Modular is an amazing work by a friend of mine, Dan Phelps. The album has been out since April or May and still is regularly in rotation not becuase Dan is a friend, but because it is a beautiful work of art. Feist's Metals was ambitious; very different from The Reminder and very interesting. Much more subtle, and yet consistent the whole way through. It's an album that listens like an album. Not many people are making music this way any more. Paul Simon's record was good, but it was his SNL performance that sold me on the album. Mastodon's record is good, but they may have made the list purely for the album art, which is over the top metal.