Top 5 (or so) Pop Albums of 2009
By Nick Manteris · 0 Comments · Leave a Comment
This list is somewhat problematic…does “pop” refer to the type of stuff that they play to death on the radio or does it really mean “popular”? And how much of the stuff on the radio is popular because they have played it to death? (I have a theory about how people are tricked into tolerating/liking music that they don’t initially care for when it is played repeatedly…because this simulates the actions they would take if they genuinely liked the music, but I digress.) Anyway, I think this list of albums can be enjoyed by a more general audience than most of the other stuff I listen to and, in this case, that’s the determining factor for a “pop” classification.
5. (tie) The Asteroids Galaxy Tour – Fruit
- Score
- 71%
Apple proves me right for this choice, since this Danish band’s song “Around the Bend” was used in an iPod commercial. Since that breakthrough exposure they’ve had songs featured on Gossip Girl and Chuck and the documentary, The September Issue.
5. (tie) The Bird and the Bee – Ray Guns Are Not Just The Future
- Score
- 71%
Inara George and Greg Kurstin are The Bird and the Bee. They play jazzy electropo that is quirky and cute and, while the best songs on Ray Guns Are Not Just The Future are contained on other releases, it's still worth a listen for the other stuff.
5. (tie) Donora – Donora
- Score
- 71%
This Pennsylvania trio plays peppy, pop-y fun music that makes you bounce around. When I first discovered them I wanted to shout it, but, for some reason I decided against it. They made the top 5 though, that’s sort of a shout-out, right?
4. Norah Jones – The Fall
- Score
- 72%
Even though she’s disproportionately successful, Norah Jones makes unique music and most of it is worth hearing…and if that doesn’t make sense, I explain a little bit more about what I mean on my review for The Fall.
3. Paloma Faith – Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful
- Score
- 73%
Traveling along roughly the same path as Amy Winehouse, Adele and Duffy is another soul singer from the UK, Paloma Faith. Her music seems carefully constructed with commercialism in mind, but some of the songs are good enough that you don’t care.
2. Miss Li – Dancing the Whole Way Home
- Score
- 75%
Swedish singer-songwriter Miss Li had a song from a previous album featured in Weeds and Grey’s Anatomy, but so far with this release – her fourth full-length – she has only had the song “Bourgeois Shangri-La” appear in an iPod commercial.
1. Lily Allen – It’s Not Me, It’s You
- Score
- 77%
Lily Allen went in a slightly different musical direction for her second album, but the personal songs she writes are still filled with her unique brand of social commentary and dark humor. The highlight of It’s Not Me, It’s You is the refreshingly honest song about drug use, “Everyone's At It.”
