i had a really hard time coming up with a top 10 this year.  it seems like every year it gets harder and harder.  i don’t know if that’s because i find more and more good music or because my tastes are becoming more honed/refined as i get older.  or maybe i should say they’re getting more narrow, so i listen to more stuff that sounds a lot alike and therefore is harder to organize into a good top 10.

with that said, here’s my list for 2009. (previous year’s top 10s here)

1. snail – blood

2. baroness- blue record

3. every time i die – new junk aesthetic

4. kowloon walled city – gambling on the richter scale

5. doomriders – darkness comes alive

6. poison the well – the tropic rot

7. them crooked vultures – them crooked vultures

8. mastodon – crack the skye

9. moby – wait for me

10. lo pan – sasquanaut

and then the honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):

cave in – planets of old
converge – axe to fall
danger mouse & sparklehorse – dark night of the soul
devil to pay – heavily ever after
del the funky homosapien – funk man (the stimulus package)
dredg – the pariah, the parrot, the delusion
if these trees could talk – above the earth, below the sky
isis – wavering radiant
jesu – infinity
julian casablancas – phrazes for the young
keelhaul – keelhaul’s triumphant return to obscurity
mellowdrone – angry bear
porcupine tree – the incident
russian circles – geneva
vitalic – flashmob
zombi – spirit animal