The Albums of the Year - Part One

We've reached that special point in the year when the Coke advert is imminent, kids and grownups alike are swarming around the window of a certain Newcastle department store, and pasty indie kids all around the world are hastily compiling best of the year lists like some kind of grisly game of top trumps.

So, in the spirit of the season, and in anticipation of the lists that will soon litter the blogosphere, here's the first half of my favourite twenty albums of the year.

20: Sonic Youth - The Eternal
Not their best work, sure, but even allowing for the occasional drift into autopilot, Sonic Youth still creatively outshine most of their peers / grandkids

19: Dananananaykroyd - Hey Everyone!
A screamy blast of almighty power, which only really makes proper sense once you've seen them live.

18: Grammatics - Grammatics
It might have been completely overblown, but the point is that this kind of bombast hasn't been done this well since Dog Man Star.

17: Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
In which the delicately hewn craftstmanship shown on the last couple of albums reached its apex of near perfect woodsy charm.

16: Sky Larkin - The Golden Spike
Infused with the vigour of youth, the sort of brilliant pop which could only be made in England.

15: Arctic Monkeys - Humbug
A tough album for them, but an undoubted success. Working with Homme gave them a welcome harder edge, and once again they showed progression without it seeming forced.

14: Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!
The first of a seemingly endless slew of indie bands gone disco, and by far the most perfectly executed.

13: Lotus Plaza - The Floodlight Collective
Lockett Pundt (the 'other' one from Deerhunter) gives a clue why Deerhunter went from nothingy garage band to incredible dreamy space cadets after he joined.

12: Andrew Bird - Noble Beast
One of the cleverest and most enriching songwriters we have produces arguably his best collection of songs. Worth exploring again and again and again.

11: Years - Years
Ohad Benchetrit of Do Make Say Think puts together abandoned song fragments to make an unexpectedly cohesive collection. Like making a banquet out of the scraps left over from dinner.

Part Two to follow tomorrow...