Archduke's Top 25 Albums of 2009

1.  The xx: xx
I first saw the xx in Philadelphia at a recently refurbished nightclub in the gay district back in November. For the majority of the evening, I remember feeling a little unsure how a band like the xx would fare regarding the atmosphere, with the dull but groove-minded Phenomenal Handclap Band handling opening duties to warm reception, and each subsequent DJ whipping the kids into a hotter frenzy, interweaving buggy house cuts with more popular indie-dance staples (I recall the crowd going particularly bonkers over what I thought to be a Happy-Mondays-into-"1901" blend). Now at this particular time, xx was by no means my favorite album of 2009, but I had found it immediately compelling and felt oddly protective of it’s nuanced notes and skeletal grace. I conceded that there would be enough foot-shuffling to appease the crowd once keyboardist Jamie Smith started thrumming out that drum part underneath what might be the year’s briefest, brightest guitar lick on “Crystalised”. And yeah, “Islands” is kind of a banger, too. But what about the aching open spaces that pollute almost everything else on their debut? Perhaps this would all make sense in some respect, with most critical mention of the xx’s music being circuited around how sexual it is. And while the music does position itself in a way that would make it pretty easy to, well, position yourself, I was banking on the extreme unlikelihood that this throng of very attractive, very drunk twenty-somethings would find much favor with songs about such pointed sexual and emotional fragility. (I had a sneaking suspicion that much of the audience interpreted the jumbled carnal yearning of “Shelter” as being an anthem for people who still have sex with their shirts on… which actually might be right on the money, now that I think about it). In essence, it would be like asking Richard and Linda Thompson to perform Shoot Out the Lights at a Red Bull-charged Bar Mitzvah, or watching some guy break out a bottle of a tequila at your kid’s tennis match—music this patient and personal requires space. I was in full-on Mother Bear mode without even recognizing it, scowling at each uninterested onlooker as sweat dried and caked to their bored foreheads. By the time the band hit their third or fourth song, most of the air had been sucked out of the room, as predicted. Far be it from me to blame them-- this crowd had been promised Ecstasy and received black licorice instead. But as disappointed as they might’ve been, the xx had me fully enraptured with every aqueous pulse. It took me a few more weeks to figure out that, indeed, xx was my hands-down favorite of 2009. That meantime provided me with a little context from that evening that certainly helped: The best pop record isn’t always the one that gets your nut off first. And if this specific record wasn’t so damn perfect, so simple and still captivatingly intricate, I’d feel like a wet blanket for saying it: Amidst all the fucking, sometimes you have to make a little love. I've been pretty smitten ever since.

2.  Dirty Projectors: Bitte Orca
3.  Neon Indian: Psychic Chasms
4.  Fuck Buttons: Tarot Sport
5.  Grizzly Bear: Veckatimest
6.  Raekwon: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II
7.  Memory Tapes: Seek Magic
8.  The Smith Westerns: The Smith Westerns
9.  Washed Out: Life of Leisure
10. Girls: Album
11.  Real Estate: Real Estate
12.  Phoenix: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
13.  Bear in Heaven: Beast Rest Forth Mouth
14.  Javelin: Jamz n Jemz
15.  Delorean: Ayrton Senna EP
16.  Dizzee Rascal: Tongue N' Cheek
17.  Bon Iver: Blood Bank EP
18.  Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion
19.  CFCF: Continent
20.  Mastodon: Crack the Skye
21.  The Big Pink: A Brief History of Love
22.  Zomby: Where Were U in 92?
23.  The-Dream: Love Vs. Money
24.  St. Vincent: Actor
25.  Cold Cave: Love Comes Close