2009 was a year of great music. This year's top 10 list finds a lot of past top 10 winners just missing the list while some new names make debuts this year. Sad bastard songs beat out more upbeat tracks as my favorites this year. There were a lot of honorable mentions which I hope to spotlight in a post about some of my favorite songs this year! (As always, my list of albums that came out this year that I want to listen to but haven't yet is staggering!)

10. Glee Soundtrack Vol. 1 - Auto-Tuned like whoa, and maybe a bit overhyped, the Glee Soundtrack is still one of the most fun, put-it-on-in-the-background, sing-it-loud-in-a-gay-bar albums of the year. I can't stop going back to those Amber Riley songs. She's a star in the making.

Stand Out Tracks: Don't Stop Believing, Bust Your Window, Hate On Me

9. Metric - Fantasies - These Canadian rockers return with maybe their best album yet (although they are all so good) and Emily makes good on the fact that she is the sexiest singer of our friends up North. From the first track to the last, this album is winner after winner.

Stand Out Tracks: Help I'm Alive, Gimmie Sympathy, Stadium Love

8. Blind Pilot - 3 Rounds & A Sound - Blind Pilot was a surprise highlight at the 2009 Lollapalooza festival and I consider them this year's "Wild Sweet Orange" in that regard. Highly listenable music from a singer with a smooth as silk voice and a band that includes upright bass, trumpet and more. This year they completed a Ditty Bopsesque bike tour and also joined fellow Portland natives, The Decemberists for some shows. Oh yeah, and they stole my heart!


Stand Out Tracks: Oviedo, 3 Rounds and a Sound, I Buried A Bone

7. Freelance Whales: Sure, a number of the Freelance Whales songs are downright derivative of Sufjan Stevens, but I prefer to think that these young, banjo-plucking, infectiously upbeat kids are fans who took Sufjan's lead as a base on which to build something uniquely theirs. They are one band you don't want to miss live - seeing this energetic group hopping from instrument to instrument throughout the night will leave an ear-to-ear smile on your face.

Stand out Tracks: Generator ^ First Floor, Broken Horse, Hannah, Kilojoules

6. Phosphorescent - To Wille I'll admit it - at first I didn't realize that all of the songs on Phosphorescent's 2009 album, To Willie, were Willie Nelson cover songs until my coworker pointed it out - a tribute to Willie in the vein of Willie's own 1977 cover album To Lefty from Willie. I wasn't familiar with Willie Nelson music, but Phosphorescent's versions of these songs are heartbreaking and beautiful. I'm a fan now - which may be the best compliment one can give a cover album!

Stand Out Tracks: Reasons to Quit, Can I Sleep In Your Arms, I Gotta Get Drunk

5. Islands - Vapours Canada's second entry to the top 10 is Quebec's Islands. While they have tied their 2008 ranking for "In Arm's Way" at number 5 and dropped 2 spots from 2006's Return To The Sea at number 3 - Vapours is just as good, if not better! I do miss the band members from Return to the Sea and Arm's Way, the more electronic vibe on Vapours is extremely fun and probably more quickly likable than their previous work.


Stand Out Tracks:Switched On, Tender Torture, Everything is Under Control, Heartbeat

4. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix Phoenix managed to release an album so catchy and fun this year that it blew the band into the mainstream. Other than the fact that it has been a bit annoying hearing "have you heard this great new band, Phoenix" and the fact that this album means I get to hear far fewer songs live from my still favorite Phoenix album, Alphabetical, Phoenix deserves all the accolades they are receiving. It's great to see that they spent the last three years honing their craft and it has paid off!

Stand Out Tracks: Listomania, 1901, Rome

3. The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love The Decemberists had a hard task in front of them, following up the astounding "The Crane Wife." One first listen, The Hazards of Love failed for me - an attitude of the album taken by a good number of reviewers. However, a day after the album was released online I was lucky enough to see the Decemberists play the Hazards of Love for the first time in its entirety at SXSW. Afterwards I saw the CD for what it is - an epic masterpiece. It is definitely an album that begs to be seen live, from cover to cover. The CD is a story, and listening to tracks individually is kind of like reading just a chapter in a book - once you know the book well that might be enjoyable, but you have to fall in love with the whole story first. I can't wait to see what they do next!

Stand Out Tracks: The Wanting Comes In Waves (Reprise), The Rake's Song, The Hazards of Love 4

2. Chris Garneau - El Radio 2007's #1 just barely misses out on the #1 spot for 2009. It was so close it was whatever the music equivalent of a photo finish is, because El Radio picks up where Chris Garneau left off, taking his music to whole new levels. While the CD has a number of more upbeat songs than his previous work, there are still quite enough tear-wrenching heartbreakers to keep me sad happy - with Cats and Kids appearing to be almost a sequel song to "Music For Tourists" song We Don't Try, about the death of a friend. I wouldn't kick a song off of this CD.

Stand Out Tracks: The Leaving Song, Hands On the Radio, No More Pirates, Cats and Kids

1. The Low Anthem - Oh My God, Charlie Darwin: Like Chris Garneau in 2007 whose CD I listed as #1 was actually first released in 2006, The Low Anthem's CD Oh My God, Charlie Darwin was first released in 2008 and rereleased in 2009. The album moves from song to song with a beauty and grace and sends chills down my spine - from the opening falsetto ballad Charlie, to Cage the Songbird, all the way to the final OMGCD, this folksy Americana album is almost a religious experience and the songs seem reverent and spiritual despite the inspiration of the world's most famous naturalist. The lead singer describes the experience of listening to the album as being akin to "taking shelter during a lightning storm among nostalgic remnants in a water-damaged church, who’s new tenants – rats, owls, stray dogs and snakes – comprise a burgeoning, cacophonous, dog-eat-dog ecosystem." The CD has a common thread although as you listen to it you'll be constantly surprised at the variety in the singer's voice, from the Josh Ritter like "Ticket Taker" to the more raucous "Horizon Is A Beltway" and even the instrumental "Music Box" The variety of instruments played on the album and at their live shows is staggering, and help to build an album that elevates and craddles the lyrics and comprise an album that I feel will be timeless.

Stand Out Tracks: (Don't) Tremble, Charlie Darwin, To Ohio, Ticket Taker