Radio K has unveiled its Top 77 of 2009, an annual best-of list compiled by its student DJs and staff with input from listeners at the U of M station (now at 104.5 and/or 100.7 FM in addition to its old 770 AM). Like so many other hipster outlets, Animal Collective (in the above photo) and Grizzly Bear topped the list. More of a surprise, Fever Ray came in at No. 3. That's the solo electronic project of the Knife's Karen Dreijer Andersson.
Here's the station's entire top 10:
1. Animal Collective, "Merriweather Post Pavillion" 2. Grizzly Bear, "Veckatimest" 3. Fever Ray, "Fever Ray" 4. Phoenix, "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix" 5. Dirty Projectors, "Bitte Orca" 6. The XX, "xx" 7. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "It's Blitz" 8. Phantogram, "Phantogram" 9. St. Vincent, "Actor" 10. Lookbook, "Wild at Heart"
It was nice to see Lookbook snag a top 10 spot. Some of the other local albums that charted were P.O.S.'s "Never Better" (#12), Vampire Hands' "Hannah in the Mansion" (#16), Brother Ali's "Us" (#20), Red Pens' "Reasons" (#41) and Eyedea & Abilities' "By the Throat" (#45). Click here to see the whole list at Radio K's website.
If you didn't see/hear the Current's Top 89 of 2009 -- singles rather than albums -- click here to see it on the MPR site. Animal Collective came it at #2 there with "My Girls," beat out by Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros' rousing "Home."
Funny, I don't think the other FM stations in town played enough new songs in 2009 to even fill up a year-end list tied to their numerical frequencies (93, 96, 97, etc.).
I gotta say, I did enjoy that Animal Collective disc and am a sucker for this whole new wave of harmonious psychedelica, but I didn't think as highly of "Merriweather" as so many other critics and indie music fans. My personal taste buds were somewhat soured for both that album and Grizzly Bear's disc by what I thought were pretty lackluster live shows this year. I liked Grizzly Bear's album even more but their Cedar show far less than in Animal Collective's case. Conversely, the Phoenix, St. Vincent and Yeah Yeah Yeahs discs all took a leap up in my mind after hearing those songs live. Is it wrong to judge records based on live shows? Guess I can't help it.
