Big Star - Keep an Eye on the Sky
As the object of intense devotion for so many fans, it’s fitting that Big Star receive a box set designed for the intensely devoted: four discs containing every song the band cut in the ’70s, often present in slightly alternate mixes or versions in addition to the originals, a clutch of solo songs from both Chris Bell and Alex Chilton, as well as a handful of pre-Big Star cuts by Icewater and Rock City, all topped off with a live disc culled from a three-set stint at Memphis’ Lafayette’s Music Room in January of 1973, not long after Bell left the band. Excepting subsequent reunions in the ’90s and 2000s, no corner of the band’s career remains untouched on Keep an Eye on the Sky and rarities are abundant, with 55 of its 98 tracks previously unreleased.

Drake - So Far Gone
No doubt about it, Drake blew up big time in 2009. The one-time TV actor (from Degrassi High: The Next Generation) hooked up with Lil Wayne a couple years previously, worked the mixtape and collabo circuit hard for a spell, and then suddenly hit with the song “Best I Ever Had.” The song was taken from the So Far Gone mixtape and became, arguably, the top summer jam of 2009. After a ferocious bidding war, Drake ended up signing with Universal Motown (while keeping his affiliation with Weezy’s Young Money and Cash Money intact), and they officially introduced Drake with the So Far Gone EP. The release included seven tracks from the mixtape and gave undeniable proof that the hype and noise surrounding the rapper were all justified.

Nelly Furtado - Mi Plan
Cooling her heels while crafting a follow-up to her hot dance makeover Loose, Nelly Furtado released Mi Plan, her first full-length Spanish album, in the fall of 2009. As it turns out, Mi Plan comes much closer to Furtado’s previous music than Loose, but she’s retained many lessons from her time with Timbaland, giving this a much stronger rhythmic foundation than her first two albums which this otherwise resembles in sound and structure.

Kid Cudi - Man on the Moon: The End of Day
Kid Cudi is a fascinating rapper, claimed by the backpackers for his work with Kanye West on 808s & Heartbreak but equally loved by the mash-up club kids who went ape for his “Day N Nite” single, especially in its nu-disco remix from Crookers. His debut album was deep in the category of “much anticipated” as soon as it was announced, but when the promised game changer finally arrived, it became obvious that Cudi had already changed the game, and maybe debut albums aren’t what they used to be. With its narration from Common and a track list broken into five “acts,” Man on the Moon: The End of Day is almost as conceptual as its name implies, kicking off with a spaced-out slow roller coated in strings while Cudi states “Welcome, you’re in my dream now.” You most certainly are. What follows is Pink Floyd-styled story where the real world pain of “Soundtrack 2 My Life” mutates into sci-fi fantasies from the dark side of the moon.

Muse - The Resistance
With its titanic guitar solos, symphonic suites, and multi-layered melodies, Muse’s fifth album operates under the assumption that bigger is better. This is the very definition of a super-sized album, an album that takes its cues from Queen, its lyrics from science fiction novels, and its delivery from rock opera. It’s also the first time that Muse has truly sounded like Muse, as few bands since Queen have so readily explored the intersection of bombast and extravagance. The Resistance is most certainly extravagant — there are snatches of classical piano entwined throughout, not to mention bilingual lyrics, concert hall percussion, coronet solos, and song titles like “Exogenesis: Symphony, Pt. 2 (Cross-Pollination)” — but it’s also quite beautiful, capable of moving between prog rock choruses and excerpts from Chopin’s “Nocturne in E Flat Major” within the same song.

Q-Tip - Kamaal the Abstract
A personal, unique project compared to Amplified (Q-Tip’s first under his own name), Kamaal the Abstract fittingly sounds more like a solo album; whereas Amplified merely built on the digital soul of the last Tribe Called Quest album (The Love Movement), this one is wide-ranging and diverse, a relaxed, loose-limbed date. Q-Tip lays way back on these cuts, rapping in a quick, low monotone for the opener, “Feelin’,” even while the song breaks into some restrained guitar grind on the choruses. Guitars, in fact, crop up all over this record. Setting aside comparisons to the contemporary record by N.E.R.D. (the rock side project of hip-hop super-producers Neptunes), Q-Tip crafted a record that pays homage to the last gasp of organically produced mainstream pop in the ’70s and ’80s, paying a large compliment to Prince and Stevie Wonder, even as he proves himself far more talented than D’Angelo (if not quite as soulful).

Pete Yorn/Scarlett Johansson - Break Up
Pete Yorn recorded Break Up in 2006 on the heels of one, but it sat on the shelf until 2009, appearing just a matter of months after Back & Fourth, and a year after his duet partner, Scarlett Johannson, cast as Brigitte Bardot to Yorn’s Serge Gainsbourg, made an awkwardly arty splash with a Tom Waits’ cover album, but the album that really casts a shadow over this is Vol. 1, the 2008 record by She & Him, the teaming of M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel. Yorn and Johannson cut their album long before She & Him, but surfacing in its wake, they can’t help but seem a bit like the polished, polite answer to the twee, precious charms of Zooey & M. Ward.

Anvil - This Is Thirteen
Armed for Apocalypse - Defeat
Big Punisher - The Legacy: The Best of Big Pun
The Black Dahlia Murder - Deflorate
Butterfly Boucher - Scaryfragile
Tyondai Braxton - Central Market
Brownout - Aguilas and Cobras
Café Tacuba - Yo Soy
Cougar - Patriot
Cowboy Troy - Demolition Mission: Studio Blue Sessions
Charlie Daniels - Midnight Wind (Midnight Wind…Plus)
Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe - Brother’s Keeper
Marie Digby - Breathing Underwater
The Dodos - Time to Die
Every Time I Die - New Junk Aesthetic
Fink - Sort of Revolution
Gordon Gano - Under the Sun
Judy Garland - Judy Goes Hollywood! Music from the Movies
Larry Gatlin & The Gatlin Brothers Band - Pilgrimage
Grand Archives - Keep in Mind Frankenstein
The Grates - Teeth Lost, Hearts Won
Gus Gus - 24/7
Bruce Hornsby & the Noisemakers - Levitate
Mason Jennings - Blood of Man
Simon Joyner - Out into the Snow
Jupiter One - Sunshower
Kittie - In the Black
Mark Knopfler - Get Lucky
Lil’ Boosie - Superbad: The Return of Boosie Bad Azz
Living Colour - The Chair in the Doorway
Lo Fidelity Allstars - Northern Stomp
Roy Loney & the Phantom Movers - A Hundred Miles an Hour 1978-1989
Claire Lynch - Whatcha Gonna Do
Megadeth - Endgame
Ministry - The Last Dubber
Moneen - The World I Want to Leave Behind
New Boyz - Skinny Jeanz & A Mic
Nicolay - Shibuya: City Lights, Vol. 2
Porcupine Tree - The Incident
Benny Reid - Escaping Shadows
Tom Russell - Blood and Candle Smoke
Serena Ryder - Is It O.K.
The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir - …And the Horse You Rode in On
Shadows Fall - Retribution
Shudder to Think - Live from Home
Simian Mobile Disco - Temporary Pleasure
Ricky Skaggs - Solo: Songs My Dad Loved
Sonos - SonoSings
Stars of Track and Field - A Time for Lions
Sunny Day Real Estate - Diary (Bonus Tracks)
Sunny Day Real Estate - LP2 (Bonus Tracks)
David Sylvian - Manafon
Thrice - Beggars
Uncle Kracker - Happy Hour
Various Artists - Best Is Yet to Come: The Songs of Cy Coleman