A holdover from my days working at a record store, the year end top 10 list has become a personal tradition. This one was tough. It was a good year according to my musical tastes, plus I’m notoriously indecisive when picking favourites (“I love all my children equally!”).

After countless edits, I give you my — loosely ranked in order of preference, liable to change at any second — top 20 albums of 2011:

1. Destroyer – Kaputt
2. St. Vincent – Strange Mercy
3. Childish Gambino – Camp
4. Beirut – The Rip Tide
5. Tune Yards – WHOKILL
6. Braids – Native Speaker
7. Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring for My Halo
8. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues
9. Toro y Moi – Underneath the Pine
10. Little Dragon – Ritual Union
11. Timber Timbre – Creep On Creepin’ On
12. Feist – Metals
13. Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes
14. Noah Gundersen – Family EP
15. Bon Iver - Bon Iver
16. Panda Bear – Tomboy
17. Real Estate – Days
18. Cave Singers – No Witch
19. Atlas Sound – Parallax
20. YACHT – Shangi-La