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2004 was a year when a handful of artists with their best days long behind them surprised us with their strongest music; Loretta Lynn and Brian Wilson come to mind.

Hear a "looped liturgy for the apocalypse" and "fire coming out of the fog" in this conversation about the year's best metal, drone and outer sound.

No, no — the headline's not referring to you. Heaven forbid. But people like you listen to a lot of cool and/or unusual music, and refuse to sample the good stuff right under their noses because it's "mainstream." It's best not to think these hipsters omniscient — after all, there's lots of great music they're too cool to notice. Here are 10 examples from 2009.

Many younger artists are making a strong case to be the future of the genre — and the future looks bright. All but three musicians on Shaunna Morrison Machosky's Top 10 list are under the age of 40, and they all brush aside any notion of jazz being in a rut.

In the 1950s, the brilliant young drummer Ron Free quickly found himself playing with his New York jazz heroes. His career later derailed due to personal problems. But a previously unheard stash of home recordings has allowed him to review his own rise and fall.

The rapper's second studio album reaches for a confessional mode, making space for ruminations and grief — while reaffirming her skills as one of rap's bar-for-bar heavyweights.

NPR's Juana Summers chats with Marcus Mumford about his debut solo album, Self-Titled, which is a deeply personal exploration of healing, mercy and forgiveness.

On his debut solo album, Sim — best known as a member of The xx — takes inspiration from horror movie villains on songs that look for humanity in the aspects of our identity that society rejects.

On her surreal, sci-fi and decidedly romantic new album ¡Ay!, the Colombian, Berlin-based electronic artist crafts an alien narrative drawing inspiration from the genres of her youth.

Africa's metalheads have a bold vision. We talk to Edward Banchs, author of a new book about Africa's metal scene, and to a heavy metal singer in Botswana known as "Vulture."