| A Perfect Circle eMOTIVe | 3.5 |
| A Perfect Circle Thirteenth Step | 4.5 |
| AFI Crash Love | 2.0 |
| AFI Decemberunderground | 2.5 |
| AFI Sing the Sorrow | 4.0 |
| Angel Olsen Burn Your Fire for No Witness | 4.5 |
| Animal Collective Sung Tongs | 4.0 |
| Animal Collective Water Curses | 4.0 |
| Animal Collective ODDSAC | 4.0 |
| Animal Collective Centipede Hz | 4.0 |
| Animal Collective Feels | 4.5 |
| Animal Collective Strawberry Jam | 4.5 |
| Animal Collective Fall Be Kind | 4.5 |
| Animal Collective Honeycomb/Gotham | 4.5 |
| Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion | 5.0 |
| This album changed my perception of music. truly. after hearing this album non stop when it came out back in January (it STILL is in heavy rotation on my ipod) i realized what ELSE music could be. the music is almost fully made up of electronics and samples of anything from water drips to a didgeridoo. all this is swirled together with sincere and psychedelically modified vocals from 2 singers who blend their voices in a way reminiscent of the Beach Boys. this is the psychedelic music of the future. this album is also their most "pop" album but this is far from anything you'll be hearing on the radio. their use of extensive sampling and the amount of electronic sounds is something that can only be done now in the age of information and technology. for that this album feels like a work of art that is pushing things to the limit with what is available now. and, well, its also the most emotionally impact-ful album of the year. this is music backed by serious passion. its dynamic, engrossing, and hypnotizing. this is one of my favorite albums not ONLY for the year but of all time. check this album out. now. |
| Arcade Fire Neon Bible | 4.0 |
| Arcade Fire The Suburbs | 4.0 |
| Arcade Fire Funeral | 4.5 |
| Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti Before Today | 4.0 |
| Atlas Sound Logos | 4.0 |
| Atoms for Peace Amok | 4.0 |
| Band of Horses Cease to Begin | 3.0 |
| Battles Mirrored | 4.5 |
| Best Coast The Only Place | 1.5 |
| Best Coast Crazy For You | 3.0 |
| Bjork Biophilia | 3.5 |
| Bloc Party A Weekend in the City | 2.0 |
| Bloc Party Intimacy | 2.5 |
| Bloc Party Silent Alarm | 4.0 |
| Blonde Redhead Misery is a Butterfly | 4.0 |
| Blonde Redhead Penny Sparkle | 4.0 |
| Blonde Redhead 23 | 4.5 |
| Bright Eyes The People's Key | 2.0 |
| Bright Eyes I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning | 3.5 |
| Broken Bells Broken Bells | 3.5 |
| Christopher Owens Lysandre | 2.5 |
| CocoRosie The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillbo | 2.5 |
| CocoRosie Noah's Ark | 3.5 |
| CocoRosie Tales of a Grass Widow | 3.5 |
| CocoRosie Grey Oceans | 4.0 |
| Cold War Kids Dear Miss Lonelyhearts | 1.5 |
| Cold War Kids Mine is Yours | 2.0 |
| Cold War Kids Loyalty to Loyalty | 4.0 |
| Cold War Kids Behave Yourself | 4.0 |
| Cold War Kids Robbers and Cowards | 4.5 |
| Crystal Castles Crystal Castles II | 3.0 |
| Daft Punk Human After All | 2.5 |
| Daft Punk Tron: Legacy | 2.5 |
| as a soundtrack, I'm sure this does the job. As the extremely hyped new Daft Punk material, it simply doesn't. Perhaps expecting the robots to create a soundtrack based more closely to their music was too much to ask, but overall this soundtrack sounds like every other major action movie soundtrack with some more low-end, electronic gurgling here and there, and 2 legitimate Daft Punk songs which they released prior (Derezzed, and End Credits). A major disappointment. |
| Daft Punk Discovery | 4.0 |
| Daft Punk Alive 2007 | 4.5 |
| Danger 09/16 2007 | 4.0 |
| Danger 09/14 2007 | 4.5 |
| Death Cab for Cutie Codes and Keys | 2.0 |
| Death Cab for Cutie Narrow Stairs | 3.0 |
| Death Cab for Cutie Plans | 4.0 |
| Deerhunter Monomania | 3.0 |
| Devendra Banhart What Will We Be | 3.0 |
| Devendra Banhart Mala | 3.5 |
| Devendra Banhart Cripple Crow | 4.0 |
| Devendra Banhart Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon | 4.0 |
| Devendra Banhart Rejoicing in the Hands | 4.5 |
| Devendra Banhart Nino Rojo | 4.5 |
| Devo Something for Everybody | 3.0 |
| Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca | 4.0 |
| Dom (USA) Sun Bronzed Greek Gods | 3.5 |
| dredg Catch Without Arms | 3.5 |
| Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros Here | 2.5 |
| Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros Up From Below | 4.5 |
| El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez Cryptomnesia | 3.5 |
| Final Fantasy He Poos Clouds | 2.5 |
| Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes | 4.5 |
| Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues | 4.5 |
| Foo Fighters In Your Honor | 3.0 |
| Foo Fighters One by One | 3.5 |
| Franz Ferdinand Tonight: Franz Ferdinand | 4.0 |
| Girls Broken Dreams Club | 4.0 |
| Girls Album | 4.5 |
| This SF band essentially made the PERFECT album to listen to in SF. the songs are a mix of surf, garage / lo-fi, shoegaze / wall of sound, and AWESOME. you know...the genre? after seeing these guys play their album release party at Ameoba Records in SF i was sold. they are INCREDIBLE. every song on the album is a deranged pop song that will somehow pull at your emotional strings AND make you wanna go lay on the beach in SF and watch the fog roll in. support these guys! come on, they named their debut album "Album". sold? |
| Gnarls Barkley The Odd Couple | 4.5 |
| Gogol Bordello Trans-Continental Hustle | 3.0 |
| Gorillaz Gorillaz | 2.5 |
| Gorillaz Demon Days | 3.0 |
| Gorillaz Plastic Beach | 3.5 |
| Green Day Warning | 1.5 |
| Green Day American Idiot | 2.0 |
| Green Day Shenanigans | 2.0 |
| Green Day Dookie | 3.0 |
| Grizzly Bear Veckatimest | 4.0 |
| I didn't know Grizzly Bear before this album, but after hearing this album i was an instant fan. Beach Boy style vocal harmonies, and absolutely beautiful musicianship makes this album a soothing and emotionally powerful album that begs to be heard. |
| Honeycomb Honeycomb EP | 4.5 |
| Hot Chip One Life Stand | 2.0 |
| iamamiwhoami To Whom It May Concern | 4.5 |
| Ima Robot Monument To The Masses | 4.0 |
| Ima Robot Ima Robot | 4.5 |
| James Blake Overgrown | 4.0 |
| James Blake James Blake | 4.5 |
| Junip Junip | 2.5 |
| Justice Audio, Video, Disco | 2.0 |
| If you listened to Justice's first album "Cross" and thought 'god, I really wish they would get rid of all this crunchy electro-glitch fused 70's funk-soul-future-robot-pop and replaced it with cheese-ball 80's prog / glam-stadium-rock' then Justice's new album "Audio, Video, Disco" is for you. For everyone else it's a massive disappointment. |
| Justice A Cross the Universe | 4.0 |
| Justice † | 4.5 |
| Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy | 2.0 |
| Kanye West 808s and Heartbreak | 3.0 |
| Kasabian Kasabian | 3.0 |
| Kasabian West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum | 3.5 |
| Kasabian Empire | 4.0 |
| Kurt Vile Wakin on a Pretty Daze | 4.0 |
| Lady Lamb Ripely Pine | 2.5 |
| Lana Del Rey Born to Die | 1.5 |
| LCD Soundsystem This Is Happening | 3.0 |
| Lmfao Party Rock | 1.0 |
| Lou Reed and Metallica Lulu | 1.0 |
| Lykke Li I Never Learn | 2.5 |
| Lykke Li Wounded Rhymes | 3.5 |
| Lykke Li Youth Novels | 4.0 |
| M.I.A. Maya | 2.5 |
| M.I.A. Arular | 4.0 |
| M.I.A. Kala | 4.0 |
| M83 Hurry Up, We're Dreaming | 3.0 |
| Matt and Kim Grand | 4.5 |
| Fun, quick, awesome punk / pop songs are sometimes all you need. this album is just under 30min and there is no messing around. 11 songs that rarely go over 3min. this album is like snack food, except reeeally good snack food. i'm talking like deep-fried nachos smothered in chocolate sprinkles and whipped cream. |
| Metric Fantasies | 4.5 |
| Mew And the Glass Handed Kites | 3.5 |
| Mew No More Stories | 4.5 |
| the albums full title is an entire poem which is the lyrics to a stunning song in the middle of this album. so yeah, these guys are conceptual prog-rockers. this album, however, shows incredible range. there's some beautifully quiet lullabies, some full force dance-able rock songs, some twisted time- signature stuff that will have you scratching your heads to uncover what all the instruments are playing, and even a backwards / forwards song. yes a song that can be played backwards AND forwards with lyrics that are only uncovered by playing it both ways. this album is brilliantly paced and each song is seriously a masterpiece. truly a musicians album. this is difficult and remarkably beautiful music. |
| MGMT Congratulations | 4.0 |
| MGMT Oracular Spectacular | 4.5 |
| Mike Doughty Golden Delicious | 3.0 |
| Muse The Resistance | 2.5 |
| Muse Showbiz | 3.5 |
| Muse Absolution | 4.0 |
| Muse Origin of Symmetry | 4.0 |
| Muse Black Holes & Revelations | 4.5 |
| My Bloody Valentine m b v | 3.0 |
| My Chemical Romance The Black Parade | 2.0 |
| No Profanities Your New Frisbee | 1.5 |
| Omar Rodriguez-Lopez A Manual Dexterity: Soundtrack Vol. 1 | 4.0 |
| Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Xenophanes | 4.0 |
| Owen Pallett Heartland | 4.0 |
| Owl City Ocean Eyes | 1.0 |
| Why would anyone want to put themselves through listening to Owl City? This album consists of some of the only music that i literally cringe in disgust at. it's seriously some of the worst music available to humans. name anything, i'd rather listen to it. for the love of humanity don't listen to this album. Go listen to The Postal Service. same concept except it's actual music with value and passion. |
| Panda Bear Tomboy | 4.5 |
| Panic! at the Disco Pretty. Odd. | 1.5 |
| Panic! at the Disco A Fever You Can't Sweat Out | 2.0 |
| Pendulum In Silico | 2.5 |
| Pendulum Immersion | 3.0 |
| Pendulum Hold Your Colour | 4.5 |
| Pink Floyd The Wall | 4.5 |
| Pink Floyd The Dark Side of the Moon | 5.0 |
| Queens of the Stone Age Lullabies to Paralyze | 3.5 |
| Radiohead Pablo Honey | 2.0 |
| i love Radiohead. one of my favorite bands. for obvious reasons i've listened to this album by them many times but can never get into it. it contains none of the innovation and creativity behind their later music. perhaps in retrospect it doesn't deserve such a low score, but it's really just the fact that i know they went on to create much better things. just listen to their Post-OK Computer albums. you can't go wrong. this album sounds like way too many other bands for it to stand out. |
| Radiohead The Bends | 2.5 |
| Radiohead OK Computer | 3.5 |
| Radiohead The King of Limbs | 4.0 |
| Radiohead Hail to the Thief | 4.5 |
| Radiohead In Rainbows | 4.5 |
| Radiohead Amnesiac | 5.0 |
| Radiohead Kid A | 5.0 |
| Rancid Rancid (2000) | 3.5 |
| Rancid Life Won't Wait | 3.5 |
| Rancid Indestructible | 4.0 |
| Rancid ...And Out Come the Wolves | 4.5 |
| Ratatat LP4 | 3.5 |
| Rebelution The Bright Side Of Life | 1.0 |
| Silversun Pickups Neck of the Woods | 3.0 |
| Silversun Pickups Swoon | 4.0 |
| Sleigh Bells Treats | 3.0 |
| Smash-up Derby What the F*** is Going On? | 3.5 |
| St. Vincent St. Vincent | 3.5 |
| St. Vincent Strange Mercy | 4.5 |
| Stars The Five Ghosts | 2.5 |
| Sufjan Stevens Silver & Gold | 4.0 |
| Surfer Blood Astro Coast | 4.5 |
| Tame Impala Innerspeaker | 4.5 |
| The Books The Way Out | 4.0 |
| The Clash London Calling | 4.5 |
| The Dead Weather Horehound | 3.5 |
| The Decemberists The King Is Dead | 1.5 |
| The Distillers Sing, Sing Death House | 3.5 |
| The Distillers Coral Fang | 4.0 |
| The Dresden Dolls A Is For Accident | 3.5 |
| The Dresden Dolls The Dresden Dolls | 4.5 |
| The Dresden Dolls Yes, Virginia... | 4.5 |
| The Drums The Drums | 2.5 |
| The Faint Media | 1.5 |
| back when "The Faint" really shouldn't have even been called "The Faint". this is before they began to craft their precisely kick-ass dance-punk sound. this is their emo album, and it's really just terrible. there's a handful of songs i can stand, and a couple that i think are alright, but overall this album is just another emo album. if it hadn't been by The Faint i would have turned it off after track 1...which i still usually do anyways. |
| The Faint Blank-Wave Arcade | 3.0 |
| The Faint Fasciinatiion | 3.5 |
| The Faint Danse Macabre | 4.5 |
| The Faint Wet From Birth | 4.5 |
| The Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots | 2.5 |
| The Flaming Lips At War with the Mystics | 3.0 |
| The Flaming Lips The Terror | 3.5 |
| The Flaming Lips The Soft Bulletin | 4.0 |
| The Flaming Lips Dark Side of the Moon | 4.0 |
| The Flaming Lips Embryonic | 4.5 |
| SPEAKING of returning to the weird, The Flaming Lips did. in a BIG way. this double-album will seriously piss off fans who expected them to continue down the path of the pop (as they were slowly beginning to do the last couple albums) but for me....well its just about the best album they've ever put out. this album is weird as hell, but holy shit is it good. 60's Psychedelia is back in style and The Flaming Lips are paving the road in new directions. it's also hard not to mention their incredible live show when talking about them. so ill reduce it to this string-of-words sentence: space-bubble dancing-animals confetti-cannons birthed-band-members. yeeeah. well anyways this album is incredible. LONG LIVE THE WEIRD!! |
| The Fratellis Here We Stand | 3.5 |
| The Fratellis Costello Music | 4.0 |
| The Killers Sam's Town | 2.0 |
| The Killers Day & Age | 2.0 |
| The Killers Hot Fuss | 4.5 |
| The Kills Blood Pressures | 3.0 |
| The Kills No Wow | 3.5 |
| The Kills Keep On Your Mean Side | 4.0 |
| The Kills Midnight Boom | 4.5 |
| The Knife Shaking the Habitual | 4.5 |
| The Mars Volta Scab Dates | 3.5 |
| The Mars Volta Tremulant | 4.0 |
| The Mars Volta Amputechture | 4.5 |
| The Mars Volta The Bedlam in Goliath | 4.5 |
| The Mars Volta Octahedron | 4.5 |
| The Mars Volta are still my favorite band, and as much as i feel like i need to talk about why i DIDNT give it a higher place on my top 10, i'd rather say why its on here in the first place. this is an AWESOME album. if you've never heard The Mars Volta this is probably the easiest place to start. they consider this their "Acoustic" album. it isn't really acoustic, but it is definitely their most restrained album. the songs aren't epically long, they contain very digestible song structures, and the melodies are beautiful. this album is amazing, but i do hope they return to the weird for the next album. |
| The Mars Volta De-Loused in the Comatorium | 5.0 |
| The Mars Volta Frances the Mute | 5.0 |
| The National High Violet | 3.5 |
| The Offspring Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace | 1.5 |
| The Offspring Splinter | 2.0 |
| The Offspring Conspiracy of One | 3.0 |
| The Offspring Smash | 3.5 |
| The Offspring Ixnay on the Hombre | 3.5 |
| The Offspring Americana | 4.0 |
| The Shins Oh, Inverted World | 4.0 |
| The Shins Chutes Too Narrow | 4.5 |
| The Shins Wincing the Night Away | 4.5 |
| The Smashing Pumpkins Zeitgeist | 3.0 |
| The Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness | 4.0 |
| The Sounds Dying to Say This to You | 2.5 |
| The Ting Tings We Started Nothing | 1.0 |
| The Used In Love and Death | 1.5 |
| The Used Lies for the Liars | 2.5 |
| The Vines Highly Evolved | 2.0 |
| The xx xx | 5.0 |
| A stunning first album from these british young-uns. their sound is made up of male and female vocals trading back and forth over restrained guitar and bass and simplistic drum machine beats and most importantly; silence. yes silence. the use of space and silence on this album is why it ranks so highly for me. they never seem to get too loud, yet somehow it feels overwhelming powerful. these songs will stay ingrained in your head, and all the while you'll wonder "how the hell do they do it?" if these guys continue making albums this good in the future i may have to question if they are actually aliens sent to create beautifully restrained music for us humans to learn from. that or just ANOTHER brilliant british band. |
| Thom Yorke The Eraser | 4.5 |
| Tomahawk Oddfellows | 3.0 |
| Toro Y Moi Anything In Return | 3.0 |
| Toro Y Moi Underneath The Pine | 4.0 |
| Transplants Transplants | 3.5 |
| tUnE-yArDs BiRd-BrAiNs | 4.0 |
| tUnE-yArDs w h o k i l l | 4.5 |
| tUnE-yArDs Nikki Nack | 4.5 |
| TV on the Radio Dear Science | 4.5 |
| Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend | 4.0 |
| Vampire Weekend Contra | 4.0 |
| Wavves Afraid of Heights | 2.5 |
| White Rabbits It's Frightening | 4.5 |
| the single off this album "Percussion Gun" is one of the best songs of the year, and the rest don't disappoint either. if you like Radiohead, check these guys out. like Matt & Kim these songs feel absolutely crammed with brilliant ideas. unlike Matt & Kim the songs also have emotional value. the use of piano is unique and extremely interesting. you'll have to hear it for yourself. |
| Wolfmother Cosmic Egg | 2.5 |
| Wolfmother Wolfmother | 3.0 |
| Yeah Yeah Yeahs Show Your Bones | 3.5 |
| Yeah Yeah Yeahs It's Blitz! | 4.0 |
| YYY's swtiched it up, and it's awesome. this is their dance album, and dance you will. synths galore and plenty of killer vocals from frontwoman Karen O. this may not be my favorite YYY's album, but it most certainly is one of the best albums of the year and contains a couple of their best songs. |
| Yeah Yeah Yeahs Mosquito | 4.0 |
| Yeah Yeah Yeahs Fever To Tell | 4.5 |
| Yeasayer Odd Blood | 3.5 |
| Youth Lagoon The Year of Hibernation | 3.0 |
| Youth Lagoon Wondrous Bughouse | 4.5 |
