(AP) – Here is a selection of albums that should have gotten more attention than they got in 2009:

"Old Things New," Joe Nichols (Universal South)

Country music traditionalist Joe Nichols's latest release, "Old Things New," slipped in under the radar this fall.

That's too bad.

Nichols has given us an honest album that alternates between good times and bad. There's no better example of the ups and downs here than the first two tracks. Nichols bounces from the upbeat "Gimme That Girl," a love song about the perfect girl, to the melancholy, fiddle-tinged "It's Me I'm Worried About."

He repeats this wave-and-trough approach throughout the album, bouncing from the unabashed drinking song, "Cheaper Than a Shrink" to the break-up lament, "The Shape I'm In."

The album has a personal, lived-in feel. Nichols entered rehab a few years back and "Old Things New" has the hallmarks of a maturing musician who's finding his way forward, but still cognisant of the past and how fragile life can be.

— Chris Talbott, AP Writer

Skyzoo, "The Salvation" (Jamla/Duck Down Records)

After hearing all the underground hoopla about Skyzoo's "The Salvation," it was a refreshing to listen to an entire album and not feel the need to quickly press the skip button.

Skyzoo, who released a series of successful mixtapes, completely delivers on each of the 16 tracks of his debut album, released in late September. It was also comforting to listen hear the Brooklyn rapper hold down the entire album with his potent rhymes without a featured rapper.

Each track also has solid production, most notably from Just Blaze on "Return of the Real" and 9th Wonder on five tracks, including the album's single, "The Beautiful Decay."

There are several solid tracks like "Dear Whoever," "The Necessary Evils" and "Maintain," making it tough to pick a favourite one. He raps with clarity, painting a picture on top of nice beats that'll keep the listener wanting to learn more about Skyzoo.

— Jonathan Landrum Jr., AP Writer

Andy Friedman & the Other Failures, "Weary Things" (City Salvage)

Among magazine cartoonists who once toured as slide show poets, first picked up a musical instrument less than five years ago and found a niche in Brooklyn's lively country scene, Andy Friedman might be the best singer-songwriter going.

He's not to be overlooked, that's for sure. As Friedman's back story would suggest, "Weary Things" is a quirky record. He portrays his family life sweetly, yet longs for the days when he was young, broken and alone. He sings three songs about the tug of the road but suggests that someone hide his keys. Most of the album is country blues fit for a folk club, but the finale — "Friedman Holler" — is a live performance that creates a roadhouse din and devolves into a drum solo. The words are great, though.

Friedman can write a lyric, and deliver it. He's at his most freewheelin' on "Locked Out Of The Building," which he fills with playful non sequiturs and commentary on New Yorkers, New England and the meaning of life. His singspeak lets the words do most of the work, but he shows the crisp timing of a good comic when he comes to a great line. Here's one: "If God is the rock, who is the paper?"

Steven Wine, AP Writer

Chuck Prophet, "Let Freedom Ring!" (Yep Roc)

Chuck Prophet chose a studio in Mexico City to record his ninth studio album, and even from a distance, the situation on the home front looked grim.

"Let Freedom Ring!" portrays a land of orange alerts and car alarms with blood on the sheets and asbestos in the Kool-Aid. The river's rising, stores disappear and dreams don't extend beyond Saturday night. "Who's going to miss you when you're gone?" Prophet asks.

Depressing stuff. As an antidote, Prophet offers stabs of guitars to propel a defiant Stones-style strut, and gradually the mood improves.

Past the halfway mark, Prophet turns his attention to a nightclub dialogue and pairs it with a dance beat on "Hot Talk." Two songs later, the backing vocalists are singing "Shoo-be-doo-wah" on "Good Time Crowd." The final song is "Leave the Window Open," which finds Prophet engaged in pillow talk, with no mention of car alarms.

— Steven Wine, AP Writer

The Clientele, "Bonfires on the Heath" (Merge)

The Clientele latest album "Bonfires on the Heath" is pop in it's truest form. Not giving you music of the moment, but rather delivering an upbeat sound that sets (or at least upholds) a standard of accessible excellence.

"Harvest Time" is a mix of creamy guitar reverb and hi-hat drum stuff. A lazy bass line from James Horsney meanders through the melody as lead singer Alasdair MacLean sings "Bats from the eaves go shivering by/ Scarecrows watched the verges of light." It's a wonderful song about the seasons of man, and not of crops.

All in all it is the jangle of energetic guitar, smart pacing and lyrics with substance that separate good pop from bad. Sure there's a nod to the late 1960s Brit pop breeziness that finds a home on "Bonfires on the Heath." But they did it well then and now, and it has found a perfect home on this fine vinyl release.

— Ron Harris, AP writer

"Glitter and Doom Live," Tom Waits (Anti-)

For those of you who missed Tom Waits' rousing "Glitter and Doom Tour" last year, we're sorry, but you missed something special.

Waits was cool and creepy, spinning a web made of his mad-hatter music, simple but sensational stagecraft and his trademark whimsy.

Like most live albums, the two-disc "Glitter and Doom Live" can't capture those special visual moments that made the show such a treat. But it does capture the mood and shows Waits manipulating many of his fan favourites in new and exciting ways.

Take "Get Behind the Mule," which Waits punches up with a new sense of timing and a stuttered vocal delivery. And he transforms "Dirt in the Ground" from a falsetto warning into a deep-throated lament.

If nothing else, the album is worth buying for the second disc, titled "Tom's Tales." It's a collection of spoken-word stories Waits mixed in with his music and, as usual, they are interesting and insightful, entertaining while giving us a look inside how Waits' mind works.

— Chris Talbott, AP Writer

Asobi Seksu, "Hush" (Polyvinyl)

Asobi Seksu performs something the skinny-jeans crowd likes to call dream pop, a lush brand of rock that leans from the experimental to the incomprehensible. On the vinyl release of their latest album "Hush," Asobi Seksu proves that they're well ahead of the curve in this curiously inviting genre.

Think Cocteau Twins with slightly more understandable lyrics and you've pretty much pegged Asobi Seksu. Yuki Chikudate's lead vocals meld nicely with her soaring synth-flavoured keyboard work and it comes together on most songs, often building to a final crescendo before giving way to some weird buzzing guitar work from James Hanna.

What vinyl adds to tracks like "Familiar Light" is a detailed analogue dare, if you will, for the listener to try to discern all the sounds at play. The crush of sound compression found on digital downloads and even some poorly engineered CDs is not a worry here. Chikudate's voice, the intricate guitar work and the incessant pulse of drums are woven perfectly on songs like "Gliss" and "Glacially."

The core of Asobi Seksu's sound is a traditional pop-rock pace, interspersed with experimental feedback and warbling sounds that seem almost alien. It comes through honest, not contrived and with a relevant feel that references the better offerings from the mid-1980s without stealing blatantly from them.

"Hush" is an extremely solid album, delivered in 2009 on 180-gram vinyl, that will certainly stand the test of time.

— Ron Harris, AP Writer