Best of 2009: The First Draft

Considering how en vogue it is to tout your own pseudo-elitist "best albums" roll call in order to promote one's own sense of self-indulgent musical superiority, I figure I'd best start on this project now; if I wait until the end times of 2009 to begin, I'm certain that some gems would be lost in the proverbial mix. Thus, with a clear and conscious mind, I begin:

RAY'S BEST ALBUMS OF 2009 VERSION APLHA-1.0

I've already predicted what the vast majority of these sort of things will look like, with every hipster douchebag in the world fawning over the exceedingly mediocre Animal Collective release, Merriweather Post Pavillion. I apologize for bursting the bubble of perceived snobby coolness here, but Animal Collective has always been mediocre at best - they are a band restricted by their own ridiculous sense of avant-garde. The whooping, hollering, and yelping...art it does not make. And anyway -

Grizzly Bear - Vecktamist
Castevet - Summer Fences (Best Debut LP of 2009)
The Chariot - Wars and Rumours of Wars (Best Post/Hardcore Album of 2009)
Cymbals Eat Guitars - Why There Are Mountains
The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love
Kevin Devine - Brother's Blood
Mastodon - Crack the Skye (Best Metal Album of 2009)
Metric - Fantasies (Best Pop Album of 2009)
mewithoutYou - It's all Crazy! It's all False! It's all a Dream! It's Alright!
Mount Eerie - Wind Poem
Radical Face - Ghost
Say Hi - Oohs and Aahs
Wolves in the Throne Room - Black Cascade (Best Black Metal Album of 2009)

These aren't in any particular order, and still have to be sorted out...but that gives you some modicum of an idea into the way I'm leaning here.