Music Of The Weak: The Top Ten Albums Of 2009, Possibly

Last week, a memo came down from the home office that told us, basically to shut the fuck up about 2008.  This week, we bring you:  The Future.  Eleven months from now, when we look back on the year’s best albums, these are the ones that are going to be sitting on top of our list… maybe.

10.  A.C. Newman – Get Guilty

The New Pornographers stand to represent well this year (see also #3) as central honcho (head porno?) A.C. Newman gets ready to release his second solo album on the 20th of this month.  2004’s The Slow Wonder bore all the hallmarks of New Porn’s best work—the crazy time-signatures; the saccharine choruses; the clever instrumentation—without the left-turns of that weird Bejar guy (I kid.)  Plus, it secretly spawned the collective’s best single in “Miracle Drug.”   If Get Guilty is half as good, it’ll still be better than Challengers.

9.  Dälek – Gutter Tactics

The Factual Opinion goes way back with Dälek.  Waaaaaaaaaaaay back.  There’s no reason to believe that the sweet sweet sweetly titled Gutter Tactics won’t be another genre-busting, hyper-intelligent throwdown from the duo repping Newark.

8.  Thunderheist

Please.  Give us an album full of “Jerk It.”  Pretty please.

7.  Grizzly Bear – TBA

Yellow House was the 2006 album that everybody seemed to love.  Grizzly Bear have spent the last three years touring, taking notes on their peers (Animal Collective and TV on the Radio, for instance), and expanding their fan base.  This is a band for whom only good things can happen (Except for that time someone stole all of their equipment out of their van.  In Europe.)

6.  The Clipse – Till the Casket Drops

The Clipse have been massively overrated in the past—including by us.  Still, we will watch their every move.  Till the Casket Drops may or may not be The Clipse’s Columbia debut; it may or may not feature production work from Pharell and Rick Rubin; it may or may not ever even exist.  Only two things can be certain: 1) Ab-Liva will probably show up on it somewhere; and 2) even if it never comes to fruition, Till the Casket Drops will still be infinitely more exciting than the upcoming U2 album.

5.  Mastodon – Crack the Skye

This spring, when current heavy metal bellwethers Mastodon release their fourth album, you’re going to hear a lot of talk about symbolism.  For one thing, 2004’s Leviation was a concept album about Moby Dick, while 2006’s  Blood Mountain was a concept album about (wait for it) mountains.  On Crack the Skye, Mastodon have reportedly blasted off into space—because, you know, where else could they have gone—and made a (you guessed it) concept album about aether, the fifth element.  You know what that means?  Prog rock.

4.  The Juan MacLean – The Future Will Come

The DFA are on a hot streak, what with last year’s work on Hercules & Love Affair’s debut and Cut Copy’s In Ghost Colours (it was our favorite album last year don’t you know.)  Aw, hell.  Frankly, The DFA have never not been on a hot streak—managing to get consistently better and better over the last 7 years.  Perennially underrated sidekicks The Juan MacLean may finally get their long-awaited moment in the spotlight, especially if last year’s monster single, “Happy House,” hints at the substance of the album.

3.  Neko Case – Middle Cyclone

If “People Got a Lotta Nerve” (the one about the killer whale that teams up with an elephant in order to hunt for babies) is any indication, Middle Cyclone should be another set of beguiling songs dressed up in country gothic and belted out by what may just be the best voice in rock & roll.  Plus, the bar has already been set for album cover of the year.

2.  Big Boi – Sir Lucious Left Foot… Son of Dusty Chico

Dr. Dre – Detox

MF Doom & Ghostface – Swift & Changeable

Raekwon – Only Built For Cuban Linx II

Odds are that one of these legendary albums will finally drop in 2008.  If two drop, one of them has a chance at being good.  Our money’s on Big Boi’s first official solo joint—which, right now, has a one hot single every two singles average (“Royal Flush” is smokin’, but the Mary J. collab is moderate-to-whack.)  However, we will gladly moon over a return to form from Dre or Rae.  And we never stopped loving Ghost and Doom.  Really, we just want something to keep us from having to talk about Lil’ Wayne for the rest of our lives.  Anything.

1.  Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

Oh, fuck it. Everyone else seems to want to call Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion the best album of the year already.  We say, let’s do it—if only so that we can commence discussing its place among the best albums OF THE MILLENNIUM! Because, here at Music of the Weak, we are all about The Future.

-Martin Brown, 2009

Comments

[Sean Witzke]

If we talking about long delayed albums that might see the light of day, The Avalanches and Kevin Shields are reportedly working. Supposedly the follow-up to Loveless is completely done and he's been mastering it for two years.

(oh and On Some 2008 Shit has been playing nonstop around here, great stuff)

[david brothers]

Man, I can't say as I'm looking forward to Detox at all, but I can't wait for Cuban Linx II.

[Marty]

Sean,

I had The Avalanches scribbled down for a second, but I figured I'd keep it to monumental rap albums that already had titles. The My Bloody Valentine album is another matter--I'm a little scared of it, that it might be a legacy-killer. Of course, I had the same sort of trepidation about Portishead.

Glad you're digging the mix!

David,

Sounds like there's even odds that they'll both come out this year, but with 50 Cent's and Eminem's new albums also on deck, I can understand being skeptical of Detox. I do love Chronic 2001, though.