As always, the game is simple. Describe your favorite records of the year. Count backwards.

Call it the obligatory glitch-pop record.

For years, I've been following Thom Yorke in discovering the artists making compelling mashups of techno and rock. This year, Thom was all about the Liars, an album I never quite got in to. Instead, when I need to amp things up and make the people boogie, I just cranked up the Infadels.

I once heard Radiohead's "Idioteque" described as the most positively "new" sounding rock song in ages. The Infadels have made a whole album of Idioteques (if not quite to that high standard). Combining techno beats, rock guitars, cocksure lyrics, and a frantic pace, songs like "Can't Get Enough" and "Love Like Semtex" are showing us the way to the future. We're all just along for the ride.