When I first heard “Pumped Up Kicks” by Foster the People, it didn’t win me over. In fact, I thought they would be a one hit wonder. But, when I saw them perform last April, I realized there was something worth checking out here.

Thankfully, that lead single isn’t inditicative of the rest of their album, Torches. It is a fun, genre-bending album of rock music for the 21^st century.

For a debut album, it’s got very slick production. It seems lead singer and primary songwriter Mark Foster has a knack for creating percussion heavy songs that you can shake your hips to, while singing lyrics that borderline on emo and esoteric.

The great thing about this album’s claim to fame is that it didn’t involve any PR stunts or theatrical gimmicks. The songs are just great songs. And the band performed their asses off, building a solid fanbase the good ol’ fashioned way.

Plus, it helps that they’re easy on the eyes.

While Trent Reznor is busy being a married dad and becoming an Oscar-winning composer, AWOLNATION has stepped in to fill the void of a one-man electronic music act.

Aaron Bruno’s debut album, Megalithic Symphony, under his all-caps moniker, is a frenetic album that swings from the sweet (“All I Need”) to the defiant “(Kill Your Heroes”), with an undercurrent of X-Files style paranoia (“Sail”).

This album had me hooked from the first listen and, upon every listen, it was one that would somehow still sound new and exciting. If that’s not the sign of a great album, I don’t know what is.

Theoretically, there was so much that could go wrong with Watch The Throne, the huge hip hop collaboration that united Jay-Z and Kanye West. I mean, two huge egos releasing an album of “luxury rap” that boasts about ‘mo money, ‘mo problems in the wake of a huge global economic crisis? On paper, that sounds pretentious and a surefire failure.

But, then again, we are talking about Jay-Z and Kanye: two of the biggest and most creative minds in hip hop today with a bromance so strong, the egos actually work together.

And while they are tearing a Maybach apart in their video for “Otis”, and bragging about all their material wealth, there is still a sense of shock on songs like “Niggas in Paris”, almost like “I’m wearing Gucci??? What???” Meanwhile, they also deal with the two-faced haters who are waiting for their downfall on tracks like “Why I Love You”.

But, it’s not all bravado here. There are moments of fragility and uncertainty on “New Day”, a song to their unborn sons, and of perseverance in times of adversity on “Murder to Excellence”.

And for anyone who thinks hip hop can’t be art, take on listen to “H.A.M.”, which features a full symphony and opera singers. It’s a masterpiece designed or the clubs.

James Blake was one of the big buzz names for new artists this year, and, I admit, he was hard for me to get into. But, I do love to be challenged as a fan of music. And, when it turns out the challenge is worth it, when the music finally clicks with me, the payoff is that much sweeter.

His self-titled debut isn’t exactly a party-starter or a people-pleaser. He’s kind of a minimalist electronic artist. While everyone else seems to be adding bigger drums and more intricate musical arrangements, his music is stripped to the core and essence of the song. I guess an alternative title for his self-titled album could have been “Zen and the Art of Electronic Music”.

After all, “I Never Learnt To Share” is just one line repeated ad nauseum, each time with a new layer of instrumentation added. And “Unluck” features a very off-kilter percussive clicking 

But, eventually, each track unfolds into something beautiful.

And I recommend a good set of speakers or headphones for this one. That is, if you want the full bass-rattling, floor-shaking effect of his cover of Feist’s “Limit To Your Love”.

For pure musical fantasy and escapism, you don’t need to look any further than M83’s ambitious double album Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming.

As you can gather from the title, the album’s concept focuses on the dreams we have, as children, teenagers and adults. And, the music helps transport us to our various dreamscapes.

M83’s helmsman, Anthony Gonzalez, also draws heavily from the 80s music that inspired him. This album sounds like all the best parts of New Order, Depeche Mode and Joshua Tree-era U2.

And in between the bombastic sounds of “Midnight City” and “Steve McQueen” lie lovely ballads and interludes. “Wait” stirs something in my core with it’s simplicity and yearning. While “Raconte-Moi Une Histoire”, where a child narrates a story about turning into frogs, really just sums up the wonder of this album.

In fact, this isn’t so much an album, as it is a soundtrack for your daydreams.

Love her or hate her, Björk is always innovating and experimenting with music, which makes her part musical composer, part mad scientist. And I worship her for that. Vespertine was a project with choirs. Medúlla was an experiement in creating music using only voices. Volta was a meditation on music and nature.

And, this year’s album Biophilia, examines the relationship between music, art and technology. In addition to creating all new instruments to record the album, Björk also partially recorded the album on a tablet computer, and released the album with a series of iPad apps that feature games that further enhance the experience of the song by allowing the listener to actually interact with each track.

Gimmicks aside, the album is solid and classic Björk. Musically, it fuses the choral elements of Medúlla and the hard electronica found on Homogenic. While it might be a hard album to get into, it’s an easy one to get lost in once you surrender yourself to the Icelandic wizard and allow yourself to be her musical guinea pig. 

One look at Nanna Øland Fabricius’, AKA Oh Land’s, statuesque blonde figure, and you’d easily mistake her for just another disposable European pop star.

But, it seems this beauty has talent too. The Danish musician, who now lives in Brooklyn, NY, has actually forged a nice little niche for her brand of eclectic indie-pop, which is further showcased on her sophomore self-titled release.

No doubt, you’ve heard her lead single “Sun of a Gun” on Gossip Girl or in some trendy commercial. This bouncy pop song picks up the slack left behind by Feist, and is revisited on tracks like “White Nights” and “We Turn It Up”.

But, it is when she slows it down where we have some gorgeous musical moments. “Perfection”, “Lean” and “Wolf & I” are breathtaking and lush. 

I think the reason I took a while to get into Florence + the Machine’s debut album Lungs is because I didn’t really like the singles “Dog Days Are Over” and “You Got The Love”. It was too stage show for me.

However, I ignored those songs and found that the bulk of her songs have a more darker, tribal sound that’s more to my liking.

Thankfully, she continues to delve into her dark side even more for her new album Ceremonials. Florence even coined the term “chamber soul” – a fusion of chamber pop and soul music – to describe the bigger and darker sound.

Ceremonials is haunting, violent, scary and hopeful, a careful examination on the negative outcomes of love and romance. 

There’s no big surprise that Adele pops onto my list. After all, on the strength of one single (for the majority of the year) and her stellar voice, she helped reverse the decline in record sales and managed to top the charts week after week and win countless awards.

My only drawback is that the songs on the album hop from genre to genre. There’s neo-soul on “Rolling in the Deep”, country twang on “Don’t You Remember?” and gospel on “One and Only”.

Usually, I like my albums to have a bit of a more cohesive sound, but thankfully Adele’s voice is arresting enough to provide that uniting thread. And it’s best showcased with sparse musical accompaniment (see: “Someone Like You”), not fighting with overdone production (see: “Set Fire To The Rain” – I think I’m the only person who can’t stand that song).

While Britney Spears is something akin to a blank canvas that producers and stylists paint to suit the needs of their songs, Rihanna is more like molding clay that resists, yields and gives in to her crafters, allowing to actually become what the songs represent.

Plus, she’s got way more personality than dead-eyed Britney.

However, one of my biggest complaints about RiRi is that her albums start off strong, then quickly goes off the rails, jumping tracks from genre to genre and losing steam. I didn’t even bother with her album Loud, because each single was vastly different from the previous one and, frankly, I didn’t like any of them.

With Talk That Talk, Rihanna finally finds more cohesion. All the songs boast a swagger that, fortunately for her, translates from four-on-the-floor house tracks like “We Found Love” and “Where Have You Been” to more reggae and hip hop inspired tracks, like “Talk That Talk” and “Cockiness (I Love It)”.

She even pulls off an impressive sample of The XX’s “Intro” for “Drunk On Love”.

While I could do without the ballads and while I’ll never understand why “Birthday Cake” is only half a song (is it supposed to be an interlude?), I have to recognize that this is Rihanna’s strongest album to date.