I can't stop.... reviewing the year (in music) pt. 1

Album whose total didn't equal the sum of its parts: The Twilight New Moon Soundtrack. With artists like Grizzly Bear, Thom Yorke, Lykke Li, and Death Cab, this was a slam dunk. Thom Yorke- Hearing Damage

Soundtrack of the Year that was greater than the sum of its parts: Karen O and the Kids - Where the Wild Things Are

Song that perfectly describes that weird limbo after a relationship ends when two people continue to sleep together: Kleerup feat. Lykke Li - Until We Bleed

Artist who went from complete unknown to Artist I'd like to sleep with fastest: Anya Marina - Not a Through Street

Best use of lyrics about size D breasts as a means of satire - Kanye West- Throw Some D's on It (Cousin Cole Mix)

Best song to blare when Mike or any other haters come in yo area: Big Boi feat Gucci Mane - Shine Blockas

Best album to which I understood less than 30% of the lyrics: Amadou and Mariam - Welcome to Mali Runner Up (mostly because I passed the 30% threshold after going to South America): Nelly Furtado - Mi Plans Nelly Furtado - Mi Plans (manos al aire)

Song that deserves an award for bringing back the term "Sailor" to refer to a guy from whom all a girl wants is to bump uglies with: Camera Obscura - French Navy

Most inappropriate title for a debut album/mixtape- UKNOWBIGSEAN by Big Sean Big Sean - Tomorrow

Most inappropriate title for a song that is perfectly titled: Bibio - Ambivalence Avenue - Just because I'm not ambivalent in thinking this song is tight.

Most disingenuous song of the year: Drake - Best I Ever Had - Look, if the intro to the song says it's to all the girls out there, but the gist of the song is about one who is the best, it can't be about all of you. This song also wins the award for best use of a pop culture reference in a way that would have the creator rolling in his grave for comparing the Andy Griffith theme song to the sound Drake can generate from a female genitalia.
(Runner Up: Miley Cyrus for Party in the USA - my world was turned upside down when I read she's never heard ANY Jay-Z songs, let alone THE Jay-Z song)

Most pompous album of the year that I should've seen coming: The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love - any time a band makes an album and calls it a "rock opera" before it's released, you shouldn't be surprised when it's a bit arrogant. Concept albums are dead. The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love

Album that was released in 2009 that sounds like it was released in 1993 but I'm totally into it: Diamond District - In the Ruff - Bring back the boom-bap. Diamond District - Streets Won't Let Me Chill

Album that was released in 2009 that sounds like it was produced in Early Fuck and whose sound is completely indescribable but I'm totally into it: Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca Dirty Projectors - Stillness is the Move

Song that went from this is kind of catchy to if I hear it one more time I'm going to gauge my eye out with a blunt object: Jay-Z Empire State of Mind (Note: I refuse to post this song here since I have no interest in pulling an Oedipus)