Thrice - "Beggars"

All is quite in the Bohn household this fine Sunday morning... Except for my older sister's cell phone alarm that has been going off for the past hour and a half waking me up at 6:30 and causing her to roll over from the couch, hit "snooze", roll back over only to have to do it (I kid you not) three minutes later. Brighton is a very sleepy town right now: cold, cloudy, constant snow... Very little to do other than wake up (due to the aforementioned alarm clock) and get on the internet / watch fishing shows on ESPN2, even though I rather dislike fishing. Even I don't understand that one.

I was thinking of a way to kill some time without waking the rest of the family. My original plan was to write my annual "Crybabies Beware" best-of list for 2009 chronicling my experiences with music, movies, and the minutia of my life over the past twelve months. For some reason, that just seems like vanity this year and I don't think I liked all that many albums to warrant such a list. To get some inspiration, I headed over to Large Hearted Boy's aggregator of sites that had the best-of 2009 listed. I read through several of these list and realized two things:
1.) I hadn't heard half of the records on the list and therefore could not make a truly educated list based on my opinion, and
2.) A large percentage of the records that I heard that were on those lists (largely of the "indie rock" variety and one would think right up my alley) were records that I thoroughly didn't enjoy. Brand New's Daisy and Lucero's 1372 Overton Park, I'm especially looking in your directions on that one.

It was a seriously lackluster year in the world of music. I've never seen so much drivel get so much play. That Education Connection commercial was catchier and better written than anything Lady Gaga did this year. The caveat to that previous statement is that the melody line to her song "Paparazzi" is catchy as hell even if she can't write lyrics to save her gender neutral ass. Another example? Sure... how about "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus? I know I'm not the only person that wants to see her fall off of that mountain she's trekkin' up. Another one? Sure!!! How 'bout "You Belong with Auto-tune Me" by Taylor Swift? I could go on like this for a while.

There were plenty of good pop songs that came out this year. And yes, some of them were from the aforementioned offenders ("Party in the USA" by Destiny Hope Miley Cyrus, "Love Story" by Taylor Swift, and [hell] "TiK ToK" by KE$HA is catchy). But as far as complete records which no one seems to release anymore these days, it was a decidedly down year.

I did actually start on a list this morning before I got too bored and had to stop when I realized that I had a hard time thinking of a few records that were much better than Phoenix's new record which, let's be honest, is nothing more than a few singles and a bunch of throwaway tracks. It ultimately disheartened me enough to stop...

Then I remembered that Thrice released Beggars and flat out forgot about how crappy most of the rest of the year in music was.

Watch this. Be amazed.


That's it. That's my "Crybabies Beware" list for 2009. Thrice's Beggars. Everything else fell woefully short. Yes, that includes Pearl Jam's Backspacer which I really would have enjoyed except for the AWFUL ballads that appear on it.

Do yourself a favor... Go buy the Thrice record. Take that money you were going to spend on Animal Collective or Adam Lambert or (God forbid) Owl City and get this instead. You'll be listening to this one for years to come.

[That was far too many words to get my point across, I know. When I get to the airport this afterevening, I'll likely be doing my Best of the Decade list...]