Best Albums of 2009: 90-81

I’ve been working on this damn list all year, I’m going to document it in full somewhere.  While there are still about ten more albums I’m going to listen to before the close of the year, I’ll wrap them up before the end of the year at some point.  Regardless, Onwards!

90. brokeNCYDE – I’m not a Fan But the Kids Like It

Ugh, what a piece of shit.  I mean, seriously.  How can this  be what music has come to?  Thank God this is the 90th album on a list with FAR better things to make up for how bad these guys have butchered the word “music”.  Mixing screamo with rap?  This can ONLY be a good idea.

89. New Found Glory – Not Without a Fight

I’ll be honest, I don’t even remember listening to this album.  I mean, I do, but there was NOTHING of substance to be found anywhere.  These guys should stick to covering songs from movies, that’s what they do best.

88. Gavin DeGraw – Free

I have a friend, we’ll call him Tad.  Tad likes bad music.  I feel bad for Tad.  But for some reason, when he told me that I would like the newest output from Gavin DeGraw, I listened to him.  I really don’t know why.  When there was nothing from his debut album I found in the least bit appealing, save one song that was forced on me each and every day while I worked my painstaking 3 hour shifts at Quiznos during highschool, there wasn’t a lot of hope of me liking this album, and as it turns out, there was none at all.

87. Mandisa – My Deliverer

There’s really nothing wrong with this album of beautiful gospel music from the American Idol finalist, it’s just not my cup of tea.  It was a pleasant experience, but nothing I will ever be returning to

86. Keri Hilson – In A Perfect World

I almost think I should give this album another listen before I go ahead and give it this low ranking.  When I first heard it, it was simply because I was obsessed with listening to new music from 2009, and I really listened to it more as a joke than anything else.  When “Knocks You Down” was released as a single, the proliferation of it on mainstream radio was overwhelming and I became a huge fan.  Who can deny Kanye’s powerful analogy “This is bad, real bad, Michael Jackson.  Now I’m mad, real mad, Joe Jackson”?  It makes me hopeful that if I ever do return to this album (something I might do as soon as I’m done writing this entry), I will find something else just as fun on it.

85. Rihanna – Rated R

Previous visitors to this blog will know that there was nothing passe about my listen to the R&B star’s newest release.  I had higher than high hopes.  Good Girl Gone Bad is probably my biggest guilty pleasure. “Distrubia” is one of my songs of the decade.  All I wanted was for Rihanna to follow it up with something half as good, and she just couldn’t do it.  Not only am I ranking it #85 on my overall list, but it’s receiving a #1 ranking as well: Biggest Disappointment of 2009.

84. Eric Church – Carolina

There’s only one reason I even attempted this, a country album, Napster had it as a pre-release exclusive.  HOW COULD I TURN THAT DOWN?!  I couldn’t.  That’s how.  And I’m glad I didn’t.  Because Carolina has the song “Love Your Love the Most” on it.  And because of that, life is worth the living.  What are some things you think of when you hear country music?  If you said trucks, dogs, guns or NASCAR, you’re going to LOVE this song:

Man I love how Red Man tastes
Damn I love my NASCAR race
Any song sung by George Strait
Is country at it’s best

Yes I love good cold beer
And mustard on my fries
I love a good loud honky tonk
That rocks on Friday night
And hell yes I love my truck
But I want you to know
Honey I love your love the most

I love scuffed up cowboy boots
And broke in, tore up jeans
My four-wheel drive, eight point bucks
And rocky road ice cream
Hell yes I love my dog
And Jack D. in my Coke

Aren’t you happier with life now that you’ve read that?

83.  The-Dream – Love Vs. Money

If you like R&B, listen to this album.  While I can get into female R&B I can’t seem to find my way around to the male side.  Which is funny because I feel the exact opposite about almost every other genre.  I didn’t hate this album, as this ranking might suggest, but, I wasn’t all that moved by it either.

82.The Fray – The Fray

I really should rank this right in the middle of my list.  The most mediocre release of music to date, The Fray’s self-titled tries to expand on the success of their debut, and they probably did, but at what cost?  I’ll admit to enjoying a few songs on here, all of which became singles, so, I guess life is still worth the living.  Thank you Eric Church.

81. Manchester Orchestra – Mean Everything to Nothing

I entered a lot of contests this summer to win tickets to Lollapalooza.  I ended up winning none of them, but I was always grateful to Manchester Orchestra for offering so many opportunities to do so, so, even though I didn’t see them when I eventually DID purchase tickets to said festival, I always felt like I owed their album a listen.  It was…different.  I really can’t even begin to remember at this point exactly what was so strange about it.  I think maybe it was a hard rock album that was trying to be indie or something like that.  Listen to how professional I am!  They were worth one listen, and one listen only.  I didn’t hate it, but I’m not going to be recommending it to anyone anytime soon either.

Well, as you can kind of see, I don’t know or like these albums as much as some of the stuff to come, so I tried to make this review as interesting as possible.  Upcoming entries will be far more interesting, I promise!