A YEAR IN SONG

One of the very best years for music – interesting neo-folk, the ill-named but super 'indietronica', broody and enraptured singer-songwriters, glitchy dub-pop, US indie bands without sock-puppet singers, Canada, Canada and more Canada, the icecapades sampling of The Go! Team and the wonderful new nine-piece wonder Ella Guru from Liverpool. Here are my highlights, in sort of order (*means from one of my favourite albums of the year):

Joanna Newsom – Peach, Plum, Pear (*The Milk Eyed Mender)
Ella Guru – Blues Is the Root (*The First Album)
Wolf Parade – Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts
The Go! Team – Bottle Rocket (*Thunder Lightning Strike)
Johnny Boy – You Are the Generation Who Bought More Shoes...
The Killers – Mr Brightside (*Hot Fuss)
Rachel Goswell – Plucked (*Waves Are Universal)
Lucky Jim – Lesbia (*Our Troubles End Tonight)
The Arcade Fire – Une Année Sans Lumiere (*Funeral)
Khonnor – The Stoned Night
Marquis de Suave – Postcards (*LP still unreleased)
Laura Veirs – Riptide (*Carbon Glacier)
Iron & Wine – Each Coming Night (*The Creek Drank the Cradle)
A Girl Called Eddy – People Used To Dream About the Future (*self-titled)
Ed Harcourt – Born in the 70s
Anais Mitchell - I Wear Your Dress (*Hymns For the Exiled)
Junior Boys – Teach Me How To Fight
Rufus Wainwright – I Don't Know What It Is
Maritime – King of Doves
Múm – The Island of the Children's Children
The Blue Nile – Everybody Else
Thirteen Senses – Into the Fire
Stina Nordenstam – I'm Staring Out at the World
The Futureheads – Hounds of Love
Efterklang - Tortuous Tracks
Dogs Die in Hot Cars – Apples and Oranges
Lali Puna – Faking the Books