Yes, I’m well aware that it’s February. This list of albums has been sitting in my drafts since January 8th and I’m just now doing something with it. It seems I took a break from ye olde blogge for much of January in favor of trying out Tumblr. (I can’t decide if I like it or not. It seems to steal my longer-form writing thunder).

My varying tastes in music from day to day would make it pointless to put these albums in any best-to-worst order. So I went with the time-tested alphabetical order method, which is completely arbitrary if you think about it, but that’s a thought for another day.

Read on for my favorite albums that came out in 2009 (or thereabouts; I fudged a little). If you’ve been checking out my monthly playlists (you’re forgiven if you haven’t), most of this will not be a surprise.

And if you’re patient and make it all the way to the bottom, there’s a prize for you, in the form of a few select songs from these albums that I particularly enjoyed.

WARNING: This gets a bit lengthy, so get comfy.

Read on for my album picks for 2009!

Well, now that I’m back from Australia, I suppose I should catch up and show you what I was listening to last month. Lots of Bruce Springsteen, natch. And I started going through all the Tom Waits albums I somehow have not listened to up to now. And then I got on a plane to Sydney, sans iPod, and discovered the only on-board music options worth listening to as I fell into a Tylenol PM coma were Coldplay and Lily Allen.

Enjoy!

1. Antony & the Johnsons – “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” (Dylan Mania)
2. Joker & Ginz – “Purple City” (Purple City / Re-Up)
3. Lori McKenna – “Witness to Your Life” (Unglamorous)
4. Drake – “Best I Ever Had” (Best I Ever Had)
5. Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros – “Home” (Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros)
6. Bruce Springsteen – “Atlantic City” (Live in New York City)
7. Tom Waits – “Big Joe and Phantom 309″ (Nighthawks at the Diner)
8. Bruce Springsteen – “Tenth Avenue Freezeout” (Live 1975-1985)
9. Hammock – “Mono No Aware” (Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow)
10. He Is Legend – “Don’t Touch That Dial” (It Hates You)
11. Kitty, Daisy & Lewis – “Going Up the Country” (Kitty, Daisy & Lewis)
12. Tom Waits – “Chocolate Jesus” (Mule Variations)
13. Bruce Springsteen – “Thunder Road” (Born to Run)
14. Plants & Animals – “Bye Bye Bye” (Parc Avenue)
15. The Dead Texan – “A Chronicle of Early Failures, part 2″ (The Dead Texan)
16. Sigur Rós – “Gong” (Takk…)
17. Lily Allen – “The Fear” (It’s Not Me, It’s You)
18. Coldplay – “Death and All His Friends” (Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends)

Jeez, is it May already? April flew by real quick.

Of these twenty songs that made up the audio journey of April 2009, about half were highly Coachella-influenced. The rest are present thanks to my constant exploration the musical landscape. Same old, same old.

1. Glasvegas – “It’s My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry” (Glasvegas)
2. Eels – “Things the Grandchildren Should Know” (Blinking Lights and Other Revelations)
3. Los Campesinos! – “We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed” (We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed)
4. Silversun Pickups – “Lazy Eye” (Carnavas)
5. Okay – “Natural” (Huggable Dust)
6. Blitzen Trapper – “Furr” (Furr)
7. Grand Duchy – “Come On Over to My House” (Petits Fours)
8. TV on the Radio – “Stork & Owl (Gang Gang Dance remix)” (Read Silence EP)
9. Stone Temple Pilots – “Sour Girl” (No. 4)
10. My Brightest Diamond – “Feeling Good” (Dark Was the Night)
11. The Hold Steady – “Citrus” (Boys and Girls in America)
12. The Veils – “Sit Down by the Fire” (Sun Gangs)
13. Cage the Elephant – “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” (Cage the Elephant)
14. Fucked Up – “Crooked Head” (The Chemistry of Common Life)
15. Antony and the Johnsons – “Kiss My Name” (The Crying Light)
16. Radiohead – “I Am Citizen Insane” (Go to Sleep)
17. The Hold Steady – “Stuck Between Stations” (Boys and Girls in America)
18. Camera Obscura – “French Navy” (My Maudlin Career)
19. Silversun Pickups – “Growing Old is Getting Old” (Swoon)
20. Radiohead – “Let Down” (OK Computer)

And for those interested, I made an imeem playlist so you can check the whole thing out. Enjoy.

Or just listen to it here.