- Steve Lehman Trio: Dialect Flourecent (Pi Recordings)
- Todd Snider: Agnostic Hymns & Stoner Fables (Aimless)
- Loudon Wainwright III: Older Than My Old Man Now (2nd Story Sound)
- Grass Roots: Grass Roots (AUM Fidelity)
- Vijay Iyer Trio: Accelerando (ACT)
- Mountain Goats: Transcendental Youth (Merge)
- Ben Allison, Michael Blake & Rudy Royston: Union Square (Abeat Records)
- Mike Reed People, Places & Things: Clean On the Corner (482 Music)
- Tom Zé: Tropicália Lixo Lógico (Passarinho/Natura)
- Miguel: Kaleidoscope Dream (RCA)
- Carolyn Mark: The Queen of Vancouver Island (Mint)
- Charles Gayle Trio: Streets (Northern Spy Records)
- Saint Etienne: Words and Music by Saint Etienne (Heavenly)
- Allo Darlin': Europe (Rough Trade)
- Devin Gray, Dave Ballou, Ellery Eskelin & Maichael Formanek: Dirigo Rataplan (Skirl)
- Leonard Cohen: Old Ideas (Columbia)
- William Parker Orchestra with special guest Kidd Jordan: Essence of Ellington (Centering)
- Serengeti: C.A.R (Anticon)
- Cloud Nothings: Attack on Memory (Carpark Records)
- Ab-Soul: Control System (ToP Dawg Entertainment)
- Frank Ocean: channel Orange (Def Jam)
- Jens Lekman: I Know What Love Isn't (Secretly Canadian)
- Kendrick Lamar: Good Kid: M.A.A.D. City (Aftermath)
- De La Soul's Plug 1 & Plug 2: Present... First Serve (Duck Down Music)
- Jasmine Lovell-Smith's Towering Poppies: Fortune Songs (Paintbox Records)
- FLY: Year of the Snake (ECM)
- Rich Halley 4: Back From Beyond (Pine Eagle Records)
- Henry Threadgill Zooid: Tomorrow Snny/The Revelry, Spp (Pi Recordings)
- Killer Mike: R.A.P. Music (Williams Street)
- Azealia Banks: 1991 EP (Interscope)
- The Coup: Sorry To Bother You (Anti-)
- Mary Halvorson Quintet: Bending Bridges (Firehouse 12)
- Elle Varner: Perfectly Imperfect (RCA)
- Disappears: Pre-Language (Kranky)
- Jason Robinson: Tiresian Symmetry (Cuniform)
- THEESatisfaction: awE naturalE (Sub Pop)
- Burial: Kindred EP (Hyperdub)
- Future: Pluto 3D (Epic)
- Japandroids: Celebration Rock (Polyvinyl Records Co.)
- Low Cut Connie: Call Me Sylvia (self-released)
- Big K.R.I.T.: 4eva N A Day (mixtape)
- Divine Fits: A Thing Called Divine Fits (Merge)
- Corin Tucker Band: Kill My Blues (Kill Rock Stars)
- Darius Jones Quartet: Book of Mæ'Bul (AUM Fidelity)
- Dwight Yoakam: 3 Pears (Warner Bros.)
- Max Johnson: Quartet (Not Two)
- Jim Black Trio: Somatic (Winter & Winter)
- Donald Fagen: Sunken Condos (Reprise)
- Eric Revis: Parallax (Clean Feed)
- Eivind Opsvik: Overseas IV (Loyal Label)
- Spoek Mathambo: Father Creeper (Sub Pop)
- Iris Dement: Sing the Delta (Redeye)
- The Thing & Barry Guy: Metal! (NoBussiness)
- Bhi Bhiman: BHIMAN (Redeye)
- METZ: METZ (Sub Pop)
- 1982 + BJ Cole: 1982 + BJ Cole (Hubro)
- Tommy Womack: Now What! (Cedar Creek)
- Retisonic: Robots Fucking (Arctic Rodeo Records)
- Bruce Springsteen: Wrecking Ball (Columbia)
- Titus Andronicus: Local Business (XL Recordings)
- Sweden: Under the Sycamore Tree (Vestkyst Records)
- Resonance Ensemble: What Country Is This (Not Two)
- Big K.R.I.T.: Live From the Undergroud (Def Jam)
- David Virelles: Continuum (Pi Recordings)
- Dirty Projectros: Swing Lo Magellan (Domino)
- Bob Dylan: Tempest (Columbia)
- Metric: Synthetica (Metric Music International)
- Heems: Nehru Jackets (Greedhead)
- Neneh Cherry & The Thing: The Cherry Thing (Smalltown Supersound)
- Clinic: Free Reign (Domino)
- Sleigh Bells: Reign of Terror (Mom & Pop)
- Lee Ranaldo: Between the Times & the Tides (Matador)
- Elliott Sharp: Aggregat (Clean Feed)
Songs/Singles:
- Todd Snider: "New York Banker" (Aimless)
- Kacey Musgraves: "Merry Go 'Round" (Mercury)
- Miguel: "Adorn" (RCA)
- Usher: "Climax" (RCA)
- Carly Rae Jepsen: "Call Me Maybe" (Interscope)
- Kay B, Geeneus & Jessie Ware: "Aaliyah" (mixtape)
- Chlöe Howl: "No Strings" (Columbia)
- Haim: "Don't Save Me" ()
- The So So Glos: "Son of an American" (self released)
- Frank Ocean: "Pyramids"(Def Jam)
- Japandroids: "The House That Heaven Built" (Polyvinyl Records Co.)
- Pussy Riot: "Putin Lights up the Fires" (self released)
- Solange: "Losing You" (Terrible Records)
- Cloud Nothings: "Fall In" (Carpark Records)
- Kylie Minogue: "Timebomb" (Parlophone)
- Tommy Womack: "Guilty Snake Blues" (Cedar Creek)
- Jessie Ware: "Wildest Moments" (PMR/Island)
- Retisonic: "Wait... Lookout!" (Arctic Rodeo Records)
- BJ the Chicago Kid feat. Kendrik Lamar: "His Pain" (M.A.F.E. Music)
- Allo Darlin': "Europe" (Rough Trade)
- Bob Mould: "The Descent" (Merge)
- T.I.: "Sorry" ft. Andre 3000 (Atlantic / Grand Hustle)
- Magnetic Fields: "Andrew In Drag" (Merge)
- Nelly Furtado: "Parking Lot" (Interscope)
Note: While some of the tracks here appear on albums I do like (see the album list), truly great records usually have so many strong tracks that singling out one and adding it to this list seems redundant, if not also difficult.
Reissues/vault:
- feedtime: The Aberrant Years (Sub Pop)
- Charles Mingus: The Workshop Concerts 1984-1965 (Mosaic)
- Wilbur Ware: Super Bass (Wilbur Ware Institute/CD Baby)
- William Parker: Centering: Unreleased Early Recordings (NoBusiness)
- Archers of Loaf: Vee Vee (2CD, Merge)
- Jimmy Lyons & Sunny Murray Trio: Jump Up (Hat Ology)
