It’s that time of year when self-absorbed bloggers and music geeks prepare their Top 10 Albums of the Year lists. Of course, the mainstream media trots out Beyonce and U2 while the hipsters try to out-obscure each other by only choosing albums by artists that no one has ever heard of. I guess I’m somewhere in between, so some of you will find my list a bit too mainstream (Pearl Jam, Jay-Z) while others of you will raise an eyebrow at the lesser-known stuff (Polvo? Magnolia who?).
Since I couldn’t narrow it down to just 10 albums, I cheated creatively by breaking it into categories plus two Top 10’s. It doesn’t matter. I think there are more albums on this list than there are readers of this blog.
Best Rock Album
Polvo – In Prism
Best Americana/Alt.Country Album
The Avett Brothers – I and Love and You
Best Hip-Hop Album
Raekwon – Only Built For Cuban Linx 2
Best Jazz Album
Allen Toussaint – The Bright Mississippi
Best Traditional R&B / Rockin Soul Party Album
Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears – Tell ‘Em What Your Name Is!
The Top 10 Albums
Them Crooked Vultures
The Dead Weather – Horehound
Mos Def – The Ecstatic
Ryan Bingham & the Dead Horses – Roadhouse Sun
Sonic Youth – The Eternal
The Black Crowes – Before the Frost/Until the Freeze
Pearl Jam – Backspacer
Regina Spektor – Far
Jay Farrar and Ben Gibbard – One Fast Move Or I’m Gone: Music From Kerouac’s Big Sur
The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love
The Next 10 (this list goes up to 11!)
Patterson Hood – Murdering Oscar
KRS-One and Buckshot – Survival Skills
Magnolia Electric Co. – Joesphine
John Wesley Harding – Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead
Mars Volta – Octahedron
Wilco (the Album)
Eminem – Relapse
Ben Kweller – Changing Horses
Jay Z – Blueprint 3
Levon Helm – Electric Dirt
Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band – Outer South
Best Remaster/Reissue
The Beatles catalog 09.09.09
Best Re-imagined/Re-recorded Album
Stephen Marley – Mind Control (Acoustic)
Best Live Album
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – The Live Anthology
Best Collection of Outtakes/Unreleased Odds’n’ends
Drive-By Truckers – Fine Print
