Ranked roughly in descending order of preference (once you get past the first three, it's mostly random).
Deerhunter: Halcyon Digest. Past the awkward mood setting opener, Halcyon Digest is a brilliant work of song construction and dynamics. Bradford Cox has become quite an engaging (in addition to brutally honest) writer, and he has never sounded so comfortable in the context of a band. [See a previous post for more thoughts about the last song which I feel is more or less the album's thesis statement.]
The Tallest Man on Earth: The Wild Hunt. His sophomore release, wherein the frosty Scandinavian emerges as a better writer, more confident singer, and more refined guitarist than pretty much any of his contemporaries. I expect the Dylan comparisons will haunt him for his entire career, but Kristian Matsson's vision clearly stretches back past the Anthology of American Folk Music. [The companion EP, Sometimes the Blues is Just a Passing Bird, is really great, too.]
Janelle Monae: The ArchAndroid. Monae's genre hopping, heart stopping, mind blowing debut is impossibly inventive and impressively complex. Only the weird insertion of an Of Montreal song breaks the otherwise perfect flow. What a year for Fritz Lang's Metropolis.
Gonjasufi: A Sufi and a Killer. The Gaslamp Killer's eerie production brilliantly matches Gonjasufi's disturbed fairy tale lyrics and his bizarre, unraveling voice. A remarkably forward thinking debut.
Joanna Newsom: Have One on Me. Three discs of new material, and most of it is great. Her writing is more conventional in places (Newsom even pens a few pretty love songs), and her voice has settled down into comfortable accessibility. Though this makes for a far less visionary opus than her masterpiece Ys, Newsom is still one of the brightest musicians to spring up over the last 10 years.
Young Jazz Rebels (Madlib): Slave Riot. The greatest hip hop producer on the planet indulges in his love of free jazz and the crackling texture of old vinyl records. Intense stuff.
Vampire Weekend: Contra. I fell in love with this album with the first couplet, where the singer rhymes “horchata” with “balaclava,” but that was mostly ideological. Then I was struck by how good the music is. Vampire Weekend are cleverer than they are profound, but this album is much cleverer than their first album.
No Age: Everything in Between. A more thoughtful and nuanced album than Nouns. Even some of the lyrics--the ones I can understand, anyway--are pretty good.
Das Racist: Sit Down, Man. The best mixtape of the year, rife with hilarious social commentary, giddy satire, and stoned exuberance.
Avey Tare: Down There. You might want to bring a poncho and galoshes to this album. The sound of kids jumping in puddles on their way home from school and ruminative rainy days watched through fogged over windows.
(List is subject to change as I continue listening to more albums and digesting the ones to which I already have listened.)
