any records that you had no idea you would be into that you are loving the year? for me there are a few:

cat power - the greatest... i normally don't care for cat power at all, but i am still listening to this pretty regularly

raconteurs... i didn't even know about this until it was already on shelves. love it.

voxtrot eps... currently my favorite releases this year

turns out my gf has a penis.
oh, you meant music-related.

i've been reading a bit here and there about how good this Voxtrot EP is... please describe. RIYL?

The Format - Dog Problems

Yeah, it's pretty typical Indie Rock, in sound. But the songs are outstanding. And I never knew these guys even existed. Thanks, Timis, for turning me on to this. It is right up the center of my alley. Flippin' great!

the first thing that sprung to my mind when hearing them was a more consistently upbeat belle & sebastian. i'm sure there're much better comparisons around, but that was simply my first impression. they're good live, too.

Blue October - Foiled

Thought it would be crap nu-rawk.

It's not.

I'd never even heard of M Craft and Nathan Fake before I bought the albums and they are both currently in my Top Five.

For equillibrium, my biggest disappointment was the new Broken Family Band. It's still in my Top Twenty but it's quite a bit below the level of the last three albums.

varying levels of surprises, mostly of the opposite spectrum -- albums i thought i'd like a fair amount based on the artist's last album but came up (a bit) short like the new keane, muse, french kicks, tv on the radio and the most grievous offender, the stills. thom yorke's "eraser" is also a little letdown vs radiohead's output (but that might be an unfair comparison).

but for pleasant surprises, i think the #1 entry goes to the new jenny lewis album. i liked her rilo kiley stuff, but no album in its entirety grabbed me. not so with "rabbit fur coat". it's a pleasant country-tinged pop masterpiece that i haven't tired of yet.

others: the minus 5, jason collett, ghostface killah.

belle & sebastian, maayyybe some early death cab for cutie in there, the cure (even nthough i don't really care for the cure) is in there.

mostly like belle and sebastian but more of a driving sound.

that surprised you? you should have just asked one of us.

Voxtrot EPs...agree that they sound like a consistenly upbeat B&S

TV on the Radio...I could never really get into the second half of Desperate Youth, but from the leak, Cookie Mountain is AWESOME.

destroyers rubies
i'm not much of a destroyer fan but marco insisted i listen to their newest and it is pretty freaking good. my apologies the dreaded one.

releases from these artists caught me by surprise....

Comets On Fire
Voxtrot
The Little Ones
Tokyo Police Club
Nathan Fake
Booka Shade

good surprises:

Return to Cookie Mountain
The Knife
Drum's not dead
Belle & Sebastian
Kid606
Junior Boys
Mikkel Metal
Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto
Vetiver
Ellen Allien & Apparat


bad surprises:

Return to Cookie Mountain
Thom Yorke
MSTRKRFT
Dabrye
Birdmonster


on the fence:

ScSi-9
Garden Ruin
Phoenix
French Kicks
White Whale


I'd say the most pleasant surprise this year has been Mikkel Metal and The Knife

explain

The title?

My biggest surprise would be general let-downs.

A handful of bands -- Belle And Sebastian, Guster, Paper Moon, Young & Sexy, Cat Power -- have released albums that are good but don't come close to their last album.

Gotta disagree on the Guster. Love the new one.

sounds like i should check out that voxtrot then....

i guess my biggest surprise so far is that i don't completely hate the new keane album.

HOW IS THIS?!?! I WANT!!!

as far as surprises go... probably the s/t debut of corinne bailey rae (off capitol). it's neo-soul/r&b stuff which i'm not that into but it is a good friken album.

I'm still surprised by how good the Yeah Yeah Yeahs Show Your Bones is. I didn't see that coming after the Daisy Chainsaw-lite of Fever to Tell and that first ep.

chad vangaalen

I like it and I like it a lot more than I liked their last album so in that sense its a pleasant surprise but I still don't seem to like them as much as everyone else does, plus when I listen to their first EP I can't help but feel that they could make something truly amazing at some point

As far as the kid606 it's a pretty radical departure from his other stuff. Not that it's groundbreaking or anything but it's def. his most "accessible" release yet. pm me and I'll try to ysi it to you if you're interested.

how big was it though...?

i'm surprised by how much this record is just bleh for me. biggest (and most surprising) dissapointment for me so far this year.

tvotr was the band who i thought were going to let me down, and cookie mountain is fantastic.

more suprises: that i fucking love the new liars record so much (didn't see that one coming)
that i fucking love the new man man record so much (after despising it probably the first 5 or 6 times i heard it)

the fact that prince put out a new record with redeeming qualities

and that sunset rubdown is good (i thought it was bit early for spencer to be doing side projects, but i dig it)