29. Comets on Fire: Blue Cathedral (Sub Pop)

For an album that makes an organized chaos out of a torn up mix of Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, and all your favorite �70s rock groups, Blue Cathedral is not only eminently listenable, but an enjoyable ride to boot. I don�t have much to say that Dave Goldstein hasn�t already in his review, but I will add my two cents to his apt praise � this album is a fucking beast. A little tiresome at times, but its few sagging ideas are utterly drowned in incendiary ones.

28. TV on the Radio: Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes (Touch & Go)

A lot of critical hooplah has revolved around TV on the Radio�s debut LP. The band has admitted they have a better album in them, but that seems a silly reason to discount so much damaged beauty here. A couple of dull moments punctuate Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes, but the majority of it not only sounds startlingly original, but rather beautiful as well. The central riff of �Poppy� clings to memory better than your latest embarrassing hook-up, and the cold heartbreak of �Don�t Love You� is as emotionally punishing as you�re likely to ever encounter. So yeah, a better album may be on the way, but working with relativity here, that can only mean a future classic.

27. Black Keys Rubber Factory (Fat Possom)

There�s so little not to like about Rubber Factory. It�s very bluesy, and a bit self-limiting in its guitar-and-drums arrangement, but the fact remains that bands three times this size can�t do as much with a good melody and a chunky electric. Rubber Factory bests even the best of the White Stripes, and almost effortlessly. The guitar licks of �10 A.M. Automatic,� and the group�s brilliant cover of �Grown So Ugly� become instant classics on first listen. For two young guys to come off such seasoned blues masters is bewildering.

26. Pinback Summer in Abaddon (Touch & Go)

Summer in Abaddon might come off as cold and depressing, and lyrically, it absolutely is; but Pinback�s astute melodic arrangements and metronome-precise arrangements buoy it up into a paradoxically joyous collection of great depressed songs. It�s mostly mid-tempo, but I�ve rarely see a band do so much with a limited pace. Each song is distinct from the other, and the album�s progression from a listless pace into the barrelling strength of �AFK� marks it as one of those that ought to be listened to all the way through for greatest impact. And with a band this tight, you�ll hardly notice how fast the time goes, even if their summer was spent in a pit of hell.

25. No Doctors Hunting Season (Go Johnny Go/Cock of the Rock)

Just try and escape the double machete guitar attack of Hunting Season, you slow-blues-rock-loving pansy. It�ll hack of your limbs first, and then play ginsu artist with your innards. Initial listening to No Doctors feels something like being violated, but get past the initial shock of your favorite blues/rock artist being torn to shreds (Iggy, I�m looking at you, you googly-eyed stick), and it rewards in spades, with lethal guitar line after lethal guitar line, hooks made out of barbed wire, and the most incomprehensible screaming this side of the Blood Brothers. Prepared to be beaten senseless, and love it.

24. Mission of Burma: OnOffOn (Matador)

Perhaps a tad overrated by the general music critics� community because of lingering wet dreams of a Vs. remake, OnOffOn is nonetheless a fine punk album, and certainly one of the finest this year (how many have been worthy of note, anyway?). Once �The Setup�s� three primary chords pound down your door, the album only improves as it goes on, culminating in the ferociously good �Nicotine Bomb.� We might hope that MacKaye�s new group, The Evens, come to fill the yawning punk void (long overdue for occupation), but Mission of Burma�s latest makes them a worthy placeholder for the time being.

23. Blood Brothers: Crimes (V2)

The Brothers Blood have slowed things town a bit � to say, freight-train speeds as opposed to Formula 1 speeds. Scratch that � they�ve slowed to freight train-wrecks. Sporting not only a better ear for melody than they had on their hardcore masterpiece Burn Piano Island Burn, but more variation in pacing and instrumentation, Crimes is a gorefest of wonder. �Love Rhymes with Hideous Car Wreck,� actually employs vocal hooks (something like a child being beaten by a sack of oranges), and a Wurlitzer even makes an appearance. But it�s all still about devastation, and from the opening skrawks of guitar noise in �Feed Me to the Forest� (which end up being a kind of sick hook), you know to pull up your pants, brace yourself, and get your ass kicked anyway.

22. The Je Ne Sais Quoi: We Make Beginnings (Coalition)

OK. So we missed out on reviewing this. But it�s really good � some of the best angular (when�s the last time you heard that word used?) post-punk in a good while. �2004� is most likely the best closer of the year, a fucking riot of hooks, melody, and the flat-out hottest bass line ever. Hooks, manic energy, and indelible confidence dominate this raucous debut, making for a hell of an argument that post punk can be good without being totally fashionable. Its life force has been dwindling (notice the marked dearth of them on any of our lists), but the JNSQ give faith that it�s worth keeping alive.

21. Bjork: Medulla (Elektra)

The listenability of Medulla is handily undermined by its songwriting ethic, but that�s not a reflection on Bjork; it�s a reflection on you, you provincial bastard. You want guitars and drums and bass? Well you�re not gonna have �em. You want typical structures? Well, you (should have known that you) are not gonna get �em. You want a perspective-challenging experience, some ethereally splendid singing, and the best beat-boxing this side of…well who even knows? Then you�ve come to the right place. There�s some experimentation which is merely the result of confused hippy tendencies (Animal Collective), and then there�s music that�s avant-garde and organized under a coherent musical vision; it�s always good to have a Bjork around.