Neko Case: The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You
Neko recorded an album so good, she couldn't stop naming it.
Foxygen: We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic
Spirited reinvention? Enthusiastic homage? Mimicry? Who cares? This is the best album of its kind since The Dandy Warhols' Thirteen Tales of Urban Bohemia.
James Blake: Overgrown
Intricate and expansive, James Blake wins the fight against the 'difficult' second album!
Forest Swords: Engravings
Get ready for smokey aural adventure.
Savages: Silence Yourself
Punk manifesto never sounded so good.
Bill Callahan: Dream River
Callahan's latest music reduction: boil everything down to its essence, hit record.
Pusha T: My Name is My Name
Don't accuse Pusha of being a coke-rapper. His songs are about 'dealing coke'- not dealing coke. This album is ridikalus good.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Push the Sky Away
The Bad Seeds natural sense of menace gets put on a slow spin cycle with atmospheric samples.
Kanye West: Yeezus
What kind of maniac releases an album that is so rabidly anti-commerical, just when everyone was loving him again? The best kind of maniac.
Queens of the Stone Age: ...Like Clockwork
QOTSA return with one of the strongest albums of their career. Thrilling, powerful and often very funny.
The National: Trouble Will Find Me
On the surface it seems like 'just another' great National album, but on closer inspection it reveals itself to be one of their best - finding the band looser, funnier and more at ease than ever. If it ends up being the band's swansong, it would a fine finish.
My Bloody Valentine: MBV
Over 20 years after Loveless, My Bloody Valentine still sound like My Bloody Valentine. Which is the same as saying nobody else sounds like My Bloody Valentine.
Kurt Vile: Waking on a Pretty Daze
The most comforting album of the year- put it on with your first cup of coffee on a Saturday morning, see what I mean.
Jon Hopkins: Immunity
An electronic masterwork.
Lady Lamb The Beekeeper: Ripely Pine
Wonderfully bold, wonderfully weird.
Paul McCartney: New
He was always the most talented one.
Janelle Monae: The Electric Lady
Janelle Monae continues her hugely ambitious Android saga with The Electric Lady, an amalgamation of R&B, rock, pop, hip-hop styles and influences that combines in a shouldn't-be-so-successful way.
Daft Punk: Random Access Memories
A loose concept album with more flashes of brilliance than most.
Sprawling, exacting, expensive-sounding.
The Drones: I See Seaweed
The caustic strength of this record actually sounds like will corrode your speakers.
Arcade Fire: Reflektor
They probably didn't want everyone thinking they didn't know how to have a good time.
DARKSIDE: Psychic
Can an album be simultaneously moody and upbeat? DARKSIDE managed it.
Future of the Left: How To Stop Your Brain in an Accident
Full disclosure: I donated some meagre funds towards the recording of this album, so I'm happy to accept any credit towards its greatness.
