Best Albums of 2009: #23, HEALTH's Get Color

Rank: #23

Album: Get Color

Artist: HEALTH

Label: Lovepump United

There's something emphatically destructive about HEALTH's Get Color. Maybe it's the opening electronic repetition on "Die Slow" that bites so furiously at your ears. Or perhaps it's the insanity of the track's video that provides such a vividly chaotic portrait. Either way, HEALTH's second studio album is the perfect marriage of electronic and noise rock-- a raucous, and untamed adventure to the apparently violent underbelly of today's music scene.

Though a loud and unhinged record as a whole, Get Color is probably portrayed best by the aforementioned "Die Slow." Its slick pop beat, woven between the intermittent noise of the rave going on around you sums up the album's bipolar, thrashing aesthetic. However, any of Get Color's other offerings could provide examples of this just as well. "Before Tigers" starts off as an ambient dream, save the continuous, hard-hitting riffs that break up any silence into some sort of nightmare. On the other hand, "Severin" doesn't play games, but rather just sprints through over four minutes of wildly off-kilter, panic-inducing guitar and electronic noise. For those who enjoy louder, more abrasive sounds, Get Color may be one of your favorite records of the year.

Best Track: "Die Slow" (via Pitchfork)

[Previously on Animal Noises: Best Albums of 2009: #24, Phoenix's Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix]