Hey, 2009. I’d like to thank you for wrapping up what has been the best decade for music, and I’ll argue this til the day I’m convinced that the next decade is the best. What I’m trying to say is, it keeps getting better. And, technically, doesn’t the decade end after 2010? Uber confusing. But seriously, here’s yet another list that you are going to hate.

At first, I had trouble rounding out my solid 10 favorites this year, and I realized that that’s because there are a good 20 or 30 albums that I would gladly defend as a top 10 choice. Of course, when you’re toying with the idea of including The Antlers and Beyonce on the same list, it can get a bit challenging. Having said that, here’s my Top 10 Albums of 2009.

Close calls:
The Ecstatic Mos Def
Spirit of Apollo N.A.S.A.
Warm Heart of Africa The Very Best
LP Discovery
Man On The Moon: The End Of Day Kid Cudi

10. It’s Not Me It’s You Lily Allen
What I love most about Lily Allen is the 2 dimensional quality of her records. The juxtaposition of raw, vulgar honesty and sunny, polished pop stands out in an industry where it seems everything is carefully formulated to meet somewhere in the middle. But, there are also songs on It’s Not Me that are surprisingly charming. I had a moment this year at Lily Allen’s show in New York when, before going into the wonderfully adorable “Chinese” (which I had assumed was about an ex-boyfriend), Allen told the crowd that the song was actually about her Mother. It completely changed the dynamic of the album for me, which is really just an ode to growing up; being angry, being scared, and missing mom. And saying “f*ck” a lot.

“Not Fair” by Lily Allen

9. Two Suns Bat For Lashes
Natasha Khan’s soul is a glittering diamond on this record; beautiful, but tortured, exposed and afraid. Her passionate vocals caress the album’s fluid soundscapes with fragile yet assertive melodies and lyrics. Her musical style that suggests a more accessible Bjork and a more complicated Tori Amos seems somewhat easy to peg at first, but the crystal towers, golden blues, thousand knights, lonesome moons, and two hearted dreams suggest otherwise. It will hurt in the end, but Two Suns needs and deserves the kind of love that only ends in heartbreak. Her name is Pearl, and she will love you the best way she knows how.

“Daniel” by Bat For Lashes

8. Dark Night of the Soul Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse
This is cheating, technically. This is a self-released blank CD-R. It is the farthest thing from a technical release, but here it is. Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse Present Dark Night of the Soul, a compilation of disturbingly beautiful tracks featuring an array of genres, emotions, and voices; all completely different but all a vital part of the final product. The album features vocals (and influence) from Julian Casablancas, Wayne Coyne, and Iggy Pop – to name a few, but mostly features the creative contributions of David Lynch, who put together a 100+ page booklet of photos inspired by the album (which was sold with the blank CD-R) and provided vocals on two of its most haunting tracks. It’s still [relatively] unknown as to why this was shelved by EMI, but my best guess is that it’s because they are very, very stupid.

“Star Eyes (I Can Catch It)” by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse feat. David Lynch

7. So Far Gone Drake
Last year, I named The Very Best’s debut mixtape an ‘honorable mention’ due to its lack of officialness, but with many of the best releases this year being mixtapes or even shelved leaks (see #8), I figured it was time to change the rules. So Far Gone, a free mixtape with no label backing, actually generated a hit record. This doesn’t happen. It’s exceptional. It’s insane. And “Best I Ever Had” isn’t even scratching the surface. Drake’s post-Grad Kanye style bare, electronic beats, indie-hip sample choices (Lykke Li, Santogold, PB&J) and slow moving R&B delivery puts the listener in a sort of hip hop trance. I thought Drake was all hype at first, but I was very, very wrong. Give the man his 2 million dollar deal.

“Houstatlantavegas” by Drake

6. xx The xx
The title of The xx’s debut album is in lowercase font, not for its inconsequence, but for its subtlety. The British band’s soft, subdued vocals are practically a whisper in most spots, and the calm delay of the quiet guitar notes is almost tranquilizing. Recorded at night in an XL studios garage in London over a 4 month span, xx actually sounds like nighttime. The majority of the tracks’ somber, lullaby like qualities resemble that space between waking and sleeping, and the combination of bassist Oliver Sim and guitarist Romy Madley Croft’s ultra shy voices/ultra charming lyrics are abundantly endearing. “Watch things on VCRs with me and talk about Big Love/I think we’re superstars/You say you think we are the best thing/But you, you just know.” You just do.

“VCR” by The XX

5. Manners Passion Pit
There’s nothing more annoying than a piercing falsetto (OK, maybe not nothing), but Michael Angelakos gets away with his, and gets away with it big. On Manners, the Cambridge, MA band laced together a debut so consistent and so infectious that casting it into any number of over-used indie music sub-genres feels like selling it short. Yes, it’s got the dance-rock thing going for it, as well as a predominantly electro-pop sound, but almost every single track on this record has an extremely massive chorus that transcends the limitations that tend to come with those labels. The frequent use of a children’s choir on the recordings is just rubbing it in. In fact, you could say that Manners is an extremely-massive-chorus show off.

“Little Secrets” by Passion Pit

4. Merriweather Post Pavillion Animal Collective
The new year hadn’t even begun when the internets started buzzing re: Animal Collective’s 8th full length. Expectations had been set so absurdly high that I was beginning to have my doubts and roll my eyes a lot. Well, 30 seconds into Merriweather Post Pavillion, and it was clear all the talk had been warranted. This is AnCo’s best album yet. Their unconventional approach to songwriting and utter disregard for what a great record should sound like is exactly what makes their records so great. On MPP, the band expand to the outer limits of their own creativity while still having a tighter grasp on their sound than ever before. Their use of over-lapping melodies and sporadic instrumentation come together to be somehow very familiar, as if they are translating otherworldly works of art into sounds that we can understand. Animal Collective have undoubtedly branched into their own genre, and the new comers can only hope to be half as good.

“Summertime Clothes” by Animal Collective

3. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix Phoenix
Not 6 months ago, Phoenix were a relatively unknown, obscure indie band from Versailles, France, and hadn’t released any new material since 2006’s It’s Never Been Like That. Here we are, at the end of 2009, and Phoenix has been given the 3 song treatment on SNL and is nominated for a Grammy for Best Alternative Album (among other things all well deserved). Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is more satisfying than chocolate cheesecake (which is, like, really satisfying). It’s one of the most well-rounded, perfectly crafted independent rock albums of the decade, and single-handedly revived the Strokes-rock genre that has long been slightly passé. Phoenix’s delicate balance of retro and modern pop sounds makes the record seem almost timeless, yet gives you the sense that it could have only been made at this moment.

“Lasso” by Phoenix

2. It’s Blitz Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Every time I listened to this record, I loved it more. I wanted more. Karen O is just a f*cking tornado. She touches down to the ground and destroys everything in her f*cking path as the other elements of the song get sucked into the whirlwind rather than determine her direction. On It’s Blitz, the pounding dance grooves and distorted snare drum thumps work so well with Karen O’s lovely yet Don’t-Give-A-F*ck-ish vocals that you would assume it was the band’s long-time signature sound. Sometimes bands remain stagnant in what they know and what they do well, and sometimes they break some f*cking eggs in their bare hands. YYYs use an array of ingredients to make a bold, tasty, synth-laden, punk rock indie omelette of awesomeness that’s equal parts scrambled and over easy (took the egg analogy and ran). Dance ’til your dead.

“Heads Will Roll” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs

1. Veckatimest Grizzly Bear
Grizzly Bear’s output has steadily and rapidly been improving over the last few years so much so that their next record is surely going to alter the rotation of the Earth and cause the great pole shift of 2012 that @TheMayans have been tweeting about. If The Beatles and The Beach Boys were in their 20’s again today, living in Brooklyn and working on a record together, the result would be a lot like Veckatimest.

Still experimenting with instruments and harmonies and arrangements, Grizzly Bear have mastered that experimentation on this record, tying together all of the loose ends of their already incredible sound. As a true album meant to be fully appreciated only in its entirety, there isn’t one moment on it that wasn’t attentively nurtured during the writing, recording, and mixing process. They laced every meticulously placed hi-hat crash and guitar strum with just the right amount of either silence or harmony. Most incredible of all, the band absolutely nail these tracks live. They are a talent that come along as rarely as the Radioheads or the other mostly incomparable acts that I’ve just compared them to.

RT @TheMayans Looking forward to the end of the world. Grizzly Bear 2012.

“While You Wait For the Others” by Grizzly Bear