All your lists are a bit the same. Try something different for a change. These are great albums released this year, but you might have to find them on slsk or other channels. Bur I garantee that you will love them, and if you do, order them via export:

1. Pocket Revolution - dEUS (avantgarde rock)
2. Paradisiac - Millionaire (freaky rock / QOTSA)
3. Songs - Admiral Freebee (rock / country / Neil Young)
4. Ease Your Mind - Sioen (rock / piano ballads)
5. Catching a Grizzly Bear Lesson one - Toman (postrock)

Broaden you horizons!
Dimi from Belgium.

I haven't had time to go through the latest albums I've bought, so my list has been pretty much the same for the past 2 or 3 months. And well, here goes:

1. M.I.A.- Arular
2. Feist- Let It Die
3. Fiona Apple- Extraordinary Machine (the leaked version, of course)
4. Nikka Costa- Can'tneverdidnothin' (this one is probably going downhill, I haven't listened to it in a while)
5. The Books- Lost And Safe
6. Shakira- Fijación Oral Vol. 1
7. Of Montreal- The Sunlandic Twins

After numerous listens I have concluded that Nada Surf "The Weight Is A Gift" is the best pop rock CD I have heard all year.

This is my first attempt at a list for this year.

1. Spoon- Gimme Fiction
2. Sufjan Stevens- Illinois
3. Decemberists- Picaresque
4. Devin Davis- Lonely People of the World, Unite!
5. Frank Black- Honeycomb
6. M. Ward- Transistor Radio
7. Okkervil River- Black Sheep Boy
8. Mountain Goats- The Sunset Tree
9. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah- s/t
10. Bright Eyes- I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning

I still find myself going back to Gimme Fiction way more than anything else I've heard this year. That's why it's at the top.

quote:

Originally posted by superabound:
4. Devin Davis- Lonely People of the World, Unite!

I keep listening to that record, and I enjoy it a lot. But there's something about it... I guess it's the fact that I downloaded a couple songs before I bought the album: Iron Woman, Turtle And The Flightless Bird and Deserted Eyeland. I loved those 3 songs so much, and then the rest of the album kind of didn't live up to those songs. Yeah, suffice it to say, I'm still undecided on that album.

Records I've been loving most this year (in alphabetical order):

Aqualung - STRANGE AND BEAUTIFUL
Beck - GUERO
Brendan Benson - THE ALTERNATIVE TO LOVE
The Bravery - THE BRAVERY
Billy Corgan - THEFUTUREEMBRACE
Marianne Faithfull - BEFORE THE POISON
Natalie Imbruglia - COUNTING DOWN THE DAYS
Juliette and the Licks - YOU'RE SPEAKING MY LANGUAGE
Stephen Malkmus - FACE THE TRUTH
Aimee Mann - THE FORGOTTEN ARM
Jason Mraz - MR. A-Z
Nine Inch Nails - WITH TEETH
Michael Penn - MR. HOLLYWOOD JR., 1947
The Raveonettes - PRETTY IN BLACK
Rob Thomas - ...SOMETHING TO BE

Looking forward to:

Fiona Apple - EXTRAORDINARY MACHINE
Madonna - CONFESSIONS ON A DANCEFLOOR
Liz Phair - SOMEBODY'S MIRACLE

quote:

Aqualung - STRANGE AND BEAUTIFUL

Did that album just come out this year? I've heard about half the songs from it and they're stellar.

I don't have a list of ten yet, but I have a pretty clear Top 3:

Andrew Bird - The Mysterious Production Of Eggs
Death Cab For Cutie - Plans
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois

1. Super Furry Animals: Love Kraft - Nothing really comes close. It didn't blow me away the first few times I listened. In fact, I was pretty disappointed. But I decided to give it another chance and wow, it just took me over. "Atomik Lust" could quite possibly be the best song I've heard this decade. That riff is like a drug. I'm worried many reviewers may not give this album a fair chance, but I'm hopeful a few will. It's gotten reasonably good press (5/5 Guardian, 8/10 NME, etc.) in the UK, but there have been some real downers (like Q giving it two stars). I'd really love to see SFA get the recognition they deserve.
2. The Silver Jews: Tanglewood Numbers
3. Dalek: Absence
4. Deerhoof: The Runners Four
5. Fiona Apple: Extraordinary Machine
6. Gruff Rhys: Yr Atal Genhedlaeth

That's it for now. It's been a mildly unimpressive year (aside from Love Kraft).

Hold the phone. I've only heard a handful of songs from it so far -- the title track, "Use It," "Sing Me Spanish Techno," and "The Bleeding Heart Show" -- but, oh my, Twin Cinema is good. I suppose you might complaint that it's still too sugery, or that there's too much showing off by building hook after hook into a single song, or that the album lacks the lyrical heft of, for instance, Antony and the Johnson's new record, or the political edginess of M.I.A.'s debut, or other criticisms. Maybe. But when the hooks are this strong, the songs this propulsive, the harmonies this tight, those criticisms sound a bit foolish to me. The New Pornographers are one heck of a band. I hope this is the record that breaks them -- and indie music generally -- into the mainstream.

So let me get this straight? You are telling me that you want indie music in the mainstream?
Do you realise that if that happens that us uber fans will have to find another avenue of music.
Fuck the mainstream. That is the dumbest thing I have heard all day.
Indie = independent.
The artists that do go mainstream, i don't consider indie anymore.

quote:

That is the dumbest thing I have heard all day.

Are you sure? ...because you said "uber fans" just before it.

I don't like Twin Cinema at all. I think it's a disgrace so many different publications have awarded the album such high praise. They're a very average band that makes very average music, IMO.

quote:

Originally posted by enjoy bell woods:
I don't like Twin Cinema at all. I think it's a disgrace so many different publications have awarded the album such high praise. They're a very average band that makes very average music, IMO.

I've only heard the title track from Twin Cinema and didn't like it, but I've listened to Mass Romantic and Electric Version multiple times, and apart from a few standouts ("Mass Romantic," "The Laws Have Changed,"), I thought they were lame. I actually like AC Newman's solo album more.

I understand the criticisms of the New Pornographer's prior albums. I think that the highpoints on those records -- "Mass Romantic," "From Blown Speakers," "The Laws Have Changed," and "Loose Translation" -- were outstanding. The rest of the albums were less impressive. Some of the songs from those albums, especially the Dan Bejar compositions, I think are corney sounding. Maybe I'll eventually come to the same conclusion about Twin Cinema. But at the moment (and at a minimum), I still think that the highpoints I've heard on the record are really outstanding songs.

quote:

I've only heard the title track from Twin Cinema and didn't like it, but I've listened to Mass Romantic and Electric Version multiple times, and apart from a few standouts ("Mass Romantic," "The Laws Have Changed,"), I thought they were lame. I actually like AC Newman's solo album more.

Same here, RL, but I thought The Slow Wonder tired after the formula revealed itself around track 4 or 5. There's no reason for me to listen to it after "On the Table."

I can't agree with the broad criticism of the New Pornographers, but I understand it. I actually agree more with the criticism of the A.C. Newman solo record. Where it works, I think it works very well, e.g., "Most of Us Prizefighters," "Drink to Me, Babe," and "Miracle Drug." But apart from those songs, I wasn't crazy about the rest of the albums. By contrast, I really like the harmonies and revved-up sound of the New Pornographers.

Don't anybody get the wrong idea here. I'm not crazy about AC Newman's solo record, I just think it was slightly better than the New Pornographer records, which I don't like much at all.

quote:

I thought The Slow Wonder tired after the formula revealed itself around track 4 or 5.

I actually thought 2 of the best 3 tracks on the album ("Come Crash" and "Town Halo") came in the second half.

I like how nobody says a thing about the New Pornographers when it leaked a month and a half ago.
But now that Pitchfork gave it a 9.0, everyone is all over it.
I personally like it, but I would take either of their other two records over it.

I would definitely reccomend to anyone the new Sufjan Stevens album- "Come on, feel the Illinoise". Its my favorite album from this year so far. And I actually think that his "Michigan" album is even better- its one of my all time favorites. He is doing a project to make a concept album about every state in the US (though he admits to probably not being able to do some or making them eps) ANYONE WHO HAS NOT HEARD SUFJAN STEVENS SHOULD CHECK HIM OUT.