Röyksopp, Junior

On Junior, Röyksopp proves, in songs like “The Girl and the Robot” featuring Robyn and “You Don’t Have a Clue,” that hidden beneath layers of trip-pop lies a profound message about loneliness, self-hate and love.

Brandi Carlile, Give Up the Ghost

Brandi Carlile’s Give Up the Ghost, a mix of country, pop and rock, evokes such emotion and power that you begin to wonder if Carlile isn’t of this generation but a “Ghost” of music past, when talent triumphed.

Dragonette, Fixin to Thrill

Dragonette presents an outstanding collection of amusing pop songs about topics as mundane as they can get, like “Big Sunglasses.” Though Fixin to Thrill is a fun album meant to “thrill” for only a “fix[ed]” amount of time, don’t be surprised when the lyrics of “Gone Too Far” describe how you feel about the album: “I thought it would be fun for the night, but you want it for the rest of your life.”

Marina and the Diamonds, Crown Jewels EP/Obsessions

Marina and the Diamonds released only an EP and a double a-side this year, totaling a mere six tracks. If you like your Fiona Apple with more pop or your Regina Spektor with less cuteness, check out Marina’s full length debut Family Jewels next month.

Bat for Lashes, Two Suns

When Khan sings “Goodbye my dears, and into the big sleep” on the closing song “The Big Sleep,” you’re impatiently waiting to bring up Suns again to wake and relive the haunting and thrilling orbit Khan leads you through on Two Suns.

Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion

Arguably Animal Collective’s most pop, yet still true indie rock, album Pavilion does the band’s name justice by collecting elements of the new age of electronic sounds with the old age of the human soul. When the band sings out “Open up your, open up your, open up your throat,” everyone listening can’t help but follow and sing along.

Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

This French band’s 2009 album isn’t as dynamic in its presentation, which many may consider ordinary and boring. But classified as what mainstream bands like Coldplay should be, Phoenix proves that music doesn’t have to be forced down our ears. With seemingly too simple but actually very layered and meaningful melodies, songs can grow like standout track “Lisztomania” boasts: “Think less but see it grow, / Like a riot, like a riot, oh!”

The xx, xx

No album this year left me more confused than xx. Sensual in sound and mysterious in lyric, xx revolves around a couple who are speaking to one another through the very mystifying verse... I think. But it’s clear with “Crystalised” that there’s a meaningful purpose to all this confusion: the track features both the male and female singers singing different lyrics over one another, later coming together as they both repeat the words “closer.” Often bordering the technique of blues and frequently treading Radiohead territory, The xx are themselves a mystery: How is their debut album this good?

The Antlers, Hospice

Hospice is a story about a hospital employee who ends up falling unconditionally in love with a cancer patient. Backed by haunting instrumentals, each track explains a monumental part in the relationship between the patient and the man. The track “Kettering” describes the female as a “hurricane thunderclap”, an abusive woman who projects all her pain onto the narrator. In this sense, the album is much like the woman; it will leave your heart feeling bruised — aching from hearing the lamentations of a man who loses everything.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, It’s Blitz!

It’s Perfect! The dance-pop of “Heads Will Roll”, the elegant melancholy of “Runaway,” the fun and heartwarming joy of “Hysteric” and the emotional lingering of “Little Shadow” are all bitter blitzkriegs of loneliness and self belittlement disguised as sweet allies. With a brand new sound that’s still marked by the affectionate tone of their most popular hit “Maps,” It’s Blitz! was not only one of the best albums of 2009, but also one of the best pop albums of the decade.