They Might Be Giants - Why: Exactly.

Vince Staples - Summertime '06: Much better first half than second, but what a first half!

Reggie And The Full Effect - X-Mas Mini EP: Feels like not enough and too much at the same time.

Jason Isbell - Something More Than Free: Always weird when critics finally catch up to a great thing.

Free - Demo: Glad they are back, even if under a different name.

Dwarfstarr - Agnus: Atlanta-based rock band not afraid to wear their influences on their sleeve.

Baroness - Purple: So glad they did not hang it up.

Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit And Think: I can see why it ended up on so many lists, but I need more time.

Magic Circle - Journey Blind: Not as good as debut, but would be hard to do anyway.

Foo Fighters - Saint Cecilia: I guess it will hold me over until a new LP.

Coldplay - A Head Full Of Dreams: Oh how far down they have come.

Burn - Last Great Sea: Too short.

Wavves - V: An improvement over an already-great Afraid of Heights.

Pentimento - I, No Longer: Barely noticeable from their early days.

Joanna Newsom - Divers: One of the most compelling voices in music.

Mountain Man - Rumination: Progressing towards a bigger sound.

Modern Baseball - The Perfect Cast: A little teaser to more.

Libertines - Anthems for Doomed Youth: No longer lightning in a bottle.

Front Bottoms - Back on Top: More of exactly the things to love about them.

Foundation - Turncoat: Sad to see them go.

Craig Finn - Faith in the Future: Odd production choices become a distraction.

Dylan, Bob - Bootleg, Vol 12: 18 discs of fly-on-the-wall greatness is worth listening to.

Dungen - Allas Sak: Ta Det Lungt was such a triumph I will have to pretend this album does not exist.

The Decemberists - florasongs: Need more.

Blitzen Trapper - All Across This Land: Such consistency begins to lose its impact.

Black Breath - Slaves Beyond Death: A step forward towards mixed outcomes.

Adele - 25: A few great singles, but not as consistent as 19 or 21.

Neil Young - The Monsanto Years: Love (most of) the message, but the delivery is better-than-mediocre.

Worriers - Imaginary Life: Chorus-less and fantastic.

Wonder Years - No Closer To Heaven: Great pop-punk.

Wire - Wire: Settling into the complacency. Or finding themselves in textures.

Wilco - Star Wars: Might be my favorite of theirs.

Junior Wells - Hoodoo Man Blues: I struggle with blues after Robert Johnson.

Weatherbox - Flies In All Directions: Not enough to bring me back for more.

Wavves X Cloud Nothings - No Life For Me: Sonic Youth an obvious inspiration for a compelling-enough collaboration.

Various - Ramallah/Sinners And Saints: More from each, please.

Various - Ciao My Shining Star: Come for the stars, stay for the songs. Frank Turner steals the show.

Various - Curse Of The Seven Jackals: E6 diehards only.

Titus Andronicus - The Most Lamentable Tragedy: Album of the year.

Coheed And Cambria - The Color Before The Sun: Concept or not, when the songs are there the songs are there. The songs are there.

Tame Impala - Currents: Too much dance rock for me.

Tallest Man on Earth - Dark Bird Is Home: Can we get yearly, or monthly, releases?

Slayer - Reign in Blood: Not as good as I was hoping for.

Royal Trux - Accelerator: Meh, but the hype will have me revisit.

Jeff Rosenstock - We Cool: Much more cohesive and listenable.

Jeff Rosenstock - I Look Like Shit: Do you like Reggie? Meet Jeff.

Max Richter - The Blue Notebooks: Classical I can get behind.

Ike Reilly - Born On Fire: Sounds like he is having so much fun.

Refused - Freedom: Still do not get the adoration.

H2O - Use Your Voice: Still killing it after all these years.

Coheed and Cambria - Color Before the Sun: Concept or not, I like it.

Ratatat - Magnifique: Consistently challenging my perceptions of electronic music.

Punchline - Action: Adequate pop-punk.

Public Image Limited - The the World Needs Now: is for more people to listen to Public Image Limited.

Prince - Purple Rain: Off the bucket list, but not likely to revisit often.

Pianos Become the Teeth - Keep You: Softer than anticipated, based on their live show.

Charlie Parker - The Greatest Recording in Modern Jazz: The history of jazz is filled with hyperbole and this is not exception.

Owel - Owel: I get a strong Sigur Ros vibe.

Old Canes - Feral Harmonic: Slight disappointment from debut.

Old Canes - Early Morning Hymns: Simple, compelling acoustic album.

Obituary - The End Complete: Should not have listened right after the greatness of Neurosis. Will revisit later.

Neurosis - Through Silver in Blood: Masters of their craft of metal.

My Morning Jacket - The Waterfall: It is all starting to sound the same.

Kacey Musgraves - Pageant Material: Delves into the cheesy a few too many times.

Mumford And Sons - Wilder Mind: Not exactly Dylan going electric, but certainly a changing of the guard.

Muffs - Muffs: Pretty good, if not cliche, punk album.

Mountain Man - Two: Great continuation from their debut.

Mountain Goats - Beat the Champ: Great return to (almost) form.

Microwave - Stovall: Biggest surprise from this year's Wrecking Ball. CD lives up to the live show.

Masters of Reality - Sunrise on the Sufferbus: Unnecessary hard rock that offers nothing new.

La Dispute - Somewhere at the Bottom...: The anxiety in the vocals make it worth listening to.

Ka - Day swith Dr. Len Yo: Might be my favorite hip-hop from this year.

Jump, Little Children - Between Dim & Dark: More dull than dim.

Jazz June - After the Earthquake: More indie rock than anything else they have done.

Jazz June - Scars to Prove It: Nice little bounce back.

Jazz June - Better Off WIthout Air: Embracing the jazzier side of things.

Jazz June - The Medicine: Evolutionary, but not always in a good way.

Jazz June - Boom, Motion, Music: Their most Texas Is The Reason-esque album.

Jazz June - Breakdance Suburbia: Punkier Talking Heads.

The I.L.Y.s - I've Always Been Good at True Love: Death Grips it is not, but good enough it is.

Hop Along - Painted Shut: Inevitable comparisons to Rilo Kiley are not fair but welcome.

Home Blitz - Foremost & Fair: Lo-fi garage rock that is not yet compelling enough.

Ghostface Killah - 12 Reason to Die II: Album after album, Ghostface proves his one of the all-time greats.

Gangstagrass - Rappalachia/Broken Hearts: Great concept, hard to execute, mixed results.

Dr. Dre - Compton: Expectations can play tricks on objectivity.

Mac Demarco - Another One/Some Other Ones: Not as good as Salad Days, but would be hard to follow-up anyway.

Defeater - Abandoned: More of what you expect from them.

Ceremony - The L-Shaped Man: Someone has been listening to a lot of Joy Division. And I like it.

Fucked Up - Year of the Hare: Music is better when they are around.

Ben Folds - So There: Lyrically, this is still @benfolds. Musically, this is Mr. Benjamin S. Folds.

Death - N.E.W.: Not quite the cash grab I was anticipating, but a far cry from their unearthed tracks.

The Dear Hunter - Act IV Rebirth in Reprise: Coheed, Say Anything, and Pink Floyd come together in a fascinating way.

Davenport Cabinet - Risks in Magic: Always solid classic rock-inspired songs.

Camper Van Beethoven - New Roman Times: Such a weird collection of songs.

California X - Nights in the Dark: Perfect album for the soundtrack of a day spent in an airport.

Between the Buried and Me - Coma Ecliptic: Continuing to push themselves forward without losing a step.

Belle and Sebastian - Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance: A bit too dance-heavy for me.

Belle and Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister: So much better than their last few which were already good.

Anvil - Metal on Metal: Made great after watching the documentary.

Alabama Shakes - Sound and Color: An excellent step forward from their debut.