Some have complained that the production on this record is too thick, too glossy, and I can see where they’re coming from but it suits Atkins’ voice and songwriting so well that I can’t help but love it. Even the odd sequencing has grown on me. Plus listening to this record reminds me of the five times I’ve seen her live this year, each time improbably better than the last.

MP3: Nicole Atkins & The Sea – “Party’s Over”
Video: Nicole Atkins & The Sea – “The Way It Is”
Video: Nicole Atkins – “Neptune City”
MySpace: Nicole Atkins

Another one that I don’t necessarily disagree with the detractors on. Yes, the lyrics can be overdramatic and ponderous, but there’s a warmth and earnestness to Kele Okerke that make me look past that and just focus on the grandiosity and splendor of it all. And come on – the guitars fucking ROCK. These excuses can also be applied to Editors’ An End Has A Start.

MP3: Bloc Party – “I Still Remember” (acoustic)
MP3: Bloc Party – “Sunday” (acoustic)
Video: Bloc Party – “Hunting For Witches”
Video: Bloc Party – “The Prayer”
Video: Bloc Party – “I Still Remember”
MySpace: Bloc Party

It’s been a real treat seeing Basia have a year as terrific as 2007 has been for her. From being inexplicably label-less in her home country while being signed to a legendary label in the UK at the start of the year to achieving the sort of rising star status that she deserves by the end of it, all the while never losing sight of the simple joy of making music with her friends.

MP3: Basia Bulat – “Snakes & Ladders”
MySpace: Basia Bulat

…And what I mean is that the complete and utter omnipresence of Ms Leslie Feist on the television, clogging the tubes of the internets and piping out of every coffee shop in the nation did dissuade me from listening to The Reminder as much as I would have otherwise. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s a tremendous album from a tremendous talent who can’t be pigeonholed and has earned every accolade she’s gotten. And iPod, shmiPod – I can watch that “1 2 3 4” video over and over again.

Video: Feist – “My Moon My Man”
Video: Feist – “1 2 3 4”
MySpace: Feist

I was also going to label this one, “Most Likely To Have Been Earned On The Merits Of Its Three Predecessors As Much As Its Own”. I was late to the Richard Hawley party and have since been immersed in his timeless, reverberated twang and he’s managed to sell me on the fiction that Sheffield, England is the most romantic place on Earth. And it’s entirely possible that Hawley siphoned off all the goodwill I had earlier in the year for Jarvis Cocker’s Jarvis, which he also produced. Perhaps the edge went to Hawley because he could be bothered to tour through Toronto – where were you, Jarv?

Video: Richard Hawley – “Tonight The Streets Are Ours” (YouTube)
Video: Richard Hawley – “Serious” (YouTube)
MySpace: Richard Hawley

Every time I listen to this record, the most out-of-nowhere entry in this list, I keep expecting the spell to be broken. Surely something this addictively sugary has an inevitable burnout, some comedown around the corner? And yet more than eight months since their deliciously retro and timeless girl group/Motown sound hit my ears, I still can’t get enough. One of my top three records of the year and some days – namely the days when I play it – my very favourite. The Great Unwanted is my happy place.

MP3: Lucky Soul – “The Great Unwanted”
Video: Lucky Soul – “Lips Are Unhappy” (YouTube)
Video: Lucky Soul – “My Brittle Heart” (YouTube)
Video: Lucky Soul – “Add Your Light To Mine, Baby” (YouTube)
MySpace: Lucky Soul

Though that’s not to say that this album leaves me speechless – I’m just drawing a blank in trying to articulate how much I like it. It’s dreampop that sounds rather unlike everything that has been labeled as dreampop before, a peek inside Graham Van Pelt’s wonderful, technicolour imagination where it’s a perpetual endless summer populated by robots.

MP3: Miracle Fortress – “Have You Seen In Your Dreams”

In 2005, my top two albums were The National’s Alligator and Okkervil River’s Black Sheep Boy and while I consciously do not rank albums in my year-end lists, if asked I’d have said truthfully that the River had the edge. Two years later, we’ve got a rematch and this time the relocated Ohioans take the title. So lyrically and sonically rich and textured, taking the beautiful late-night bleakness of Alligator and injecting a dose of dusky sunlight and guarded optimism. The National’s latest took their game to a new level that I didn’t realize they had in them. I have no idea how they can top this one, yet fully believe they can.

MP3: The National – “Fake Empire”
Video: The National – “Mistaken For Strangers” (YouTube)
Video: The National – “Apartment Story” (YouTube)
MySpace: The National

The consensus appears to be that The Stage Names doesn’t match the grandeur and majesty of Black Sheep Boy and for that, the inclination is to regard it as not as good as its predecessor. This is unfortunate because in truth, it doesn’t try to match Black Sheep Boy – instead, it steps out of the library and goes to the movies and, in the process, turns in Okkervil’s tightest, most rocking effort to date. Still a triumph.

MP3: Okkervil River – “Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe”
Video: Okkervil River – “Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe” (YouTube)
Video: Okkervil River – “Girl In Port” (YouTube)
MySpace: Okkervil River

Perhaps the most compelling debut of the year, all thundering walls of guitars, endless crescendos and bellowed anthems yet for all the volume – and there’s lots – there’s something delicate, even frail, underneath. These four young Scots are tapped into something special and powerful and if this is just them getting started, expect to see them on more year-end lists in the future.

MP3: The Twilight Sad – “Cold Days from the Birdhouse”
MP3: The Twilight Sad – “That Summer, At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy”
MP3: The Twilight Sad – “And She Would Darken The Memory”