In however many years I've been doing year-end music lists for publications, this is the first one where the process just wasn't much fun, somehow. Possibly because 10 slots - or 20, if you wanna count albums and individual songs together - don't seem like quite enough to really encapsulate what was great about the last 12 months. Possibly because, once again, a slew of promos and downloads didn't even get a cursory spin. Possibly because in the past, like, couple days I've come upon totally fantastic, left-field shit like a bunch of Feeding Tube albums I'm preparing to review, and Telecult Powers. I don't know. There's just no joy in the process. And I have to admit: I was sorta hoping the late-to-the-party Clipse and Gucci Mane albums would be so dope that I'd fume and rage cuz I didn't hear 'em soon enough to consider 'em. Nah. Pazz & Jop comments? Not sure yet. I've a lot to say generally about life and about albums that we're released in years other than 2009. But not so much about music in 2009. Go figure.