Sound Fix | Best of 2009 (Indie Rock)

Best of 2009 (Indie Rock)

1. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: s/t
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart gave us the first great debut of 2009, an album exploding with hooks, energy, style and unabashed enthusiasm. The band’s name is no affectation: This local dr...read more
2. Grizzly Bear: Veckatimest
It’s hardly a revelation at this stage that Grizzly Bear had a good year in 2009. When a Brooklyn psych-folk act makes the Billboard Top 10 (we’re not kidding), that’s news. But i...read more
3. Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion
When Merriweather Post Pavilion arrived, we sold out of the vinyl pressing in about a day, and had to hear “Do you have…?” for weeks. As if we needed any hint that this record wou...read more
4. Phoenix: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Only French people could do something so clearly unoriginal and yet make it seem perfectly right and natural and cool. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix sounded best during the warm months, but it’s a...read more
5. St. Vincent: Actor
St. Vincent (Annie to her family, the Clarks) returned this year to prove her debut was no fluke. On Actor, Clark leads with her cute, pointy chin, updating the ambitiously composed songs that made...read more
6. Dinosaur Jr.: Farm
It is very rare that a band returns from a 16-year hiatus and makes as much of an impact as Dinosaur Jr. have since reforming. Granted, J Mascis never went anywhere in the interim, but truth be tol...read more
7. Fever Ray: s/t
Artistically perhaps the biggest record of the year, Fever Ray‘s self-titled debut is the sound of one Knife cutting. Of course, this isn’t your standard debut – Fever Ray is Kari...read more
8. Bat for Lashes: Two Suns
Everyone who fell under the spell of UK hippie-goth siren Natasha Khan’s 2007 debut, Fur and Gold, had the same worry: Would the attention paid to it (and its not very unattractive creator) s...read more
9. Girls: Album
The group’s name and album title seem like some sort of postmodern tip of the hat: take archetypes and reduce the rock album to its essence. It’s a fake-out, though: at its best, this is as emo...read more
10. Kurt Vile: Childish Prodigy
Kurt Vile may not be a star yet, but we expect that to change soon. In our little corner of the world, this Philly-based rocker took us by storm. On his third release and first for Matador, Vile st...read more
11. Monsters of Folk: s/t
Here comes the supergroup of our time, an indie Traveling Wilburys. With a name like Monsters of Folk, this could’ve gone either way, really bad or really great; thankfully it’s the lat...read more
12. The Antlers: Hospice
Blog-rock of the most adorable stripe, the Antlers’ Hospice — originally self-released before being plucked by French Kiss and becoming a genuine indie hit — is full of highly ant...read more
13. Here We Go Magic: s/t
What’s in a name? Here We Go Magic is the new nom de musique employed by indie singer-songwriter Luke Temple, whose previous work was solid if a bit unremarkable. Things have changed: The reb...read more
14. Sonic Youth: The Eternal
Sonic Youth’s return to the indie ranks resulted in no major changes from their previous song album, 2006’s Rather Ripped. The Eternal still features lots of moody mid-tempo grooves; the te...read more
15. Camera Obscura: My Maudlin Career
Scot-pop outfit Camera Obscura is one of the few bands to whom we’ll give a pass on making the same record a coupla-few times. Which is good, because My Maudlin Career, the group’s four...read more
16. Cymbals Eat Guitars: Why There Are Mountains
Fans of canonical indie-rock: If you haven’t already hupped to it with Cymbals Eat Guitars in the wake of the notice Pitchfork gave to this album, well, it’s not too late. This scattere...read more
17. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: It's Blitz!
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, it’s been a while; good to hear from you. As the band has said, It’s Blitz! sounds different than past YYYs music, but it also is unmistakably them. This is due to Kare...read more
18. Passion Pit: Manners
Str8 outta the indie hotbed of…Cambridge, Mass? Whatever—plenty o’ kids have been jonesing for Passion Pit’s debut full-length after the quintet’s EP, Chunk of Change,...read more
19. Asobi Seksu: Hush
The lushest of the neo-shoegaze bands follows up 2006’s magnificent Citrus –- my favorite album of the decade—with an even more beautiful effort. That doesn’t mean it’s be...read more
20. M. Ward: Hold Time
Matt Ward is one of those characters who does things in such an understated manner that it’s easy to forget just how jaw-droppingly talented he is. M. Ward’s seventh album, Hold Time, w...read more