Best Rock Albums in 2009, so far

Antony is great. Dark is the Night is v. good. Marianne Faithfull's new one is one of her best. Also have the DVD of Leonard Cohen's London concert--I am waiting to hear him live before I play. Van Morrison's concert in LA is up to his highest standard. Haven't heard the MP3 of Dylan's newest--but early word is his voice sounds pretty rough. Doesn't make any difference. Wilco has a new one coming out, as does Massive Attack. All may be candidates before the year ends.

I would also recommend "No Line On The Horizon" by U2. I am a U2 fan and have been disappointed with their last two albums, but "No Line...." is great.

Just acquired Jenny Lewis' "Acid Tongue" and gave it my first spin last night. In a word: excellent. Stellar performance and recording on 3 sides. Again from late 2008, but what the hell.

Also have been enjoying the latest Marianne Faithful (great tunes, but the recording is a bit disjointed...her vocals sound strange in comparison to the rest of the band), new Bonnie Prince Billy and the recent reissue of Man or Astroman's "Experiment Zero" a band I always enjoyed back in the early 90's. Heavy retro-surf/camp in a Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet kind of way. The latest Dan Hicks LP (who is slowly morphing into a Leon Redbone-esque vocal style), "Tangled Tales" is quite decent as well, speaking of campiness.

After waiting for them for a dozen years, I also picked up the reissues of the first two Ben Harper albums. Great tunes, but shitty remasters - though the second album (Fight for Your Mind) is better than the first. They sound flat, undynamic and digital - feh. Given the excellent and obviously analog nature of the sound off of CD, the remastering engineers ought to hang their head(s) in shame - these should have been blistering.

-Richard

I am digging Dan Auerbach's (Black Keys) Keep it Hid.

Check out the upcoming album from a band called "Grizzly Bear". Likely to be the album of the year and will garner prize from much of the hipster press.