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!

Here be my monthly autobiography in the form of a list of songs I liked during this 31-day period. It was a month that involved a weekend trip to see my girl in Nashville, remembering how much I love the Gaslight Anthem and the Hold Steady, and finally starting to come to terms with the fact that I actually like No Age, and thus noise rock in general.

Speaking of the No Age thing, I’ve always been frustrated at my lack of love for Pavement. It might be time for me to go back to try them again. Perhaps a recent reading of the book Love is a Mix Tape has something to do with this. More on that later.

1. Eels – “Hey Man (Now You’re Really Living)” (Blinking Lights and Other Revelations)
2. Eels – “Things the Grandchildren Should Know” (Blinking Lights and Other Revelations)
3. Dead Man’s Bones – “Buried in Water” (Dead Man’s Bones)
4. The Raveonettes – “Bang!” (In and Out of Control)
5. No Age – “You’re a Target” (Losing Feeling)
6. No Age – “Eraser” (Nouns)
7. Silversun Pickups – “Growing Old is Getting Old” (Swoon)
8. Will Hoge – “Even If It Breaks Your Heart” (The Wreckage)
9. Bruce Springsteen – “Jersey Girl” (Live/1975–85)
10. The Gaslight Anthem – “The ‘59 Sound” (The ‘59 Sound)
11. Bruce Springsteen – “Devils & Dust” (Devils & Dust)
12. Frightened Rabbit – “Keep Yourself Warm” (Midnight Organ Fight)
13. The Hold Steady – “Stuck Between Stations” (Boys & Girls in America)
14. The Two Man Gentlemen Band – “Fancy Beer” (Drip Dryin’ with the Two Man Gentlemen Band)
15. Devendra Banhart – “Can’t Help But Smiling” (What Will We Be)
16. Glasvegas – “S.A.D. Light” (Glasvegas)

Now, I think this is funny and true just like the next guy (and, admittedly, I was/am a fan of Linkin Park’s first album; I was into them way before they got radio play [spoken like a true music snob]), but I’ve always wondered: why do we criticize artists whose songs all sound the same?

We pan artists for being too one-dimensional, then we go off and fawn over a band that sounds just like another band from 10 years ago.

I’m just as guilty as anyone else, but what’s the root cause? What are the similarities and differences between songs and artists that make them okay or not okay to listen to? Is there a sliding scale based on certain characteristics that will get a band more or less made fun of?

The trickiest part with bands like Linkin Park is that a lot of people do like them, so it’s not a universal rule. But I’m sure a lot of their fans would make fun of, say, the Hold Steady for the same reason.

Us humans, we’re a confusing bunch.

BONUS POINTS: Someone find me that mp3 where two Nickelback songs are played at the same time, one in each speaker. Maximum comedy right there.

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)

May of 2009 is a month that will go down in history. A whirlwind period of spiritual revelation, long-distance hopes and dreams, multiple successful “used music” days, inspiring new releases from mewithoutYou, Passion Pit and Iron & Wine and the death of musical icon Jay Bennett.

1. mewithoutYou – “Every Thought a Thought of You” (it’s all crazy! it’s all false! it’s all a dream! it’s alright)
2. Akron/Family – “Sun Will Shine (Warmth of the Sunship version)” (Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free)
3. Glasvegas – “Flowers and Football Tops” (Glasvegas)
4. Silversun Pickups – “Growing Old is Getting Old” (Swoon)
5. Gallows – “London is the Reason” (Grey Britain)
6. Blitzen Trapper – “Furr” (Furr)
7. Starfucker – “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” (Jupiter EP)
8. The Smiths – “How Soon Is Now?” (Meat is Murder)
9. Smashing Pumpkins – “Cherub Rock” (Siamese Dream)
10. Roman Candle – “Why Modern Radio is A-OK” (Oh Tall Tree in the Ear)
11. Smashing Pumpkins – “Porcelina of the Vast Oceans” (Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness)
12. Passion Pit – “Moth’s Wings” (Manners)
13. mewithoutYou – “The Fox, the Crow and the Cookie” (it’s all crazy! it’s all false! it’s all a dream! it’s alright)
14. Iron & Wine – “Love Vigilantes” (Around the Well)
15. Iron & Wine – “Kingdom of the Animals” (Around the Well)
16. The Knife – “Marble House” (Silent Shout)
17. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Skeletons” (It’s Blitz!)
18. Mat Kearney – “New York to California” (City of Black & White)
19. Bruce Springsteen – “Jersey Girl” (Live 1975-1985 box set)
20. Cage – “Grand Ol’ Party Crash” (Hell’s Winter)
21. Wilco – “Misunderstood” (Kicking Television: Live in Chicago)
22. Bruce Springsteen – “Atlantic City” (Live in New York City)

I’d make you an imeem playlist, but it doesn’t appear to like me right now. Sorry.

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.