ISO50

#10 City Center – “City Center” (Type)

City Center ISO50 posts: 1 / 2 / 3

#9 Neon Indian – “Psychic Chasms” (Lefse)

Neon Indian ISO50 posts: 1 / 2 / 3

#8 Various Artists – “Pop Ambient 2009″ (Kompakt)

Pop Ambient 2009 ISO50 posts: 1

#7 Junior Boys – “Begone Dull Care” (Domino)

Junior Boys ISO50 posts: 1 / 2

#6 Atlas Sounds – “Logo” (Kranky)

Atlas Sound ISO50 posts: 1 / 2

#5 Kings Of Convenience – “Declaration of Dependance” (Mawlaw 388 Ltd)

Kings Of Convenience ISO50 posts: 1 / 2 / 3

#4 Fever Ray – “Fever Ray” (Rabid)

Fever Ray ISO50 posts: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

#3 The Horrors – “Primary Colours” (XL)

The Horrors ISO50 posts: 1 / 2 / 3

#2 Washed Out – “Life Of Leisure” (Mexican Summer)

Washed Out ISO50 Posts: 1 / 2 / 3

#1 The Drums – “Summertime!” (The Drums)

The Drums ISO50 posts: 1 / 2

2009 was a creative year for musicians like City Center who has the perfect voice and a natural sense for lo-fi singer songwriter material, if you’ve worn the groove out of your Panda Bear record then look no further and pick up his self titled LP. We saw Dubstep take over in the US and UK clubs with unique takes on albums from Martyn, 2562, and many others. Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear showed the top 40 charts that indie rock has a big say in what people want to own and even Jay-Z thought so. Lo-fi is back on all different levels like surf, folk, and a fusion of a ton of different genres which really had a big impact on my daily listening.
I’m not going to ignore that some people didn’t like my #1 song and #1 album of the year and I kind of want to share why I liked it so much. At first they were a band that i wanted to sign but after seeing a few shows of them playing live I was hooked, soo much energy, passion and catchy parts plus the band is just fun to watch, the tambourine player even was more hyper than any musician I saw all year. The songs all have this mash of a lot of music that I grew up on and still to this day listen to frequently. I see them as a band that can jump into the top 40 and get a budget to be a great band to see live and I guess the live show did it for me this year and I loved sharing the bands songs with friends, so I guess those are some of the reasons why I loved The Drums release.

HONORABLE MENTION:
Telefon Tel Aviv – Immolate Yourself

*Please note I did not include any releases by Ghostly International, Moodgadget, remixes, Tycho songs and ISO50 exclusives just to make this a fair collection. If you like this list then take a second and check out ISO50′s 2008 list.