- Beach House – Thank Your Lucky Stars (Sub Pop)
- The School – Wasting Away and Wondering (Elefant)
- Shana Cleveland and the Sandcastles – Oh Man, Cover the Ground (Suicide Squeeze) [Reissue]
- Twin River – Should the Light Go Out (Light Organ)
- Lorna – London’s Leaving Me (Words on Music)
Muses with Heart-Stopping Voices
- Grouper – Ruins (Kranky)
- Chelsea Wolfe – Abyss (Sargent House)
- Jessica Pratt – On Your Own Love Again (Drag City)
- Meg Baird – Don’t Weigh Down the Light (Drag City)
- Julia Holter – Have You in My Wilderness (Domino)
- Joanna Newsom – Divers (Drag City) [of course.]
Kickass Female-Fronted Garage Rock
- La Luz – Weirdo Shrine (Hardly Art)
- Happy Fangs – Capricorn (S/R)
- Thee Tsunamis – Saturday Night Sweetheart (Magnetic South)
- Girlpool – Before the World Was Big (Wichita)
- Poison Girls – Hex (Water Wing) [Reissue]
Instant College Rock Classics
- Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell (Asthmatic Kitty)
- Low – Ones & Sixes (Sub Pop)
- Panda Bear – Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper (Sub Pop)
- Deerhunter – Fading Frontier (4AD)
- Thee Oh Sees – Mutilator Defeated at Last (Castle Face)
Psychedelic Heaviness
- Jacco Gardner – Hypnophobia (Polyvinyl)
- Sextile – A Thousand Hands (Feite)
- Los Crema Paraiso – De Pelicula! (S/R)
- Algiers – Algiers (Matador)
- Fuzz – II (In the Red)
Electronic and Synthesized Head-Spinners
- Apprentice Destroyer – Glass Ceiling Universe (Castle Face)
- Jaga Jazzist – Starfire (Ninja Tune)
- Holly Herndon – Platform (4AD)
- Bitchin’ Bajas – Automaginary (Drag City)
- Dan Deacon – Gliss Rifter (Domino)
Experimental/Cinematic/Apocalyptic
- The Necks – Vertigo (Northern Spy)
- Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld – Never Were the Way She Was (Constellation)
- Padna – Alku Toinen (Aagoo)
- Jerusalem in My Heart – The Hypocrite, If He Dies, If If If If If If (Constellation)
- Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Asunder, Sweet, and Other Distress (Constellation)
World Beats
- Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood & The Rajasthan Express – Junun (Nonesuch)
- Francis Babey – Psychedelic Sanza 1982-84 (Born Bad) [Reissue]
- Khaira Arby – Gossip (Clermont Music)
- Mbongwana Star – From Kinshasa (World Circuit)
- Red Baraat – Gaadi of Truth (Sinj)
Awesome Compilations from Around the World
- V/A – Everything Is Shit: Punk in Brussels 1977-79 (Sub Rosa)
- V/A – Native North America, Vol. 1: Aboriginal Folk, Rock, and Country 1966ñ1985 (Light in the Attic)
- V/A – Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll (Dust to Digital)
- V/A – DJ Snowboy Presents the Good Foot (BGP)
- V/A – Remembering Mountains: Unheard Songs by Karen Dalton (Tomkins)
