For the rest of forever, I will probably compare every new music year semi-unfavorably to 2005, when my best-of list ran deep into the 20s with albums I actually loved and listened to a ton. Apart from that aberration, I’d say every year has about 10 excellent albums that will continue to demand my attention and time into the new year, which, honestly, is probably more than enough. Don’t we all really listen to far too many albums nowadays?

On that note and only partially tangentially, I actually sold all my CDs this year and will be attempting to listen a LOT more to the 100-200 actual vinyl records I own (and the 10 – 15 I buy this year) than the 3300 albums I have in my iTunes library. Let’s call it a resolution.

Of course, all this is distracting from (and/or straight up contradictory to) the task at hand – ranking some records! Let’s face it, The Suburbs won’t decide for itself whether it’s better or worse than This is Happening (worse) or False Priest (a little better).There are, of course, matters of degrees here, so, for example, no feeling sorry for yourself, Heaven is Whenever or Transference. You’re good people, just not quite The Monitor caliber.

So let’s do it!

The Top Ten

1 | Titus Andronicus: The Monitor

There’s really no doubt about this one – once every three or four years, an album locks itself into my subconscious and won’t let me play anything else for weeks on end, because really (my brain tells me) what would be the point? Whatever else I could listen to wouldn’t be nearly as exciting/awesome/fun/loud as this record, so you might as well give in. And so I generally do – in this case to a record that’s a joyful blast of pretty straightforward rock music, except with an awesome concept (break-up record as filtered through a dump truck full of Civil War metaphors), incredible lyrics, and the kind of unbridled enthusiasm that lets you know that they really MEAN it. Best of the year, hands-down, and seeing them live sealed it.

2 | Vampire Weekend: Contra

The album where we learn that VW is actually incapable of writing a bad song. It’s a part 2 in a lot of ways to their debut, but in the best way (think Talking Heads or Joe Jackson or Elvis Costello) – it doesn’t expand their horizons particularly or experiment with new sounds so much as it takes everything they were already capable of – flawless melodies, peppy indie anthems, deceptively complex pop songs – and does them all just a little bit better. And I’m also happy to report that the atrocious sequencing is somewhat saved by learning that on vinyl, side one ends with “Run” rather than “Taxi Cab,” as I assumed, which puts “Cousins” at the start of a side where it belongs. So I kind of apologize for all this (although I still think my sequence is better).

3 | LCD Soundsystem: This is Happening/The London Sessions

If this were the oscars, James Murphy would be splitting his votes by releasing two albums the same year, but as it is, he’s just making me extra happy by following up one of the best records of the year with a live-in-the-studio album that showcases his red-hot live band in (most) of its glory. On the This is Happening side of things, we have a songwriter, performer, and producer fully in control of his considerable powers, filling a record to brimming with blistering club jams, downbeat breakup songs, outright rockers, and everything in between. There are a couple better records this year, sure, but none are as accomplished or polished as this one. I hope he’s joking when he says this is the last one. As for the London Sessions… I’ve seen him perform twice this year, and this album doesn’t really measure up to either of them, but I have a feeling that LCD Soundsystem live is the kind of thing you just have to be there to experience. If you can’t manage that, this is a decent plan B.

4 | The Extra Lens: Undercard

Every year John Darnielle unleashes some songs into the year is a good year for music. That being said, I’m starting to be a little scared by his ability to blow me away year after year with some of the most evocative storytelling, creative lyricism, and passionate performances possible in pop music. This time around, he’s sharing the stage with Franklin Bruno, who contributes a few songs and a lot of atmosphere, in the form of electric guitar, keys, and harmony vocals from time to time. It’s no shame to come in a close second best to the best Mountain Goats offerings (All Hail West Texas, Tallahassee, Get Lonely), especially with a name like Undercard (and the album art is pretty fantastic too), so we’ll just call this one a win and wait for a new Mountain Goats record next year.

5 | Wolf Parade: Expo 86

It’d be unkind at best to call this one a disappointment, exactly, but since the last releases from each of their side-projects (Sunset Rubdown’s Dragonslayer and Handsome Furs’ Face Control) were easily some of the best music that Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner have ever made, respectively, I did expect a little bit more from this record than for it to be just the third best Wolf Parade album. All that being said, the third best Wolf Parade album is better than a whole lot of other things out there, and this one has all the signifiers – a full-on banger out of the gate (“Cloud Shadow on the Mountain”), complex intertwining guitars and keyboards, two of the best voices in rock and roll, and a criminally underrated rhythm section. I’m glad these guys went on hiatus rather than just breaking up, and I’m also glad they released this record before doing so. Also, is it just me, or is the cover art for my top 10 all really excellent this year?

6 | The Arcade Fire: The Suburbs

“What? The Arcade Fire on an end of year best-of list? I am seriously so surprised by this choice,” is something I can definitely hear you saying to yourself. And sure, yeah, agreed, but also – if there’s a band out there doing more interesting and ambitious things with the album format in pop music, I’m either a) not aware of them, or b) they’re #1 on this list. Truthfully though, pretty much everything I said about the Wolf Parade record above could be said about this one – it’s solid and sort of predictable and not as good as you maybe hoped it would be, but their third best is still a pretty amazing album. Sort of the opposite career arc from LCD Soundsystem, actually. I will say, however, that I think it would be really interesting to hear them make a 30 minute record of straightforward pop songs someday.

7 | Miles Kurowsky: The Desert of Shallow Effects

Of this record, Pitchfork said something to the effect of “if it was the fifth Beulah album, it’d be the fifth best.” And while it basically does sound exactly like you’d think a fifth Beulah album would sound, a) that’s a very good thing since it’s been a long time since Yoko came out and b) I have to respectfully disagree that it’d be fifth best. It’s easily the most ambitious thing Kurowsky’s ever done, and while it doesn’t always work, his gift for melody and pop instrumentation remains thankfully intact, leading to some of the most compelling and interesting pop songs of the year.

8 | The Corin Tucker Band: 1000 Years

The passing of Sleater-Kinney was a sad thing, but that it opened the door for multiple side-projects and Janet Weiss drumming for multiple other bands is a welcome development. This record is a good bit more restrained than the final Sleater-Kinney album, but only in service to Corin Tucker trying out her songwriting chops on some styles and songs that might have seemed out of place among the fury of The Woods. Now we just need to get Carrie Brownstein into the studio.

9 | The Henry Clay People: Somewhere on the Golden Coast

It’s definitely somewhere in the neighborhood of ironic that the Henry Clay People knock the Hold Steady off my top ten, since the former is definitely inspired by the latter. But what can I say? Heaven is Whenever is a solid record, but something of a labored effort from a band that doesn’t seem like it’s sure what it should do next, whereas Somewhere on the Golden Coast finds the band completely aware that they’ve made a west coast summer rock album of the highest order. It’s fun and energetic and lyrically interesting and even though there are some weak spots, it made its way back into my listening rotation numerous times throughout the year.

10 | of Montreal: False Priest

Even when Kevin Barnes is fully in service to the perverse, art-damaged side of his tendencies (as on Skeletal Lamping), he’s still capable of turning out some compelling pop music. When he locks into a particular groove, he’s pretty much unstoppable, so my somewhat muted response (relatively speaking) to this record probably has less to do with its quality and more to do with my personal music preferences, which are better served by, for example, Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? But even so, False Priest is a dizzying performance that I can appreciate on several levels, not least of which the fact that, despite the man’s obvious influence on Barnes in general and this album in particular, it’s several notches better than anything Prince has released in the past 10 years.

The Honorable Mentions

The Hold Steady: Heaven is Whenever

Sufjan Stevens: The Age of Adz/All Delighted People EP

Free Energy: Stuck on Nothing

Spoon: Transference

Beach House: Teen Dream

Surfer Blood: Astro Coast

Sports: s/t

Magic Bullets: s/t