A slew of tastemaker blogs and magazines have unfurled their "Best of Decade" lists, and after checking out a dozen or so, I found that many albums of merit had fallen through the cracks, seemingly glaring omissions on hindsight.

There are plenty of other forgotten albums above and beyond the ones I mention in this post. Feel free to add your own favorite forgotten album in the comments section below because sometimes, in the forest, it’s okay to stare at a leaf.

Electrelane – No Shouts, No Calls (2007)

It’s a staggering blow every time this album finishes because the band is on “indefinite hiatus.” (That’s a nice way of saying they broke up.) Never again will such a hypnotic coo spring from the speakers, only to be overwhelmed by the occasional instrumental surge of stomp-on-the-floor backbeat and organ-heavy garage ruckus. This duality of chaos and dread are translated into two diverse styles, whereby you'll spend weeks listening to the faster punk tracks, only to suddenly switch to the others sandwiched between, which somehow, without being the least bit maudlin, ascend on a hum of organs and a choir of voices that surely rival angelic thrushes.

Lazy Magnet – He Sought For That Magic… (2008)

Listening from start to finish might obliterate your mind. It's like a graveyard-shift radio station, the songs dipping and darting and constantly fluctuating through diverse representations of musical genres: lo-fi moans, metal, punk, fun and poppy electro, drone, psychedelic sitars, country that’s crushed by feedback, the meditative sounds of the rainforest and wind and a pan flute, a London rave, a fuzzy postpunk anthem … These styles and countless others blister with the randomness, dexterity, and inventiveness that makes an impressive record into a memorable one. But the strangely curious tracks are the occasional orchestral pieces, ominous cello- and viola-heavy interludes that create haunting landscapes similar to the soundtrack to John Carpenter’s The Thing, where, lost in the tundra, the pursuit for the monster has lasted so long, it’s impossible to distinguish if you’re chasing the beast or if the beast is chasing you.

This article appears in Dec 9-15, 2009.