Jackson Browne - The Pretender: Bordering on too slick
Jackson Browne - Late for the Sky: Clean without being slick
Jackson Browne- Running on Empty: Nothing empty about this
Chuck Strangers - A Forsaken Lover’s Plea: Polish Jazz almost enough on its own to bring it into AOTY consideration
Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee: Succeeds way more than it should at its length
Distillers - Sing Sing Death House: Much better than anticipated and makes the major label attention more understandable
Elbow - Audio Vertigo: Some great tracks
Kim Gordon - The Collective: Wonder what the reception would have been under a pseudonym
Plunger - The Station Is Not Received: A lot to unpack here, but the earlier sparser songs really grabbed me
Prize Fighter Inferno - Virtual Pioneers Single: Love the shorter format
Rise Against - Revolutions Per Minute: I always ignored them, but it was completely arbitrary because this is awesome
SeeYouSpaceCowboy - Coup de grâce: Not sure where it fits in, but I liked it a lot
Smile - A Light for Attracting Attention: Certainly benefits from its members, I wonder the reception had it been released anonymously
Smile - Wall of Eyes: Great background music
Vampire Weekend - Only God Was Above Us: A very grown up album
VIAL - Burnout: What if Rilo Kiley were a but punkier but kept their twinkly guitars and melodies
Xard - Beyond Darkness And Time: Not something I normally would have sought out, but enjoyed listening as I worked