In rough order.
20.
brazos - Phosphorescent Blues
A small, plucky Austin TX outfit. Their best feature is their almost total lack of ego. Fine craftsmen of folk pop.
Best tracks: Kid; Day Glo
19.
Socialist Leisure Party - Tactical POP! for Coffee Cadets
An eight song mini-album from ex-members of Action Painting!, offering jangle of the Fire Engines and Monochrome Set variety. Dangerously close to pastiche in fact, but whatevs, they pastiche with panache.
Best tracks: Down With the Kids; Head in the Hay
18.
Marmoset - Tea Tornado
Another terse and gently abrasive album of post-punk psychedelica from Marmoset, at once simple and baffling.
Best tracks: Strawberry Shortcakes; Hallway
17.
The Fresh & Onlys - Grey-Eyed Girls
A lot of bands sounded like this in 2009, but The Fresh & Onlys did it best.
Best tracks: Dude's Got a Tender Heart; I'm Gonna Be Your Elevator
16.
Ramona Falls - Intuit
A Menomena offshoot with similar cut-up aesthetics, and similar levels of bombast. Not quite as successful, but a good stopgap.
Best tracks: Salt Sack; Diamond Shovel
15.
Cats on Fire - Our Temperance Movement
Brisk and lyrical.
Best tracks: Letters From a Voyage To Sweden; Tears in Your Cup
14.
The Deep Dark Woods - Winter Hours
A more memorable folk album than this year’s effort from Magnolia Electric Co. Thanks to eagleheartt.
Best tracks: All the Money I Had is Gone, The Birds on the Bridge
13.
Jayme Stone & Mansa Sissoko - Africa to Appalachia
A collaboration between Canadian banjo player Stone and Malian kora player Sissoko. Like Otis Taylor last year, Stone was interested in exploring the African roots of the banjo, and the results are sweet and fresh.
Best tracks: Bibi
12.
Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
Mea culpa.
Best tracks: Stillness is the Move; Two Doves
11.
Bell Orchestre - As Seen Through Windows
Delightfully rich instrumental rock. Thanks again to eagleheartt.
Best tracks: Water/Light/Shifts; Air Lines/Land Lines
10.
Alasdair Roberts - Spoils
A folk traditionalist from Scotland who peppers his originals with uncanny modern touches.
Best tracks: The Flyting of Grief & Joy (Eternal Return)
9.
PHANTOGRAM - Eyelid Movies
A treat, comparing favourably with the much more widely touted xx. Thanks be to generalmalaise.
Best tracks: Mouthful of Diamonds; When I'm Small
8.
NED COLLETTE & WIREWALKER - Over the Stones, Under the Stars
Australia’s finest (and almost unknown) psych-folksinger gets a proper backing band and a harder edge, without losing his strangeness.
Best tracks: Come Clean; One Evening, In the Middle of the Road
7.
Papercuts - You Can Have What You Want
Papercuts’ greatest asset, lifting their thick, mopey, organ-dominated 60s sound, is a sense of rhythm. Even the slower tracks have a lovely rolling momentum.
Best tracks: Dictator's Lament; Future Primitive; The Wolf
6.
Bowerbirds - Upper Air
A rickety yet grand folk sound. Songs drift and metamorphose without losing drive and purpose. Excellent songwriting.
Best tracks: Beneath Your Tree; House of Diamonds; Ghost Life
5.
Alela Diane - To Be Still
A slow-grower with subtle charms. From Portland OR, naturally.
Best tracks: Dry Grass & Shadows; White As Diamonds; Every Path
4.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure At Heart
Youth! Love! Guitars!
Best tracks: Young Adult Friction; This Love is Fucking Right!; The Tenure Itch
3.
Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle
One of his best, either as Smog, or as Bill.
Best tracks: Jim Cain; Rococo Zephyr
2.
The Bats - The Guilty Office
A superb return. Lushly orchestrated music from a group of confident, grown-up songwriters.
Best tracks: Castle Lights; The Orchard
1.
The Crayon Fields - All the Pleasures of the World
Completing a southern hemisphere double-act: Melbourne’s The Crayon Fields, sounding accomplished and awkward, premeditated and graceless at the same time – a late adolescent sidekick of The Guilty Office. An indie pop album with genuine and lasting charm.
Best tracks: Mirrorball; All the Pleasures of the World; Graceless
Honourable Mentions:
Anouar Brahem - The Astounding Eyes of Rita
Bibio - Ambivalence Avenue
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Vs. Children
The Clean - Mister Pop
The Clientele - Bonfires on the Heath
Extra Golden - Thank You Very Quickly
Here We Go Magic - Here We Go Magic
Kelly Saunders - Kelly Saunders
The Phantom Band - Checkmate Savage
The xx – xx
Classical:
5.
Kronos Quartet - Floodplain
A tougher-than-usual Kronos taking on an international programme, with a predominant tone of grief and pain.
4.
Henry Purcell - Ten Sonatas in Four Parts
Some of Purcell’s finest, given a virtuosic reading by the Retrospect Trio.
3.
Jonathan Harvey - Complete String Quartets
Harvey’s String Quartet No.4 with live electronics is a major achievement.
2.
Kaija Saariaho - L’amour de Loin
Award-winning opera gets an excellent debut recording.
1.
David Lang - The Little Match Girl Passion
Won Lang a Pulitzer Prize. The writing – for voice, percussion and bells – is incantatory, urgent, and highly moving.
Alela Diane
2. Beirut - The Flying Club Cup (101) 
