I may expand on this later (and add anything I forgot), but for now…a simple list of the stuff that turned me on this year. As always, every year is a great year for music if you know where to look. My tentative Top Ten are highlighted in yellow.
Blitzen Trapper: Furr
The Fireman (Paul McCartney & Youth): Electric Arguments
Fucked Up: The Chemistry of Common Life
Bound Stems: The Family Afloat
Belle & Sebastian: BBC Sessions (two-disc version)
Ben Folds: Way to Normal
Brent Cash: How Will I Know If I’m Awake
Deerhunter: Microcastle
Drive By Truckers: Brighter Than Creation’s Dark
Cut Copy: In Ghost Colours
Duffy: Rockferry
Duke Spirit: Neptune
The Gaslight Anthem: The ’59 Sound
Glen Campbell: Meet Glen Campbell
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan: Sunday at Devil Dirt
James: Hey Ma
Jim Guthrie: Now, More Than Ever
Lindsey Buckingham: Gift of Screws
Little Joy: Little Joy
The Lodger: Life Is Sweet
Los Campesinos!: We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
Plants and Animals: Parc Avenue
Primary 5 – High Five
Quiet Village: Silent Movie
She & Him: Volume One
TV On Radio: Dear Science
Paul Westerberg: 49:00
Lucksmiths: First Frost
Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago
You?
B. Clay Moore 
It’s an easy list when you can put as many on there as you want. If you had to boil it down to just 10 albums, in order from best on down, what would the list look like?
Oh, oops, I missed the part where you said you already have your (tentative) top 10 highlighted. I beg your pardon.
Why limit a list to ten if there were more than ten things you dug? Free your mind, Mar.
It’s a fair question for Clay to ask, I think.
Gonna take a while for me to answer, though.
You are clearly far more attentive to new music than I’ve been in recent years. What’s your strategy on “knowing where to look”?
I’m going to have to agree full on with three on the list:
Duke Spirit is just all kinds of rulz
She & Him is alotta awesome
And I haven’t heard much from the Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan disc, but I like what I have heard
I rely on a few review sites, notably allmusic.com and pitchfork (which is full of snark, and often useless), and try to keep an eye on new releases.
Off the top of my head: New Cold War Kids, Conor Oberst, NIN’s ‘the Slip’ and Radiohead’s ‘In Rainbows’ was technically released in 2008 in the U.S., so I’ll take them, too.
Have you listened to School of Seven Bells – Alpinisms? I think that may be my favorite of the year.
Yeah, I have, actually. It’s really tasty. I discovered it pretty late in the year.