Year In Rock 2009

The 11th installment of my annual “Year In Rock” is complete. Below you will find my list of what I consider to be the best music of the year. Much of the new music I heard this year came from listening to SiriusXM Radio, Slacker.com, Lala,.com, Pandora, KRCL, and occasionally X96 as well as countless recommendations from family, friends, Rolling Stone and co-workers.

As before I will be naming best new artist of the year, and best album as well as best album nominees. If you are new to this: I pick my top 20 albums, and then pick what I consider to be the best song on that album and compile into a list. When I initially started doing this I put 20 songs to a CD, which limited my song choices and space, and now I just keep the tradition going.

I've also decided this will be the last year that I name the best "album" that came out that year, and instead will be naming best artist of that year, as well as the best new artist. I believe that in 5-10 years the concept of the "album" will be minimal if not obsolete, and bands will have to find new and interesting ways to release collections of music to the masses. Sure, there might be collections of songs that may or may not constitute an album, but we live in a fast paced world of "NOW" and singles rule the charts. Our attention span with music is getting shorter and shorter, and our children will question what an "album" was. Radiohead and Smashing Pumpkins have already announced their plans to stop releasing albums and instead release singles and EP's. I believe they are trying to grasp the inevitable, and I think they are right.

My list for the Decade In Rock (2000-2009) will be released this week if you are interested as well.

If you would like a copy of this music, please e-mail me though FaceBook. I have a variety of ways you can get this...

The Year in Rock 2009 is finally here:

1. Discovery "Osaka Loop Mix" - LP (Best New Artist)
2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs "Dull Life" - It's Blitz! (Best Album Of The Year - Winner)
3. Phoenix "1901" - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (Album Of The Year Nominee)
4. Silversun Pickups "There's No Secrets This Year" - Swoon (Album Of The Year Nominee)
5. Animal Collective "My Girls" - Merriweather Post Pavilion (Album Of The Year Nominee)
6. Muse "United States Of Eurasia (+Collateral Damage)" - The Resistance (Album Of The Year Nominee)
7. Brand New "Bed" - Daisy
8. Dirty Projectors "Two Doves" - Bitte Orca
9. Weezer "Can't Stop Partying" - Raditude
10. The Whitest Boy Alive "1517" - Rules
11. Karen O and the Kids "All Is Love" - Where the Wild Things Are (Soundtrack)
12. Company Of Thieves "Oscar Wilde" - Ordinary Riches
13. Manchester Orchestra "I've Got Friends" - Mean Everything To Nothing
14. Passion Pit "The Reeling" - Manners
15. Regina Spektor "Laughing With" - Far
16. Incubus "Let's Go Crazy" - Monuments And Melodies
17. Iron & Wine "Communication Cups And Someone's Coat" - Around The Well
18. Wilco "Wilco (The Song)" - Wilco (The Album)
19. Franz Ferdinand "Ulysses" - Tonight: Franz Ferdinand
20. The Avett Brothers "I and Love and You" - I and Love and You

Honorable Mentions: As Tall As Lions - You Can't Take It With You, Arctic Monkeys - Humbug, Coconut Records - Davy, The Dead Weather - Horehound, The Flaming Lips - Embryonic, John Mayer - Battle Studies, Oren Lavie - The Opposite Side Of The Sea, Paramore - Brand New Eyes, Thrice - Beggars

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