Year-end countdown lists give me a headache. Yes, there’s something exciting about a well-executed “Top Albums of the Year” list. (“Will the new Beach House album beat out the new Grizzly Bear album? Tune in tomorrow to find out!”) But every time I try to write my own list, I end up telling myself I’m wasting my time.

To start with, no matter how much I try, I always feel ridiculous saying two great and very different albums are differentiable enough in quality to make one album the 17^th best of the year and another the 18^th best. At the same time, I’m always lamenting the dozens of other albums I know will be excellent listens but I haven’t gotten around to yet. Add to that the inherently limited and biased—whether by genre or region of the world or any other factor—roster of music anyone uses to create a list and…well, the list-making process starts to eclipse the wonderful acts of exploring the musical world evolving around us and saying, “Here are some artists that are really worth your time! Check them out!”

In any case, so many artists released amazing music that it’s no loss to present a mostly unranked list of 25 particularly great albums. Immediately below are four albums that proved to be so mind-blowingly good that I couldn’t help making a top four list just for them. But beyond that, I won’t get nitpicky. Happy listening, and happy New Year!

Album of the year: Swans, The Seer (Young God)

First runner-up: Frank Ocean, channel ORANGE (Def Jam)

Second runner-up: Lotus Plaza, Spooky Action At A Distance (Kranky)

Third runner-up: Tame Impala, Lonerism (Modular)

21 more fantastic albums:

The Boats, Ballads Of The Research Department (12k)

Bushman’s Revenge, A Little Bit Of Big Bonanza (Rune Grammofon)

Chromatics, Kill For Love (Italians Do It Better)

Circa Survive, Violent Waves (Circa Survive)

Cloud Nothings, Attack On Memory (Carpark)

Cold Specks, I Predict A Graceful Expulsion (Mute)

Mac DeMarco, Rock And Roll Night Club (Captured Tracks)

Gareth Dickson, Quite A Way Away (12k)

DIIV, Oshin (Captured Tracks)

Dirty Projectors, Swing Lo Magellan (Domino)

Bill Fay, Life Is People (Dead Oceans)

Gilded, Terrane (Hidden Shoal)

Liars, WIXIW (Mute)

Mirrorring, Foreign Body (Kranky)

Pinback, Information Retrieved (Temporary Residence Ltd)

Spiritualized, Sweet Heart Sweet Light (Fat Possum)

Andy Stott, Luxury Problems (Modern Love)

Thee Oh Sees, Putrifiers II (In The Red)

Various Artists, Oh Michael, Look What You’ve Done: Friends Play Michael Chapman (Tompkins Square)

Scott Walker, Bish Bosch (4AD)

Zammuto, Zammuto (Temporary Residence Ltd)