And I'm sure LM has a very good, even more deeply informed, but quite different list.
I do indeed. My top 30 albums of the year, in alphabetical order:
(Sandy) Alex G - Rocket (country-inflected indie rock)
Alex Cameron - Forced Witness (sleazy, 80s-influenced Australian pop)
Ariel Pink - Dedicated to Bobby Jameson (playful psychedelic pop)
Beach Fossils - Somersault (jangle pop)
The Clientele - Music for the Age of Miracles (chamber pop)
Fleet Foxes - Crack-Up (progressive indie folk)
Four Tet - New Energy (microhouse)
Grizzly Bear - Painted Ruins (dreamy indie rock and folk)
The Horrors - V (goth and new wave-inspired dance)
Idles - Brutalism (intense post-harcore)
Jay Som - Everybody Works (sumptuous dream pop and shoegaze)
Jesca Hoop - Memories Are Now (singer-songwriter)
Kelela - Take Me Apart (sexy alternative R&B)
Kendrick Lamar - DAMN. (stylistically diverse hip hop)
LCD Soundsystem - American Dream (new wave and dance-punk)
The Magnetic Fields - 50 Song Memoir (sprawling singer-songwriter project that's too epic to be described in one line)
Makthaverskan - Ill (gothic jangle pop)
Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked at Me (heartbreaking indie folk)
The National - Sleep Well Beast (indie rock/chamber pop)
Rapsody - Laila’s Wisdom (funky hip hop)
Ryan Adams - Prisoner (top shelf 80s Springsteen worship)
Sampha - Process (R&B balladry)
Slowdive - Slowdive (vintage dream pop)
St. Vincent - Masseduction (funky, sexy art pop)
Thurston Moore - Rock n Roll Consciousness (enveloping noise rock)
tricot - 3 (Japanese math rock)
Tyler, the Creator - Flower Boy (soulful hip hop)
The War on Drugs - A Deeper Understanding (dreamy heartland rock)
Wednesday Campanella - Superman (Japanese hip house)
Your Old Droog - Packs (old school east coast hip hop)
That's taken from about 240 albums. If anything U2 puts out this year ends up replacing one of these albums, I will be thrilled. I hope it happens.