Greg Beets
1) GIRLS Album (True Panther)
2) HEAVY TRASH Midnight Soul Serenade (Big Legal Mess/Fat Possum)
3) RAINY DAY SAINTS Reflected (Get Hip)
4) YO LA TENGO Popular Songs (Matador)
5) DIRTY PROJECTORS Bitte Orca (Domino)
6) TINARIWEN Imidiwan: Companions (World Village)
7) PISSED JEANS King of Jeans (Sub Pop)
8) THE LOVE ME NOTS Upsidedown Insideout (Atomic a Go Go)
9) CRYSTAL ANTLERS Tentacles (Touch and Go)
Jim Caligiuri
1) LEVON HELM Electric Dirt (Vanguard)
2) SON VOLT American Central Dust (Rounder)
3) PATTY LOVELESS Mountain Soul II (Saguaro Road)
4) BEAUSOLEIL Alligator Purse (Yep Roc)
5) GUY CLARK Somedays the Song Writes You (Dualtone)
6) KRIS KRISTOFFERSON Closer to the Bone (New West)
7) RADNEY FOSTER & THE CONFESSIONS Revival (Emergent)
8) DAVE RAWLINGS MACHINE A Friend of a Friend (Acony)
9) ELVIS COSTELLO Secret, Profane & Sugarcane (Hear Music)
Thomas Fawcett
1) LEE FIELDS & THE EXPRESSIONS My World (Truth & Soul)
2) BROTHER ALI Us (Rhymesayers)
3) UGK UGK 4 Life (Jive)
4) MOS DEF The Ecstatic (Downtown)
5) MAYER HAWTHORNE A Strange Arrangement (Stones Throw)
6) RAEKWON Only Built 4 Cuban Linx … Pt. II (ICEAL)
7) DAN AUERBACH Keep It Hid (Nonesuch)
8) EL MICHELS AFFAIR Enter the 37th Chamber (Truth & Soul)
9) WALE Attention Deficit (Interscope)
Doug Freeman
1) GRIZZLY BEAR Veckatimest (Warp)
2) THE FLAMING LIPS Embryonic (Warner Bros.)
3) THE AVETT BROTHERS I and Love and You (Sony)
4) DEER TICK Born on Flag Day (Partisan)
5) THE FELICE BROTHERS Yonder Is the Clock (Team Love)
6) JAY FARRAR & BENJAMIN GIBBARD One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Music From Kerouac’s Big Sur (Atlantic)
7) MONSTERS OF FOLK (Shangri-La)
8) DANGER MOUSE & SPARKLEHORSE Dark Night of the Soul
9) TINY VIPERS Life on Earth (Sub Pop)
Chase Hoffberger
1) DANGER MOUSE & SPARKLEHORSE Dark Night of the Soul
2) ACEYALONE & THE LONELY ONES (Decon)
3) BEN KWELLER Changing Horses (ATO)
4) BLAKROC (V2)
5) MOS DEF The Ecstatic (Downtown)
6) M.O.P. Foundation (Koch)
7) DAWES North Hills
8) UGK UGK 4 Life (Jive)
9) ALBERTA CROSS Broken Side of Time (ATO)
Margaret Moser
1) THE DECEMBERISTS The Hazards of Love (Capitol)
2) AMONG THE OAK & ASH (Verve Forecast)
3) THE DECEMBERISTS The Hazards of Love (Capitol)
4) PAT MACDONALD Purgatory Hill
5) THE DECEMBERISTS The Hazards of Love (Capitol)
6) DAVIE ALLAN & THE ARROWS Retrophonic (Arrow Dynamic)
7) THE DECEMBERISTS The Hazards of Love (Capitol)
8) ONE ESKIMO (Artist First)
9) THE DECEMBERISTS The Hazards of Love (Capitol)
Jay Trachtenberg
1) DAN AUERBACH Keep It Hid (Nonesuch)
2) COURTNEY JOHN Made in Jamaica (Fiwi Music)
3) EXTRA GOLDEN Thank You Very Quickly (Thrill Jockey)
4) BILLY HARPER Blueprints of Jazz, Vol. 2 (Talking House)
5) STEVE LEHMAN OCTET Travail, Transformation, and Flow (Pi)
6) NOVALIMA Coba Coba (Cumbancha)
7) ENRICO RAVA New York Days (ECM)
8) TOM RUSSELL Blood and Candle Smoke (Shout! Factory)
9) ALLEN TOUSSAINT The Bright Mississippi (Nonesuch)
This article appears in 2009.