Hey, it’s been a pretty good year for music! After 2008 was widely declared a disaster from which only a few gems survived, 2009 had a lot of ground to make up. From Animal Collective and Washed Out to The xx and Fever Ray to Sea Wolf and Dark Was The Night, we had a lot of incredible albums to pick from for our year-end list. Unfortunately, there are only 25 spots and the three of us happen to have some very different ideas about what goes in those spots.

But if 2009 taught us anything, it’s that the world of indie music has evolved into a much more artistic and experimental-leaning scene. Influences have reached around the world and incorporated everything from Afro-pop to heavy psychedelic. Bands and artists challenged the idea of the genre, forcing critics to constantly create new ones (chillwave, glo-fi, etc.). It has certainly been a brave year in music and there will surely be many more exciting things to come. As always, keep in mind that in the end, this is just a list. [Photo by James B. Hale]

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