I migliori album internazionali del 2009 – la lista di Zago

Eccomi al secondo appuntamento di fine anno: dopo la classifica dei migliori album italiani del 2009, passiamo alla lista dei migliori album internazionali dell’anno (sono esclusi gli album italiani). Vicini al capolavoro i nuovi lavori di Mastodon (“Crack The Skye”) e Isis (“Wavering Radiant”), confermando ancora una volta di essere dei numeri uno in ambito metal e non solo, mentre gli Animal Collective con “Merriweather Post Pavilion” hanno finalmente realizzato l’album che vale una carriera. In ambito “pop” (se si può usare questo termine) molto belli “The Bachelor” di Patrick Wolf (non ne sbaglia una) e “Two Suns” di Bat For Lashes. I giapponesi Mono hanno proposto ancora una volta musica di una bellezza a tratti commovente in “Hymn to the Immortal Wind”.

In ambito sperimentale i Sunn O))) con “Monoliths & Dimensions” si sono spinti oltre realizzando un’ album spiazzante quanto interessante e inserirei in questo ambito anche “Embryonic” dei Flaming Lips sempre più fuori di testa. I The Horrors hanno superato a pieni voti la seconda prova con un cambio di genere più che riuscito, mentre in ambito cantaurorale va sicuramente ricordato “The Crying Light” di Antony & The Johnsons. Nel mondo rap, decisamente degni di nota i ritorni in grande stile di Mos Def e Raekwon, oltre alle ottime prove dei Dälek, CunninLynguists e DOOM.

Al contrario di quel che ho fatto con la classifica italiana, dopo il salto non trovate la lista degli album “almeno sufficienti” (perchè diventerebbe interminabile), ma una scrematura che parte da un livello più alto. In più ho preferito suddividere la classifica in più fasce, all’interno delle quali una posizione vale l’altra.

Prima Fascia
Mastodon – Crack The Skye (sludge-prog metal)
Isis – Wavering Radiant (post-metal)
Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion (pop psichedelico/elettronica)

Seconda Fascia
Patrick Wolf – The Bachelor (Battle One) (art pop)
The Flaming Lips – Embryonic (psichedelia/sperimentale)
Mono – Hymn to the Immortal Wind (post-rock strumentale)
Sunn O))) – Monoliths & Dimensions (drone)
The Horrors – Primary Colours (post-punk/shoegaze)
Antony & The Johnsons – The Crying Light (cantautorato/art pop)
Converge – Axe to Fall (metalcore)

Terza Fascia
The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love (indie rock/folk rock)
Porcupine Tree – The Incident (progressive rock)
Bat For Lashes – Two Suns (art pop)
Franz Ferdinand – Tonight : Franz Ferdinand (indie rock)
Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest (indie pop)
Dinosaur Jr. – Farm (alternative rock)
The Antlers – Hospice (indie pop)
Mos Def – The Ecstatic (hip hop)

Quarta Fascia
…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead – The Century Of Self (alternative rock)
Dälek – Gutter Tactics (alternative hip hop)
Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca (indie pop)
U2 – No Line On The Horizon (pop rock)
Arctic Monkeys – Humbug (indie rock)
Editors – In This Light And On This Evening (synth/post-punk)
Muse – The Resistance (pop rock)
The XX – XX (indie rock)
Pearl Jam – Backspacer (pop rock)
A Place to Bury Strangers – Exploding Head (post-punk/noisegaze)
Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse – Dark Night of the Soul (indie pop rock)
John Frusciante – The Empyrean (alternative)
The London Appartments – Signals & Cities Are Forever (elettronica/ambient)
Pan•American – White Bird Release (ambient)
Andrew Bird – Noble Beast (cantautorato)
Dan Deacon – Bromst (elettronica)
Fever Ray – Fever Ray (electro pop)
Dan Auerbach – Keep It Hid (rock blues)
The Warlocks – The Mirror Explodes (rock psichedelico)
Sonic Youth – The Eternal (noise rock)
Wilco – Wilco (The Album) (alternative rock/country)
Them Crooked Vultures – Them Crooked Vultures (hard rock)
Rome – Flowers From Exile (neofolk)
Dave Matthews Band – Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King (jam pop rock)
Bill Callahan – Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle (cantautorato/country)
Raekwon – Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II (hip hop)
Yo La Tengo – Popular Songs (indie rock)
Soulsavers – Broken (rock/soul/downtempo)
Thrice – Beggars (alternative rock)
The Big Pink – A Brief History of Love (indie rock)
Baroness – Blue Record (sludge metal)
Piano Magic – Ovations (indie rock)

Quinta Fascia
Dredg – The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion (alternative rock)
The Field – Yesterday & Today (techno/elettronica)
Tim Hecker – An Imaginary Country (elettronica/ambient)
DM Stith – Heavy Ghost (alternative folk)
Wolves in the Throne Room – Black Cascade (atmospheric black metal)
CunninLynguists – Strange Journey Volume One (hip hop)
Bob Dylan – Together Through Life (cantautorato)
Gallows – Grey Britain (punk rock)
Soap&Skin – Lovetune for Vacuum (cantautorato)
Silversun Pickups – Swoon (alternative rock)
The Dead Weather – Horehound (garage/rock blues)
Kylesa – Static Tensions (sludge metal)
Absu – Absu (black death metal)
Gazpacho – Tick Tock (prog rock)
Amorphis – Skyforger (prog death metal)
Mew – No More Stories Are Told… (indie pop/prog)
Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport (elettronica)
Atlas Sound – Logos (sperimentale/elettronica)
Natural Snow Buildings – Shadow Kingdom (alternative folk)
Benjamin Biolay – La Superbe (pop francese)

Sesta Fascia
White Lies – To Lose My Life (indie rock/post-punk)
Kasabian – West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum (indie rock/brit rock)
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (indie pop)
Akron/Family – Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free (folk rock)
Tortoise – Beacons of Ancestorship (post rock)
Current 93 – Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain (neofolk)
Minsk – With Echoes in the Movement of Stone (sludge metal)
Eels – Hombre Lobo: 12 Songs of Desire (indie rock)
The Church – Untitled #23 (pop rock)
Amesoeurs – Amesoeurs (post-punk/black metal)
Candlemass – Death Magic Doom (doom metal)
Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (indie pop rock)
Jay Dee – Jay Stay Paid (hip hop)
P.O.S. – Never Better (hip hop)
DOOM – Born Like This (hip hop)
Telefon Tel Aviv – Immolate Yourself (elettronica/pop)
White Denim – Fits (indie rock)
Clark – Totems Flare (IDM/Elettronica)
Morrissey – Years of Refusal (pop rock)
Crystal Antlers – Tentacles (rock psichedelico)
Manic Street Preachers – Journal for Plague Lovers (pop rock)
The Boxer Rebellion – Union (alternative rock)
Sunset Rubdown – Dragonslayer (indie rock)
Maudlin of the Well – Part the Second (progressive metal)
Japandroids – Post-Nothing (indie rock)
Paolo Nutini – Sunny Side Up (pop)
Clutch – Strange Cousins From the West (stoner rock)
Scott Matthew – There Is An Ocean That Divides… (cantautorato/art pop)
Major Lazer – Guns Don’t Kill People – Lazers Do (dancehall/reggae)
Oneida – Rated O (rock psichedelico)
Fanfarlo – Reservoir (indie pop)
If These Trees Could Talk – Above the Earth, Below the Sky (post rock)
St. Vincent – Actor (cantautorato/indie pop)
YACHT – See Mystery Lights (elettronica)
Jack Peñate – Everything Is New (pop)
Kanye West & Malik Yusef – G.O.O.D. Morning, G.O.O.D. Night: Dusk (hip hop)
Why? – Eskimo Snow (indie pop/post hip hop)
The Twilight Sad – Forget the Night Ahead (indie rock)
Kings Of Convenience – Declaration of Dependence (folk pop)
Cold Cave – Love Comes Close (synth pop/wave)
The Black Heart Procession – Six (indie rock)
HEALTH – Get Color (noise rock)
Russian Circles – Geneva (post rock)
Brand New – Daisy (alternative rock)
Built to Spill – There Is No Enemy (indie rock)
Antipop Consortium – Fluorescent Black (hip hop)
Monsters of Folk – Monsters of Folk (folk rock)
Riverside – Anno Domini High Definition (progressive rock)
Girls – Album (indie pop rock)
Om – God Is Good (stoner doom metal)
Mumford and Sons – Sigh No More (folk)
Immortal – All Shall Fall (balck metal)
The Engineers – Three Fact Fader (dream pop/shoegaze)
Wild Beasts – Two Dancers (indie rock)
This Immortal Coil – The Dark Age of Love (covers dei Coil)