Chris Molanphy

Brooklyn, NY

Miguel, 'Kaleidoscope Dream': As good as the Frank Ocean and Kendrick Lamar albums are, this really is the most fully realized R&B album-qua-album of 2012, a year where black music's lower profile on pop radio gave mainstream R&B artists, perversely, greater freedom. This disc contains an R&B/HH chart No. 1 hit on it, yet it's as adventurous as anything I heard all year. Catchy, confident, creative.

I mean, did anything bring more joy to more people in 2012 than "Call Me Maybe"? It's going to top a lot of critics' polls this year, and it deserves it. Great pop is harder to pull off than folks realize, and "CMM" is just flawless, both as a composition (has multiple musical tropes, unlike some thinner pop songs these days) and as a recording (fluttery, then propulsive when it needs to be).

Runner-up: Usher's "Climax."

By default it's probably Kendrick Lamar, for bringing back a wooly form of classic hip-hop in a way that somehow seems new (i.e., could sit comfortably next to vintage Nas or the Wu, but doesn't feel obligated to them). My other would be Tanlines--we're now deep enough into the post-Gaga return of dance music that it's infiltrating more obviously indie forms of music, too. "All of Me" is the year's most underrated pop song.

Top 40 radio's swing back toward, if not rock, certainly a post-four-on-the-floor form of centrist pop: fun., Gotye, Ed Sheeran. I don't want the radio to move entirely in that direction, but the variety is welcome after the '09-'11 tyranny (often pleasurable) of Gaga and her acolytes. In terms of sonic breadth, pop radio came the closest to sounding like its 1984 peak than it has in a long time.

I think I'm alone on this one, but the Passion Pit album was just okay when it should have been great. It's a classic sophomore album problem -- weaker songs that don't advance what the band is about -- and I can't really fault Michael Angelakos for it. Following up the slab of indie-pop gems he crafted for 2009's 'Manners' ("To Kingdom Come," "Little Secrets," "Sleepyhead") was a near-impossible task.

M83 (artist behind my favorite album of 2011): So much better, and "live-r," than you'd guess. Anthony Gonzalez & co. have a show that's ready for arenas now; all they need is the US fanbase (and maybe a radio hit) to graduate them to that level.

bit.ly/NriPqp -- The way a combination of technology (iTunes, Portable People Meters) and pop trends have conspired to marginalize black/urban music in all its forms. By the end of the year, Billboard cried uncle and overhauled its R&B chart to include digital music data, arguably hastening the downfall of black radio's influence and the black retail economy. Possibly inevitable but still a shame.

Am I too soon after the Grammy nominations announcements to dump on this? It's gotta be improbable Dance Recording nominee Al Walser, with the truly appalling record "I Can't Live Without You." I think we're allowed to beat up on this guy a bit, given the way he shamelessly gamed the system to get his piece-o'-crap song into the Grammy race. I know his career is just getting off the ground -- let's ground it now.