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!

Oops. Forgetting to blog again. Still trying to get in the habit again, apparently. Just in time for me to take off in a few weeks for another international adventure, this time in Australia!

July was the month of the Dead Weather, As Cities Burn breaking up (for a second time), a visit from my girl (hence the Bruce Springsteen and Tom Waits, her favorite classic artist and mine, respectively) and a lot of randoms for this and that reason. As always, they’re all well worth checking out.

1. The Gossip – “Heavy Cross” (Music for Men)
2. Cage – “I Never Knew You” (Depart From Me)
3. The Dead Weather – “New Pony” (Horehound)
4. Silversun Pickups – “Common Reactor” (Carnavas)
5. Owen – “I’m Not Seventeen” (The Seaside EP)
6. The Dead Weather – “Hang You From The Heavens” (Horehound)
7. Dirty Projectors – “Stillness is the Move” (Bitte Orca)
8. As Cities Burn – “Love Jealous One, Love” (Son, I Love You at Your Darkest)
9. Riceboy Sleeps – “Boy 1904″ (Riceboy Sleeps)
10. The Dead Weather – “60 Feet Tall” (Horehound)
11. Floating Action – “So Vapor” (Floating Action)
12. Wheat – “El Sincero” (White Ink, Black Ink)
13. Wheat – “Living to Die” (White Ink, Black Ink)
14. Tom Waits – “Ol’ ’55″ (Closing Time)
15. Brett Dennen – “Ain’t Gonna Lose You” (Hope for the Hopeless)
16. Bruce Springsteen – “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” (The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle)
17. The American Dollar – “Bump” (A Memory Stream)
18. My Bloody Valentine – “Only Shallow” (Loveless)

Sometimes people need to stop looking at bands loosely connected to shifts in culture and music as evil — using big words like “ephemera” to prove they know more than most of us — and realize that some people legitimately like those bands.

Sure, New York hipsters on their fixies that “like” bands just so they can brag over cans of PBR are annoying, but just like every other annoying trend, they’ll go away. And those of us that kinda like that new Dirty Projectors album will still be around.

So maybe stop calling out musicians that studied music composition at Yale and are well-liked by David Byrne and tell us how hipster culture is actually ruining our generation. It’s just a band, after all. A band with a lot of weird music and one pretty dang good album.

End rant.

Hey, it’s half a month late, but at least it’s here. I’m back from Thailand (plenty to share, but I’ll get to that later), so here’s June’s playlist. It’s full of good old classic rock sounds and a few randoms from new releases and old favorites. And the Bruce/Wilco closers were what I played in the Land of Smiles when I was thinking about home.

1. Dr. Dog – “The Old Days” (Fate)
2. Paolo Nutini – “Keep Rolling” (Sunny Side Up)
3. Aesop Rock – “Nickel Plated Pockets” (Daylight EP)
4. M83 – “Gone” (Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts)
5. Radiohead – “Lucky” (OK Computer)
6. The Knife – “We Share Our Mothers’ Health (Trentemoller remix)” (We Share Our Mothers’ Health single)
7. Dirty Projectors – “Useful Chamber” (Bitte Orca)
8. The Hold Steady – “Citrus” (A Positive Rage)
9. edIT – “Artsy Remix (feat. The Grouch)” (Certified Air Raid Material)
10. The Gaslight Anthem – “The ’59 Sound” (The ’59 Sound)
11. Mathew Good – “Champions of Nothing” (Hospital Music)
12. Manchester Orchestra – “Colly Strings” (I’m Like a Virgin Losing a Child)
13. Passion Pit – “Moth’s Wings” (Manners)
14. The Veils – “Sit Down by the Fire” (Sun Gangs)
15. mewithoutYou – “Allah, Allah, Allah” (it’s all crazy! it’s all false! it’s all a dream! it’s alright)
16. The Dear Hunter – “Mustard Gas” (Act III: Life and Death)
17. Bruce Springsteen – “Born to Run” (Born to Run)
18. Wilco – “I’m the Man Who Loves You” (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)

Regular posts return this week as I slowly collect my brains post-travel and try to spit them out for you to read. Meanwhile, enjoy the music!