Well, it’s finally the end of the year, and time to post my favorites of the year. However, be advised that my listening has been a little limited, as you’ll see in the list of albums I’ve neglected in writing this. However, I’ll get around to listening to those, which makes this current list rather provisional.

Albums of the Year (Ranked Highest to Lowest)

1. James Blake by James Blake - I’m actually really surprised that this was my favorite album this year. Had you told me that even a month ago, I would have disagreed with you. However, no album this year has had a sound that stuck with me so much as this one. I love how the silences on this album are just as important as the note. The words that can’t be said seem to live in the silent moments. This minimal sound is haunting, and won’t leave my head. James Blake has created a masterpiece in this album, and his other EPs, especially Enough Thunder, are great, as well.

Standout Tracks - Lindisfarne I & II, Limit to Your Love, I Never Learnt to Share

2. Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming by M83 - Strangely enough, my second favorite album is at the opposite end of the spectrum sonically from James Blake. This album is capital-b Big. 70ish minutes, full of crescendos, and shimmery, it sounds like the soundtrack to an 80s prom on that planet of diamonds they discovered this year. I unabashedly love this kind of stuff, verging on cheesy as it does, and I always rock out to the song “Steve McQueen.” This one came very close to being number 1.

Standout Tracks - Intro, Midnight City, Steve McQueen

3. Take Care by Drake - This came out on the same day as another hip-hop album I was looking forward to, Childish Gambino’s Camp. I like Gambino, but Drake’s album blew his album out of the water. With contributions from The Weeknd, Jamie XX, Rihanna, and pretty much everyone else, Drake has made an album that takes the spare soundscapes of artists like the XX and applies them to hip-hop. The result is wonderful. I could get lost in songs like “Take Care” and “Marvin’s Room,” which are both exquisitely sad meditations on the problems of love in a world of empty fame. Granted, we could question the authenticity of such emotions coming from someone with large amounts of money, but it doesn’t make the album itself any less affecting. I’m so glad Kanye made MBDTF, because it paved the way for albums like this.

Standout Tracks - Take Care, Lord Knows, Marvins Room, Crew Love

4. Past Life Martyred Saints by EMA - On one level, this album could have been the worst kind of emo music; it’s full of references to cutting, drug abuse, and the like. However, Erika Marie Anderson’s voice is an instrument that lends authenticity to all of these emotions. On my favorite song on the album, “Marked,” her voice mutates from a whisper to a halting rasp to a sort of song in a way that I’ve never heard. Her lyrics are poetry, full of arresting images like clear glass arms, blue scars, etc. Have I mentioned how emotional this album is? I really cannot stress that enough; there’s an anger and sadness in it that I buy more than in any album I’ve heard this year.

Standout Tracks - Marked, California, The Grey Ship

5. Let England Shake by PJ Harvey - It’s funny to me how an album that mostly references trench warfare from World War I can act as a sort of protest album against Western imperialism today, but this one does. Harvey crafts a nightmare world of war and destruction, where soldiers are lumps of meat and deformed children grow out of the earth. Her voice is ethereal, and it sounds like the voice of a ghost warning those who are living to renounce violence and oppression. On top of the political messages, though, it’s just plain good songwriting and instrumentation.

Standout Tracks - On Battleship Hill, Let England Shake, The Last Living Rose

6. House of Balloons/Echoes of Silence - The Weeknd’s songs read like a photo negative of most hip-hop songs about debauchery. Whereas most songs glorify sex, drugs, and booze, these songs are just plain scary. Abel Tesfaye’s persona is that of a predatory, self-loathing womanizer who throws nightmare parties that involve the seduction of women he views as disposable. It’s a dark picture, but the production is so good that you can’t stop listening. He seems to share a lot of the same concerns as Drake, and I’m glad they’re working together. (P.S. Echoes of Silence just came out a couple of days ago, but I already like it as much as House of Balloons)

Standout Tracks - High for This, Wicked Games, D.D. (A killer cover of Dirty Diana)

7. The Year of Hibernation by Youth Lagoon - I’ll admit, pretty much all of these songs follow a formula of starting out quiet, then building up to an emotional and sonic high accompanied by all sorts of synthesizers. But, it’s a formula that works for me. These songs feel like someone on the edge of adulthood sitting in his bedroom writing an elegy for being a teenager, and the result is beautiful. I just plain love it.

Standout Tracks - Cannons, Seventeen

8. Helplessness Blues by Fleet Foxes - It sure took them long enough, but the wait was mostly worth it. The opening bars of “Montezuma” set the tone for the album; it’s going to be about a man deciding what to do with his life now that he’s grown up. This struggle defines most of the songs, and it’s a relatable one. The instrumentation and harmonies are just as good as on their first album, and the album stays pretty solid from beginning to end. “Grown Ocean” is a near-perfect album closer. Basically, I’m just happy that Fleet Foxes avoided sophomore slump with this one.

Standout Tracks - Montezuma, Grown Ocean, The Shrine/An Argument

9. Bon Iver by Bon Iver - I’ll admit, I tried to keep this out of my top ten because I felt like it was getting more praise than it deserved. It’s definitely not album of the year like so many people seem to think. In the end, though, I really did like this album. The soundscapes are pleasant and interesting, Justin Vernon’s voice is beautiful as always, and I love the coup that is “Beth/Rest,” an 80s ballad out of nowhere at the end.

Standout Tracks - Holocene, Beth/Rest

10. Wounded Rhymes by Lykke Li - When it comes down to it, this is a collection of sad-sack Swedish love ballads. And what’s not to love about that? Li has a haunting voice, and I can actually stomach it when she sings lines like, “Sadness is my boyfriend/sadness I’m your girl.” So, this cracks my top ten for now, but it’s probably in the most tenuous spot on the list.

Standout Tracks - Silent My Song, Sadness is a Blessing, Love Out of Lust

Honorable Mentions - I’ll post these without commentary, but many of them came very close to making the top ten.

Glossolalia - Spirit Spine

Strange Mercy - St. Vincent

Watch the Throne - Jay-Z/Kanye West

Burst Apart - The Antlers

Ceremonials - Florence and the Machine

4- Beyonce

Kaputt - Destroyer

Albums I’ve Missed - Some of these could completely wreck this list after I’ve actually listened to them, so take note of these blind spots.

Undun - The Roots

Father, Son, Holy Ghost - Girls

Days - Real Estate

Smoke Ring for My Halo - Kurt Vile

Nostalgia, Ultra - Frank Ocean

Wild Flag - Wild Flag

Within and Without - Washed Out

Underneath the Pine - Toro y Moi

Conatus - Zola Jesus

Whokill - tune-yards

Finally, come back later for my songs of the year. Those should be a lot of fun.