If I had more time I'd take the Pitchfork Presents logo then cross it out in Paint and scrawl ObscureCraft over it, but I don't so do it in the magical canvas of your imagination. 

10. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz

Do two great singles ("Heads Will Roll", "Zero") make up for an otherwise entirely forgettable album?  This year, yes!

9. Mos Def - The Ecstatic

A Good Album.  Nothing much to say, it's solid but not exactly worth writing essays on.  I thought about swapping it out for one of the Runner Ups but that would mean googling album art again and I don't really feel like doing that.

8. Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer

 Not a ridiculous fantasy black metal band, but actually an awesome, creative art rock band.  That's what Wikipedia calls them at least, I'm not totally sure how you'd define 'art rock' as a genre.  It's Spencer Krug of Wolf Parade's solo project, and while it's not his best album ever, it's perhaps the most accessible.

7. The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love

Kind of obligatory, but I need to bone up on my NPR rock cred.  Also I'm a huge homosexual.  It moved up a few spots from being a hell of a live performance.

6. Wax Tailor - In The Mood For Life

This French trip-hop producer has actually breathed life into a long dead genre.  Mostly by making it less trip-hop and more instrumental hip-hop, but at least he's trying.  As good as Tales of the Forgotten Melodies?  Probably not, but great driving music.

5. The Future of the Left - Travels With Myself and Another

While we're on the subject of completely dead genres, the one decent straight up rock album of the year.  But it's a good one: raw, unpolished and angry, exactly what Them Crooked Vultures aren't.  "Arming Eritrea" is a hell of a track, although oddly less political than you'd expect.

4. Bon Iver - Blood Bank

Why the four song EP and not the full album?  Well, the EP has four good songs, which you can't say about For Emma, Forever Ago.  Burn on you, Bon Iver! 

3. Swan Lake - Enemy Mine

A supergroup of Dan Bejar (Destroyer, The New Pornographers), Spencer Krug (Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown), and Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes).  All the best of Canadian indie music!  They trade off writing duties, so it's pretty much three songs from each of them, but since they're all vocalists, there are some crazy harmonies and backing vocals. 

2. Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Pt. 2

This album will make you want to get Wu-Tang tattoos all over your body.  Who knew they still had it?  Highlights are "House of Flying Daggers (ft. Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, GZA, Method Man" and Ghostface Killah's mindblowingly filthy verse on "Gihad".  It's the Wu-Tang's Abbey Road.

1. The Antlers - Hospice

While we're on classic rock comparisons that'll probably annoy Daytrader, this is The Wall of indie music.  A heartbreaking concept album narrated by a hospital orderly who fall in love with an abused, abusive, terminally ill cancer patient.  Spoiler alert: everyone lives happily ever after!

Runner Ups: Silversun Pickups - Swoon, Sonic Youth - The Eternal, Jay-Z - The Blueprint III

Dishonorable Mentions: Kanye West - 808's And Heartbreaks, Muse - The Resistance

2009: Year of the Concept Album?