Still tentative at this point.

1. Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
2. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
3. Black Heart Procession - The Spell
4. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
5. Eric Bachmann - To The Races
6. The Knife - Silent Shout
7. TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
8. Viva Voce - Get Yr Blood Sucked Out
9. The Bon Savants - Post-Rock Defends The Nation
10. Love Is All - Nine Times That Same Song
11. Night Rally - Preston Family Crest
12. Built To Spill - You In Reverse
13. Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Ballad Of The Broken Seas
14. The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls In America
15. Regina Spektor - Begin To Hope
16. Thom Yorke - The Eraser
17. +/- - Let's Build A Fire
18. Cold War Kids - Robbers & Cowards
19. Bound Stems - Appreciation Night
20. The Walkmen - A Hundred Miles Off

Meh. Relatively normal.

Don't forget, shmoo poll deadline on 1/15!

The Black Heart Procession album was such a disappointment for me.

if i recall correctly (quick search reveals yes), you had the spell pretty high on your rolling best-of for awhile. what changed?

i've come to the conclusion, as sad as it may be about a band i've enjoyed, that none of their albums have more than 5 good/great songs. this is one maybe tops out at 4 for me, depending on my mood when listening to it. interestingly, though, i thought these songs sounded pretty good live in september. (they're still an awfully bland live band, but they at least sound pretty good.)

They've lost that ethereal touch that made earlier releases so intimate for me. After several listens, The Spell began to sound like an Arcade Fire album gone bad.