my choice for album of the year is alex chiltons' "like flies on sherbert". it wasn't released this year, i didn't get it this year, but nothing released in recent memory (my memory) has matched it's brilliance.
produced by chilton and jim dickinson (who should really, really produce every album recorded by guitar based bands from here on out), it's quite shocking on first listen. tempos fluctuate, drum sticks are dropped, guitars fade in and out of the mix, mics crackle overwhelmed by noise, and chilton cracks up mid-song. it sounds like they hired great session musicians then had them play instruments they had never touched before. it's everything commercial rock is not. it's fun. it's passionate. it's unrestrained. it's reckless. it's rock.
recently a re-mixed,re-mastered version was put out. this is like putting perfume on a turd. leave it be. sometimes a turd sums it all up.

"my rival/gonna stab him on arrival/shoot him dead with my rifle".

now that speaks to me.