Discussion: The Year's Best Music (So Far)

Rubber

• Artist: Yuck
• Album: Yuck

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Best New Artist: We've talked a lot about the garage-rock revival of recent years, and this is a band from London, a bunch of kids who do the garage-rock thing, but also have this wonderful drone to their music that I can listen to for hours. I just like how sloppy, messy and loud it is. --Robin Hilton

House of Balloons / Glass Table Girls

• Artist: The Weeknd
• Album: House of Balloons

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Best New Artist: [This record] reminds me of an R&B version of one of my favorite records of all time, from the '90s, Afghan Whigs' Gentlemen. There's an interesting thing happening in hip-hop and R&B right now on the down-low, grassroots Internet level where it's very dark. Often transgressive. And this record is really about the consequences of bad sex, bad drugs, bad partying, which is kind of what the Afghan Whigs were all about, too. --Ann Powers

You can download this album at The Weeknd's website.

The Wilhelm Scream

• Artist: James Blake
• Album: James Blake

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Best New Artist: We talk about young, we talk about dark, we talk about haunting music — James Blake, I've seen him in a small club with about 100 people doing this stuff, and it really works. It all feels like it's about to fall apart at any moment. --Bob Boilen

We Sing In Time

• Artist: The Lonely Forest
• Album: Arrows

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Best New Artist: Really fun band. It kind of reminds me a little bit of Jimmy Eat World, in that wonderful point in time when Jimmy Eat World was making incredibly melodic, wonderful, fun records. It taps into that same smart and super-catchy sound. --Stephen Thompson

Firewall

• Artist: Bright Eyes
• Album: The People's Key

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Biggest Surprise: It's an album full of great riffs, lots of wisdom. You hear a lot of growth in Conor Oberst as an artist. It's been a long time since I've connected with a record as completely as I have with this one. --Robin Hilton

Red Horse (Judges II)

• Artist: Colin Stetson
• Album: New History Warfare, Vol. 2: Judges

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Biggest Surprise: I think the thing when I listen to the record is the fact that A) It's all live; and B) there are no electronic effects, other than a series of 20 microphones in a room and his movement around the room. There are no overdubs on this record. --Bob Boilen

Flown

• Artist: Julianna Barwick
• Album: The Magic Place

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Biggest Surprise: Julianna Barwick makes these beautiful choral records where she loops the sound of her own voice and creates a little bit of a religious experience. Just a cathedral of sound. It's very mind-opening. --Stephen Thompson

Coney Island Winter

• Artist: Garland Jeffreys
• Album: King of In Between

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Biggest Surprise: This guy, 67 years old, was picked by Rolling Stone magazine as the best new artist in 1977. This record is as good a classic roots rock record as you're going to hear from anybody this year. And I don't care if Bruce Springsteen puts out a record this year; I'm standing by my statement. --Ann Powers

You can learn more about this release at Garland Jeffreys' website.

Bloom

• Artist: Radiohead
• Album: The King Of Limbs

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Best Album (So Far): Nobody makes records like Radiohead. [King of Limbs] is a true work of art. I think it's their best [album] since Kid A. Everything in Radiohead's world is off. They're never right in the center with anything. And it's so wildly experimental, but always accessible, tasteful and never contrived. --Robin Hilton

Bizness

• Artist: tUnE-yArDs
• Album: w h o k i l l

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Best Album (So Far): [Merrill Garbus] is political. She's blending African influences with funk and dub and hip-hop and indie rock, and she's saying a lot in these songs, even when you might not be able to catch the meaning right away. Mostly it's just joy. But it's the whole world in an exploding container. --Ann Powers

Civilian

• Artist: Wye Oak
• Album: Civilian

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Best Album (So Far): This record is about the pursuit of fitting into your own skin — the pursuit of normalcy in a way that the band equates with comfort. It's the pursuit of just being a person. --Stephen Thompson

Country Clutter

• Artist: Dolorean
• Album: The Unfazed

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Best Song (So Far): This is one of my favorite kiss-off/breakup songs that I've heard in a long, long time. There's a quiet defiance to this song that I love. It's the slowest-moving anthem of bummerocity. --Stephen Thompson

Someone Like You

• Artist: Adele
• Album: 21

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Best Song (So Far): There's one story in pop music this year that doesn't start with a "G" and have another "G" and end with an "A," and that story is Adele. This is a career-making record. I think we have a singer for the ages in her. --Ann Powers

Helplessness Blues

• Artist: Fleet Foxes
• Album: Helplessness Blues

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Best Song (So Far): My 20s were just one long existential crisis, and this song is all about coming to the understanding that your life doesn't have to be remarkable to be fulfilling. You don't have to build a rocket ship and fly it to the moon or invent a cure for cancer to have a meaningful, important life. This song should be required listening for all twentysomethings who may be dealing with these same issues and questions. --Robin Hilton

Abducted

• Artist: Cults
• Album: Cults

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Best Song (So Far): This is creepy and beautiful. Cults have a passion for people like Jim Jones and Charles Manson, and many of the creeps of our culture, the scariest people of our culture who often say beautiful things. These are very happy, shiny tunes, but just listen to what they're about. --Bob Boilen