Another addendum to the annual mid-year round-up of the best local albums, which ran in today's paper: What about the non-local records? Here's a quickly drawn up list of my other favorite records of 2012, in alphabetical order. Less surprising than the fact that only one female-led act wound up on my local list (Now Now; a few others were close), nearly half of the records mentioned below are headed up by women. I would probably put most of those at the top of the list, too, if it were ranked by preference. But let's leave that for year-end.

Alabama Shakes, "Boys and Girls"

Fiona Apple, "The Idler Wheel"

Beach House, "Bloom"

Delta Spirit, "Delta Spirit"

Dr. John, "Locked Down"

Heartless Bastards, "Arrow"

Japandroids, "Celebration Rock"

Killer Mike, "R.A.P. Music"

OFF!, "OFF!"

Jack White, "Blunderbuss"

What are your favorite albums so far in 2012? There's a lot to choose from already, so we would be curious to hear everyone's else's personal standouts.