'09, the first six months: an album round-up

Normally, I wouldn't do this, but since I haven't posted any "Music of the Week" for a while, and my 2009-list updates have been sloppy at best, I thought I'd post a top 20 records Jan. to June 2009 now.

1. Abdullah Ibrahim: Senzo (Sunnyside)
2. UGK: UGK4Life (Jive)
3. The Fully Celebrated: Drunk on the Blood of the Holy Ones (AUM Fidelity)
   
4. Matthew Shipp: Harmonic Disorder (AUM Fidelity)
5. Wussy: Wussy (Shake It)
6. David S. Ware: Shakti (AUM Fidelity)
7. Art Brut: Art Brut vs. Satan (Cooking Vinyl)
8. Sonic Youth: The Eternal (Matador)
9. Steve Lehman Octet: Travail, Transformation, and Flow (Pi Recordings)
   
10. Dinosaur Jr.: Farm (JagJaguwar)
    
11. Darren Johnston: The Edge of the Forrest (Clean Feed)
12. The-Dream: Love vs. Money (Def Jam)
13. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: It's Blitz (Interscope)
14. White Denim: Exposion (EM/Tunecore)
15. Lily Allen: It's Not Me, It's You (Regal/EMI)
16. Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band: Outer South (Merge)
17. Gerald Cleaver, William Parker, Craig Taborn: Farmers by Nature (AUM Fidelity)
18. Japandroids: Post-Nothing (Unfamiliar/Tunecore)
    
19. K'Naan: Troubadour (EMI/Virgin)
20. Staff Benda Bilili: Tres Tres Fort (Crammed)