You may remember last year, I compiled a list of the best albums of 2008. This year, I decided to waste more of my precious time to compile a list of my favorite albums of 2009. It was another strong year for music and with so many choices, I had to go with my gut on these. Depending on the day and my mood, this list could have easily turned out much different, but I think these are the albums that will undoubtably be on my playlist for years to come.

If you feel I’ve overlooked an album from this year that is dear to you, perhaps I never had the chance to listen to it. Comment below and share your refined taste in music with the world. Enjoy. Rock on.

The List

10. Muse – The Resistance
Notable songs: “Uprising,” “Resistance”

9. Doves – Kingdom Of Rust
Notable songs: “Kingdom of Rust”, “Jetstream”

8. Beirut – March Of The Zapotec
Notable songs: “My Night with the Prostitute From Marseille,” “My Wife, Lost in the Wild”

7. Wolfmother – Cosmic Egg
Notable songs: “Caroline,” “Violence of the Sun”

6. Them Crooked Vultures – Them Crooked Vultures
Notable songs: “Scumbag Blues,” “Spinning In Daffodils”

5. Sunset Rubdown – Dragonslayer
Notable songs: “Apollo And The Buffalo And Anna Anna Anna Oh!,” “Black Swan”

4. White Lies – To Lose My Life
Notable songs: “E.S.T.,” “Death”

3. The Appleseed Cast – Sagarmatha
Notable songs: “The Summer Before,” “As The Little Things Go”

2. White Rabbits – It’s Frightening
Notable songs: “Percussion Gun,” “Rudie Fails”

1. Silversun Pickups – Swoon
Notable songs: “Growing Old is Getting Old,” “Substitution”

Honorable Mentions
Editors – In This Light And On This Evening
Kasabian – West Rider Pauper Lunatic Asylum
Grand Archives – Keep In Mind Frankenstein
Regina Spektor – Far
Matt and Kim – Grand
Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
Norah Jones – The Fall
The Antlers – Hospice
The Temper Trap – Conditions
Wilco – Wilco

4 response about Jonathan’s Top Ten Albums of 2009 »

  1. I agree that this year was a nice year and lots to choose from. I had to whittle my list down from quite a few. I didn’t care for Muse, and I wasn’t nearly as high on SP as you were (but I did like it), That White Rabbits one is a must on any list and it was cool to see Wolfmother on here. I never got a chance to spend any time with Beirut but I see it on a few lists. Time to check it out. Great list!

    Comment by Big Scott — December 27, 2009

  2. I remember you really liking the White Lies album when it came out and wondered if it would end up on your list. I liked it, but not ultimately enough to overcome my bias towards girl vocalists. :) Glad to see SSPU on the top of someone’s list, even if they didn’t make it onto mine. It wasn’t that I didn’t like Swoon, it was more that every time I felt like listening to SSPU I gravitated back toward Carnavas, which I like a lot more than Swoon, so the new album ended up suffering by virtue of competition with Carnavas more than with the other albums this year. A lot of Swoon just bored me a little by comparison.

    Comment by Jandy — December 29, 2009

  3. While both great albums, I thought Swoon improved on Carnavas in nearly every way (although Common Reactor may be my favorite song of theirs, if I could only pick one). They really matured as a band between albums, yet kept their sound that makes them so unique in the first place. Swoon is just so addictive. Easily my most listened to album of the year as well as my favorite.

    Comment by Jonathan B. — December 29, 2009

  4. I never got round to buying the latest Sunset Rubdown album, you’ve just reminded me to track it down. I love their last two; trippy, epic and strangely beautiful.

    Comment by David Brook — January 26, 2010

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