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This is one of my favorite albums of the year.

My top ten: 1. Are We There - Sharon Van Etten 2. Home, Like Noplace Is There - The Hotelier 3. St. Vincent - St. Vincent 4. You're Gonna Miss It All - Modern Baseball 5. Salad Days - Mac Demarco 6. At Best Cuckold - Avi Buffalo 7. Mended With Gold - The Rural Alberta Advantage 8. Say Yes To Love - Perfect Pussy 9. FKA twigs - LP1 10. Mosaics Within Mosaics - Circulatory System (+5 more) 11. Tied To A Star - J Mascis 12. Motivational Jumpsuit - Guided By Voices 13. Native State - Jess Williamson 14. Upside Down Mountain - Conor Oberst 15. Make My Head Sing... - Jessica Lea Mayfield

Mac Demarco is probably the artist I'm most excited about these days.

My favorites, for what it's worth... (I had to extend to 20 because there's been that much good stuff this year) 1. Okkervil River – The Silver Gymnasium 2. The National – Trouble Will Find Me 3. Kanye West – Yeezus 4. Phosphorescent – Muchacho 5. Kurt Vile – Wakin On A Pretty Daze 6. Moonface – Julia With Blue Jeans On 7. Washed Out – Paracosm 8. CHVRCHES – The Bones Of What You Believe 9. Superchunk – I Hate Music 10. Yo La Tengo – Fade 11. Local Natives – Hummingbird 12. Eleanor Friedberger – Personal Record 13. Sigur Ros – Kveikur 14. Youth Lagoon – Wondrous Bughouse 15. Basia Bulat – Tall Tall Shadow 16. Mazzy Star – Seasons of Your Day 17. Haim – Days Are Gone 18. She & Him – Volume 3 19. Torres – Torres 20. Laura Marling – Once I was An Eagle

I really like it.

I can definitely see the Warwick Town influence. Such a good track from Bill Fay.

To me, Black Sheep Boy Appendix is not really a separate release, because they were packaged together in the vinyl release, and if we’re including that EP then we’d have to consider Sleep and Wake Up Songs, Overboard and Down, Golden Opportunities 1+2, Stairs Too Small To Use etc. Which I’d be okay with doing since I love the EPs (esp. Sleep and Wake Up Songs) but could get confusing. However, Okkervil River fan-boy quibbling aside, I differ with my order of the list of full-album releases, but then again, it’s like picking a favorite child. Here is my take on it: 1. Black Sheep Boy and Appendix – such a great album, it is similar to/up there with the NMH albums and other stylistically-similar great albums as far as I am concerned. 2. Down The River of Golden Dreams – likely their most emotionally powerful album, and I am a sucker for the organs that pervade these tracks. 3. Don’t Fall In Love With Everyone You See – this was the first album I heard by them, and has my favorite song (Kansas City) so I can’t justify putting it any lower. 4. The Stage Names – an absolute classic, but I have to be in the right mood to appreciate it. 5. The Silver Gymnasium – it’s a little early to make a definitive judgment, but I’ve been really into it every listen thus far. 6. The Stand Ins – despite having Lost Coastlines and On Tour With Zykos, there a few tracks I just wasn’t as into, but a good release from Okkervil River is still awesome. 7. I Am Very Far – I might be holding a bias because this came out right before I first saw them live, but there are some misses for me on this album, but again, still a goodalbum.

So many good Ohio bands.

I seriously do not get (and never got) all of the hype about LCD Soundsystem. It's halfway decent dance pop.

I'm really excited for the new album.

Mac Demarco puts on such a fun and entertaining live show.

Insert an "of" in front of the word "our".

So awesome.

This makes me love Sufjan even more. Caring deeply and earnestly about the little, inconsequential things is a corrective to the neglect our culture to approach anything with serious enthusiasm.

Weird. I was just revisiting Mazzy Star's catalog this morning. This new tune is so good. I can't wait to hear more new tunes from them.

I think, "Go all Atlas Shrugged on our ass" is the perfect way to describe what's going on with some artists. Spotify as a component part of a music "business model" works very well as a method for consumer sampling. It's always been tough for indie artists to make money (which sucks, but is largely unavoidable), so I think everyone blaming streaming services as the new cause of the purported decline of the music industry is sort of disingenuous.

I can't stand U2.

This album (so far) reminds me a lot of Orion Town by Frontier Ruckus. I'm really excited that they are writing songs that are more personal/nostalgic. If this instrumental and It Was My Season are any indication, I would say that this could easily become my favorite Okkervil River album.

Such a good song. I can't wait for the album to drop. It kind of feels like a return to the Down The River of Golden Dreams sound, but it sounds more refined and dramatic.

NYC-25 is probably my favorite OTC tune. It is so powerful.