Songs for Swingin' Cineastes: 2009 Edition

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The Tops:
1. Sylvester & the Hot Band - The
Blue Thumb Collection (Hip-O Select)
2. Thee Oh Sees - Help (In the Red)
3. Death - ...For All the World to See (Drag City)
4. Major Lazer - Guns Don't Kill People...
Lazers Do (Mad Decent/Downtown/Atlantic)
5. Black Moth Super Rainbow - Eating Us (Graveface)
6. Broadcast & the Focus Group -
Investigate the Radio Witch Cults (Warp)
7. The Inner Space - Agilok & Blubbo (Wah Wah Records) [reissue]
8. Mulatu Astatke and the Heliocentrics -
Inspiration Information (Stone's Throw)*
9. Vivian Girls - Everything Goes Wrong (In the Red)
10. Times New Viking - Born Again Revisited (Matador)

* See also Mulatu Astatke - New York Addis Lon-
don: The Story of Ethio Jazz 1965 to 1975 (Strut)

Note: The links lead to my CD reviews. I'm not listing The
Blue Thumb Collection as a reissue, because it consists of
two albums plus bonus tracks, i.e. the material was never
released in this form before. Similarly, 1974's...For All the
World to See never received a proper release until 2009.

Runners-up:
1. King Midas Sound - Waiting for You (Hyperdub)
2. Starless and Bible Black - Shape of the Shape (Locust Music)
3. Various Artists - Dark Is the Night (Matador)
4. Atlas Sound - Logos (Kranky)
5. Sleepy Sun - Embrace (ATP)
6. The Lovetones - Dimensions (Planting Seeds Records)
7. Curious Mystery - Rotting Slowly (K Records)
8. 39 Clocks - Zoned (Bureau B)
9. White Rabbits - It's Frightening (TBD Records)
10. The Bird and the Bee - Ray Guns Are
Not Just the Future (Blue Note/EMI)

Still need to hear (in their en-
tirety): Arctic Monkeys - Humbug
(Domino), Benjamin Biolay - La Su-
perbe (Naïve), Future of the Left - Travels with Myself and Another (4-
AD Records), Mos Def - The Ecstatic (Downtown/Atlantic), Q-Tip - Renais-
sance (Universal Motown), Shabazz Palaces - self-titled (Templar Label Group), Kurt Vile - Childish Prodigy (Matador), Various Artists - Daptone Gold (Daptone), Various Artists - Forge Your Own Chains, Vol. 1: Psychedelic Ballads and Dirges 1968-1974 (Now Again), and Var-
ious Artists – Saint Etienne Present Songs for The Dog & Duck (Ace).

Note: Had I but world enough, and time...and money...
and space! But I mostly write about film these days.

Top Reissues:
1. Serge Gainsbourg - Melody Nelson (Light in the Attic)
2. The Monks - Black Monk Time (Light in the Attic)
3. Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principle:
30th Anniversary Issue (Beggar's Banquet)
4. Blo - Chapters and Phases (RPM)
5. The Raincoats - The Raincoats (We Three/Kill Rock Stars)
6. Sweet - Action: The Sweet Anthology (Shout Factory!)
7. Bill Fox - Shelter from the Smoke (Scat)
8. 39 Clocks - Pain It Black (Bureau B)
9. 13th Chime - Complete Discography (Sacred Bones)
10. 24 Carat Black - Gone: The Prom-
ises of Yesterday (Numero Group)*

* Thanks to Riz for the tip.

In my dreams: 13th Floor Elevators - Sign of the 3 Eyed
Men [10-disc set] (International Artists Records/Charly Ac-
quisitions Limited), Big Star - Keep an Eye on the Sky [four-
disc set] (Rhino), Rolling Stones - Get Your Ya-Ya’s Out! [three-
CD/one-DVD set] (Abkco), and Various Artists - Where the Ac-
tion Is! Los Angeles Nuggets 1965-1968 [four-disc set] (Rhino).

Top Rediscoveries: Queen - self-titled debut and the Who - Who's Next. Not completely new to these ears, but I played them over and over again, and found the experience more than a little rewarding. And I continue to take inspiration from Arthur Lee, Phil Lynott, Nina Simone, and every other artist who didn't do what was expected of them, regardless as to race, gender, or sexual orientation—and did it better.

Click here for the 2008 edition

Endnote: Thee Oh Sees play the Funhouse
on 2/19. Images from Buddyhead and XLR8R.