This is a cohesive, serious album. It is distressing, depressed, isolated, alienating, and probably the best Of Montreal album to date.

Her voice shares the same dusky, stained-glass quality as Chan Marshall’s, strident but capable of fracturing at any moment.

It’s a rare album that is not only great on it’s first listen, but just as remarkable on it’s tenth.

By taking the piss out of himself and the cynicism out of his outlook, Bird’s songs are not only smart and sensible but joyous and full of hope.

As great as Chavez Ravine was, My Name Is Buddy is more thoroughly successful, possessing a stronger musical identity and top-notch songwriting throughout.

For anyone who has enjoyed even the briefest of flirtations with pop music, The Magic Position is as bold and captivating a record as you will surely hear all year.

Cassadaga is an assured and accomplished album; a classic constructed from classic elements.

The Reminder is an exceptional album that should be experienced solely on the merits its stunning musicality.

A soulful, sad, yet ultimately hopeful document largely about putting a brave face in the midst of a dissolving relationship, indulging influences from Bill Fay to Charles Wright to Steve Miller, Sky Blue Sky is the rare, mature album where said maturity is seldom compromised by banality.

Because of You might end up being the best R&B album of the year.

This album, like all great albums, somehow transcends all the factors that makes it work, absorbs them in a seamless whole and breaks your heart in the process.

It’s a demanding and complex album that has proven to be one of the best albums I’ve heard in years, a universal soundtrack to a life that requires no visuals to imagine.

Fresh and familiar is a consistent hallmark of the Austin band, and Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga proves to be no exception.

The only thing that prevents Fantastic Playroom from being a wholly perfect creation is the simple fact that, as good as it is, this is still only their first album.

The sequencing is what makes this disc such a divine pleasure: we get to hear a band grow from grinning upstarts to tension-battered road warriors.

It never feels like those doing the picking had to lower the standards or tack things on to fill out a weak selection, and like a greatest hits album from any band worth its salt, the biggest criticism to be found here is the failure to include certain songs.

The entirety of Emerald City seeks to elevate to the personal and the timeless, and top to bottom it is a success.

There are a lot of clever, cutting lines in this album, lots of references to taking many drugs and then taking even more, and in the hands of a less assured band these things would come off sounding callow and glib.

M.I.A. has given us one of the albums of the year. Bravo.

More cinematic than "Twin Cinema," more cohesive than any other record released this year, Challengers is so very good it almost compels you to think in the cliches of music criticism.

It is Meshell Ndegeocello’s most complete and fully integrated record and a defining work that in evading category seems to generate its own rules of engagement and enjoyment.

The album proves itself to be what we all thought Radiohead couldn’t make again: a masterpiece.

The shrewdly crafted Random Spirit Lover is the most satisfying batch of songs Krug has ever released.

It’s one of the richest and most satisfying of his storied career.

Their work, especially that displayed on Refinement, stands as some of the more original and evocative music being produced today, smart and technical without sacrificing atmosphere and feeling.

The rest of us will continue to drink in the boldest, most thrilling album of this supremely talented band’s career.

This is a compulsively listenable album, through and through, and one of the best live albums I’ve ever heard.

The human voice, the most striking change in Burial’s sound, renders Untrue superior to its predecessor.

Not since Talking Heads bowed out with their masterful 1988 swan song Naked has NYC been so dutifully represented by such a melodically robust collection as the 11 that comprise this eponymous redux of Vampire Weekend’s acclaimed “Blue CD-R” demo.

Made in the Dark is a great album, varied and surprisingly heartfelt.

Ten very good to great songs, stamped with the signature of a musician who knows what he is about. That, kids, is what we used to call an “album”, and this is a very fine one indeed.

Lynne has crafted a disc that--while not exactly transcendent--still manages to go to emotional places that remain unattainable to your run-of-the-mill pop vocalists.

Bell X1 has set its aim high, the sky’s the limit, and Flock is right on target.

While the LP is smart and funky as hell, it distinguishes itself because it's part of a series.

Cynics and those who just don’t feel it may claim instead that this is, at best, just a collection of good songs, with witty lyrics, without much dynamic variation; but I tell you today, five or ten or 20 years from now, the only way we won’t be speaking of Hold on Now, Youngster… as a classic will be if Los Campesinos! have already topped it.

There is a dedication and an ardor in play that cannot be denied.

The Odd Couple is an emotionally and musically provocative album. Despite its weighty subject matter, it’s also one hell of a fun listen.

The lyrics are blunt and relatable, and their song construction is arguably on par with some of the greatest names rock music has ever known

Third is a complete work of art to fully immerse yourself in, listened to start to finish.

Really, the most impressive thing about Robyn is just how timeless it is proving to be.

This album is a place to crash, boots to wear, pepper spray to fight back with and charcoal to dirty your hands. If the struggles of urban artists sound like this, these 12 anthems ensure that starving will never go out of style.

As the 12 songs pass by in 31 minutes, the overall effect is nothing short of exhilarating. While their musical antecedents are clearly apparent, at no stage does Nouns feel in any way derivative or familiar.

Married improves even on Wainwright’s excellent 2005 debut. It’s a more subtle, diverse, self-assured affair.

Familiar yet fresh, Lay It Down presents Satin Soul at its finest.

Shearwater has magnificently outdone itself. Not only is Rook destined to be named one of 2008’s favorites, but it could be one of the best albums for years to come.

It’s their most crucial album since 1999’s stunning "Still Life," and its title could not be more appropriate.

Music this rich and evocative should be heard by everyone, and one can only hope that more and more people will hear as Escovedo continues to write his own story.

Accompanying a pure individualist and plain speaker like Nelson strips the Marsalis Quintet of its preciousness. Here, Marsalis and company sound natural, loose, gritty, and certainly inspired.

Wire is a great band who have often been daunting to approach, so the really dazzling thing about Object 47 is just how approachable and digestible it is.

"Illmatic" was stylistically brilliant and incalculably influential, but Untitled is a more mature, emotionally-driven, and philosophically-complex piece of work. It’s also a masterpiece.

It’s a grim journey, and often creepy as hell, but it’s by no means depressing. Mediocre music is depressing. This stuff is exhilarating.

Harps and Angels belongs up there with "12 Songs" and "Sail Away" as one of Newman’s greatest works, regardless if he took 20 years to get it out into the public.

The vastly competent array of MCs each have their own distinct flow and pace, but very little--from Flowdan’s lightning-fast verbal gymnastics, to Rick Ranking’s slow-cooked esophageal rumblings, to Roger Robinson’s soulful melancholy--clashes in a way that dulls or vitiates the album’s impact.

It is fresh, original, and points the way.

What Ode to Sunshine really boils down to is excellent songwriting. And it only helps that the album’s pacing is fantastic and hardly ever drags.

All of Sheff’s characters once again come to life on The Stand Ins. More stories are told from the first person than on "The Stage Names," but the theme shines through.

There’s a sense of purpose here, of direction and clarity, shafts of accessibility that relegate the din to the background without ever compromising the potentially hostile underbelly of the band’s core sound.

Tokumaru’s music, it’s now well established, is quirky but profound, foreign but still universal.

OH (ohio) is flat-out one of the best records Lambchop has made, and certainly their best since 2000’s classic "Nixon."

The reason Tell Tale Signs works so well from start to finish is that all the songs, even those that are modest on their own ('God Knows,' 'Miss the Mississippi'), are illuminated by the company they’re in.

It’s a confident, balanced work of mass art with only extremely minor flaws.

This talented duo has made one hell of an album, actually one of the best of 2008, in the process.

It may never occupy the place in the indie rock canon that "Slanted and Enchanted" has, and it may not be regarded as the band’s high point like "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain," but 11 years later, this album still sounds great, maybe even better in its old age.

Merriweather Post Pavilion finds Animal Collective tight and sharp, and it suits them. Animal Collective’s music is for everyone’s world.

Each play of Grievances is like that triumphant, sweaty bar show, right there in your room.

By tapping into the limitless well of America’s musical traditions, Trucks has brought forth one of 2009’s first true gems and his best effort to date.

At any rate, having jabbed at indie success and scored at least one good hit, the band and its sole record--comprising just over twenty minutes of music--will surely be remembered for its insistent, unselfconscious songs as well as its endless playability.

Dan Auerbach was responsible for helping make one of the better albums of 2008, and Keep It Hid is already a contender in 2009.

After two great albums, Choral sees the duo consolidating all the gains made into its first real classic, an album that ought to delight hardened-ambient fanatics and neophytes alike.

Nothing that Fever Ray does is as immediate or soaring as a track like 'Marble House' but Fever Ray makes up for the lack of highs by being an even more all-enveloping experience than the last few Knife records.

Machines is not just a fantastic album--easily the best work Pritchard has produced since Global Communication--it’s also an early contender for album of the year.

For listeners of any act from Miwon to M83 to Dominik Eulberg, Boratto’s work is exemplary of seasoned musicianship and refreshing unpredictability in sound, and these sleek, ceiling-scraping missives are almost too grand--ingest small, careful servings and repeat as needed.

Allen Toussaint’s The Bright Mississippi offers a look backward at our music’s roots, but it does so with a keen consciousness of both modern jazz and rhythm-and-blues.

Both "Meek Warrior" and "Love Is Simple" are strong albums, but there’s a sense of unfulfillment in them--Akron/Family seems to be testing itself in new areas rather than completing a task. On new album Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free, though, that changes, as the band delivers a masterpiece.

One of the consistent strong suits of Earle’s albums has been the duets and backing vocals, and this album is no different, with enriching guest appearances by Tom Morello, his wife Allison Moorer and--a first--his son Justin Townes Earle on the top-rate track 'Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold.'

All bets aren’t necessarily off in terms of whether or not Grizzly Bear have hit their plateau--recall that we did this with "Yellow House" in 2006; oops--but it’s hard to imagine them giving us more to enjoy in one sweeping statement than they have here.

There is no way that anything I’m about to write regarding Rhett Miller’s self-titled solo album will adequately convey the way harmony and heartache meet with sharp wit, sweet woe and sly wordplay over a magnificent mixture of power-pop hooks, harder-rock riffs and tender folk ballads to perform the musical alchemy currently streaming from my speakers.

Older, wiser and with nothing to lose other than hair, Madness has gone and released an album that’s virtually flawless.

Few contemporary pop albums have spoken to the human condition so eloquently, and given the listener so much pleasure in the process, than Dark Night of the Soul.

Call it surprising/delightful, or call it thrilling/glorious. Either way, Dragonslayer‘s pretty great.

Maxwell might be delivering one course at a time, but for now, delivering one of the best albums of 2009 will sate your appetite just fine.

Because those pipes are big enough to shake the rain from the trees and, with an eclectic balance of genres leaning heavily towards folk and soul, she's got enough support to make her seem powerful rather than overbearing.

Combine the above average writing with the production skills of longtime Cleaves collaborator Gurf Morlix (who also contributes his legendary guitar on Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away) and you’ve got yourself a frontrunner for Americana album of the year.

Emphatic yet rarely overbearing choruses, all delivered in a subtle manner, will always bring me back to the road. The Cave Singers have mastered the art of give and take.

The true achievement of Mount Eerie’s Wind’s Poem is the redemptive arc Elverum finds within the black metal context.

Musically invigorating, lyrically exciting, and thematically prescient from start to finish, Love and Curses gets my vote as the best album of 2009.

Signal Morning is not only a vital part of that continued excellence; it’s one of the best damn albums of the year.

After Robots exudes an energy and a lack of self-consciousness that is exciting and refreshing.

By the Throat, succinct and emotive, is the perfect convergence of styles, attacking the listener’s jugular with a powerful punk thrust, cynical observations, and an out-and-out assault on hip-hop’s standards.

What makes The Life of the World to Come one of 2009's best albums, and the Mountain Goats' studio albums maybe the single greatest second act in modern American rock/indie/whatever music, is that he never assumes those groups are, at the heart of it all, different from each other or less deserving of our attention and compassion.

Their finest and most expansive collection to date, and one of the finest pop offerings of 2009, this album takes all their strengths--haunting and sublime.

It is at times derivative, but it is overall a transcendent work by one of the most promising musician-artists in the contemporary scene.

Clark has served notice that he’s still here, and that those old hands haven’t yet gone still. Stuff that works, indeed.

Enemies of electronica will find the Osso album more accessible and entertaining than the Stevens original. Furthermore, Osso’s titular connection with the American Dream/nightmare may ironically have more in common with Stevens’ most recent conceptual project the BQE than the BQE has with his own Enjoy Your Rabbit.

The closest Converge has ever come to pure doom metal, Ballou’s sustained chords, bent strings, and screeching lead fills are anchored by Newton’s and Koller’s disciplined approach, the chemistry more than apparent during the Big Black-esque break, during which all four members, well, converge in a way that has the rest of us marveling at not only how these guys manage to still sound so fresh on record, but actually get better with each one they put out.

Russian Circles, with their instruments well-used and dynamic, leaders in their own right, guide the listener through the varying courses of each song with nary a misstep.

Cynics be damned: however the hype machine happens to play this one out, Real Estate have overcome the critics and released one of the most refreshing, satisfying and richly rewarding albums of 2009.

What we’ve all come to need is balance and perspective before death, and Pelican provides that with perfect precision.