This post is a really big deal because we never ask questions like this. (We always ask questions like this.) But for real this time … did Bitte Orca do it? Is this the one? It’s almost December right? At SXSW, where Dirty Projectors debuted the Bitte material in a set that’s a frontrunner for my favorite show of the year, Dave Longstreth punctuated the 45 minute premiere of his triumphant, fractured pop opuses and Meredith Monking mind explosions with a matter-of-fact declaration: “Those are all new songs, from a new album we have called Bitte Orca. We’re pretty excited about it.” We have been too, and so has the rest of the internet, asking questions and giving it scores that aren’t high enough, etc. I don’t think we’d rewrite a thought from our Premature Ejaculation, but we’d add that having had some time with the album, it’s one of few this year that rewards — and gets better — with sustained listening and revisitation. It don’t stop. And as the suite Longstreth composed in its wake for Björk (in just one week) demonstrated, neither will DPs.
Anyway, we’re taking off for Bonnaroo. We’ll see DPs play the David Byrne-curated stage on Friday, yay. As always we’ll have more photos than you need and Scott and I will be manning the Tweet, but until that coverage begins this weekend we’re gonna leave you with the best gift we can: A full stream of what is possibly maybe the best album of 2009.
Bitte Orca is out now. Buy a Walkman and dig in.
[Photo by Sarah Cass]
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I’ll let everybody in on a little secrest…Pitchfork reeks of the dot.com boom…I temped at alot of those places as they were sinking:)
I personally rate my “Albums of the Year” on a “What would I rather listen to? Scale” For example The Thermals are my favorite band, so clearly “Now We Can See” is my Album of the Year.
Anyway, I don’t know where I’d fit Bitte Orca on a scale against Veckatimest and MPP. I certainly listen to it a lot fucking more than Veckatimest and MPP, so yeah, I think it’s better than those. It’s nice to hear experimental pop music that doesn’t try and be all acid trippy like Animal Collective, and is more jumpy than the chamber esque music of Grizzly Bear.
Why are people trying to pit Animal Collective and Dirty Projectors against each other? They are both amazing bands in their own styles, and both just happened to release amazing albums in the same year. As for “Album of the Year”, WHO GIVES A SHIT? You can decide for yourself what the album of the year is. You don’t have to have other people approve, and you certainly don’t have to rely on a website to tell you what’s cool.
I heard the New Kids on the Block are coming back.
Good musicianship but their voices are incredibly annoying
listened a few times to the album stream the last couple days…give me a poppy band over “experimental” any day, but this is pretty good stuff. i have listened to useful chamber about a dozen times already and i find that song absolutely amazing…i can appreciate the album and enjoy it for the most part, but not entirely my thing
It truly is way to early. I do love Bitte Orca, but i’m gunning for the new built to spill. also cymbals eat guitars put out a gnarly album which deserves more attention. Somewhat shocking that pitchfork gave it best new music yet they’re not penetrating ear pussies around the world yet, it’s kinda refreshing actually. I do wish them all the best though.
Passion Pit?
Neko Case is my favorite so far this year. Full of soul, can’t skip a single track. IDK about this yet though….maybe I’m not cool enough for it? Yeah, yeah that sounds about right…
Glad to see Micachu and The Shapes in there; Jewellerly definitely deserves Top 5 at this point, based on originality and re-listenability. As per Bitte Orca, so far I’m finding it to be an all around more cohesive album than Veckatimest, Two Suns, and MPP (which I think could benefit from a revised track order AND I find to be inferior to Sung Tongs and Feels) — but that’s no to say Bitte Orca is guaranteed the top spot on my list.
nice album, but not the best. still like the Animal Collective and Phoenix albums a lot more
made an easily downloadable (ctrl+c, ctrl+v) “comment template” for this thread:
______ is good, but __________ is the best!!!!
for me, it’s a toss-up between Bitte Orca and Veckatimst. They both have that repeatability about them that so many albums don’t have these days. As for Merriwether Post Pavillion, year end-lists will no doubt praise its forward-thinking, boundary-pushing mad skillz, but give me Bitte Orca anyday
to be honest, i’m not quite sure the album’s grown on me yet. but that’s how i’ve felt with all my current fave records of 09 (sans face control, that was a goodie from the start), but i do recall hearing these guys at p4k last year and thought to myself that i needed to make a mental note to check em out. . . for anyone in the chicago area, they’re playing a free set to the public at milennium park this monday (6/22) with the sea & cake so it’ll be a good opportunity to test the live waters. . . from what i recall, this may be what bait i need to really dig em.
i like this album and all the others mentioned!!!!!!!!
no. bitte orca is not the best album of the year. the best albums of the year (so far) are it’s great to be alive from fake problems and tres tres fort from staff benda bilili.
Fever Ray followed by Veckatimest, but the gap in terms of pleasurable album experience is wide…
MPP- Revolver? please…. AC are still a live band….
DP is a lot of fucking work…
If the power goes out, light some candles get some acoustic guitars and Dirty Projectors can still play a set. Other “bands” would be searching for a generator.
As could Tiny Tim…
Not sure what that has to do with who the made best album??? Or anything for that matter.. With that said, just about every band mentioned on this sighjt can play music on the acoustic guitar…. And not that it matters but if AC were to whip out their acoustics they would kill everyone!!!!
Thank god Stereogum posted the stream so I could listen – and then not waste my emusic downloads on this. This is a typical “indie music snob” album that 90% of Stereogum readers will fall all over themselves anointing a masterpiece just to increase their “cred.” Virtually unlistenable. Oh, and the same goes for MPP.
How about we respect the album for what it is? Not how much is does/does not sound better/worse than MPP or Veckatimest. The bands releasing them are purposefully three separate bands, meaning they are not the same as each other and therefore comparison serves better in retrospect, as in making a collage of the time’s music. We can’t do that yet. So instead of everyone fighting over being the one to have called the “best album of the year” (I’m the hippest hipster! No I am!)… can we just sit back and enjoy what this year has brought us so far?
This is an amazing album – so addictive and unpredictable. Why all the competition? This whole Superbowl mentality of best album goes against what art is all about – subjective, unquantifiable experience. I like this and you like that – what’s there to argue about?
no matter what these dirty projectors say, dont bite an Orca! them shits bite back brotha.
Personally, I am not annoyed by the fact that people want to talk about ‘the album of the year.’ Every music lover should know His/Her album of the year. I’m annoyed because I have never heard two loved albums to which i would ever want to listen at the same time. Meaning, different music communicates to me better at different times. My taste and preferences are governed by the dominating moods that i experience, and the records that those dominating moods most frequently demand become my favorite albums. What and when do i want to listen to what? – that is the question. And of course, i have limited spending money so i DO pay attention to those albums that critics (metacritic/p4k/amazon/google/etc.) suggest might communicate to ME the best.
Currently, my listening is dominated by:
1. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest (first band since radiohead that seems to know my mind)
2. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (makes me happy in my melancholy)
3. Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca (i suffer from a disorganized mental illness and this nails something on every level – musically and lyrically)
4. St. Vincent – Actor (similar in reason to Bitte Orca, but more controlled – these two albums swing back and forth for me)
5. Animal Collective – MPP (i miss the guitars, nevertheless, this harmonizing ‘electronic’ music has hit me much harder than any ‘electronic’ music in a long while)
All of these albums are amazing. I have no idea what music will yet come out this year. this is right now. i also neither have an idea about what music any of you personally need nor knowledge of the music to which you have granted yourselves personal access.
I am neither omniscient nor omnipresent, and these are albums i can’t stop playing right now.
It’s like the same five people are posting. Hioster pop sounds like Michael Jackson getting his balls squeezed by a five year old at his zoo. I do like their lack of self/emotional breakdowns on tour, very David Carradine/Obama-esque.
II like anyone getting their balls squeezed by a five-year-old at his zoo or by a lady demanding retribution, but i do hope that you are not speaking about me. call me sensitive. but i would rather learn about from you and others whatever it is that i do not know. so let me know. i am not looking for points, cred, or otherwise. i know/feel what i like. if you know of an artist that i should know, PLEASE let me know. i will find them, him, her, etc.
Ignorance and self-defense frequently join to create abominable things. let me know. keep in mind: i do not have much expendable income – thus, be as selective as you can be.
i dont get it…dp is just kinda annyoing
mpp is almost the best of the year…but like 4 tracks are boring/annoying
id say so far Bat For Lashes is the best record of the year.
I’m kinda liking the Discovery LP and Foreign Born and Passion Pit are pretty good as well.
Terrible, terrible music. I felt insulted the two times i listened to this thing. Atrocious album, sounds like a grotesque parody of everything that is wrong with some indie music. It is so bad it made me appreciate Veckatimest, which i hate with a raging passion.
Best album this year is Kylesa’s Static Tension, or Bromst, or Odd Nosdam’s skate DVD ost.
Easily best album of the year
radical youth culture is more explosive than ever. The creative underground that spawned such legends as sonic youth and nirvana is more creativly explosive than ever. At the same time their is a cross between the previous generations for the firts time ever their are truly radical adults licking godhead style such as Wilco or Sonic Youth.
grizly bear and dirty projectors are the last of a dying breed, they are very much of this time but this type of post indie feminised art rock is a dying breed being replaced by a more punk art rock and radical electronic music. I fully support these bands and records and am glad that my generation had such acts as sufjan stevens or arcade fire, its been a great time.
This radical music is still in the shawdows completly unknown to the rest of the mainstream, even in a time were strange bands like grizly bear have top ten records the creative underground is still in the shwadows, this should prove once and for all that it will never truly break . So stop hating and strat supporting we are in a culture war and while I am evry optimisit about the current trends creative music i know that “it” wont just happen and when i say it i mean the next wave, its coming yes thats forsure but it wont just happen like that, so support damit.
MPP on the other hand has nothing to do with these dinasour art rocjk bands AC is very much still part of radical electronic music. if you dont like electronic music dont be so amazed that you dont like MPP , no biggie.
POST OF 2009 and p.s this is the last year or this twothousand bullshit next year Im saying twently ten, peacee
It’s arguable whether this is the best album of 2009, but I think that many can agree that 2009 is turning out to be the best year for music.
Well, unlike many who post here, I’m not afraid of a pop hook and so my fav albums thus far look like this:
1. The Sounds-Crossing The Rubicon
2. Shout Out Out Out Out-Reintegration Time
3. Simple Minds-Graffiti Soul
4. Faunts-Feel Love Thinking Of
5. Metric- Fantasies
6. Yeah Yeah Yeahs- It’s Blitz
and we’ll have to see what the year holds for the rest. But the Dirty Projectors and Animal Collective have both put out meandering, unfocused and clanging records that are dissonant for the sake of dissonance. Sorry, Stereogum, no fan here.
Yay for Shout Out Out Out Out…. such a fun band :)
probably
Have you heard the Major Lazer? Not the best but good.
I had no idea that people liked this album that much. To me, the vocals sound nail-on-a-chalkboard grating. I don’t find a whole lot that’s redeeming about this album. Out of “the big 3,” Grizzly Bear is the only one I can really get behind.
Contenders:
Phoenix: WgA
Camera Obscura: My Maudlin Career
Au Revoir Simone: Still night, still night
Japandriods: Post-nothing
I would probably have more on that list, but I been really lazy getting albums. Mostly just stream off MySpace. I didn’t really feel Bitte Orca. i enjoyed Passion Pit, but I’m sure it’s hold up for the rest of this year.
I’m really looking forward to DISCOVERY, Free Energy, and Girls.
Oh yeah…. The Avalanches….
Merriweather Post Pavilion, Crack the Skye and Veckatimest.
So far, the only contenders for album of the year on my list.
No matter how hard I try, all Bitte Orca seems to do is get on my nerves.
Maybe I should give it more time (?).
How do you even say Bitte Orca?
beet orkuhh??
i dont know, im just guessing
I really didn’t care for the album. Although, I gave it several chances. My favs so far are GB, Wilco (The Album), Wavves (even though he is a dick).
Considering how we consume music, how the fuck can you consider something to be “ALBUM OF THE YEAR” beyond your personal tastes? On another note, 500 DAYS OF SUMMER MOVIE OF THE YEAR!
oh god i just read every single one of these useless comments. i even voted on some. who am i?
ST VINCENT
Pitchfork rarely “overhypes” albums. They just give albums good reviews and Best New Music them. Whether they like the albums or not, that’s hardly “overhyping.” This album is pretty solid and don’t hate on Stereogum for being passionate about an album special to them.
How did this movie take over this site? they must have paid them thousands of dollars i guess?
You guys need to come out of your indie-rock comas.
In my opinion this record is far too challenging of a listen to be considered “best album of the year”. Best albums speak to a decent chunk of the population on a deeper level that sums up that moment in time.
This album is too obscure, inconsistent and garbled to do that.
Most of the populous will think this album is just scattered noise.
Agree with everyone who has a considered opinion.
Bitte Orca is good listening, but you need some serious art-core lodged up your ass to approach it. I think it’s fantastic, but my friends disagree. They prefer Muse.
Enemy Mine, dudes. Seriously, even with Danny screwing up 1/3 of the album it has hurtled into my 1st place. I’m leaving a slot open in my top 5 for the new Why?, which I hope will put AnCo and Grizzles to shame. You could pull the ‘different genre’ card on me, but I consider ‘obscure white-boy music’ to be a genre. C’mon Yoni. You’re my hero.
CYMBALS EAT GUITARS!!!!!!!! hands down best of the year
DPs is best album of the year by a LANDSLIDE. I have it as:
1. Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
2. Here We Go Magic
3. Animal Collective – MPP
4. Dark Was the Night
5. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Believe
I’m eating yogurt right now.
Now I’m finished.
I nominate this album for best album name, best album cover, and for best track titles of the year!
And I nominate fans of this album as The People Most Easily Brainwashed & Influenced By Incidental Things Such As Album Names, Album Covers, and Track Titles (Of The Year).
Overrated as 90% of most indie releases. The female vocals sound horrible.
I honestly do not get Dirty Projectors. Their voices, the lyrics…
I mean really. Do I look like I’m into Oriental music?
Great post. Been asking myself the same thing.
Bitte Orca has yet to be topped in 2009.
MICACHU AND THE MOTHERFUCKING SHAPES
MPP IS THE MOST OK COMPUTER SINCE FEELS
I can’t believe I wasted some of my already weak ratio on this Stereogum pick for album of the year. Horrible, just horrible. I will be much more hesitant to listen to recommendations on this site.
since i am not a blogger or professional music critic, i don’t have much interesting in listing my favourite albums of the year. however, there really is something going on with these three albums that makes me feel very strongly that these are THE albums of the year whatever the order. bitte orca is the most striking and innovative, veckatimest the most beautiful, merriweather the most interesting texturally. i listen to all of them alot but i am slowly coming around to agreeing with the headline of this post. mpp is not my favourite animal collective album, and grizzly bear are not at their peak yet i don’t think, but bitte orca i think has really raised the bar as far as pop music goes. it could really change things. what bitte orca has done really makes me rethink music altogether. everything should be difficult about this album: the harmonies, the timing, the detached guitar, obscure lyrics, but somehow it is as easy to digest as any other pop album. it’s as if all this time experimental music has been this alienating and impenetrable zone that you can get into on a sort of meditative level, and now with this album just sucks you into it instantly.
to answer the main question here.. no Stereogum, Bitte Orca ISNT the best album of 2009.
as i read this, all that went trhough my mind was, “Are you fucking kidding me?!?”
Maybe sometimes we get too obsessed about what is the “best” and forget that everyone responds to art differently. I personally connected better with the jarring experimentalism of Animal Collective’s earlier albums than Merriweather, but I agree with everyone that Animal Collective’s “accessible” album sounds incredible. I think Vecktameist is an absolutely beautiful record and this is coming from someone who failed to understand what all the hype was with Yellow House. I’m guilty of it too, but maybe we should all focus on what we connect with and why, rather than what is the best. You don’t walk out of MoMa saying “Mondrian > Kadinsky” so why approach pop music that way?
useful chamber. :)
hell yeah.
ST VINCENT — ACTOR. Good God…this album incorporates some of the most unique and captivating sounds I have ever heard WITHOUT sacrificing melody or good composition (listen to “Marrow” and don’t tell me it doesn’t kick your ass). It takes musical stabs at genius and connects every time. Meanwhile, DP is just an orgy of cliches. Sure, some of them work…”Useful Chamber” and “Cannibal Resource” are great tracks. But seriously. Best Album of 2009?
Nah.
dude, cliches? wtf are you talking about. point out what parts of the album are cliche’d please.
Can anyone tell me if Vecktameist is significantly different than Yellow House? I was not really a fan of Yellow House (found it pretty boring, to be honest) and I saw Grizzly Bear open for TVOTR last month, but just didn’t get it. Is there anything on the new album that will change my mind if I didn’t like Yellow House and was less than enthralled by their live show?
It is somewhat.
Veckatimest is poppier, but is still very much indie baroque pop, while Yellow House is darker – has a more claustrophobic sound.
I wish Grizzly Bear would do more pop songs – like Two Weeks. Make their records a bit more fun and less cerebral…
But if you didn’t like Yellow House, chances are you won’t Veckatimest either…
It’s great to hear bands today incorporate strings and vocal harmonies. DP has been able to let their music flourish into a very clean structure. It’s like they’ve designed this baby cradle for rock to crawl in. Sure they sound pretentious especially on Temecula Sunrise sort of highlighting the flotsam and jetsam of everyday life: “Gatorade” or maybe its just the bright colors of Gatorade that match their disposition. Their style is really clean and very sort of specific in interest lyrically. It was easy for me to interpret the feelings they felt for the specific space they where in as being very pretentious and annoying but really they’re meagerly expressing their style and what they’re interested in however varied and just juxtaposed it may seem. It seams like they get bored very easily that’s why I like them.
GP – I really cant get into grizzly Bear either. While You Wait For others is a great song, just like Knife was. I tried but I just cant get into the whole album.
My opinion on best of 2009 so far is MPP then DP, although there is nothing great about either of them. Boxer, In Rainbows, Strawberry Jam, For Emma Forever Ago, and even Vampire Weekend blows these albums out of the water.
Song of Half the Year – Summertime Clothes
Runner up – Young Hearts Spark Fire
Yall heard that new Peabo Bryson joint?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqGTb4ZFAS8
<3 Aladdin sndtrck!
you know what? This kinda reminds me of a more poppy/accesible version of deerhoof. Deconstructionist pop that really only flirts with the idea of deconstructing. Like, it peers over the edge, but pulls back before it loses balance.
I think I’m digging it, but I’ll have to listen a few more times to be sure.
my last post got deleted when i tried to submit it. its funny becuase: i was bob loblawing about unaccessability and how i felt like i was trying really hard to like these guys. and in the last 10 minutes that it has taken me to listen to temmecula sunrise, i got the chills and realized how refreshing this music is. especially on a hot arizona summer day. one love.
HEY FUCK YOU BUDDY!