Top 20 Albums of 2009

2009 was the year that a certain kind of music — folk-inflected, roots-adjacent, serious about its influences without being precious about them — consolidated a position that had been building for several years. The Americana underground had been producing interesting work throughout the 2000s. By the end of 2009, some of that work had reached audiences that were genuinely large.

These are the twenty albums that mattered most from this vantage point.

The list

1. Monsters of Folk — Monsters of Folk Four artists who each had strong individual catalogs — Conor Oberst, M. Ward, Mike Mogis, and Bright Eyes collaborator Mike Mogis — making a collective record that was better than any of the individual contributions would have suggested. The folk-rock touchstones are audible throughout.

2. Bill Callahan — Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle Callahan's finest record, which is saying something. The arrangements are spare and attentive. The lyrics are among the best he's written. The emotional register is precise without being cold.

3. Neko Case — Middle Cyclone The country-noir album of the year. Case's voice remains one of the best instruments in American music. The arrangements around it are careful and intentional.

4. M. Ward — Hold Time Ward's studio records are always thoughtful. This one is the most complete statement of his particular synthesis: the finger-picked folk technique, the vintage recording aesthetic, the way he hears melody.

5. Animal Collective — Merriweather Post Pavilion Not a folk record in any straightforward sense, but the psychedelic folk tradition runs through it, and the record's influence on what was coming was significant.

6. Wilco — Wilco (The Album) Not the best Wilco record, but a confident one — a band that knows what it is and isn't interested in pretending otherwise.

7. Grizzly Bear — Veckatimest The four-part harmonies, the folk structure underneath the experimental surface, the way the arrangements build and release.

8. Japandroids — Post-Nothing Loud and fast and entirely sincere. The guitar-and-drums two-piece is an old format. These two use it with conviction.

9. Andrew Bird — Noble Beast Bird's violin-and-whistling-and-guitar recordings have always been hard to categorize. This one landed in the right place at the right time.

10. Magnolia Electric Co. — Josephine Jason Molina's work was consistently excellent throughout the 2000s. This record is among his most focused.

11. Phosphorescent — To Willie An album of Willie Nelson covers that understands what the songs contain. Matthew Houck treats the source material as source material, not as a tribute exercise.

12. Camera Obscura — My Maudlin Career Scottish chamber pop with genuine folk sensibility. The songwriting is consistently good.

13. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy — Beware Will Oldham's records arrive on their own terms. This one is country and strange in equal measure.

14. The Mountain Goats — The Life of the World to Come John Darnielle's Bible verses record. Extreme specificity of reference producing unexpected emotional range.

15. Giant Sand — Tucson The Arizona desert-rock lineage running straight through a record that doesn't apologize for what it is.

16. Tinariwen — Imidiwan: Companions Tuareg blues from the Sahara, which belongs in this conversation because the Americana tradition is about roots music globally understood.

17. Conor Oberst — Outer South The follow-up to the first solo Oberst record. More country-adjacent than either of the first two Bright Eyes records from the 2000s.

18. Elvis Perkins in Dearland — Elvis Perkins in Dearland The second record. Perkins comes from folk and writes songs that contain more than they appear to.

19. Timber Timbre — Timber Timbre Canadian gothic folk. The atmosphere is the point and the atmosphere is good.

20. Iron and Wine — Around the Well The rarities and unreleased tracks collection. Sam Beam's output is consistent enough that the non-album material merits serious attention.

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