It's definitely the best album I've heard so far this year and as Blogger, unlike Wordpress, let's you embed imeem playlists, I'm just gonna go ahead and embed the free stream of the album that Dream himself is streaming on imeem. Give it a shot, it's R&B heat. Cop it here or at your local music retailer (if it hasn't closed down yet).

Albums Albums Albums

The folks that made my fave record of the year look (and sound) like this. I'm as surprised as you are.

I make year end music lists every December, prolly because some compulsive aspect of my personality (reification!) makes me enjoy it a whole lot. It inevitably leads to me listening only to the music of the past year in December, which is odd, but, well, if we're gonna divide our lives into chunks of time we might as well divide our art into these chunks as well. Other people's year end lists always lead me to discovering something I missed and, though I can't imagine this will be too widely read, that's hopefully a small function of it. But won't lie and say that this list is anything other something I do for me, something to look back on (most likely in embarrassment) in the future, and something to think about for now.

The top three records on the list below could all easily have topped it. Jeezy put out a record full of super dramatic beats that perfectly complimented his hoarse rumblings, the best record of his career, and the best rap album in a year of pretty great big rap albums. Erykah Badu came back with an absolute classic, an album so full of interesting emotional and aural textures that I'm in awe every time I hear it. I certainly wasn't expecting anything remotely like neo-soul to pique my interest in 2008, but a masterpiece is a masterpiece. I prolly got the most fun this year from Los Campesinos!, a band who do messy, sugary, wordy indie-pop (another genre I wasn't quite checking for) better than maybe anyone I've ever heard. You know that anyone willing to take on one of my least favorite songs ever with a poptimist lyric like "four sweaty boys with guitars tell me nothing about my life!" get some bonus points for year.

But yeah, (like every year) it was a great year for music, and anyone that tells you otherwise probably shouldn't be trusted. Here's a bunch of albums I enjoyed, and I'll be back tomorrow with songs list (which I put a ton more effort into than this one, to be honest) and a gigantic playlist to boot.

Maciej's Top 25 Albums of the Year (okay so the-Dream was December '07 fucking sue me)

1. Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster... (Wichita/Arts and Crafts International)
2. Young Jeezy - the Recession (Def Jam)
3. Erykah Badu - New Amerykah: Part One (4th World War) (Universal Motown)
4. the Bug - London Zoo (Ninja Tune)
5. Portishead - Third (Universal Island Records)
6. Hercules & Love Affair - Hercules & Love Affair (DFA)
7. the Mole - As High as the Sky (Wagon Repair)
8. The-Dream - Love/Hate (Island Def Jam)
9. Gang Gang Dance - St. Dymphna (Warp)
10. Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping (Polyvinyl)
11. Bun B - II Trill (Rap-A-Lot Records)
12. Dave Aju - Open Wide (Circus Company)
13. Lil Wayne - The Carter III (Cash Money Records/Universal Motown)
14. Ne-yo - The Year of the Gentleman (Island Def Jam)
15. the Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride (4AD)
16. Shed - Shedding the Past (Ostgut Tonträger)
17. Deerhunter - Microcastle (Kranky)
18. Beyonce - I Am...Sasha Fierce (Columbia)
19. El Guincho - Alegranza! (XL Recordings)
20. Ponytail - Ice Cream Spiritual (We Are Free)
21. Vivian Girls - Vivian Girls (Mauled By Tigers/In the Red)
22. the Hold Steady - Stay Positive (Vagrant Records)
23. T.I. - Paper Trail (Grand Hustle/Atlantic)
24. Spiritualized - Songs in A&E (Sancturary Records)
25. Prosumer & Murat Tepeli - Serenity (Ostgut Tonträger)