ALBUMS (10 each)
1. Sylvie Courvoisier - Lonelyville
2. John Coxon / Wadada Leo Smith - Brooklyn Duos
3. Mostly Other People Do The Killing - Shamokin!!!
4. John Butcher - The Geometry of Sentiment
5. Jorrit Dijkstra + John Hollenbeck - Sequence
6. The Fiery Furnaces - Widow City
7. Boredoms - Super Roots 9
8. Christopher DeLaurenti - Favorite Intermissions
9. Tomahawk - Anonymous
10. Cornelius - Sensuous

TRACKS
1. Rihanna - Umbrella
2. Prince - Guitar
3. Of Montreal - Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse
4. Noisettes - Sister Rosetta
5. Battles - Atlas
6. M.I.A. - Paper Planes
7. Scissor Sisters - Paul McCartney
8. The Wombats - Let's Dance to Joy Division
9. Dethklok - Blood Ocean
10. The Polyphonic Spree - Section 24: The Fragile Army

REISSUES
1. The Slits - Return of the Giant Slits

ARTIST
1. Anthony Braxton

COMMENTS
First off, singles are singles. Ever since the pilgrims. I know the I'olator says it can be whatever songs we think are worth mention, but that's weak. Uphold and cherish the single, I say! Even if it's a single released via cell phone or something, like Prince's killer "Guitar." A tacky bit of shilling to be sure, but still better than Elvis Costello playing concerts only for people who hold the proper credit card.

I thought of putting a Bob Dylan song on - or a cover off the OST - just because "I'm Not There" was so freakin' brilliant. I mean, what a weird movie. Like, it didn't even make sense if you're not a Dylanphiliac. I went with a friend who knows her stuff, just don' know her Dylan, and she summed it up nicely thusly: "At least if you go to a Bergman movie you know it's about sex or death." I mean, crazy. All the people who are talking about it, did 1/3 of them understand it? Had they seen "Don't Look Back"? Yeah, I tripped on it. But no, no Dylan on the list. The movie made me question if I even like Dylan's music. I mean, I'd never thought about it. It's just a given that it's important, that he's a genius, that you need to know it. And while "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" is one of the most perfectly crafted pop songs of all time, well, I held out from putting a song on the list as a vote for a movie.

The Boredoms record is good. Real good. Not really sure if it's one of the best of the year. I put it on as a vote for the "77 Boredrum" concert in Brooklyn this summer.

And I don't know if the Fiery Furnaces record is really one of the best of the year, either. Their whole quirk schtick makes it hard to tell when they're being good. That's their genius. "Widow City" is great because it's so not great. Because it's such a just a rock record, but Matthew's lyrics stand against nothing in rock history. Who else uses the word "husband"? Who? And the great trick is that their next album will be some whole new trip. Or it won't be, and then we can get off on some pose of them pretending to be rock stars. But the low down Betty Brown is that nobody has made a record like that with just keyboards and drums since Stevie Wonder was good, and that's been a long, long time.

If there were catagories for "Best Concert" or "Best Box Set," then I could back up my vote for Anthony Braxton as "Artist of the Year" a little more. But nevermind. The new little label Firehouse 12 did a remarkable thing at just the right moment, releasing a great big set of Braxton discs right when he has one of the best bands of his career at crystallizing his Whole Thing.

And Of Montreal. I love how Kevin Barnes can get five syllables and four breaths out of a single vowel sound.