Every December, I compile my list of the best albums from the previous year. (I know. I. Am. A. Dork.) The rules are simple: these are albums that were released THIS YEAR. Thanks to the glory of eMusic, I’ve been able to stock up my catalog of older releases that I’d never purchased (like some of Springsteen’s earlier work, etc.), but I also came across a TON of new music this year for relatively cheap. (Thanks to special offers and free downloads, I was able to get most of these albums for about .10 cents per song. Awesome.)

Anyway, this year I’ve expanded my album list to 20. Truthfully, there were several other albums by some of my favorite artists (Michael McDermott, David Gray) that narrowly missed the cut. I’ll post my Top Ten tomorrow; until then, here are #s 11-20.

20. Mountain Goats – The Life of the World to Come

Dark, reflective, poignant. Such is the tone of this collection of songs based on verses from the Bible. The Scriptures are used mainly as jumping off points for John Darnielle’s meandering lyricism. Death, murder, life, estrangement; these universal themes are pondered in light of the language of Scripture. Best of all: this album made me get out my Bible to see how these lyrics parallel Scripture. Download this: “Genesis 3.23”, “Ezekiel 7 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace”.

19. Ben Kweller – Changing Horses

Kweller has indeed changed horses with his latest album, a pedal steel drenched ode to alt-country Americana. While his earlier material exudes mainstream goofy white boy indie-pop sensibilities (pianos, guitars, synthesizers, drums lite, emo lyrics), Changing Horses delves into the country / western genre and the results are pretty surprising. When I first heard Kweller was going country with this album, I wondered if it would work. It does. Kweller’s voice fits these songs like a pair of old weathered jeans. The album’s opening number “Gypsy Rose” sets the tone early with the crackling Dobro work of newcomer Kitt Kitterman. And “Old Hat” and “Ballad of Wendy Baker” lilt and sigh in all the right (read: depressing and heartbreaking) ways a good country and western song should. “Sawdust Man”, however, is far and away my favorite track. Every time Keller sings “I’m on top of the Greyhound station / Won’t you please come home?”, the lyric is stuck in my head for a week. The image is iconic for the album’s theme of yearning and love lost. Download this: “Sawdust Man”, “Wantin’ Her Again”.

18. Andrew Bird – Noble Beast

From the opening note of “Oh No”, Andrew Bird plies his craft with understated mastery. Categorized as “folk pop”, Noble Beast floats along on a bed of melody, whistles, and cadences that sound as fresh today as they did when I first picked up this album 11 months ago. Download this: “Anoanimal”, “Oh No”.

17. Regina Spektor – Far

First of all, I dare you to find a catchier pop hook than “The Calculation”, the spunky, love drenched piece of piano pop that kicks off Far. This album might rank higher if not for Spektor’s dolphin impersonation on “Folding Chair”. (Yes, you read that correctly. A dolphin impersonation.) But all quirky shlock is exchanged for existential musing on “Laughing With”: No one laughs at God in a hospital / No one laughs at God in a war / No one’s laughing at God / When they’re starving or freezing or so very poor. Few artists strike the balance between absurd and sublime quite like Regina Spektor. Download this: “The Calculation”, “Laughing With”.

16. David Bazan – Curse Your Branches

Disclaimer: this is not music for the faint of heart. David Bazan (of “Pedro the Lion” fame) has composed a deeply personal and vulnerable reflection of faith and doubt. Take “In Stitches”, for instance. Bazan sings of the collision of his own spiritual doubts while his daughter “is lately full of questions about You.” It sounds as if the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree, for Bazan asks plenty of questions of his own here. This album’s beauty is found in its rejection of pat answers to these gut-wrenching interrogations. The journey is sometimes harrowing, but this kind of honest spiritual reflection is both uncommon and refreshing. Download this: “In Stitches”, “Curse Your Branches”.

15. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest

Grizzly Bear seems to be everyone’s crush band right now; this Brooklyn group’s fourth studio album has already been named to several year-end top ten lists. And Veckatimest will probably go down as their best. But how do you describe it? The scope of this disc is hard to get your arms around. “Chamber pop” is an apt description; “psychedelic folk-jazz” is another. The harmonies here are lush, the atmosphere is rich and layered, piling up song after song, culminating in the haunting, beautiful final moments of “Foreground”. The album gets a little repetitive in the middle for me, but Veckatimest is still a solid and worthy of most of the praise its been receiving. Download this: “Two Weeks”, “Foreground”.

14. Great Lake Swimmers – Lost Channels

This Toronto-based folk trio exudes a lyrical elegance and a light, airy sound that makes it perfect for an early spring drive under cloudless skies. GLS has a Jayhawks-esque quality about them: lush harmonies over sparse acoustics reminiscient of 1970s AM radio. There’s no great underlying thesis at work here, just really good music. Download this: “Walking On A Line”, “Everything Is Moving So Fast“.

13. Magnolia Electric Co. – Josephine

Josephine is a tribute to fallen bandmate Evan Farrell. Jason Molina’s vocals, enveloped by the band’s stripped down country & western instrumentation, makes this pain and heartache palpable. “Shenandoah” swoons with yearning and a dizzying sense of isolation. “O Grace!” gently holds on to hope amid the tears: “If you stop believing / that don’t mean that it just goes away.” But the album’s second half – notably “Heartbreak at Ten Paces” and “Little Sad Eyes” – takes a more reflective, even somber tone, bringing gravity to the hopeful closer “An Arrow in the Gale”, an ode to keeping your head down and plowing on, even when you hurt. A fitting end to a great album. Download this: “Josephine”, “O Grace!”

12. Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit – Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit

Isbell, former songwriter and guitarist for Drive-By Truckers, has produced a quality Southern rock / alt country offering with his second solo effort. “Streetlights” tells the same story plenty of other songs try to tell; it just sounds more lived in coming from Isbell. “Soldier Gets Strange” is about as grisly a commentary on post-traumatic stress disorder as you could find. But the rock jams are still here, too, balancing out the album’s more introspective moments. Download this: Seven-Mile Island, “Sunstroke”.

11. Slaid Cleaves – Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away

(If you can’t tell by now, I’ve been in something of an alt-country mood this year. These albums are superior to 90% of the dreck coming out of Nashville these days. It’s a shame that most people’s only association with country music is the overproduced power pop that Music Row develops.)

The title of this one pretty much tells you all you need to know; this is depressing fare. I came across Cleaves on eMusic earlier in the year and his album quickly emerged as one of my favorites. If Ecclesiastes were set to music, this is what it would sound like. Everything You Love… has been described as a “sepia toned record” and that’s an apt description of what’s going on here. The album title comes from a line from the stellar “Cry”, the best and catchiest tune of the lot.

Every bond is a bond to sorrow
Your blue sky turns grey
Everything you love will be taken away

Love here is lost, yearned for, unrequited. Dreams are chewed up and dashed on the rocks in the world Cleaves imagines, a world that will be all too familiar to many a listener. But amid the bleakness, the moments of hope stand out in stark contrast. Consider this line from “Beautiful Thing”:

A dark age looms, there’s evil at hand
Somehow I still believe in the goodness of man
It’s a beautiful thing

The older I get, the more I’m drawn to music that exudes hope, but also art that doesn’t shy away from grim realities, either. This album hits on both of those cylinders. Download this: “Cry”, “Beautiful Thing”.