Honestly, it wasn’t supposed to be this long. I was never going to be posting regularly, but I hoped to at least be poting irregularly. No time for regrets, though. We’re almost to 2010 and I haven’t sent out my best of 2009 lists. Let’s get to that.

(For those of you checking this out via facebook, I recommend checking out the real thing. You’ll get more out of it)

According to iTunes, I picked up roughly 70 albums last year, down slightly from last year. There’s a couple of reasons for that ranging from monetary to the eMusic mix-up that’s costing me 28 tracks a month. Can’t blame eMusic for that, though.

Out of those 70 albums, I came up with a list of my top 20, but then noticed that I was missing the new White Rabbits, It’s Frightening and decided to instead give you a top 21. Let’s get started with that. Edit – I also noticed another missing album, so we’re up to top 22. Let’s see how the rest of this goes.

I’m a bit rusty at describing music, so bear with me. I was never great at doing it anyway.

#22 Muse – The Resistance

I’m fully aware that a lot of you will be disapproving of this entire list based on this first entry. Some of you may even stop reading the post all together. Hear me out. This album is good, unadulterated fun. Look past the obvious fact that they write the music first and then figure out the lyrics. Enjoy the Queen lyrics. Watch a video where a teddy bear gets his revenge. Sometimes you want to sit back and enjoy the sun, and other times you want to split two defenders and knock a shot past the goalie and into the upper corner. Can’t say I’ve ever done that listening to Good Vibrations, although that doesn’t sound half bad for next week.

Favorite Lyric: That’s not a great question for this album…

Favorite Song: Uprising

#21 The Decemberists – Hazards of Love

I’ll be honest. Much like The Resistance,  I didn’t love Hazards of Love on my first listen. Apparently, I have a soft spot in my heart for bands with good live shows. The album is a rock opera that follows the story of William, a human that apparently changes between human and fawn, and Margaret, a woman who finds him in the forest. An over-protective mother and a man who hates children add to the story, but only minorly. It’s a bit over the top, but really, that’s game typically played by The Decemberists, so I have no complaints.

Favorite lyric: “The prettiest whistles won’t wrestle the thistles undone.”

Favorite song: The Wanting Comes in Waves

#20 We Were Promised Jetpacks -These Four Walls

While we’re talking about types of bands that I have a soft spot, we’ve reached the part of the list reserved for “insert band from Scotland.” I love the Scottish music scene right now, even if I’m thousands of miles away from it. These bands understand wall of sound guitar rock, funny accents, and live shows you’ll be talking about for weeks. Lead singer Adam Thompson has just enough vocal abilities to keep up with this upbeat and loud band. Lyrically, they’re behind last year’s top album by Frightened Rabbit, but make up for it with intensity.

Favorite lyric: “You’re a habit. / Another bad habit. / Keep biting my nails in case all else fails for us.”

Favorite song: Quiet Little Voices

#19 Various Artists – Dark was the Night

This is a first for me. I’ve never had a compilation album make my top anything. This year, there were two compilations that were pretty strong contenders. Besides Dark was the Night, there was also War Child – Heroes. What’s exceedingly excellent is that each albums’ profits went to charity. It’s hard to find the star power found on this compilation anywhere else. The National, Bon Iver, Feist, Ben Gibbard, Dirty Projectors, Grizzly Bear, Sujan Stevens, Spoon, and The New Pornographers are just some of the artists performing for this double CD. The first CD ends with one of the jewels of 2009, a 10-minute journey called You Are The Blood by Sufjan Stevens.

Favorite Lyric: “You’ve been hummin’ in a haze forever / Prayin’ for Pavement to get back together.” (from So Far Around the Bend – The National)

Favorite Song: Sufjan Stevens – You Are the Blood

#18 The Pains of Being Pure At Heart – The Pains of Being Pure At Heart

If 2009 wasn’t the year that tried to bring us back to the 80’s, then my ear must have been removed from the door of future popularity. This album is pure breakfast club, but would probably be better suited for the turn of the decade – 1988, 1989. I really wasn’t much for teen angst back in my pre-teen days and I’ve never been forced to revisit John Hughes movies. I have to assume that I now understand the jist of it. Musically, most of this album relies on fuzzy power chords and the mid turned up to 11.

Favorite lyric: “Between the stacks in the libraray / Not like anyone stopped to see / We came, they went, our bodies spent / Among the dust and the microfiche.

Favorite song: Come Saturday

#17 Discovery – LP

Number 17 may be a bit high for this album, but I’m upping it due to the number of times I’ve listened to it. Discovery is a project combining Rostam Batmanglij from Vampire Weekend and Wes Miles from Ra Ra Riot. It would be polite to say that it is a polarizing album. My opinion is that the people who don’t like it tend to not like it for two reasons – 1. It’s judged as a poor attempt at modern R&B or 2. It’s a fairly shallow album. My response to number one is that it’s not supposed to be compared to modern R&B.I’m also not saying that this is a deep album, but it’s not as shallow as your typical pop release. Indie pop is supposed to be fun, and in that respect Discovery hits it out of the park. Check out So Insane for a good example of the playfulness of this album.

Favorite lyric: Sleep on the train to Tokyo / Google yourself when you get home.

Favorite song: Osaka Loop Line

#16 St Vincent – Actor

St Vincent is the touring name for Annie Clark. Actor is her sophomore album. I’m having a hard time pinning down exactly why I enjoy this album so much. What St Vincent does really well is adding unexpected sounds to her music and using distortion to her advantage. This is music for people who have studied music. Above all of the dissonance and chaos of some of the songs comes this beautiful voice to calm everything down. Even when she’s tearing what I assume to be an ex boyfriend a new one in Actor out of Work, it’s done in such a way that I can’t immediately discern the malice.

Favorite lyric: “Honey, what reveals you is what you try to hide away / You could tell the planets or your pillow case.”

Favorite song: Laughing With a Mouth of Blood

#15 – DM Stith – Heavy Ghost

This is the part of the show where I get a bit artsy. I remember reading a review for this album from an eMusic subscriber, complaining that just because someone does something weird, the indie community loves him. It’s like when I go to an art museum with Erin and casually mention that I could probably have created a specific painting. Her typical response? “But you didn’t.” Simple and to the point. I love how this album encompasses me in sound. Listening to this, there’s something going on in every corner of the room. It could be disturbing if it weren’t so beautiful.

Favorite lyric: “I’ll tell the truth / I’ve been sleeping with the lights on ever since I left you”

Favorite song: Pity Dance

Well, it took me three hours to get to this point, so I’m going to publish what I’ve got and try to finish the top 15 sometime this week. It’s nice to be back, even if just for these couple of posts.