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Here's my list so far. I'm still working on it and reviewing stuff I barely heard and checking out things I missed.

Yeasayer - Fragrant Wold
Xiu Xiu - Always
Lower Dens - Nootropics
Beach House - Bloom
El-P - Cancer 4 Cure
Death Grips - The Money Store
Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place
Cloud Nothings - Attack on Memory
Holy Other - Held

other current contenders / honorable mentions
Stay + - Fuck Christian AIDS
Japandroids - Celebration Rock
Chromatics - Kill For Love
Canyons of Static - Farewell Shadows
A Place to Bury Strangers - Worship & Onwards to the Wall
Dum Dum Girls - End of Daze
Alicia Keys - Girl on Fire
JJ DOOM - Key to the Kuffs
Crystal Castles - (III)
2 Chainz - Based on a T.R.U. Story
Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music
Mount Eerie - Clear Moon
Frankie Rose - Interstellar

still need to check out: new Death Grips; Flying Lotus; Pallbearer; Jessie Ware; Future; Hot Chip - In Our Heads; Diiv; Miguel; Schoolboy Q; John Talabot

I actually did an in-depth top ten at like 4 am on New Year's and here it is as posted on my facebook:

1. Fade by Cloudkicker (Instrumental Post-rock)- This fucking album guys. This fucking album is available for free on bandcamp. You have no excuse not to listen to this album. Do it. Now. I could drop a whole lot of esoteric nonsense about how "soaring" and "huge" the music is, how intricate and complex the rhythm and melodies are, and how incredible it is that music can sound so inspired, but nothing I can say will really convey what I mean accurately. But it's the best record of 2012, and it costs you nothing to listen to it.

2. The Afterman: Ascension by Coheed & Cambria (Progressive Rock)- After 2010's disastrous "Year of the Black Rainbow", Coheed & Cambria have made a record that's really damn good. It's not often I actually like every song on a record, although some of these took some time to grow on me. The standout is "Domino The Destitute", which is the first song from Coheed in almost 7 years that fully captures the spirit and scope of the concept story. In addition to just being fucking awesome in all of it's cheesy, overwrought stadium rock glory. In general it feels very tightly composed and everything comes together splendidly. No songs that come out of nowhere and ruin the tone of the album, which has been an issue I've had with Coheed albums since 2005. I'm looking forward to the second "half" of the album, since double albumssplit into multiple releases is apparently a big thing nowadays.

3. Valtari by Sigur Ros (Post-rock)- I can't adequately describe Sigur Ros, why this record is good, and why it's my number three. So I'm not going to try. It's music that's beyond words, you just have to go listen to it.

4. Cold of Ages by Ash Borer (Black Metal)- This is Ash Borer's first album released with a record label, and I believe their first full-length on CD. Although this opinion doesn't make me popular with black metal snobs, the higher budget helped this band considerably. Don't get me wrong, it's far from shiny and polished, but the lack of hiss and haze is nice. You can pick out the instruments individually, which I think actually helps this style of black metal a lot. Sure, the mid-heavy wall of sound can be an easy tool for building up the 'atmosphere' but honestly, I'm glad there's a band that realizes you can do the same thing with good songwriting. The album is a very dense, 4-track slab of metal that seems to draw inspiration from Emperor, Burzum and contemporary acts like Wolves in the Throne Room. It's all in that atmospheric Northwest USA style, but done better than I've heard in a long time. Worth the time if you like black metal.

5. Advances by Deathmøle (Post-metal)- So the dude who writes and draws Questionable Content makes music in his spare time, and it tends to be pretty good. On this album he's starting to edge away from the black metal-ish style he once had, in favor of something more akin to Isis or even Meshuggah at some points. It's very heavily riff based and the individual songs (with one exception*) aren't particularly memorable, but as a whole it's a really good guitar album. *(The one exception being "Thanks!", a free song released as a bonus after the album hit the Top 5 on Bandcamp. That song is awesome).

6. Album Title Goes Here by Deadmau5 (Dance/House)- Why is this album so good? Seriously, I can't answer that question. It's radio friendly four-to-the-floor dance music that has the jackass from My Chemical Romance singing on one song. But it's so immaculately produced, so well written, so well arranged that it became a cornerstone of electronic music as a whole. All from the guy partly responsible for giving Skrillex a career, the bastard.

7. The Money Store by Death Grips (Experimental Hip-Hop)- I hate hip-hop. I really do. But this group has this insanely intense, grimy, almost industrial approach to the style that I couldn't help but get into it. It's hip-hop/rap music done in a way I'll guarantee you've never heard before.

8. Born Villain by Marilyn Manson (Alt. Metal): The High End of Low got a lot of shit it didn't deserve in my opinion, but god damn, this album. Manson hasn't sounded this ferocious since Holy Wood came out. I'm relieved that he finally stopped writing break-up albums, even though it's not as profound or interesting as Antichrist Superstar was. Still, some of the best songs he's played in years, and it's really only held-back by the, let's face it, god-awful production.

9. Pink by Four Tet (Dubstep): Not dubstep in the wubwubscreechwubwub sense. It's a lot more subdued and relaxed, though it still counts as dubstep cause of the weird half-time syncopated drum stuff. It has kind of a lo-fi 'warm' sound like something that might have come of the 90s. It's sad that most electronic music has to go back in time to be refreshing, now that it's gotten to be overexposed thanks to people like Skrillex.

10. Tramp by Sharon Van Etten (Indie rock/singer-songwriter): I'm usually not really someone who likes this really intimate folky-acoustic bullshit, but Sharon Van Etten really speaks to me for some reason. Maybe it's her voice, maybe it's the songwriting.

Honorable Mentions:
Other Worlds of the Mind by Nocturnal Poisoning
Verdonkermann by Nihill
Worship by A Place to Bury Strangers
Garden of Whatever by Clatter

"Lost Songs" by ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail Of Dead. That is all.

A Place To Bury Strangers - Worship
Cloud Nothings - Attack on Memory
Metz - s/t
Lotus Plaza - Spooky Action at a Distance
Whirr - Pipedreams
King Tuff - s/t
DZ Deathrays - Bloodstreams
The Soft Moon - Zeros
Stagnant Pools - Temporary Room
PS I Love You - Death Dreams
Paws - Cokefloat!
Ringo Deathstarr - Mauve
JEFF The Brotherhood - Hypnotic Nights
Diiv - Oshin