Our Ten Best Albums of 2009 continues. I'm running out of time, breaking promises left and right. But I'm at work for the next few hours, and I'll do my darndest to crank out as many of these as possible. In case you missed them, here are Nos. 10, 9, 8, and 7.
Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest enters our list as the sixth best album of the year, and I can't help but feel like I didn't listen to it enough. It sort of got shuffled to the side with some other music that appears in this feature, so it never really cracked my morning routine or my long car rides. When I played it, I adored it. When one of their songs popped up on the radio, I adored it. When they hit the talk show circuit, I adored it. I had a chance to catch them live in Philadelphia, but things regrettably fell through. And that serves as a microcosm of my experience with the band and this wonderful album -- full of adoration, skimpy on participation. Fortunately, music is eternal or something, and this album is a consummate fine wine.
Like everyone else, I'm amazed at the level of effort and skill involved in creating Veckatimest. It sounds like it took three years to write, record, and produce. The elegant melodies, the ghostly harmonies, and the subtle, complex rhythms are so intricate and intertwined that you get the feeling the band is composed of either four close-knit friends, or four savants. So, like a fine wine, you never grow tired of experiencing the precision of the performances. And also like a fine wine, it's so much more enjoyable to experience in the dark. Whatever that means. Below is a certifiable Top 5 Song of 2009:
Sixth Best Album of 2009: Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest
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