The 9 Best Albums of 2009: #9 - #2

Last year I didn't really re-write anything for my list of best albums - this year I've given it a lot of thought and while I'm waiting to complete my best songs list with December, why not run down the 9 best albums of 2009?


But before everything, the rules:

1. An album may be a studio album, a greatest hits package, a compilation, a live album or in Korea's case a MINI-ALBUM (EP). As long as it has more than 10 tracks for standard studio albums and more than 4 tracks for mini-albums, it qualifies.
2. It must have been released in 2009, like duh - doesn't matter if it was digitally or physically. In the case of repackaged albums, they only count if more than one-third the number of the original tracks are new tracks. Confusing? Let's say you have a 12-track album released in 2008. If there's a repackaged version out in 2009, there must be at least 4 new tracks, remixes allowed. If the repackaged album was released in the same year as the original album, then there's no problem, both qualify.
3. If I previously reviewed it, it should have gotten a score of 4/5 and above - no less. If I didn't review it, then the rule doesn't apply.

Now that we've got the rules all sorted out - the criteria.

Albums are a songS put together - a group of songs strung together in a cohesive and entertaining way. No one song carries the album and no one song brings the album down - they all have to contribute to the over-all sound of the album because album tracks are just as important as singles. If the singles are good but the other tracks fail, it's a NO from me.

The album should show one sound and one sound alone. It's not constricting and it's not 'conservative' because one sound can mean a lot of things, the artist just has to know how to manipulate the sound into different styles. There is a difference between sound and style.

That's it, actually. The list is RANKED so #1 is my favorite album of the year.

Legends:
(+/- *insertnumberhere*) - how much the score increased or decreased in relation to my first review
(retain) - That means the score now is the same as the score I gave when I first reviewed it
(UR) - un-reviewed so there was no previous score

#9: 2PM - 01:59 PM The First Album

This album is sort of representative of everything that's happened to 2PM this year, the good and bad. It has the singles off their previous mini-albums and it has new tracks - there's the 7-member and 6-member 2PM. I think JYP hit the nail on the head with 2PM when it comes to the music but he wasn't so lucky with the Wonder Girls (DON'T get me started on them, PLEASE). One, it doesn't sound like he's trying to relive his ex-protege Rain in them, two, the songs sound fresh and not recycled but three, they sound distinctly like something only JYP does. The thing with JYP and 2PM is that they make the smooth, sophisticated R&B.

A few days ago I was listening to Another Level's Summertime and I had a flash of enlightenment. I don't know if JYP knows who Another Level are but I'm pretty sure that's the sound he's going for with 2PM. Heck, even their vocals are reminiscent of the UK boyband - to a certain extent.

The new tracks off this album are really good, if I may say so.

The Best: All Night Long, I Hate You (Lounge Remix), Back 2U
The Bad: You Might Comeback (Bossa Nova Mix)
The Rating (as of now): 4/5 (UR)

#8: The Saturdays - Wordshaker

Despite doing a complete 360 change with Forever is Over, I think Wordshaker as a whole was a pretty competent album. But I think had Girls Aloud been around this year, this would be thrown to the wayside. Just a thought though.

There are tracks on this just go right through me but there are now songs that seemed like they went through me at first but listening back, they're pretty good. There's the epic, the serious, the GA-like and the songs that I think will become pretty synonymous with The Sats now and that's what I needed from this album - didn't get it entirely though.

Wordshaker was supposed to give us material that will scream THE SATURDAYS, it didn't, but the songs as individual songs were pretty good. It may not work as a whole album but the singles work as singles and the album tracks work as songs.

The Best: Here Standing, Open Up, Denial
The Bad: 2 a.m. sounds very out of place. It's nice and all but it's not right for the album.
The Rating (as of now): 4.4/5 (-0.4)

#7: Leona Lewis - Echo

I'm not the biggest Leona fan, you guys know that, and Echo was one of the gambles I took this year - thankfully it turned out brilliant.

There are a lot of things I like about this album but the main thing that kept me listening was the fact that the entire package is epic without being heavy and boring - Leona has managed to sustain my attention for more than a few songs.

Echo is one of the best this year because one, I like it and two, it was actually a hit - it's rare in Western music that I put those two statements in one sentence.

Notable highlights of the album are the string section after the middle 8 of the Paula Cole-esque I Got You, the hook of Can't Breathe, the out of place but not out of place Outta My Head, the bridge of Love Letter, Naked and The Oasis cover Don't Cry Your Heart Out

The Best: Naked, Don't Let Me Down, I Got You
The Bad: Lost Then Found it's more of a OneRepublic song than a Leona song.
The Rating (as of now): 4.5/5 (-0.1)

#6: Jordin Sparks - Battlefield

I like Jordin Sparks now, I honestly do. I didn't like her on Idol (STILL bitter about Blake not winning) but I like her now.

Battlefield was a solid album - it had one sound and it had cohesion between the songs. Her vocals were good, the arrangements were interesting and the songs themselves delivered. Although very mainstream American, it's the type that kinda sounds like everything else but doesn't sound like anything at all.

But more than that, it successfully transitioned Jordin from first to second album - the hardest shift to make musically. She was her on her first album but she grew up on this one. She knows how to pick songs, she knows how to sing them and she knows how to deliver now. Like I said when I first reviewed it, it's epic in a gazillion different ways.

The Best: No Parade, Walking On Snow, Was I The Only One
The Bad: Emergency and Battlefield I've gotten a little too sick of OneRepublic this year.
The Rating (as of now): 4.5/5 (-0.1)

#5: Alicia Keys - The Element of Freedom

As I've said numerous times, Alicia Keys was instrumental in building my foundations in pop music - back when I knew virtually nothing I knew her. It's always been about the music for her and that's one of the things I learned to always look for in a pop star but have found in only a few.

Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart gave everyone a dose of Alicia Keys for this year and she means business with this album. It doesn't fail to impress - listening to it is literally like a breath of fresh air. There are single-worthy tracks and album-worthy tracks, everything was just put together seamlessly and you can really hear it.

Sweeping melodies, gorgeous instrumentals and epic explosions make The Element of Freedom a brilliant, brilliant album.

The Best: Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart, Doesn't Mean Anything, That's How Strong My Love Is
The Bad: Put It In A Love Song
The Rating (as of now): 4.7/5 (UR)

#4: Britt Nicole - The Lost Get Found

My love for the beautiful melodies in CCM is still alive - Britt Nicole's 2009 album is stunning. If you strip off the Christian lyrics and all, you get a pop album in it's purest form.

I love the melodies, I love the songs and I LOVE her vocals. Deserving of the praise.

The Best: Have Your Way, Like A Star, Welcome to the Show
The Bad: I'll get back to you on this.
The Rating (as of now): 5/5 (retain)

#3: Super Junior - Sorry, Sorry

Unlike offerings from SNSD, SHINee and a ton of other bands, Sorry Sorry is one of the few kpop albums this year that actually delivered - it wasn't just the single(s) taking center stage. I think that shows to a certain extent how "smart" kpop buyers are, a heck of a lot of them bought the album and as of now it's swept the award shows.

No matter how much you say Super Junior can't sing (actually that's more of me), it's time to face the truth - you don't have to be able to sing well in pop. Heck, can Britney sing well now? (she could before but NOW? Puh-lease.)

The lead single turned title track Sorry Sorry is addictive, annoying (in a good way) and everything kpop stood for this year - processed like hell, dance-worthy and to a certain extent brilliant. It pretty much started the whole autotuned like hell thing within the more popular boybands and girl groups this year and it's either a good thing or a bad thing.

BUT, the track that I never, ever get sick of listening to even if you drum it into my head is the second single It's You off the THIRD repackaged version of the album. (Tes, THIRD. What a way to milk the fans' money.) It's a more epic and subdued kind of catchy but catchy nonetheless. It's not the fearlessly addictive/annoying type like Sorry Sorry but it's epic and that's enough for me. You have to remember that I happen to like epic songs.

The rest of the album is standard kpop - ballads, the occasional uptempo, guest appearances by Lee Yeon Hee (Club No. 1), Yunho and Yoochun DBSK (Heartquake), the added tracks for Version C (in short the third repackaged version) and Super Junior's so-so vocals. Oh, and the brilliant Why I Like You.

And in case you're getting lost with all the kpop, here's something I think you'll be a little more familiar with. SM is known (by me at least) for taking Western (more like European) songs, adding Korean lyrics and putting them on their acts' albums. Super Junior are no exception. Guess what they got - A MONROSE SONG. Yes, Monster on Sorry Sorry is actually a cover of Just Like That off Monrose's 2007 album Strictly Physical. *bangs head on computer table*

The Best: It's You, Why I Like You, Love Disease
The Bad: Shining Star, She Wants It
The Rating (as of now): 4.8/5 (+0.1)

#2: Kevin Borg - The Beginning

No matter how adventurous I am and how I get when it comes to my taste in music (I think.), I still love and look for a solid pop album year in and year out. I want an album filled with pop masterpieces - that's what started my entire music addiction. I got that this year with Kevin Borg's debut album.

After all, Swedish make some of the best pop music.

I won't write about every track anymore because it'll be too much of a pain for all of us if I do so I'll just quickly run-through some of the songs. Note that I think all the songs are great though.

Street Lights has the most gorgeous string section laced with a brilliant melody and his capable vocals - I mean, this is like the most perfect pop song. Epic but not serious - fun. Paint It Black seriously sounds like something fit in a Darin album, which is good. The Last Words is rock-y epic and it's gorgeous. I love it. His Idol winner's single With Every Bit Of Me is very Idol but very European as well - I couldn't imagine this being sung by an American winner.

More Than I Do Now is one of my two other favorite songs on the album apart from Street Lights. It sounds Swedish, it is Swedish and for crap's sake that just spells brilliance. I love the melody and although the instrumental is a slightly cheap-ish, AAAAAHHHHHH. Brilliance.

The Light You Leave On has the stereotypical 'girl running in a deserted/haunted mansion' piano loop but then the percussion comes in and I was like "oh shet" - the song sounds so different because of it. But the main, main, main point of this song is the melody - I honestly can't stress how beautifully stunning it is. Like, it's beaten out all the other beautiful melodies of the year with that chorus. It's simple but gosh, I faint every time.

The Best: The Light You Leave On, Street Lights, More Than I Do Now
The Bad: Can't really think of any.
The Rating (as of now): 5/5 (UR, unrated but not unreviewed)

I'll reveal my favorite album of 2009 tomorrow. Guesses, anyone?

Best of 2009: December #2 & #1

*jumps around* THE LAST POST FOR THE BEST OF 2009. Except for the wrap-up and final rankings, at least. I cannot believe it. Hahah.

#2: Alicia Keys - That's How Strong My Love Is

Since I haven't done a review of the album yet (I will next year, I PROMISE), let me just get everything out of the way right now and say that this is my favorite song off The Element of Freedom. It's got a gorgeous melody and an even more gorgeous piano line - that's the focus of the song, really. I love how it's pretty and not serious as hell - some people think that if you just have a simple melody and a simple piano part it has to be haunting and serious every single time. Sure there are times when you need those types of songs (Britt Nicole's Have Your Way, for example) but we need a break. Thankfully, Alicia realizes that. Brilliant song, turns somewhat epic but still not explosively epic at the end and dammit, it needs attention.

#1: Hwanhee - 심장을 놓쳐서

Hwanhee used to be under SM Entertainment with the act Fly to the Sky - they were an R&B duo and let me tell you, these guys had gorgeous voices. No really, they were versatile, beautiful and dammit, they could sing. Now he's gone solo and his carrier single late this year is something I liked when I first heard it, still liked when I kept on listening to it non-stop for a day but literally fell at my feet for when I heard the instrumental at full volume.

I tweeted this earlier this month but I'm serious - this song has the possibility of being the Forever of Korea. The only difference is that this song has a heck of a lot of groove (think a slightly less effortless Craig David) and the guy's voice is just BRILLIANT. I am in no way kidding, listen to this at an extremely high volume and you will be blown away. I was.

Let's take a moment to talk about the instrumental. I love the percussion part even if it's not real drums and the synth part makes the song really cool but amidst all these computer-generated crap made into brilliance is an element I always, always, adore in a song. YES, IT HAS A STRING SECTION and a DAMN GOOD one at that. Then there's the piano part during the breakdown after the middle 8 before the song explodes - THAT plus a string section is enough to make this one of the best songs of the year.

The schedule for the rest of the year and early January:
29th: Rankings and sum-up of the best songs
30th: 9 Best Albums of 2009 #s 9 - 2
31st: Best Album of 2009 AND 50 most played songs
1st (January): Looking Back at 2009
2nd: What to Expect in 2010
3rd: Vocal Commentary Special Re-briefing
4th: DBSK's Vocal Prowess V2.0 - The Intro
5th: DBSK's Vocal Prowess V2.0 - The Individual Analyses

PHEW.

Alicia Keys - Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart

Ever since If I Ain't Got You, Alicia Keys has been a staple in my music library - I vividly remember the day I bought The Diary of Alicia Keys along with JoJo's eponymous debut in 4th grade and the times I'd blast No One out of my (at the time) brand-new music phone while walking along the corridors in 7th grade. Needless to say, Alicia Keys was just a big a part of my childhood as JoJo and she was the very reason why I came to love pop music.

Unlike JoJo though, Alicia Keys has actually gotten a new single out in the form of Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart and it's DAMN GOOD. No really, I absolutely adore the song. She manages to make it sound like something that'd fit perfectly into top 40 songs but at the same time make a song that's musically and technically outstanding. Like hell.

I love the emphasis on the piano at the end (her signature element, I've come to notice) and the song as a whole just glides along. It plays and you know it's playing, it doesn't go right through you but you just notice that the song's done.

Like I said a while ago, Alicia Keys is one of those artists who can actually make good music but still manage to have it fit into whatever trends there are. Add that to a stunning voice and you have the recipe for a musical legend. If there's anyone who deserves the praise and the awards left and right, it's her. Better than Lady GaGa or a Disney clone or some random rapper who uses too much processing - Alicia Keys is a musician and it shows.

5/5

Late, I know - this has been out for ages now. You know the drill, I've been waaaaaaay too busy. School, omgkpop, school, school, extracurricular stuff, school, school and SCHOOL. Apologies.

New Music!

What's been going on these past few days? Quite a lot, actually.

• The new Christina Aguilera album is out, but the only track I'm really addicted to is Keeps Gettin' Better. Oh well.
• The new Hilary Duff album is out as well, and I'm seriously loving Holiday! It's the perfect combination of her old, teen pop sound and her new dance sound(ala-Dignity). Brilliant! Plus, the melody's just amazing, so that's an even bigger plus!
• The new Beyonce album is also out, and it includes a track called Halo. Simon Cowell wanted it for Leona Lewis, but she was too busy to record it. The song sounds very generic, any R&B artist can sing it, but I can't imagine Leona singing it. There are some parts in Beyonce's vocal that I hear hints of JoJo in it, and the song would really, really fit JoJo's voice. Maybe she can record something that sounds like Halo for her new album?
• It's Mariah week on The X Factor. I wonder how Daniel will murder another song for the fifth week in a row and not get eliminated. I'm excited to see what JLS and Rachel did, but Diana couldn't perform! I hope she gets well soon, but she did get in to next weeks show, which is good! Eep!
• WHEN will I ever get to hear the new Same Difference single in full? It's driving me nuts!
• Archuleta's album is out as well. I don't like it, but I don't hate it. Sounds like a pathetic excuse for an album. Seriously? Right now I'm confused as to who Archuleta really is as a singer. I loved him during the early stages of AI, so why didn't I hear anything like that on his album? I wonder how Cook's album turns out.
• Well, Taylor Swift's new album is out this week! I'll be continuing The Countdown to Fearless sometime today or tomorrow. I've got homework! Gar.
• There's a new Deluxe Edition of Alicia Keys' album, but I haven't had the chance to listen to the new tracks yet. Will do in the next few days..
• Strange. The Popjustice X Factor Playsheet hasn't been posted yet, and the show already aired. I wonder why.. 
• It's been out for ages already(I've seen it like a million times..), but the trailer for Westlife's new DVD(shot in front of 80 THOUSAND PEOPLE! Practically the pinnacle of their career) is amazing! Out on November 24! Eep!

• I've adored Bayje since I heard about her(can you believe I actually thought this was a JoJo song? That's what one of my favorite blogs said..), and I really, really adore this song! Have I mentioned that it's got a brilliant middle-8? Brilliant, sounds very Ne-yo - ish with a JoJo edge.