current favorites:
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion; Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix; the Pains of Being Pure at Heart - s/t; Andrew Bird - Noble Beast; Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It’s Blitz!

also very nice:
Loney Dear - Dear John; Handsome Furs - Face Control; the Thermals - Now We Can See; M. Ward -Hold Time

too soon to tell, but promising:
Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca; Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer; God Help the Girl - s/t

this has been a tough year for me, being as though there are dozens of albums that have been released (and a couple that haven't yet) that i absolutely love, and no less than twenty-five that could easily make my top-ten. here are a few of the ones off the top of my head:

grizzly bear- veckatimest
dirty projectors- bitte orca
(mf) doom- born like this
bill callahan- sometimes, i wish we were an eagle
crocodiles- summer of hate
j dilla- jay stay paid
ducktails- self-titled
gun outfit- dim light
sunset rubdown- dragonslayer
mika miko- we be xuxa
sonic youth- the eternal
kurt vile- god is speaking to you
eat skull- wild and inside
julie dorion- i can wonder what you did with your day
tiny vipers- life on earth
the builders and the butchers- salvation is a deep dark well

TOO MANY.

The ones that'll last:

The Thermals--Now We Can See--I just about freakout and start dancing on the way to work when several tracks from this album shuffle on through.

Phosphorescent--To Willie--A salve for the beginning of the end of my marriage earlier this year. "Permanently Lonely," "The Party's Over," damn. "What came first, the music or the misery?"

Big Business--Mind the Drift--I don't find this to be that sludgy and keep coming back to it. Hard without shrieking or grumbling.

Hanne Hukkleberg--Blood from a Stone--I liked her last album well enough but this one has several tracks I really like.

Hauschka--Snowflakes and Car Wrecks--Pretty and good for relaxing. Another enjoyable Hauschka release.

Loney Dear--Dear John--Good other than I kick myself for not going to see him open for Andrew Bird.

Hey, yeah, back from beyond.

Anyway:
Albums:
Dinosaur Jr.: Farm
Busdriver: Jhelli Beam
Franz Ferdinand: Tonight
Yeah Yeah Yeah: It's Blitz
Jarvis Cocker: Further Complications
Morrissey: Years of Refusal

Some songs I've listened to too much:
Lonely Island: 'I'm on a Boat'
Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse: 'Little Girl'
Jens Lekman/Tracey Thorn: 'Yeah Oh Yeah'
Chairlift: 'Bruises'
The KLF: 'Last Train to Transcentral' (yeah, its not 2009, whatever)
Horrors: '1Z0765750313495629

Albums I've very irritating have been released to the rest of the world but not this backwater country:

Patrick Wolf: The Bachelor

I don't think I have too many surprises in my list. Several have already been said, but what can I say- a good album is a good album.

Grizzly Bear- Vekatimest
Bat for Lashes- Two Suns
Passion Pit- Manners
Camera Obscura- My Maudlin Career
Hotels- Where Hearts Go Broke
Tea Cozies- Hot Probs
Animal Collective- Merriweather Post Pavilion

Albums I'm looking forward too that will probably also make this list in December (assuming all these bands get around to putting out their new albums by the end of the year):
Menomena
Yeasayer
Built to Spill
LCD Soundsystem

Brickey, Josh: You both menioned Loney, Dear. Where either of you at the Croc show a few months ago? The place seemed half full so I'm pleasantly surprised to see that album popping up on these lists. Anyways, it was a fantastic show and very intimate for the several hundred or so of us that were there.

John

No I didn't go to that show either (head hung). I was out of going to shows for awhile. Working on changing that this summer.

I wasn't at that Loney Dear Croc show either (was out of town, I think), but I saw them open for Andrew Bird at the Moore.

The Nightgowns "Sing Something" is INCREDIBLE and so is the latest White Rabbits release, "It's Frightening".

Also loving:

Art Brut/ Art Brut vs. Satan
John Vanderslice/ Romanian Names

oh man, that new thermals album is such a flaming piece of poo. So confused how it could be so liked. I mean the radio singles are decent but have you listened the the album as a whole?....what overproduced green-day-sounding crap. lyrically, its just hilarious. They really peaked with The Body the Blood The Machine...nothing else compares.

I would say that so far my favorite has been "PNW" by SEAHOUSE.

I really thought that "Bitte Orca" was going to be better. It really seemed to lack the charm and weird awesomeness of the previous DP recordings. I would suggest heading over to Daytrotter, and downloading the recordings there, particularly "Fucked For Life." its all live, and totally amazing.

Definetly check SEAHOUSE out though.

Tea Cozies-Hot probs.

bada bing!

I normally don't listen to Seattle "rock". A friend though gave me a disc that I find incredible to think isn't more popular. The music is hard to classify, which for me is a great thing as I don't skip tracks.

HISTORY for SALE - self titled EP
http://www.myspace.com/historyforsalemusic

Maybe not on my top 5 list, but they are very, very good.

PS....The Lonely Forest's new disc is good as mentioned. Their live show though is even better.

Imaginary Liz -- Have you heard Still Flyin's song "Aerosmith, Take Me to the Other Side"? I love it, quite summery, too...you can download it free from Amie Street.

http://amiestreet.com/music/still-flyin/never-gonna-touch-the-ground/

As for my fave albums so far:
Animal Collective
Franz Ferdinand
Jets Overhead
John Vanderslice

Like John in Ballard said, I'm very much looking forward to new albums from Menomena and LCD Soundsystem, too. :)

Rockscriber - you wouldn't happen to be *in* History for Sale, would you?

NO-FI?!?! whaaaaaa?!?!

thanks imaginary liz!!!

i made it just for you...

Somehow I just noticed that my previous post had my UPS tracking # for my copy of the State DVD instead of the name of the album. Now you all know that I received it.

Anyway, to rectify this, I would highly recommend the Horrors' Primary Colours. Sure, their debut mostly sucked, but this might be one of those Pablo Honey to The Bends transitions. It might also help that Geoff Barrow (of Portishead) and Chris Cunningham helped produce the album too.

So there.

My favorites this far are totally:

The Thermals - Now We Can See
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - S/T
Casper and the Cookies - Modern Silence

Locals:
Police Teeth - Real Size Monster Series
Connectict Four - Tiger Shark EP
Sandy City - Surfin WA tape
Telekinesis! - S/T

I'm seriously looking forward to:
The new BOAT LP
new Afternoon Naps

ChrisB- I thought the same thing about Rockscriber when I read that.

Heather- While we're both patiently waiting for the new Menomena album, Brent Knopf (Keys, guitar, vocals, guy on the left) has a solo album under the name Ramona Falls that comes out on August 19th. You can listen to a few songs on his myspace page. Worth listening to.

Nope.

On subject: New or waiting for discs to enjoy:

Tiny Vipers
Jeremy Enigk
Damien Jurado (2008 I know)
Isaac Marion's Moon Colony
www.myspace.com/isaacmarionmusic
Barcelona