Music didn’t do much for me this year but I’m going to force myself to write about it anyway. These were the albums that mattered to me most but, from the looks of it, not that of the critical consensus (Animal Collective is the best band of the year…um’kay) or public taste (Lady Gaga, the most “multi-talented” male “female” “artist” of the year) or just people who think they’re cooler than us (Girls fans, UGH). Overall, I heard 35 good albums worthy of a “best of the year” list. That is both a victory for the 09 album format and a defeat because for every 35 albums that were great to good to, uh, whatever the Flaming Lips album was, there were four times as many that were a mess. The album has been dead for a while and this year it’s easy to see why. On that sad note, check back in a few days for Paper Street Cinema Music’s best tracks of the year.

Click below to find out what the Best Albums of the Year are...