Best of 2009 – Caitlin’s List

The prospect of writing up a list of the best of anything is harrowing, and for a music lover, having to somehow rank music by musicians you adore is near impossible (commence metaphors about picking favorite children.)  However, it is the difficulty of the task that makes it so thrilling.  So, I’m here to try to convince you, my readers, that the albums I am about to rank off are ones you should invest your time, money, ears and hearts in.  Though one would think the following disclaimer goes without saying, I prefer to be perfectly explicit:  the albums here are by no means an exhaustive “best of” list, because I am one woman with two ears and not the most money (and yes, I still pay for my music).  These are the best albums that *I* listened to this year.  However, because they span folk-rock, indie-pop, Americana and gritty blues rock, I’m hoping there’s enough here to induce head-nodding or curiosity great enough to get you to check a band out.  Alright, now that we have all these niceties out of the way, let’s get real.