The three I immediately think of:

Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
The National - High Violet
Les Savy Fav - Root for Ruin

I love High Violet.

My two biggest letdowns are:

Spoon - Transference
Vampire Weekend - Contra

I also like that National.

Midlake is the biggest bomb I can think of from this year.

I actually liked that BSS record more than their previous ones. I even came around on the High Violet, definitely ended up liking it more than anything they've done before but admittedly I'm not really a fan of the band so that wasn't exactly a high bar. I still can't get a grip on the effusive praise for it, but when the mood is right, it can work.

Spoon - Transference
Belle & Sebastian - Write About Love
Gaslight Anthem - American Slang

i still haven't quite come around on the new concretes album, but i think i need to give it a little more time before labelling it a disappointment.

Spoon adn Gaslight Anthem, yeah. Lcd Soundsystem, definitely Broken Social Scene. Loads of others I can't think of yet.

Transference is pretty dern great. High Violet is equally snore-inducing as all other National albums.

My biggest disappointments:

The Hold Steady
Marah
Dax Riggs
Henry Clay People

i didn't even know Marah had a new album.

June 2010.

I've either blocked them out, or been dis-free this year. Aside from two songs, I didn't care for the new of Montreal album, but they've already faded as one of my "look forward to" bands anyway.

That Lissie album "Catching A Tiger" was horrible considering how much I loved the initial EP. Couldn't spin it more than once. You can actually hear the marketing meetings behind it if you listen closely. Barf.

IMO, their best album since Kill The Moonlight.




I couldn't even get through one listen of this boring stinker

agreed, that Midlake was terrible

another vote for Spoon, borrrrring

a tie between the Hold Steady and Drive-By Truckers.

Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek - Revolutions Per Minute

Hi-Tek was clearly working on autopilot, or some mediocre producer was given an opportunity to play around with Hi-Tek's drum kits.

Spoon and Gaslight

I love the National though

spoon
that new girls ep is boring
arcade fire
flying lotus
the sword

I am gonna give it some more time... and the "scope" of it is really ambitious... but Sufjan's ADZ may have a disturbingly larg % of unlistenable garbage. As I say, I am giving it some time...

gaslight, hold steady somewhat, band of horses

yes.

Rogue Wave is easily the biggest disappointment for me.

Hold Steady wasn't bad but I haven't had the urge to listen to it in forever.

The Thermals album was pretty bland, which is two in a row for them. They better knock the next one out of the park.

Didn't really care for the Marah album either, but what really hurt it was them not releasing it on CD.

The Jimmy Gnecco solo album was pretty terrible. I'm a huge Ours fan but there was nothing redeeming about this.

Oh, and the Brother Kite. I couldn't make it past the first song on three separate tries.

National, Spoon, Ted Leo, and DBT were all great.

Arcade Fire
Gaslight Anthem

and I'll say Spoon too even though I haven't listened to it. That band's catalogue turned boring to me about five years ago.

Haven't listened to the new Thermals, but I'd agree their last one was a stinker.

belle and sebastian is very not good, especially considering how good life pursuit was and how long its been since that came out.

i think the new thermals is great, as is brother kite, and rogue wave is at least solid.

I liked the last Thermals, but not this new one. It's got one or two good cuts on it, and then a bunch of crap or songs that are just re-writes of stuff from the previous album. I guess that's another dis from this year for me.

matt & kim