Pitchfork's Top 50 Albums of 2012

1. Kendrick Lamar – good kid, m.A.A.d city
2. Frank Ocean – Channel Orange
3. Fiona Apple – The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do
4. Tame Impala – Lonerism
5. Swans – The Seer
6. Grimes – Visions
7. Beach House – Bloom
8. Chromatics – Kill for Love
9. Death Grips – The Money Store
10. Grizzly Bear – Shields
11. Japandroids – Celebration Rock
12. Godspeed You! Black Emperor – ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!
13. Killer Mike – R.A.P. Music
14. Andy Stott – Luxury Problems
15. Dirty Projectors – Swing Lo Magellan
16. Burial – Kindred EP
17. Bat for Lashes – The Haunted Man
18. Ty Segall Band – Slaughterhouse
19. [tie] Ty Segall and White Hair – Hair
20. Cloud Nothings – Attack on Memory
21. Jessie Ware – Devotion
22. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Mature Themes
23. Flying Lotus – Until the Quiet Comes
24. Miguel – Kaleidoscope Dream
25. Purity Ring – Shrines
26. Schoolboy Q – Habits & Contradictions
27. Julia Holter – Ekstasis
28. John Talabot – fIN
29. How to Dress Well – Total Loss
30. Cat Power – Sun
31. The Men – Open Your Heart
32. Spiritualized – Sweet Heart Sweet Light
33. Action Bronson – Blue Chips
34. Actress – R.I.P.
35. Chairlift – Something
36. TNGHT – TNGHT EP
37. Sharon Van Etten – Tramp
38. Future – Pluto
39. Lotus Plaza – Spooky Action at a Distance
40. Hot Chip – In Our Heads
41. DIIV – Oshin
42. Dum Dum Girls – End of Daze EP
43. Rick Ross – Rich Forever
44. Mac DeMarco – 2
45. Metz – Metz
46. El-P – Cancer 4 Cure
47. Rustie – Essential Mix
48. Pallbearer – Sorrow and Extinction
49. Peaking Lights – Lucifer
50. Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles [III]
51. Lambchop – Mr. M