my albums:
franz ferdinand - (The 2nd one)
nightmare of you
go! team
bravery
maximo park
kaiser chiefs
alkaline trio

half a real good album: bloc party, editors, garbage, departure, hard-fi

songs not above:
rifles - peace and quiet..(think the jam without the politics)
party ben remix of mylo vs tegan & sara, walking with a ghost in paris

and bon jovi and rolling stones' albums are remarkably solid.

there's a few i'm missing, because i'm going off the top of my head, but that's a good start.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Okay, everyone likes this record, but only because it's so good.

Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary. This is the Arcade Fire of the year.

Sigur Ros - Takk. Am I the only person who is in love with this record? Not only is this the best thing I've heard this year, it is probably in my top 20 of all time. It's phenomenal.

Others to consider:
The Lucksmiths
...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
Harvey Danger
Nada Surf

Case in point, the song "Forver Lost" by the Magic Numbers is heavenly, but the album is pretty much piffle.

That being said, and the fact I'm getting old and out of touch - I did like Ryan Adams' releases (both of them) this year, especially the latter "Jacksonville City Nights".

Sleater / Kinney's "The Woods" was on my playlists for quite a while!

The Old 97's live disc was fun!

"Twin Cinema" by the New Pornographers grew on me. Neko Case really shines on it.

Ben Folds "Song For Silverman" was pretty good as well.

Son Volts "Okemah and the Melody of Riot" had its moments, as did the reconstituted Big Star.

Jack Johnson - "In Between Dreams"
Coldplay - "X & Y"
The Boy Least Likely To - "The Best Party Ever"
Kaiser Chiefs - "Employment"

I know a lot of people were really disappointed in Jack Johnson's latest album, but I love it. It's the perfect album for those lazy Sundays when I'm just laying in bed with my girlfriend. Love the mood of the whole thing.

I was surprised I liked Coldplay's album as much as I did, being as how I always thought they were good-but-not great. Kaiser Chiefs are my favorite new artist; there's a bit of the Jam in them.

The Boy Least Likely To was just some random recommendation that I ended up playing obsessively for a long time. If you're like me and are a massive Calvin & Hobbes fan, then "My Tiger, My Heart" is unintentionally the most heartbreaking song you'll ever hear.

I haven't listened to Wolf Parade, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Maximo Park, The Hold Steady, and a few others listed already to form a full opinion. I generally like what I've heard, but can't rank them yet.

Also, anyone have an opinion on Edan's "Beauty and the Beat"? Supposed to be excellent, but the only song I've heard is "Fumbling Over Words That Rhyme" (which I liked a lot).

And somewhat off-topic, but I just want to point out that I'm still mad at the guy who recommended Antony & the Johnsons to me. I loathed that album.

As for Scott's "pretentious" performance of the National Anthem at NASCAR, NASCAR hired him to be their spokesperson and asked him to sing the anthem. That song is hard to sing and he sang it Rock N Roll style. It was an improvement on the song!

Didnt know there were people with such ecclectic tastes on the toaster..

My fav's of the year in no particular order:
Deerhoof - The Runners Four
Animal Collective - Feels
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
Broadcast - Tender Buttons
Vitalic - OK Cowboy
New Order - Waiting for the Sirens Call
The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday

Not much hip hop or pop that I got excited about.. perhaps Im just forgetting.

Animal Collective's new disc is also very good. The Wolf Parade cd is also pretty good. I don't think any of these qualify as album of the year types, but I've liked the new stuff by Elbow and Stars. As a huge fan of Slapstick back in the day (and my teenage years) I dig anything by the Alkaline Trio.

Think the new Coldplay album is very mediocre. Most of the tracks sound like the b sides from their first two releases. Another huge dud was Weezer's new disc. What happened to you Rivers? Oh how I long for the days of Pinkerton.

I had a similar experience the first time I saw Green Day on their Dookie tour. They were actively hostile towards the crowd and not very good performers. However, I saw them later as the "undercard" to Blink 182, and it was a completely different experience. Green Day was excellent (much better than the headliner) and they did something that was one of the coolest things I've seen live: they took 3 people out of the audience to play one of their songs for about 5 minutes. It worked out well and was a lot of fun. I left the 2nd show with the feeling that the band had really matured-both as artists and people.

i heard about creed early on, when i was involved in music. i asked someone at the label (wind-up - which had just changed label names from its previous name) what they sounded like, and why i had heard of but not been told about this group. i was told that since i had been bitching about the inferior pearl jam knockoff groups, they figured i wouldn't like it.

they were dead right, and i thanked / commended them later...