the Gossip, Standing in the Way of Control; Bonnie “Prince” Billie and Tortoise, the Brave and the Bold; Calexico, Garden Ruin; Grandaddy, Just Like The Fambly Cat; Hot Snakes, Thunder Down Under; Neko Case, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood; the Devil Makes Three, A Little Bit Faster and a Little Bit Worse; Yo La Tengo, I Am Not Afraid Of You And Will Beat Your Ass; Bonnie “Prince” Billie, The Letting Go; Bobby Bare Jr., The Longest Meow; Centro-Matic, Fort Recovery; Paul Burch, East to West; Black Heart Procession, the Spell; TV On The Radio, Return to Cookie Mountain; Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins, Rabbit Fur Coat; Old Crow Medicine Show, Big Iron World; whatever gratuitously irredeemable hip-hop I slept on this year. Honorable mention to Bob Dylan’s Modern Times because I can stand it.