| 2011 |
| Olafur Arnalds Living Room Songs | 4.0 |
| Toh Kay Streetlight Lullabies | 2.5 |
| Sepalcure Sepalcure | 4.0 |
| Kate Bush 50 Words for Snow | 4.0 |
| Mahria Mahria | 3.5 |
| Atlas Sound Parallax | 4.5 |
| Pianos Become the Teeth The Lack Long After | 3.5 |
| Florence and the Machine Ceremonials | 4.0 |
| Patrick Stump Soul Punk | 3.0 |
| M83 Hurry Up, We're Dreaming | 4.0 |
| Tim Hecker Dropped Pianos | 4.0 |
| Bjork Biophilia | 3.5 |
| Nils Frahm Felt | 4.0 |
| A Lot Like Birds Conversation Piece | 3.0 |
| A Lot Like Birds lose everything that made them an interesting band and become another competent post-hardcore act who can do stuff and things and whatever. |
| Feist Metals | 4.0 |
| Zola Jesus Conatus | 4.0 |
| La Dispute Wildlife | 4.0 |
| Spank Rock Everything Is Boring & Everyone Is A Fucking Liar | 1.5 |
| Youth Lagoon The Year of Hibernation | 3.5 |
| Wilco The Whole Love | 3.5 |
| blink-182 Neighborhoods | 3.5 |
| Oh my god I'm in high school again :D |
| Floex Zorya | 4.0 |
| Chelsea Wolfe Apokalypsis | 3.0 |
| The Jezabels Prisoner | 4.0 |
| St. Vincent Strange Mercy | 3.5 |
| Thrice Major/Minor | 3.5 |
| The Front Bottoms The Front Bottoms | 3.5 |
| Balam Acab Wander/Wonder | 3.5 |
| Active Child You Are All I See | 3.5 |
| Circle Takes the Square Rites of Initiation | 4.0 |
| The Weeknd Thursday | 2.0 |
| This is what happens when you stick your balls in a vice and compensate by fucking the drum machine and cranking the reverb. |
| Gotye Making Mirrors | 3.0 |
| The War On Drugs Slave Ambient | 3.5 |
| Cut Off Your Hands Hollow | 3.5 |
| Royal Headache Royal Headache | 4.0 |
| Danny Brown XXX | 4.0 |
| Bomb the Music Industry! Vacation | 3.5 |
| Little Dragon Ritual Union | 3.5 |
| How to Dress Well Just Once | 3.5 |
| Meniscus War of Currents | 3.5 |
| Shabazz Palaces Black Up | 4.0 |
| SBTRKT SBTRKT | 3.5 |
| YACHT Shangri-La | 3.0 |
| sleepmakeswaves ...and so we destroyed everything | 3.5 |
| Bon Iver Bon Iver, Bon Iver | 4.0 |
| Devin Townsend Project Deconstruction | 3.5 |
| Patrick Wolf Lupercalia | 3.5 |
| The Wonder Years Suburbia I've Given You All and Now I'm Nothing | 3.5 |
| Marissa Nadler Marissa Nadler | 3.5 |
| WU LYF Go Tell Fire to the Mountain | 3.5 |
| Battles Gloss Drop | 3.5 |
| Touche Amore Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me | 3.5 |
| Ampere Like Shadows | 4.0 |
| Holy shit. The last album that had me on the edge of my seat like this was something out of pg.99's discography, and even then this is a ride like no other. Short, fast, brutal and passionate - everything Ampere ever had in them, distilled into the best 13 minutes of the year. |
| Departures When Losing Everything Is Everything You Wanted | 3.5 |
| Matthew Good Lights of Endangered Species | 3.0 |
| Unexpect Fables of the Sleepless Empire | 3.0 |
| Algernon Cadwallader Parrot Flies | 3.5 |
There's this drinking game we used to play in high school that went something like this: Someone started out by screaming at the top of his lungs: "FINGERS IN THE MIDDLE!", to which everyone screamed it right back. This was followed by "FIDDLE WITH MY DIDDLE!!". Scream back. And then altogether: "OOOHHH FUCK ME YOU FAT BITCH!" and someone would open up with something like "Alex fuck Alex fuck how about a Downer fuck!". Downer would follow with the same, only with someone else's name instead of his. This would go around the party and get faster and faster and faster until someone eventually messed up and scoff something like "Alex fu- shi- go- ahhghghhgdfgdf DAMMIT" and down whatever they had left of their drink, no matter how full it was. Of course we had to make sure of it by chanting "DOWN! DOWN! DOWN!" every ugly gulp of the way. You've probably done that part before. Anyway, not only was this probably the best drinking game ever, but it's messy as fuck. And usually, even before the games got underway, some idiot somewhere would scream out "LETS GET FUCKIN' NAKED!!!" which was how we knew the party had really started.
Parrot Flies feels like this. |
| Fireworks Gospel | 3.0 |
| Friendly Fires Pala | 3.5 |
| fun fun fun fun ... percussion! |
| Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi Rome | 3.5 |
| Tyler, the Creator Goblin | 3.0 |
| Balance and Composure Separation | 3.0 |
| Okkervil River I Am Very Far | 3.5 |
| Gang Gang Dance Eye Contact | 3.5 |
| Wild Beasts Smother | 4.5 |
| So Hideous To Clasp a Fallen Wish With Broken Fingers | 3.5 |
| Pulling Teeth Funerary | 3.5 |
| Blue Sky Black Death NOIR | 3.0 |
| Memphis May Fire The Hollow | 3.5 |
| Deafheaven Roads to Judah | 4.0 |
| Laura Stevenson Sit Resist | 4.0 |
| London Elektricity Yikes! | 3.5 |
| Thursday No Devolucion | 4.5 |
| Jamie Woon Mirrorwriting | 3.5 |
| Raein Ah, As If... | 2.5 |
| Crash of Rhinos Distal | 3.5 |
| Bibio Mind Bokeh | 3.5 |
| The Pains of Being Pure at Heart Belong | 4.0 |
| Swarms Old Raves End | 4.0 |
| Stendeck Scintilla | 3.0 |
| Pharoahe Monch W.A.R. | 3.5 |
| The Weeknd House of Balloons | 3.5 |
| The Dodos No Color | 4.5 |
| Devastatingly good. |
| Colin Stetson New History Warfare Vol 2: Judges | 3.5 |
| Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie XX We're New Here | 3.0 |
| Jenny Hval Viscera | 4.5 |
| Frank Ocean Nostalgia, Ultra. | 3.5 |
| Asobi Seksu Fluorescence | 4.0 |
| Yuck Yuck | 4.5 |
| Tim Hecker Ravedeath, 1972 | 4.0 |
| Cut Copy Zonoscope | 3.5 |
| James Blake James Blake | 4.5 |
| Hercules and Love Affair Blue Songs | 3.5 |
| The Get Up Kids There Are Rules | 2.5 |
| Iron And Wine Kiss Each Other Clean | 3.5 |
| Destroyer Kaputt | 4.0 |
| Okay so the whole time I'm listening to this, I'm imagining Sharon Stone (circa Sliver) walking up to me real slow like, in this awesome black leotard, real skimpy like, and they're these candles (red), burning, and rose petals too. We're in a hotel room, by the way. So like, I'm sitting on a chair and she comes up to me, climbs on top and wraps those long, 80s sex goddess legs are around me, and shes sorta dry humping me, real passionate like, and then I reach down and start to unzip the leotard from behind, and she stops me, looks me in the eye real seductive like, and starts to like make out with my neck and oh my god I jizzed my pants. |
| The Aquabats Hi-Five Soup! | 2.0 |
| What the hell Aquabats |
| The Decemberists The King Is Dead | 3.5 |
| Braids Native Speaker | 3.5 |
| Joyce Manor Joyce Manor | 3.5 |
| 2010 |
| M.I.A. VICKI LEEKX | 3.5 |
| Ghostface Killah Apollo Kids | 4.0 |
| Finch Epilogue | 4.0 |
| Feist Look At What The Light Did Now | 4.0 |
| Fireworks Bonfires | 3.0 |
| Amia Venera Landscape The Long Procession | 3.5 |
| Simian Mobile Disco Delicacies | 4.0 |
| Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy | 3.5 |
| OFF! First Four EPs | 4.0 |
| Girl Talk All Day | 3.5 |
| Cee Lo Green The Lady Killer | 3.5 |
| Underoath Ø (Disambiguation) | 4.0 |
| Her Name Is Calla The Quiet Lamb | 3.0 |
| Max Bemis and The Painful Splits Max Bemis and The Painful Splits | 2.5 |
| Labyrinth Ear Oak EP | 4.5 |
| Trophy Scars Darkness, Oh Hell | 3.0 |
| Kylesa Spiral Shadow | 3.5 |
| Warpaint The Fool | 3.5 |
| Phaeleh Fallen Light | 3.5 |
| Kings of Leon Come Around Sundown | 3.0 |
| Kids and Explosions Shit Computer | 3.5 |
| My Disco Little Joy | 3.5 |
| Sufjan Stevens The Age of Adz | 3.0 |
| Here is what you need to know about Sufjan Stevens. He lives in a room. This room has no windows, but it is a magic room. It responds to Sufjan's every thought, warping and twisting with every leap of Sufjan's wild imagination. But the real magic is that this is also a musical room - every twist a note, every warp a harmony. This all sounds pretty awesome, but the downside is that poor Sufjan is stuck in this bloody room. He hasn't seen daylight for years, which means he has to conjure it all in the form of music. And let's give the man credit where credit is due: his imagination is wild, colorful as the brightest day and vivid as the greatest portraits could ever convey. But he has also lost grip on reality. Just... gone, completely: it's a windlowless room. Which means that every ray of gorgeous musical sun is refracted through a prism of unfocused spectral madness, sweeping - left, right, everywhere - but no where in particular. If you alive back then, you'd have seen this same thing before, except that time, the man in question was Dustin Hoffman, and the movie was, well, Rain Man. |
| Zola Jesus Valusia | 3.5 |
| Kno Death Is Silent | 3.5 |
| Gold Panda Lucky Shiner | 4.0 |
| Marnie Stern Marnie Stern | 2.5 |
| PS I Love You Meet Me At The Muster Station | 4.0 |
| Bring Me the Horizon There Is a Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It... | 3.0 |
| Mae (e)vening | 2.5 |
| The Jezabels Dark Storm | 3.5 |
| Twin Shadow Forget | 3.0 |
| Glasser Ring | 3.5 |
| Deerhunter Halcyon Digest | 4.0 |
| James Blake Klavierwerke | 4.0 |
| No Age Everything In Between | 3.0 |
| The Saddest Landscape You Will Not Survive | 4.0 |
| How to Dress Well Love Remains | 4.5 |
| It's like Justin Vernon went up to Burial and was like yo make an album for me, and Burial was like sure bro and the shit was cash. Also, Justin Vernon is black. |
| Oceansize Self Preserved While The Bodies Float Up | 3.5 |
| Black Milk Album Of The Year | 3.5 |
| Grinderman Grinderman 2 | 3.5 |
| Blonde Redhead Penny Sparkle | 3.5 |
| Kyu キイチ | 3.5 |
| Tera Melos Patagonian Rats | 3.5 |
| Hi! We're Tera Melos and we like noodles! So many fucking noodles. |
| The Naked and Famous Passive Me, Aggressive You | 3.5 |
| Pariah (UK) Safehouses | 4.0 |
| Envy Recitation | 2.5 |
| Envy get cute and decide to write Christmas carols. |
| Bomb the Music Industry! Everybody That You Love | 3.5 |
| The Word Alive Deceiver | 3.0 |
| Fight Like Apes The Body Of Christ And The Legs Of Tina Turner | 3.0 |
| Land Of Talk Cloak and Cipher | 3.5 |
| Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan Hawk | 3.5 |
| Klaxons Surfing the Void | 2.5 |
| White Lung It's The Evil | 4.0 |
| Adebisi Shank This is the Second Album | 3.5 |
| Sufjan Stevens All Delighted People | 3.5 |
| Orbs Asleep Next to Science | 3.0 |
| Sundowner We Chase the Waves | 3.0 |
| PVT Church With No Magic | 3.5 |
| Wretched (USA-NC) Beyond the Gate | 3.5 |
| Arcade Fire The Suburbs | 4.0 |
| Kerouac Cold and Distant, Not Loving | 4.0 |
| Washington I Believe You Liar | 3.5 |
| Menomena Mines | 4.0 |
| Lydia Assailants | 3.0 |
| The Books The Way Out | 3.5 |
| Max Richter Infra | 3.5 |
| Mount Kimbie Crooks & Lovers | 3.5 |
| M.I.A. Maya | 4.0 |
| Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse Dark Night of the Soul | 4.0 |
| Baths Cerulean | 3.0 |
| Big Boi Sir Lucious Left Foot | 3.5 |
| ceo White Magic | 3.0 |
| Blondes Touched | 4.0 |
| The Chemical Brothers Further | 3.5 |
| Stars The Five Ghosts | 3.5 |
| The Roots How I Got Over | 3.5 |
| Eminem Recovery | 3.0 |
| Foals Total Life Forever | 3.5 |
| Robyn Body Talk Pt. 1 | 3.5 |
| Uffie Sex Dreams and Denim Jeans | 2.5 |
| The Ghost Inside Returners | 3.0 |
| Tame Impala Innerspeaker | 3.5 |
| Ceremony (USA-CA) Rohnert Park | 4.0 |
| Sleepy Sun Fever | 3.5 |
| Self Defense Family You Are Beneath Me | 3.5 |
| Merchant Ships For Cameron | 4.0 |
| Sepalcure Love Pressure | 4.0 |
| Actress Splazsh | 3.5 |
| James Blake CMYK | 4.0 |
| Marina The Family Jewels | 3.5 |
| Rolo Tomassi Cosmology | 2.5 |
| The Black Keys Brothers | 3.5 |
| Lone Wolf The Devil and I | 3.5 |
| LCD Soundsystem This Is Happening | 4.0 |
| Janelle Monae The ArchAndroid | 4.5 |
| Gayngs Relayted | 3.0 |
| Holy Fuck Latin | 3.5 |
| The Dead Weather Sea of Cowards | 3.5 |
| Sleigh Bells Treats | 3.5 |
| The National High Violet | 4.0 |
| Broken Social Scene Forgiveness Rock Record | 3.5 |
| Deftones Diamond Eyes | 4.0 |
| Flying Lotus Cosmogramma | 3.5 |
| Sed Non Satiata Sed Non Satiata | 4.0 |
| Parades Foreign Tapes | 4.0 |
| Parades, like their name, know how to celebrate in style. I'm thinking dinner jacket, skinny black tie and a pair of blue jeans. You know the one. A little sharp, a lot cool. And when you've released a debut as clean and crisp as Foreign Tapes, there's every reason in the world to party: drawing from constellation of biting post-punk, warm indie-pop and a dash of honey sickle post-rock, if the sheer amount of hyphenating didn't give it away, Foreign Tapes stands on the razor's edge of the musical universe, redefining and breaking out of every little box on the display shelf. How else to explain the way the record delicately threads a line between crystalline sharpness and gorgeous, cascading layers of harmony? Or the way songs like Lung Full Of Light sway with an easy breeze while hitting like a ton of bricks? Or the soothing warmth of the Marigold's thundering climax? Foreign Tapes isn't just a party, but a lesson in how to throw one: new without being weird, innovative without being overbearingly eclectic - in a word, the most refreshing album of 2010. |
| Shugo Tokumaru Port Entropy | 3.5 |
| Periphery Periphery | 3.0 |
| Circa Survive Blue Sky Noise | 3.5 |
| Dark Time Sunshine Vessel | 3.5 |
| Caribou Swim | 4.0 |
| Cassette Kids Nothing on TV | 3.5 |
| letlive. Fake History | 2.0 |
| The Menzingers Chamberlain Waits | 3.5 |
| The Tallest Man on Earth The Wild Hunt | 4.0 |
| Laura Marling I Speak Because I Can | 3.5 |
| NOISIA Split The Atom | 3.0 |
| The Dillinger Escape Plan Option Paralysis | 4.0 |
| Streetlight Manifesto 99 Songs of Revolution: Volume I | 3.5 |
| Delorean Subiza | 3.5 |
| Angus and Julia Stone Down the Way | 3.5 |
| Titus Andronicus The Monitor | 3.0 |
| Liars Sisterworld | 3.5 |
| Daughters Daughters | 3.5 |
| Zola Jesus Stridulum | 4.0 |
| Anais Mitchell Hadestown | 3.5 |
| Two Door Cinema Club Tourist History | 4.5 |
| Fang Island Fang Island | 3.5 |
| Joanna Newsom Have One on Me | 4.0 |
| Yeasayer Odd Blood | 3.0 |
| Arsis Starve for the Devil | 3.0 |
| Pantha Du Prince Black Noise | 4.0 |
| Bomb the Music Industry! Adults!!!: Smart!!! Shithammered!!! And Excited By Nothing!!!!!!! | 4.0 |
| The Knife Tomorrow, In a Year | 3.5 |
| Los Campesinos! Romance Is Boring | 3.5 |
| VOICEsVOICEs Origins EP | 5.0 |
| Beach House Teen Dream | 3.0 |
| Four Tet There is Love in You | 3.5 |
| Adorno Said And Unsaid | 3.5 |
| The Felix Culpa Sever Your Roots | 3.5 |
| Emancipator Safe In The Steep Cliffs | 3.5 |
| OK Go Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky | 2.0 |
| Vampire Weekend Contra | 4.0 |
| Grimes Geidi Primes | 3.0 |
| The Knux Fuck You EP | 3.5 |
| Dangers Messy, Isn't It? | 4.0 |
| More Than Life Love Let Me Go | 4.0 |
| Departures Escaping | 4.0 |
| Black Swan (USA-NY) Black Swan (In 8 Movements) | 4.0 |
| 2009 |
| From Indian Lakes The Man With Wooden Legs | 3.5 |
| Charlotte Gainsbourg IRM | 3.0 |
| Jonathan Boulet Jonathan Boulet | 4.0 |
| Animal Collective Fall Be Kind | 4.0 |
| Them Crooked Vultures Them Crooked Vultures | 3.0 |
| Devin Townsend Project Addicted | 3.5 |
| Annie Don't Stop | 3.5 |
| John Mayer Battle Studies | 3.5 |
| Defeater Lost Ground | 3.5 |
| Gaza He Is Never Coming Back | 4.0 |
| Bridezilla The First Dance | 3.0 |
| A Lot Like Birds Plan B | 4.0 |
| Julian Casablancas Phrazes for the Young | 3.0 |
| Say Anything Say Anything | 5.0 |
| The Jezabels She's So Hard | 3.5 |
| Local Natives Gorilla Manor | 4.0 |
| Shpongle Ineffable Mysteries from Shpongleland | 4.5 |
Nothing Lasts hey? Oh, but I'll tell you what does: the divine bloody brilliance of Simon Posford and Raja Ram. If Shpongle weren't already the most forward thinking and boundary shattering act on the electronic compass, the duo's latest, Ineffable Mysteries From Shpongleland would be as much of an album as it would be a veritable psychoelectromagnetic nuclear device. Hell, this isn't an album any more than Alice In Wonderland is a story - where Alice had her madly grinning Cheshire Cat, Shpongle have the Goa warped landscape of "Electroplasm"; where the bottle said 'drink me', Shpongle provide their own journey though wild-eyed explorations of acoustic tinged flamenco solos, dub riddled basslines and the most wicked effort at beat stringing ever on "Shpongolese Spoken Here".
In fact, I suspect it would take no less than the psydripped rave of "Ineffable Mysteries" (complete with woodwind straight from the Andes), to convince Shiva the Destroyer to take a holiday from her macabre life of death to indulge in a night of full moon partying down at whichever mystic beach she'd choose. But the kicker? When Benn Jordan gets out-Flashbulb'd by "Nothing Is Something Worth Doing" - A track that stretches Shpongle's template of earthy percussion and electronic wrangling to the edges of the sonic horizon, obscured by the vorpal rays of trance gripped experimentation. And no, by the way, there's no rhyme or reason here, not in this place, this dimension, not where Comic Gods and Carrolleqse absurdity dwell in Unsane harmony, but I'll stand by my Brahman and bask in this light, oh gods, what light. |
| Pyramids with Nadja Pyramids with Nadja | 3.5 |
| The Lawrence Arms Buttsweat and Tears | 4.0 |
| Johnny Foreigner Grace And The Bigger Picture | 3.5 |
| Sufjan Stevens The BQE | 3.0 |
| Fuck Buttons Tarot Sport | 3.5 |
| Atlas Sound Logos | 3.5 |
| Daitro Y | 3.5 |
| Do Make Say Think Other Truths | 4.0 |
| Ok, this is just ridiculous now, no band should be allowed to be this consistently awesome. Usually this is the bit where I rant about how saturated the post rock scene is, but Do Make Say Think's brand of jazz infused instrumental jams are so strikingly unique it's hard to even consider mentioning the band and the genre in the same breath for fear of lumping them in with 'everyone else'. While Other Truths isn't the band's most polished record, there's a distinct feeling here that 'polished' isn't exactly the point - with just four songs averaging about ten minutes each, Other Truths plays itself out as one giant, magical studio jam that just so happily got captured on tape. That they just also happen to all sound immaculately composed and free flowing at the same time is only a testament to the wonder of this Canadian collective. Oh, and "Do" just might be the greatest thing these guys have ever written. Get. Now. Feel. Good. |
| 60 Watt Kid We Come From The Bright Side | 4.0 |
| The Chinese Stars Heaven On Speed Dial | 2.0 |
| Poor man's Blood Brothers |
| Baroness Blue Record | 2.5 |
| Thrice Beggars | 3.5 |
| The Flaming Lips Embryonic | 4.0 |
| The Fall of Troy In the Unlikely Event | 2.0 |
| Built to Spill There Is No Enemy | 4.0 |
| Orphans of Cush White Noize | 4.0 |
| Converge Axe to Fall | 2.5 |
| Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate) What It Takes to Move Forward | 3.5 |
| DFRNT Metafiction | 3.5 |
| Vitalic Flashmob | 3.5 |
| Volcano Choir Unmap | 3.0 |
| Brand New Daisy | 4.0 |
| Vic Chesnutt At The Cut | 4.0 |
| Dizzee Rascal Tongue N' Cheek | 2.5 |
| A City Safe From Sea Throw Me Through Walls | 3.0 |
| Every Time I Die New Junk Aesthetic | 3.5 |
| Muse The Resistance | 2.5 |
| Lusine A Certain Distance | 4.0 |
| A Fine Frenzy Bomb In A Birdcage | 3.0 |
| Polvo In Prism | 3.5 |
| Yo La Tengo Popular Songs | 3.5 |
| Raekwon Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt II | 4.0 |
| Weekend Nachos Unforgivable | 3.5 |
| BATS Red In Tooth and Claw | 4.0 |
| Urthboy Spitshine | 3.5 |
| fun. Aim and Ignite | 3.5 |
| Still Life Still Girls Come Too | 3.5 |
| Mew No More Stories | 4.5 |
| Mew's biggest problem has simply been that they've been called, well... Mew. Maybe they realized this after the fact and have been striving to make up for it since, because following from the explosive brilliance of Frengers, Mew have threatened to become one of indie rock's most breathtakingly refreshing and innovative bands to ever press a record. While it's been almost four years since their last attempt, here on No More Stories Are Told, I'm Sorry, They Washed Away this Danish collective clearly haven't lost any of their steam, following through with a knockout punch of devastating beauty. With its rapturous mix of artfully composed progressive rock swirling amongst a thicket of richly textured shoegaze and dreampop inspired melodies, Mew have managed to redefine the musical landscape of 2009 with a single magisterial sweep. Drawing on Jonas Bjerre's delicately misty vocals and a haze of shimmering guitar lines, songs like the tension-racked rock out of "Repeater Beater" and the stunningly evocative "Cartoons and Macreme Wounds" never lose sight of Mew's ability to bring together both subtlety and intensity with immaculate ease. Did I mention that "Sometimes Life Isn't Easy" may just be most uplifting and heartfelt song ever written? For anyone who ever thought Minus The Bear had the monopoly on intricate but soulful indie rock, Mew have got a thing or two to say - and it's about time to sit up and listen. |
| Sally Shapiro My Guilty Pleasure | 3.0 |
| The Bloody Beetroots Romborama | 3.5 |
| Jay Reatard Watch Me Fall | 3.0 |
| As Tall As Lions You Can't Take It With You | 3.5 |
| The xx xx | 4.0 |
| Simian Mobile Disco Temporary Pleasure | 3.5 |
| Behemoth Evangelion | 3.5 |
| Blakfish Champions | 4.0 |
| Amanda Blank I Love You | 2.0 |
| Wild Beasts Two Dancers | 4.0 |
| Persefone Shin-Ken | 3.0 |
| Rx Bandits Mandala | 3.5 |
| Set Your Goals This Will Be the Death of Us | 3.5 |
| YACHT See Mystery Lights | 4.0 |
| Delorean Ayrton Senna | 4.0 |
| The Dead Weather Horehound | 3.0 |
| Lisa Mitchell Wonder | 3.5 |
| Sarah Blasko As Day Follows Night | 3.5 |
| Poison the Well The Tropic Rot | 3.5 |
| Tiny Vipers Life on Earth | 4.0 |
| Florence and the Machine Lungs | 4.0 |
| There Will Be Fireworks There Will Be Fireworks | 3.0 |
| Pianos Become the Teeth Old Pride | 3.0 |
| Touche Amore ...To the Beat of a Dead Horse | 3.5 |
| Maybeshewill Sing The Word Hope In Four-Part Harmony | 3.5 |
| La Roux La Roux | 3.0 |
| Future of the Left Travels With Myself And Another | 3.5 |
| Dream Theater Black Clouds and Silver Linings | 3.0 |
| Sunset Rubdown Dragonslayer | 3.0 |
| The Mars Volta Octahedron | 3.0 |
| Regina Spektor Far | 4.0 |
| Bibio Ambivalence Avenue | 4.0 |
| Major Lazer Guns Dont Kill People... Lazers Do | 3.5 |
| Dance Gavin Dance Happiness | 3.5 |
| Sonic Youth The Eternal | 4.0 |
| Mos Def The Ecstatic | 4.0 |
| Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca | 4.5 |
| Placebo Battle for the Sun | 3.0 |
| Emery ...In Shallow Seas We Sail | 3.5 |
| Patrick Wolf The Bachelor | 4.0 |
| datA (House) The Skywriter | 3.5 |
| Grizzly Bear Veckatimest | 4.5 |
| Phoenix (FRA) Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix | 3.5 |
| Au Revoir Simone Still Night, Still Light | 3.0 |
| mewithoutYou It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All A Dream! It's Alright! | 3.5 |
| Passion Pit Manners | 3.5 |
| Manic Street Preachers Journal For Plague Lovers | 2.0 |
| maudlin of the Well Part the Second | 4.0 |
| Exivious Exivious | 3.5 |
| Moderat Moderat | 3.5 |
| Patrick Watson Wooden Arms | 3.0 |
| The Gathering The West Pole | 3.5 |
| St. Vincent Actor | 3.5 |
| Closure in Moscow First Temple | 4.0 |
| Gallows (UK) Grey Britain | 3.5 |
| Japandroids Post-Nothing | 4.0 |
| Manchester Orchestra Mean Everything to Nothing | 3.0 |
| ISIS Wavering Radiant | 3.5 |
| Spires (USA) Flowers And Fireworks | 3.5 |
| Silversun Pickups Swoon | 3.5 |
| Bill Callahan Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle | 3.5 |
| Two Fingers Two Fingers | 4.0 |
| My Heart To Joy Seasons In Verse | 3.5 |
| Finale A Pipe Dream and a Promise | 3.5 |
| Bat For Lashes Two Suns | 4.5 |
| sleepmakeswaves/Tangled Thoughts of Leaving Split | 4.0 |
| Pulling Teeth Paranoid Delusions/Paradise Illusions | 4.0 |
| Lene Marlin Twist the Truth | 3.0 |
| Eleventh He Reaches London Hollow Be My Name | 3.5 |
| Mastodon Crack the Skye | 2.5 |
| Mono Hymn to the Immortal Wind | 3.5 |
| Dan Deacon Bromst | 3.5 |
| The Decemberists The Hazards of Love | 3.5 |
| Fireworks All I Have To Offer Is My Own Confusion | 4.0 |
| If you're after the perfect album for a teenage summer, then there's not much better you could do than All I Have To Offer... Brimming with an energy untarnished by anything less than a rollicking set of feel-good pop punk anthems, Fireworks make it their sole mission to drag kids kicking and screaming out from whichever dark, angry hole they've dug themselves and into the sunlight of their wistful playground of emotionally aggressive fun. Infused with a hardcore ethos drawn from fellow bands like Set Your Goals and Four Year Strong, what is on offer here, title aside, is a slew of wispy, bouncing guitar lines that flail playfully around David Mackinder's poignantly innocent lyrics. There's a certain nostalgia here too, but only just enough to make All I Have To Offer... the album you'll look back on and say 'hey, now that - that was a good time' with a tinge of heartfelt warmth and memory. While it may not be on the cutting edge of the scene, with its constant tsunamis of catchy, Yeti-sized chorus and way-above-the-standard songwriting, its one of the most gloriously infectious albums to creep up from the sidelines of '09 - and to do anything but revel in its light would be a crime against all that is awesome. |
| Lotus Plaza The Floodlight Collective | 3.5 |
| Fever Ray Fever Ray | 4.0 |
| MSTRKRFT Fist of God | 3.0 |
| Trophy Scars Bad Luck | 3.0 |
| Kylesa Static Tensions | 4.0 |
| Pomegranates Everybody, Come Outside! | 3.5 |
| Propagandhi Supporting Caste | 4.5 |
| The Whitest Boy Alive Rules | 3.5 |
| The Antlers Hospice | 3.5 |
| Marissa Nadler Little Hells | 4.0 |
| Neko Case Middle Cyclone | 4.0 |
| Jon Hopkins Insides | 3.5 |
| Sholi Sholi | 3.5 |
| The Appleseed Cast Sagarmatha | 3.5 |
| Thursday Common Existence | 4.0 |
| Absu Absu | 3.0 |
| Various Artists (Indie) Dark Was The Night | 4.5 |
| Bomb the Music Industry! Scrambles | 4.0 |
| If punk rock had itself a barmy, mad professor to call its own, Bomb The Music Industry!s Jeff Rosenstock would be at the very top of the list of candidates. Taking a spin through Scrambles, it'd be easy enough to see him laughing maniacally around the album's wicked brew of attitude-fueled, messily composed DIY punk. While there's very little of what would be called a formula (Scrambles is far too interesting and varied to pin it down to any one recipe book, especially the loose "folk-punk" label the band is associated with), Rosenstock and co. assemble an alchemical mix of ingredients including a whirlwind set of piano driven backroom rockers, furious acoustic tirades and quirky but hard-edged forays of introspection all rolled into one. And as usual, sitting centre stage among it all is Rosenstock's biting lyrical scalpel, his powerful delivery underscored by the force of his playful irony, conjuring enough empathy to pluck ever so softly at the emotions while remaining irresistibly, absolutely and undeniably fun at the same time. And to top it all off? Well, the band is giving Scrambles away absolutely free online. Could you really ask for any more? |
| Lily Allen It's Not Me, It's You | 3.0 |
| Two Tongues Two Tongues | 3.0 |
| The Pains of Being Pure at Heart The Pains of Being Pure at Heart | 3.5 |
| P.O.S Never Better | 4.0 |
| The Jezabels The Man Is Dead | 4.0 |
| Architects Hollow Crown | 3.5 |
| Sepultura A-Lex | 2.0 |
| Optikatechniqua Sinister Dub | 4.0 |
| Anohni and the Johnsons The Crying Light | 3.5 |
| Cymbals Eat Guitars Why There Are Mountains | 3.5 |
| Bon Iver Blood Bank | 3.5 |
| Kalisia Cybion | 3.5 |
| The Boxer Rebellion Union | 3.5 |
| Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion | 4.5 |
| Kidcrash Snacks | 3.0 |
| Brother/Ghost Black Ice | 3.5 |
| Midwest Pen Pals Inside Jokes | 3.5 |
| Towers Full Circle | 4.5 |
| 2008 |
| Caverns (DC) Kittens! | 3.5 |
| Fall Out Boy Folie a Deux | 3.5 |
| Britney Spears Circus | 3.5 |
| Scarface Emeritus | 3.5 |
| Moving Mountains Foreword | 3.5 |
| The Fall of Troy Phantom on the Horizon | 2.5 |
| Mudvayne The New Game | 2.5 |
| Distance Repercussions | 3.5 |
| La Dispute Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair | 3.0 |
| God Is an Astronaut God Is an Astronaut | 3.0 |
| Thursday/Envy Thursday/Envy | 3.5 |
| Q-Tip The Renaissance | 4.0 |
| A good friend described this album as the sound of Barry Manilow in 2008. He has a point. See, The Renaissance is smoother than the skin I'd be rubbing honey into as I undressed her in the dim lights of my pad and just about as cool as the club I picked her up from. After all, when you've gone so far from gangsta to have Norah Jones on guest vocals you may as well be compared to Barry Manilow. My sexytime music of '08. |
| Forgive Durden Razia's Shadow: A Musical | 3.0 |
| Aussitot Mort Montuenga | 3.5 |
| Lady Gaga The Fame | 3.5 |
| Black Milk Tronic | 3.5 |
| Cynic Traced in Air | 4.0 |
| Los Campesinos! We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed | 3.5 |
| Arthur Russell Love is Overtaking Me | 3.5 |
| Up-C Down-C Left-C Right-C ABC + Start Embers | 3.5 |
| Gang Gang Dance Saint Dymphna | 3.5 |
| Kate Miller-Heidke Curiouser | 3.5 |
| Uzi And Ari Headworms | 3.5 |
| Dillinger Four C I V I L W A R | 4.0 |
| Children Collide The Long Now | 2.5 |
| DJ Sprinkles Midtown 120 Blues | 4.5 |
| Marnie Stern This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It... | 2.5 |
| Pale Young Gentlemen Black Forest (tra la la) | 4.0 |
| Arrows Modern Art & Politics | 3.5 |
| Jack's Mannequin The Glass Passenger | 3.5 |
| Anberlin New Surrender | 4.0 |
| Bring Me the Horizon Suicide Season | 3.0 |
| Oceans of Sadness The Arrogance Of Ignorance | 3.5 |
| Buraka Som Sistema Black Diamond | 4.0 |
| T.I. Paper Trail | 3.5 |
| Fight Like Apes ...And The Mystery Of The Golden Medallion | 4.0 |
| Mutyumu Il y a | 3.0 |
| Lenka Lenka | 3.0 |
| High Places High Places | 3.0 |
| TV on the Radio Dear Science | 3.5 |
| Kings of Leon Only By The Night | 3.5 |
| Ohana Dead Beat | 4.0 |
| Burst Lazarus Bird | 3.5 |
| Amanda Palmer Who Killed Amanda Palmer? | 3.5 |
| Defeater Travels | 3.5 |
| Ladyhawke Ladyhawke | 3.5 |
| Lisa Hannigan Sea Sew | 3.5 |
| Adebisi Shank This is the Album | 4.0 |
| "Hey ma hey ma hey ma! - look what I can do with a guitar!!!" is more or less the sentiment Adebisi Shank give off here on their insane debut. Far from fret blazing wankery though, the Shanks write their music with one foot in a puddle of math rock and the other in a bucket of fun, all while jumping up and down with frantic energy. With most of the songs here barely scratching the three-minute mark, This is literally packed so tight with awesomeness that its spewing from the seams. |
| Fireworks Adventure, Nostalgia, and Robbery | 3.0 |
| The Sound of Animals Fighting The Ocean and the Sun | 3.5 |
| Okkervil River The Stand Ins | 4.0 |
| United Nations United Nations | 4.0 |
| Shugo Tokumaru Exit | 3.5 |
| Deadmau5 Random Album Title | 3.5 |
| Underoath Lost in the Sound of Separation | 4.0 |
| The Chemical Brothers Brotherhood | 3.5 |
| Friendly Fires Friendly Fires | 3.5 |
| sgt. Stylus Fantasticus | 3.5 |
| PVT O Soundtrack My Heart | 3.5 |
| Bloc Party Intimacy | 2.5 |
| The Walkmen You & Me | 3.0 |
| Lights Out Asia Eyes Like Brontide | 3.5 |
| Deerhunter Microcastle | 4.0 |
| The Gaslight Anthem The '59 Sound | 3.5 |
| Mercy Arms Mercy Arms | 4.0 |
| Verse En Coma Rialto | 4.0 |
| Van She V | 3.5 |
| Ceremony (USA-CA) Still Nothing Moves You | 4.0 |
| Past Lives Strange Symmetry | 4.0 |
| Mesa Verde The Old Road | 4.5 |
| Isle Of Thieves Only Human | 3.0 |
| Santigold Top Ranking - A Diplo Dub | 4.0 |
| Maxine Kauter Maxine Kauter EP | 4.0 |
| Portraits Of Past Discography | 2.5 |
| Misery Signals Controller | 3.0 |
| ...Who Calls So Loud ...Who Calls So Loud | 3.5 |
| Loma Prieta Last City | 3.5 |
| Brendan Canning Something For All of Us... | 3.5 |
| The Living End White Noise | 3.5 |
| Feral Children Second to the Last Frontier | 3.0 |
| Birds Of Tokyo Universes | 3.5 |
| Ghostlimb Bearing & Distance | 3.5 |
| Scar Symmetry Holographic Universe | 3.5 |
| Girl Talk Feed the Animals | 3.5 |
| The Herd Summerland | 4.0 |
| Wolf Parade At Mount Zoomer | 2.5 |
| Coldplay Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends | 3.5 |
| Face it, the only reason you liked Coldplay was to show your 'sensitive side' to help you get into the pants of that smokin' indie chick you never quite ended up hooking up with. "You know how I know you're gay?" - Yeah. Well, Viva La Vida showed everyone up didn't it? With Brian Eno on the production decks, Coldplay threw open their sound to capture a rocky edge that shot them into the untouchable realm of being liked that the smokin' preppy chick - now even the indie guys have a chance with them, if of course they aren't too busy being apathetically cool. And why not? With music this good, flourishing love can only be a good thing. |
| pg.lost It's Not Me, It's You! | 3.5 |
| Grouper Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill | 3.5 |
| Flying Lotus Los Angeles | 4.5 |
| Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes | 3.5 |
| Shai Hulud Misanthropy Pure | 3.0 |
| The Carrier No Love Can Save Me | 4.0 |
| HEALTH Health//Disco | 4.0 |
| Islands Arm's Way | 3.0 |
| Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip Angles | 3.5 |
| No Age Nouns | 3.0 |
| Extra Life Secular Works | 3.5 |
| Hadouken! Music For An Accelerated Culture | 3.0 |
| Santigold Santogold | 3.5 |
| Portishead Third | 4.0 |
| The Roots Rising Down | 4.0 |
| Blue Sky Black Death Late Night Cinema | 4.0 |
| Algernon Cadwallader Some Kind Of Cadwallader | 3.5 |
| Kalmah For the Revolution | 3.0 |
| Cancer Bats Hail Destroyer | 2.5 |
| Thrice The Alchemy Index Vols. III & IV | 3.5 |
| Frightened Rabbit The Midnight Organ Fight | 4.0 |
| The Presets Apocalypso | 3.5 |
| Cut Copy In Ghost Colours | 3.0 |
| Meat Beat Manifesto Autoimmune | 3.5 |
| Following the vein of the heavy electrodub explosion that took place all throughout the year, Meat Beat Manifesto serve up an offering of grinding dub, ten ton bass drops and the occasional funk-to-the-max break. While it's not a combination that screams with originality - The Bug's London Zoo will make good company for Autoimmune - Meat Beat pull it off with damn fine precision. Be prepared though - for all of Autoimmune's delicate crafting, this is heavy, heavy s'hit that'll bang out from your speakers like a ton of raging bricks. |
| The Microphones The Glow Pt. 2 (Re-release) | 3.5 |
| Blacklisted Heavier Than Heaven, Lonelier Than God | 4.0 |
| Frank Turner Love, Ire & Song | 4.0 |
| Pennywise Reason to Believe | 3.0 |
| Does It Offend You, Yeah? You Have No Idea... | 3.0 |
| The Middle East The Recordings of the Middle East | 4.0 |
| Deadly Avenger Blossoms And Blood | 4.0 |
| Be Your Own Pet Get Awkward | 3.0 |
| Lydia Illuminate | 3.5 |
| DeVotchKa A Mad & Faithful Telling | 3.5 |
| Crystal Castles Crystal Castles | 4.0 |
| I realize that I'm going to lose a lot of indie points for this, but I'm too busy elegantly disheveling my hair to give a damn. Trailing on the bookends of the electrokidz craze of '07, Crystal Castles had just about everything going against them. If the gimmicky 8 bit gameboy samples didn't make this an album already marked for the bin of quick love, NME pretty much sounded the band's death knell by naming Alice Glass the coolest person of '08. And besides, nurave electro is sooo 2007. But I told you - I don't give a damn. There's more fun here than you'll find on a string of glowstick parties and more than enough surprises - from the manic "Xxzxcuzx Me" to the electropop of "Good Time" - to keep it interesting for a while to come. |
| sleepmakeswaves In Today Already Walks Tomorrow | 4.0 |
| The Dodos Visiter | 4.0 |
| At first glance, Visiter seems to be just there, its brand of breezy folk lying naked in the open with all on display. From Meric Long's seemingly frank, no-frills delivery to Logan Kroeber's "rainfall of rocks" percussion style, Visiter's unfaltering solidness makes it a strange offering in a genre so usually bound to intimacy. But it compels the listener to weave in and out of Visiter's musical tapestry, letting the songs fall around in the spaces in between. And when, as so often happens, the occasional musical idea strikes, it strikes deep, as beautiful lyrics swim over frenzied percussion and hurried, twangy guitar lines. And that, of course, is Visiter's strength- it's an album so at ease with itself that it's hard not to be taken into the folds of its fatherly arms: serious, but in the end, always there for you. |
| Son Lux At War With Walls And Mazes | 2.5 |
| Why? Alopecia | 4.0 |
| Hercules and Love Affair Hercules and Love Affair | 3.5 |
| Evol Intent Era of Diversion | 4.0 |
| Pig Heart Transplant Hope You Enjoy Heaven | 4.5 |
| Lykke Li Youth Novels | 3.0 |
| Arghoslent Hornets of the Pogrom | 3.5 |
| El Guincho Alegranza! | 2.5 |
| Laura Jean Eden Land | 4.0 |
| The Mae Shi HLLLYH | 3.5 |
| Capsule (US) Blue | 3.5 |
| BATS Cruel Sea Scientist | 4.0 |
| Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend | 3.0 |
| Protest the Hero Fortress | 3.5 |
| The Flashbulb Soundtrack to a Vacant Life | 3.5 |
| Have a Nice Life Deathconsciousness | 3.5 |
| Daitro/Sed Non Satiata Split | 4.0 |
| Unn Exit | 3.0 |
| Firekites The Bowery | 3.5 |
| Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit The Very Best | 3.5 |
| Off Minor Some Blood | 4.0 |
| Davwuh Dystopia | 4.0 |
| 2007 |
| Defiance, Ohio The Fear, The Fear, The Fear | 3.5 |
| Daft Punk Alive 2007 | 4.5 |
| Eucalypt Collection | 4.0 |
| Iron Lung Sexless // No Sex | 4.5 |
| Bridezilla Bridezilla EP | 3.5 |
| Primordial To the Nameless Dead | 4.0 |
| Streetlight Manifesto Somewhere in the Between | 4.5 |
| Operator Please Yes Yes Vindictive | 3.0 |
| Angels and Airwaves I-Empire | 2.5 |
| Jay-Z American Gangster | 3.5 |
| Burial Untrue | 4.5 |
| Meniscus Absence of I | 4.0 |
| Various Artists Dirty Edits Vol. 1 | 4.5 |
| Yeasayer All Hour Cymbals | 3.5 |
| Holy Fuck LP | 3.5 |
| Say Anything In Defense of the Genre | 4.5 |
| Jimmy Eat World Chase This Light | 3.0 |
| Thrice The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II | 3.5 |
| Roisin Murphy Overpowered | 3.5 |
| Radiohead In Rainbows | 4.5 |
| A Wilhelm Scream Career Suicide | 3.5 |
| Beirut The Flying Club Cup | 3.5 |
| MGMT Oracular Spectacular | 3.0 |
| Matchbox Twenty Exile on Mainstream | 3.5 |
| Oceansize Frames | 3.0 |
| Time To Burn Is.Land | 4.5 |
| After Forever After Forever | 4.5 |
| Iron And Wine The Shepherd's Dog | 4.0 |
| All Time Low So Wrong, It's Right | 4.0 |
| Meet Me in St. Louis Variations on Swing | 3.5 |
| Between the Buried and Me Colors | 1.5 |
| Holler, Wild Rose! Our Little Hymnal | 3.0 |
| Kevin Drew Spirit If... | 3.5 |
| Animal Collective Strawberry Jam | 3.5 |
| The Go! Team Proof of Youth | 3.5 |
| Dirty Projectors Rise Above | 3.5 |
| Vic Chesnutt North Star Deserter | 4.0 |
| Ricardo Villalobos Fabric 36 | 2.5 |
| Baroness Red Album | 4.0 |
| Angus and Julia Stone A Book Like This | 3.5 |
| Younger Brother The Last Days of Gravity | 3.5 |
| Mercy Arms Kept Low EP | 3.5 |
| Aesop Rock None Shall Pass | 3.5 |
| Kashiwa Daisuke Program Music I | 3.5 |
| Caribou Andorra | 3.5 |
| Minus the Bear Planet of Ice | 4.0 |
| M.I.A. Kala | 4.0 |
| Blu and Exile Below the Heavens | 4.0 |
| Midnight Juggernauts Dystopia | 3.0 |
| Okkervil River The Stage Names | 3.5 |
| Karoshi Karoshi | 4.0 |
| Alcest Souvenirs D'Un Autre Monde | 4.0 |
| Matthew Good Hospital Music | 4.0 |
| Operator Please On the Prowl | 3.5 |
| Yellowcard Paper Walls | 3.5 |
| A Fine Frenzy One Cell in the Sea | 3.5 |
| New Young Pony Club Fantastic Playroom | 2.5 |
| Deathspell Omega Fas - Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeternum | 3.0 |
| Urthboy The Signal | 3.5 |
| Mayday Parade A Lesson In Romantics | 2.0 |
| Darkest Hour Deliver Us | 4.0 |
| Interpol Our Love to Admire | 4.0 |
| Kidcrash Jokes | 4.0 |
| Engineer The Dregs | 4.0 |
| Justice † | 4.5 |
| Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago | 5.0 |
| I once subscribed to the idea that your favorite music was supposed to be the type of music you could listen to over and over again because it was, well, your favorite. In the dazzling light of the trail blazed by Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago, I'm not sure I can hold on to that anymore. The simple truth is that I can't listen to this over and over again. There's just something about having your heartstrings pulled across every galaxy of emotion that begs for moderation - and that's exactly what this record represents: an intimacy carved into the deepest confines of the soul, skipping with bounds and strides across ears and into the chest with piercing clarity. And it hurts, a brilliant hurt. But maybe now I can subscribe to a new adage: that it's the pain that reminds us that we're all really alive in the first place. |
| Velvet Revolver Libertad | 3.0 |
| Cut Off Your Hands Shaky Hands | 3.5 |
| Pharoahe Monch Desire | 4.5 |
| Digitalism Idealism | 3.0 |
| Stateless Stateless | 3.5 |
| The White Stripes Icky Thump | 3.5 |
| Simian Mobile Disco Attack Decay Sustain Release | 4.0 |
| Sigh Hangman's Hymn | 3.0 |
| Queens of the Stone Age Era Vulgaris | 3.0 |
| Paramore Riot! | 3.5 |
| Pig Destroyer Phantom Limb | 4.0 |
| Fair to Midland Fables From a Mayfly: What I Tell You Three Times is True | 4.0 |
| Klute The Emperors New Clothes | 3.5 |
| Dizzee Rascal Maths and English | 4.0 |
| Bonde Do Role With Lazers | 3.5 |
| Circa Survive On Letting Go | 3.5 |
| The National Boxer | 5.0 |
| The Angelic Process Weighing Souls With Sand | 3.5 |
| YACHT I Believe In You, Your Magic Is Real | 3.5 |
| Battles Mirrored | 4.0 |
| Unkle Ho Circus Maximus | 3.0 |
| The Pax Cecilia Blessed Are The Bonds | 3.5 |
| Sol (DK) Let There Be A Massacre | 4.0 |
| Dan Deacon Spiderman of the Rings | 3.5 |
| Achilles (USA-NY) Hospice | 4.0 |
| Manic Street Preachers Send Away The Tigers | 3.5 |
| Patrick Wolf The Magic Position | 4.0 |
| Feist The Reminder | 4.5 |
| Aeon Spoke Aeon Spoke | 3.0 |
| Dark Tranquillity Fiction | 4.0 |
| Moonsorrow Viides luku - Hävitetty | 4.5 |
| Blonde Redhead 23 | 4.0 |
| Timbaland Timbaland Presents Shock Value | 3.0 |
| Kings of Leon Because Of The Times | 3.0 |
| John 5 The Devil Knows My Name | 4.0 |
| The Field From Here We Go Sublime | 4.0 |
| Spank Rock FabricLive.33 | 4.0 |
| Mika Life in Cartoon Motion | 3.0 |
| Klaxons Myths of the Near Future | 4.0 |
| John Butler Trio Grand National | 4.0 |
| LCD Soundsystem Sound of Silver | 3.5 |
| Panda Bear Person Pitch | 4.5 |
| Sundowner Four One Five Two | 3.5 |
| Arcade Fire Neon Bible | 4.0 |
| Jesu Conqueror | 2.5 |
| Anberlin Cities | 3.5 |
| Eluvium Copia | 4.0 |
| Do Make Say Think You, You're a History in Rust | 4.0 |
| Bloc Party A Weekend in the City | 3.0 |
| Fall Out Boy Infinity on High | 4.0 |
| Gui Boratto Chromophobia | 4.0 |
| Lily Allen Alright, Still | 3.5 |
| Pantha Du Prince This Bliss | 4.0 |
| My Own Private Alaska MOPA | 2.0 |
| Punchline Just Say Yes | 2.0 |
| Yelle Pop-Up | 3.5 |
| The Wombats A Guide to Love, Loss and Desperation | 3.5 |
| Trial Kennedy New Manic Art | 3.5 |
| Weekend Nachos Punish and Destroy | 3.5 |
| Armchairpolitician Seven Segment Decoder | 4.0 |
| Vex'd Degenerate | 4.0 |
| Serena Joy Ours Will Be A Lonely Battle EP | 4.0 |
| Lion of the North The Compass Calls | 4.0 |
| AU Au | 4.0 |
| Chromatics Night Drive | 4.0 |
