Although I didn't think about extensively, and I had no access to all possibilities, here is a satisfactory list of my ten favorite albums released this year, more-or-less in order:

1. Kimya Dawson - Hidden Vagenda
2. Joanna Newsom - The Milk-Eyed Mender
3. Tom Waits - Real Gone
4. Piney Gir - Peakahokahoo
5. The Killers - Hot Fuss
6. That 1 Guy - Songs in the Key of Beotch
7. The Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat
8. Brian Wilson - Smile
9. MF Doom - Mm..Food?
10. The Polyphonic Spree - Together We're Heavy

One-liner commentary: Kimya is number one, of course, because she is my hero and friend. Joanna Newsom = possum faerie. Tom Waits = whiskey mule. Piney Gir is good girly hot-ass fun. I know that the cool radio station guys will see my Killers pick and shake their heads in shame, whispering to my list, "I thought she had better taste than that." Maybe it's lame to enjoy The Killers, but for some reason, I love that album. That 1 Guy will be playing with Drums & Tuba in NOLA pretty soon, and I want to go because I like tubas, and That 1 Guy makes music that sounds like slabs of meat falling with the rain. The Fiery Furnaces combine folk and opera. Brian Wilson was a beach boy, yes, but there's something haunting, alluring, and childish about his completed magnum opus that makes me want to don a bikini at an amusement park. MF Doom wrote a song about cookies. The Polyphonic Spree is a three-dimensional rainbow.

I like that three of my choices (Kimya, Joanna Newsom, and Fiery Furnaces) are all in this neo-folk thing going on. If I were an active musician, I'd be a part of it too because that's the kinda stuff I was doing before I'd heard of the neo-folk, anti-folk, whatever it is.

WUSM will be doing a countdown show the evening of the new year, and my list will apparently have some influence on it, so perhaps you can hear these things I have deemed worthy of your auditory canals.