Music

1. 

   1. Boris: Pink

   This Japanese sludge-metal trio have not only given us their best album but also their most focused, melodic and (dare we say this) accessible work, an album of such ferocious power and energy that...read more

2. 

   2. Comets on Fire: Avatar

   With every album, Bay Area bad boys Comets on Fire just get better and better. Avatar has more of a classic-rock sound for the band, augmented by the chaos-punk-psych jams that ruled their earlier ...read more

3. 

   3. The Mountain Goats: Get Lonely

   The Mountain Goats have become so popular in recent years that many don’t realize that John Darnielle, the band’s leader (and often its lone member), has been at this for quite some tim...read more

4. 

   4. Ratatat: Classics

   Ratatat has the unique ability to sound familiar and fresh all at once. So many bands strive for dubious originality that they lose focus of making music that’s simply good. Ratatat never fa...read more

5. 

   5. Girl Talk: Night Ripper

   A total blast from beginning to end. Mash-ups aren’t for everyone (of course, no genre is for everyone), but Pittsburgh DJ Gregg Gillis has produced a mash up record for the ages, perfectly stitchi...read more

6. 

   6. Band of Horses: Everything All the Time

   The former members of Carissa’s Wierd regroup to form Band of Horses, whose Everything All The Time is a near-perfect rock record, a delicious amalgam of hooks-laden jangle pop and raw guitar...read more

7. 

   7. Cat Power: The Greatest

   Chan Marshall wanted a change, and she found inspiration in her Georgian southern roots, holing up with Al Green’s session men, and quietly delivering a brilliant album, perhaps her finest work to ...read more

8. 

   8. Destroyer: Destroyer's Rubies

   This is one of those rare albums that seem to fit every occasion. It’s the album we all threw on when we need a pickup, when we need something adventurous and different, or when we simply nee...read more

9. 

   9. The Black Keys: Chulahoma

   Too many people dismissed this album, and it’s most undeserved. The Black Keys, the great blues-rock duo from Ohio, were under contractual obligation to make one last record for Fat Possum be...read more

10. 

    10. Bob Dylan: Modern Times

    The 32nd studio album from Bob Dylan – his first since 2001’s triumphant ”Love and Theft” – features the legend in fine form, delivering a poignant, wistful record wit...read more

11. 

    11. Animal Collective: Feels

    While critics found it easy to lump Animal Collective in with the freak folk scene after the strumming madness of Sung Tongs, Feels may cause them to revise their opinions -- slightly. First, this...read more

12. 

    12. Animal Collective: Sung Tongs

    On Sung Tongs, their first record distributed by FatCat, the two-man Animal Collective come on like sun-scorched acid eaters gathered around the campfire, strumming and grinning while they weave ...read more

13. 

    13. Animal Collective: Here Comes the Indian

    Informed in equal parts by acid-fried psychosis, crop-circle field recordings and an elephants-on-the-loose circus thrash aesthetic, Animal Collective's fourth full-length album rests roughly at t...read more

14. 

    14. Neil Young: After The Goldrush

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15. 

    15. Yo La Tengo: Summer Sun

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16. 

    16. Yo La Tengo: And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out

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17. 

    17. Yo La Tengo: Electr-O-Pura

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18. 

    18. Arcade Fire: Funeral

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19. 

    19. Yo La Tengo: I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One

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20. 

    20. Arctic Monkeys: Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

    Now with a Mercury Prize under their belt and a half year to assess the hype, the verdict on the Arctic Monkeys is in: They’re pretty great. There’s nothing groundbreaking about their s...read more

21. 

    21. Devendra Banhart: Oh Me Oh My

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22. 

    22. Devendra Banhart: Cripple Crow

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23. 

    23. Devendra Banhart: Nino Rojo

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24. 

    24. Devendra Banhart: Rejoicing in the Hands

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25. 

    25. Wolf Parade: Apologies to the Queen Mary

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26. 

    26. Robert Wyatt: Cuckooland

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27. 

    27. Robert Wyatt: Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard

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28. 

    28. The Black Keys: Rubber Factory

    "Rubber Factory finds the duo expanding, stretching, and improving, coming into its own as a distinctive, original, thoroughly great rock & roll band. With 2003's Thickfreakness, guitarist/v...read more

29. 

    29. The Black Keys: Thickfreakness

    "While the vast majority of post-punk bands who have an obvious taste for the blues seem to enjoy taking the style apart and messing around with the bits and pieces, the Black Keys are the (relat...read more

30. 

    30. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy: I See A Darkness

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31. 

    31. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy / Matt Sweeney: Superwolf

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32. 

    32. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy: Master and Everyone

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33. 

    33. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy: Ease Down the Road

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34. 

    34. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy: Summer in the Southeast [live]

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35. 

    35. Boris: Akuma No Uta

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36. 

    36. Boris: Amplifier Worship

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37. 

    37. Boris: Boris At Last - Feedbacker

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38. 

    38. Wilco: Summerteeth

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39. 

    39. Akron/Family & Angels of Light: s/t

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40. 

    40. Bright Eyes: I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning

    Bright Eyes' undisputed best album. OK, a few may dispute that. It's superb. read more

41. 

    41. Bright Eyes: Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground

    "When Bright Eyes brainchild Conor Oberst issued Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground in August 2002, he was 22 years old. Critics were already calling him the "indie ...read more

42. 

    42. Bright Eyes: Digital Ash in a Digital Urn

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43. 

    43. Broken Social Scene: Broken Social Scene

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44. 

    44. Broken Social Scene: Bee Hives

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45. 

    45. M. Ward: Transistor Radio

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46. 

    46. Black Mountain: Black Mountain

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47. 

    47. Neko Case: The Tigers Have Spoken

    "In the press release that accompanies Neko Case's 2004 live album, The Tigers Have Spoken, the singer (and her record company) insist quite strongly that this isn't meant to be a stopgap release...read more

48. 

    48. Neko Case: Blacklisted

    "While the spare and often haunted sound of Neko Case's home-recorded Canadian Amp EP seemed at the time like a late-night detour from alt-country's leading songbird of the North, listening to Ca...read more

49. 

    49. Neko Case & Her Boyfriends: Furnace Room Lullaby

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50. 

    50. Neko Case & Her Boyfriends: The Virginian

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