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It’s only January and 2009 I’m already extremely hopeful for what’s to come in the next 11 months. At the end of every year it seems like there’s always someone who quips “This year was terrible for new music. There was nothing good” – yet there’s never a lack of best of lists and I dare you to look back at any year and struggle to think of a solid block of new music that you loved.

Here are eleven albums that are currently on my radar for a pre-best-of-2009 list – it’s a melange of music: artists who’re in danger of succumbing to the sophomore slump (Lily Allen, MSTRKRFT & Enter Shikari), artists who have yet to release an album but are already being touted as the band of 2009 (Passion Pit & White Lies), artists who may finally get well-deserved recognition with this album (Doves), and artists whose albums encourage fan fighting to determine which one is truly the best (Animal Collective, Brand New).

I can’t possibly rank these in order of most highly anticipated, so let’s go with chronological…

Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion
Release Date: January 20, 2009
MySpace: myspace.com/animalcollectivetheband

I’ve already posted about MPP and the fervor that’s surrounded its announcement back in October and the subsequent leak on Christmas Day. If you haven’t heard Animal Collective’s music yet, this will be a good place to start - it’s their most accessible to date, and it’s full of songs that will make you forget you live in a dark & loveless climate for its entire 54 minutes. Go listen to My Girls on the band’s MySpace page and dance.

White Lies To Lose My Life
Release Date: January 20, 2009 (UK)
MySpace: myspace.com/whitelies

London, UK’s White Lies are being hotly tipped (along with Passion Pit) as the ‘ones to watch’ in 2009 and it’s no surprise - Death and To Lose My Life are HOT singles and the guys are young ‘n sprightly, just ripe enough to embark on a path of total music scene domination. While their debut album will be out overseas in a few weeks, we’ll have to wait a little longer for a North American release date (March 17 to be exact). In the meantime, go scour YouTube for some live performance clips of the album’s other songs.

Lily Allen It’s Not Me, It’s You
Release Date: February 10, 2009
MySpace: myspace.com/lilymusic

Lily’s first album Alright, Still (2006) was fabulous and cheeky, and her followup promises to be no different. Lily herself has posted a bunch of the album’s songs on her MySpace page in the past and they remain true to Lily’s brand of saucy, rhyming lyrics and upbeat tempo. Right now you can hear first single The Fear there and check out the brand new video.

Grizzly Bear Unknown Title
Release Date: March 2009
MySpace: myspace.com/grizzlybear

Oh, Grizzly Bear. My lovers. According to Last.fm, I’ve listened to you more than any other band in my library and it’s no surprise. I’ve been anticipating a followup to Yellow House for two years now and it may not seem like a long time, but it’s been hard. Thankfully, in 2008 the band appeared on Conan O’Brien and David Letterman and debuted two new songs, Two Weeks and While You Wait For The Others, that have been posted on just about every music blog on the Internet and devoured by GB fans in anticipation of new music. The band holed themselves up in upstate New York this past Fall to record the album and it’s coming sooner than we think (March-ish).

MSTRKRFT Fist Of God
Release Date: March 17, 2009
MySpace: myspace.com/mstrkrft

When MSTRKRFT’s first album The Looks came out I’ll admit I didn’t give it much of a listen. But then I started to notice that every time I’d be out tearing up a dancefloor somewhere and I’d ask the DJ - who sometimes turned out to BE MSTRKRFT themselves - what was playing, it’d be something from The Looks. And that made me both sad and angry with myself for not giving the album a more solid listen - tracks like Easy Love, Paris and She’s Good for Business are undeniably danceable. Jesse Keeler & Al-P have been busy literally DJing the globe since then, so it’s no wonder it’s taken a couple years to record a followup. Fist Of God is out March 17!

Junior Boys Unknown Title
Release Date: March 2009
MySpace: myspace.com/juniorboys

Junior Boys make music that you think you haven’t heard until you hear it again and realize that, “oh yes”, you have indeed heard it. It pops up in the most unlikely of places - while shopping at The Bay, getting your hair cut at Coupe Bizarre and especially house parties (I guess the third one’s not that unusual). Their first two albums appeared on so many people’s year-end list there’s no way you’d believe that the duo are from humble Hamilton, Ontario, but it’s true. I’m extremely eager to hear the new material and see it performed live, but I’ll have to wait till March when the guys come back from cavorting their way across Europe on a pre-release tour.

Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Release Date:: April 2009
MySpace: myspace.com/wearephoenix

Last week Phoenix sent a newsletter to its mailing list fans announcing that their fourth album was coming, and its name is Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. We haven’t heard anything new from Phoeix since last year’s instrumental Cartier soundtrack tune Twenty One One Zero, and before that, 2006’s It’s Never Been Like That so it’s time to get excited for new music from these Versailles, France natives.

Enter Shikari Unknown Title
Release Date: April 2009
MySpace: myspace.com/entershikari

I have huge love for everything that Enter Shikari does - from their scintillating and physically exhausting live performances to their longstanding camaraderie, not to mention their wicked jams. So it’s no wonder I’m superextraexcited for the followup to 2007’s Take To The Skies. There’s new music on the horizon, with an as-yet-untitled second album recorded and coming down the pipe sometime in April, and you can hear new single We Can Breathe In Space, They Just Don’t Want Us To Escape on the band’s MySpace page.

Doves Unknown Title
Release Date: April 2009
MySpace: myspace.com/dovesmyspace

I’m hoping 2009 will do for Doves what 2008 did for fellow Mancunians Elbow (who finally won the prestigious Mercury Prize after nearly 18 years as a band with their fourth album The Seldom Seen Kid), and other people seem to agree that 2009 will be a great year for Doves. Doves formed in the 80s under the name Sub Sub, creating music that’s entirely unrecognizable from the stuff they’ve been releasing as Doves since 1998. Here’s hoping that their fourth studio album, coming our way this April, will supply us with more bangers like Pounding, Black And White Town and There Goes The Fear.

Brand New Unknown Title
Release Date: sometime in 2009
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/brandnew

With every album (there’ve been three so far), Brand New seem to refining their songwriting technique more and more - the band’s been steadily evolving since their inception nearly a decade ago in 2000. Information about album #4 has been scarce and unreliable, but so far what we know is that the band was in the studio recording it this past Fall, and they’ve performed one new track that fans refer to as Trees, Brickhouse or Bride. Who knows what it’s actually called. Other than that, we haven’t heard anything new since 2007’s non-album track Fork And Knife.

Passion Pit Unknown Title
Release Date: sometime in 2009
MySpace: myspace.com/passionpitjams

I’ve already lauded Passion Pit’s live set at October’s Pop Montreal, and CMJ was all over their performance as well. Multiple publications are heralding 2009 as “the year of Passion Pit”, and hopefully these youngsters from the Boston environs are ready for the explosion of fame they’re about to endure. And I was surprised as I’m sure you were to have heard Sleepyhead on a Sony PSP commercial in recent months…they’re coming!

There’s lots of other stuff coming out in 2009 that I haven’t written about yet - cause either it doesn’t have a release date yet, I’m sincerely doubting it’ll surface at all this year (ahem: Muse, Amy Winehouse, Ambulance LTD), or I kinda know what to expect (Black Eyed Peas). What are you looking forward to?

Posted on Friday, January 9th, 2009 at 2:36 pm by Kat and is filed under Music & Videos.

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