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Here we are, almost a day into 2012! It's time to get back to the list. This is where it really gets good. The top ten begins!
I can't think of a better way to kick off the top ten than with
Gravity Happens, the latest album from the endlessly charming Kate Voegele. In a world filled with personas and attitudes, it's disarming to be met with music so sweet and sincere. Her third album builds on the success of previous efforts
Don't Look Away and
A Fine Mess by continuing the trend of pleasant, humble, unassuming pop and folk rock that's both beautiful and inspirational. Don't miss "Heart In Chains", "Impatient Girl", "Hundred Million Dollar Soul" and "Burning The Harbor", Kate's most powerful recording to date.
Canadian musician Lights has been one of my favorite artists since she released her debut EP over three years ago. She has consistently impressed me with her wide range of talents as an unstoppable, one-woman music factory, writing all the songs, playing all the instruments, recording all the music, and editing all the tracks.
Siberia marks the evolution of Lights, incorporating a harder-edged, grittier postmodern sound than her previous works, and featuring guest artists like Canada's own Holy **** and Shad. Luckily, what's not lost on
Siberia is the genuine, unpretentious quality to her songs. This is still the same Lights underneath the breakthrough new style. "Toes", "Cactus In The Valley", "Siberia", "Flux And Flow" and especially the ear-popping "Everybody Breaks A Glass" are requisite tracks on this adventurous album.
It was just a year and a half ago that Florence & The Machine began to take over the world with
Lungs, so it was a surprise to see
Ceremonials so soon. It didn't just calmly show up, either; this sophomore album arrived as a force to be reckoned with. There's a veritable orchestra of music happening on this record. It's loud, theatrical and frenetic, not once slowing down but instead pummeling through your ears like a bullet train from one end to the other. "What The Water Gave Me", "Shake It Out", "Never Let Me Go" and "Spectrum" are a few of the highlights from this tenacious rhapsody.
The one worthwhile thing that Jay Leno has done since reclaiming
The Tonight Show is unwittingly introduce me to Ximena Sariņana, the wonderfully talented musician and singer-songwriter from Mexico who was making her U.S. television debut during what was supposed to be my
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon recording. I was taken right away by her cheerful, heartfelt style as she performed "Different", co-written by Tim Armstrong, her first English-language single. Soon afterward, I caught Jim Shearer interviewing her on VH1, where the video was being premiered, and I was sold. I picked up her self-titled album and found it, as
NYT described in a feature, an excellent array of highly personal indie pop. With producers and collaborators like Greg Kurstin of The Bird and the Bee on board, how couldn't it be? The year in Ximena culminated in December when I saw her perform live and impress with her friendly charisma and quirky humor. "Shine Down", "Love Again", "Wrong Miracle" and "Echo Park" are some of my favorites from this gem of an album.
It would've been impossible for Feist to try topping
The Reminder, her 2007 album that "One Two Three Four" propelled to worldwide success, in terms of pop sensibility. So instead, she took the only correct option and went in a different direction with
Metals, her fourth album. There are no such TV commercial hooks to be found here and the songwriting is less direct, instead more proverbial and universal. Feist ventures into a different kind of folk-pop on
Metals that isn't afraid to be erratic and break out into worldly exhilaration, as we hear on "Graveyard", "Undiscovered First", "Comfort Me" and "A Commotion" more than any other. "The Bad In Each Other", "Anti-Pioneer" and "How Come You Never Go There" round out the quieter, calmer highlights from
Metals, an elegant, reflective collection rooted in our earth and life.
Say goodbye to these "next" graphics, as there's only one installment left. Tomorrow, my top five albums! See you then.
amazing album! 
