My Favorite 75 Albums Of 2009 – Dec. 3
Posted By Ben W. on December 3, 2009
Where have all the rude boys gone?
To Day Three of the Great 2009 Album Advent Calendar Countdown.
Kind of. It’s hard to say Green Day are or were rude boys. But we do have more than the usual levels of punk rock among today’s trio of albums.
69. 21st Century Breakdown – Green Day
Their first concept album – American Idiot – gets a pass, because it was an unexpected, ambitious way to reinvent their careers. A second overblown rock opera in five years, though? This one even more overproduced telling nearly the same story? Yeah, it was a bad idea. A real bad idea. The album only ranks this high on my favorites list because of my long-lingering love for Billie Joe’s songwriting gifts – gifts that were better displayed on last year’s one-off side goof The Foxboro Hot Tubs.
68. Grrr… – Bishop Allen
Boston’s Bishop Allen has become a sort-of Vampire Weekend junior – a tag that surely would drive them crazy, given that they pre-date Vampire Weekend by about five years. They make soft, pleasant, intelligent pop music. That’s not really enough to get me too terribly excited, personally. But there’s no denying this album’s consistency. There isn’t a poorly constructed track in the bunch.
67. Let The Dominoes Fall – Rancid
These guys are old. But at least they know it. The predominant lyrical theme on this record is basically: “Hey, we’re old. We’ve been in this band forever. We’ve been through the wars, come out the other side, and still love playing music.” These are not particularly original sentiments. And this is certainly not a particularly innovative album musically (They do their token ska tracks, their token hard punk tracks, their token roots rock, their token dub. Some songs literally sound exactly like rewrites of their past hits.) But there is a certain hard-worn respect commanded by a band stubbornly sticking to its guns and still doing its thing after all these years.
Check back tomorrow for Day 4 of the Advent calendar countdown. We’ll be listing three albums every day from now through Christmas and we get to No. 1.
Click DAY ONE to view Nos. 75-73.
Click DAY TWO to view Nos. 72-70.
MY FAVORITE 75 ALBUMS OF 2009 (THE LIST SO FAR)
75. Man Of Aran (Soundtrack) – British Sea Power
74. March Of The Zapotec/Holland EP – Beirut
73. Changing Horses – Ben Kweller
72. It’s Frightening – White Rabbits
71. Living Thing – Peter Bjorn And John
70. Working On A Dream – Bruce Springsteen
69. 21st Century Breakdown – Green Day
68. Grrr… – Bishop Allen
67. Let The Dominoes Fall – Rancid
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