As with 2008’s Top Albums, the 40 tracks compiled here represent those which had both high degrees of listenability and likeability. If a track didn’t get rocked out on a regular basis, no matter how rad it was, it didn’t end up on this list. Unlike, the top 25 albums, there is a bit more diversity in this list. See, I listen to pop and I listen to electronic music, a bit…

1. No Age – Teen Creeps On “Teen Creeps,” No Age deliver what has to be the riff of the year. First, just a twitch and a tingle of electronics come over the lines, then, as guitar, pedals, and amp align, it explodes into head banging, rock fist waving feast of awesomeness, filling all available channels with a thick chug-a-chug sound. (Website/Label)
2. Deerhunter – Nothing Ever Happened (Website/Label)
3. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds- Dig Lazarus Dig On the title track to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ album, Dig Lazarus Dig, a disheveled Larry, better known as Lazarus in the bible, scums around these United States. He’s homeless and addicted to drugs. Yet, all is not bad for the man who’d rather be dead. His personal soundtrack has a big, bouncy, and earworm worthy melody. (Website/Label)

4. Spiritualized – Soul on Fire (Website)
5. The Dutchess and The Duke – Back to Me Can an album and a song still be charming when its opening lines are, “You know she turned a couple tricks/You know she hit me with a stick/Went around town, she’s telling everybody/That I was dressing up just like a chick?” Absolutely! (Website/Label)

6. Army Navy – My Thin Sides Like “Saints,” which appears later in this list, the pop perfection of “My Thin Sides” makes it damn near impossible to make your way through the rest of Army Navy’s debut. (Website)

7. Boris – My Neighbor Satan One part Buddha Machine, one part shredding metal, and all parts awesome. (Website/Label)

8. Gentleman Jesse and His Men – You Don’t Have to (If You Don’t Want to) (Website/Label)
9. Blitzen Trapper – Furr Blitzen Trapper’s “Furr” is like the song I want Wilco to record again. (Website/Label)
10. Fleet Foxes – White Water Hymnal And Fleet Foxes’ “White Water Hymnal” is the song I’d like to hear from My Morning Jacket. (Website/Label)

11. Florence and the Machine – Kiss With a Fist (Website/Label)

12. Mates of State – My Only Offer It seems every album Mates of State put out has at least one song like “My Only Offer.” One so irresistible, it begs repeating. (Website/Label)

13.Thee Oh Sees- The Master’s Bedroom is Worth Spending a Night in (Website)
14. Cobra Verde – Riot in the Foodcourt (Website/Label)
15. Jay Reatard – See Saw (Website/Label)

16. Fuck Buttons – Sweet Love for Planet Earth Coming from a noise background, Fuck Buttons are still working on finding the right balance between harshness and majesty, but when these dudes and their table full o’ gadgets get it just right, the results can be amazing, like “Sweet Love for Planet Earth.” (Website/Label)

17. Vampire Weekend – The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance The closing number to Vampire Weekend’s stunning debut, “The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance,” signifies in a major way that these kids in Vampire Weekend have a real chance of a long, fruitful career in music in front of them. Just listen to the way the electric piano, harpsichord, and strings all chase each other around during the outtro. It’s blissful. And I don’t even like electric pianos, harpsichords, and string sections. (Website/Label)

18. Prisonshake – Year of the Donk Prisonshake’s “Year of the Donk” is the guitar track on a big guitar album. Robert Griffin hits on decades of influences as he revisits The Stones’ “Gimme Shelter”, Sonic Youth, and Dinosaur, Jr amongst others as he hits on everything from classic rock, to ’90s alt-rock, abstract jazz, and nearly everything else in between. (Website/Label)
19. This Moment in Black History – Obama Quite possibly the only campaign releated song still worth a dman now that the presidential contest has been decided. (Website)

20. Animal Collective – Street Flash Unbeknownst to anyone, but my closest confidants, I’ve spent the past month trying to “get” Animal Collective. I still don’t get them as a band, and I still don’t get the unyielding adulation they get from their fan base, but I do “get” “Street Flash,” and how its timid electronics and dubby effects provide the right accompaniment to a late night walk in the city. (Website/Label)

21. Nine Inch Nails – 1,000,000The first proper song from Nine Inch Nails’ free for the taking digital release, The Slip, shows this was no toss off collection of random junk from the hard drive. No, that was Ghosts I-IV. Oh, I kid Trent, I kid, but seriously, the big garage rock riff which provides the backbone to “1,000,000” works itself in rather nicely with the aggressive electronics Reznor is known for. (Website)
22. El Ten Eleven – Jumping Frenchmen of Maine The mix of robot rock and big guitars on “Jumping Frenchmen of Maine” make this one perfect for pushing your sensible Japanese import upwards toward 70 MPH on the freeway. (Website)
23. The Dreadful Yawns – Catskill While the rockers and the guitar freak outs first got me excited about The Dreadful Yawns latest release, Take Shape, it was the delicate harmonies between Ben Gmetro and Liz Kelly as displayed on “Catskill” which really solidified this album’s position as one of the year’s best. (Website/Label)

24. Two Cow Garage – Brass Ring Two Cow Garage make Rock ‘N’ Roll music the way its supposed to be made. Nuff said. (Website)
25. Oxford Collapse – Young Love Delivers (Website/Label)
26. Wolf Parade – Language City (Website/Label)
27. Parts and Labor – Nowhere’s Nigh (Website/Label)
28. Army Navy – Saints For the longest time I could not get past this song on Army Navy’s self titled debut. Power pop just doesn’t get much better than this. And the times I did get past “Saints,” it was to go back to song two, “My Thin Sides.” (Website)
29. The M’s – Don’t Be Late (Website/Label)
30. Hot Cha Cha – J’accuse (Website/Label)

31. The Black Angels – Surf City Revisited Surf City Revisited would have sounded so out of place amongst the sprawling, dark rhythms on Directions to See a Ghost, but live, and on an EP, their take on Sixties surf rock sounds just about right. That is as long as your version of right includes being totally f*cked up by a tidal wave upside the head and not riding one of those big waves. (Website/Label)

32. Jay Reatard – Always Wanting More (Website/Label)
33. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – More News From Nowhere (Website/Label)

34. Royal Bangs – Broke Calculator (Website/Label)
35. F*cked Up – Crooked Head (Website/Label) F*cked Up’s “Crooked Head” plays like Black Flag taking on the Beatles White Album, and the results are so much better than Dirty Projectors taking on a Black Flag album.

36. Robert Pollard – Gratification to Concrete For me, “Gratification to Concrete,” and its big Frampton like guitar solo, signaled Uncle Bob was back in top form. No longer was he writing a song a day on the can. No, he was riding one good song a day on the can. There’s a difference. One which was even more clear on the album he did with Boston Spaceships. (Website)
37. Bears – Wait and See “Wait and See” is the top jam from Cleveland’s best indie pop album released this year. (Website)
38. Santogold – L.E.S. Artistes “L.E.S. Artistes,” that’s Lower East Side Artists for those Americans in the crowd, is part Madness, part Eddy Grant “Electric Avenue,” and part M.I.A. You add all that together and you have one hell of a single. (Website/Label)

39. Chairlift – Bruises I’m not immune to the charm of those cutesy songs that get featured in iPod commercials. (Website)

40. Neil Patrick Harris – My Freeze Ray And I’m not immune to the charm of Neil Patrick Harris, either.