i still have a couple dozen albums to plow through, but of the 80 or so i've given a proper listen, here's my take:
top 20 in alpha order: </font>
- <font size="2" face="Arial, Veranda">against me! -- "new wave"
apples in stereo - "new magnetic wonder"
arcade fire -- "neon bible"
band of horses -- "cease to begin"
blitzen trapper -- "wild mountain nation"
blonde redhead -- "23"
daft punk -- "alive 2007"
el-p -- "i'll sleep when you're dead"
the field -- "from here we go sublime"
jens lekman -- "night falls over kortedala"
the national -- "boxer"
of montreal -- "hissing fauna, are you the destroyer?"
panda bear -- "person pitch"
patty griffin -- "children running through"
pharoahe monch -- "desire"
a place to bury strangers -- s/t
spoon -- "ga ga ga ga ga"
a sunny day in glasgow -- "scribble mural comic journal"
the twilight sad -- "fourteen autumns & fifteen winters"
wilco -- "sky blue sky"</font></li>[/list]<font size="2" face="Arial, Veranda">
some albums that i liked, but just didn't stand out from the bands' previous works: </font>
- <font size="2" face="Arial, Veranda">andrew bird -- "armchair apocrypha"
arctic monkeys -- "favourite worst nightmare"
beirut -- "the flying club cup"
the clientele -- "god save the clientele"
deerhoof -- "friend opportunity"
explosions in the sky -- "all of a sudden i miss everyone"
field music -- "tones of town"
interpol -- "our love to admire"
jay-z -- "american gangster"
m.i.a. -- "kala"
modest mouse -- "we were dead before the ship even sank"
the new pornographers -- "challengers"
the shins -- "wincing the night away"
the white stripes -- "icky thump"</font></li>[/list]<font size="2" face="Arial, Veranda">
disappointments: </font>
- <font size="2" face="Arial, Veranda">air -- "pocket symphony"
bloc party -- "a weekend in the city"
clap your hands say yeah -- "some loud thunder"
editors -- "an end has a start"
lupe fiasco -- "the cool"
wu-tang clan -- "8 diagrams"</font></li>[/list]<font size="2" face="Arial, Veranda">
