Notes

The Loves of Your Life - Hamilton Leithauser
Hamilton furthers his reveling in domestic life with an offering of dreams and impressionistic stories, some of the best songs he's ever written and seemingly done so with an absolute ease. The instrumentation is excellent, able to meld his odd angular Walkmen-riffs that he can't let go of with a mature sound. Great singles, great rock album. BEST TRACK: Isabella
Gold Record - Bill Callahan
Bill Callahan returns to the deep well of last year's Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest and comes back with a more focused and playful view of his life beyond the myth of his Smog persona. A vision of domestic nirvana free of artistic burden, he has continued his work in carving out his own genre of disparate folk with sensible instrumentation that embellishes his lyrical ideas. BEST TRACK: Pigeons

Have We Met - Destroyer
A heel-turn for Dan Bejar into Pet Shop Boys/New Order style dark electronic pop that feels like a natural conclusion of his career, though I haven't examined his last few records. A typical Destroyer message, a realist's picture of social relations and media commentary, but laid over hard synth pop. BEST TRACK: The Raven
Fetch The Bolt Cutters - Fiona Apple
Fiona at her most free, unshackled, realizing her potential as a life-raft to others. Brave and venomous, career re-defining. The natural acoustic woody Tom Waits-style instrumentation allows it to veer from intimate to raucous while never being heavy. An iconic, zeitgeist album. BEST TRACK: Fetch The Bolt Cutters
Man Alive! - King Krule
Archy digs himself out of The Ooz and has a revelation about life and love, entering into a new era as a changed man. Moves further into minimalizing his sound and transcends the concepts of his previous albums. BEST TRACK: Underclass
Homegrown - Neil Young
An unreleased lost gem recorded in 1975, Neil fills in the gap after On The Beach with a loosely-connected offering of tracks, showing his influence (and range) over the last 40 years. Lost classics that easily could have shaped the world along with the rest of his output of the era. BEST TRACK: White Line
Don't Shy Away - Loma
An underrated gem, exploring the sounds of Talk Talk's later period and Brian Eno, modernizing the sound to a certain extent with addition of heavy bass synths and one of the best vocalists in any band. Woodwinds, brass, lush pads, works the range from built-up orchestral madness to guided meditations. Insanely listenable. BEST SONG: Ocotillo
Mordechai - Khruangbin
Amazingly tight guitar/rhythm work and a vast showcase of world music influences. Dreamy goodness. Contains the best funk song of the last ten years, Time. BEST TRACK: If There is No Question
Ultra Mono - IDLES
Very well-produced and unique sounding, single-handedly revitalizing a dead genre with a new message for the generation. BEST SONG: GROUNDS
Fear of Death - Tim Heidecker
Tim Heidecker finally fleshes out his Randy Newman-schtick to great results, a more mature exploration of his themes and the band honestly makes it, great contributions from the D'addario sons from Lemon Twigs, and Weyes Blood lends her voice to a few tracks. All of it works a lot better than it has any right to. BEST TRACK: Property

Fake It Flowers - Beabadoobee
Mid-90s twee-pop returns. Great choruses, great guitars. Recommend.
Rough and Rowdy Ways - Bob Dylan
A Dylan comeback if I've ever seen it, though he never really stopped. A return to form.
Sound Wave for the Relaxed and Dying - Zack Mexico
Stoner North Carolina rockers blow up and expand their prog-psych tendencies, big recommend.