"Album of the year" project

The last few years I've listed my favourite albums from the past year. I will do so this year as well but this time I will do it a little differently than before. I always have difficulties ranking the records. Often the number one spot has been quite easily decided but how do I really come to the decision?

I think I mostly base it on the number of times I play a record, the more you like a record, the more you're likely to play it, right?

This year though I'm gonna have a play off with the records of the year. I've put together a grid play off with 64 brackets. Here's an example of how one of these things looks, for those of you who doesn't understand what the hell I'm talking about:

So I'll put two records up against each other and the one I think is better advances to the next stage until at last there is just one album still standing- the album of the year!

First I had the idea of putting up a vote on my blog on each "match up", but for a few reasons it wouldn't work. For once there aren't that many readers here to be honest, and those who would vote would probably be three of four people so it wouldn't be too much of a competition:)

Second of all it's my blog and my opinions so I thought it would be better to have my views on it. Also I'll have help from my girlfriend to decide some of the match ups. I'll have final say though;)

I will put the albums against each other that have been released at the same time of the year so that I've had the chance to listen to both albums an equal amount of times. Which in most cases I haven't, but at least I've had the chance... So first up will by Decemberists against the Delillos album which were both released in January this year.

The criterias I have for an album to be part of this is:
1. That I own it on vinyl.
2. That it is an original release. Not a collection (like Foo Fighters - Medium Rare), not a live album (like Neil Youngs - A Treasure or Mastodon - Live At Aragorn) etc.
3. It qualifies to be among the best 64 records released this year. Apparently I have too many records at the moment. I own a few from the year already and I also have a list of records that will be released this year that I will buy so I have to sort some of them out before this thing starts.

Here are the albums that I've got so far:

...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead	Tao Of Dead
Akron/Family	S/T II
Amon Amarth	Surtur Rising
Anna Järvinen	Anna Själv Tredje
Bigbang	Epic Scrap Metal
Black Country Communion	BCC 2
Blackfield	Welcome To My DNA
Bon Iver	Bon Iver
Boris	New Album
Boris	Heavy Rocks
Boris	Attention Please
Bright Eyes	People's Key
Buffalo Tom	Skins
Cave Singers	No Witch
Crowbar	Sever The Wicked Hand
Decemberists	The King Is Dead
Delillos	Trist Å Väre Glad
Drive-By Truckers	Go-Go Boots
Earth	Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light
Explosions In The Sky	Take Care, Take Care, Take Care
Fleet Foxes	Helplessness Blues
Foo Fighters	Wasting Light
Girls	Father, Son And The Holy Ghost
Graveyard	Hisingen Blues
Haunted	Unseen
Iron & Wine	Kiss Each Other Clean
J Mascis	Several Shades Of Why
Jarle Bernhoft	Solidarity Breaks
Jeff Bridges	Jeff Bridges
Kaizers Orchestra	Violeta Violeta Vol.1
Kebnekajse	Idioten
Ljungblut	Over Skyene Skinner Altid Solen
Low	C'mon
Lykke Li	Wounded Rhymes
Manchester Orchestra	Simple Math
Mogwai	Hardcore Will Never Die
My Morning Jacket	Circuital
Okkervil River	I Am Very Far
Panda Bear	Tomboy
Paul Simon	So Beautiful Or So What
PJ Harvey	Let England Shake
REM	Collapse Into Now
Spirits Of The Dead	The Great God Pan
Steve Earle	I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive
Thurston Moore	Demolished Thoughts
TV On The Radio	Nine Types Of Light
Twilight Singers	Dynamite Steps
Urge Overkill	Rock&Roll Submarine
Wino	Adrift
Wobbler	Rites At Dawn
Wolf	Legions Of Bastards

And there are releases from all of these bands that have just been released or are expected later this year that I'll most likely buy:

Opeth

Mastodon Steven Wilson

Sivert Höyem

The Amazing

Björk

Clap Your Hands And Say Yeah

Coldplay

Black Keys

Ryan Adams

Blink-182

Lou Reed and Metallica

St. Vincent

Tom Waits

Wilco

Jayhawks

Are there any records that I'm missing from the year so far, or upcoming releases?