An infrequent contributor, Kevin Foster Langston has a love-hate relationship with listmaking and damn-near everything else. He longs for the time when vampires weren’t such sissies, Black Eyed Peas were merely a side dish and Auto-Tune was nothing but a function on your car radio. He also thinks Meryl Streep is fugly.

1. Dinosaur Jr., Farm (Jagjaguwar)
2. Titus Andronicus, The Airing Of Grievances (Xl Recordings)
3. Rural Alberta Advantage, Hometowns (Saddle Creek)
4. Flaming Lips, Embryonic (Warner Bros.)
5. Japandroids, Post-Nothing (Polyvinyl)
6. White Denim, Fits (Downtown Records)
7. The Antlers, Hospice (Frenchkiss Records)
8. Castanets, Texas Rose, The Beasts, And The Thaw (Asthmatic Kitty)
9. Fanfarlo, Reservoir (Self-Released)
10. Them Crooked Vultures, Them Crooked Vultures (Dgg/Interscope)

Honorable Mentions:
The Big Pink, A Brief History Of Love (4ad)
Justin Townes Earle, Midnight At The Movies (Bloodshot Records)
Here We Go Magic, Here We Go Magic (Western Vinyl)
Le Loup, Family (Hardly Art)
The Love Language, The Love Language (Bladen County)
The Tallest Man On Earth, Shallow Grave (Gravitation)+
White Rabbits, It’s Frightening (Tbd Records)

+Released March 2008, but I listened to it a lot in 2009. It’s my list, anyways. Jog on.