2) The Go-Betweens, Oceans Apart

Australia’s Go-Betweens made a series of wonderful albums in the 1980s, melding punk, folk, pop, chamber music, you name it, into a beguiling sound that was unlike anything else at the time. They took a decade off to pursue solo projects before reuniting in 2000. This is their third album since reuniting, and it is easily the best, a luminous, literary, rollicking album full of great songs.

3) Sleater-Kinney, The Woods

Having long since established itself as indie rock’s best band of the past decade, this all-girl trio came out this year with its loudest, most noisy, and perhaps greatest album yet. Trading their trademark breakneck speed for a wall of sound that threatens to break apart at any moment, they wail and warble through the opener “The Fox,” before settling in for a ride that never lets up. Corin Tucker’s voice is a force of nature, and for some, an acquired taste, but it matches the band’s legendary intensity perfectly. Cacophonous, raw-boned, but tuneful. If you love rock and roll and found anything in punk rock to adore, you should give it a whirl.

4) Thelonious Monk Quartet With John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall

The story is as fantastic as the music. An engineer at the Library of Congress accidentally discovered this 1957 recording in an unmarked box earlier this year. The recording is stellar, and the performances are out of this world. Although Coltrane and Monk played together for only a few months before Coltrane struck out on his own, by the time of the Carnegie concert they had played numerous dates at the Five Spot and had developed a rapport that is obvious in this marvelous performance. For jazz fans, this is the equivalent to the discovery of a new Shakespeare play. Great, ageless music.

5) The Rolling Stones, Bigger Bang

Who can resist ranking any halfway decent Stones’ album in terms of where it falls in their catalog? Of course, many have written them off, and I’ve heard more than once that this is just the latest in a long string of duds stretching all the way back to Tattoo You. I don’t think so. Mick sounds more animated than he has in nearly 30 years, cancer survivor Charlie Watts reminds us why he is the greatest drummer in rock history, and Keith Richards digs out one growling, grungy guitar lick after another. It’s the Stones all right, and not just a sad parody, which means I can’t resist ranking it: No, it isn’t Let It Bleed or Aftermath or Exile on Main Street. But, damn right it’s their best since Some Girls.

6) Bob Mould, Body of Song

While I cherish all of my Husker Du and Sugar albums and regard Mould as one of the most important figures of the post-punk era, I have never much cared for his solo records — until now. I spent the summer trying to convince friends that Mould had not only returned to form, but had come up with one of the year’s best records. It’s almost as if his recent forays into electronica have been incorporated into a sound that recalls Sugar more than Husker Du. With Fugazi’s drummer and Sugar’s bassist in tow, this is more Bob as bandleader than Bob as genius experimenter, a much better context for him. Here’s hoping that this trio makes another album or two together before Bob inevitably loses interest and moves along to other “projects.”

7) Bruce Springsteen, Devils and Dirt

Springsteen has always been a bit too “mythic” for my taste, which is probably why I prefer the starkness and spare sound of Nebraska to the grandeur of Born to Run. Or maybe a bare landscape is just a better setting for his stories, showcasing narrative detail instead of sound. The sonic landscape here is surely spruced up some over Nebraska — nothing like a dobro and some inconspicuous orchestral arrangements to add color. But the stories still dominate, and the stories are good ones.

8) Neil Young, Prairie Wind

I don”t trust myself with Neil Young because I love him so much, but I played this record over and over for a month without getting tired of putting it on, which is more than I can say for Greendale, Silver and Gold, or anything else he’s cooked up since Harvest Moon. Admittedly, his ode to “This Old Guitar” strikes me as maudlin and out of tune, but most everything else here is as pleasing as anything on Comes a Time, regarded by many of the faithful as his finest acoustic showcase.

9) The Greencards, Weather and Water

My favorite bluegrass album of the year — by far — comes from two Australians and a Brit. While Nickel Creek ventured further into experimentation with their curious new album and moved another step or two away from the savory bluegrass ingredients that made them the tastiest dish at the fiddler convention just a few years ago, the Greencards burst upon the scene with an album that not only trumped Nickel Creek’s, but Alison Krauss’ latest as well. I cannot imagine why fans of either would not guzzle this down like a long drink of pure spring water. Keeping it real, and with pristine production as well. Close your eyes, and they’re pickin’ on your porch.

10) Engineers, Engineers

I’m usually wary when bands are described as “atmospheric” or “reminiscent of Pink Floyd” because it usually means they are devoid of both content and identity, but I tried this highly recommended album in spite of these too familiar accolades, and was soon carried away in its soaring sonic textures and gorgeous lyricism. Pressed for a description of my own, I’d say it’s more psychedelic and less full of itself than Roger Waters’ Floyd, and less eccentric and more polished than Syd Barrett’s Floyd. In other words, atmospheric and reminiscent of Pink Floyd. In a word, beautiful.

Honorable Mention:

11) Spoon, Gimme Fiction

12) M.I.A., Arular

13) The Clientele, Strange Geometry

14) Gary Allan, Tough All Over

15) Laura Cantrell, Humming By the Flowered Vine

16) Stephen Malkmus, Face the Truth

17) The Kills, No Wow

18) Blackalicious, The Craft

19) Keith Jarrett, Radiance

20) Bright Eyes, I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning

Christmas Turkeys:

Liz Phair, Somebody’s Miracle

My Morning Jacket, Z

Nickel Creek, Why Should the Fire Die?

- By Chris Cox