A good year for music

This has been a damn good year for music for me. It has seen new albums from most of my favorite artists, including:

Neil Young
Tom Petty
Indigo Girls
The Decemberists
Bob Dylan
The Pet Shop Boys
Edie Brickell
Johnny Cash

and if that wasn't enough, there was some "from the vaults" archival material released by R.E.M. and Rush.

Pretty much all the new albums have been very good. Among that entire list, only Neil Young's effort falls below "excellent" (and it is still pretty good).