In 2003, Bishop Allen released a perfect slice of simple indie pop in Charm School. In the decade-plus since, the band has been evolving and maturing. While that is usually code for "making boring music," Bishop Allen proves with Lights Out that a little perspective and restraint can elevate sublime pop hooks to the level of art.

Listen to: Start Again, No Conditions

Is frenetic indie pop your bag? If so, then a visit with the wild and wooly The Insufferable Fatigues of Idleness by The Wendy Darlings needs to be in your future. Vocalist Suzy Borello vocals are unrefined, her guitar is raw, and the pop hooks are enormous. If it takes it, sell a kidney to see this trio from Clermont-Ferrand, France perform live – it'll still be a bargain.

Listen to: Teenager, 007, Catch 32

For ten years, The Dead Girls have worshipped at the power pop altar of Big Star, but it wasn't until Noisemaker that the band finally put it all together. Stunning ballads, burning twin-guitar leads, and rich vocal harmonies combine to make this album – unfortunately, the band's last – a must have.

Listen to: Better Wait, I'm On A Mission

This WestCoast supergroup needs no introduction. The band simply does everything right. Brill Bruisers is full of smart pop songs that combine the best instincts of each performer to create an album that is simultaneously rich and explosive.

Listen to: Brill Bruisers, Dancehall Domine, War on the East Coast

Youth produces enormous results for this new band from Brooklyn. Driving songs straddle the line of punk and indie rock with vocalist Anika Pyle laying her heartache, longing and confusion bare over twelve songs and 35 minutes. Its impossible not to get swept up in the wave of Teenage Retirement.

Listen to: Name That Thing, Something About Geography

Hannah Wiggins has created an album of quirky pop that makes sublime use of a Millennial disinterest in genres, a supreme DIY approach, and lyrics that are terrifically insightful. Not punk nor anti-folk nor anything else, it's merely brilliant music that deserves the widest audience.

Listen to: Run, Getting Old

Another album from this long-running project of Swede Annika Norlin, and another appearance in my year-end list. With lyrics so poignant, hooks so catchy, and songs so welcoming, The Fox, The Hunter and Hello Saferide is the latest indie pop gem from an artist more people should know about.

Listen to: I was Jesus, Last Night Bus

I'm a sucker for female fronted power pop, and Milwaukee's Sugar Stems are making the best power-pop since Holly and the Italians or Nikki and the Corvettes. The songs on Only Come Out at Night are catchy with just the right amount of swagger to balance those sweet vocals.

Listen to: Radio Hearthrob, I Know Where I'm Going

This Norwegian twee band mixes gorgeous boy/girl harmonies, bobbing rhythms, and just enough melancholy to keep your teeth from rotting out. Its a well-traveled road, yet the fantastic songs on A Thousand Half-Truths allow it to stand well above the competition.

Listen to: Barcodes, Ticket Machine

Dude Incredible may just be the best album Shellac have ever released. The trio of musicindustry veterans have created an album that uses restraint to build tension, and uses chaos to shout with abandon. Points are made, guitar tones are otherworldly, time signatures are useless, and the result is incredible, dude.

Listen to: Dude Incredible, Riding Bikes

While normally it takes a muscular guitar riff to attract my attention, Swedes Vulkano do it with post punk urgency, a little darkwave, a lot of tribal drumming, and the vocals of some wild women. So glad this album finally got a release in the US.

Listen to: Choir of Wolves, Vulkano, 2 Young 2 Die

Adult Life is a bright spot in an banner year for power pop. There are big ringing guitars and a million hooks in this twelve-song, 32-minute collection. This one will capture your heart whether it's Tom Petty or The Knack that send your toes a-tapping.

Listen to: Tough Love, Multiple Personalities, The One Thing, Adult Life

I've a formula for computing my top albums each year and Wussy broke it. There are no giant hits to make this album stand out, but there are a eleven well crafted songs that resound with honesty and maturity. It's a gentle and lush album, but that guitar proves that Wussy owes more to REM's college rock than folk.

Listen to: To The Lightning, Halloween, Attica!, Beautiful

These California slackers released an excellent album in 2014 – 29 years after the release of their debut. The same insight and wry humor resound in this collection, however the eclecticism and quirks have been ironed out as the band focuses on a warm southern California, often country-rock, sound. Most of all this is an album you want to listen to, all the way through, again and again.

Listen to: The Ultimate Solution, Darken Your Door

You know how it can be awkward visiting with an old friend that you haven't seen in a while? We'll there's nothing awkward about Cheap Girls and the late '80s American underground rock sound that Famous Graves brings back. If you read Our Band Could Be Your Life then Famous Graves needs to be in your record collection.

Listen to: Knock Me Over, Man in Question

It's not just math that keeps this band in the list every year- Motivational Jumpsuit is a twenty-song collection of fractured lo-fi stoner pop as consistent as anything that has ever left the band's Midwestern garage. Whether it's the immediate power pop, swirling psychedelia, or crashing indie rock, this album delivers.

Listen to: Littlest League Possible, Save the Company, Until Next Time, Alex And The Omegas

Pop punk this sugary should only be a sometimes food, but I've been binging on this album more than I care to admit. It's just packed with so many fantastic songs delivered with just the perfect tone.

Listen to: Michigan, I Miss You

What are the chances that a band of old men in the middle aughts could summon the same urgency and attitude that fueled southern California punk rock in the early '80s? Slim to none, which is why Wasted Years is just a mind-blowing success that lives up to its own dreams and mine.

Listen to: Over Our Heads

Withered Hand's Dan Willson simply does everything right on this album of neo-folk songs. Arrangements, adornments, and crescendos are used sparingly, and to great effect, allowing each song a chance to unfold and envelope you.

Listen to: Heart Heart, California, Between True Love and Ruin, King of Hollywood

Company is a sucker punch that will outshine any superlative review written about it, and destroy any genre ever prescribed upon it. It's a gorgeous record of infinite vocals layers, warm guitar tones, krautrock repetition, and smiling humility.

Listen to: Microsleep

Equal parts punk, power pop, and glam, Dangerous Game is straightforward, transparent, and delivered without pretense. Big guitar riffs do most of the talking, and if I understand them they're saying, "Grow a fucking pair and turn off that Coldplay record!"

Listen to: Discotheque, Dangerous Game, Nowhere to Go

Ace Bushy Striptease's final album is a loud rebuke of our singles-obsessed culture. Covering ground from twee-melancholy to shouted DIY punk, Slurpt makes no missteps, accomplishes each song's goals skillfully, and leaves the listener smiling at the sheer brilliance.

Listen to: Danzig Queen

Rips is a powerhouse of riffs and hedonistic choruses. It's leather jackets, arcades, feathered hair, and a Cheap Trick 8-track. Everything is up front, huge, and delivered with all the sneer you could ask for.

Listen to: How You Got That Girl, New Kid, Don't Wanna Lose

I saw this duo play a sweaty all-ages set in the windowless back room of a pizza joint. It was amazing. Somehow this album is even better with genius production, raw emotion, and song structures that ignore the rules and are all the better for it.

Listen to: Underwater Now Pt. IV, Lecher

Eighteen Hours of Static is hardcore most urgent and turbulent. Each vocal-shredding cry calls out to be heard, while a complex and engaging soundtrack demands control of your body. This is the fists-flying album of the decade.

Listen to: Goes Black, Wool, Justice

You know those grey-haired wizards that saw Big Star in 1971? Now is your chance, because someday there will be some punk kid amazed that you were into Nude Beach when they were together the first time. This album is simply amazing from start to finish.

Listen to: I Can't Keep the Tears from Falling, The Witness, See My Way, Yesterday

Never before have I had a soundtrack album in my year-end countdown – not to mention for a film I haven't even seen, but this is truly a special album. Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch has written delightful indie-pop gems for a spot-perfect cast. Twee is no longer a dirty word.

Listen to: I Dumped You First, God Help the Girl

Will Oldham releases music at such a startling pace that it's hard to believe that quality does not suffer. Rest assured it hasn't as Singer's Grave a Sea of Tongues is eleven songs of warm and twinkling indie folk delivered by a master storyteller.

Listen to: Night Noises, Quail and Dumplings

Allo Darlin's Elizabeth Morris is twee's reluctant queen. So, either consciously or not, the band has expanded it's palate both lyrically and musically to delivery a stunning indie pop album from start to finish. The immediacy of earlier efforts are gone, but the intimacy is dialed up to eleven.

Listen to: Half Heart Necklace, Bright Eyes

Benji is the only modern album in my collection where each song has been tagged as a standout. If that doesn't define a solid album, nothing does. While a thoroughly dark album, dealing with death and depression at every turn, each song is a short story accompanied by tumbling finger-picked guitar and rich atmosphere. There may not be something for everyone, but Benji is everything for a lot of someones.

Listen to: I Watched The Film The Song Remains The Same, I Can't Live Without My Mother's Love, Dogs, Truck Driver