2009 is a tough year to judge. I’ve checked out more albums this year than any year in the past. Well over 1,000. And there have been quite a few great ones as well. When this list began, it had 110 albums. I abandoned my top 33 and 1/3 for 45, and then said “screw it” and upped the number to an even 50. These are the top notch albums of the year, all worthy of praise.

Let me tell you a story. In 2007 some notable things happened. I attended the annual music festival SXSW (the image above is of myself and The Lovely Sparrows’ Shawn Jones, taken by Abandoned Love Records/Virgin Of The Birds’ Jon Rooney), I grew a mustache, and I met a beautiful girl named Andi at the Capitol Hill Block Party. We hit it off and ditched the after-party to get a sprite (her) and coffee (me) at Denny’s in Ballard (sadly no longer there) at 1:30am. I …

Upon first hearing “Beach Town”, the first officially available track off Le Loup’s sophomore release Family, I noted how it was surprisingly reminiscent of recent Papercuts. I failed to mention that the two artists shared a stage at CMJ 2007, where I saw each lay down a phenomenal set. Well, listening to Family in its entirety, I’m struck by two thoughts.

It’s been two long years since any news has come forth from the Baltimore collective Le Loup, fronted by the once tormented Sam Simkoff. Two years is a very long time — enough time for maturity to progress, lifestyles to change, personalities to evolve. And that’s what we’re given with the first single off Le Loup’s upcoming sophomore LP, Family; a sound that holds the vibrant avant-garde nature of Le Loup’s debut, but metamorphosed into something that would ultimately make Darwin proud.

With such a long album name, one would think elements of an experimental nature would likely be found within; and about Le Loup’s The Throne Of The Third Heaven Of The Nations’ Millennium General Assembly one would be correct in that assumption. Actually, The Throne is a concept album largely inspired by Dante’s Inferno. “Canto I” and “Canto XXXVI” take their names from the first and last chapters of the book. The album marks the second release for Hardly Art.