The Melodic Monkey Awards: Our Top Music of 2009
Filed under: SBM Awards
Tonight, the music world celebrated the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, which we covered on our site. But as we did last year, we're pairing up our annual awards for the best in music along with the industry's awards. Last year, we just gave you a list of our favourite albums, but from this year onward, we're breaking things down into categories, complete with our nominees and winners, much like the awards shows themselves.
So now, we present to you the Melodic Monkey Alternative Music Awards, our picks for the best music of 2009. We've broken things down into 6 categories: Single of the Year, Rock Album of the Year, Pop/Folk Album of the Year, Hip-Hop/R&B Album of the Year, Comedy Album of the Year, and of course, Overall Album of the Year. Our staff, which stretches across North America, submitted their choices for their favourites in each category, and from those selections, we put together our nominees. Then we put our nominees to a vote, and came up with these winners -- our collective favourites from the last year.
While some of our nominees and winners were also recognized by this year's Grammys, we hope that we can also give some love to what may have been overlooked albums and songs. Things may lean a bit towards the indie side of things, but hey, ShowbizMonkeys.com is an independent website, and we like the underdogs. Except in the case of Jay-Z -- we like him fine, even though he's worth a trillion dollars and wins every other award! What can we say, the guy knows what he's doing.
Anyway, onto the winners...
Album of the Year
The Nominees:
- Metric - Fantasies
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!
- Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
- Ingrid Michaelson - Everybody
- White Lies - To Lose My Life...
- Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer
The Winner:
- Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Single of the Year
The Nominees:
- Phoenix - "1901"
- Grand Analog - "Play My Kazoo"
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Zero"
- Jay-Z ft. Alicia Keys - "Empire State of Mind"
- Coldplay - "Strawberry Swing"
- The Lonely Island ft. T-Pain - "I'm on a Boat"
The Winner:
- Coldplay - "Strawberry Swing"
Rock Album of the Year
The Nominees:
- Metric - Fantasies
- Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!
- White Lies - To Lose My Life...
- Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer
- The Tragically Hip - We Are the Same
- Patrick Watson - Wooden Arms
The Winner:
- Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Pop/Folk Album of the Year
The Nominees:
- Said the Whale - Islands Disappear
- Elvis Costello - Secret, Profane & Sugarcane
- Ingrid Michaelson - Everybody
- Passion Pit - Manners
- Colbie Caillat - Breakthrough
- Norah Jones - The Fall
- Emme Packer - Earlier, Later
The Winner:
- Ingrid Michaelson - Everybody
Hip-Hop/R&B Album of the Year
The Nominees:
- Jay-Z - Blueprint 3
- K'naan - Troubadour
- Mos Def - The Ecstatic
- k-os - Yes!
- Grand Analog - Metropolis is Burning
The Winner:
- Jay-Z - Blueprint 3
Comedy Album of the Year
The Nominees:
- The Lonely Island - Incredibad
-
Jim Gaffigan - King Baby
-
John Mulaney - The Top Part
The Winner:
- The Lonely Island - Incredibad
Other Favourite Albums
- The Tragically Hip - We Are the Same
- Pearl Jam - Backspacer
- Coldplay - Left Right Left Right Left
- The Sounds - Crossing the Rubicon
- Kid Cudi - Man on the Moon
- Dave Matthews Band - Big Whiskey and the GrooCrux King
- Dream Theater - Black Clouds & Silver Linings
- Pete Yorn - Back and Forth
- Colbie Caillat - Breakthrough
- Gossip - Music for Men
- The Art of Time Ensemble ft. Sarah Slean - Black Flowers
- John Mayer - Battle Studies
- Switchfoot - Hello Hurricane
- Flight of the Conchords - I Told You I Was Freaky
- Alice in Chains - Black Gives Way to Blue
- The Black Eyed Peas - The E.N.D.
- A Fine Frenzy - Bomb in a Birdcage
- Muse - The Resistance
- The Blacke Crowes - Before the Frost... Until the Freeze
- Wolfmother - Cosmic Egg
- Regina Spektor - Far
- Mute Math - Armistice
- Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures
- The Dudes - Blood. Guts. Bruises. Cuts.
- Steve Martin - The Crow
- T.I. - Paper Trail
- Patton Oswalt - My Weakness is Strong
- Kelly Clarkson - All I Ever Wanted
- Nancy Griffith - The Loving Kind
- Kris Allen - Kris Allen
- Chris Smither - Time Stands Still
- Newton Faulkner - Rebuilt by Humans
- India.Arie - Testimony: Vol. 2, Love & Politics
- Matt Braugner - Soak Up the Night
Other Favourite Songs
- Kings of Leon - "Notion"
- Ingrid Michaelson - "Everybody"
- Kelly Clarkson - "My Life Would Suck Without You"
- Dream Theater - "Wither"
- Kings of Leon - "Use Somebody"
- Lily Allen - "The Fear"
- Stereos - "Summer Girl"
- Passion Pit - "To Kingdom Come"
- Owl City - "Fireflies"
- Taylor Swift - "Love Story"
- Metric - "Gimme Sympathy"
- Lady Gaga - "Paparazzi"
- Muse - "Uprising"
- T.I. ft. Justin Timberlake - "Dead and Gone"
Tags: Phoenix, Jay-Z, Coldplay, Ingrid Michaelson, The Lonely Island, Metric, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Elvis Costello, lists, awards
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Paul Little is the founder and Managing Editor of ShowbizMonkeys.com. When not interviewing his favourite musicians and comedians, he can also be found putting on and promoting music and comedy events with The Purple Room in Winnipeg, or co-producing the live comedy game shows Pants on Fire and The Great Patio Showdown. (@comedygeek)
Original Comments Posted (4)
Ariana says...
I think it is safe to say that we love Phoenix.
Feb 1, 2010 4:02pm
Hutch says...
U2 - "No Line on the Horizon" perhaps?!?!!? What the hell?? No mention at all??
For shame, you damned dirty apes. For shame.
Feb 1, 2010 7:40pm
ariana says...
Personally, I think that's the proudest accomplishment of this little exercise. We bow not to the whims of Bono and his stained-glass eyewear.
Feb 2, 2010 9:49am
Karebear says...
LOVE that song by Muse "uprising" !! Wow, Phoenix sure did well didn't they?! :)
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