The opportunity to look back on all of the music released in a given year usually helps to put things into perspective. In years past, there were clear-cut winners, a few also rans and the rest. Last year, for example, My Morning Jacket was my top pick, with all others a distant second and beyond.

This year, things were different. It took a couple of weeks to really nail down this list of 25 top discs. The good news is that I was afforded another chance to really listen to a lot of great music. The bad news is that a lot of albums that I thought would hold up throughout the year instead fizzled when subjected to such close scrutiny. The result is a solid list, but one that is much different than I might have predicted even a couple of months ago. For more on that, you can see the end of this post.

What I'm most struck by in looking at this list is that it is made up almost exclusively of veteran acts or newcomers. There are few bands with a couple of discs under their belt who made this list. Instead, bands well into their second or even third decade, like Yo La Tengo and Sonic Youth, put out some of the most vital music of their careers. Meanwhile, upstarts like Midlake, Grizzly Bear and Margot and the Nuclear So and So's came out of the gate with albums that promise (I hope) long and fruitful careers.

Top 10:

Yo La Tengo – I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass (Matador)

I labored this year to determine my favorite album, then realized I should make it easy and pick the one that spent the most time in the player. Few bands make music this creative and vital more than 20 years and a dozen albums in, but Yo La Tengo has made its career on eclecticism, so why not experience a creative rebirth now? Sure, you could call this a greatest hits populated by all new songs, as it recaptures all of the band's various styles more than it treads new ground. But top to bottom, it is one of its most consistent albums, and the one I would choose if introducing someone to its music.
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MP3: "Beanbag Chair"

Robert Pollard – From a Compound Eye (Merge)

In a review of this disc for PopMatters way back in February, I wrote that with From a Compound Eye, Pollard had finally made his classic album. Time has done nothing to diminish that accomplishment -- it is a fantastic collection of songs that fully explores and capitalizes on Pollard's interest in what he calls the "four Ps": pop, punk, prog and psych. There are reasons to miss Guided by Voices, but this isn't one of them. The power of this record is perhaps augmented by the fact that he issued a second strong disc in October. It's well past the point of suggesting that Pollard scale back and issue the cream of the crop. As he told me in an extensive interview before the album's release – the results of which are here and here – "I used to be accused, and probably still am accused, of not using my best stuff on records. That's good, I guess, if you have that much stuff, if people think you aren't using your best stuff on your major records." On this one, at least, no one could level such an accusation.
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MP3: "Dancing Girls and Dancing Men"

Bob Dylan – Modern Times (Sony)

Dylan is three-for-three on his last three discs, a streak the likes of which he hasn't seem for more than 20 years. Yes, the title is anything but descriptive, and yes, even the cover art has been done, but none of that detracts from the fact that this was one of the most creative, lively and fun discs put out this year. Anyone who can record an homage to Merle Haggard's "Workingman Blues" and take the album on which it appears to the top of the charts must be doing something right. It feels like Dylan could crank out endless numbers of discs like this if he so chooses. Let's hope he does.
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Video: "When the Deal Goes Down"

Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s – The Dust of Retreat (Artemis)

Yes, the name is a bit silly, but it's hard to find anything else to criticize about this gem. Led by twentysomething Richard Edwards, this Indiana group blends singer-songwritery tunes with strings, percussion and sweet vocals in a well-arranged whole that delights from beginning to end. Standouts include "Quiet as a Mouse" and "Skeleton Key," but there isn't a bad song in the bunch. In an interview with TIRBD, Edwards said he feels the band will continue to grow and improve. That bodes well for future best-of lists.
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MP3: "Skeleton Key
MP3: "Barfight Revolution, Power Violence"

Los Lobos – The Town and the City

It would be easy to consider Los Lobos another of those veteran bands who made a great comeback, save for one thing: the band never went away, and hasn't released a bad record in 25 years. Its last, The Ride, did feel like a career-capping goodbye, but we should know better by now. To follow it, the band uncorked its most inventive and consistent disc since Kiko, one that found it easily straddling the ever-shrinking chasm between its roots and its experimental tendencies. Not only that, but it did so with a concept record that actually makes sense.
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MP3: "Hold On"

Grizzly Bear – Yellow House (Warp)

When Yellow House was released, it didn't seem possible that it could live up to the massive blog hype that awaited it. But unlike bands like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Tapes 'n Tapes, there was no need to tear down what had been built up. The disc was everything that was promised and more. Mixing lo-fi bedroom pop, subtle electronics and haunting harmonies, it never grabs you, but neither does it seem to let go. Some songs seem to be randomly glued-together fragments, while the whole had a somewhat disjointed feel. That's part of its considerable charms.
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MP3: "On a Neck, On a Spit"

Belle and Sebastian – The Life Pursuit (Matador)

Another act that seemed destined to keep making the same record over and over again with decreasingly satisfying results, Belle and Sebastian instead turned in the album of its career. For the first time, Stuart Murdoch's songs don't seem affected, and everyone seems to be having- gasp - fun. The disc is an absolute blast and the songs are top notch. Even an ill-advised turn behind the mic from Stevie Jackson is easily swallowed because it's surrounded by so much sugar.
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MP3: "Another Sunny Day"

Minus 5 – s/t (YepRoc)

Scott McCaughey thinks this disc is his most straight forward in years: "I actually felt like I tried to make this album more direct and more accessible," he told me for a PopMatters piece. That he said so about a disc whose first song begins with the line "The quartermaster baked a radio" is telling. There's straightforward, and then there's the Minus 5. No matter the angle of attack, McCaughey is a deceptively talented songwriter, and this, known as "The Gun Album," may be the best collection of his career. Ably backed by a few friends who have become a crack band - Peter Buck, Bill Rieflin and John Ramberg - he cranked out a beauty.
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MP3: "Twilight Distillery"

Josh Ritter – The Animal Years (V2)

Ritter is a classic overachiever, a kid from Idaho with a decent but not great voice and compelling but not heart-stopping songs. But a funny thing happens with his records: You can't stop playing them. He has a knack for crafting deceptively simple ditties that stick in the ear for days. This time out he has refined his approach and added a degree of difficulty that only serves to make his hooks stickier. Even a slight political bent and some artistic ambition can't hamper his progress. Careful, Josh: We'll start to expect it.
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MP3: "Girl in the War"

Midlake – The Trials of Van Occupanther (Bella Union)

It’s hard to describe this album’s appeal; sure, it is full of wonderfully catchy songs, but there is nothing remarkable about the disc. It offers sweet, folky pop with dreamy vocals, beautiful stacked harmonies and somewhat anachronistic keyboard flourishes. Perhaps its charm is in the fact that it doesn’t sound like Midlake is trying very hard. Unlike the many hipster acts aspiring to retro cool, Midlake seems to have found a direct channel to the '70s without actually recreating its sound. The result is the surprise hit of the year.
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MP3: "Roscoe"

The next 10:
11. Shearwater – Palo Santo (Misra)
12. Bruce Springsteen – We Shall Overcome (Sony)
13. Band of Horses – Everything All the Time (Sub Pop)
14. Gomez – How We Operate (ATO)
15. Sonic Youth – Rather Ripped (Geffen)
16. Richard Bucker – The Meadow (Merge)
17. Mission of Burma – The Obliterati (Matador)
18. Alejandro Escovedo – The Boxing Mirror (Back Porch)
19. Bonnie “Prince” Billy – The Letting Go (Drag City)
20. TV on the Radio – Return to Cookie Mountain (Interscope)

An additional 5, in no certain order:
Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (Anti)
Drive-by Truckers – A Blessing and a Curse (New West)
Robyn Hitchcock – Ole Tarantula (YepRoc)
Hold Steady – Boys and Girls in America (Vagrant)
Pernice Brothers – Little By Little (Ashmont)

A welcome comeback, but better luck next time:
The Lemonheads – s/t (Vagrant)

Top Reissues:
Sebadoh – III (Domino)
Pavement – Wowee Zowee - Sordid Sentinels Edition (Matador)
Gram Parsons – The Complete Reprise Sessions (Rhino)

Discs I thought I’d like more but:
Damien Rice’s 9 simply wasn’t very good. Beth Orton’s Comfort of Strangers was an interesting experiment thanks to Jim O’Rourke’s dry, raw production, but the songs weren’t quite there. Calexico’s Garden Ruin took a rewarding turn toward easy pop, but shed too much of what makes the band unique in the process. The Black Keys' Magic Potion would have been more powerful if it hadn't followed three strong albums that sounded pretty much exactly like it. I was pretty sure that Living With War from Neil Young wasn't going to age well, and I was right. Beck's so-called return to Odelay-like heights, The Information, was good, but his schtick seems a bit tired these days. He used to sound like everyone under the sun; now he just sounds like Beck. The Decemberists' The Crane Wife is a solid, adventurous turn that makes worries of a major label sell-out seem ridiculous. If I wanted to listen to Emerson, Lake and Palmer, however... Broken Boy Soldiers from the Raconteurs was a fun, energetic romp, a perfect summer album from Jack White and Brendan Benson. It didn't seem to merit repeat spins, however, which probably has something to do with White overload. How can we miss him if he won't go away? Ray LaMontagne’s ’Til the Sun Turns Black was a consistent, rewarding follow-up, but I found myself turned off by his insistence in dozens of magazine interviews that he was really a quiet reclusive guy who didn't like talking about himself. There's a solution, Ray.

And finally:
I can admire the artistry of Joanna Newsom, but suffice to say, if I'm ever holed up in a compound, the ATF won't need to guess at what to play on the boombox to get me to surrender. And talk about duds: Has that Arctic Monkeys disc shown up on anyone's list? Earlier this year it was heralded as the next big thing, as if every rock critic was suddenly stricken by NME syndrome. Today, it seems as if it has found its level, which is about waist-high in the cutout bin.

Labels: lists, music