Okay, the best moments according to my inevitably limited exposure and my fairly narrow (read Indie Rock tossed with a bit of World and R&B) tastes.

This isn’t a Top anything list. It’s a mix for the year. The order is determined by what flows, not by ranking or chronology.

Enjoy!

1. “I’m Gonna Start” - The Netherfriends - Barry and Sherry
A hometown (Chicago) band that crafts gorgeous songs that narrate a late teen/early 20-something urban life that is both mundane and complex. This song never fails to set the mood.

2 & 3. “We Used to Wait”/”Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” - Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Arcade Fire’s relative popularity and unabashedly anthemic sound scares critics from liking them too much.  At least that’s my attempt to explain why The Suburbs isn’t at the very top of every year-end list. It is both the most rousing and the most literary of this year’s albums. To capture the literary aspect, you need to listen to the album from start to finish – the consistency of theme (a commentary on the personal and political consequences of the postmodern condition, growing up in an image-driven, hyperreal world), point-of-view (Arcade Fire apparently is getting older, but no one captures a kids’ perspective  — or the perspective of an adult looking back on being a kid — better, with the perfect combination of anxiety and wonder), and the musical and lyrical motifs that intertwine it all. For the mix, of course, I just picked the two most rousing pieces of the puzzle.

4 & 5. “Dance or Die” and “57821″ - Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid
I can’t say I get the whole album yet — the profound allegory of oppression and emancipation that my most trusted critics assure me is there. Until then, while I certainly appreciate the ambition and the sheer variety, some of the songs just don’t do it for me. Having said that, the songs I do like have a power and energy like nothing else — as well as some of the most pointed politics.  From “Dance or Die”:

Ghettos keep a crying out to streets full of zombies
Kids are killing kids and then the kids join the army
Rising and a waking, yes sir here comes the sun
March into the war and with the kick of the drum
The wiser simians have got the bombs and the guns
So you might as well keep dancing if you’re not gonna run

I include “57821″ because it’s a beautiful contrast in sound that shows Monae’s jaw-dropping range.

6 & 7. “White Sky”/”Cousins” - Vampire Weekend - Contra
I thought of making some hard-and-fast rules for this mix — like only one song per artist — but I clearly break them too easily. One rule I really wanted to keep was to exclude any artist that sold a song for purely commercial purposes. And if you’ve had a TV on the past month, you’ve heard Vampire Weekend doing it twice, as “Holiday” is shilling for both Tommy Hilfiger and Honda. On a related note, I’ve also tried to convince myself that I must be sick of the slick world-pop sound that Vampire Weekend puts out seemingly effortlessly. Yeah, I’m a weak, weak man (who also thinks the conventional wisdom that portrays Vampire Weekend as vapid and shallow preppies or purely ironic jokers misses a fairly consistent social and, yes, political engagement in their lyrics — which admittedly can be a bit obtuse).

8. “Dance Yrself Clean” - LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening
I saw LCD live this year at Pitchfork — and it was a transcendent experience. But I have a really tough time enjoying the songs out of a concert — or club (if I went to clubs) — context, even though I dig the musical (and intellectual) smarts of James Murphy. My one exception is a big one, though — as “Dance Yrself Clean” is a multi-leveled musical journey that liberates me from chains I didn’t know I had.

9. “Fembot” - Robyn - Body Talk, Pt. I
This is vintage Robyn — fun, feminist, and irresistible.

10. “Get Some” - Lykke Li - (single)
This is dark, with questionable gender politics … and irresistible.

11. “I Walked” - Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz
I’m going to spend the rest of my cultural life waiting for the sequel to Sufjan’s 2005 Illinois, which might be the most beautiful thing ever created.  So, yeah, it’s a bit hard for most of the stuff on the new EP and album to live up to expectations … other than this song, which pretty much recaptures all the magic.

12. “I’m a Pilot” - Fanfarlo - Reservoir
Technically, I think this was released at the end of 2009 — and the band’s been around for a few years — but SXSW this year seems to have been their real coming out. Anyway, I’m claiming it.  It’s an anthem that counter-intuitively invites you to kick back and chill … pretty cool.

13. “Swim Until You Can’t Meet Land” - Frightened Rabbit - The Winter of Mixed Drinks
They were a disappointment live — not because they didn’t bring the energy or because their Scottish anthemic folk-rock didn’t translate well — but because their fans were a bunch of drunk-ass jerks.  It’s a testimony to the escapist power of a song like “Swim” — that by the middle of it I’ve forgotten that experience and am drifting on the emotional extremes where most of their music exists.

14. “King of Spain” - The Tallest Man on Earth - Wild Hunt
This shouldn’t work. A Swedish Bob Dylan?  But watch his Take-Away Show at La Blogotheque and tell me you don’t just want to take him home. He also knows his way around a guitar and a melody.

15. “O.N.E.” - Yeasayer - Odd Blood
Yeasayer makes me feel the sheer joy of musical possibility — the blending of American Pop and a World rhythm and sensibility. “O.N.E.” is the best of a strong bunch.

16 & 17. “Tell ‘Em”/”Rill Rill” - Sleigh Bells - Treats
Okay, I’ve tried, but I can’t really listen to any other songs on this album, and there’s a good chance their sound will not endure. But I can’t stop listening to this pair of songs from opposite ends of the album. They both do the pop-industrial thing really well — while, as a counterpoint, capturing a youthful, feminine vulnerability that is undeniably genuine.

18. “The Queen of Lower Chelsea” - The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang
It was going to be hard for them to recapture the authentic, old-fashioned rock passion of The ‘59 Sound — and most of this album is a slightly inferior but still worthwhile listen. But “The Queen” brings it all back, while its slightly more restrained jangling might hint at something new.

19. “Stay Close” - Delorean - Subiza
The best background music of the year — and I mean that is the most complimentary way possible. It’s simple but thoroughly enjoyable.

20. “Zebra” - Beach House - Teen Dream
Somewhat disappointed when I saw them live — their soft sound didn’t really transfer — but if it’s quiet and you want to lose yourself in harmonic ecstasy, this one was made for the headphones.

21. “Terrible Love” - The National - High Violet
I couldn’t decide what to pick off this album — so I just grabbed the first track, which never fails to grab me in its slow-building web. Somehow, The National constructed an album that didn’t stray much from their formula but that contains a set of utterly distinct and substantial songs.

22. “Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk” - The New Pornographers - Together
I’m a late arrival to The New Pornographers party, coming through the Neko Case back door.  But, especially when Neko lends her voice, I’m – what shall we say – hooked?

23. “World Sick” - Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
Most of Broken Social Scene’s songs are quirky and resist a coherency that would provide a type of pop satisfaction (and I’m sure they like it that way). This is not to say that “World Sick” is a pop song — it’s too weary and wandering for that — but it holds together in a way that give the listener faith that while the world might suck, a good song can carve out a few minutes of respite.

24 & 25. “A More Perfect Union”/”The Battle of Hampton Roads” - Titus Andronicus - Monitor