Greg Beets

1) Bob Mould, Silver Age (Merge)

2) Field Music, Plumb (Memphis Industries)

3) Jack White, Blunderbuss (Third Man/XL Recordings/Columbia)

4) Ty Segall Band, Slaughterhouse (In the Red)

5) Cloud Nothings, Attack on Memory (Carpark)

6) Tame Impala, Lonerism (Modular)

7) Sharon Van Etten, Tramp (Jagjaguwar)

8) Lambchop, Mr. M (Merge)

9) Bob Dylan, Tempest (Columbia)

10) Deerhoof, Breakup Song (Polyvinyl)

Jim Caligiuri

1) JD McPherson, Signs & Signifiers (Rounder)

2) Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson, Wreck & Ruin (Sugar Hill)

3) Chuck Prophet, Temple Beautiful (Yep Roc)

4) Iris Dement, Sing the Delta (Flariella)

5) Marty Stuart, Nashville, Vol. 1: Tear the Woodpile Down (Sugar Hill)

6) Patterson Hood, Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance (ATO)

7) Chris Knight, Little Victories (Drifters Church)

8) Waylon Jennings, Goin’ Down Rockin’: The Last Recordings (Saguaro Road)

9) Tift Merritt, Traveling Alone (Yep Roc)

10) Punch Brothers, Who’s Feeling Young Now? (Nonesuch)

Thomas Fawcett

1) Kendrick Lamar, good kid, m.A.A.d. City (Aftermath/Interscope)

2) Killer Mike, R.A.P. Music (Williams Street)

3) Frank Ocean, Channel ORANGE (Island Def Jam)

4) Menahan Street Band, The Crossing (Daptone)

5) Cody Chesnutt, Landing on a Hundred (Vibration Vineyard)

6) Antibalas (Daptone)

7) Tame Impala, Lonerism (Modular)

8) Lee Fields, Faithful Man (Truth & Soul)

9) Georgia Anne Muldrow, Seeds (Someothaship CONNECT)

10) Quantic & Alice Russell, Look Around the Corner (Tru Thoughts)

Doug Freeman

1) David Byrne & St. Vincent, Love This Giant (4AD)

2) Andrew Bird, Break It Yourself (Mom & Pop Music)

3) Japandroids, Celebration Rock (Polyvinyl)

4) Father John Misty, Fear Fun (Sub Pop)

5) Jamey Johnson, Living for a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran (Mercury)

6) Grizzly Bear, Shields (Warp)

7) Bob Mould, Silver Age (Merge)

8) Old Crow Medicine Show, Carry Me Back (ATO)

9) Dirty Projectors, Swing Lo Magellan (Domino)

10) Spiritualized, Sweet Heart, Sweet Light (Fat Possum)

Chase Hoffberger

1) Frank Ocean, Channel ORANGE (Island Def Jam)

2) The Men, Open Your Heart (Sacred Bones)

3) Cody Chestnutt, Landing on a Hundred (Vibration Vineyard)

4) THEESatisfasction, awE naturalE (Sub Pop)

5) Kid Koala, 12 Bit Blues (Ninja Tune)

6) Royal Headache, Royal Headache (What’s Your Rupture?)

7) Dr. John, Locked Down (Nonesuch Records)

8) Fiona Apple, The Idler Wheel … (Epic)

9) Big K.R.I.T., Live From the Underground (Island Def Jam)

10) The Orwells, Remember When (Autumn Tone)

Abby Johnston’s Top 10 Electro

1) Purity Ring, Shrines (4AD)

2) Grimes, Visions (4AD)

3) Tnght, Tnght (Warp/LuckyMe)

4) Flying Lotus, Until the Quiet Comes (Warp)

5) Chromatics, Kill for Love (Italians Do It Better)

6) Django Django (Because Music)

7) Chairlift, Something (Columbia)

8) Keep Shelly in Athens, In Love With Dusk/Our Own Dream (Plancha/Art Union)

9) Actress, R.I.P. (Honest Jon’s)

10) Twin Shadow, Confess (4AD)

Margaret Moser

1) Janis Martin, The Blanco Sessions (Cow Island)

2) Bonnie Raitt, Slipstream (Redwing)

3) Beach House, Bloom (Sub Pop)

4) Mary Karr & Rodney Crowell, Kin (Vanguard)

5) Paul Sanchez & Colman deKay, Nine Lives (Mystery Street)

6) Chelle Rose, Ghost of Browder Holler (Lil’ Damsel)

7) Dr. John, Locked Down (Nonesuch)

8) Lil’ Band o’ Gold, Plays Fats (Dust Devil)

9) Heartless Bastards, Arrow (Partisan)

10) John Cale, Shifty Adventure in Nookie Wood (Domino)

Michael Toland’s Top 10 Metal

1) Dawnbringer, Into the Lair of the Sun God (Profound Lore)

2) Baroness, Yellow & Green (Relapse)

3) Witchcraft, Legend (Nuclear Blast)

4) The Devil’s Blood, The Thousandfold Epicentre (Metal Blade)

5) Troubled Horse, Step Inside (Metal Blade/Rise Above)

6) Wo Fat, The Black Code (Small Stone)

7) Horseback, Half Blood (Relapse)

8) Infernal Overdrive, Last Rays of the Dying Sun (Small Stone)

9) Prong, Carved Into Stone (Long Branch/SPV)

10) Burning Love, Rotten Thing to Say (Southern Lord)

Jay Trachtenberg

1) Alt-J, An Awesome Wave (Infectious Music)

2) Omer Avital, Suite of the East (Anzic)

3) David Byrne & St. Vincent, Love This Giant (4AD)

4) Jimmy Cliff, Rebirth (UMe)

5) Dirty Ghosts, Metal Moon (Last Gang)

6) Robert Glasper Experiment, Black Radio (Blue Note)

7) Mickey Hart Band, Mysterium Tremendum (360°)

8) Vijay Iyer Trio, Accelerando (ACT)

9) Tame Impala, Lonerism (Modular)

10) The XX, Coexist (Young Turks)

This article appears in 2012.

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Greg Beets was born in Lubbock on the day Richard Nixon was elected president. He has covered music for the Chronicle since 1992, writing about everyone from Roky Erickson to Yanni. Beets has also written for Billboard,Uncut, Blurt, Elmore, and Pop Culture Press. Before his digestive tract cried uncle, he co-published Hey! Hey! Buffet!, an award-winning fanzine about all-you-can-eat buffets.

Thomas Fawcett has been freelancing for The Austin Chronicle since 2007. He likes good music and does not fake the funk.

Doug Freeman has been writing for the Austin Chronicle since 2007, covering the arts and music scene in the city. He is originally from Virginia and earned his Masters Degree from the University of Texas. He is also co-editor of The Austin Chronicle Music Anthology, published by UT Press.

Michael Toland started writing about music in 1988 on the Gulf Coast, moved to Austin in early 1991, and has inflicted bylines upon the corporeal and digital pages of Pop Culture Press, The Big Takeover, Blurt, Amplifier, Austin.citysearch, the Austin American Statesman, Goldmine, Sleazegrinder, Rock & Roll Globe, High Bias, FHT Music Notes, and, since 2011, The Austin Chronicle.