Circumstances have allowed me to draft a couple of these year-end lists in recent weeks, which I think gives me some leeway to contradict myself here. It's so hard to pick favorites anyway—it's like choosing which of your friends you want on your kickball team (and, full disclosure, a couple of these acts are in fact friends of mine). No one wants to get picked last.

1. Animal Collective — Merriweather Post Pavilion
The obvious choice—but totally on the money. This is one of those staggeringly-dense but not overwhelming records, with no serious missteps (except maybe all those vocal overdubs on “Guy’s Eyes”), and it accomplishes what many great records strive for: to demonstrate the breadth of a band’s strengths and at the same time reveal new currents in their sound.

2. Dan Deacon — Bromst
The precision and care with which Bromst was made are evident. Dan Deacon may have a bit of a mad scientist in him, but the emphasis falls on scientist—there is a weirdly left-brain bent to the symphonic chirps and groans of Deacon’s compositions. I’m hard pressed to think of a greater moment in music this year than when everything, save for the drums and a filleted vocal sample, suddenly drops out of the mix in “Snookered”.

3. Bat for Lashes — Two Suns
I was a fan of the last Bat for Lashes record, but queen babe Natasha Khan didn’t need to even try to sell me on Two Suns. All of the Kate Bushiness, the throbbing, dubby percussion, and Khan’s stunning, verb-soaked voice won me over from minute one. Plus, it’s a concept record. With appearances by Yeasayer and Scott Fucking Walker. Win.

4. White Rainbow — New Clouds
Behold indie rock gypsy-shaman Adam Forkner’s masterpiece. It wisely expands his sound without coming across as uneven, and features four glorious and gooey instrumental pieces, whose goofy titles help to jettison some of the pretension that sometimes accompanies instrumental music.

5. Blastoids — Kids Hands Smell Like Glitter
Blastoids’ set at Healthy Times Fun Club in June blew me away, and after the show, I recall a friend of mine referring to them as being “like if Animal Collective and all the Wham City people went down to Tennessee and made a swamp baby together”. This full-length (available for free on their myspace page) has startling range, and has rewarded many repeat listens across ’09. If you thought Fuck Buttons were the only band this year with a brilliant, transcendental electronic jam called “Space Mountain”, then you were wrong.

6. Big Spider’s Back — Warped EP
I was waiting on this EP for a long, long time, but it was definitely worth it. Earlier when I was talking about density? Forget it, dude. There is so much going on in this all-too-brief record that it seems designed for repeat listens. It’s all about peeling back the sonic layers. A little dose of musical serotonin every time you put it on.

7. Alaskas — Set Yourself Free
While this album pales in comparison to the experience of seeing one-man-cyclone Dillon James Rego live, it tries valiantly to capture the distorted ferocity of his concert sound. As such, Set Yourself Free is louder and harsher than past Alaskas releases, but not without its moments of shitgaze-y beauty.

8. Brother Raven — Diving Into the Pineapple Portal
This tape was the first-ever release from upstart local cassette label Gift Tapes, and it boded well for the rest of their catalogue. Brother Raven provides the perfect soundtrack for coastal drives; this is half an hour of pacific-flavored ambient, rendered in the kind of hazy, lo-fi synth strokes favored by the experimental set.

9. High Wolf - Incapulco
High Wolf and Brother Raven are both cassette label spirit animals, of a sort, so it figures that High Wolf’s sound—though darker, more aggressive, and more tropical—doesn’t sound that far removed from the sometimes droney, sometimes buoyant sounds on the aforementioned release.

10. Lotus Plaza — The Floodlight Collective
Deerhunter’s Lockett Pundt is my pick for contemporary indie guitar hero. I had pretty much already decided this in 2008, after first hearing the crazy, pitch-bent hook at the end of “Nothing Ever Happened”, but this album goes a long way towards protecting his rep, too. Some criticized The Floodlight Collective for being too murky and washed out, but “too shoegazey” is a concept that simply does not compute for me.