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)

Someone once said that when they saw The Raconteurs live, everyone did their job well on stage, but Jack White was clearly on a higher level with his stage energy and magnetic personality. Maybe his years of experience in The White Stripes has something to do with that, or maybe he just has it (whatever that means).

In White’s new band, the Dead Weather, this is no exception. Their new album, Horehound, is out this week and it’s all I want to listen to. Jack has drummer duties with the band, and only sings on one song, but his fingerprints are all over this album. It reeks of pure charisma, confidence and, to repeat the ambiguous phrase, just has it. Check it out.