and so another year of checking new release lists, listening to streams, reading discussions and reviews, and ultimately spending way too much money has come to an end.  the 20 albums i’ll post and write about over the next month were chosen from among the 60+ 2009 albums i bought, which themselves were chosen over countless more albums that were sampled and ultimately ignored.  don’t mistake this for completeness, of course: i do my best but always miss things, especially obscurities and niche-genre stuff.  also, this list was finalized before i really started investigating the more comprehensive year-end coverage from my favorite people and publications, all of it surely better funded with the listeners’ time than my own list.  so enjoy this humble countdown, and whatever i’ve failed to get to in time will hopefully be covered in future installments.

as always, i try to seek the albums that best execute against their goals.  consistency, craft, good songs, sounds, and performances can all be part of it.  this year, that search took me to some unusual corners (the amount of old-dude rap and british people making high appearances is atypical of my taste), but i really had to laugh at the final output, because it’s going to look a lot like many other lists.  trust me, this was unintentional, and i’m still not sure what it means.  good year for crossover “indie” pop music?  less-good year for certain subgenres and new forms?  maybe just some consistency in the specifics of how things were rated (not whether they were “good” or “bad” but how good or bad they were).

in any event, it was another great year for new music.  honorable mentions will go up in a day or two.