The day I picked this up, I listened to the album about 5 times all the way through and I knew for sure that this was my #1 pick this year. The album feels like the late 90s grunge pedal sound and the lyrics are stellar. If I had to choose a favorite song it would be 'The Royal We' but the entire album is great all the way through. If I listen to just one album from this year in 10 years this will most certainly be it.

Wait a minute Eric, this album came out in 2008 didn't it? Yes, it came out on November 24th of 2008 just about 2 weeks shy of my Top 25 Albums of 2008 Post. I don't remember when I bought it, but it was probably after my 2008 list hit the blog so I decided that it is such a good album I am not going to allow it to go overlooked. Minus Swoon there has certainly not been an album that I have listened to more than this. Back in 2008 I slammed Sam's Town pretty bad and called it one of the letdown albums of the year. Sawdust was a decent set of B-sides but Day & Age is just right on the money. There is not a bad song on the album, and the sax in multiple songs is amazing. It was actually a tough choice to put this second, but Swoon I just felt was a more monumental album.

The old Dave Matthews Band sound was back with this album. I think there was some wandering around with Busted Stuff (2002) and I think that Stand Up (2005) had a little too much political influence in the writing for me personally. The album opens with an amazing pairing reminiscent of Pantala Naga Pampa -> Rapunzel from my personal favorite DMB album Before These Crowded Streets. All of Big Whiskey is great writing, beyond good musicianship and everyone just sounds like they are on the same page. Unfortunately this will be the last album to feature Moore, but I think the band sounds as good as they ever did in the period from Under the Table and Dreaming up till Before These Crowded Streets, which previous to this album I probably would have said was the pinnacle for this band. I think this album really re-energized the older fan base. The most underrated song on this album for me is Alligator Pie which is both amazing and confusing at the same time.

Mc and myself have discussed Jack White on many occasions and I have a theory that I would like to put forth. On each new band project that he starts the music is reminiscent of some 70s band. With The Raconteurs I believe it is Zeppelin. With The Dead Weather it is Jefferson Airplane. Alison Mosshart's voice is beyond awesome, it almost sounds like it is reaching out from the grave. Mixing her voice with the music of White, Lawrence of the Raconteurs, Fertita of QOTSA is amazing. One thing I love about White's music is that it isn't always on; by that I mean that he plays with silence as if it is a note in and of itself.

I ranked The Seldom Seen Kid as #17 last year, this is probably the first and only time I will rank an album twice, but that's only because this is an absolutely flooring recording of Elbow playing along with the BBC Orchestra and a choral group playing the entire album. I came across this by way of You Ain't No Picasso back in Feb and I am so glad that I did. I have never taken the time to break it up into individual songs just because I love the entire album as a whole. Do yourself a favor and find a copy of it.

Never been a huge huge Wilco fan. I liked Yankee Hotel Foxtrot a lot, but Wilco has always had an alt country cult following that for the most part I never really got into, until I picked up this album. Great listen all the way through, One Wing might be my pick for song of the year.

I have always rated Muse albums in my top10, Absolution took the #2 spot in my 2004 list, but in 2006 Black Holes and Revelations went back a few notches to #7, looking back at the positioning of that album in 2006 I believe I would have actually rated that album higher. In 3 years I will probably look back and said that I understated this album at the #7 position. It is a great album, the Exogenesis sequence at the end is absolutely unreal. The rest of the album is also very good, but I am not sure it is on par with Absolution.

Came across 'No Rest For the Wicked' after hearing it on the intro of Borderlands and instantly went in search of the band. I thought it had a distinct brit rock sound, but figured out it is actually a bunch of guys from Kentucky. 'No Rest' still gets the most plays off the album, but the entire album is a great listen.

This record single handedly mitigated all the worry for me about Oasis breaking up this year. If each of the Gallagher's are this good solo we are in for a few good albums before the inevitable reconciliation and reformation of the band in the later part of 2010. Noel's cover of The Smith's There Is a Light That Never Goes Out is worth the price of the album for sure.

This album ranks up with The Crane Wife in it's storytelling capabilities... Colin Melloy makes dweomercraft/transmorphism sound even cooler.

Sometimes when I listen to this album I wish I spoke "British". One of the reasons that I enjoy pretty much anything by the Arctic Monkeys is the heavy use of colloquialisms mixed with amazing song writing. When I first heard Crying Lightning I didn't know what was in store on this album, but it seems pretty familiar when compared with their other recordings. Just a good all around album.

I caught some hell from some friends of mine because I saw this album popping up on people's radars a few weeks ago and went ahead and picked it up, not knowing anything about the band. Upon hearing it, and playing it repeatedly because I really really enjoyed it I suggested it to them declaring that I thought they sounded extremely similar to Queens of the Stone Age. Of course after hearing this my friends let me in on the fact that this IS pretty much everyone from Queens and some other amazingly talented people (I hate using the word 'supergroup') with Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal), Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age) and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) on bass. I had a hard time not placing this album in a much higher spot, but opted not too just because I thought my love of this album might just be proximity bias in that it just recently came out and is on constant repeat when coding. It also really hasn't marinated with me yet. I am sure next year at this time I will be hating that I didn't rate it higher. It is superb.

Every time I listen to this album I think of what Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young would have sounded like if they just started a band today. Album as a whole is full of awesome psychedelic pop, maybe a little more accessible to radio fans than The Flaming Lips but a similar sound with some great vocal harmonies.

I have never been a fan of Metal and could not tell you the differences in many of the different sub genres of it. I have always liked some industrial rock (NIN, Tool) but that was pretty much my extent into anything near the metal spectrum. I really don't know how to classify Mastodon other than a bit Psychedelic and Progressive (I hate using that word). This album is fantastic and definitely one you want to set aside an hour to listen to. The musicianship is amazing and is extremely creative and I would put them akin to The Mars Volta (#9 - 2005) more than other heavy metal acts.

Really can't ever go wrong with Kasabian. This album is no exception. Heavy beats and biting lyrics. If I rated their albums overall I think this guy would fit very nicely in between their Self Titled 2004 album and 2006's Empire. I have used this album as coding music probably the most this year.

The thing I love about Knopfler is that I never cut off a Knopfler album without being amazed at a.) the guitar, and b.) the lyrics. He can take the bio of Imelda Marcos, the history of the Mason Dixon Line or the pioneer of fast food and create an amazing song. He IS the best living singer-songwriter currently recording, the fact he is an amazing guitar player is just icing on the cake. Get Lucky is no different, I would love to hear the story behind the characters (child hood friends?) from Remembrance Day.

I've said it before, I really want to hate U2. There is just something about Bono that annoys me. I really just want to trash one of their albums, but I honestly can't. I thought I was going to be able to after hearing the first single 'Get On Your Boots'. I really was kinda annoyed by the song then I listened to the entire album and still say it is by far the worst song on the album. Magnificent might be the grooviest U2 song ever, and although very odd Unknown Caller still shows that they really don't want to follow normal song writing (Mac commands in a song, really?). Morocco is an odd place, Blur go there and record their worst album (Think Tank), while U2 walks out of the desert with what might be in my opinion their best (This).

Think Of Montreal's vocals but to a slight 80s dance beat. United (2005) was a great album, I wasn't a big fan of Alphabetical or It's Never Been, but Wolfgang is the best from the band yet.

I saw a bunch of people thinking that xx was amazing and decided to pick up the album. After the first 2 or 3 songs I thought it was going to be way to emo for my tastes, but honestly this is some of the best musicianship on an album this year. The low key sound is great, it has a ringing to it like it is being recorded in an old empty building but isn't as monotonous as Interpol although minus vocals the music sounds very similar.

There was something very odd about this album. I picked it up and loved it for about 2-3 weeks then it just kinda got set off to the side. This might be more of one of those "its not you, its me" things but for some reason the album didn't have all too much sticking power with me. Regardless this is certainly their best album since Vitalogy (and I thought the self titled album was pretty good).

Not too much new material on this album that you would have not heard following each artist separately, but playing together they sound amazing. Voodoo Chile is worth all 16 min.

This album was very similar to Backspacer in that I loved it when it came out, I didn't listen to it enough to get burned out on it, but it just didn't sit that long with me as a great album. I do think that it is going to be hard for the band to live up to American Idiot, but even then I think this album went from great to just very good in a mater of about 2 months. Is it still worth it to pick up? Definitely.

There really isn't any way to defend this to people that don't enjoy the show, but the singing and arrangements are great. Not sure what happened with Vol 2, the track list doesn't have the really well done pieces that Vol 1 has. You know how sometimes when guys wear a pink shirt they say that "only real men can wear pink shirts" but everyone knows they are still full of shit? I am not even going to try to say this is my pink shirt. I would also be lying if I said I have never sang "a singer in a smokey room..." in the shower.

"this is a thank you to the fans" back in May Coldplay surprised a decent number of people in releasing a compilation of some live tracks both from Viva La Vida and X&Y/Clocks. One thing that I noticed with Clocks and this release is that Coldplay doesn't vary much from their studio releases, but sometimes that isn't necessarily a bad thing when the band creates carefully crafted gems like Coldplay. Regardless if you are not really a Coldplay fan you can't go wrong with a free album to give a listen.

I think everyone has been pumping up Jay-Z's The Blueprint 3 for rap album of the year, I have been listening to it for the past few weeks and although it is a good album, I really think that The Ecstatic is a better album as a whole. I really enjoy the dive in of the album on Supermagic. Life in Marvelous Times has to be the highlight of the album.