7) Liam Lynch, "Fake Songs"
Satire or tribute? It's hard to tell. Lynch, who hails from Ohio and was trained at Paul McCartney's performing arts school in Liverpool, impersonates his favorites acts on "Fake," writing songs in the style of Talking Heads, the Pixies and Bjork, to name a few, and uncannily mimicking their lyrical style and vocals. His "Fake David Bowie Song" is the belle of this masquerade ball, a sendup that nails the gender-bender timbre of Ziggy Stardust and includes the enshrinable lyric, "Hydroplaning toward infinity / Just some drag queens and . . . me." But the original originals, if you will, are just as entertaining, particularly "United States of Whatever," the best celebration of apathy since Beck wrote "Loser."
Liam Lynch came out with "Fake Songs" and the mimicked songs are captivating.
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8) Panjabi MC, "Beware"
Jay-Z gets credit for discovering England's Panjabi MC, and their collaboration on the title track of this album was one of the best shotgun marriages of the year, wedding rap to bhangra, a British take on traditional Indian music. But Panjabi MC, nee Rajinder Rai, doesn't need an assist from an American mogul, as proven by the 13 Jay-Z-free tracks of "Beware." This baker's dozen is an international mash-up of modern electronica and the sounds of the subcontinent -- "Monsoon Wedding" meets Fatboy Slim.
9) The Shins, "Chutes Too Narrow"
With the success of the Shins' last album, "Oh, Inverted World," you had to worry that lead Shin James Mercer would go Hollywood with a big-budget sequel. Instead, he and his band recorded "Chutes" in his Portland, Ore., basement and kept the production to an intimate minimum. There are fewer Beach Boys harmonies than last time; most of this album feels inspired by folk, old country and western acts and '80s bands, like the Cure and the La's, that Mercer discovered while attending high school in England. Heartbreak is still Mercer's topic of choice, and he captures it, on songs such as "Pink Bullets," with the eloquence of a novelist and melodies to match.
10) The Deadly Snakes,"Ode to Joy"
Leaning on mid-'60s Dylan for inspiration, Toronto's Deadly Snakes let sail a shrill, liquored-up and superb retro-rock album about time-tested themes, like love and repentance. "Oh My Bride" and "There Goes Your Corpse Again" make "Ode" worth the cover charge.
Honorable mentions
The Libertines, "Up the Bracket." My Morning Jacket, "It Still Moves." Dwight Yoakam, "Population Me." Radiohead, "Hail to the Thief." Rufus Wainwright, "Want One."
Song of the year: OutKast,"Hey Ya!"
With the year's most memorable lyric ("Shake it, shake it, shake it like a Polaroid picture!") and a beat that ignites your feet, "Hey Ya!" might be the best thing to happen to radio since the invention of the knob. Andre 3000, the lovelorn and zanier half of OutKast, whisked this tangy meringue of funk and pop, tossing in equal measures of Parliament Funkadelic and Fab Four. It's a breakup song, strangely enough, but so shamelessly filthy you hardly notice.
Runners-up: "The Songbird" by the High Strung. "Not Gonna Get Us" by T.A.T.U. "The Theme From Fannypack" by Fannypack. "Jogi" by Panjabi MC. "The Air Near My Fingers" by the White Stripes. "Maps" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs. "Mines Not a High Horse" by the Shins. "Dixie" by Bob Dylan, from the soundtrack to "Masked and Anonymous." "I'm Holding Out" by the Reigning Sound.
Concert of the Year: Cody ChestnuTT at the Birchmere
