10. Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
I'll never read the book, but if the soundtrack's got Trent's name on it, count me in.

09. Radiohead - The King of Limbs
While I'd love for the band to break some new ground again, that doesn't mean TKOL is a bad album, as a lot of reviewers implied.

08. Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo
"Raindrops might fall on my head sometimes, but I don't pay 'em any mind. Then again, I guess it ain't always that way." My lyric of the year.

07. Opeth - Heritage
I start to cringe anytime a band starts referencing ‘70s prog rock when talking about a new album – hey, I love Atomic Rooster as much as the next guy, but it’s 2011 – but Mikael Akerfeldt proved that there are still some new ideas there. And no, I don’t miss the screaming.

06. Wire - Red Barked Tree
Wire will never make another Pink Flag. Once you can get past that, you may realize their recent output has been very high-quality.

05. Cynic - Carbon-Based Anatomy EP
Expect Cynic's next full-length to top a lot of year-end lists when it finally comes out.

04. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
I'll admit to having been a Noel Gallagher/Oasis skeptic for most of my life, but sometime this year it finally dawned on me: dude can write a song.

03. Gang of Four - Content
Their first proper studio album in 15 years, the reformed Gang of Four managed to produce their best album since 1981’s Solid Gold. As an added bonus, they were also by far the best live show I've seen all year.

02. The War on Drugs - Slave Ambient
This was an album I listened to once and then filed away, only to find myself still humming melodies from it weeks later. When I finally revisited it, it stuck with me more than almost any other record this year.

01. Pink Floyd – Animals (reissue)
Okay, so it's not my real No. 1, but the remastered version of this album sounds fantastic, and I probably spent more time listening to it than anything else this year. In fact, if every year-end list were based on what I had actually listened to the most over a year, Animals would probably be my No. 1 every year.

01. David Bazan – Strange Negotiations
David Bazan is easily one of the best lyricists going today, bar none. After setting the bar extremely high with 2009’s Curse Your Branches, Bazan once again delivers with a moody set of rock tunes that – while not bad in their own right – serve as the perfect vehicles for his words.