In a great year of music, here’s my top 5 releases from 2009, culled from the albums I’ve personally reviewed. In no particular order:

Bob Schneider – Lovely Creatures

Bob Schneider has always been a man of remarkable musical breadth, and Lovely Creatures most successfully coalesces his diverse styles of any album to date. The lead single “40 Dogs (Romeo and Juliet)” is pure pop magic, with its rapid-fire patter nestled in among hooky choruses. The album manages to successfully swing from salsa-fueled numbers like “Bombananza” and “Tarantula,” to singalong acoustic tunes (”Til Somebody Catches a Feeling”), to the album’s wistful closer “Bicycle vs. Car.” Whatever your mood, there’s a song here that fits it.

Glasvegas – Glasvegas

In contrast to Schneider, Glasvegas are almost singular in style, to great effect. Amid waves of crystalline guitar distortion, frontman James Allan sings with his distinct Scottish brogue drenched in reverb. The songs, balancing driving guitars and retro affectations, create a energetic, haunting landscape for Allan’s sincere and heartbreaking lyrics, as if the ghosts of a ’50s-era band came back to play noise pop. Be sure to check out “Flowers and Football Tops” and “Geraldine.”

Mike Doughty – Sad Man Happy Man

For this collection of parenthetical-intsensive songs, Doughty pulled back from the lusher production of his previous two albums and  focuses more on the jazzy poetic acoustic-driven work that helped him build his solo career. The arrangements are filled out with touring partner Andrew “Scrap” Livingston’s cello, and some drum tracking that echoes back to Doughty’s Soul Coughing days. Standouts include the driving, insistent “Lord Lord Help Me Just to Rock Rock On” and “(You Should Be) Doubly (Gratified),” as well as a grimly amusing cover of  Daniel Johnston’s “Casper the Friendly Ghost”

Carbon Leaf – Nothing Rhymes with Woman

While Carbon Leaf has gradually muted the Celtic tinge that inflected their earlier music, the distinct character of their music remains on Nothing Rhymes with Woman. Singer Barry Privett’s distinct vocals lead this collection of accessible but distinct songs. The wonderfully produced album ranges from the opening toe-tapper “Indecision” to the urgent, lovely “Lake of Silver Bells.” The real standout of the album, though, is “Another Man’s Woman” – a thumping, bluesy affair that feels like an inspired cover song, except that it’s actually an original tune.

Backspacer –  Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam has been on the upswing since 2006’s self-titled release. With Backspacer, they continue that trend with a mix of songs that pulls together their different musical directions into a diverse, taut collection. The album opens with a three-song punch of straight rock, including single “The Fixer.” From there the album meanders wonderfully between songs like loping, almost-ballad “Speed of Sound”, “Just Breathe” — a spare acoustic number that sounds lifted from Vedder’s Into the Wild soundtrack – and “Amongst the Waves,” a soaring number in which we get that rare taste of Vedder actually just sounding happy.

Other notables:

The Swell Season – Strict Joy, Phish – Joy, Green Day – 21st Century Breakdown

Local Pick:

The Bollox – The Bollox

The side project of Jason DeVore, of Authority Zero fame, The Bollox features rocked-up Celtic music in the vein of the Pogues, Flogging Molly and, in particular, the Dropkick Murphys. While the meat of the album are guitar-heavy numbers like “Welcome to Bastards Bay” and “Tura’Lu,” they are offset by great mellower tunes like “Pints of Guinness” and “Ireland You Are Free.”

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