Top 33 of the Year.....Numbers 13 - 11

13. Bear In Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth.


Before you say anything, it was only released in the UK in 2010, alright?

BRFM saw Bear In Heaven take the psych-prog tendencies and squeeze them into more traditional pop song structures. It was a brave move, and resulted in one of the most fascinating listens this year. 'Beast in Peace' opened the record with a slow, locked groove before exploding into an invigorating chorus, moved us on to the epic, synth-laden 'Lovesick Teenagers' and the climaxing, brooding 'Dust Cloud'.

This is cinematic rock music at close to its best, and even the remix record featuring mixes from the likes of The Field and Justin Broadrick is well worth a listen.


12. Perfume Genius - Learning.

Mike Hadreas, aka Perfume Genius, gave us one of the most intimate and affecting records of the year with Learning. Mostly just voice and piano, these were nakedly personal tales of hard times but done with simple grace and melody.

It calls to mind the more intimate moments of Sufjan Stevens on Seven Swans, but Hadreas is disarming in his own way. When you hear the sound of his feet on the piano pedals, you know he's invited you into a personal place. Album highlight 'Mr Peterson', a tale of a relationship with a teacher, is a song you really have to hear for the mix of throwaway comic delivery and shocking denouement. Wonderful.


11. The Besnard Lakes - Are The Roaring Night.

Apparently recorded on the same mixing desk as Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti, The Besnard Lakes' second full-length release channels some of that energy into an album of roaring guitars, structured epics and classic rock grandstanding.

At 45mins, it packs a heck of a lot into its running time, with husband and wife Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas to the fore at all times. Shoegazey guitars meet classical orchestration on a number of the tracks, and there's real euphoria as songs such as 'Like The Ocean' and 'Light Up The Night' climb a mountain of crescendo before peaking in a blaze of instrumentation.

While hardly reinventing the wheel, when rock music is done with this much passion it's hard to resist.