My 10 Favorite Albums of 2009

2009 was full of good albums, bad albums, and people with opinions about those albums. Here is my opinion. These are the 10 albums from the past year that I have enjoyed the most!

10. Cage the Elephant - Cage the Elephant
This one actually caught me by surprise. Strategic radio play of their very catchy single, "Ain't No Rest for the Wicked" conned me into buying this album. I wasn't expecting much from the disc, but it turned out to be an exceptional top to bottom album. Too bad for most of us the band seems to be picking up speed and will possibly start putting out crummy, radio-friendly crap. C'est la vie.

9. Silversun Pickups - Swoon
The first time I heard this band, I hated them. The second time, I hated them a little less. By the fifth or sixth time, I was in love. Swoon is a superb, original rock album in a time when rock and the aforementioned adjectives just don't go in the same sentence. "Panic Switch" may have been the single I played the most this year, and "It's Nice to Know You Work Alone" is also amazing. This album got a little darker than the bands previous work. That's rule number one in the "How to Get on Dallas's Top 10 Albums List." Well done guys!

8. Third Eye Blind - Ursa Major
When I first heard that Third Eye Blind was dropping a new album, I WAS ECSTATIC! These guys were easily one of my favorite bands growing up and still hold that distinction today. I love them, and I love this album. Musically, it picks up where they left off about 10 years ago. Lyrically, it's a little something fresh from Third Eye Blind. Translation: not all the songs are about drugs and sex!


7. Silverstein - A Shipwreck in the Sand
The amount of heavy/metal/hardcore music I intake went down considerably in 2009. Maybe I'm getting old. Maybe hardcore bands are getting shitty. Maybe both of the previous statements are true. Either way, the one album of said genre that grabbed me and whirled me around for a while was "A Shipwreck in the Sand." This is easily Silverstein's best work. I mean, a concept album about burning someone's house down? Who doesn't want to hear that!

6. Jonas Sees in Color - Jonas Sees in Color
In a time when alot of bands are very pessimistic and are focusing on negative undertones, Jonas Sees in Color are making music to light the way. An infusion of punk, pop, indie, and rock and roll influence, the band's self-titled full length debut is great to lift your spirits and even dance a jig to! This disc is definitely a breath of fresh air.

5. The Forecast - Alive for the First Time EP
This band is one of my favorites of the last decade. They are a perfect example of how much the music industry blows right now. Put out two great albums. Get under promoted and undersold by your douchebag of a record label because you're not screamo and don't look like you should be dead. Then get dropped by that label and not picked up anywhere else. This band has a full-length ready to drop and no one to put it out for them. With that said, this EP gets me excited and makes me hope even more that someday this band will put out that full-length album. If you're not familiar with this band, PLEASE check them out!

4. The Almost - Monster Monster
The Almost's debut, "Southern Weather," was a good album, but lacked a cohesive sound from first track to the end of the album. Now with a set lineup, the Almost has found that identity and it's a good one. "Monster Monster" is a dark but optimistic display of the talents of Aaron Gillespie, Jay Vilardi, and the rest of the band. The culmination is the final track on the album, "Monster," which I could listen to over and over and over for about a week.

3. Say Anything - Say Anything
I still remember the first time I heard Say Anything. Ahh memories! Anyways, back to the point. If this album had come out earlier in the year, it may even be higher on my list. Max Bemis continues to take everything negative anyone says about him, his band, and/or his genre, put it in his songs, and make great albums.

2. Set Your Goals - This Will Be the Death of Us
Remember pop punk? This band does. Not only that, but they are rewriting the book on the genre today. This album has ups and downs, highs and lows, but in at the end all I could think was, "Wow." I'm looking for bigger and better things out of Set Your Goals in the future. Let's hope they keep it up!

1. New Found Glory - Not Without a Fight
In alot of ways, it's amazing to me that a band that formed in 1997 can put out the best album of the year 12 years later. In my opinion, this is a great bands best record to date. Full of clever lyrical concepts and those catchy hooks and riffs that made you fall in love with NFG as a teenager will rope you back in as an adult... well, sort of adult.

So there you have it. The ten records that I think didn't suck the most from 2009. Let me know what you think and check back for the albums I'm most excited about coming in 2010!

Thanks for reading!