I remember 2009 as the last hurrah for indie rock’s dominance over the coverage of music. Poptimism, or the elevation of pop music to the same critical echelon as rock music, would rise in the 2010s. Indie music continued on the way it has since the ’80s, of course, but websites like Pitchfork that had heretofore been all about indie music broadened their scope to keep up with the increased demand for coverage of a more diverse slate of artists. 2009 was the last time indie was the critical darling.
But this list doesn’t quite reflect that. Sure, Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, and Dirty Projectors appear, but there is far more Christian singer-songwriter music here than I expected. Also, I had forgotten about Mumford & Sons’s debut being such a force, connecting the worlds of indie and pop in ways that the intelligentsia couldn’t predict or stave off. So while several publications have framed 2009 as indie’s peak, there was a lot more going on that year.
Notable absences:
The Black Eyed Peas, The E.N.D.: Not sure you could pay me to listen to this all the way through.
Dave Matthews Band, Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King: Not sure you could pay me to listen to this all the way through. I’d have a hard time even getting through the title without rolling my eyes, to be honest.
Fever Ray, Fever Ray: I have a friend who likes The Knife. I don’t like The Knife. Fever Ray doesn’t do it for me either, unsurprisingly.
The Flaming Lips, Embryonic: I love early Lips, but this seemed like directionless fluff to me.
Neko Case, Middle Cyclone: I often love individual songs from Case, but her albums have always been a little too abstract for what I expect from a singer-songwriter record.
Raekwon, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II: This was probably the first album out after this top 25. It’s a great rap album, but Wu-Tang albums are always more interesting to me than visceral experiences.
Wild Beasts, Two Dancers: Still haven’t listened to it…
The xx, xx: I wanted to like them so much. They’re right up my alley. But I’ve never been anything more than bored while listening to an xx song.
Here are my favorite albums from 2009:
Top Ten
10. NEEDTOBREATHE, The Outsiders: There wasn’t really anyone like NEEDTOBREATHE at the time of this, their true breakout. They had won some Dove Awards for their previous album, The Heat, but they finally started seeing some traction on the radio and with critics with The Outsiders. But the critics didn’t really know what to do with them; the big bands at the time were Switchfoot, Relient K, Jars of Clay, David Crowder Band, and NEEDTOBREATHE sounded nothing like any of them, embracing evocative roots rock and broadly spiritual lyrics that fit the generally positive milieu of Christian rock radio but didn’t limit them to that scene. Indeed, they’ve always flinched at being put in a box, especially the CCM one, and The Outsiders was the moment they broke the box wide open.
9. Mumford & Sons, Sigh No More: Speaking of roots rock, here’s the album that made faux-folk music stupidly popular for a time. If lesser bands like The Lumineers or Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros are their legacy, then Mumford & Sons follow a long lineage of quality, industry-altering groups destined to be remembered for inspiring bad knockoffs. Sigh No More, taken on its own, holds up ten years later as a beautiful exploration of holding onto hope in the face of life’s crushing disappointment. Funnily, Christians worked their way into knots to find the hidden gospel themes in the band’s lyrics despite the F-bomb in “Little Lion Man.” We always try to claim artists as our own, as if we can judge one’s salvation from the words they put to music. In the interim, it appears as if Mumford & Sons are more spiritual than Christian, but that doesn’t take away from the truth in these songs.
8. Switchfoot, Hello Hurricane: Switchfoot were the pioneers of the “don’t call us Christian rock” sentiment that NEEDTOBREATHE would adopt later in their career. The band had broken out with the monumentally popular The Beautiful Letdown in 2003, which remains too popular for me to fully embrace it as their best record. Instead, I prefer Hello Hurricane, which drops references to civil rights activist John M. Perkins and Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane feels like a more honest, open album than Letdown, which goes for big, sweeping choruses where Hurricane drives harder for tighter, more focused melodies. The result is an opus of resilience against life’s storms, of paying attention to the things that matter in the midst of life’s distractions.
7. Girls, Album: The Beach Boys always had a level of despair at the center of their songs. Music couldn’t be that jangly or happy unless it was covering up something a little darker. Christopher Owens’s Girls debut dives headfirst into the darkness, coming out on the other side with a glimmer of hope. Owens mimics the guitar pop of Brian Wilson and his band, but on songs like “Hellhole Ratrace” and “Laura,” the subtest becomes text. Owens has slipped since this album, but it remains a seminal work in indie dream-pop.
6. Sandra McCracken, Live Under Lights and Wires: Live albums have their place in one’s enjoyment of one’s favorite artist. You look to them for unique version of your favorite song that bring something new to the mix. But they rarely rate among the best studio albums for me. This collection, recorded in her living room, is different. McCracken is a consummate songwriter, and she crafts studio albums immaculately. But the stripped down nature of this set exposes McCracken’s relationship to her own words, laying bare an authentic need to make sense of this world. She’s been even better on some more recent studio albums, but this was her best work to date- and it was about as impromptu as you can get.
5. Sara Groves, Fireflies and Songs: Groves broke through the CCM bubble with 2001’s Conversations, an album of quiet ruminations on prayer and reflection. Ever since then, she’s been one of the most revered songwriters in the industry. This is the best of her records from the ’00s, representing a shift from her prolific output in that decade to her more sparse offerings in this one. Fireflies, with songs like the resigned “Setting Up the Pins” and the determined “Eyes Wide Open”, feels like an album on which Groves’s confessional nature had reached a breaking point. She would expand her sound palette after this album, still trafficking in folk music but experimenting with production along the way. Fireflies was the end of an era for Groves, so it’s a good thing it was also a peak.
4. Bat for Lashes, Two Suns: After ten years, it can be easy to forget how otherworldly Two Suns felt upon its release. Natasha Khan stays close enough to a pop formula on opener “Glass” and single “Daniel” that the remainder of the album’s alien structures and forms are fully transporting. Björk would seem to be the obvious influence, but Khan herself cited Brooklyn bands like TV on the Radio and MGMT as the main stylistic role models. She arguably channels their weirdo sensibilities even better than those bands ever have on Two Suns, which remains one of the greatest indie pop space explorations ever.
3. Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix: 2009 was clearly a year for indie pop statements, as France’s Phoenix dropped one of their own just one month after Bat for Lashes. This album was such a success for an indie band that a couple of its songs (“Lizstomania” and “1901”) crossed over into the mainstream consciousness, something that a certain album that placed higher on this list couldn’t claim. Wolfgang hit at precisely the right time. The indie rock bubble was popping, but their pop sensibilities, carefully calibrated to eleven on Wolfgang, hit a wave that they never quite caught again. But this perfect slice of pop remains for us to enjoy, guilt-free, for as long as streaming services allow.
2. Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion: This is the aforementioned indie album that failed to cross over into the mainstream. Merriweather topped a lot of critics’ lists, not only for 2009 but for the 2000s (after the must-includes like Kid A and Funeral). But if you weren’t an indie fan, you couldn’t have named a single song on that album in 2009, much less now. Part of that has to do with Animal Collective’s refusal as a group to conform to the public’s expectation for groups seeking success in the music industry, cataloged beautifully in this feature by Pitchfork. But the album itself wasn’t really trying to cross over. It stands alone as a personal statement from the three architects (no pun intended) that built it, a distinct, unimpeachable artifact unmoved by the waves of its industry.
1. Relient K, Forget and Not Slow Down: Before 2009, Relient K could reliably be expected to churn out pop punk fare like their breakout hit, “Be My Escape.” The Ohio band’s first five albums (as well as their Christmas albums) followed this formula almost completely, with some occasional exceptions that pushed the genre envelope (like the closing track on 2007’s Five Score and Seven Years Ago, “Deathbed”). But Forget and Not Slow Down was a turning point for the band’s style, embracing pop melodies to an unprecedented degree and adopting a much less direct lyrical style.
You can hear the shift from the opening title track, which is my favorite song in their entire discography. The instrumentation is different, but there’s a deeper change as well. The group had figured something out about what the band’s purpose was. Prior to Forget, the Relient K had approached profundity at times, but more often than not they settled for catchy songs with clever lyrics. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, but there are also higher callings.
Forget and Not Slow Down marked frontman Matt Thiessen’s move toward a new phase for his lyrical voice. Some people noted it as “maturity,” but that sounds reductive and implies that their previous music was immature. I prefer to think of the change as a move toward honesty. They had occasionally hidden behind now-cringeworthy songs like “Mood Rings” or even Mmhmm‘s sunny “High of 75.” Now Thiessen was pushing the band to confront hard parts of their lives, likely inspired by the breakup with his longtime fiancé the year before. The result is an album that soars in its most introspective moments and lifts us up with it.
Another Fifteen (alphabetically)
Alicia Keys, The Element of Freedom: An underrated R&B classic that was overshadowed by the juggernaut that was “Empire State of Mind.”
The Antlers, Hospice: The best musical theater album of the year.
The Avett Brothers, I and Love and You: The best non-Mumford folk rock album of the year.
Bill Callahan, Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle: Now that he’s back, revisiting this masterpiece has me really appreciating Callahan’s languid style, which is one of a kind.
Bon Iver, Blood Bank EP: A minor release from Bon Iver still had twice the artistry of other musicians’ full-length albums.
Dirty Projectors, Bitte Orca: A singular sound in indie rock at the time, it remains one of the best fusions of R&B and pop without quite sounding like either one.
Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest: It’s easy to forget how big indie rock was getting at this point (its peak, to be clear), but one clear signifier was JAY-Z and Beyoncé attending a Grizzly Bear show after this album came out.
Hiss Golden Messenger, Country Hai East Cotton: The best pure folk album of the year as M.C. Taylor burst forth fully formed onto the indie Americana scene.
Jars of Clay, The Long Fall Back to Earth: This was a new direction for Dan Haseltine & Co., and its electro-pop mostly worked, even if it’s not my favorite version of Jars of Clay.
Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit: Before Isbell was the go-to songwriter for Jackson Maine songs, he was making a comeback attempt with his first band post-Drive-By Truckers, and while it doesn’t quite reach the heights of his recent material, it’s still inspired.
Maxwell, BLACKsummers’night: Maxwell is an R&B singer, but he almost belongs in a genre all his own, and this first in his Night trilogy furthered his space soul legend.
Miranda Lambert, Revolution: Lambert is already a country icon, and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend gets all the attention, but Revolution might be the dark horse for her best album.
Passion Pit, Manners: This electro-pop breakout from Michael Angelakos has been mimicked since then (by Angelakos himself, no less), but it’s a beautiful oddity in a class of its own.
The Very Best, Warm Heart of Africa: By this time, the cultural appropriation noise around Vampire Weekend had run its course, but it was refreshing to see Ezra Koenig team up with a legitimate musician from the continent whose music he so revered, and Esau Mwamwaya’s Bantu voice deserved the hype that came with his high-profile featured guest.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, It’s Blitz!: Yeah Yeah Yeahs are more famous for their previous album, but It’s Blitz! is my favorite of theirs.
Future Top Tens
John Mark McMillan, Borderland
Sharon Van Etten, Are We There
The War on Drugs, Lost in the Dream
Strand of Oaks, HEAL
Taylor Swift, 1989
Liz Vice, There’s a Light
Jackie Hill Perry, The Art of Joy
First Aid Kit, Stay Gold
Miranda Lambert, Platinum
Propaganda, Crimson Cord
Jason Isbell: Southeastern
Beyoncé: Beyoncé
Laura Marling: Once I Was an Eagle
Patty Griffin: American Kid
Sandra McCracken: Desire Like Dynamite
Justin Timberlake: The 20/20 Experience
Beautiful Eulogy: Instruments of Mercy
Kanye West: Yeezus
KaiL Baxley: Heatstroke / The Wind and the War
Andrew Peterson: Light for the Lost Boy
Lecrae: Gravity
Frank Ocean: channel ORANGE
Japandroids: Celebration Rock
David Crowder*Band: Give Us Rest or (A Requiem Mass in C [The Happiest of All Keys])
Bruce Springsteen: Wrecking Ball
Fiona Apple: The Idler Wheel Is Wiser than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More than Ropes Will Ever Do
The Olive Tree: Our Desert Ways
Benjamin Dunn & the Animal Orchestra: Fable
Kendrick Lamar: good kid, m.A.A.d. city
Gungor: Ghosts upon the Earth
Adele: 21
Over the Rhine: The Long Surrender
Bon Iver: Bon Iver
The War on Drugs: Slave Ambient
Fleet Foxes: Helplessness Blues
Drake: Take Care
Raphael Saadiq: Stone Rollin’
Beyoncé: 4
Matt Papa: This Changes Everything
Titus Andronicus, The Monitor
Arcade Fire, The Suburbs
Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
The Black Keys, Brothers
Andrew Peterson, Counting Stars
Gungor, Beautiful Things
Surfer Blood, Astro Coast
Jamey Johnson, The Guitar Song
The National, High Violet
The Tallest Man on Earth, The Wild Hunt
Coulda Been a Contender 