I wasn’t planning on writing a “Best Of” list this year, seeing as no one asked me to (What’s up with that?) Fine, I’ve never been all that interested in these things anyway. But as I’ve read list after list these past few weeks, I noticed that few of the albums that impressed me this year were being acknowledged by other folks. Since I don’t get to write about other music styles as much as I get to write about rap, I thought I’d throw together a list of my favorite albums without any rapping on them. I’m not saying these are the best records of the year, in this order: they’re just the ones I listened to and enjoyed on a regular basis. I wouldn’t want to altogether leave hip-hop out of the discussion so I’ll be back with a shorter, all-rap list shortly. (Click on album titles to stream music)

HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE—S/T (Honest Jon’s)

Hypnotic, the world’s best post-hip-hop family brass band, has had a number of full-length, slim-case CDs for sale for years, but, until now, they’d never made a proper album. Recorded in several days for Damon Albarn’s Honest Jon’s label (Hypnotic are said to be featured musicians on Albarn’s next Gorillaz LP), this 11-song LP finally captures the majesty of their remarkable live performances on record. With the group having reportedly put their street performance career to bed, it’s a much-needed document.

LEE FIELDS & THE EXPRESSIONS—MY WORLD (Truth and Soul)

Backed by the Truth & Soul label’s house band, Fields, a veteran singer with a catalog dating back to the early ’70s, made a near-perfect album of gritty and pained but ultimately optimistic soul.

MAXWELL—BLACKSUMMERSNIGHT (Columbia)

By any standard, Maxwell’s fourth LP (and first in eight years) was a success, the sort of release you get when the major label system actually works. It’s artful and untethered by contemporary music yet trends yet accessible, and it sold a ton—largely on the strength of word of mouth, not an overbearing marketing effort.

FEVER RAY—S/T (Rabid)

It’s hard to separate Karin Dreijer Andersson from The Knife, her group with brother Olaf that she’s fronted for the last decade. On her first, and reportedly last, solo album as Fever Ray, Andersson took her ice-queen persona to a new level, pitching her voice into horror-movie extremes over foreboding soundscapes she’s said were inspired by Jan Hammer’s work on Miami Vice. Five mostly disturbing videos helped make this one of the year’s most immersive multimedia packages.

EMPIRE OF THE SUN—WALKING ON A DREAM (EMI/Astralwerks)

This LP from the Australian duo of Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore originally came out in 2008 but dropped stateside in March. I’m still confused as to why it caught on more with rappers than with the hipsters who supported MGMT, who recently charted similar faux-glam new wave territory with much less impressive results.

DAM-FUNK—TOEACHIZOWN (Stones Throw)

Criticisms of Dam-Funk’s five-vinyl, double-disc opus tend to focus on Dam’s limited singing ability but I say that’s part of the charm. Dude makes it work (Besides, it’s mostly instrumentals). Like the Lee Fields album, Toeachizown proves that it’s possible to create something fresh while reaching back into a very specific moment in the past (in this case, early ’80s electro-funk) for inspiration.

THE VERY BEST—WARM HEART OF AFRICA (Green Owl)

The Very Best’s polyglot sound—a post-Diplo mixture of African dance music styles largely unfamiliar to the group’s core indie rock following; European techno/house; and even a little arena rock—has been resolutely praised. Within the hype, singer Esau Mwamwaya’s arresting vocal performance—certainly the best I heard all year—has been somewhat overlooked.

NITE JEWEL—GOOD EVENING (Human Ear)

One of the under-documented music stories of 2009 was the wave of throwback-minded yet fresh-sounding rhythmic music that’s been coming out of L.A.: in addition to the emergence of jerk music (New Boyz, Pink Dollaz) and Dam-Funk, the city also gave us Nite Jewel. Singer Ramona Gonzalez (Nite Jewel is alternately her pseudonym and a three-piece band) has a gorgeous, haunting voice that simultaneously evokes Kate Bush and forgotten female freestyle vocalists of the mid ’80s like Connie. Sexy and sinister yet subtle, the bass-driven “What Did He Say” was the year’s most unusual dance track. As with Fever Ray, the vibe was enhanced significantly by a string of uniquely bizarre videos.

MARIAH CAREY—MEMOIRS OF AN IMPERFECT ANGEL (Island)

Despite the exceptional work of producer/co-songwriters The-Dream and Tricky Stewart (who outdid their work on The-Dream’s own stellar 2009 LP, Love Vs. Money), somehow both critics and the public slept on one of the finest efforts by the most successful female pop singer of our time. Imperfect Angel’s primary fault? It was more of an album than a singles factory.

HUDSON MOHAWKE—BUTTER (WARP)

If J Dilla attended Hogwarts instead of Detroit public schools he might have hit upon a sound like the one on Butter, the debut LP from babyfaced Scottish beatmaker Hudson Mohawke. From my vantage point, Mohawke’s tweaker instrumentals represent the first appealing, distinctly British (in this case, Scottish) variation on hip-hop to emerge from the U.K. since grime first hit.

EXTRA GOLDEN— THANK YOU VERY QUICKLY (Thrill Jockey)

The best rock-and-roll record I heard this year was actually a fusion of Southern boogie rock and benga, an electric guitar-based Afropop style almost unknown in the west before this half-Kenyan, half-American quartet formed several years ago.

RYAN LESLIE—S/T

Both the albums that R&B auteur Ryan Leslie released in 2009 were pretty solid despite their commercial failure. Perhaps, it was overkill: I still haven’t bought November’s Transition yet, ’cause I’m still listening to this first one.

MAJOR LAZER—GUNS DON’T KILL PEOPLE…PEOPLE DO (Downtown)

It wasn’t a particularly good year for dancehall: the fact that this Diplo and Switch project was the most memorable reggae release of the year is all the evidence that’s needed to support this. But, despite the faintly annoying whiff of cultural tourism that permeates any Diplo project, Guns Don’t Kill People was thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish, with straight-up one-drop reggae tracks like “Can’t Stop Now” (featuring Mr. Vegas and Jovi Rockwell) sharing space with more experimental fare like the Black Flag-sampling “Lazer Theme.”