Recognizing 2009

I think it's worth recognizing that we're only into the 3rd month of the new year and already have a slew of excellent albums to chew on. Thus far, three have really stood out for me:

...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead - The Century of Self
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!
Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

All three far exceeded my expectations. Trail of Dead's album is definitely front loaded but some of those songs are just so massive that it more than makes up for the slightly weaker tracks in the latter half. YYYs are changing with each new album and this one is easily my favorite. "Hysteric" comes close to rivaling "Maps" for me. I can really hear David Sitek's influence in this album. As for Grizzly Bear, I've appreciated their place in the indie music landscape but never been very interested in their music. This new album, however, is close to a masterpiece and warrants all of the hype that will precede and follow it's release. Expect a lot of new fans, myself included.

Other releases getting a lot of plays on my ipod:
The Antlers - Hospice
Arbouretum - Song of the Pearl
Fanfarlo - Reservoir
Obits - I Blame You
Franz Ferdinand - Tonight: Franz Ferdinand
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - s/t

Lots of upcoming releases to look forward to too: The Decemberists, Doves, Peter Bjorn and John and Mastodon. It's shaping up to be a good year for music which is more than I can say about anything else going on right now.