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Jon Chan

AC/DC
Black Ice (Columbia)
A triumphant return after eight years,  AC/DC know exactly which buttons to push. Black Ice stands easily alongside the songs that got them to this level of fame, and even if there's nothing new here, no other band manage to capture that feeling between one's third and fourth beers like AC/DC. JC   Amadou & Mariam
Welcome to Mali (Because)
After meeting at a  blind school, lovers Amadou & Mariam spent 10 years honing their sound, a joyous blend of traditional West African roots music, blues-rock, pop and soul. Blur's Damon Albarn  serves as producer on the stunning opener, Sabali. A global album in every sense of the word. MS
Beck
Modern Guilt (XL Recordings)
Beck ditches the hi-tech claustrophobia of The Information for a more retro sound, but with Danger Mouse at the helm there are still plenty of fresh twists and turns for this folksy, slightly weary but highly worthy addition to the Beck  canon. JC
Walter Becker
Circus Money (Sonic 360)
Making an unexpected detour into reggae, jazz rocker Becker rediscovers the joys of playing bass in support of songs  that blend elements of late 70s Steely Dan with vintage Jamaican beats and production. The hooks are as strong and the lyrics as insidious and impenetrable as ever. RL
Black Keys
Attack and Release (Nonesuch)
Teaming with producer Danger Mouse, the Black Keys' fifth album is their most impressive and unpredictable. They add a thrillingly futuristic edge to their gritty, lo-fi garage rock template to break free of the blues-punk mould. JC
Black Kids
Partie Traumatic (Mercury)
Effervescent retro-pop doesn't come any more packed with joie de vivre than via the Black Kids' debut, produced by former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler. If the super-catchy I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You doesn't see you flopping around the bedroom like a happy 80s disco fish, then nothing ever will. GJ
The Brian Jonestown Massacre
My Bloody Underground (Teepee)
Three years after the movie Dig! portrayed BMJ main man Anton Newcombe as a control-obsessed tyrant, his band returns  with an up-yours to those who wrote him off in the form of a grinding collection of brain-rasping guitar shreds, field samples and almost unlistenable noise. Another masterpiece. CC
Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan
Sunday at Devil Dirt (V2)
The surprise release of the year was the second pairing of the angelic Campbell - once of Belle & Sebastian - with gravel-voiced  ex-Screaming Trees frontman Lanegan. And this time they nail it. Reconstructed southern swamp rock. MS
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! (Mute)
Death, sex, God and redemption - Nick Cave at 51 shows no sign of outgrowing his long-favoured subject matters. Dig!!! does, however, see Cave shedding his torch-ballad cloak of recent years to spit tirades from his rotten pulpit of old. Packed tight with flint-eyed wit and lyrical invention. GJ
Ry Cooder
I, Flathead (Nonesuch)
Cooder completes the Californian trilogy that began with Chavez Ravine and continued through My Name is Buddy with another excursion into a vanished world. His nostalgia for a period of the past preoccupied mostly with racing towards the future is deftly expressed not only in the California-Mex arrangements of some strong songs, but also in a novella packaged with the CD  that's  actually worth reading. RL
Chick Corea and Gary Burton
The New Crystal Silence (Concord)
An absorbing live album marking the 35th anniversary of a regularly revisited partnership between pianist Corea and vibraphonist Burton, this two-disc set captures the extraordinary empathy between two great jazz musicians working both as a duo and with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. By turns intimate and expansive, both men can be heard here at their best. RL
Crystal Castles
Crystal Castles (Different)
The New York-based, Canadian-formed electronica duo challenge  and subvert  the notion of the pop star with their punishing debut. Juxtaposing a clinical, beats-driven sound with a grubby, biker-chic dress code while misleadingly describing their music as thrash, Ethan Kath and Alice Glass  are an enigmatic new proposition that's turned the underground scene on its head. CC
The Dears
Missiles (Dangerbird)
Part paean to the disintegration of his band, part V-flick to those who had written him off as spent, Murray Lightburn has managed to keep things together enough to produce this lush set of epic power ballads and feedback-driven rock numbers that elevate  the remnants of Canada's premier indie band to loftier heights. CC
Duffy
Rockferry (Rough Trade)
Aimee Anne Duffy's much-touted debut is a solid slice of classic retro-soul. She channels everyone from Phil Spector and Dionne Warwick to the Walker Brothers and pulls it off, thanks in large part to the production chops and fretwork of Suede's journeyman guitarist Bernard Butler. Duffy succeeds  where a raft of Amy Winehouse imitators have failed. MS
Jackob Dylan
Seeing Things (Sony BMG)
Stepping out from his band the Wallflowers, Dylan the younger makes his own mark with a collection of sleepy-voiced songs about everything from the current political climate to the trials of a shift worker. It's a reflection on his own journey and the kinds of people and situations he's encountered along the way. MS
Elbow
The Seldom Seen Kid (Universal)
This is the album that could transform the Manchester quintet from art-rock mood merchants to stadium rockers. If they manage to shake off the curse that often comes with lifting the Mercury prize, Elbow could give Radiohead something to think about. Dramatic as it is tender,  Kid is their finest  hour to date. MS
Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes (Bella Union)
The Foxes' rural-hippie aesthetic, idiosyncratic song structures (avoiding choruses and verses to create 'baroque harmonic pop jams') and gospel,  a cappella, hymnal and folk influences converge to form one of the most ethereal and satisfying albums of the year. GJ
Robert Forster
The Evangelist (Yep Roc Records)
The loss of fellow  Go-Betweens founder Grant McLennan weighed heavily on Forster. But he has picked up the pieces to deliver a country-tinged gem. Less a tribute and more a celebration of the songwriting magic they conjured together. MS
Friendly Fires
Friendly Fires (XL Recordings)
Such is the joie de vivre of this debut, it could have stumbled into a bright Ibiza morning with a cigar, a bottle of Moet and a supermodel on each arm.  Nevertheless, influences such  as Basement Jaxx, Prince and the Rapture fail to crowd out a beating  St Albans indie heart. JC
The Garifuna Women's Project
Umalali (Cumbancha)
This gloriously seductive album was a 10-year labour of love for the great Belizean singer Andy Palacio, who died suddenly in January. It tells the story through song of the Garifuna slaves who were deported from Nigeria in the 17th and 18th centuries and who intermarried with indigenous Caribs, only to be deported again  before finally settling in Belize. A stunning posthumous tribute to Palacio's mastery and enthusiasm. MS
Goldfrapp
Seventh Tree (Mute)
Alison Goldfrapp and her partner Will Gregory step away from the dance floor and turn the lights down low. It's laid back electronica, with Goldfrapp's soulful voice poured sweetly over the top. But every now and then the thorns still show through. MS
Juliana Hatfield
How to Walk Away (Ye Olde Records)
It's taken a while but the one-time princess of grunge has finally found her niche. And it's angry. Hatfield still has that sweet voice - and she sings of bitterness beautifully - but there's an edge to her work now that only time could sharpen. A breakup album that packs a punch. MS
The Hold Steady
Stay Positive (Rough Trade)
Anthemic choruses and smash-and-grab power chords are hallmarks of any Hold Steady outing, and Stay Positive delivers yet again. With the Brooklynite band members approaching 40, the uncertainties of mid-life have now entered singer Craig Finn's smart, blue-collar storytelling. GJ
Dave Holland Sextet
Pass it On (Emarcy)
The great bassist expands his acclaimed quintet for this characteristically strong set featuring pianist Mulgrew Miller, drummer Eric Harland, trombonist Robin Eubanks, alto saxophonist Antonio Hart and trumpeter Alex Sipiagin for some magnificently cross-generational music making. RL
Bon Iver
For Emma, Forever Ago (4AD)
Holed up alone inside his dad's hunting lodge in the wilds of Wisconsin for the colder months, singer-guitarist Justin Vernon - aka Bon Iver, after the French bon hiver ('good winter') - singlehandedly recorded one of the year's most fragile song collections. Vernon's self-imposed exile resulted in intense reflection and an opportunity to confront guilt, fear and loss. GJ
Kings of Leon
Only by the Night (Columbia)
The fourth album by Caleb, Jared, Matthew and Nathan Followill is the one everyone hoped they'd make. Big, bold and channelling the most classic of American rock influences, this blended perfectly their Creedence Clearwater leanings with the realisation that they were meant to fill stadiums. JC
Lambchop
OH (Ohio) (City Slang)
Considered by fans  the world's best-kept secret, Lambchop's latest suggests a band keen to meet a wider audience. But things are never conventional with frontman Kurt Wagner, whose soothing yet world-weary tones are so rich you could bathe in them as they veer between topics such as pencils, being a statue of the Virgin Mary and Shakespeare. JC
The Last Shadow Puppets
The Age of the Understatement (Domino Recordings)
Kicking off with the rollicking cavalry charge of the title track, this swathed-in-strings side project of Arctic Monkeys' Alex Turner and Miles Kane of the Rascals draws unashamedly on the oeuvre of Scott Walker, with the horn-coda climaxes of a spaghetti western or two thrown in for good measure. The result is cinematic and steeped in humour. GJ
Lil' Wayne
Tha Carter III (Cash Money)
Regarded by many as one of the best rapper of his generation, the croaking Lil' Wayne has conjured the year's biggest hip hop album by a country mile and staked his claim to the hip hop pantheon with rhymes that tumble along to his oddball, racing trains of thought.  He may have taken on Jay-Z's mantle in the process. JC
Little Feat
Join the Band (429 Records)
With a little help from their friends, one of the great American roots music ensembles revisit some of the best  of their back catalogue. The diversity of guest singers underlines their excellence as backing musicians,  and overshadows, if only for one CD, the still overwhelming absence of their original leader, the late Lowell George. RL
Mercury Rev
Snowflake Midnight (V2)
Another remarkable reinvention for Mercury Rev sees them tap the prog rock excesses of the 70s. Immersed in strange electronica and ethereal woodland references, it is defiantly unfashionable. Snowflake Midnight will confuse as much as it will enchant and is satisfyingly challenging as a result. JC
Pat Metheny and Anna Maria Jopek
Upojenie (Nonesuch)
Six years after its release in Poland, Metheny's fans worldwide finally got a chance to hear the guitarist revisit some of his strongest compositions with the support of, and inspiration provided by,  Polish singer Anna Maria Jopek. It's an entirely different take on some modern classics results and Metheny plays with taste and economy. RL
MGMT
Oracular Spectacular (Sony BMG)
They wowed Glastonbury with their jaunty psychedelic odes to excess and have delivered  the killer blow with an album that fuses  60s west coast rock with 70s disco cool. It all  comes in an unbeatably sleazy package in the form of man-boy wonder Andrew Van Wyngarden, a Lou Reed in the making. CC
Bob Mould
District Line (Anti)
It's almost impossible to pigeon-hole the  ex-Husker Du and Sugar frontman's work these days. 'Ambitious' is a good place to start, but this is by far his most fully realised work, throwing in some sampling, a dash of techno and a whole lot of rock. MS
Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis
Two Men With the Blues (Blue Note)
The fruit of an unexpected pairing of two very different icons of American  music who come together on the common ground of the blues. Spontaneous, in places rough and ready, this is one of the year's most memorable musical encounters and includes some heartfelt vocal performances from Nelson and tastefully restrained playing from harmonica ace Mickey Raphael, Marsalis and his band. RL
The Raveonettes
Lust Lust Lust (Fierce Panda)
The Danish duo continue to fuse Ronettes-inspired harmonies with the white-noise guitars of the Jesus and Mary Chain. Highlight track Blush is a perfect pop moment that sounds as if it has been thrashed to within an inch of its life, and then dragged home behind a fast car ... over gravel. GJ
Jay Reatard
Matador Singles 08 (Matador)
The Memphis, Tennessee, garage rocker mines finely tuned punk pop that's both aggressive and endearing. Reatard's oddball take on life suggests what Napoleon Dynamite might sound like had he been into punk rock. Wonky keyboards, acoustic guitars and even mandolins dress short and snappy songs covering everything from rotting corpses to overcoming shyness. JC
REM
Accelerate (WEA)
After a decade  of electronic experimentation and shoe-gazing introspection, Georgia's finest take a great leap backwards. Their new (old) chopped-back sound places loud cresting guitars at the front of the mix, and REM firmly back into their alt-rocking stride. GJ
School of Language
Sea From Shore (Memphis Industries)
While Sunderland's  art-pop types Field Music took an extended break,  main man David Brewis devoted  his spare time to this angular collection of XTC-infused lo-fi pop. More a one-man band than a group, School of Language mix pop melodies with country twangs and electro beats. CC
The Streets
Everything is Borrowed (679 Recordings)
A clean living Mike Skinner eschews pills and thrills for more pastoral leanings on this, his penultimate album.  That he does so with the humour  and charm he has become famous for instead of sounding like a self-righteous reformed raver is an achievement in itself. JC
Tokyo Police Club
Elephant Shell (Memphis Industries)
With hints of the Strokes and Bloc Party in their angular mix, these knowing Canadian indie kids  explore  pre-trodden ground with their debut album, but they dart and swerve across that wasted space with elan, and they regularly surprise with infectious lyrics. GJ
TV on the Radio
Dear Science (4AD)
New York's premier weird-out electro-funksters return  from a long absence with their most listenable album of all. With guitarist Dave Sitek now considered one of the world's super-producers, their comeback  is more confident and brash than any of their previous works. CC
These New Puritans
Beat Pyramid (Angular)
Trail-blazing the upshot Southend-on-Sea scene, TNP's jarring take on punk funk re-ignites indie dance floors with the pulsing beats and fuzzy guitars that lent much to their idols, the Fall. The Elvis EP lead track featured on the album is among the single highlights of the year. CC
Thievery Corporation
Radio Retaliation (Eighteenth Street Lounge)
Washington, DC's Rob Garza and Eric Hilton go all political - but the move lifts their work to a higher level. It helps, of course, that the producers are able to draw on the talents of people  such as Femi Kuti and Seu Jorge. Soulful mixes with a welcome message. MS
The Ting Tings
We Started Nothing (Columbia Recordings)
The moment indie went pop - again. Indie veteran Jules de Martino finally  strikes gold with singing partner Katie White as  a Manchester-based duo with tunes more infectious than  herpes. Single That's Not My Name was the unofficial theme tune of  the summer and the album's simple but mesmerising hooks ensured the Ting Tings became the breakout band of the year. CC
Emiliana Torrini
Me and Armini (Rough Trade)
The Icelandic waitress turned opera singer follows up 2005's brilliant Fisherman's Woman with an entrancing mix of trip hop, a little folk and even some gentle ska.  The standout track - Gun - is a stunningly bitter tale of death and deception that will take your breath away. MS
Blaine Whittaker
Sound Barrier (Saxis)
Australian bebop saxophonist Whittaker explores more groove-based music on a well-balanced selection of originals and cover tunes, finding a new sound without compromising his own solo voice. Fresh sounding, catchy, even danceable, this is a reminder that jazz can be good and accessible at the same time. RL
Allen Youngblood
Island Reflections (Jazzgriot)
Pianist and composer Youngblood concentrates on melody and mood on a set reflecting his love of islands as different as Hong Kong and his native St Croix. He's once again in the company of some of Sydney's finest jazz musicians, including regular saxophonist and horn arranger Blaine Whittaker. RL
Vampire Weekend
Vampire Weekend (XL Recordings)
Though their literary pretensions and  self-conscious lyrics might see New York's Vampire Weekend becoming yesterday's Big Thing soon enough (they do, after all, sing of punctuation), their ambitious and contagious mixing of ska, chamber music, punk-lite and Afro-pop provided  a polished soundtrack to the summer. GJ
Joe Zawinul
75th (Birdjam)
A posthumously released live set recorded only weeks  before Zawinul's death. Knowing his days were numbered, he went ahead and celebrated his 75th birthday doing what he still loved best. The Zawinul Syndicate performed with power and passion, Zawinul himself was still in full command of his keyboards, and he and Wayne Shorter bid each other a moving farewell with In a Silent Way. RL



Class of 08