Kevin Bronson on December 14th, 2011

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Here comes the third installment in my countdown of my favorite 20 local albums of the year. Did you miss the first two? Here they are: Nos. 20-16; Nos. 15-11.

10. Army Navy, “The Last Place” (Fever Zone)

Jangle-pop doesn’t get much better these days than the sophomore album cooked up by Justin Kennedy, Louie Schultz and  Douglas Randall. With Kennedy waxing forlornly about a breakup, “The Last Place” stands up with the likes of Teenage Fanclub, the dB’s, Material Issue and the Posies as pure-pop confection, its precise guitar work, propulsive rhythms and melodies and meticulous production (courtesy of Adam Lasus) leaving a sweet aftertaste. Dozens of bands aspire to make songs like these, and a few even get them on TV and in movies; few can hold your attention over a whole album.

||| Previously: SXSW review. Interview. “The Long Goodbye.” “Ode to Janice Melt” video.

9. Active Child, “You Are All I See” (Vagrant)

Not the only former choir boy on this list, Pat Grossi takes ethereal to a new level on his synths-, harp- and reverb-lade debut, which could have been called “Tragedy in Falsetto.” Rather than pound you over the head with mopery, though, Grossi’s painterly approach invites you to view his heartache from behind a velvet rope of clinically cut beats, warm textures and barely distinguishable vocals. Part of Grossi might have died somewhere along the way, but despite “You Are All I See’s” funereal quality you can’t touch the body.

||| Previously: “Playing House.” “Hanging On.” “Playing House” video.

8. Vanaprasta, “Healthy Geometry” (self-released)

For all its fascination with mathematics, the L.A. quintet’s debut arrived with immeasurable ambitions. Party anthems, Floydian excursions, proggy guitar interplay, Brobdingnagian choruses led by diminutive lead singer Steven Wilkin – “Healthy Geometry” not only abides no formula, it’s kind of like pi in its transcendental qualities. On their third try, Vanaprasta found in album producer Dave Schiffman a studio hand who could approximate their arena-ready live show, and as a document of their first three years as a band, all the numbers add up.

||| Previously: Video. “G-.” “Supernumerary.” “Nine Equals Nine.” An interview. “To Haiti with Love” compilation.

7. Zola Jesus, “Conatus” (ADA)

Nika Roza Danilova established herself as something of L.A.’s answer to Fever Ray (OK with us) with an album that sounds like something out of a fever dream. The transplanted Midwesterner’s incantations – part Siouxsie Sioux, part Elizabeth Fraser – are the shiver-inducing stuff of dark cinema, icily layered over synths, strings and electronic beats. Not overplaying her estimable pipes, though, “Conatus” reveals a pop sensibility and a wide range of emotions. It can be at turns exhilarating and brooding, but seldom does it sag under the weight of its own drama.

||| Previously: “Vessel.” “Vessel” video.

6. Apex Manor, “The Year of Magical Drinking” (Merge)

Hooky and razor-sharp, this could have been the album the Replacements made had they staged a comeback this year. “Teenage Blood” and “Under the Gun” are ragers; “I Know These Waters Well” would hold up in any era of power-pop; “My My Mind” sounds like the diary of somebody who spent a year on a hilltop writing songs, which Ross Flournoy did. It’s a damned shame that Flournoy had to retreat from the scene this year to, ironically, get treatment for drinking (“Update: The year of magical drinking has ended” asserts the website). But the magic in the album, and there is plenty of it, worth a round of Coca-Colas for the bar, and more.

||| Previously: Interview. “My My Mind” video.