My Top 20:

1. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
2. The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
3. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
4. Built to Spill - You In Reverse
5. The Black Keys - Magic Potion
6. Muse - Black Holes & Revelations
7. The Strokes - First Impressions of Earth
8. The Format - Dog Problems
9. Howe Gelb - 'Sno Angel Like You
10. The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers
11. Califone - Roots & Crowns
12. Bob Dylan - Modern Times
13. The Thermals - The Body, The Blood, The Machine
14. The Knife - Silent Shout
15. The Streets - The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living
16. Phoenix - It's Never Been Like That
17. Viva Voce - Get Yr Blood Sucked Out
18. The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
19. Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam
20. The Paper Chase - Now You Are One of Us


The Next 20 (in alphabetical order):

Band of Horses - Everything All the Time
Beck - The Information
Cat Power - The Greatest
Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies
Eagles of Death Metal - Death By Sexy
Islands - Return to the Sea
Kweller, Ben - Ben Kweller
Mew - And the Glass Handed Kites
My Morning Jacket - Okonokos
Ritter, Josh - The Animal Years
Rodrigo y Gabriela - Rodrigo y Gabriela
Roots, The - Game Theory
Silversun Pickups - Carnavas
Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped
Sword, The - Age of Winters
Tapes 'N Tapes - The Loon
TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain
Ward, M. - Post-War
Wolfmother - Wolfmother
Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid of You, and I Will Beat Your Ass


20 I Need to Hear:

Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
The Brother Kite - Waiting for the Time to Be Right
Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
Graham Coxon - Love Travels at Illegal Speeds
Dixie Chicks - Taking the Long Way
Drones, The - Gala Mill
Fiasco, Lupe - Food & Liquor
Girl Talk - Night Ripper
Grizzly Bear - Yellow House
Long Blondes, The - Someone to Drive You Home
McKay, Nellie - Pretty Little Head
Melvins, The - A Senile Animal
Newsom, Joanna - Ys
Oxford Collapse - Remember the Night Parties
Pernice Brothers, The - Live a Little
Portastatic - Be Still Please
Subtle - For Hero: For Fool
Waits, Tom - Orphans
Yorke, Thom - The Eraser

Good list. I think we've had similar lists the last couple of years.

I noticed you had Scott H. Biram on your Top 20 list... I've listened to it a couple of times, but I just keep waiting for it to explode and it never does... I guess I just can't get used to the production on it. I do like the songwriting though.

yeaah phoenix

You summed it up so well:
Your NEXT TWENTY is exactly that, nice list!