12. Sleater-Kinney

"We're split right in half/It's making me crazy/A two-headed brat/Tied to the other for life": Those lines, in "Wilderness," sung in a slicing yelp surrounded by brutally corroded guitars, were the most concise indictment of the state of this nation on a rock & roll record this year. Politics always run deep in Sleater-Kinney's records, but The Woods is especially bitter and impatient propulsion. "You come around sounding 1972," guitarist Carrie Brownstein barks in "Entertain." "You did nothing new with 1972/Where is the 'fuck you'?/Where's the black and blue?" It's right here.

Next: Various Artists, Run the Road