10. Captain Murphy, Duality (Mixtape)

First off: Until The Quiet Comes is a superb album. But the alter-ego of Flying Lotus (Steven Ellison, holder of the most honest Twitter account by an electronic musician) goes one further, channeling Dilla and the Stones Throw label for one of the trippiest cult leader psych rock hip hop experiments of the year.

09. Cloud Nothings, Attack On Memory

Cleveland’s own takes a daring 180 from his previous introspective twee emo-pop. Launching into the best Nirvana/Fugazi clone since the real thing in the 90s, he shreds guitars and vocal chords over grinding hooks. That this blast of anger and vitriol came from a 20 year old gives me hope for our nation’s youth.

08. Torche, Harmonicraft

Don’t let that cover art fool ya: The third album from the stoner metal band is a welcome expansion upon their excellent first album, Meanderthal. Mixed by Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou, Harmonicraft might be hooky but it’s also heavy as shit.

07. Action Bronson, Rare Chandeliers (Mixtape)

Bronson is on a crazy underground run since Dr. Lecter dropped last year. First Blue Chips with Party Supplies showed a loose raw fun vibe. And now Rare Chandeliers expands on the same food/weed/women philosophy that has served him so well. Best album art of the year, featuring an animated GIF cover straight out of a 70′s exploitation flick.

06. Joey Bada$$, 1999 (Mixtape)

The tightest 90s reunion record comes from a dude who wasn’t even alive when Tribe and Wu were in peak form. Mature flows and styles that harken back without feeling like they bite from the masters.

05. Killer Mike, R.A.P. Music

Years of super-tough Pledge Allegiance mixtapes led to a collabo with a super-ornery super-producer. The result was one of the most raw albums of the year, with El-P twisting his trademark robo-futuristic style into more of a soulful anger to match the preacher-intensity and conspiracy-spitting rhymes of Killer Mike. Standout cut “Reagan” connected dots to debunk decades of right-wing hero worship.

04. Aesop Rock, Skelethon

Ace Rock finally gets the production he’s been missing since parting ways with the defunct Def Jux label and it makes for his best album in years. Insane breath control, complex flows, and poetically obtuse lyrics add layers to songs about toddlers rescued by dogs, favorite donut shops, the making of a hiphop star, and the motives behind the ZOSO scratched on your middle school desk.

03. Father John Misty, Fear Fun

Jumping off his gig as touring drummer for Fleet Foxes, newly renamed Father John went into the desert and shotgunned a giant pile of mushrooms. The result is Fear Fun, which starts off with a Foxy folky sound before veering off into disco, psych rock, 70′s AM radio and Eagles territory. Its weird and strangely subversive underneath its poppy sheen.

02. Grimes, Visions

My two-year-old son literally requests this album by name when we’re in the car. Any music that can hook a toddler has to be pretty damn catchy. But seriously, there was nothing that sounded quite as pure, hummable, free and freaky listenable as Grimes this year. The high-pitch, mumbling free association and Aphex Twin-versus-Burial style had a vibe unlike any other record to capture our consciousness in 2012.

01. El-P, Cancer4Cure

Twenty years into his career, lines like “You should pump this shit like they do in the future” finally sound like they make sense in The Right Now. The world is recognizing the lyrical and production prowess first made underground-famous on Company Flow’s Funcrusher Plus, but that certainly doesn’t take the edge off El Producto’s sarcasm, anger, paranoia or mile-wide mean streak. Purposefully dense, nihilistic and scattershot in its accusations, C4C is one of the more challenging and polarizing albums of the year, but also the most rewarding for those who can navigate its labryinth of sound. Guest spots are home runs, and the few lyrical stumbles are overshadowed by top-notch beats and a mid-album run that most rappers would use as album lead-off singles. That he built this album at the same time as Killer Mike’s makes the feat all the more impressive.

Action Bronson & Party Supplies, Blue Chips

Baroness, Yellow & Green

Pig Destroyer, Book Burner

Converge, All We Love We Leave Behind

Chairlift, Something

Bison BC, Lovelessness

Santigold, Master Of My Make-Believe

The Shins, Port of Morrow

The Coup, Sorry To Bother You

Death Grips, No Love Web Deep (Mixtape)

Django Django, Self-Titled

Apollo Brown & OC, Trophies

Beach House, Bloom

Chromatics, Kill For Love

Fiona Apple, The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than The Driver Of The Screw & Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do

Flying Lotus, Until The Quiet Comes

Guilty Simpson & Apollo Brown, Dice Game

Kendrick Lamar, good kid m.a.a.a.d city

Logic, Young Sinatra: Undeniable

Lone, Galaxy Garden

The Men, Open Your Heart

Metz, Self-Titled

The Menzingers, On The Impossible Past

Neurosis, Honor Found In Decay

Showbiz & AG, Mug Shot Music: Preloaded

The Swans, Seer

10. Curren$y, Covert Coup (Mixtape)

Weed rap with some great lines delivered in a laid-back lazy flow over nice beats via The Alchemist, with few missteps to kill the mood in a short album. Better than Jet Life or Weekend at Burnie’s for consistency, and just edging out Verde Terrace because DJ Drama’s not shouting all over every beat.

09. Cults, Cults

Woozy psychadelic melodies and dreamy female vocals weaved into hummable spaced-out fuzz rock.

08. The Antlers, Burst Apart

Medatative, soaring arrangments are made all the more spectacular when built up from spare, electronic foundations and genuine songcraft.

07. Hooray For Earth, True Loves

Synthy hook-rich electroharmonies with a lot of great moments and fantastical, arena-filling sound.

06. Red Fang, Murder The Mountains

Sludgy, down-tuned blue-collar workmanlike metal in the tradition of Kyuss, Melvins, Baroness, and Sabbath.

05. Get Busy Committee, Opening Ceremony (Mixtape)

Jay-Z’s in-house DJ mixes a preview for the only LA drug rap outfit with political prisoner party anthems (“Kim Jong Illin’/Stealin all the women/Throwin em in prison”), and some of the best production you’ve never heard.

04. Shabazz Palaces, Black Up

Tangential stream-of-consciousness lyrics over live soul and electronic rhythms made for one of the most interesting listens of the year, hip-hop or otherwise.

03. The Weeknd, House Of Balloons

Finally someone did something interesting with R&B. Air-sucking, tense piano lines reminiscent of Massive Attack and a haunting falsetto tell stories of damaged post-party guilt and shame. Followed by the similarly interesting “Thursday” and “Echoes Of Silence” mixtapes.

02. Iceage, New Brigade

Most promising new punk outfit comprised of three youngsters out of Denmark. The album has a dark, moody, don’t-give-a-fuck attitude and appropriately ADD-shortened running time that immediately stands out in a crowd of punk-by-numbers mediocrity.

01. Death Grips, Exmilitary

By far the most intense album of the year, Death Grips practically caught the sound of post-traumatic stress on tape. The beats and textures perfectly set the mood for the lyrics about mental illness, crooked cops, and guillotines. Shock rappers of the moment only wish they sounded this scary and anarchist.

Wire, Red Barked Tree

Mastodon, The Hunter

Alela Diane and the Wild Divine, Alela Diane

The Horrors, Skying

The Kills, Blood Pressures

Bad Meets Evil, Hell (The Sequel)

Curren$y, Verde Terrace (Mixtape)

Curren$y, Weekend at Burnie’s (Mixtape)

Lupe Fiasco, Friend of the People: I Fight Evil (Mixtape)