Like a Chinese buffet of mediocrity--someone's getting full, someone's getting the shits.

20. Morning Benders - Big Echo
19. The National - High Violet
18. Deer Tick - The Black Dirt Sessions
17. The New Pornographer's - Together
16. Mother's Children - That's Who
15. Jenny and Johnny - I'm Having Fun Now
14. Drive-By Truckers - The Big To Do
13. The Hold Steady - Heaven is Whenever
12. Alejandro Escovedo - Street Songs of Love
11. Free Energy - Free Energy

10A. Mary Gauthier - The Foundling: Would definitely have made the Top 10 if I’d heard it sooner...as it is, I’ve spent the last 10 days or so listening, absorbing and loving the shit out of it.

10.Walkmen - Lisbon: I was surprised that there was a lot of love for this record; I thought I was the only person (on earth) still listening to them which is kinda the way listening to them makes you feel...a little bit alone. At any rate, “Victory” is really great--I love how these guys manage to rock out without sounding like they are rocking out.

9. Delta Spirit - History From Below: I never heard their debut either and I don’t know what I was expecting...whatever it is, it’s good and the songs get stuck in my head.

8. Vampire Weekend - Contra: I still haven’t heard a note of the debut and I’m still pretty floored by how much I like this. It slices, it dices, it bounces, it juliennes.

7. 7 Walkers - 7 Walkers: Probably won’t get it’s due BECAUSE of the involvement of Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzman (God knows I was prepared for the worst) not the other way around, but this is a really surprisingly entertaining mix of blues, new orleans and folk all of it played through the swampy filter of Papa Mali.

6.Marah - Life Is A Problem: I’m either glad that I knew to expect a shambolic disaster and so was able to appreciate this appropriately or I’m such a big Marah fan that I’ll accept anything and be happy...At any rate, it’s got some great songs, sounds ramshackle as hell and is only missing one element to be outstanding. Dear Serge: come back to work. Rock and roll needs you.

5.Peter Wolf - Midnight Souvenirs: All over the map and not necessarily a bad thing. The duets are sweet, the goofiness is goofy and there are some flat out great fucking songs (“Tragedy”, “I Don’t Wanna Know”, “Then It Leaves Us All Behind”. Dad Rock AOTY.

4. Bobby Bare Jr. - A Storm, A Tree, My Mother's Head: I generally like BBJ's sorta quirky mix of folk and alt country but let’s face it, that shit gets tiresome. Enter the MMJ guys turned loose as a backing band, add some righteous inspiration and voila. Lots of air guitar moments.

3. The Henry Clay People - Somewhere on the Golden Coast: Nothing cures the mundane drone of the daily commute like yelling “WE GOT DRUNK AND CALLED IN SICK, WHENEVER WE FELT LIKE IT” at your car stereo...This feels like a coming out party even more than For Cheap or For Free.

2. Glossary - Feral Fire: I saw these guys open for DBT a few years back and thought they were TERRIBLE mainly because I felt like they couldn’t decide what kind of band they wanted to be from song to song (and the drummer was so bad it was distracting). Somehow they manage to bridge all those gaps here...70’s rock/southern rock,alt-country, 90’s alt rock it all sorta blends seamlessly into that rare (for me at least) album that I’m guaranteed to listen to cover to cover without even a thought of skipping a song or changing discs.

1. Mynabirds - What We Lose in the Fire We Gain In The Flood: Maybe because I’m outside a lot, but music is often very seasonal for me (Feral Fire, for example was the perfect spring/summer album). To that end, I really liked What we lose... during the warm months but since it’s gotten cold, I find myself being more and more attached. It has the Memphis cum Muscle Shoals (by way of Omaha) backing band sound that I’m nearly powerless to resist and Laura Burhenn stakes claim to the Dusty/Chan white soul girl territory in a way that isn’t forced or reeking of homage or “tribute”.


Also receiving votes:
Fionn Regan - The Shadow of An Empire
Mavis Staples - You Are Not Alone
Mike Stinson - The Jukebox In Your Heart
Jakob Dylan - Women and Country
The Black Keys - Brothers
Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings - I Learned The Hard Way
Souljazz Orchestra - Rising Sun
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Loudon Wainwright III - Songs For The New Depression

Reissues:
The Blue Shadows - On The Floor of Heaven: stunningly good and I'm still soaking it in

Bruce Springsteen - The Promise: It's really good to hear and, who knows, it may be the 2010 release I end up listening to the most over the next 20 years, but the hyperbole by the sporting press is already a little irritating. To wit, the only album of Bruce's "classic period" (1973-85) I would place it above is Nebraska.

Recycle:
Black Crowes - Croweology: It’s a shame they’ve decided to call it quits again; I think they’ve really hit a new stride with Luther Dickinson in the band on second guitar. But between last year’s Before The Frost and this re-imagining of some their earlier material on Croweology, they’ve pretty nicely documented this era.

Live Album:
Pretty slim year for live albums at least ones that I heard. I really enjoyed the White Stripes cover of "Jolene" and I won't bore you breaking down Phish's Halloween reading of Little Feat's Waiting For Columbus.

I think you're gonna have to.

Well done Fail Bloor.

May have to revisit that Mynabirds. I think I gave it the once over back in the spring and never went back to it.

Kind of feel the same way listening to the Walkmen. Something about them demands multiple listens. They make you work for it. Props to them for sticking to their guns and continuing to crank out their vision of things.

Finally gave that Fionn Regan a spin last week and it's quite good as well.


All that said, I fully expect Ariel Pink to be playing during dinner Wednesday.

Guess I'm going to have to check out that Mary Gauthier album.

This thread really illustrates the fact that we never talk offline anymore. I haven't even heard that Walkmen, or The Henry Clay People, and had no idea you were that into either Delta Spirit or The Mynahbirds.

Mynahs is certainly in contention for my top spot, and will definitely be in my top 3.

I guess it shouldn't surprise me since we have shaped a lot of each others' tastes over such a long period of time, but we literally haven't talked at all about this albums. I guess in the way we operate now, there's only so much time to talk, and we have to occupy that with Patrice Oneil takes on Black Ghosts.

Good list overall - as usual the exact names and placings won't be the same, but I would expect at least 50% overlap. I still need to re-listen to National, Hold Steady and Gaslight, and at least hear a few others I've missed before posting mine.

Will you or Dumpjail throw Walkmen, THCP, and Free Energy in the box?

The more I listen to the Lisbon,the more I like it. I can see it growing into my favorite of this year.

I'm seeing MOther's Children on a lot of lists and I think I should give that a try.

very nice list. full agreement on mynabirds. been meaning to check out that 7 walkers and a few other spots on your list. thanks.

I got the link up in my 2010 thread.

Gar, I'll throw those albums in the box.

I think if I drove around at night more often I'd be right there with you...it almost begs to be listened to after dark.

Lisbon was kind of a sleeper for sure. I never really thought much of it until one night (on the way home I think) I listened to it after just having listened to You & Me. Both albums hit me really hard, and I didn't want to listen to anything else for a few days.

It's got the same shortcoming as virtually all of their whole album cover-concepts and a lot of their more recent live stuff in general: The vocals are pretty cringe-y in places. But if you accept that (or if you're just used to it from years of abuse), they really do a pretty nice job. The material suits them, they employ extra musicians well (Giovanni Hidalgo on percussion and Aaron Johnson, Stuart Bogie, Ian Hendrickson, Michael Leonhart, and Eric Biondo on brass.) and generally sound like they are having a great fucking time which is, I believe, the point.

In fact, I haven't listened to it since the couple days after the fact and might have to throw it on later.

It's not on your list, but I kinda want to hear that Broken Bells before the year ends. It's on a lot of mainstream lists, and it seems like something I should like, but I think there's a 60% chance of it being dogfucker-lite as well.

I wouldn't call it dogfucker-lite. More "your parents could like this it's so unoffensive no wonder they play this at starbucks."

I've never been a huge Phish fan, but I think I have to hear it.

possibly the best list yet

well done, ck1

10-20 has a lot of similarities to what mine will look like which makes me interested in hearing your top-9.

I recently picked up Delta Spirit's debut and it was good enough to make me want to hear more. Definitely curious about the new one after seeing it on your list.

not interested in the majority of these, but good to see The Morning Benders in there.

also, i was sure Ariel Pink would make your final list man.

I need to hear a quite a few on this list, specifically Mary Gauthier, and Bobby Bare Jr. seem like they might be up my alley.

Mother's Children linky?

what a fail

Yeah, it's crossed my mind before but Morning Benders are definitely a band where our tastes intersect.

Listened to Ariel Pink again over the weekend. Didn't make the list, but yeah, there's some value there.

There's probably some larger comment to be made here but there's almost a battle between music that sounds like it's from the 80's (like Ariel Pink) and music that sounds like it's from the 60's (like Mynabirds and bands like Volebeats or Mother's Children)

Somehow Spoon's Transference got edited out...it's Top 20 for me.

Dump, that Phish/Little Feat set is in the Box.

God bless.