20. James Blake
Can't quite work out this James Blake fella. Starts out with a string of low-key dubstep EPs, then flips over and turns out doleful Feist cover versions. Whatever he's up to, everyone is raving about him, and for a change it seems like the recognition might be earned.
19. Wild Nothing
If a label chief had dreamed up a 21st century re-interpretation of The Cure, the Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine in one neat package, then this is probably what they would have sounded like. But there is more to Wild Nothing than 80s retro marketing. Talent, for a start. And anyway, sometimes a band can get away with wearing their influences on their sleeves - and Wild Nothing are that band.
18. LCD Soundsystem
LCD Soundsystem used to be just about the biggest band in the world. Then they made their so-so second LP to bafflingly universal acclaim and it all started to go a bit sour. This year, with the release of This Is Happening, it felt like things were going from bad to worse. The raw energy, the excitement, the cleverness of the first record had gone altogether - to be replaced with loud, overlong, uninspiring retreads. Maybe that's a bit harsh, but it was my reading of things when I first picked up the record, and I haven't been able to bring myself to listen to it ever since.
Yet despite the disappointment, they are a great band - and sneak in on that basis.
17. Caribou
Dan Snaith aka Caribou has been around for a while now. He's sort of the Jon Obi Mikel of electronica - Mr Consistent, rarely makes a mistake, rarely lets you down. But I'd never been sure whether his music was ever truly fascinating. With his new LP, Swim, it began to seem like I might have been wrong. In parts Balearic rapture, in parts pure, unalloyed pop, Swim was an album that seemed to sweep all aside - like Obi Mikel suddenly winning the golden boot.
16. Four Tet
Renowned New York jazz drummer Steve Reid, a regular Four Tet collaborator, died this year. In some ways, Keiran Hebden's There Is Love In You felt, perhaps accidentally, like an appropriate way to send him off - wistful, downbeat and yet somehow joyous. Another who has been producing solid albums for years, Hebden raised his game with this one.
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