Here’s my list of favorite 2009 albums.

The fact that I am annually compelled to assemble a “best album” list provides conclusive proof that my time of cultural relevance has passed. I insist on listening to albums, and have (thus far) resisted the temptation to load an iPod and celebrate aural mediocrity. If Thom Yorke wishes me to hear his band’s songs in a certain order, I take him at his word.

So be it.

As noted in past editions of the yearly round-up, the marvelous thing about being a music buff is that there’ll always be time later to pick up on the releases, groups, songs and trends that were previously neglected or omitted. In 2009, I rediscovered the House Martins, purchased a moving Tim Finn solo album, and enjoyed early, re-mastered R.E.M. releases.

As an aside, and in this context, the long-awaited, re-mastered and reissued “complete” Beatles collection of CDs deserves honorable mention on any “year’s” compilation. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, most strands of contemporary rock and pop go through them.

It’s also comforting to know that whether I live three more years or thirty, it won’t be necessary to waste a single moment’s time on the inanity of mass-market country music with hats, trailer trash and jingoism. I’m a rock & pop oriented listener, and unapologetically mainstream in these tastes.

Again, so be it.

My tastes include jazz and classical, although admittedly the past year did not afford as many opportunities as I’d have liked to listen to these genres. I intend to rectify the imbalance in the coming year, primarily by shifting the CD collection at the Public House to home turf. No one there listens to the jazz CDs. It’s i-Pod territory, so why not bring Satchmo, Bix and Miles to the house? In fact, the first box came earlier today.

Also, my annual, shrugging apology is merited: The “no depression” genre completely depresses me, and although snippets of Americana and roots music peep through, it isn’t very often.

As in 2008, my favorite local, live music of the year was played at NABC’s Fringe Fest. From Klezmer to punk, it was exciting, and thanks are owed to John Campbell for another eclectic lineup.

However, there was another contender in 2009: The first annual Celtic Fest on the waterfront, and Brendan Loughrey's tribute to Kenny Chesney. at Bank Street Brewhouse afterward. I’ll never hear Chesney’s name again without thinking of Loughrey’s song.

Also memorable to me was seeing Hugh Bir perform at the new Wick’s on State in downtown New Albany just prior to the Roger Daltrey concert at Horseshoe. More honky-tonk and less Gordon Lightfoot from Hugh, and we’d be even better with it.

Feel free to post your own choices. As I write, Grinderman (2007) is playing. That crazy Nick Cave; he just breaks me up.

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My top five albums of 2009 are the ones that have made such an impact that most of the songs are sufficiently familiar to me to be recalled on demand without my actually listening to them. Not that my built-in iPod always plays in tune, mind you, but it’s just the way my brain seems to work. The albums are listed according to preference.

1. Manic Street Preachers – Journal for Plague Lovers
With lyrics by the late Richey Edwards and music by the mature, surviving Manics, it’s simply their best fusion in quite a few years of thoughts, hooks and rhythm. All hail Wales.

2. U2 – No Line on the Horizon
Rolling Stone has this in the Top 20 of the Naught Decade, and while I can’t entirely agree, the album shows that for dudes at 50, U2 remains quite capable of producing songs that are deeper than they seem and amply reward repeated listenings.

3. Fastball – Little White Lies
From Austin, Texas, by conceptual way of Liverpool: Great pop songs, plenty of vocal harmonies and sheer exuberance. Fastball is criminally underrated, and it’s the Louisville concert (in May) that I wish I could have attended, but could not because I was in the UK at the time.

4. Cheap Trick – The Latest
That’s right: An unprecedented two American bands in my Top Five. CT’s late period has been an extraordinarily productive one, and I defy anyone to locate an aging rock ‘n’ roll singer with Robin Zander’s gutsy pipes and vocal versatility. Rick Nielson is part owner of the Piece brewpub in Chicago. ‘Nuff said.

5. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
If I were to compile a list of 2009 songs, the first three on this earworm of an album would rank very high. Otherwise, I’m oddly shocked that a French pop band made the list even though Air France came close to losing my luggage. Tolerant of me, eh?

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The second five are listed alphabetically.

7 Worlds Collide – The Sun Came Out
Eight years later, a second Neil Finn-inspired group project featuring a who’s who of damned fine players, from Jeff Tweedy through Johnny Marr, this time with all of them working collaboratively on two discs’ worth of fresh material. Proceeds to Oxfam, so buy it, don’t burn it.

Cribs – Ignore the Ignorant
With Oasis supposedly shut down (reunion cash, anyone?), I had to find another snarling, fractious English band of brothers. Here they are, with hired hand Marr along for the ride.

Doves – Kingdom of Rust
The band isn’t breaking any new ground, but I just adore the sound, alternately self-absorbed, melancholic and fist-shaking … just like me.

Muse – The Resistance
I never would have predicted this one. It was purchased on sheer whim, and is grandiose to the point of Queen with a sprinkling of Keane. Talk about sweet spots. The back catalog comes next; maybe I can catch them at Stonehenge.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz!
A gal and three guys, quirky pop, punky at times … very New York to me. It sounded good one afternoon at Bank Street Brewhouse. The connection is fully intended.

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Ten others I liked, although not as much.

Black Crowes – Before the Frost/Until the Freeze
The Brothers Robinson and their own version of Exile on Main Street.

Jarvis Cocker – Further Complications
Formerly of Pulp, still lyrically obsessed with sex and status in Gordon Brown’s UK.

Gomez – A New Tide
Nice effort, but strikes me as a sideways step, one lacking the songwriting cohesion of the previous release.

Kasabian – West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum
Sprawling, noisy and plain weird, rather like a Newer Age bid for Her Satanic Majesty’s Request. Consequently, I like it.

Morrissey – Years of Refusal
Mozz’s comeback has been much appreciated. It seems to be stalling, and while I find moments of interest, the latest offering had me diving back into the singer’s Nineties catalog – and longing for the Smiths.

Pearl Jam – Backspacer
Love the band’s sound. The songs are less memorable. With Pearl Jam, it’s the overall vibe that counts.

Pink Martini – Splendor in the Grass
Odd quasi-Formica-inspired mood music designed to make you desire obsolete Pacific Rim cocktails like the Singapore Sling, and groove to Sixties post-WWII imperial Americana.

Bruce Springsteen – Working on a Dream
A quick follow-up to Magic, which the intervening time is proving to be the better of the two.

White Lies – To Lose My Life
It’s a retro English group that lands somewhere in the vicinity of Echo & the Bunnymen, The Cure and Joy Division. One to watch, but understand that a dollop of grimness goes with the territory.