​Not every great song this year was released by Katy Perry. From a snarling avant-electro NPR lecture to a haunted-house posse cut to a ludicrously profane viral sensation, here are 10 examples. "Teenage Dream" might still be better than all of these, though. Better get this started before I change my mind.

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Welcome to Sound of the City's year-in-review rock-critic roundtable, an amiable ongoing conversation between five prominent Voice critics: Rob Harvilla, Zach Baron, Sean Fennessey, Maura Johnston, and Rich Juzwiak. We'll be here all week!

Happier times for us all

​My friends,

It's the conflict-averse, namby-pamby Midwesterner in me that's triggering this urge to defend every artist this panel has so far attacked. Quite a list we've got going so far, guys!

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​Those forlorn Spoon fans shut out of tonight's Music Hall of Williamsburg gig have another option, if your definition of "lunch hour" is flexible enough and you're willing to wait in line on the L.E.S. for... what? Three hours? Two? Maybe an hour will do it? How many people does the Cake Shop hold again? That TV over the bar will be on so you can actually see them, right? In any event, quoth the band's Twitter:

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​The Arcade Fire will "probably, and most assuredly definitely" have the #1 album in the country this week, according to the L.A. Times, which attributes the 156,000-copies figure to Merge labelmates Spoon, who of course helped AF burn down Madison Square Garden last week. Should this number, and this chart position (the band's, and Merge's, first #1 ever) hold, it will be frankly pretty shocking how not shocking it is. I say again: We did it, Internet!

All hail Spoon, arena-rockers at last. Pic by Ben Jay.

​A couple splendid bootlegs to start your week, starting with Spoon's triumphant, 15-song (!) opening set for Arcade Fire at MSG last Wednesday, as captured by the indomitable NYC Taper. Britt Daniel and co. fill the place just as capably as the headliners, just with way less chest-beating, fist-pumping, Terry Gilliam-aided bombast. Which suits the lithe white-funk of "I Turn My Camera On" and so forth just fine.

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Régine, basking. Pic by Ben Jay, more below.

​Arcade Fire/Spoon
Madison Square Garden
Wednesday, August 4

Gold medal, stage banter, 2010: "I have to say my favorite part of Madison Square Garden is this area right over here," announces Win Butler, gesturing toward a spot to his right maybe halfway back into the general-admission pit seething on the floor before him. The people he's pointing at are thrilled at the compliment, until... "But that's only because that's where Hakeem Olajuwon blocked John Starks in game six for the Houston Rockets to win!" Shock, revulsion, rampant boos, band launches into "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)." Amazing.

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Spoon
Radio City Music Hall
Friday, March 26

"This place is all right," declares Britt Daniel, understating as always. "I think we are the band that played the most times at Brownies and then played Radio City Music Hall." Calling out their long-shuttered-East-Village-rock-club roots is a slightly more pleasant way of framing the harrowing thought I had walking in here tonight: This band is way way way too close to 20 years old. Spoon are basically classic rock now. Are they old? Am I old? Oh shit.

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​Turns out that a #1 record in January is no more complicated than Justin Timberlake singing "Hallelujah." Vampire Weekend's short, terrifically fun reign at the top is now over, a week after it began--sales of Contra dipped 65% to 43,000, good for a fall all the way down to #6. Which is still a high, high number, by the way, for an independently distributed record by a band who haven't being doing this thing all that long, New Yorker profiles or no. Hope For Haiti (171,000 copies sold) is your new champion, fueled by all sorts of digital downloads and the 83 million people who watched the telethon on Friday night. Spoon had their biggest debut ever, selling 53,000 records, snatching the #4 spot, and giving all the VW haters a lot of context to think about--Contra's debut last week, let's remember, was a far healthier 124,000. And you wouldn't know it from the Billboard article, but reliable sources say Surfer Blood's Astro Coast debuted at #119. Which is what, after all, you expect your indie titans to do. Let's take our culture back, indifferent consumers! [Billboard]

I am somewhat obsessed with this song, magnificently unhinged highlight of Spoon's new Transference, delivered here solo acoustic, which robs the tune of its volatile bounce but allows you to focus on Daniels' nonetheless still magnificently unhinged voice. Primal screaming in record stores is only going to get more popular.

Whatever you think of Spoon's beyond-skeletal Transference, this titanically hostile piano-banger is the jam, particular when Britt Daniel screams it with such abandon. A fine guest and sentiment for this trying time in Conan's life. Spoon of course is playing tomorrow night at Mercury Lounge, but if you aren't clutching a ticket to your chest at this very moment there ain't nothin' I could link you to other than a great big frowny face.