The second instalment of our favourite albums of 2009…

Here, in no particular order, are the next ten in our countdown.

Bruce Springsteen
Working On A Dream (Columbia)
“As he approaches his 60th birthday, Bruce Springsteen is on the kind of roll that many new acts would struggle to match. Just 16 months after his last album, Magic, topped the charts both here and in the US, and fewer  than six months since he finished the world tour to promote it, The Boss is back with an album of 12 cracking new songs, together with a ‘bonus track’, The Wrestler, that has already won him a Golden Globe… For a guy in the autumn of his career, he has still got an awful lot to say.”
(David Sinclair)
Hear samples here: http://www.brucespringsteen.net/albums/workingonadream.htm

Steven Wilson
Insurgentes (Kscope)
“Radiohead and Pink Floyd are its obvious reference points… From Floyd comes his sense of epic deep space; from Radiohead the woozy dislocation that transforms, quite suddenly into blissful, uplifting melody… Steven Wilson is quite a talent, Insurgentes is the work of a genuine artist.”
(Jon Hotten)
To listen, go here: http://www.kscopemusic.com/stevenwilson/insurgentes/remix-competition.html and click on ‘Pop-up audio player’

Dan Auerbach
Keep It Hid (V2)
“This first solo LP (from The Black Keys’ frontman) sprawls all over the map, taking in Stax soul, country and fuzzed-up 60s garage. The Ohio man’s geeky obsession with vintage equipment means it’s all high on reverb and slapback beats, giving the impression of a psychedelic curiosity shop.”
(Rob Hughes)
Hear samples here: http://www.nonesuch.com/albums/keep-it-hid

Mastodon
Crack The Style (Reprise)
“If you need reassurance that there are bands that go beyond cookie cutter metal and tired retro retreads, who play hard rock like they invented it and are making all the rules up as they go along, then hear this now. Rock definitely is not dead.”
(Tommy Udo)
Hear songs here (audio player loads automatically): http://www.mastodonrocks.com/

Joanne Shaw Taylor
White Sugar (Ruf)
“The blues is not an equal-opportunities genre. As a grouchy octogenarian with a face like a chewed toffee your legend is half-cemented; flash a US passport and us brits will cream ourselves over your ‘authenticity’. Youthful Black Country gunslinger Joanne Shaw Taylor compensates for being none of these things by being the one thing that really matters: absolutely brilliant… Our neck hair hasn’t been the same since we heard this record.”
(Henry Yates)
Sample two tracks here: http://www.rufrecords.de/catalogue/1147_joanne-shaw-taylor_white-sugar.html

UFO
The Visitor (SPV)
“From the straight-shootin’ Villains & Thieves to the pedal-to-the-metal appeal of Hell Driver, this is nigh-on faultless.”
(Geoff Barton)
Visit the band’s website here: http://www.ufo-music.info/

The Atomic Bitchwax
Tab-4 (Tee Pee)
“An eclectic bag of tricks that still manages to be hard ‘n’ heavy enough to please old-school dope rockers. How do they do it? Drugs and space travel, mostly.” (Sleazegrinder)
Download a track from here: http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/news/tee-pee-tuesday-the-atomic-bitchwax/

Quest For Fire
Quest For Fire (Tee Pee)
“Welding the vaporous delicacy of early Floyd to slow-burning slabs of spaced-out stoner rock, their nebulous mini-epics bubble like a loaded bong. Book-ended by bulldozing riff marathons, it’s a gentle giant of an album, its intense explosions still somehow velvety and its pastoral moments a soothing balm of languid beauty.” (Greg Moffitt)
Download a track from here: http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/news/tee-pee-tuesday-quest-for-fire/

Placebo
Battle For The Sun (PIAS)
“Whether the riff-driven universiality of Battle gains them a whole new set of fans remains to be seen, but you hope so – in an era of cynical reunions and former glory ‘remakes’, Placebo have with this album stood firm and delivered a personal best.”
(Catherine Yates)
Watch the video for the title track here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZhvHP4JMqs

The Horrors
Primary Colours (XL Recordings)
“Primary Colours is an album like what they used to make: long tracks, big gloomy bits, weird sounds: an album that only really works as a whole rather than as a collection of individual tracks. An album to remind that rock doesn’t need to be easy to be enjoyable.”
(Johnny Dee)
Go to the band’s website here: http://thehorrors.co.uk/

For Part 1 of our favourite albums of 2009, click here.