Top 33 of the Year.....The Top Ten!

We're nearly there folks, bear with me just a bit longer.....here's numbers 10 and 9.

10. The Walkmen - Lisbon.

Hamilton Leithauser and co haven't really changed much since the wonderful Bows + Arrows, but they've grown into their sound. In those years, The Walkmen have become a bit more languid and loose, and more world-weary....although they always sounded like life had taken quite a bit out of them.

Lisbon is a record of "power shuffles", taking inspiration from the raw and immediate sounding releases that characterised Sun Records. It's a free-flowing record that states its intentions right from the off with chiming, languid 'Juveniles'. Leithauser's throaty, Dylanesque croon dominates as always, and there are songs that compare to the band's finest (and more raucous) moments - 'Victory' and 'Angela Surf City' in particular.

An assured and confident record, The Walkmen have rarely performed their rock and roll thing any better than this.



9. The Morning Benders - Big Echo.

Now and again, a record comes along that just takes you by surprise. Whether it's the simple joy of pop music, or the fact that it was made by a band you didn't think was capable of such strides, it's good to know that music still has the power to do that.

Californian quartet The Morning Benders' Big Echo is this year's surprise for me. It's such a leap forward from debut release Talking Through Tin Cans, a record of mildly inoffensive jangle, that it makes me wonder if it was made by the same band. If a choice of producer can ever really influence the sound of a record, then Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor (co-producer with singer Christopher Chu) has to take a lot of the credit. Everything just 'pops' on Big Echo, the guitars are crisp and jagged, the harmonies can be picked apart beautifully and sounds are all in proportion.

The Morning Benders also share with Grizzly Bear a love for baroque pop, big echo-y (sorry) song production and swooning tunes that take detours in style and pace. Highlights are opener 'Excuses', the pop gem 'Cold War' and the gorgeous 'Pleasure Sighs'.

The hope is that The Morning Benders can build on this unqualified success - you've found your sound, now go and run with it!