ALBUMS (descending points)
1. The Dirty Projectors - Rise Above
2. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
3. The National - Boxer
4. Broken Social Scene Presents: Kevin Drew - Spirit If...
5. Panda Bear - Person Pitch
6. Phosphorescent - Pride
7. The Black Lips - Good, Bad, Not Evil
8. M.I.A. - Kala
9. The Field - From Here We Go Sublime
10. Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam

TRACKS
1. Battles - Atlas
2. Elephant Gun - Beirut
3. Kanye West, w. Chris Martin - Homecoming
4. LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends
5. The National - Fake Empire
6. The Black Lips - Bad Kids
7. Jens Lekman - A Postcard to Nina
8. Animal Collective - Peacebone
9. White Williams - Headlines
10. Marissa Nadler - Dying Breed

REISSUES
1. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
2. Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
3. Elvis Costello - My Aim is True
4. Ike and Tina Turner - The Ike and Tina Turner Story 1960-1975
5. Robyn Hitchcock - I Wanna Go Backwards

ARTISTS
1. Lil' Wayne
2. Kanye West
3. Noah Lennox
4. James Murphy
5. Amy Winehouse

COMMENTS
A busy year for nostalgia, but the Dirty Projectors did it best. "Rise Above" is packed tighter than hell: memory stirred up with lunacy; modal innovation smacked against good old fashioned pop.

Which is not to say difficulty is (always) its own reward; in this case, for instance, the Projectors are only putting a voice to a riot of influences. Messiness is the byproduct/side effect. Like "Sound of Silver," "Rise Above" managed to tell me a lot about historical precedent, and about where indie is going next - and to sound great doing it - and in the end, those were reasons enough to put the thing at the top of the chart.