Swans - My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky Broken Bells - Broken Bells Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Grinderman - Grinderman II Mycale - Mycale: Book of Angels, Vol. 13 Bonnie 'Prince' Billy & The Cairo Gang - The Wonder Show of the World Arcade Fire - the Suburbs Joanna Newsom - Hvae One on Me Beach House - Teen Dream The National - High Violet Kanye West, Broken Bells, Mycale and Beach House being the absolute best records. And other than a couple of John Zorn releases, the Sufjan Stevens record, and a couple of other usual suspects. I really haven't heard much that I thought was really great this year. For some reason I'm not so enthousiastic, I even had to use some websites to refresh my memory of what was released this year, I had forgotten most.