| 5.0 classic |
| Alanis Morissette Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie |
| Alanis will always be remembered for Jagged Little Pill, which is a masterpiece in it's own right, but SFIJ is an amazingly complex, intricate, experimental, beautiful disaster of an album. I've never run into another album quite like it; it's incredibly personal, like reading someone's private journal... the songs have a prose-like quality that give it an intimacy missing from other work by Alanis. Unfortunately, this album has largely been forgotten and subsequent albums by Alanis have been far more tame, far more unoriginal and far more boring... this is an overlooked gem. |
| Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion |
| Arcade Fire Funeral |
| One of the great albums of the first decade of the 21st century; few other indie albums from this past decade have garnered as much critical acclaim as Funeral (Kid A, The Moon and Antarctica, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, maybe Merriweather Post Pavilion). Truth be told, I hated this album when I first heard it; it was jarring, the vocals sometimes grating. It wasn't what I expected and it didn't fit my mood. Returning to it a few years later, once it became clear that it was going to be considered one of the Great Albums of the decade, I finally heard what all those critics who had unabashedly praised Funeral heard: an incredibly original, inventive, experimental album that is unlike anything else out there. |
| Arcade Fire The Suburbs |
| I've listened to the album a couple of times now and have to say I'm absolutely floored; in a year especially full of incredible music, the Arcade Fire have created an album that will still make them stand out... easily. I'll have to listen to it a few more times before I come down with my final verdict as to whether this is better than Funeral (one of my favorite albums of the last decade) but, that aside, this is a true masterpiece, an undeniably brilliant set of songs that sets out to do what Modest Mouse did more than a decade ago with Lonesome Crowded West: capture the spirit, the alienation, the loneliness, the longing of life in modern America. This is an album that will be remembered for a long time and, for me, a clear front-runner for album of the year. |
| Bloc Party Silent Alarm |
| Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago |
| An incredible masterpiece, especially considering that Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) produced much of the album on his own in a three month span... this album came out of nowhere and took the critics, and myself, by storm. Incredibly emotional, touching, heart-wrenching. |
| Bon Iver Bon Iver, Bon Iver |
| I was really worried about this album. For Emma, Forever Ago was an incredible, one-of-a-kind masterpiece that simply couldn't be topped and couldn't successfully be repeated. Bon Iver doesn't even try here; instead he has crafted another wholly unique beauty of an album that retains some of the same feel of For Emma, Forever Ago but which simultaneously has a more 'full' sound and a whole different mood and feel. It seems like a very natural progression from For Emma; a progression I didn't think possible. This is truly a beautiful album and I see it placing very highly on a lot of publications' Top 10 lists at the end of the year. |
| Bright Eyes Digital Ash in a Digital Urn |
| Crystal Castles Crystal Castles II |
| Dave Matthews Band Before These Crowded Streets |
| Florence and the Machine Lungs |
| Future Islands In Evening Air |
| At first this album rubbed me the wrong way. It was Herring's voice; gritty, grainy... it just sounded off. But over time his voice grew on me. And then I really began liking his voice and with it, the music. Each song on this album is strikingly brilliant, the lyrics are all well written and unpretentious. The instrumentation is pitch perfect. And that voice I initially hated? Pure gold. |
| Grizzly Bear Veckatimest |
| Modest Mouse The Moon & Antarctica |
| Modest Mouse The Lonesome Crowded West |
| One of my absolute favorite albums of all time; The Lonesome Crowded West represented the first time that Isaac Brock's talent was truly focused and realized. This album is a sprawling, truly American album that is able to capture the feel of a particular time and place (the American West in the late 90s). Some complain that the songs on this album have a tendency to meander, but I find that part of their brilliance... Much like the landscapes and cities the songs evoke, the songs are let loose and are never confined to a simple song structure. A perfect road trip album. |
| Niyaz Niyaz |
| Okkervil River Black Sheep Boy |
| Panda Bear Person Pitch |
| Perfume Genius Put Your Back N 2 It |
| Pink Floyd The Dark Side Of The Moon |
| Radiohead Amnesiac |
| Amnesiac is as much of a masterpiece as Kid A; Kid A just was fortunate enough to come first. I firmly believe that had Radiohead released Amnesiac first then it would be treated the way Kid A is today. In my opinion, Amnesiac is a bit more solid as an album, less filler, more gorgeous songs. Truly an amazing soundscape. |
| Radiohead OK Computer |
| Radiohead In Rainbows |
| Ramona Falls Intuit |
| Sigur Ros Agætis byrjun |
| The Beatles Revolver |
| The Beatles The Beatles |
| The Decemberists Picaresque |
| The National Boxer |
| The Ruby Suns Fight Softly |
| I adored this album when it first came out and it has only grown on me more since then. I really am surprised at the many low scores the album receives, though I attribute it to the fact that Fight Softly isn't immediately accessible, it's not particularly traditional. The songs meander and only slowly reveal their intricacies, they don't necessarily follow standard song structures and therefor can be a bit 'difficult' at first. But once you really let the album sink in, with a good pair of headphones, I don't know how you can't see it as a psychedelic, sun-drenched masterpiece. |
| The Streets Original Pirate Material |
| The xx xx |
| Tool Lateralus |
| Tori Amos Boys for Pele |
| TV on the Radio Return to Cookie Mountain |
| Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot |
| Wilco Summerteeth |
| 4.5 superb |
| Amadou and Mariam Dimanche a Bamako |
| Andrew Bird The Mysterious Production Of Eggs |
| Animal Collective Fall Be Kind |
| Apparat Walls |
| Boards of Canada Geogaddi |
| Boards of Canada In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country |
| Bonobo Black Sands |
| Bright Eyes I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning |
| Built to Spill You in Reverse |
| Coldplay A Rush of Blood to the Head |
| Counting Crows August And Everything After |
| Dave Matthews Band Crash |
| Dave Matthews Band Under The Table And Dreaming |
| Dave Matthews Band Live at Luther College |
| Elbow Cast of Thousands |
| Foals Total Life Forever |
| Interpol Antics |
| James Blake James Blake |
| Manchester Orchestra Mean Everything to Nothing |
| Memory Tapes Seek Magic |
| Miike Snow Miike Snow |
| Oasis (What's the Story) Morning Glory? |
| Oasis Heathen Chemistry |
| Oasis The Masterplan |
| Okkervil River The Stage Names |
| Old Crow Medicine Show O.C.M.S. |
| Pink Floyd Echoes |
| Radiohead The Bends |
| Ramona Falls Prophet |
| Robyn Body Talk |
| School of Seven Bells Disconnect From Desire |
| Sigur Ros ( ) |
| Stars The Five Ghosts |
| The best thing Stars has ever put out; a completely solid album with no weak spots. I've enjoyed many of their previous outings, but they have all lacked the substance found in this album. |
| The Antlers Burst Apart |
| The Beatles Rubber Soul |
| The Beatles Abbey Road |
| The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band |
| The Gaslight Anthem Sink or Swim |
| The Gaslight Anthem American Slang |
| The National High Violet |
| The Weeknd House of Balloons |
| I consider myself to be very open to music generally, there are very few genres that don't interest me at all. Everything has something to offer. That being said, R&B has always been a genre that, while I enjoy and appreciate, I've never really followed closely. I guess while I enjoy a lot of R&B songs no artist has ever really caught my attention enough for me to pursue their music. The Weeknd has changed this. This album is a dark, brooding, depressing, depraved masterpiece. It portrays a lifestyle I was once familiar with with a painful clarity that somehow manages to simultaneously glamorize it and make it sound thouroughly unappealing. The music is gripping, the writing clever, the beats and melodies undeniably catchy and the singing is pitch-perfect. Point is, you don't have to be a fan of R&B to enjoy this brilliant album, you just have to appreciate good music. |
| TV on the Radio Dear Science |
| Van Morrison Moondance |
| Villagers Becoming a Jackal |
| Washed Out Life of Leisure |
| Had this been a full album, I'd probably have given it a 5. This EP included my favorite song of, quite frankly, all time: 'Feel It All Around.' The rest of the album holds its own, helping establishing Washed Out as one of the pioneers and greats of the new, so-called 'glo-fi' subgenre of music. |
| Washed Out Within and Without |
| Wilco A Ghost Is Born |
| Wye Oak Civilian |
| Xavier Rudd White Moth |
| 4.0 excellent |
| A Perfect Circle Mer de Noms |
| Alanis Morissette Jagged Little Pill |
| Alberta Cross Broken Side of Time |
| Amadou and Mariam Welcome to Mali |
| Arcade Fire Neon Bible |
| Arctic Monkeys Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not |
| Arctic Monkeys Favourite Worst Nightmare |
| Avey Tare Down There |
| Azam Ali Portals of Grace |
| Band of Horses Everything All the Time |
| Bibio Ambivalence Avenue |
| Caribou Andorra |
| Caribou Swim |
| Circa Survive Blue Sky Noise |
| Delorean Ayrton Senna |
| dredg The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion |
| Elbow Asleep In The Back |
| Elbow Leaders of the Free World |
| Elbow The Seldom Seen Kid |
| Eminem The Eminem Show |
| Grizzly Bear Yellow House |
| Hot Chip One Life Stand |
| Interpol Turn on the Bright Lights |
| Interpol Our Love to Admire |
| Jack Johnson On and On |
| Jonsi Go |
| Lady Gaga The Fame Monster |
| Lady Gaga Born This Way |
| Local Natives Gorilla Manor |
| Manchester Orchestra I'm Like a Virgin Losing a Child |
| Michael Franti and Spearhead All Rebel Rockers |
| Modest Mouse Good News for People Who Love Bad News |
| Modest Mouse We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank |
| Okkervil River Down the River of Golden Dreams |
| Okkervil River Don't Fall In Love With Everyone You See |
| Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here |
| Pink Floyd The Wall |
| Plan B The Defamation Of Strickland Banks |
| Radiohead Kid A |
| Radiohead The King of Limbs |
| What to say...? Well, to begin with: this is obviously a Radiohead album. That practically means the album is better than 95% of the music out there by definition. And it is; The King of Limbs is a brilliant, great album. However, it's certainly not their best. When listening to it I can't help but find it a bit disjointed and lacking. Disjointed in the sense that the first four songs and the second four songs sound like they should be totally different EPs rather than part of on singular LP. Lacking in the sense that it's short. Too short; another song or two would have helped flesh this out more. rComplaints aside, this is still, as I said, a Radiohead album. It's innovative, fascinating, gorgeous, frustrating... everything you'd expect. It's not the best album they've put out but it's definitely worth (a lot) of listens by any serious music fan. Plus it contains what is arguably the best song of the year so far: Codex. |
| School of Seven Bells Alpinisms |
| Silversun Pickups Swoon |
| Snow Patrol Final Straw |
| Spoon Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga |
| Sublime Sublime |
| Sunset Rubdown Dragonslayer |
| The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour |
| The Decemberists Her Majesty the Decemberists |
| The Decemberists Castaways and Cutouts |
| The Felice Brothers Yonder Is The Clock |
| The Tallest Man on Earth The Wild Hunt |
| The White Stripes Elephant |
| Tool 10,000 Days |
| Tori Amos Little Earthquakes |
| TV on the Radio Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes |
| TV on the Radio Young Liars |
| Twin Shadow Forget |
| Vienna Teng Waking Hour |
| Wilco Kicking Television: Live in Chicago |
| Wye Oak The Knot |
