In his article “An Argument Against Year-End Lists,” Dusted senior writer Ben Tausig not only manages to use the phrase “Barf city” in a relatively serious article, but he makes a very good point – the year-end album list is an antiquated ritual that needs to be axed. His reasoning is sound – who does listen to albums anymore? Lists compiling good Youtube videos or new musical discoveries are much more personal and less preachy than some blogger telling me what the top albums were this calendar year.
But, perhaps just to prove his point, I had been thinking about making my top ten list since early December. Plus, I still listen to albums. So despite my appreciation for this article, I wrote ten little poems about the albums I felt were the best this year. Kobe!

2009 has been one of the best years for new music in recent memory for me, simply because my favorite genres of music have delivered a lot of good stuff. This isn’t to say that the past few years haven’t been great, but most of my favorite new music from, say, 2008, was in genres I didn’t really follow or know much about. So since 2009 has been a great time for heavy, fucked up guitar music, I felt compelled to share which albums have been tops for me. Here are the first two – expect more recommendations coming soon.