July is the new December with music sites trumpeting The Best Albums of 2009… So Far. We thought we’d join in on this list-making exercise. Here’s some of our faves 7 months into the year that is 2009.

Eels – Hombre Lobo (Nikki)
M Ward – Hold Time (Fez)
Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (Karen)
Yeah Yeah Yeah’s – It’s Blitz! (Lisa)
Andrew Bird – Noble Beast (Tara)
The Decemberists – Hazards of Love (Darryl)
Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca (Liesl)
The Crystal Method – Divided By Night (Kara)

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Chicago’s finest crawled out of their snowy hovels to head to an Andrew Bird gig at the Hideout and boogie down to ‘Fitz and Dizzyspells.’ Heck, they even chimed in with their trombones. The track is off what I’m calling one of the finest releases of 2009 (yes, yes thus far), Noble Beast, a beautiful and articulate collection of non sequiturs and mood changes.

Andrew Bird with Mucca Pazza – “Fitz & The Dizzyspells”

Mr. Bird chronicled the songwriting of Noble Beast over at the New York Times.

Andrew Bird – wikipedia