At this time last year I felt overwhelmed making this list. This year not so much. These five albums are easily my favorite so far. I feel like a you can judge an album by how many times you can listen to it without getting tired of it. All of these are still on repeat.

Here's what I haven't been blogging about. Sorry I've too tired (no, lazy) to post anything this month.

Moses Sumney - Not too much is none about this guy. I randomly came across his music listening to KEXP's online radio. He has one EP called Midd-City Island, and it's probably one the most beautifully crafted groups of songs I've heard this year.



Conor Oberst's new album is coming out next week and I'm more than excited, but the song I'm posting is from his split with Dawes that was released for record store day. The song is "Million Dollar Bill" which is a song by Dawes, but I think Conor Oberst's rendition is much better.



Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillas) released his first solo album, and although I'm not crazy about every song I love the first song (also the title of the album) "Everyday Robots".



One of the best hip hop songs this year was released on Rick Ross' new album. I don't even know what it's called and don't really care. Rick Ross kind of creeps me out. However, the song "Sanctified" featuring Kanye West and Big Sean is near perfect, not because of Ross but because of Kanye and Big Sean. They steal the show on this one.

These two songs came out this week and you should probably stop what you're doing and listen to them.

The first one is from a band my sister introduced me to during Christmas, Future Islands. If you haven't seen their recent live performance on Letterman you need to look it up on YouTube. I can't explain why it's good, you just need to see it. The song is called "Seasons (Waiting On You)".

The second is from Conor Oberst's new album due out in May. It's a good mix of Bright Eyes and his solo albums. This jimmy jam is called, "Governor's Ball".

I'm (not) sorry if you're tired of hearing about Bright Eyes. So, Conor Oberst used to be/still is in a band called Desaparecidos. They are a little noisy (in a good way) and pretty rockin'. I played air guitar non-ironically while listening to their first and only album Read Music/Speak Spanish in the car the other day. I was by myself, too. That's how great it is. Anyway, that album came out in 2002 and they kind of disappeared sometime after that.

They recently started playing together again and even recorded a few songs. One of their songs, "Marikkkopa," is about deportation and one mean county sheriff in Arizona. It's a good song. Conor Oberst plays a large role in Sound Strike, which is a group of artists boycotting Arizona because of SB1070.

(This isn't political, just music.)

The song won't embed, so click here to listen to it.

Bright Eyes is a polarizing band. It seems that people either really love them or hate them. I don't care about the people who hate them. They are my favorite band, and I want to lie in a bath of Bright Eyes. What does that mean? It means that I want Bright Eyes to float all around me (not the actual musicians-- the music). Anyway, Conor Oberst is touring right now, and he is sharing some great music with people who aren't me. He played two new songs (temporarily titled "You Are Your Mom's" and "Kick") the last couple nights, and they are refreshing. Their last album was spectacular, but this is taking it back a little bit. New mixed with old.

Here is a video of one of my favorite songs, "Laura Laurent." Maybe I cried, but I'm not really sure.*





*I did.