Twenty At The End of May

by CHAD PERMAN

While it's true that there is no real way to predict if any given year will be a "good" year for music until that year actually plays out, I nonetheless had high hopes for 2009 well before the year itself had ever arrived. As a guy who ran a music blog for nearly four years (which he stupidly, rather impulsively shut down last month, though that's another story entirely), I became somewhat good at guessing which years would be the better musical ones, at least in terms of my own taste, by using a relatively simple formulation that went something like this: most artists/bands put out a record every couple of years, so if X is a year in which a lot of good music comes out, then there is a very good chance that X + 2 will be a good year for music as well.

By such dizzying, dazzling mathematical logic, then, 2009 would wind up being a wonderful year for music by simple virtue of the fact that 2007 was so filled with riches. With a whole host of new records to anticipate this year (many of which have yet to be released - I'm looking at you, Grizzly Bear, Iron & Wine, and Wilco), 2009 was looking good, if only from a distance.

But, of course, that was before it got started. Now, with the year nearly halfway behind us, I admit it: I've been rather disappointed in 2009, musically. A few things have grabbed me and managed to move me in some way, though I certainly had a harder time coming up with this list than I would have imagined. (Which is not to say the list isn’t good listening: there are real treasures to be found here, and you should definitely listen to every single one and you can thank me later.)

Perhaps it's just me though, perhaps I'm finally just too old to be hip or cool or even pretend to have the energy to keep up with any kind of music scene (it's not uncommon for me to browse the entire list of "popular" tracks on Hype Machine lately and have no real idea who or what any of them are). So, hipster scenes and music blogs aside, a rambling introduction filled with multiple disclaimers now behind us, here's what an Old Man Who Used to Be So Much Cooler has enjoyed listening to the most, so far, this year. Now, get off my porch.

1. "Two Weeks" - Grizzly Bear (mp3)

2. "Epistemology" - M. Ward (mp3)

3. "James Blues" - J. Tillman (mp3)

j. tillman4. "You and I" - Wilco (w/ Feist) (mp3)

5. "So Far Around the Bend" - The National

6. "Nikorette" - Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band (mp3)

7. "Funeral Song" - Laura Gibson

8. "Northern Lights" - Bowerbirds

9. "Only Pieces" - Here We Go Magic (mp3)

10. "Lille" - Lisa Hannigan (mp3)

11. "Beach Baby" - Bon Iver

12. "Effigy" - Andrew Bird

13. "Echo" - David Williams (featuring Laura Gibson) (mp3)

david williams14. "Wooden Arms" - Patrick Watson (mp3)

15. "Don't Hide Away" - Bishop Allen (mp3)

16. "The Breeze/My Baby Cries" - Bill Callahan (mp3)

17. "The Wanting Comes in Waves" - The Decemberists (mp3)

18. "Rollin' Home Alone" - Jason Lytle (mp3)

19. "Too Much Time" - John Vanderslice (mp3)

20. "Laughing With" - Regina Spektor (mp3)

Chad Perman is a writer living in Seattle.