TOP TWENTY ALBUMS I HEARD
1. Doug Burr - O Ye Devastator
Gorgeous and meticulously crafted bedroom pop from mini music-mecca, Denton, TX. A voice as fine as cashmere, stories as well crafted as a Lahiri short, and equally as emotionally evocative sonic craftsmanship, all tempered with exceptional restraint and control.
2. Beach House - Teen Dream
Baltimore dream pop delivers androgynous bliss through a disaffected haze. The accompanying videos are very much worth watching.
3. Horse Feathers - Thistled Spring
Horse Feathers step out of the dark, southern gothic landscape they cut their teeth in and emerge into soft pastoral light. Spring indeed.
4. Maximum Balloon - Maximum Balloon
TV on the Radio's David Sitek enlists a slew of celebrity friends and artists to make a modern day funk and soul record worth shaking your ass to.
5. John Grant - Queen of Denmark
Midlake backs former Czars frontman and everyone is better for it. Grant has an unparalleled baritone voice and his lyrics manage both dark humor and deep poignancy. If The Courage of Others left you wishing for something a bit more dynamic from the Midlake boys, here's your record.
6. Jonsi - Go
7. Samantha Crain - You (Understood)
8. Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz
9. Justin Townes Earle - Harlem River Blues
10. Sam Amidon - I See the Sign
11. Neil Young - Le Noise
12. Breathe Owl Breathe - Magic Central
13. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
14. Vampire Weekend - Contra
15. Sharon Van Etten - Epic
16. Kanye West - My Dark Twisted Fantasy
17. Shearwater - The Golden Archipelago
18. The Black Keys - Brothers
19. Nathaniel Rateliffe - In Memory of Loss
20. Grinderman - Grinderman 2
HONORABLE MENTION: The New Pornographers, The National, Frightened Rabbit, JBM, Mumford and Sons, Max Richter
TOP 10 EP'S
1. Moonface - Dreamland EP: Marimbas and Shit Drums
2. White Dress - EP
3. XX Remixed by The Four Tet - VCR
4. Zola Jesus - Stridulum EP
5. Zola Jesus - Valusia EP
6. James Blake - Klavierwerke EP
7. The Tallest Man on Earth - Sometimes the Blues is Just a Passing Bird
8. Active Child - Curtis Lane EP
9. Sufjan Stevens - All Delighted People EP
10. Destroyer - Archer on the Beach EP
