1. Kvelertak – Kvelertak
2. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Before Today
3. Carbon Based Lifeforms – Interloper
4. Enslaved – Axioma Ethica Odini
5. The Black Crowes – Croweology
6. Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
7. Joanna Newsom – Have One on Me
8. Scissor Sisters – Night Work
9. Alcest – Écailles de lune
10. Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma
11. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
12. The Tallest Man on Earth – The Wild Hunt
13. Misery Index – Heirs to Thievery
14. Blind Guardian – At the Edge of Time
15. Grinderman – Grinderman 2
16. The National – High Violet
17. Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz
18. Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest
19. Erykah Badu – New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh
20. Gil Scott-Heron – I’m New Here
21. Laura Marling – I Speak Because I Can
22. Agalloch – Marrow of the Spirit
23. Janelle Monáe – The ArchAndroid
24. Swans – My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky
25. Oceansize – Self Preserved While the Bodies Float Up
I am extremely intrigued by this list! I have never HEARD of the #1 or #3 records BEFORE TODAY was one of my favorite albums in years. Definitely swept the #1 spot last year for me. Is that #1 album a metal album? The artwork looks like it’s by the guy who does Baroness/Pig Destroyer… I am going to check out both your #1 and #3 records. Have you heard of GHOST yet? Their debut is my favorite album this year so far… they’re on Metal Blade Records…
Glad you were intrigued! Kvelertak are indeed a metal band, a particularly unique Norwegian metal/punk blend that puts a massive smile on my face… I thought the number one spot going to BEFORE TODAY was a foregone conclusion for most of the year but in the end it was largely a tossup between the two!
Carbon Based Lifeforms are an ambient electronic group (might just be a duo, not sure) that had two promising if not exactly earth-shattering previous records – but I loved INTERLOPER! Cerebral, dreamy… It’s my favorite thing to come along in ambient since BT’s THIS BINARY UNIVERSE in 2006…
Personally I love Ghost’s debut! I live in Minneapolis and I’m quite excited as 2 bands on this list are sharing a bill with them at a show this fall: Enslaved and Alcest! Quite the triple threat!