Soundcheck's Picks of the Year

What a year it was... Our favorite albums include music from a car commercial, some old Americana, a Bernstein Mass and… well, you know we have someone from Brazil on our team…

Otto - Certa Manhã Acordei De Sonhos Intranqüilos (A Certain Morning I Woke Up With Troubling Dreams) (Nublu)

Gisele Regatao: Okay, I’m biased, but I would say Brazilian music is one of the best in the world. And of all the sounds that came from my native country in the past twenty years, my favorite is Manguebeat. The movement is basically a mix of traditional music from the northeastern state of Pernambuco with pop and rock. Otto was a percussionist who helped create Manguebeat in the 1990’s. He is now a singer-songwriter who writes intense, poetic songs about break-ups, desire and complicated love. It’s worth learning Portuguese just for him. 

Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (Glassnote)

Joel Meyer: My head is telling me to select this hands-down favorite … Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective. Released just six days into 2009, it remained the year’s most important album. No contest. Very important. But … I didn’t call it up on my iPod all that often. Not like the Mastodon record. Not like the Rick Ross album. And definitely not like this ridiculously catchy album. The Paris-based group Phoenix can craft an electro-pop song like few other bands out there. I can’t stop listening to this album. And, I KNOW THIS SONG IS IN A CAR COMMERCIAL! I’ve already bought like four Cadillacs! It’s becoming … a problem. So Animal Collective, don’t hate me. My album of the year is Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. But if you need a ride, you know who to call. 

Among The Oak And Ash - Among The Oak And Ash (Verve Forecast)

John Schaefer: Like Joel, I’m gonna fudge my Best of the Year Pick, and go searching through the old iPod. When it comes time to do a year end list, I think this record will be on it, but you never know – this year was full of great stuff. But when I look back at a year, I tend to think of summer vacation first, and this summer’s soundtrack was the debut album by the folk-rock duo known as Among The Oak And Ash. Full of surprising arrangements of old Americana, as well as a few originals, Among The Oak And Ash was the album that got me up the Thruway and into the Adirondacks in the summer of 09. And like so many other albums this year, it had a cover of an old Smiths tune on it too. Not sure why that is, but I can’t say I minded either…

Leonard Bernstein: Mass Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop (Naxos)

Brian Wise: For decades, Leonard Bernstein’s Mass got no love from music fans, critics or fans of sacred music for that matter. It probably goes back to its origins, as a commission for the Kennedy Center in 1971. President Nixon was no fan of the Bernstein’s liberal politics so he stayed away from the premiere. On a recent recording, conductor Marin Alsop, who was Bernstein's protégé, lets us relive the excitement -- or in Nixon's case, fury -- that greeted the piece nearly 40 years ago. The recording features epic sweep and a solid, committed performance by the American baritone Jubilant Sykes (above). It’s not only a great all-around performance but a historic milestone, which makes this recording by Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony my album of the year.