With a considerable number of quality releases to pick from this year, I had no choice but to grit my teeth and endure as I axed album after album. When the last of the blood was mopped off the tile, ten shell-shocked albums were given gold stars and allowed to leave the room.
Sorry, The Knife. You were one ranking away from glory and eternal life.
10. Thom Yorke, The Eraser
The next best thing to a new Radiohead album. Yorke is at his minimalist, paranoid best in a rainstorm of sounds straight out of “Kid A” and “Amnesiac.”
9. The Coup, Pick a Bigger Weapon
Boots Riley and Pam the Funkstress bring the “party” to “political party.” It’s leftist, it’s angry and it’s funky as hell.
8. Cat Power, The Greatest
Chan Marshall gets sober, breaks your heart.
7. Deftones, Saturday Night Wrist
After the unevenness of the last album, the albums sensual sophistication makes “Wrist” feel like the logical successor to “White Pony.”
6. Mastodon, Blood Mountain
Mastodon prove once again that you can read at a college level and rock harder than the San Francisco earthquake.
5. Morrissey, Ringleader of the Tormentors
It’s only because Moz makes albums of this caliber that I’m not outside his mansion right now demanding the Smiths reform immediately.
4. Mogwai, Mr. Beast
More immaculate aural orgasms from the world’s best active post-rockers.
3. The Black Heart Procession, The Spell
From beginning to end, a solid and hypnotic affair. A compelling argument for relocating to San Diego.
2. Venetian Snares, Hospitality
Aaron funk stops bashing his laptop on the sides of trash bins long enough to remember how great things sounded when he incoporated melody into his music a la “Rossz Csillag Allat Szuletett.”
1. Agalloch, Ashes Against The Grain
I can listen to this epic folk-metal masterpiece a hundred times and still feel the overwhelming awe I experienced during our first encounter. If it were a woman, I would marry it.
