Guest Take – Top 10 Albums of ’09

Better late than never…our friend Nicorelli from 99.7 KISS FM in Springfield, Illinois (yes, the birthplace of Barack H. Obama) shares his top 10 albums of 2009. Go figure, he and Alex have the same taste in music, but he brings an Illinois-y perspective to last year’s best, enjoy!

P.S. You can listen to Nicorelli weeknights, 7-midnight, at 997kissfm.com. Do it!

10. New Found Glory – Not Without a Fight

Solid but nothing outstanding. If there is one thing that NFG does well it’s writing catchy hooks, which this album is full of. I’m just not sure if there is much substance behind them.

Download “Heartless at Best” & “47”

9. Rihanna – Rated R

DARK album from the reigning princess of pop, at least comparing it to her previous records. I wonder why… Was she in the news at all this year??? It does take a little while to get used to because it can be very slow at times. With guests like will.i.am, Young Jeezy and Slash (yes, THAT Slash), pretty diverse feel to the album as a whole.

Download “Stupid In Love” & “Rude Boy”

8. Say Anything – Say Anything

No one can sing about hating everyone and everything like Max Bemis. Just a rock’n’roll record. Bemis’ voice truly evokes emotion. You feel everything that he is feeling.

Download “Hate Everyone” & “Eloise”

7. Jay-Z – The Blueprint 3

The Jigga Man returns with the third in his Blueprint trilogy. Though it may be a tad over-produced and rely on the guest vocals too much, Jay fully delivers on this record. I don’t think it should shock people this was the highest selling rap album of the year.

Download “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)” & “Run This Town”

6. Taking Back Sunday – New Again

If you know Taking Back Sunday, you know what you’re getting, a lot of Adam Lazzara singing his face off, bass solos that will melt YOUR face off and plenty of complaining. The last of which is realized in “Capital M-E”, which was written about the sudden departure of guitarist, Fred Mascherino, who left the band due to conflicts in writing. Even though the band seems to be almost a revolving door of musicians, TBS doesn’t ever seem lose a step.

Download “Sink Into Me” & “Cut Me Up Jenny”

5. Green Day – 21st Century Breakdown

It’s very interesting how Green Day has progressed from just a pop-punk band to THE POP-PUNK band. One thing that I liked more about this album than American Idiot is that it includes a taste of Green Day of yesteryear. Covering everything from skewed media and an over-reliance on technology, this isn’t a sequel or a continuation of AI, it forges its own path.

Download “21st Century Breakdown” & “Peacemaker”

4. John Mayer – Battle Studies

Definitely takes a couple listens, but once it sinks it’s teeth in, you realize the brilliance of John Mayer. What goes unnoticed in the shadow of his writing, Mayer’s one of the best guitarists on the planet.

Download “Friends, Lovers or Nothing” & “Half of My Heart”

3. fun. – Aim and Ignite

When you go back and listen to The Format, you can tell that the best was yet to come. In the wake of their breakup, fun. proves that. Very light feel while mature at the same time.

Download “Benson Hedges” & “All the Pretty Girls”

2. Paramore – Brand New Eyes

So impressed with this album. With the meteoric rise to stardom with Riot! and an indefinite hiatus behind them, Hayley and the boys came back with an album that is bigger and is very telling as to what they’ve been through over the course of just a couple years.

Download “Brick By Boring Brick” & “Where the Lines Overlap”

1. Dashboard Confessional – Alter the Ending

It seems like the previous 2 Dashboard albums were working towards this. Chris Carrabba’s vocals are just as solid as ever, lyrics are always poignant and from the first guitar you hear in “Get Me Right”, you can tell this is a different album from what we’ve heard previously from these fellas.