This is a vital album for anyone interested in how musical traditions are disseminated, absorbed and reinvented.

Gold and Green finds its mark far more consistently than Kila, despite being a far more expansive and rambling album.

What is perhaps most impressive about Beautiful Africa is its sheer number of thrilling twists and turns.

Everything is ordered, nothing is left to chance, and with a clear path of progression. For the chilly yet soothing soundworld it conjures, it is endlessly replayable. Medicine never tasted this good.

It's to Diplo and Switch's enormous credit that the style is fully authentic, the party in full swing the whole way through.

They find Harris stepping away from the choral ambiance and glacial minimalism of the Nivhek era and retreating back to the nocturnal ebbs and crackling timbres of earlier albums such as Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill and The Man Who Died In His Boat.

An emotionally raw and thrilling pop record (because it is a pop record, despite its rock sensibilities). After a series of downs that would finish most bands, Get Tragic sounds like a new start for its creators.

The introspective narrative may not be uncharted territory, but Dido chose these waters. She is unrivalled in navigating them with her disarming and melodic harmonies. If we’re going to hell after this, let’s enjoy this atmospheric goddess while we can. Beautiful.

The wry humour on display even extends to the setlist, with 'I Tried To Leave You' being the first song of the encore. It's little touches like that which make Live In London both the perfect souvenir for those who were there on the night and also a handy introduction to one of the true living legends of the music industry.

Of its kind, Bakesale is a classic, and well worth reappraising.

It’s certainly Holter’s most accomplished and imaginative album--indeed, there hasn’t been an album this packed with ideas since tUnE-yArDs' w h o k i l l a couple of years ago.

Darker than its predecessors, the harrowing Meds is as close Placebo have come to that perfect album.

More than anything else, there's a sense of contentment and pleasure that purveys the Things Of The Past that could have been lifted from the Summer of Love itself.

Weighty topics, then – but don’t think for a minute these difficult subject matters do not make for a good album of pop music. For BC Camplight is an incredibly smart songwriter, capable of channelling deep-seated thoughts and emotions into pop songs that work just as well for the surface level listener.

Simply put, When The Cellar Children See The Light Of Day is one of the best albums of the year.

While it may be a tremendously personal album for Barwick, you can get lost in Nepenthe for not only its sheer beauty, but for its ability to evoke visual cues and tell stories with its music.

The message might be shorter this time around, but it is just as pointed and effective.

Another six-minute effort closes the album, Ducter, and like all the album’s best tracks it manages to navigate all the band’s best checkpoints of note, showcasing those spellbinding vocals and extraordinary percussion as they tread a truly staggering path. Schlagenheim will open up a whole new bottle of weird, if you let it in. It’s Troutmask Replica for a new generation, or perhaps it’s Can attempting to recreate the madness that Captain Beefheart’s enigmatic classic contained.

It’s compelling stuff; we need more musicians who are prepared to go nuts in this delightfully joyous way.

The Ascension is a far superior and more ambitious album [than 2010 album The Age Of Adz].

As Days Get Dark is a remarkable return, a new Arab Strap that updates, deepens and re-energises their sound.

Of course this is a great record. Of course this is essential listening. At this point in his career he’s still getting better, and that’s a scary proposition.

Robyn has assured her contemporaries that pop life does not end as a tweenie, that pop music can be for adults, and that adults can be Do It Yourself indie artists, so long as one thing is in place: talent.

Silence Yourself may not invent a genre. Silence Yourself may not give you something you didn’t have already. But it is so stark, so bold and delivered with such utter belief that you wonder why anyone would possibly care.

By the time the melancholic Schoenberg soprano has drifted into the ether at the end of The Abandoned Colony Collapsed My World, you’ll be ready for a repeat listen – although you’ll hear so many different elements the second time round, you’ll wonder whether the album isn’t secretly mutating whilst your back’s turned.

Stripped back tracks, smart beats, punchy bass, and Williamson’s dextrous barked delivery are all in place, and it seems that the band are in their dis/comfort zone.

Vynehall’s potential has always been apparent, but Rare, Forever is a truly beguiling record – equal parts poignant and hedonistic – which allows his vast array of talents to shine.

An artist at the top of his game, with the newfound artistic freedom that Konnichiwa granted him but the energy of still having something to prove. It also confirms the 2010s grime revival as being more than a passing trend, and on this basis it’s stronger than ever.

The Big Roar has been some time in coming, but it has been well worth the wait. This could finally be The Joy Formidable's year.

It’s an album rich in ideas and confidence, and will only cement The Last Dinner Party’s status as one of Britain’s most exciting new bands.

nge. Lesser bands may have gone off the rails, but Courtney and company have responded by making the best album of their career to date.

This is a sumptuous and rewarding way of spending 60 minutes. YTILAER shows how he keeps raising the bar creatively, consolidating his place in the upper echelons of alternative rock in the process.

She has delivered her most soothing and assuaging set of songs to date, music to help re-establish personal harmony and emotional equilibrium.

The wit and the orchestral touches that have always been part of The Divine Comedy are still present, but Hannon’s personal touch elevates this collection of songs to something even greater than he’s produced before.

In the grand tradition of rockers who have music to cure their own isolation and misery, Barnes and Of Montreal have entered a great one in the canon with Lousy With Sylvianbriar.

For Miike Snow make weirdly wonderful music, not without its strange lyrical dark side, but with an overall vibe that raises you to your feet and makes you gaze at the blue sky. In a phrase, life-enriching.

How good is A Weekend In The City? At times, it's brilliant: bold, forthright and honest.

Minor grumbles aside, Bromst is a thrilling, hyperactive album that runs from calm and composed to frantic and frazzled, usually within the space of an intro.

Senjutsu is Iron Maiden’s strongest offering in some time, looking forward whilst occasionally peering back over its shoulder. In tone it’s the band’s darkest album, but the sheer coherence and confidence of the playing, writing and production makes it feel filled with light and positivity. There’s conflict all over the album, but this is the sound of a band firing on all cylinders.

These outstanding songs, imaginatively and intuitively balanced by clever production, cohere to form a serious work reflecting on landscape, memory, regret and the pull of our roots. It more than earns its somewhat portentous title.

An underplayed, subtle triumph, but a victory nonetheless.

This enchanting and deeply felt piece of work marks Gwenno out once again as a unique artist with much to say.

The Blue Hour has finesse, sensitivity and lightness of touch: all the hallmarks of a great modern classical album. In Federico Albanese, we’ve got a new name to watch out for.

The voice of Shirley Collins is blossoming again, delivering its compelling stories with the urgency of a singer who simply had to make this record. Collins is a musical key worker, her songs compelling at every turn.

The Tarnished Gold sees them return sounding fresh and revitalised, delivering an album that more than matches their earlier output.

It is a celebratory record, a special piece of work with deeply thought sentiments that leave a mark on its audience from the first listen to the most recent. The rich orchestrations celebrate the world around us, discovering it to be far more colourful and expressive than we could have dared expect.

It’s a smart, attentive-demanding progression--within the song and throughout the album as a whole--that deftly captures various stages of love’s cycle. With added synths.

Palms then is so much more than the sum of its constituent parts. It won’t please everyone, particularly those with preconceived notions. But with any luck, this collaboration will continue beyond a single album, because on this evidence they’re really onto something.

It politely demands your attention; it wants to transport you elsewhere, to a place in which to daydream and reflect. Hindman and Versprille were absolutely right to go it alone; they’ve made a beautiful album.

To use an oft-heard cliché, Fir Wave is a life-affirming album – in the broadest possible sense. It celebrates natural phenomena that exist beyond our own life spans, to be present (we hope) long after we have departed.

In spite of all that’s going on, the ground that Shame manage to cover, it all hangs together brilliantly. Drunk Tank Pink is a great album, from whatever angle you look at it.

Suddenly finds Snaith in his element, writing beautifully endearing tunes and setting them to multi-layered production in a way only he can, and the results are spectacular.

It is the best album start-to-finish from Hot Chip, one that continues to show their deft range--from infectious disco hits to soulful ballads.

We may not know the full detail behind each song but simply being drawn into her world and sharing in the healing process ensures Big Picture provides a cathartic experience that few other albums will match this year.

Building on the innovations of previous album Immunity, it invests more emotionally and retains the primal physical stimulus behind Hopkins’ best music. He remains a wholly individual voice in a congested field, a single phrase played from his piano speaking volumes. And Singularity is his best album yet.

Blu Wave sounds absolutely steeped in sadness – it’s full of pedal steel guitar, luscious string arrangements and Lyttle’s fragile vocals. It is, in a word, beautiful.

A vacuum that sucks you in and dumps you among the dust you tried to sweep away. And from the dunes of that dust emerge a band well in their stride.

Another album imbued with wisdom and sharpness of mind, undoubtedly music for the slow lane. As a writer of quasi-autobiographical songs that offer uniquely considered observations on human relationships and general life detail, Gold Record proves he’s moving into a realm of his own.

He’s not resting on his laurels lyrically, but we have entered a new phase where his output is reflecting him in a more raw sense. He’s just as inclined to bellow his producer’s name with blood-curdling intensity as he is to ruminate on his place in the rap game, and with results like these his position as “big me” is surely secured.

Black To The Future is both musically and thematically bold and important. It is a major statement contextualising the present, aiming to better understand the past and, hopefully, providing a provocation for a better future.

This is as close to the spirit of punk as you’re likely to hear this year (or any year).

If there's a more surprising album this year, we'll be, er, um, surprised; Primary Colours is one of the best albums of 2009 so far.

Corinne Bailey Rae has completed a remarkable comeback, against titanic odds, and for that she should be applauded. But to do it with a record as powerful as this is extraordinary.

With this debut it is clear that O'Halloran and Wiltzie have prosperously joined neutralist ambient and 20th century classical music together. In so doing they've formed aesthetically pleasing sounds which can allure every night-time audience.

Dead Magic is a brilliant artistic statement, Anna von Hausswolff’s best self-definition to date.

While Ghostpoet will never be considered an easily accessible artist, this is the enigmatic follow up we’d hardly dared hope for.

That an album that sounds this vibrant and thrilling came out of such dark circumstance is a testament to the songwriting skills of Showalter. Pain never sounded so good.

It’s just as special as you’d expect.

The xx have taken in all the experiences and lessons they have learned since their breakthrough and come up with their most adventurous and quietly uplifting release to date. It’s so good, it may even banish those January blues.

As the album draws to a close, it’s hard not to see I Am Not There Anymore as their most ambitious, artistically progressive offering to date.

By turns danceable, blissed out romantic, familiar and new, it's technologically and musically fascinating. Its juxtaposition of orga and mecha is one of its many well executed contradictions. Packed but sparse, thrilling, complex, innovative, simple. Without even a dud bar never mind a filler track, In Rainbows is more than any fan could hope for.

They are like nothing you've ever heard before and everything you one day hoped you would, too strong for the charts and too corrupting for MTV.

Sex, Death & The Infinite Void resembles The Rocky Horror Picture Show if you were to watch it on a rollercoaster in the dark: it’s thrilling, coquettishly idiosyncratic, and filled to the brim with palpable pride at their lack of creative limits. If it’s one thing no critic could ever say Creeper lacks, it’s ambition, and here it really pays off.

Strange Boys are not revivalists, and they're not out of touch. Instead, they offer exactly the kind of rock 'n' roll slap in the face we need in this angular, post-modern 2010. The garage hasn't sounded this good in a long time.

No Thank You could be forgiven for resembling a victory lap, but it is a triumph in its own right, cementing Little Simz’s position as one of rap’s essential voices.

Not since The Strokes exploded into our consciousness in 2001 with Is This It has a band delivered such a sharp and concise debut.

The simple truth is, you won't find a sadder yet more uplifting album all year.

Endless Arcade might be an album of recalibration and evolution, but it’s also one that more than holds its own against the lofty peaks scaled earlier in their career.

It’s a vital record that’s a blast of clarity in a muddy, chaotic world.

X is their 10th album, and although some of the youthful bombast contained in the likes of Richter Scale Madness or Perfectly Natural might have been toned down somewhat, the band has managed to retain the essence of what made them such an exciting proposition back at the end of the 1990s.

The whole record is exhilarating, a bustling house party where the aux is only ever passed judiciously.

It’s possible that Oczy Mlody will disappoint those looking for an easy hit, or the sound of old-school Lips, but for those willing to persist and explore, it’s a work of nuance and intelligence.

If Afrique Victime tells us anything, it’s that Mdou Moctar’s fire and passion are drawn from his homeland. The results are staggering.

Whatever El Guincho's debt to Panda Bear, the decision to keep Alegranza! in the mama tongue lends it a genuine other-wordliness unlikely to be found in the well-traversed topography of American music.

We find Omni changing the formula only slightly and having incredible success with it. Highly recommended. Underrate them at your peril.

Voices also feels like a celebration and validation of music itself – its capacity for profundity and to be a conduit for ideas. The world may be going through an unprecedented period of difficulty, but Voices is an album that will no doubt prove a worthy, supportive companion throughout.

With Pilgrimage Of The Soul, MONO have given us an album that can confidently stand alongside As The Love Continues and G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END!

This music is restless but keenly aware, finding common ground and intersections between a range of source material and contemporary contexts and, most importantly of all, delivering these songs with honesty, conviction and genuine feeling.

Miraculously, the whole thing hangs together perfectly, each song complementing the last and what should be a mess of disparate influences, becomes a cohesive whole.

This is a difficult album to find fault with--not only on an immediate, aesthetic level, but also on a more considered, objective one.

Fortunately the lack of ambition displayed during the album-naming sessions doesn't correspond to this work's contents. It's a bold, dramatic, more than a little screwed-up and stunningly exciting statement.

On only a few listens, it’s clear that Mediation Of Ecstatic Energy is by far the most dynamic of not only these releases but of Wong’s entire career, not only on an instrumental level, but on an emotional level.

If you like your music with the psychedelic layers of The Field and subtle atmospherics of Joy Orbison, Blondes have so much to give.

This is a remarkable album, even for an artist as consistently strong as Susanne Sundfør has been to date. It reaches into the centre of the human heart with primal connections that probe at its very existence. It is another striking addition to the discography of a singer who just keeps getting better and better.

These intense, dramatic songs are the perfect companion to these times – at long last, The Anchoress is stepping out of the shadow of her famous friends to show that she’s an almighty talent in her own right.

Where its predecessor found Plant operating in a finely-tuned genre, Band Of Joy gives him an opportunity to explore his influences, and to colour a few choice odds and ends from the rock 'n' roll canon with his indelible mark.

Never content to hinge on traditional modalities, this surprisingly resilient and provocative collection reveals how Allen and friends triumphed against social barbarism and cosmopolitan functionality. As the title succinctly attests, there was seemingly no end to the late musician’s skill, and thankfully no end to the legacy he created for others to benefit from.

Gibbons and Penderecki deserve enormous credit for their approach, which is at once determinedly studied but also gloriously instinctive, Gibbons getting to the very heart of the music and the way it is made with her whole heart.