Albums of the Year

So a long year of wonderful music comes to an end. Here I have my painstakingly compiled albums of the year with songs to follow very soon. I realise my choice for number one may not sit well with those of you who feel those Guillemots are just Coldplay from art school, but itsn't that what these lists are for. Anyway, enjoy and debate.

1. Guillemots – Through The Windowpane

As tougher race as I’ve ever known, but this astonishing debut album nicked it partly after watching Fyfe Dangerfield sing ‘Little Bear’ with the LSO on BBC2 coverage of the Electric Proms. But even without that, this record is just breathtakingly beautiful, swooping brilliance from start to finish, balancing a wilful experimentalism with controlled, crafted pop nous. Put simply, no one made a record with a higher hit ratio and you can’t really ask for more.

Download: ‘Made Up Lovesong #43’, ‘We’re Here’, ‘If The World Ends’, ‘Sao Paulo’

2. Tom Waits – Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards

While he didn’t nick top spot, Tom Waits consolidated his place in my musical mind as resident avant genius and approached Dylan for his sheer untouchability. The highpoints of this mammoth, 54 song suite of crushing creativity were among his finest of the past few years and he’s now on a hit rate on par with anyone working. ‘Road To Peace’ must also rank among his very finest works, a blistering polemic devoid of crusading pretension that should be played to anyone who voted for George W. Bush. Brilliance defined.

Download: ‘Road To Peace’, ‘Rains On Me’, ‘Bottom Of The World’

3. Cat Power – The Greatest

A slow burner for sure but Chan Marshall’s finest work thus far eschewed the minimalist acoustics of her wonderful back catalogue to make a modern white soul record without peer this year. Taking Al Green’s old band for a spin, she called on her powers of beauty both in voice and songwriting and delivered a gorgeous journey of an album; personal, fun and touching, often at the same time. The crushing ‘Lived In Bars’, especially when delivered live, might be the finest thing she has ever done.

Download: ‘The Greatest’, ‘Lived In Bars’, ‘Love And Communication’

4. The Hold Steady – Boys And Girls In America

Oh, how this has grown. Only a few weeks ago I had left this aside as a simple bar band record of high quality but little else. Now, it wasn’t too far off nicking top spot. Given time, this record reveals itself as a sprawling masterpiece of teenage fuck up not unlike the mightiest work of The Replacements. Craig Finn has created a set of tales only matched in modern American music by Willy Vlautin’s Richmond Fontaine for their literary attention to detail and heartbreaking beauty of phrase. You’ll read my rhapsodising on this further at a later date so for now, I’ll just tell you that this is astoundingly brilliant music you simply must hear.

Download: ‘Stuck Between Stations’, ‘Citrus’, ‘First Night’, ‘Southtown Girls’

5. Joanna Newsom - Ys

For a little while, this was the stone cold winner but, while this is a work of art is the truest sense, it doesn’t quite engage me enough on a visceral level to tug at those base heartstrings. Don’t get me wrong though, this is spectacular music; bold, brave, inventive and painterly in its detail and emotion. Kate Bush can finally rest easy that her crown will be taken onwards and upwards on the baffling head of this quirky chanteuse.

Download: ‘Cosmia’, ‘Emily’, ‘Monkey & Bear’

6. The Flaming Lips – At War With The Mystics

The Okie magicians complete their life-affirming trilogy in style with a more accessible epic of wide-eyed naivety infused with a new sense of political anger. While never quite the match of The Soft Bulletin (few are), this doesn’t put a foot wrong and its intense beauty, righteous anger and soft-centred heart leaves you wanting more but not cheated of a second. Also, in ‘Pompeii Am Gotterdamung’, they created what may be their defining moment.

Download: ‘The W.A.N.D’, ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah Song’, ‘Pompeii Am Gotterdamung’

7. Wolfmother – Wolfmother

It seems near futile to attempt to sum up the visceral genius of this astonishing, derivative slice of blistering rock and roll. While they wore their influences like a fluorescent jumpsuit (Sabbath, Zeppelin, AC/DC), the conviction with which these antipodeans played could not fail but get you shaking your ass and banging your head. Packed to its bloody, sweaty gills with titanic tunes, this was the shit-kicking peak of music’s year. Nothing rocked harder or better than Wolfmother.

Download: ‘Dimension’, ‘Mind’s Eye’, ‘White Unicorn’, ‘Joker & The Thief’

8. The Decemberists – The Crane Wife

After three super little albums of grand ambition but twee conviction, Colin Meloy finally dragged himself into action and brought the guitars with him. A true journey of a record, swooping, driving and rolling around your head, Meloy delivered his finest set of songs for this major label debut and it easily outstrips its predecessors for muscular axemanship and bravery of craftsmanship. Part 1 & 2 of its title too, represent the full flowering of a singular talent.

Download: ‘The Crane Wife 1 & 2’, ‘Summersong’, ‘Oh Valencia’

9. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – Etiquette

Starting to make headway after the painful gestation of this fourth album, Owen Ashworth’s place as a modern bedsit bard is beginning to become set. This was his strongest suite yet, filling his songs with a longing and rounded quality that had been slightly lacking on previous releases. As usual, his ability to break hearts while melting others was to the fore with ‘Bobby Malone Moves Home’ and ‘Young Shields’ becoming minor indie classics of the year.

Download: ‘Young Shields’, ‘Bobby Malone Moves Home’, ‘Cold White Christmas’

10. TV On The Radio – Return To Cookie Mountain

Their breathtaking debut had already cemented their position as modern indie godheads, but this shot them into a new stratosphere. Working with Bowie never does you harm, but their electro-doo wop indie rock whirlpool just sucks you in and leaves you broken, battered and affirmed that music can still do such things. An astonishing record that left much of the U.S scene trailing.

Download: ‘Wolf Like Me’, ‘I Was A Lover’, ‘Let The Devil In’

11. Arctic Monkeys – Whatever You Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not

Don’t believe the hype for sure. If you did, you would’ve needed something beyond a religious experience to justify the astonishing love shown to this lot pre-release. Almost a little too perfect for words with their tongue-cutting lyricism and post-Strokes angular punk/new wave, but blessed with a set of ridiculously great songs. In ‘Certain Romance’ too, they wrote the year’s perfect paean to modern apathetic love, coupled then to their lovely ‘Mardy Bum’, a kitchen-sink study of a loving row.

Download: ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’, ‘Certain Romance’, ‘Mardy Bum’

12. Midlake – The Trials of Van Occupanther

While slightly over adored in year end polls, this was certainly a strong grower over the course of the year. The lush, perfectly formed songs seem to spill over you in a rush of anti-modernist beauty, an album out of time if you will, seemingly beamed from the mid-70s West Coast scene when harmonies and organic sounding sounds that appear to have been recorded in a wood cabin wilderness were deeply in vogue. ‘Roscoe’ took the plaudits, but little falls flat, even if it takes a couple of spins to truly fall for this one.

Download: ‘Roscoe’, ‘Bandits’, ‘Young Bride’

13. The Young Knives – Voices of Animals and Men

The surprise of the year to be honest, this one immediately hits you with the singles and then keeps you there with the remainder. Those singles are brilliant, all storming, deeply British moments of rural post-punk made by three blokes who wouldn’t look out of place anywhere. But it was the tenderness and songcraft that set them apart from the myriad contenders this year, with ‘Loughborough Suicide’ the year’s oddest, saddest little ditty and this records crowning moment.

Download: ‘Loughborough Suicide’, ‘Here Comes The Rumour Mill’, ‘Hot Summer’

14. Hamell On Trial – Songs For Parents Who Enjoy Drugs

Not the man’s best record but still a blistering socio-political record of folk-punk from the one-man-Clash. Essentially a concept album concerning Hamell’s young child Detroit, it steams through his views on modern parenting, his inner neuroticism over his new career in fatherhood and moments of gallows humour and raucous crudity. He has no qualms on taboo and lets rip like prime Bill Hicks meets Billy Bragg but from NY and this oddly touching record representing a slight cooling and a signpost to a possible future writing actual songs. Still, can’t fault these ones.

Download: ‘Values’, ‘Inquiring Minds’, ‘Coulter’s Snatch’

15. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Stadium Arcadium

They may still not quite be able to break the ‘cool’ barrier, but musically they don’t have any peers. This was Frusciante’s record, two discs of guitar heroics from the single greatest axeman of his generation, finally overtaking Morello for said crown. Here, he homages Neu, Hendrix, Zeppelin, Branca and Zappa among others and those other Peppers deliver their near telepathic music with gusto, delicacy and craft. But make no mistake, no Frusciante, no point.

Download: ‘Dani California’, ‘Hard To Concentrate’, ‘Animal Bar’

16. Cold War Kids – Robbers & Cowards

Their brilliant Up In Rags EP set pulses racing but the debut is just a joy to behold; a suite of sweeping, warm mini-epics of redemption and sin. ‘Hospital Beds’, ‘We Used To Vacation’ and ‘Red Wine, Success’ are all far further advanced both in years and quality than they have any right to be coming from a debut band, but this is just beyond great at times. Their slight lack of focus drags it away from the upper echelons, but watch their space.

Download: ‘Hospital Beds’, ‘We Used To Vacation’, ‘Red Wine, Success’

17. Bob Dylan – Modern Times

Not even approaching the masterwork some would have you believe it is, this is Dylan’s easiest set of songs since Desire, flowing with a free ease he must’ve dreamt of back in those coffeehouse days in Greenwich. Blues and folk to the fore but jazzier textures and laidback atmosphere may bely the lyrics dissecting religion, politics and all that in between. His crack band remain arguably his finest musical asset now the voice is gone but the mind remains intensely sharp and the work, still relevant.

Download: ‘Workingman’s Blues’, ‘Thunder On The Mountain’, ‘The Levee’s Gonna Break’

18. M. Ward – Post-War

With every release this man’s grows as a songwriter and this time, with the extra political focus, his songs grew into fully fledged vignettes he’d never quite managed to give life to previously. While Iraq remained a constant backdrop, its was the personal that made this memorable as Ward created a set of songs both achingly sad and perfectly formed. The title track itself was his finest work yet, a moment of songwriting breakthrough that marks this man out. That true masterwork cannot be too far off now.

Download: ‘Post-War’, ‘Requiem’, ‘Chinese Translation’

19. Margot & The Nuclear So So’s – Dust of Retreat

Another surprise this year was this generic indie offering of power pop and swoonsome U.S alt rock that ended up being a true masterwork of songwriting conviction that showed there was indeed life after Weezer. If anything though, this was better than much of Weezer’s catalogue, spilling over with emotive, sweeping songs that detailed big city life, love and loss with thrilling detail. An album where every word eventually gets learned, this was another major surprise and a definite contender for grower of the year.

Download: ‘On a Freezing Chicago Street’, ‘Skeleton Key’

20. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Show Your Bones

Nearly forgotten in the rush of superb new records this year and its lack of a scene in which to fit, Show Your Bones reveals itself over time to be a startlingly well made and crafted album. A West Coast symphony to Fever To Tell’s New York clatter, its finest moments reveal a band with grander ambitions than that prevailing modern rock scene could contain. An acoustic version of ‘Cheated Hearts’ too, is a moment of astounding beauty and while nothing matches ‘Maps’, this is the finer record.

Download: ‘Gold Lion’, ‘Phenomena’, ‘Cheated Hearts’

And of course, all the nearly rans. All those who made great records this year but I only have room for twenty.

Jenny Lewis – Rabbit Fur Coat, The Devastations – Coal, Thom Yorke – The Eraser, Ray LaMontagne – Till The Sun Turns Black, Mogwai – Mr. Beast, The Feeling – Twelve Stops And Home, Howling Bells – Howling Bells, Lambchop – Damaged, Joseph Arthur – Nuclear Daydream, Sonic Youth – Rather Ripped, Belle & Sebastian – The Life Pursuit, Beirut – Gulag Orkestar, Man Man – Six Demon Bag, Yo La Tengo – I’m Not Afraid And I Will Beat Your Ass, Liam Frost – Show Me How The Spectres Dance, Richard Swift – The Novelist / Walking Without Effort, Bruce Springsteen – We Shall Overcome, Comets On Fire – Avatar, Sufjan Stevens – The Avalanche, Ali Farka Toure – Savane, Amy Winehouse – Back To Black, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – The Letting Go, Camille – Le Fil, Cansei De Ser Sexy – CSS, Hot Chip – The Warning, Jarvis – Jarvis, Lindsey Buckingham – Under The Skin, Lupe Fiasco – Food And Liquor, Mountain Goats – Get Lonely, The Pipettes – We Are Pipettes, Squarepusher – Hello Everything, Morrissey – Ringleader Of The Tormentors, Muse – Black Holes And Revelations, Birdmonster – No Midnight, Grizzly Bear – Yellow House, Mystery Jets – Making Dens, Neil Young – Living With War, Broken Social Scene – S/T, Band Of Horses – Everything All Of The Time, Graham Coxon – Love Travels At Illegal Speeds, The Cloud Room – S/T, Sound Team – Movie Monster, Secret Machines – Ten Silver Drops, Semifinalists – S/T, Scritti Politti – White Bread Black Beer, The Lemonheads – The Lemonheads, Dirty Pretty Things – Waterloo To Anywhere, Built To Spill – You In Reverse, Silversun Pickups – Carnavas, The Futureheads – News And Tributes, Mark Lanegan & Isobel Campbell – Ballad Of The Broken Seas, Figurines – Skeleton, Johnny Cash – A Hundred Highways, Larrikin Love – The Freedom Spark, The Spinto Band – Nice And Nicely Done, Josh Rouse – Subtitulo, Joshua Radin – We Were Here, The Roots – Game Theory, Sunset Rubdown – Shut Up I Am Dreaming, Tapes N Tapes – The Loon, Swearing At Motorists – Last Night Becomes This Morning, Plan B – Who Needs Actions When You Got Words, Snow Patrol – Eyes Open, Six Organs Of Admittance – The Sun Awakens, The Raconteurs – Broken Boy Soldiers, Beck – The Information, Joan As Policwoman – Real Life, Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings The Blood, Scissor Sisters – Ta-Dah, Sonic Youth – Rather Ripped, The Organ – Grab That Gun, Bat For Lashes – Fur And Gold, White Whale – WW1, Head Automatica – Popaganda, Tilly & The Wall – Bottom Of Barrels, Bic Runga – Birds, Ditty Bops – Moon Over The Freeway, Bishop Allen – The EPs, Calexico – Garden Ruin, The Elected – Sun, Sun, Sun, Micah P. Hinson – The Opera Circuit, The Black Keys – Magic Potion, The Magic Numbers – Those The Brokes, Junior Boys – So This Is Goodbye, Annuals – Be He Me, Sparklehorse – Dreamt In The Belly Of A Mountain, Black Angels – Passover, Nellie McKay – Pretty Little Head, Emily Haines – Knives Don’t Have Your Back, Destroyer – Destroyer’s Rubies, Alexi Murdoch – Time Without Consequence, Late Cord – Lights From The Wheelhouse, Regina Spektor – Us, Howe Gelb – ‘Sno Angel Like You, Lupen Crook – Accidents Occur Whilst Sleeping, The Brakes – Beatific Visions