One Bird, Two Lists

If Americana, alt-country or whatever you may call it is your thing, do head over to the Bird List, where thirty of the ´web´s leading aficionados of twanglike music´ picked the best albums of the year. I participated as well, but my list didn´t make much of an impact on the final outcome I guess. Oh well. Maybe I´m just not twang enough.

For the record, here´s my personal top 15 of 2009 as submitted to the Bird List´s totally cool politburo. On the whole, I wasn´t too impressed with what I heard this year to be honest. Quite a few great songs, but not too many consistently great albums. Cool with me though, as that gave me the time to discover tons of amazing older stuff to keep me busy. More about that in a later post.

For The Sake Of The Song´s fave albums of 2009:

1. Mountain Goats - The Life Of The World To Come
2. Bonnie Prince Billy & The Picket Line - Funtown Comedown
3. Bob Dylan- Together Through Life
4. Son Volt - American Central Dust
5. Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit - s/t
6. Molina & Johnson - s/t
7. Espers - III
8. Port O´Brien - Threadbare
9. King Creosote - Flick The Vs
10. Drive-By Truckers - The Fine Print
11. Iron & Wine - Around The Well
12. Simon Joyner - Out Into The Snow
13. Bowerbirds - Upper Air
14. The Western States - Bye And Bye
15. Magnolia Electric Co - Josephine

Which brings us to the moment you´ve all been waiting for: today´s soundtrack, featuring a few choice cuts from my personal hitlist.

Mountain Goats - Psalms 40:2 MP3

Molina & Johnson - Twenty Cycles To The Ground MP3

Espers - Caroline MP3

Drive-By Truckers - George Jones Talkin´ Cell Phone Blues MP3

The Western States - The Water Remembers My Face MP3

Fresh Fruit

Enough of all that old stuff for a moment, it´s about time we played you something recent here again. Right?

Right. Western States may be a Canadian band, but their second album Bye And Bye was fittingly recorded down in Texas. The steelguitar-drenched Time To Lose is a perfect example of their melancholic sound.

Western States - Time To Lose MP3

King Creosote is the brainchild of Kenny Anderson, who comes from a big Scottish musical family. You may know his brother as Lone Pigeon. Full of inventive freakfolk, Flick The Vs comes packed in a sleeve to die for.

King Creosote - Nothing Rings True MP3

Condo Fucks is Yo La Tengo in disguise. And their album Fuckbook an hilarious collection of great covers. This one was originally written and performed by the Kinks way back when.

Condo Fucks - This Is Where I Belong MP3

The Connie Converse story is a weird one. Thirty five years after this folksinger mysteriously disappeared from the face of the earth, we can finally hear her fine voice on How Sad, How Lovely. Read all about it here.

Connie Converse - One By One MP3