Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
This is probably the most obvious choice of the year. Embarrasingly though, this is the first Animal Collective album I ever got (chorus of boos). It didn’t take more than a few tracks for me to fall head over heels for this masterpiece of experimental indie rock (or however you try and fail to catagorize them). The songs are expansive and complex in a way that never seems overbearing. It’s beautiful, it’s genius, it’s epic, it rocked the shit out of 2009.
Must Hear: My Girls, Summertime Clothes, Guys Eyes
sidenote: For unknown reasons, I didn’t listen to Julian Casablanca’s Phrazes For The Young until 12/31. Had I listened to it a little earlier and given myself time to digest it, it would have likely found its way onto my year end list.
