Thao Nguyen shares the stage with her band The Get Down Stay Down, and the result is an emotional record that finds absolute power in utter devastation. Know Better Learn Faster exudes frenetic energy from opener ‘Clap’ almost all the way through, but the lyrics hint at something going on beneath the surface. Nguyen sings of heartbreak and failed relationships throughout the album, but transcends her suffering with energy and passion. The emotionally wrought ‘But What of the Strangers’ falls toward the album’s end – a defeatist, defeated song that punctuates the album perfectly.
Dojo Workhorse is a relatively unknown band, making a name for themselves in the local music scene of Calgary. It could be considered a surprise then that Weapons Grade Romantic displays with the confidence of recording and songwriting veterans. Leader Dan Vacon crafts sweet and sensitive rock songs, infused with a dash of R&B sensibility to give the songs some groove. The band’s small stature notwithstanding, Weapons Grade Romantic stands legitimately aside the year’s best releases.
Colonia, the quietly released second album from A Camp, is a follow-up to their self-titled debut, which was a hit in Sweden – eight years ago. Good reason for the delay, though, as singer Nina Persson was busy with her day job as leader of The Cardigans. Colonia is chock full of shimmering pop songs, punctuated by Persson’s sweet-as-sugar vocals and her relentlessly clever lyrics – of which there are too many to quote just one here. For pure songwriting chops, Colonia is almost flawless. Even cynics will struggle to find fault with pop music this good.
As the lead singer of Pedro the Lion, David Bazan never made a secret of his Christianity and how it informed his life. His first solo album, Curse Your Branches, still embraces religion, but shows him to be a bit more uncertain. Importantly, Bazan’s sincerity precludes the music from becoming preachy, and allows you to focus on his brilliantly crafted – and cosmically tortured – folk-pop.
It took until early 2009, but Yeah Yeah Yeahs made the defining alternative rock record of the aughts with It’s Blitz! Kicked off the year’s best single, ‘Zero,’ the album doesn’t relinquish its momentum for a second. Karen O’s balancing act between raw power and vulnerability is razor sharp here, and as she’s proven throughout the decade, she has enough personality to fill a stadium.
Selecting Weezer’s Raditude as 2009’s most disappointing album means, by extension, that there were some expectations of the album. There’s just no excuse for that kind of idealism. Weezer’s last good album came out in 1996. Their last okay album came out in 2002. Since then, they’ve been a consistent source of insincere, vapid pop-rock – too stupid to be ironic, too smug to be funny. For some reason, with each new Weezer release, I can’t help but experience a brief blip of mid-90s nostalgia, talking myself into the fact that Rivers Cuomo has been lulling in the teeny-boppers with plans to pull the rug out from under them at the last second. Alas… Raditude is the ultimate slap in the face. The final nail in the coffin. It is the cream of the shitty crop that Weezer first planted with 2005’s Make Believe. It sucks, but only because I thought it wouldn’t. Weezer’s Raditude is the most disappointing album of 2009 – and it’s all my fault.
