Happy New Year! (Public domain photo courtesy of the German Federal Archive.)

Okay, you’ve recovered from your New Year’s hangover, you’re down to the last of the holiday leftovers, and yet you still have more than a week before classes start up again — what’s a person to do? Why, catch up on the finest music that 2009 had to offer, of course!

But where to get started? Well, there are many best-of-2009 lists to choose from and… uh… here’s another one!  But, hey, I think it’s a pretty good one.  Not only was this list of 50 selected out of a pool of about 110 critically-acclaimed albums, and not only was it the product of hours upon hours upon hours of listening, but I like to think that my tastes trend toward the more accessible side of the left of the dial.  Plus, it has links to loads of nifty YouTube videos — which should make it a pretty effective time-waster at the very least.

A couple of notes before we proceed:
- This list is merely based on my personal opinion and is neither meant to be an official Live Buzz “best of” list nor represent the views of my fellow contributors.
- You might notice that I have an innate bias in favor of garage rock, indie, punk, power pop and related things. What can I say? It’s my list, so it reflects what I like.  If you want to see more country, or electronica, or hip-hop, or metal, or whatever: make your own list.  You’re welcome to post it in the comments below.
- To be eligible for this list, an album had to have been released in 2009 and be made up mostly of previously unreleased material.  Hence, no compilations or reissues were considered.

Thus, with no further ado:

1. Girls – Album

2. Japandroids – Post-Nothing

3. The xx – xx

4. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

5. The Antlers – Hospice

6. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion (Special Award: Greatest Track of 2009: “Summertime Clothes.”)

7. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

8. Metric – Fantasies (Special Award: Most Underrated Album of 2009.)

9. jj – no 2 (Special Award: Most Mysterious Album of 2009.  Who are these guys?)

10. Andrew Bird – Noble Beast

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