THE 2009 JAMMIE AWARDS!

Good afternoon, fair people of the internet.
It's the afternoon of Dec. 28, and I'm as bored as I've ever been, so you know what that means?  It's time for a useless Best of 2009 post!

::crowd applauds, teenage girls faint in combination panic/heart-throbbery/heat stroke::

All in all, the music of the year 2009 may be the easiest to summarize of any decade.
It's the year of dichotomy.

The "cool kids" fell in love with the the most boring, lifeless shit you can imagine (i.e. Animal Collective, Grizzly Bears, Dirty Projectors, The XX) and the common folk wen the opposite way and latched on to all the crappy mass-produced, pseudo-techno pop they could find (Lady GaGa, whatever Akon's crew was pumping out, the dozens of one-hit club wonders).  The year in music was interesting, not because of the music itself, but from the pop cultural angle of how everything that came out was such utter shit, and we all KNEW it, but we all convinced ourselves otherwise.  I guess above all else, many of us (myself especially) are simply addicted to new music, and even if current quality is down, we have to get our fix.  So be it.  Don't get me wrong, both sides of the fence still provided some fantastic moments in their own right.  After all, I didn't pump out 1100+ posts in 2009 because my iPod suddenly got boring.  What I AM saying is that in 3-5yrs time when we can properly evaluate this decade's music, I don't foresee 2009 having strong representation on any compilation albums.

Anyway . . .let's get to the short list of what I personally enjoyed the most for this year.



Semi-Disclaimer:  I don't know that I'd call this a "Best of...", really.
It's more of a "This is the shit I jammed the most" list.
Let's have at it . . .

Song That Got The Most Obsessive Amount of Attention and Rewinds:

Little Dragon - Feather

Believe me...I fully understand that appreciation of this jam is limited to those of us born in the late 70's-early 80's who had parents still young and cool enough to keep them up on the new wave/post-disco/R&B jams that were out.
This was a no contest, really.  No other song got this much of my attention in 2009.  Read what I wrote 5min after hearing it for the first time.

Best Visual Representation of a Jam:
Fever Ray - When I Grow Up

When I Grow Up from Fever Ray on Vimeo.

Another no contest.  This video was released on Feb 16, and even then, I knew it wouldn't be topped.

Best "Where The Hell Did That Come From" Moment:
To the birth of the Chillwave scene, and specifically the "birth" of Washed Out.  The shit that Washed out was dropping at random from June-Sept was just incredible, and made a HUGE shift in "cool kids" music for the Fall and Winter.

Best Album That You DON'T Own Because It Doesn't Get Press From The Right Sites:
MuteMath - Armistice
GREAT album!  Easily in my Top 7-10 for the year, but no one has it because it's too pop for indie media, and too indie for pop media.  Real shame.

Surprise Quality Product of the Year:
Ghostface - Ghostdini: Wizard of Poetry
To quote myself:

As arrogant and "internet blogger" as this sounds, it's not often that either A) I'm caught sleepin' on an album or B) my preconceptions about an album are off.
That said...DAMN
I completely missed the ball on Ghostface's new album.  This is one of the most complete album of 2009, regardless of genre.

Artist of the Year:
Joell Ortiz.
When you combine the strength of his solo efforts and the power of the Slaughterhouse movement, no rapper has taken the wide open space of the internet and done more good things with it than Joell Ortiz has done in 2009.

Album of the Year:
(Hip-Hop)  Tanya Morgan - Brooklynatti
Flawless from start to finish.  The only really potential classic Hip-Hop material to be released in 2009.
(Other)  Miike Snow - Miike Snow
I've ranted about it a few times, so you already know.  regardless of genre or scene, this is easily my favorite album of 2009.  It's one of maybe 5 others that I can honestly say I'll still be listening to in 5years.