Of Montreal - White Is Relic Irraelis Mood: Big return to form.

No Age - Snares Like A Haircut: Pretty good, but high bar for success.

Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour: Much better than her last album.

David Murray - Blue For Memo: Jazz plus Saul Williams is a mixed bag.

The Most - Mostified: Bonkers but great.

The Messthetics - The Messthetics: Worth a single listen.

Martha - Blisters In The Pit Of My Heart: Big improvement.

Martha - Courting Strong: Perfect encapsulation of their live show.

Mandroid Echostar - Coral Throne: Somewhere between SSTB and IKSSE Coheed.

The Longshot - Love Is For Lovers: The softer side of Billie Joe Armstrong.

Knocked Loose - Laugh Tracks: No laughing at the great hardcore album.

King Krule - The Ooz: Some cool songs, but not enough of them.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Gumboot Soup: Leftovers from an astonishing year.

The Kids - The Kids: Classic punk from the '70s.

Jason Isbell - The Nashville Sound: Slight too clean, but great songs.

Iceage - Beyondless: Not very engaging.

Death Grips - Year Of The Snitch: A lot to unpack here, but Streaky in album context is way better than as a single.

I Create - All We Are Is Now: Transcendent post-hardcore/screamo.

I Create - Make The Years: Pretty standard post-hardcore/screamo.

Husker Du - Zen Arcade: Whoa.

Hurray For The Riff Raff - The Navigator: A little too inside the lines.

Hop Along - Bark Your Head Off, Dog: Swinging for the fences and clearing them has to be a great feeling.

HIRS - Friends, Lovers, Favorites: Noisecore at its finest.

Tylisha Haskins - Goya Boy: Huge step up form ...All That Jazz.

Guyver-One - Discography: Pretty great screamo.

Guilt - Comprehensive Guide To Anger Management Composed In Drop D: Starts off pretty decent, but the back half is Slint-influenced hardcore.

The Go! Team - Semicircle: Always sucked in by a single or review or snippet. Usually disappointed.

Gasoline Heart - You Know Who You Are: Perhaps a response to Texas Is The Reason, they occupy a space between Gaslight Anthem and Hot Water Music.

Fury - Paramount: Bands like Fury give me hope for hardcore.

The Fix - At The Speed of Twisted Thought: Essential and inexplicably off my radar for far too long.

Fiddlehead - Springtime and Blind: Not sure how to describe this major Album of the Year contender.

Fiddlehead - Out Of The Bloom: Looking forward to more.

Father John Misty - God's Favorite Customer: Another excellent album.

The Fall - 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong: I mean, they can, but not about The Fall.

Eminem - Revival: Maybe this was the album he needed to make in order to have a real revival?

Disfear - Live The Storm: Amazing.

The Dickies - The Incredible Shrinking Dickies: Come for the Paranoid cover, stay for the vital punk.

The Decemberists - I'll Be Your Girl: Not sure how I feel about the new direction yet.

Dead Boys - Young, Loud, And Snotty: Essential punk.

Richard Dawson - Peasant: Strong contender for album of last year.

Dashboard Confessional - Crooked Shadows: Still searching for that Top 40 hit.

Czarface and MF Doom - Meets: Anything Doom related it worth checking out.

Company Flow - Funcrusher Plus: A bit long in the tooth, but refreshing.

Citizen - As You Please: More melodic, but far better.

Car Seat Headrest - Twin Fantasy (Face To Face): Love the remake.

David Bowie - Scary Monsters: Clearly a singles artist, with few exceptions.

David Bowie - Lodger: Slight step down from Heroes.

David Bowie - Heroes: Best since Ziggy Stardust.

David Bowie - Station To Station: Transitional album.

David Bowie - Aladdin Sane: Disappointint follow-up to Ziggy, though not without bright spots.

David Bowie - Hunky Dory: Building the case for being a singles artist.

David Bowie - The Man Who Sold The World: Some pretty good songs.

Birdchest - Birdchest: Assfactor 4 reborn.

Big Thief - Capacity: I just do not get the hype.

Jello Biafra and the New Orleans Raunch and Soul All-Stars: Walk on Jindal's Splinters: Great novelty album.

Courney Barnett and Kurt Vile - Lotta Sea Lice: Whoa.

Bad Moves - Bad Moves: Incredibly, it captures their live presence so well.

awakebutstillinbed - what people call low self-esteem is really just seeing yourself the way that other people see you: Pay attention to this band.

Anti-Flag - Die For The Government: Some really great punk songs here.

Antagonize - Demo: So great to have him back.

Animal Flag - Void Ripper: Huge step forward in their sound.

Andrew WK - You're Not Alone: I Get Wet is such a great album, everything else will pale in comparison. Including this.

Neil Young - Hitchiker: One of his best of the recent run.

The Worst - Of The Worst: Early '80s punk that suffers from the production issues, but worth a listen.

Kamasi Washington - Harmony Of Difference: Great warm-up for his new album.

War On Drugs - A Deeper Understanding: A bit long, but wonderfully executed.

Joni Void - Selfless: Gripping, if uneven at times.

Tylisha Haskins - ...And All That Jazz: A little rought, but he has the passion.

This Day Forward - In Response: Far too polished, but should have been huge in 2003.

Sticks And Stones - Inner Revolt: Really great punk from the mid-to-late-'80s.

Colin Stetson - New History Warfare, Vol. 2- Judges: What a weirdly engrossing album.

Steely Dan - Countdown To Ecstasy: Always avoided Steely Dan for some unknown reason. No longer.

St. Vincent - Masseduction: This will be a grower.

Slaughter Beach, Dog - Birdie: I miss Modern Baseball.

Skating Polly - The Big Fit: A bit of a step down.

Skating Polly - Fuzz Steilacoom: Huge step up from their debut.

Skating Polly - Lost Wondefuls: Such youthfulness.

Sid Sludge Studio Band - Hardcore Caesar: Interesting time capsule type of recording.

A. Savage - Thawing Dawn: Looking forward to more Parquet Courts after this.

Sampha - Process: Not really fond of R&B, but this is pretty good.

Russian Circles - Guidance: Meh post-rock.

Rainer Maria - Rainer Maria: Awesome return to producivity.

Quicksand - Interiors: Would like it more had it been under a different moniker.

Queens Of The Stone Age - Villains: Feels a little over produced.

Queen - A Night At The Opera: So quintessentially '70s.

Propagandhi - Victory Lap: Heavier on the prog than I would have liked, but certainly not bad.

Sandro Perri - Impossible Spaces: On a list of great Constellation releases for a reason.

Parasites - Pair Of Sides: Great early pop-punk.

Ought - More Than Any Other Day: Really good, but could have been great if a little shorter.

Sean Nelson - Make Good Choices: Good choice to listen to this solo album.

The National - Sleep Well Beast: Someday, their greatest hits album will be in constant rotation.

Mountain Goats - Marsh Witch Visions: Great tease.

Mogwai - Every Country's Sun: Like all of their releases, it has its moments.

Mansions - Dig Up The Dead: Gets a lot of praise, but not getting it.

Manchester Orchestra - A Black Mile To The Surface: I really want to like these guys.

Daniele Luppi and Parquet Courts - Milano: This should have been much bigger last year.

The Lonely Forest - Arrows: Pretty good indie rock.

Iojii and Swarvy - Due Rent: Hope they got that rent covered so we can hear more.

Liars - Theme From Crying Fountain: Always worth checking out.

Ted Leo - The Hanged Man: Inconsistent.