These are the albums I've listened to this year. Sadly, I've not listened to music as much as I used to, because podcasts keep me calmer in the ridiculous DC traffic that I'm driving in constantly.

Anyway, here's what I'm listening to:

[Artist - Album - Comment]

Joanna Newsom - Have One on Me - easily my favorite album of the year, it's a challenging listen (due to the length of the album and depth of the music), but well worth it if you're in a music listening mood (warning: people seem to either love or hate Newsom's vocal style and music in general, I happen to fall into the "love it" camp)

Band of Horses - Infinite Arms - Band of Horses is one of my top three favorite currently playing groups. When I first heard this album I dismissed it as boring and lacking what made their first two albums great. Fortunately I've gone back to it, and while it's definitely different, it's such a relaxing listen that I'm a big fan of it now and have listened to it about a dozen times. If you've never heard Band of Horses before, please check out their first album, Everything All the Time and check out the song "Monsters." It's gorgeous. Seeing this group at the 9:30 club might be my favorite live show of all time.

Yeasayer - Odd Blood - I'm not into the whole album, particularly the first song, but it's some really catchy indie stuff.

Miike Snow - Miike Snow - This seems to be pretty popular at the moment. I'm especially fond of one of the lowest-key songs on the album, "Sans Soleil," which I actually Shazamed from an episode of Chuck. This is the first time I've gotten into a band because of Shazam!


I've always been an album guy, but lately I've started listening to singles, probably because my Zune Pass makes it easy to check anything out. Here are a few songs I'm listening to:

[Artist - Song - Album - Comment]

Fever Ray - When I Grow Up - Fever Ray - I like this song a lot. My wife cannot stand this group.

The Little Ones - There's a Pot A Brewin - Lovers Who Uncover - got into this one because of the Kick-Ass soundtrack

Wheat - These Are Things - Per Second, Per Second, Per Second...Every Second - Love their album titles, and this is the most recent group I've been listening to. My best bud is super excited about them because he may be doing a photo shoot for their next album release.