Dirty Projectors, a favorite of Solange Knowles, ranked pretty high on the list, as did Lilith Fair 2010 performer Miranda Lambert.

Lady Gaga just managed to scrape in at #10 with The Fame Monster, and the publication notes “there’s still a little too much filler for global domination to be a real goal. But the hits… are towering and undeniable.”

Hop below the jump to see the 10 albums that Time magazine felt were worth their salt in 2009.

TIME’S TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2009:

1. Brad Paisley, American Saturday Night
2. Dirty Projectors, Bitte Orca
3. Mastodon, Crack The Skye
4. Miranda Lambert, Revolution
5. Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
6. The-Dream, Love vs. Money
7. Raekwon, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Pt. II
8. Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest
9. The Avett Brothers, I And Love And You
10. Lady Gaga, The Fame Monster

Check out Solange’s rendition of “Stillness Is The Move,” which samples Soul Mann & The Brothers’ “Bumpy’s Lament,” and Dirty Projectors’ original after the jump.

Not a bad Friday jam. (Alternate – and @solangeknowles-approved – link at Concrete Loop.)

“Bumpy’s Lament” was also worked into Erykah Badu’s “Bag Lady” nearly ten years ago. It was used in Dr. Dre’s “Xxplosive,” too, but if we posted that you’d have to cover Junior’s ears.

ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: From where I’m sitting, Dave Longstreth’s band has had an odd ascent onto the doorstep of indie stardom. The album I thought would’ve been their breakthrough, 2005’s The Getty Address, was a weird, complex, and fascinating rock opera about Don Henley and America (sort of), built from fragments of female choirs and string arrangements and percussion informed more by a composition major’s reference points than an indie fan’s, all overlaid with Longstreth’s unpredictable, wandering vocal lines. It had character and excitement out the yin-yang, so to speak, but it seemed to fall flat. Instead, Longstreth gained attention for his next album, a conceptual cover of Black Flag’s Rise Above. Maybe because it was an easier idea for listeners to grasp, or maybe because the band had become a real band in the meantime and that was easier to love. Regardless, it seemed obvious that Rise Above was a far lesser effort than Getty, more interesting in concept than execution, and not even all that interesting in concept.

With Bitte Orca, though, the promise of Getty and the accessibility of Rise Above come together, and it pays off in big ways. Longstreth’s singing is much stronger, less crutchily quirky and affected, while the band summons the textures and ideas of Getty without the jarring cut-up construction that album employed. The result is just a great rock album, as weird as that might seem, and you might be hard-pressed not to think of TV on the Radio at times—albeit without the stifling Dave Sitek production. Two songs right in the middle of the album (”Stillness Is the Move,” previously released as a single, and “Two Doves”) have female lead vocals, presumably supplied by band member Amber Coffman, and while not necessarily as strong as Longstreth’s vocals, they do provide the right character for the songs and serve as a nice break.

Weirdly, though, the best reference point for this album might actually be (deep breath)… The Beatles. Something about “Two Doves” recalls “Goodnight” more than, say, “Landslide,” and the fantastic opener “Cannibal Resource” has a crunchy guitar and blippy, irregular bass sound extremely reminiscent of Harrison/McCartney. And yeah, Longstreth’s melodies are that strong this time around, though maybe not on every song. There’s a certain way the folky inclinations combine with the rock and pop elements that really strongly evokes late-period Beatles albums. This album melds the great ideas Longstreth clearly comes up with in his sleep with a listenable sound and just plain old great songs.

THE BEST TRACK: “Two Doves” and “Cannibal Resource” are both great, as is “The Bride,” but I think the six-and-a-half minute long “Useful Chamber” is the clear centerpiece, and rightfully so: it moves effortlessly from electropop to acoustic folk to groove to straight-up rawk, then to a long female chorale break and back to the rawk. The song somehow manages to reference almost every major indie-rock act of the past few years, from TVOTR to Vampire Weekend to Animal Collective to the Arcade Fire to LCD Soundsystem. This wasn’t necessarily intentional, but it sure works out that way, and it’s the kind of breathtaking demonstration of mastery that indie fans actually like these days. Here’s hoping.

The Jonas Brothers – “Still In Love With You”

Unlike America’s angrier teenage girls, I find it impossible to hate on these curly-headed, social-networking-feud instigators, especially since underneath the bazillion dollar digi-production (see if you can spot the organ bobbing on the waves of compressed guitar) all their non-ballads are just old-fashioned bubble-punk with the sneer swtiched off. (Jess)

Jonas Brothers – “Still In Love With You” [YouTube]
Jonas Brothers [MySpace]

Paramore – “Misery Business”

The best pop-punk track of the year: three cheers for sweet revenge, big “whoooas” that dared you to not sing along with them, and a spitfire frontwoman who took to her Livejournal to disclaim the use of the Lord’s name in the song’s sing-along-’til-the-rapture chorus. (Maura)

Paramore – “Misery Business” [YouTube]
Paramore [MySpace]

Gui Boratto – “Beautiful Life”

Cheesy, life-affirming trance hidden away in the sleeve of a minimal techno 12-inch, with the bonus of stupidly heart-melting New Order bass twang and the biggest staggered climaxes of the year. (Jess)

Gui Boratto – “Beautiful Life” [YouTube]
Gui Boratto [MySpace]

Robyn – “This One’s For You (Remix)”

The year’s one truly new(ish) song from the reinvented Swedish kook was the dark underbelly of “Irreplaceable,” three minutes and change of post-dumping freakouts over a breezy acoustic guitar stolen from Ne-Yo’s arsenal. (Maura)

Robyn [MySpace]

Double Dagger – “Luxury Condos For The Poor

Moving from Double Dagger’s native Baltimore back to my own native Philly only underscored the sad universality of this lugubrious post-hardcore lament over city governments refusing to rectify institutional poverty in favor of pandering to developers building “waterfront gravesights, 30 stories high.” “If you’ve lived here your whole life, it’s time to get out,” but to where? (Jess)

Double Dagger – “Luxury Condos For The Poor (Live At Whartscape)” [Look closely for my big bald head somewhere in the background.]
Double Dagger [MySpace]

My Teenage Stride – “To Live And Die In The Airport Lounge”

Fresh Orange Juice served up in a Brooklyn cafe, with a side order of world-traveler ennui. Plus the video has zombies. Zombies! (Maura)

My Teenage Stride – “To Live And Die In The Airport Lounge” [MySpace]
My Teenage Stride [MySpace]

Shackleton – “Blood On My Hands (Ricardo Villalobos Apocalypso Now Mix)”

A crackling deep house rhythm track and the low-end of dubstep wring their hands somewhere between England and Berlin for the spirits of the 21st-century’s political bystanders, a track only about right for gloomy bus rides out of the more blighted parts of your neighborhood. (Jess)

Skull Disco [Official Site]

Blood Red Shoes – “It’s Getting Boring By The Sea”

Bitching about a dead-end town, transformed into something constructive by guitars that sound like they’ve been pulverized. (Maura)

Blood Red Shoes – “It’s Getting Boring By The Sea” [YouTube]
Blood Red Shoes [MySpace]

Dirty Projectors – “Rise Above”

Davey Longstreth’s musical revamp of Black Flag’s Damaged was warmer but no less forbidding (and impressive) in places than any of the year’s neo-proggery, but the words of hardcore’s most supposedly nihilistic (the element of Longstreth’s experiment so often glossed over by reviewers) provided an unexpected humanizing element when stripped and repurposed, a cracked, life-affirming jolt in a bleak year. (Jess)

Dirty Projectors – “Rise Above” [YouTube]
Dirty Projectors [MySpace]

Britney Spears – “Heaven On Earth”

Is the year’s most photographed woman even singing on this track? Does it even matter? It’s a grand, swooping song that’s made for the last dance of the night, an ode to Mr. Right Now that dresses up her tawdry hooking-up-with-paps expoits enough to make them seem almost purposeful. (Maura)

Britney Spears – “Heaven On Earth” [YouTube]
Britney Spears [MySpace]

Idolator’s 2007 Top 40 List Of Awesomeness