gq:

The Year in Music:
40 Albums You Might Have Missed

GQ’s in-house musicologist Sean Fennessey did the rest of our staff a huge favor by collecting this list of records (do the kids still use that word?) that might’ve flown under the radar of even the savviest of music junkies this year. But then he went the extra mile and not only told us what to buy but also where to listen to it. Cuz it’s all about the right environment, y’all. Now we’re sharing his list with the world. So stuff your Christmas / Hannukah / America-Yay-Consumption-Day Stocking with digital bits. From his excellently exhaustive list, I chose to illustrate this post with The Black Lips album, because it’s one of the few here that I’d already heard of. Here’s Sean on where to crank it up:

Where to Listen: In an old-timey saloon, clutching a mug full of moonshine. These Atlanta rockers buffed up their garage sound to a high sheen thanks to producer Mark Ronson—but you can’t completely get the varmint out of ‘em. A joyously sloppy bash.

aka, music I need to check out asap