Once again, I offer my review of the year in music, alphabetically:
- A: Art Brut releases a great third disc (Art Brut v. Satan); Arctic Monkeys misfire a bit (with Humbug).
- B: Another Beatles resurgence – as if they ever went away- driven by Rock Band and the release of the American version of their catalogue.
- C: Elvis Costello goes folk/country on his latest (Secret, Profane and Sugarcane) and turns talk-show host for the cooler-than-cool “Spectacle.”
- D: Disappointment, as in “Bruce Springsteen releases a disappointing disc” – and so do Pearl Jam, Neil Young, Jay-Z, the Monsters of Folk, Weezer, the Flaming Lips among the many.
- E: Easy listening tops the charts (Susan Boyle?!?!?) – and nauseates me in the process.
- F: Franz Ferdinand has an excellent disco adventure on Tonight.
- G: Girl power – Ida Maria and the Screaming Females (from New Brunswick) were among the female punkers and hardrockers to issue outstanding discs.
- H: The Heavy’s The House that Dirt Built, is edgy, fuzz-drenched and, well, heavy.
- I: “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black-Eyed Peas ranks as one of their best singles – even if the use of “Mazel tov” seems, well, a bit odd.
- J: David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain lead a reconstituted New York Dolls through a continued resurgence with Cause I Said So.
- K: Kings of Leon’s Only By the Night is better than its hype, even if Art Brut has a little fun during their shows at the band’s expense. (The disc came out in 2008, but bumrushed the charts in 2009.)
- L: Lily Allen’s It’s Not Me, It’s You is one of the best things to cross the Atlantic.
- M: The Millers, Buddy and Judy, put out the year’s best county disc, Written in Chalk.
- N: Nellie McKay shows off her infatuation with Doris Day on Normal as Blueberry Pie.
- O: Offspring – as in Roseanne Cash (great disc of covers, The List), Justin Townes Earle and Dhani Harrison (Thenewno2).
- P: P!nk releases the best divorce album (Funhouse) since Springsteen’s Brilliant Disguise (another 2008 disc that got most of its play in 2009).
- Q: Alicia Keys proves she’s the queen of modern R&B – apologies to Mary J. Blige – with another fabulous disc (The Element of Freedom), perhaps her most consistent.
- R: Rihanna surprises with an album (Rated R) of depth and emotion, nothing like the light weight dance/pop she’s known for.
- S: Michael Franti and Spearhead release All Rebel Rockers, among the best albums of the year.
- T: 21st Century Breakdown proves that Green Day’s expansive view of pop-punk first demonstrated on American Idiot (one of the decade’s best) was no fluke.
- U: U2’s No Line on the Horizon is better than its predecessor, the exceptional How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.
- V: Townes Van Zandt returns with Steve Earle’s impressive reinterpretation of his catalogue, Townes.
- W: What was Bob Dylan thinking? A Christmas disc? With strings and a choir? In all seriousness? At least it was for charity.
- X: Ex-members of Uncle Tupelo, Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar – Tweedy (Wilco’s Wilco (The Album)) puts out maybe the best album of the year, while Farrar (Son Volt’s American Central Dust) easily makes the top 10.
- Y: Yeah Yeah Yeahs join Franz Ferdinand on the disco dance floor to great results on It’s Blitz!
- Z: The soundtrack to the History Channel’s program, “The People Speak,” a dramatization of Howard Zinn’s important “A People’s History of the United States,” is political and poetic and powerful.
Hank Kalet 
It will be great to watch Arctic Monkeys ,i have bought tickets from http://ticketfront.com/event/Arctic_Monkeys-tickets looking forward to it.