What I listened to most in '09.

I realize it's a little late, but I've had this list made on my iTunes for over a month and am just now getting around to putting it down for posterity. If I were feeling really ambitious I might also consider putting together a list of my top albums of the decade; alas, if I were feeling ambitious.

Like last year, my criteria was not only play-count, but what records this year I've actually told people about. Unlike last year, I didn't feel there were as many obvious choices for the list this go 'round. Nevertheless - my favorite word - in no particular order:

Samamidon - All Is Well
This is actually from last year, but I didn't hear of it until the first of January in '09 (from a best of '08 list, coincidentally) and it is one I have recommended to several people. Samamidon is Sam Amidon and this album of re-arranged traditional folk songs (mostly Appalachian) is haunting and beautiful. The arrangements are simultaneously sparse and lush, and deceptively simple. Sam's voice is unique in the weirdest way, I've read it described as "not un-pretty" which I can't help but agree with because it is by no means conventional. Your first instinct upon hearing him is to think, "this guy can't sing" but given a listen, the album is nostalgic, moving and surprisingly modern.
Standout track(s): "Wild Bill Jones" and "All Is Well"

Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
A breakthrough for the French electronic-indie band. You've likely heard several of their songs in commercials, but this is hands-down one of the best feel-good albums of the past year. Not a bad track on the album.
Standout track: "Lisztomania"

Mumford and Sons - Sigh No More
I love this album. A late find in 2009, an English band who sound like they came down from the hills of Kentucky, much like Old Crow Medicine Show. There's a darkness to the music that puts a Southern Gothic touch on the album but its tempered with a spirituality that's the silver lining on the storm clouds. Look at me waxing poetic.
Standout track: "The Cave"

Pete Yorn - Back & Fourth and Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson - Break Up
Pete Yorn was busy last year, putting out his fourth solo album, Back & Fourth, and teaming with Scarlett Johansson for Break Up. It's a return to form for Pete who's first album, musicforthemorningafter has been on my all-time fave list since it came out in 2001. A lot of standout tracks on the album but topping the play count list is "Last Summer." A non-stop driving pop/rock song. The collaboration with Scarlett was inspired (by Serge Gainsbourg's 1967 and 1968 albums with Brigitte Bardot) and inspiring. The pairing of the two makes for some remarkable duets and is much better showcase for her than her '08 solo effort of Tom Waits covers, especially notable on the track "Clean."
Standout track(s): Back & Fourth "Last Summer"; Break Up "Search Your Heart"

Pearl Jam - Backspacer
This album has the song that I will always associate the year. "The Fixer" shows the positive side of Pearl Jam, long known for being the brooding pioneers of grunge. Start to finish though, this album ranks up in the top three of PJ's career. It has all the elements of a great Pearl Jam record - heartbreak stories, rock & roll poetry, thoughts on mortality, the spectrum of music from punk to acoustic ballad, and the prerequisite surfer song. Interestingly enough, the other Pearl Jam track that I'll always associate with 2009 is their self-titled album's "Unemployable."
Standout track: "The Fixer"

The Joy Formidable - A Balloon Called Moaning
This band is one I was lucky to stumble across because outside of the U.K. and Northern Wales where they are from, they are grossly overlooked and under-appreciated. I'm not entirely sure how to describe them either, which may be part of the problem. But I've read their music described as, "epic, melodic, hand-shandy pop from a band who understand the true joys of life." Summing it up best is Ritzy Bryan, who called the band she fronts, "sometimes-pretty-with-twirling-melody/sometimes-corruscating-with-crashing-chords guitar and elegant but energised vocals." Sounds about right.
Standout track: "The Greatest Light Is The Greatest Shade"

Horse Feathers - House With No Home
This record actually came out September 2008, but didn't come to my attention until January of last year. Coupled with their 2006 release Words Are Dead, which I quickly tracked down after falling in love with the Horse Feathers sound - a trio consisting of a guitar, cello and violin with a vocal style reminiscent of Iron & Wine. Most of the numerous plays these albums got came while reading the Michael Chabon novel, The Yiddish Policemen's Union. Set in Alaska, the music of the Portland band worked well providing both a tone and atmosphere for the book. Subsequently, the book and the band are inextricably linked both to each other and 2009. There you go, a book recommendation to boot.
Standout track(s): Words Are Dead "In Our Blood"; House With No Home "Curs In The Weeds"

Dead Man's Bones - Dead Man's Bones
See my review of DMB (not Dave Matthews Band - though he released a decent album in '09 as well) in my post in October.
Standout track: "Pa Pa Power"

Matt & Kim - Grand
Joyous piano and drums music. A no-frills production (down to the band name) that are known for their raucous live shows and infectious energy. Also has one of the best lines due to its spiritual implications, when the bespectacled Matt sings, "I know that one day I'll see without these frames." Putting my own meaning on it - and since I wear glasses, I feel I'm entitled to - he's speaking of the day we enter the Kingdom of God. Amen to that, Four Eyes.
Standout track: "Daylight"

Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
She easily has one of the best voices in music today. I first heard her in the unfortunately named ensemble The New Pornographers where she stole nearly every track she sang on. Here she owns the whole show and has been christened the Queen of Indie Folk/Rock Music.
Standout track: "People Got A Lotta Nerve"

Honorable Mentions: U2 - No Line On The Horizon, Various Artists - Dark Was The Night, Original Motion Soundtrack - Away We Go, Grizzly Bear - Veckatimist

You ought to respond with your own list, I love hearing what folks are listening to.