End of the Year: Most Disappointing Albums of 2009

In keeping with my general disposition (lol) I decided the first entry in my year end roundup would be the ten albums I found most disappointing. In descending order, of course!

10. Cursive - Mama, I'm Swollen - It wasn't bad by any means, it just wasn't on the level of Domestica, The Ugly Organ, or even Happy Hollow. Evolution! Monkeys! CRAZY MONKEYS!







9. Fake Problems - It's Great to Be Alive - How Far Our Bodies Go was fantastic. Like, made up for New Wave fantastic. A lot of the instrumentation on this record reminded me of New Wave. A lot of people really liked this album, so maybe I'm the crazy one.





8. John Nolan - Height - The musical direction on this one was a little weird. There was some awkward electronic stuff and some better straight ahead stuff. In any case, this album seemed kind of tired lyrically. Same with the Straylight EP that came out this year.





7. Monsters of Folk - Monsters of Folk - Supergroup fail. "Dear God" is awful. Every other song is pretty much just OK. Not capitalizing on enormous potential.






6. Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band - Outer South - What I wouldn't give to be part of a musical community where everybody is constantly writing awesome songs... I get that Conor thinks that's what's going on here, but "Air Mattress" is just terrible. There's some good stuff on here, but it's hard to take it at face value, given what Conor has proven himself capable of.



5. mewithoutYou - It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All a Dream! It's Alright - If I had made a best of list in 2006, Brother, Sister would have been damn near close to the top. I understand what they were going for here and I guess it's cute, but I think this is the kind of thing you save for a side project that goes on Yo Gabba Gabba.




4. Two Tongues - Two Tongues - "Crawl" was just so goddamn good. Everything else wasn't at all. Supergroup fail pt 2.







3. Wale - Attention Deficit - Wale made a lot of hard-to-keep promises on his various mixtapes, mostly about how his major label debut wouldn't be watered down and lyrically weak. Guess what happened? He has maybe two good verses on the whole album. Consequently, it sold quite poorly.




2. Clipse - Til the Casket Drops - Ask any one of my white and jewish friends what the best rap album of the last five years was and we'll all say Clipse's Hell Hath No Fury. They had their work cut out for them and they fell a little short on this one. There are some incredible songs on here, but the middle of the album really falters. There wasn't a single weak track on Hell Hath there are plenty here.



1. Say Anything - Say Anything - When this album came out, I was talking shit about it to anyone who would listen. Is A Real Boy was so profound to me (and just about any other kid in the umbrella we call "the scene") and with every album Max releases that doesn't live up to its legacy, it's a personal hurt. I've since reconciled a lot of my initial problems with the record--SPOILERZ: it appears in my best-of list as well--but there's definitely still some filler. "Death for My Birthday" just sucks. Nothing more to say. And don't get me started on some of the religious/spiritual preachiness... In a few days I'll have nice things to say.

Next up, best EPs of the year. So exciting!