Year-End Festivities 2009: an introduction

Well, here I am again, attempting to share what mattered most to me in the past year. And again, I'm struggling to recall those things. I alternately love and hate our current musical climate. I'm very glad that music is so readily accessible, but the availability has led to inundation. Now, we hear artists' music long before it was intended (I understand that a lot of this is determined by record companies intentionally staggering release dates), before we have adequate time to process what came before. It's difficult to turn down the latest album leak -- I'm prone to leap at the chance to hear an album before the release date, certainly. However, I feel that it's been immensely detrimental to how I value music, and how I absorb music. Writing about music has physically and emotionally drained me this past year. It's something that I've loved for a long time, but I'm not sure how long I can continue (please stick with me... if i ever "retire" this blog, I'll post a formal missive of some sort).
Enough of this sentimental nonsense... on to some year-end business. I don't really feel like writing about each of the 25 releases in my list, so I'll highlight a few favorites in the days to come.