It's likely that in terms of music, 2009 will be remembered as the year when Michael Jackson died, Lady Gaga ascended, and Kanye West dissed Taylor Swift during a high-profile, televised industry awards show. That this shouldn't be the case won't change the fact that it is.

Interestingly, all of these events have an air of tragedy about them.

The death of the "King of Pop" rescued his career in a way he had been unable to do himself for the previous 10 years, but did little to shine light into the meaning of what must be considered a tragic life. Lady Gaga is Madonna all over again, but the outfits are even skimpier, the message less clear, and the tunes not nearly as good. The Kanye/Taylor fiasco didn't do anyone any favors, and made country music fans feel the first twinge of self-righteousness they'd been granted since the George W. Bush presidency ended. None of this is good.

Way down here in reality-based reality — where music matters more than fame and we know our throttle from our brake — 2009 was actually a banner year for pop. Plainly speaking, the year-in-song kicked butt. And it's been a long, long, lonely time since we've been able to suggest as much with a straight face.

You can check the pulse of popular music by gauging its diversity. The more things sound, look and smell the same — the more interchangeable they suggest themselves to be — the worse shape pop is in.

When you can find signs of abundant, engaged life across the span of genre classifications — say, in rock, pop, hip-hop, and the experimental acumen toward intermingling them all — that's a good thing for everyone, save the folks whose gig it is to cubby-hole music in order to more easily market it to consumers who apparently are not to be trusted to make up their own minds.

Bearing this in mind, the diagnosis for the corpus of popular music is a positive one this year. And even if you buy the whole ball of wax about albums being dead and "the kids" only being willing to purchase music one song at a time, via their chosen mode of digital download, the best music released this year invariably came packaged in albums, with all that such implies — as in, cohesion, pacing, dynamic variety, and the unfolding of ideas over a finite amount of playing time.

Here are a handful of my favorite recorded artifacts — my picks for the 10 finest collections, and more "honorable mentions" than merited by the past several years combined. Guess it really doesn't rain until it pours.

10) Bruce Springsteen, "Working on a Dream" (Columbia)

Just skip album-opener "Outlaw Pete" — an ambitious mistake — and let the rest of "Working on a Dream" flow unimpeded. It's a masterwork — Springsteen's most beautifully orchestrated and interestingly arranged collection since "The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle," and also, the one where he wears his Roy Orbison influence most proudly on his sleeve.

9) Neko Case, "Middle Cyclone" (Anti-)

The queen of modern chamber-folk gives us her very best. A rich record, with much to listen for and to — the arrangements are inspired, the instrumentation astute, and the singing subtly heart-rending.

8) U2, "No Line on the Horizon" (Interscope)

"No Line" already has been labeled a commercial failure — it has sold only a few million copies, after all — but unquestionably, the album represents another artistic breakthrough for the band. Working mostly with Brian Eno, U2 rediscovered its love for the esoteric qualities of "The Unforgettable Fire," and the smart dance music of "Achtung Baby!" and "Pop."

7) Sa Ra Creative Partners, "Nuclear Evolution: The Age of Love" (Ubiquity)

Intellectually stimulating modern R&B and hip-hop? Hook-heavy stuff that avoids the obvious? Rap with a decidedly hippie-esque vibe? Is this possible? Apparently so.

6) Animal Collective, "Merriweather Post Pavilion" (Domino/Independent)

If Kate Bush's brilliant "Hounds of Love" album were approached as "jam-band" music, it might sound something like this richly layered mosaic of danceable post-rock. Way too cool for me, but I like it an awful lot, anyway.

5) The Mars Volta, "Octahedron" (Warner Bros.)

If "Frances the Mute" was the Mars Volta's "Piper at the Gates of Dawn," "Octahedron" is the band's "Wish You Were Here." A surprisingly mellow affair, the album is also the group's most mature effort. A modern space-rock masterpiece.

4) Them Crooked Vultures, "Them Crooked Vultures" (DGC)

A supergroup comprising Nirvana/Foo Fighter Dave Grohl, Led Zeppelin's unsung genius John Paul Jones, and Queens of the Stone Age/Kyuss singer/guitarist Joshua Homme, Them Crooked Vultures released the most interesting heavy rock album of the year. Let's hope this isn't just a one-off.

3) Flaming Lips, "Embryonic" (Warner Bros.)

Yes, the Lips keep getting more and more strange, but at "Embryonic's" center is a heart of luminous gold. You'll get from this one pretty much whatever you give to the listening experience.

2) Mike Keneally, "Scambot" (Exowax/Independent)

"Who?," you ask. Keneally, best known for his work with the late Frank Zappa, is one of the most supremely gifted musicians currently breathing oxygen. "Scambot" is tuneful, progressive, avant garde, classical, frivolous, serious, thinking person's pop. Picture XTC covering Zappa. Dedicated, by Keneally himself, to "anyone who still listens to entire albums with their headphones on." You get the picture.

1) Pearl Jam's, "Backspacer" (Independent)

With the band's 20th anniversary approaching, Pearl Jam released one of the finest, most intensely focused albums of its career. The album starts fast and furious, moves through more subdued, reflective terrain, and ultimately, ends elegiac. A beautiful, fat-free affair.

The also-rans:

Blk Jks, "After Robots" (Secretly Canadian); Rain Machine, "Rain Machine" (Anti-); David Sylvian, "Manafon" (Independent); Steve Earle, "Townes" (New West); Bob Dylan, "Together Through Life" (Columbia); Mos Def, "The Ecstatic" (Downtown); Green Day, "21st Century Breakdown" (Reprise); Cheap Trick, "The Latest" (Cheap Trick Unlimited); Muse, "The Resistance" (Warner Bros.); Mew, "No More Stories Are Told Today..." (Evil Office/Independent); The Church, "Untitled #23" (Independent); Silversun Pickups, "Swoon" (Warner Bros.); Wilco, "Wilco the Album" (Nonesuch); KRS-One & Buckshot, "Survival Skills" (Duck Down); Porcupine Tree, "The Incident" (Roadrunner); Passion Pit, "Manners" (French Kiss); Mastodon, "Crack the Skye" (Reprise); Tortoise, "Beacons of Ancestorship" (Thrill Jockey); Grizzly Bear, "Veckatimest" (Warp); Derek Trucks Band, "Already Free" (Victor/SONY); Alice in Chains, "Black Gives Way to Blue" (Virgin); Richard Hawley, "Truelove's Gutter" (Mute); Regina Spektor, "Far" (SONY); Roseanne Cash, "The List" (Manhattan); Built to Spill, "There Is No Enemy" (Warner Bros.).