In roughly alphabetical order, my top albums of this year. Ranked by some hazy metric that includes how much listened to them—and how much I wanted to listen to them. Notable to me is the strong showing of old indies Slumberland and Thrill Jockey (especially the latter, with Barn Owl’s Shadowland pressing for a place). Also notable is a relative lack of EAI and the like, though I’m sure MIMEO’s Wigry (Bôłt/Monotype) would have made it if I’d had more time to devote to unpacking it. Probably more accessible listening, given my more limited time now, was the theme of this year. Read the rest of this entry »