The Best Albums Of 2009: 31 to 60

Tomorrow's just another year. That's when we are going to present our Top 30 Albums of 2009. For today, as we're unwrapping our gifts (oh look! Santa brought me the latest Oneida, Lightning Dust, Atlas Sound and Cold Cave albums - what a good taste in music he has!) and keeping the champagne on ice, we'll unveil the rest of the list: the next 30 favorite albums of the year, what's going on just under no. 60, plus some of the records that I still didn't have the chance to listen to properly (or at all) and I'm planning to do something about it in the new year. So, this is what our list looks like from numbers 31 to 60:

Top Albums of 2009: 31-60

31. There is no enemy - BUILT TO SPILL
32. Dos - WOODEN SHJIPS
33. Primary colours - THE HORRORS
34. Lungs - FLORENCE + THE MACHINE
35. Radio wars - HOWLING BELLS
36. Years of refusal - MORRISSEY
37. The ecstatic - MOS DEF
38. Dark night of the soul - DANGER MOUSE AND SPARKLEHORSE
39. Balf quarry - MAGIK MARKERS
40. Sewn together - MEAT PUPPETS
41. Broken - SOULSAVERS
42. Monsters Of Folk - MONSTERS OF FOLK
43. Outer south - CONOR OBERST AND THE MYSTIC VALLEY BAND
44. Wilco (The album) - WILCO
45. The hazards of love - THE DECEMBERISTS
46. My old familiar friend - BRENDAN BENSON
47. Middle cyclone - NEKO CASE
48. Sometimes I wish we were an eagle - BILL CALLAHAN
49. I blame you - OBITS
50. King of jeans - PISSED JEANS
51. Them Crooked Vultures - THEM CROOKED VULTURES
52. Broken side of time - ALBERTA CROSS
53. Phrazes for the young - JULIAN CASABLANCAS
54. In and out of control - THE RAVEONETTES
55. Til the casket drops - CLIPSE
56. Bitte orca - DIRTY PROJECTORS
57. My maudlin career - CAMERA OBSCURA
58. Swoon - SILVERSUN PICKUPS
59. Now we can see - THE THERMALS
60. Spinnerette - SPINNERETTE

Who says there's no more than 50 or 60 good records released in a year? Here's the rest of the albums I've enjoyed in the last 12 months that didn't make it in the Top 60:

Baby darling doll face honey - BAND OF SKULLS, Further complications - JARVIS COCKER, Kingdom of rust - DOVES, A woman a man walked by - P.J. HARVEY & JOHN PARISH, Beware - BONNIE PRINCE BILLY, Petits fours - GRAND DUCHY, Backspacer - PEARL JAM, The century of self - …AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD, 200 million thousand - BLACK LIPS, Travels with myself and another - FUTURE OF THE LEFT, Ignore the ignorant - THE CRIBS, Art Brut vs. Satan - ART BRUT, In this light and on this evening - EDITORS, Julian Plenti is… skyscraper - JULIAN PLENTI, Love hate and then there's you - THE VON BONDIES, Yours truly, the commuter - JASON LYTLE, Goodnight unknown - LOU BARLOW, Varshons - THE LEMONHEADS, The spirit of Apollo - N.A.S.A., I feel cream - PEACHES, Music for men - GOSSIP, Hush - ASOBI SEKSU, Dear John - LONEY DEAR, The airing of grievances - TITUS ANDRONICUS, Tentacles - CRYSTAL ANTLERS, Grace / Wastelands - PETER DOHERTY, JJ no2 - JJ, No one's first and you're next - MODEST MOUSE

Wait, there's more! Here's the "To Do" list - albums I have yet to listen or that I need to listen more carefully before deciding if they have a place in the final list (the one that's going to be posted in Cool Music Database in due time):

Rated O - ONEIDA, Infinite light - LIGHTNING DUST, Logos - ATLAS SOUND, Love comes close - COLD CAVE, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix - PHOENIX, Tarot sport - FUCK BUTTONS, Why there are mountains - CYMBALS EAT GUITARS, Big Sexy Noise - BIG SEXY NOISE, Bird-brains - TUNE-YARDS, Hot wax - GRANT HART, What will we be - DEVENDRA BANHART, Seek magic - MEMORY TAPES, Hospice - THE ANTLERS, Album - GIRLS, Checkmate savage - PHANTOM BAND, Dark days/Light years - SUPER FURRY ANIMALS, West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum - KASABIAN, Two dancers - WILD BEASTS, Wall of arms - THE MACCABEES, Jewellery - MICACHU & THE SHAPES, Nests - SHE KEEPS BEES, Actor - ST. VINCENT, Manners - PASSION PIT, Only revolutions - BIFFY CLYRO, Outside love - PINK MOUNTAINTOPS, Pine/Cross dover - MASTERS OF REALITY, Harum scarum - JOE GIDEON AND THE SHARK, Psychic chasms - NEON INDIAN, Born like this - DOOM, Begone dull care - JUNIOR BOYS, Three EPs - SHACKLETON, Ambivalence avenue - BIBIO, Cassette city - LUSHLIFE, SyMptoMs - MORDANT MUSIC, Rain Machine - RAIN MACHINE, All aboard future - THESE ARE POWERS, Under and under - BLANK DOGS

Wait for the Top 30 tomorrow before you tell me what I have missed. We leave 2009 with the cool video for one of the best tracks of the year, "Stillness is the move" by Dirty Projectors (if there were more like this one on "Bitte Orca", the album could have gone higher on our list, too). For now, have fun at your New Year's Eve parties or Happy New Year if you happen to be located to our east!

Dirty Projectors - Stillness Is The Move

2009 Highlights: Debut Albums of the Year

Before we present the list of our favorite albums of the year, let's take a closer look at some of the best debuts of 2009. After all, new bands are the future of music and they deserve our special attention. Last year almost one-third of our Top 30 consisted of first-time efforts. This year the percentage is lower, but we did have some pretty impressive debuts that will leave their mark on 2009's musical landscape. Here are our 10 favorite debut LPs of the year by new artists (meaning that we excluded the debuts of new groups that consist of already established artists like The Dead Weather or Fever Ray) based on what we've been able to listen to so far:

1. Dance mother - TELEPATHE

They say that once you're in love, you're unable to see the flaws of the object of your affection. I guess it must be true because if there were any imperfections to "Dance Mother", the David Sitek produced debut of Brooklyn newcomers Telepathe, I just wasn't able to spot them. Mind you, this is not some passing infatuation as I have been listening to this album from the start of the year and its spell remains unbroken. More about Telepathe very soon... (MySpace page)

2. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART

Another New York band that left us an excellent first impression. We've seen them live twice this year (read our Primavera Sound review here and the review of their Athens show here) and both times they knocked our sock off. Indie-pop is back, sounding as vital as ever. (MySpace page)

3. A brief history of love - THE BIG PINK

The best electro-pop album of the year with plenty of feedback to satisfy our noise needs. (MySpace page)

4. Marry me tonight - HTRK

My answer is yes, without a second thought. From Australia with love. (MySpace page)

5. Post-Nothing - JAPANDROIDS

An exciting recent discovery. Mind-blowing noise-rock from Canada. (MySpace page)

6. Dim light - GUN OUTFIT

Why this band still hasn't got the acclaim of No Age ("Dim Light" was released on PPM label which is co-run by Dean Spunt of No Age) or Japandroids is beyond me. Only seven friends on Myspace including me? This needs to change now!

7. XX - THE XX

I bet you know all about them by now. (MySpace page)

8. Lungs - FLORENCE + THE MACHINE

Florence Welch deserves to be a massive pop star. (MySpace page)

9. Broken side of time - ALBERTA CROSS

Neil Young-inspired epic guitar-rock. (MySpace page)

10. Baby darling doll face honey - BAND OF SKULLS

Another recent discovery. White Stripes influenced garage-rock from the UK. (MySpace page)

Listen to a playlist with tracks from our Top 10 Debuts of the Year here.