And that about wraps up this particular list.  Once again, here are Part 1 and Part 2 if you missed them.  Thanks for playing, folks.

#10:
Dirty Projectors: “Two Doves”
(from Bitte Orca / Domino)

While the majority of the internet’s Pitchfork devotees cream themselves over Amber Coffman’s stunning Mariah Carey-ish take on “Stillness Is The Move” (and rightfully so), I will always plant my feet firmly in the corner of Dirty Projectors’ “other” female vocalist, Angel Deradoorian.  With a sound that conjures up thoughts of only the best moments in Nico’s all too bizarre solo career outside of The Velvet Underground, “Two Doves” shows off a much gentler side to Brooklyn’s latest superheroes not so evident in any of their current or past discography.  If Wes Anderson hasn’t already secured the rights to this song for whatever he chooses as the follow-up to Fantastic Mr. Fox, then it’s high time Dirty Projectors begin scouting for a brand new publicist.

#9:
BLK JKS: “Lakeside”
(from Mystery EP & After Robots / Secretly Canadian)

Those who’ve written off BLK JKS in one sentence as “Africa’s not so impressive answer to TV On The Radio” only to spend four days perfecting 3000 words on the sheer brilliance of The Antlers’ Hospice (HA!) will probably have trouble finding their way back into my good graces.  ”Lakeside” is a triumphant, haunting song that embraces four separate styles of traditional African music while translating them into a modern, ambient masterpiece.

#8:
St. Vincent: “The Strangers”
(from Actor / 4AD)

I didn’t want to like Actor.  In fact, the only reason I gave it a listen was specifically with the intention to gather information to mock Annie Clark’s newest attempt to latch on to the zombies marching behind the Leslie Feist fanclub banner.  After a few spins of the record, I admitted to a select few that her new music “wasn’t all that bad this time around”.  After hearing her interview and live performance on Sound Opinions, I became an unapologetic fan.  Give me outstanding lyrics like “desperate don’t look good on you, neither does your virtue” or the simple, plaintive “paint the black hole blacker” over heavily-processed Reason beats and the strains of an angelic choir and I’ll always be hooked.

#7:
Grizzly Bear & Victoria Legrand: “Slow Life”
(from The Twilight Saga: New Moon Soundtrack / Atlantic Records)

From the moment Ed Droste first teased over his recently deleted Twitter account that Grizzly Bear had recorded a track with the Beach House songstress, there was no doubt in my mind that whatever brainstorms the group arrived at together would be nothing short of tremendous.  Still, I was not prepared for the unmitigated beauty that “Slow Life” pushed over my ear drums upon my first listen.  As if in a state of sublime shock, I made no further efforts to listen to the song a second time for well over a month out of fear that I’d dreamt the entire beatific experience.  This song showcases five musicians at their creative pinnacle and crowns them as some sort of east coast million dollar quintet.

#6:
Akron/Family: “Everyone Is Guilty”
(from Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free / Dead Oceans)

Pretend, for a moment, that you are a member of Akron/Family in 2007. You’ve established yourself as one of the pre-eminent forefathers of the burgeoning “freak-folk” movement of the mid-2000’s and firmly secured a permanent place in the heart of Swans and Angels Of Light mastermind Michel Gira when your chief songwriter and founding band mate decides to up and quit in order to move to a Buddhist Dharma Center somewhere in the midwest. While many bands would crumble in light of a situation like this, Akron/Family buckled down and recorded the finest record in their impressive canon. “Everyone Is Guilty” is the type of song that usually works better on paper and fails miserably in practice. Leaping from one style to the next with little or no preparation, mixing enough frustrating time signatures to confuse even the most studied math rock enthusiasts and employing a wealth of instrumentation that rivals a small orchestra, there is no reason to believe that this song should work on any level whatsoever. Thankfully, it does. And it doesn’t just work in some lighthearted sense of the word, it will fucking floor you.

#5:
Drake: “Best I Ever Had”
(from So Far Gone EP / Universal Motown)

Drake’s probably right when he brags that his “buzz so big, I could probably sell a blank disc.”  In the last week alone, he’s shown up in the new Kid Cudi video, announced a huge remix collaboration with The-Dream and spent the rest of his time working on new tracks with Lil’ Wayne.  At it’s heart, “Best I Ever Had” is kind of a silly, romantic song with a tremendous dirty streak that ambushes you.  Drake doesn’t so much spit rhymes over his tracks, like his frequent collaborator Lil’ Wayne, as much as he wanders in and out of his songs, lazily cramming chunks of words over stuttering beats.  But that’s the thing: without his unique delivery and without the sampler’s-almost-out-of-batteries beat style he employs, this would just be your average, everyday R&B/hip-hop track.  Drake establishes his roots firmly in old school hip-hop while at the same time elevating the genre to a whole new level.

#4:
Fever Ray: “When I Grow Up”
(from Fever Ray / Rabid Records)

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ain’t got nothin’ on Karin Elisabeth Dreijer Andersson.

#3:
Elvis Perkins In Dearland: “Hours Last Stand”
(from Elvis Perkins In Dearland / XL Recordings)

The one and only perfect religious moment in the entirety of music in the year 2009 occurs deep inside of “Hours Last Stand” when Elvis Perkins sings “midnight, midnight in the cat’s eyes and to the devil, the chicken spirit flies, finally, not so unlike the dove, the hours last stand is in your hands.”  Go find that moment and never let it go.

#2:
Cass McCombs: “You Saved My Life”
(from Catacombs / Domino)

Cass McCombs has always crammed his records with lush instrumentation, filling them to the brim with sound.  While it’s often led to some quite lovely results, his past efforts have never felt completely realized to me, more half finished than anything.  On Catacombs, he’s wisely stripped down his sound and let the effortlessness of his songwriting shine through instead of covering it in a slick sheen of over-arranging.  Somewhere in there, he found the time to pen what should be the ultimate middle school slow dance song, but will most likely be overlooked for some random Adam Lambert ballad.  This is the kind of song that could have inspired John Hughes to write a whole new slate of generation-defining teen movies.  It’s a shame that we’ll never have the opportunity to see what could have been…

#1:
Junior Boys: “Parallel Lines”
(from Begone Dull Care / Domino)

There was almost never any question that this would end being my top song of the year, even as far back as early January.  A somewhat brief story to illustrate: Late one evening towards the beginning of the year, I was driving home after a particularly long and stressful day.  Upon exiting onto the off-ramp closest to my house, a Washington state trooper rolled up along side of me in his shiny, rain-streaked cruiser.  Being a two-lane off-ramp, we mirrored each other all the way towards the traffic light at the end of the ramp.  As we both stopped for the red light, I happened to look to my left in the direction of the trooper and made eye contact.  He then made an undeniable international sign with his hands that could only have meant, “roll down your fucking window, now!”  Not wanting to further agitate a cop that already appeared to be sufficiently pissed, i complied with his hand gesture and quickly rolled down my window.  At this point, I also made the decision to lower the volume of my stereo by a rather large measure as I realized that he might not share in my appreciation of the booming bass that was rattling my car’s speakers.  He yelled one sentence into my open window before he pulled away from the off-ramp, leaving me behind.  The sentence?  ”FUCKING TURN THAT SHIT DOWN OR I TAKE YOU IN!”  The song?  ”Parallel Lines” by Junior Boys.  Ladies and gentleman, the goddamn song of the year…at least, in my somewhat humble, over-stated opinion.