Hm.. can't believe I haven't done this yet. it probably won't be well thought out since hell, it takes me 3 weeks to even come up with a top 50 albums of the year list which still ends up inaccurate to what I'm listening to after the year is out, but... I'll base this on bands that I've liked over at least the past couple years if not more (did you know I didn't get into music till around '98? it's true... I had horrible taste before then) -- first 6 are definites:
01. Radiohead
02. Sigur Rós
03. The Cure
04. Knife in the Water
05. Carissa's Wierd
06. Red House Painters / Mark Kozelek / Sun Kil Moon
07. Boards of Canada
08. Belle and Sebastian
09. Stereolab
10. Wilco
11. Afghan Whigs / Twilight Singers (well, anything before this year; the past two sucked)
12. The Sea and Cake
13. Trembling Blue Stars
14. Gravenhurst
15. Hot Chip
16. Dirty Three
17. Fog [nothing is better than the song
Pneumonia (mp3) -- the whole s/t album must be gotten.. the other two albums are nice, too but not as record scratchy]
18. Explosions in the Sky
19. The Notwist (really, just Neon Golden, but that's enough for the whole world)
20. Pixies
21. Tindersticks
22. Neutral Milk Hotel
23. M83
24. Slowdive
25. Built to Spill