Rocky's Best Albums of 2009, First Half

Love Is All, A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night (What's Your Rupture? Records). Here's a surprise, a Swedish pop album on top of the list. What was that motto in the 80s? "Fuck art, let's dance". The spirit lives on in Love Is All. Yeah, life is boring and incomprehensible, so might as way wail on my sax, play my cheap keyboard and get my punk-ska groove on. I really wanted to have an album like The Dirty Projectors' Bitte Orca on this list, what with the bona fides of a Yale music major channeling David Byrne. But fuck that shit, man. Here are two songs from the AHTKMUAN:

Dinosaur, Jr., Farm (Jagjaguwar Records, 2-LP, includes free mp3 download of album). Like most Dino Jr albums, beautiful riffs rise from the din, just more so on this album. Also wins the prize for the worst album cover of the year. I can't imagine anyone thinking it's a good cover, even when stoned.

God Help the Girl, God Help the Girl (Matador Records). Precious x 10.

[Ed.-The Love Is All album is disqualified from this list because it was released in late 2008. However, the video of the Unabomber's hand-puppet show with Osama bin Laden laughing and dancing in the background is too brilliant to take down.]