#Blogovision 30-21

30. The Men // Open Your Heart

Compared to Leave Home’s murky smear of scream-fueled, shoegaze-shrouded punk, Open Your Heart is practically a party album. A.V. Club // An ideal road-trip anthem, whether you are desperately fleeing the city or triumphantly returning. Spin // The Men aren’t out to redeem or revitalize guitar-driven rock music; they’re too busy being really awesome at it. Tiny Mix Tapes

29. Exitmusic // Passage

With Passage, Exitmusic has turned in one of the more ambitious, evocative, and engaging efforts of 2012. Beats per Minute // An impressive debut, Passage has as many great moments as it does moments that suggest future greatness. All Music

28. The Twilight Sad // Noone Can Ever Know
It’s this combination of the familiar and the new which makes 'No One Can Ever Know' a synthesised and sinister success - a tense and absorbing record that creates its own world for you to live in. This is Fake DIY // A work of great depth that begs many repeat visits. The Skinny

27. Grimes // Visions

A collection of discrete miniatures managing to be expansive and intimate all at once. Blurt // It doesn't sound like it's striving or straining to be pop music, or conversely that it's determined to be awkward - it's just going where pleasure leads it. The Quietus

26. Grizzly Bear // Shields

With Shields, Grizzly Bear make certain demands - hold still, listen closely - that seem downright radical in a busy and impatient world. Pitchfork // Aesthetically, Shields defends Grizzly Bears overarching vision by having its most dissimilar sounds and styles tear each other apart. It builds these barriers sonically, then crashes through them. Consequence of Sound

25. Lana Del Rey // Born to Die
Del Rey may be the pop-star equivalent of a teenage girl naïvely playing dress up in her grandmother's vintage clothing and singing into a hairbrush ... but that doesn't make Born to Die any less close to pop perfection. Slant Magazine // Del Rey’s vocals add star quality, flitting between a smoky, sultry purr and playful high-pitched tease, thriving on the drama of her own innate contradictions. Daily Telegraph // Her album takes the "gangsta Nancy Sinatra" persona introduced last summer on "Video Games" and runs with it. The Observer

24. Dirty Projectors // Swing Lo Mangellan
Wild, wooly, and willfully chaotic, Swing Lo Magellan thrives on this postmodern assessment of its own parts, identifying its inherent artificiality through jerky transitions and purposeful gaffes. Slant Magazine // Deadly serious even at its most eccentric, wilfully awkward even at its most accessible, dense and intricate even at its most freewheeling. Drowned In Sound

23. Bat for Lashes // The Haunted Man
So far, what Bat For Lashes lacked was singles for mass consumption. Here, there are two. PlayGround // A stark, inventive and sublime work from a maturing artist who finally seems to have caught up to her considerable gifts. Pretty Much Amazing

22.Mark Lanegan // Blues Funeral

A marvellous piece of work, boasting a rare congruence between lyrical themes and musical evocations, and fronted by one of the most broodingly characterful voices in rock music. The Independent // It's impossible not to get swept away by the emergency room blues of Leviathan, or the electro-swamp-psychedelia thrum of Tiny Grain Of Truth and not marvel at Lanegan's damaged genius in the process. Music OMH

21. Cooly G // Playin me
You hear fragments of lover's rock, dubstep, Soul II Soul, drum'n'bass, UK funky and Massive Attack's stoned melancholy. Guardian // Playin’ Me is incredibly honest, refreshingly free of competitive posturing, and full of new-era dubstep richness. Pop Matters