I don’t listen to enough new music to be able to declare the “ten best” or anything like that, but I love making year-end lists anyway. Here are my favorite albums of the year, in no particular order:

• The Felice Brothers – Yonder is the Clock
• Neko Case  – Middle Cyclone 
• The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s – It’s Blitz
• Regina Spektor – Far
• Wilco – Wilco (The Album)
• The Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
• Florence and the Machine – Lungs
• Tegan and Sara – Sainthood
• Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

No rap albums really spoke to me this year, although Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx pt 2 is still on my “to listen” list.

Here’s my favorite “orphaned singles” – songs I loved on albums I didn’t love:

• The Decemberists, “The Rake’s Song” and “The Wanting Comes in Waves / Repaid”
• Animal Collective, “In the Flowers”
• Steve Earle, “Lungs”
• Muse, “Uprising”
• That one song on the Apple commercial where all the people are dancing in front of the iPod video cameras in different colors.

And finally, my favorite comedy albums of the year:

• Maria Bamford – Unwanted Thoughts Syndrome  (I can’t recommend this enough)
• Patton Oswalt – My Weakness is Strong
• Eugene Mirman – God is a Twelve Year Old Boy