After much deliberation, I have finally settled on what I believe were the best records released this year. My singles list will be posted later this week.


1. Santogold – Santogold: After becoming a blog darling last year with “Creator” and “Shove It,” Philadelphia’s Santi White managed to transcend the hype and issue the finest debut since Arular. Before it even came out, critics harped on the similarity of “Creator” to M.I.A. (and really, play that one and “Bingo” back to back), but with her meaningful, incisive meditations on art, justice, obsession and gender, as well as her penchant for crafting perfect pop melodies, she demonstrated that she’s no one’s mere doppelgänger.

2. Kate Nash – Made of Bricks: Though British critics savaged this record, I happen to feel it was a lovely first outing. Despite missteps like “Shit Song” and “Play,” there is more than enough here to make a case for Kate being possibly the finest songwriter of the recent wave of British female artists. Made of Bricks combines diary-like lyrics and a punk-inspired attitude with a pastiche of various styles of piano-pop. “We Get On” goes for a 60s pop feel, “Skeleton Song” raids the catalogue of Regina Spektor and “Foundations” managed to polarise England with its infamous ‘bittah/fittah’ rhyme.

3. Boris – Smile: After becoming famous in the States with 2006’s Pink, Boris have delivered another masterpiece. At turns more accessible and more experimental than Pink, this record sees the band finally ditching metal and becoming Japan’s avatars of experimental rock. “My Neighbor Satan” features the best melody of the band’s career, while “Statement” is the modern rock hit that didn’t happen (probably due to some dire Seether single). The rest of the record is something like the more outré moments of shoegaze and 20th-century classical music.

4. Deerhunter – Microcastle: After becoming a blog favourite with last year’s Cryptograms, Atlanta’s Deerhunter have elected to head in more of a streamlined, traditionally pop direction. Fortunately, they’re quite good at it, so we get things like “Nothing Ever Happened,” which pretty much makes the Killers’ career even more meaningless than it already was and “Never Stops,” the most delicious bit of dream-pop this side of Souvlaki.

5. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend: While overhype threatened to bury the band before they even took off properly (Spin proclaimed their debut album to be the album of the year before it was even released), these Ivy Leaguers managed to overcome it by providing us with some of the year’s most sublime pop. Inspired by African music, the Smiths and new-wave, their lyrics skewered upper-class American society while the songs hung around not a whit longer than necessary.

6. Portishead – Third
7. Rainbow Party – Butt Jamz
8. No Age – Nouns
9. Coldplay – Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
10. Marilyn Roxie – I Dreamt of Sound
11. MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
12. Hercules and Love Affair – Hercules and Love Affair
13. Deerhoof – Offend Maggie
14. Adele – 19
15. Mt. Moon – A Burial in Seven Births
16. Santogold and Diplo – Top Ranking (mixtape)
17. Nine Inch Nails – The Slip
18. Hot Chip – Made in the Dark
19. Erykah Badu – New Amerykah Pt. 1: 4th World War
20. Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit – The Very Best (mixtape)