Music of the 2009

That wise old man of Britpop Jarvis Cocker recently summed up the decade in music with one word - "Shuffle." I couldn't agree more. While there were certainly a number of albums that caught my ear this year - notably, Polish jazz pianist Marcin Wasilewski's "January," Brazilian dude Curumin's "JapanPopShow," Melody Gardot's second album "My One and Only Thrill," Maxwell's return to form with with "Blacksummer'snight, Kat Edmonson's "Take to the Sky," Neko Case's "Middle Cyclone" and the AIDS benefit double-disc "Dark Was the Night" - my listening habits are now firmly anchored by the experience of the "playlist" rather than the "CD" (to say nothing of the long lamented "LP").

Indeed, the most gratifying musical experiences I had this year were in putting together a bewildering number of iTunes playlists based on my latest whims. While last year was dominated by a certain beardy folk introspection, it seemed as if a lot of the my favorite artists this year were determined to dance while the world was collapsing around them. Most of the tunes that caught my ear were relentlessly upbeat and danceable, including: Franz Ferdinand's "Ulysses," Passion Pit's "Little Secrets,
Phoenix's "Lisztomania," Peaches' "Talk to Me," The Phenomenal Handclap Band's "You'll Disappear, Animal Collective's "My Girls" and St. Vincent - "The Strangers."

The folkies didn't exactly disappear and I enjoyed Bon Iver's "Blood Bank" EP, J. Tillman's latest solo disc, Jeff Tweedy's duet with Feist on "You and I," Pete Yorn's "Don't Wanna Cry," Bonnie "Prince" Billy's "Afraid Ain't Me," Alexi Murdoch's soundtrack for "Away we Go" and many more.

I'm still getting a lot of my music tips from podcasts, including most notably NPR's "All Songs Considered" and the Guardian Unlimited's "Music Weekly" and I have thank the Gooner again for hipping me to a lot of my favorite sounds of the year. As usual, I look forward to hearing what's been in your earbuds this year.