Albums Of The Year 2009

AOTY 2009

Now that my Albums Of The Year list for 2009 was officially posted at SignalMag courtesy my good friend Shehzaad, I feel free to post an extensive version of my own list with explanations. So here it is, THE TEN BEST albums of the year according to moi.

10. Brother Ali - US

9. Wax Tailor - In The Mood For Life

8. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!

7. Georgia Anne Muldrow - Umsindo

6. Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II

5. Melanie Fiona - The Bridge

4. Shafiq Husayn - En'A-Free-Ka

3. Blakroc - Blakroc

2. K'Naan - Troubadour

1. Mos Def - The Ecstatic

Chicas & fellas, we're nearing the end of 2009, or as I like to look at it, entering a new decade. Music is always a numbers game, and to me this era shift should be equally represented musically. We're not just putting a +10 on our calendars after all, but a +10 on knowledge, wisdom, and compatibility. So I've reserved this exclusive list - because 2009 was a terrific year for music - to the innovators, the revolutionaries, the ones bravely kicking down those doors into the new decade. These ten albums represent where we're at in 2009, and where we're going in 2010. As a bonus look into the future, I've added my list of the top 6 mixtapes at the end of this post. Enjoy!

10. Brother Ali - Us

Certain things in life you need to experience. Most firsts, for instance, mainly because you're guaranteed a second chance. Others, such as albinism, racism, slavery, etc., you'd rather experience vicariously, for instance through a book, movie or song. This is where Brother Ali comes in. He's the undisputed master of all things real, and the purveyor of such things through music. As a white albino Muslim reared by black parents, Ali's experienced more than most can attest to. On wax, he delves into even more, and shares those experiences as if he were a tour guide of life, taking you through both the dark alleys and the skyscrapers with a first person view. From talking about growing up Muslim in America to gay - in the same song ("Tight Rope"), to telling a plantation story from both slave and master "Breakin' Dawn", Ali covers as many bases as possible over a 16 track playlist.

9. Wax Tailor - In The Mood For Life

French DJ Wax Tailor isn't well known this side of the pond but he should be. The hip hop/trip hop producer's 09 offering In The Mood For Life is exactly what it sounds like. The lefts and rights of daily life explored in dim lighting through instrumental and vocalized sound alike. The album cover itself screams satire, featuring a man walking a sunny city sidewalk, holding an umbrella seemingly raining from the inside, solely on him. With that the tone is set, and the album goes on to follow that man through the various downtrodden paths of life. Truthfully that man could be anyone listening, any gender from any walk of life, precisely because of the vocal enlistments and soundtrack. He tells the scenes from the story in different formats and with different styles, whether it's a dope instrumental drop ("No Pity"), a hip hop feature from North Carolina (Mattic, "Until Heaven Stops The Rain", "Fireflies") to Sweden (Speech Defect, "B-Boy On Wax"), or the soothing jazzy voice of French singer Charlotte Savary (various songs) and others, the landscape is vivid, clear, and wretched. So much so that by the time the story reaches a breakthrough with "Say Yes", you're almost rooting for the character, whoever it may be.

8. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!

If this is the direction alternative rock is headed in for the new decade, I'm not complaining one bit. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs fully stepped up their game with their third effort and along with that, the entire landscape of alt-rock on a mainstream level. After their gritty, back-to-basics style on Show Your Bones, Karen O and crew opt for a more synthesized and dance-oriented sound on It's Blitz! and it pays off. From the badass opening track and single, "Zero" the tone is set, like an instant adrenaline hit. This album has an edge no matter what tone or mood each song parlays. "Heads Will Roll" is an awesome dance-rock song, with synths making a seamless transition into banging guitars while keeping the tempo at a furious rate. More impressive still, is at no time during the album is songwriting compromised for a catchy tune, especially with softer tracks like "Skeletons" and "Runaway". The whole album through is peppered with killer riffs and raw attitude, emphasized by "Dull Life" and "Shame And Fortune" right at the climax. The album, like any adrenaline additive, comes down to a cool landing with "Little Shadow", but always leaves you fiending for more.

7. Georgia Anne Muldrow - Umsindo

If Mos Def is the ecstatic, Georgia Anne Muldrow is the eclectic. Like I said, this is 2009, to earn a spot in this list a high degree of ingenuity must present itself. Muldrow does that in flying colours, and those colours are red, black and green. Her unfiltered adoration for the motherland explodes like fireworks over an already starlit sky. Of course never taking the same shape twice, her dynamite graffitis the backdrop with singing, shouting, chanting, rapping, and spoken word poetry. The backdrop itself shape shifts from rare groove to jazz to hip hop to soul and electro, as her myspace page associates her. I personally think she sounds like Lauryn Hill spittin' maliciously on "I.Q." But whatever your outlook going in, there are so many directions a listener could go with this album ultimately what you take will be uniquely yours. The seamless transitions interweaving these aural fabrics, some that would otherwise be inharmoniously juxtaposed with eachother, should place her in a genre of her own. Her meshing of smooth ("Roses Pt 1 & 2") with rugged ("Jina Langu Ni Afrika", uptempo ("Generation/You Got It") with downtempo ("Idlozi"), metaphorical ("E.S.P") with straightforward ("Kids") all in all makes for a spiritual and stimulating ride.

6. Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II

I like to say Raekwon doesn't make albums, he makes movies. Fourteen years after the original, he stays true to the script with OB4CLII, not only with the plethora Ghostface Killah appearances and d-boy storyline, but with the cinematography as well. Rae and all the guest features - most notably on production, which includes Necro, Erick Sermon, Scram Jones, The Alchemist and Dr. Dre alongside usual suspect RZA - paint such a vivid image it's hard to stop guessing what's going down in the next scene. Most significantly, Rae shows that he's still got it and can hold his own with anyone in the game. This was released the same week as Jay-Z's and got just as much hype as Bluepring 3. It's a testament to his longevity and relevance, not to mention a three year hiatus around the album itself. But the past is behind us, the LP is here and you're missing out if it's not in your collection. Think of it as going to the movies.

5. Melanie Fiona - The Bridge

Undoubtedly the best r&b album of the year comes to us from a local girl? You betcha! Okay let's be real. Melanie Fiona isn't local anymore, she's international. She's getting massive publicity for her brilliant album The Bridge. She's singing national anthems at NFL games on Thanksgiving week. She's Grammy nominated! And if you haven't heard her intense ballad "It Kills Me" yet, you're trying way too hard to avoid popular music. Ironically, the very reason she's on this list is that the rest of her album sounds nothing like her killer single. While Chrisette Michele and Alicia Keys did a great job of putting me to sleep and boring me to death, respectively, Fiona came with a Zippo and kept the fire on high all night. Most of the songs are about relationships and love, but she does it so intimately it puts you square in the picture, and you can't even fathom leaving, forget having a choice. Besides the incredibly catchy songwriting (e.g. "Monday Morning"), she experiments on a level beyond mainstream r&b norms and desperately needed in 2009. From the go-go influenced "Please Don't Go (Cry Baby)" to the doo-wop joint "You Stop My Heart" to the cha-cha tempo on "Sad Songs" she holds her own on each and every style thrown her way. Not only does that keep the album sounding fresh and you on your toes, the replay value is incredible. She may be a newcomer, but the rest of the r&b field would do great to emulate Melanie Fiona.

4. Shafiq Husayn - En'A-Free-Ka

This is the second album on this list inspired by Africa, and it won't be the last, but Sa-Ra rapper/singer/producer Shafiq Husayn pushes the concept the hardest of them all. En'A-Free-Ka is a spiritual journey through the continent from its southernmost tip to its northeastern exit in Egypt. Husayn covers as much ground musically as geographically, with the signature Sa-Ra experimentalism shining through a predominantly funk sound. The canvas is exclaimed with poetry, rap, and repeated mantras sung relating to different aspects of the African struggle for freedom - hence the title, A-FREE-Ka. "All Dead", "Dust & Kisses", and lead single "Lil' Girl" are all textbook examples of that. It's lounge music that requires a halfway shutting off of hearing vessels in order to deflate all inclinations of dancing. Warning: may cause involuntary fist-pumping.

3. Blakroc - Blakroc

Ever since Run DMC and Aerosmith tag teamed for the "Walk This Way" remix in '86, the rap-rock combo has been a mainstay in popular music, to varying degrees of success. But from Rage Against the Machine to Limp Bizkit, few acts have managed to truly grasp the essence of the lyricism; they tend to come off rather as random vocals pasted over generic riffs with random breaks to mark punchlines in the lyrics. Maybe that's because they haven't tried the blues approach. In what is admittedly more of a blues-rap mix than your typical rock-rap outfit, the Black Keys team up with Mos Def, Raekwon, the RZA, Jim Jones, Nicole Wray, Pharoahe Monch, Billy Danze (of M.O.P.) and N.O.E. as part of Damon Dash's new supergroup Blakroc. While others throughout the years have come close to understanding the language of hip hop with a live band, some even speaking the language quite coherently, none have achieved this level of fluency. The Black Keys show a thorough understanding of the nuances and cadences that rap sheets come equipped with. Dan Auerbach's guitar and hook crooning intertwines through those flows gracefully while Patrick Carney's drumming stays true to the hip hop sound. The end product is more than innovative, it's inventive. Don't be fooled, if this were a bona fide band and not merely a side project, they would have taken the number one spot with ease. Hopefully they connect for more in the future.

2. K'Naan - Troubadour

At a time where this country is led by a party of Bush-era zealots, world leaders seem to invent international cocktail parties to pat eachother on the back every second month, and hip hop seems comfortably pocketed in stagnancy once again (unless you call Kid CuDi's emo opus a breakthrough), K'Naan represents everything that's right about Canada, everything that's wrong about the world, and a giant gasp of fresh air to the music world. The Somali-born Toronto representative (by way of the Bronx) kicked off 2009 with a storm of a sophomore album. Coming from a country most infamously known to the west for pirate activity off its shores, that should hardly come as a surprise. But that doesn't limit the artistic genius intrinsically worked into the audio/visual potluck that is Troubadour. He makes no concessions about his homeland from the intense opener "T.I.A. (This Is Africa)" to the gut-wrenching love tragedy "Fatima". This time around though, his evolution as an artist is marked moreso by his ability to express that same emotion while staying close to home. On "People Like Me" he delves into lives dealing with the recession and at war abroad, and on "15 Minutes Away" recounts tales of anticipation while waiting for Western Union money orders to go through. But this is anything but a downer of an album. More than positive or conscious, K'Naan comes across as inspirational. From telling stories of childhood perseverance on "Somalia" to "Waving Flag" - the official 2010 World Cup anthem (take that in, repeat it a couple times until it sinks in) - he always finds a way to illuminate even the darkest of realities.

1. Mos Def - The Ecstatic

If adjectives were to describe Mos Def's discography to date, it would read: Classic, Weird, Lazy, Brilliant. In one fell swoop, he's avenged his music career and lived up to the potential followers always knew was present to craft such a masterpiece. The Ecstatic features the best beat selection of any hip hop album and an instrumental soundtrack that rivals any genre's best. From Madlib's middle eastern vibe ("Auditorium", "Wahid") to Perspective's latin influence ("No Hay Nada Mas", sung entirely in Spanish), to the gritty production Mos built his reputation on ("Life In Marvelous Times"), he floats through time signature changes, pitch shifts and choruses that require a full stop of the verse's rhythm. The amazing thing, through all this, is his shoe fits whatever footprint is required by the backdrop. No matter what the topic of discussion or the volatility of the beat, Mos delivers. The song flow is excellently thought through, setting off a businesslike tone to kick off, moving into a serious zone as emphasized by the darker beats and haunted interludes, before picking back up for a celebratory finish. It should be noted that the guest appearances are sparse yet beautifully employed - Slick Rick at his storytelling best, Georgia Anne Muldrow on a remix of "Roses" and the almost requesite Talib Kweli feaure on "History". This is the best, most provocative, most ingenious, most pryological album of the last year of the decade. And I can only imagine what the next 10 will have in store for us. Peace!

Top 7 Mixtapes

7. Element - If I Was A Woman I'd **** Me Too

Recent OkayPlayer signee, Toronto emcee Element comes correct with his debut mixtape, featuring his "Throwback Love" single with Promise and 17 other dope chunes.

6. Homeboy Sandman - Actual Factual Pterodactyl

This Queens native has the vocabulary of a dictionary, the flow of a tsunami, and the sense of humour of a stand-up comedian. Check out his "Lightning Bolt. Lightning Rod" video posted below.

5. WolfJ - UpSideDownDay TapeMix

Another Toronto up-and-comer with a debut mixtape, WolfJ entertains a multitude of styles and varying levels of freshness throughout this extremely original production. Watch his video for "Grizzly Bears Panda" here.

4. Pac Div - Church League Champions

These southern California basketball enthusiasts make no concessions for their love of the game. Church League Champions is a strong summer league showing, can't wait for the album!

3. Emilio Rojas - The Natural

This one was a late addition to this list, but really a Natural selection after all. Rojas' storytelling ability is unparalleled, lyricism is witty and on point, and passion absolutely undeniable. This could have been an album.

2. P.Casso - Earthtones

It's P.SO now, but at its release he was P.Casso, and Earthtones is a definite work of art. Each song is annotated by a different earth tone, and apparently if you hang around some interesting plants while listening you can see those very colours. I can't verify that, but regardless it's an all-encompassing mixtape that puts P on the map. He touches plethora topics from an intriguing angle. Again, it could very well have been an album. Check out his "Mr. Hollywood" video posted below.

1. Drake - So Far Gone

Talk about mixtapes that could have been released as albums... So Far Gone is actually featured on many a Top 10 ALBUMS list for 2009. I still want to see a concentrated album effort with no dubs from the Toronto representer, but this is as close as mixtapes get. The success of its two singles is obvious enough, but his maturity has grown exponentially since his 07 tape, Comeback Season. As far as the flow, he keeps expanding and joins like "Unstoppable" are just further proof of his abilities. 2010 will be an incredible year for this dude, and the Grammy's are only the start.