16. Amiina - Puzzle (Aminamusik)

Another one of those bands who's sound fits in incredibly well with the snowy weather. Each note sounding like a drop of snow settling wherever it can find itself a home.

It's not quite grabbed me as much as Kurr did, arguably one of the prettiest albums ever, however it's still incredibly beautiful material. The singles stand out, particularly What Are Waiting For which features more actual vocal presence, as in actual words, than I believe I've previously ever heard. And whereas vocals on mainly instrumental bands tracks normally turns me right off, this is done so well that you could be forgiven for thinking that this was múm at their very best.

Púsl and Mambó twinkle like we've come to expect from Amiina, chiming away like your mothers music box and somehow always reminding me of "The Steadfast Tin Soldier". In the Sun is pure antonym of its own name, icy and Icelandic in sound, with occasional approving glances expected from the likes of Vashti Bunyan and Efterklang if their wasn't so many of them or if simply major record labels did not exist.

Sicsak is darker and perhaps perfects the sound that I wished and that Textile Ranch once threatened to make on a consistent basis.

Go take a walk in the snow with this as your companion, you will not be disappointed.

Puzzle (Buy from Amazon)

Spoiler : What Boomkat Said:

As most of you probably know, Icelandic orchestral poppers Amiina used to be part of Sigur Ros in another life and despite not having worked with the band for a few years now, the influence of the epic post-rockers is still often evident. That’s not to say that Amiina’s latest full-length ‘Puzzles’ sounds exactly like Sigur Ros, but there is a distinct similarity to their attempts at the cinematic, the sublime and the quiet-loud dynamic. ‘Puzzle’ is a beautiful listening experience from beginning to end, and what it lacks in originality it just about makes up for in sheer resolve. There is never a sense that the band is anything less than sincere, and when making music this unashamedly emotional, sincerity is pretty much the most important ingredient. Through the usual fog of strings and delicate percussion, these precious songs tiptoe and shimmy through your unconscious like the ghosts of Scandinavian faeries, and with all the charm of a well-worn Grimm missive, the album chatters to the wide-eyed child in all of us. Lurvely.

15. CocoRosie - Grey Oceans (PIAS)

With the exception of having moustaches and picking awful album artwork, in my eyes CocoRosie can do no wrong. Their twisted take on hip hop mixed with ancient folk and toy instruments is the kind of thing you should avoid like the plague and yet they pull it off so well. Over the years they've actually provided some of my favourite beats, simple but ridiculously catchy.

This is a more consistent album than The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn, the good songs aren't quite as good, though that album had some exceptional moments, but there are no fillers, Lemonade, The Moon and the Cow standout with the opening triplet also being worthy of a mention.

Spoiler : What Boomkat Said:

Grey Oceans is the fourth album from sister duo Bianca and Sierra Casady, and continues to chart CocoRosie's departure from their much-beloved but ultra lo-fi debut, La Maison De Mon Reve. After the atmospheric acoustic-electronic fusion of 'Trinity's Crying', 'Smokey Taboo' arrives as a slow-burning treat, colliding tabla rhythms with electronic tones whilst Bianca and Sierra layer their very different vocal styles: while the classically trained Sierra opts for an almost operatic approach, Bianca tends to sound like she's voicing a Tex Avery cartoon. The voices compliment each other beautifully and always ground the album in something substantial and accessible, even when the sonic backdrop is at its most fanciful. In one of their finest moments, the sisters make like a tag team on the outrageously bizarre 'Hopscotch', switching between hauntingly maudlin verses littered with electronic beats to honky-tonk piano choruses accompanied by throbbing sub-bass - it's like a collision between vaudeville-style variety theatre and dubstep during its weirdest stretches. Also of note, the lovely 'Undertaker' fashions an arrangement for an old recording of what is apparently the sisters' mother singing in her Cherokee, and 'R.I.P. Burn Face' develops a kind of melancholic sample-driven swagger. This latter track underlines what the duo do best on the new album: introducing their established fairytale language of glockenspiels, toy instruments and far-fetched yarns to a more sequenced and rigidly programmed approach to arrangement. If anything, the electronics seem to further facilitate CocoRosie's forays into fanciful, adventurous songwriting, making possible a surreal and inimitable brand of music hall electronica.

14. Cults - Go Outside

Over the last year or so, several bands have managed to recreate the magical sound of the sixties girl group/garage pop sound, the multiple vocalled harmony laden hand clapping, foot stomping, feel good, sing-a-long sound. I mean bands like Magic Kids, Strawberry Fair, Gigi, Fergus & Geronimo, The Cave Weddings, Stolen Hearts to name but a few. Add to that reliable list of pop loveliness the less than pop sounding named Cults.

With Go Outside Cults have produced a summer classic which in my mind is somewhat a less succesful but equally euphoric pop classic as Peter Jon and Bjorn's Young Folks, the Brainbheats remix giving it an extra dancy edge rather than blending it into an unrecognisable mush. Twinkling glocks draw you in before it inevitably explodes into pop perfection.

Stream Ep Here

13. Chain & The Gang - (I've Got) Privilege (K recs, 2010)

Chain & The Gang - (I've Got) Privilege (K recs, 2010)

An awesome 7" single that clearly should've been a double A side, both songs ridiculously catchy in different ways, (I've Got) Privilege is a cocky, funky beast of a tune, played at half pace in the coolest manner ever.

Detroit Music is better still, stupidly fine garage which would fit perfectly on one of the Nuggets compilation and shows former Kindercore band the Agenda how it should have been done, definately one of the singles of the years and a track that i'll be playing again and again.

Chain and The Gang feature Ian Svenonius of Nation of Ulysses, The Make-Up, Weird War and Siesta records Dave Candy.

Find more artists like CHAIN & THE GANG at Myspace Music

Find more artists like CHAIN & THE GANG at Myspace Music

12. The School - Loveless Unbeliever (Elefant)

I'm not sure why i ignored this for so long, but upon seeing that they were playing in Nottingham, i decided to dig it out and how thankful I am that I did. Formerly part of The Loves, The School continue repaying their debt to the sixties, less Velvet Underground, more girl group. So many great songs here, so polished and filled with all the handclaps and harmonies you could wish for.

Find more artists like The School at Myspace Music

Find more artists like The School at Myspace Music

Find more artists like The School at Myspace Music

11. Belle & Sebastian - Belle & Sebastian Write About Love (Rough Trade)

You can make what you like of this, there are enough reviews around, enough obstinate opinions and enough people who can't get over the fact that Belle & Sebastian moved on from recording albums that were written in a week in a week, because that's what you would do if you had enough money thrown at you so as the boundaries of possibility no longer existed.

And if thats how you want to be, well, at least try Come On Sister, Write About Love, I'm Not Living in the Real World and The Ghost of Rockschool.

The polishing on the case was the three bonus tracks that surfaced through varying sources, the latter two, that being Suicide Girl and the jaunty Last Trip were perhaps my favourite tracks from this whole session.

And if nothing else take it as a consolation that at least Belle & Sebastian have treated us to yet another cosmetically beautiful looking album.

Spoiler : What Boomkat Said:

In the wake of his God Help The Girl project, Stuart Murdoch regroups with his Belle & Sebastian bandmates for a follow-up to 2006's The Life Pursuit. Write About Love is album number eight from the esteemed Scottish band, and is the product of a remarkably quick turnaround. Writing and pre-production work began as recently as February of this year and was followed by recording sessions with The Life Pursuit producer Tony Hoffer (who has also helmed albums from Air, Beck and Phoenix). The results are reassuringly on-form, classic Belle & Sebastian, with few curveballs thrown. Write About Love gets underway with gusto, laying down the surprisingly robust pop of 'I Didn't See It Coming' and the heavily synth-fortified 'Come On Sister'. Typically beautiful ballads are on hand too, such as 'Calculating Bimbo' and 'Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John' which features a familiarly breathy vocal from Norah Jones. Another (rather less likely) guest vocalist crops up on the album's title track: actress Carey Mulligan, renowned for her starring role in An Education. Commencing with an almost Pete Townsend-like riff, this upbeat ode to the mundanity of office work might be about as rocking as B&S get, although the Britpoppy Stevie Jackson-penned 'I'm Not Living In The Real World' gives it a run for its money. A solid entry into the band's catalogue, Write About Love might not reinvent the band's sound or approach to writing, but nor is it likely to disappoint anyone.

10. Gigi - Miantenant (Tomlab)

Another fantastic pop album appearing seemingly out of nowhere, Gigi is the work of No Kids member and songwriter Nick Krgovich and fellow Vancouver-ite Colin Stewart, an allstar (well allstar in an indiepop kind of way) cast joins for guest vocals and suceed masterfully, despite the many voices, this still stands up as an album in its own right, rather than sounding like a compilation.

The tracks featuring Chorus stand out, sounding like a 60's girl group, full of feel good multi vocal harmonies, footstomps and handclaps. Zac Pennington of Parenthetical Girls does a lovely job of a boy feeling all to sorry for himself on the lavish Dreams of Romance. Rose Melberg sounds amazing as ever on another highlight, again wrapped up like a sixties hit never made. On One Woman Show Jooey Cook of the Pomegranetes sounds slightly out of tune and untrained in the brilliant and loving kind of way that Kimya Dawson does, a fantastic track with a great Aisler's Set-esque chorus.

This is just the tip of the iceburg, i've not even mentioned guest appearances by Owen Pallet, Dear Nora, Karl Blau and Mirah. A triumph in the art of perfect pop and the ability to recreate that sixties sound.

Find more artists like Gigi at Myspace Music

Find more artists like Gigi at Myspace Music

Spoiler : What Boomkat Said:

Gigi is the handiwork of No Kids member and songwriter Nick Krgovich and fellow Vancouver-ite Colin Stewart, a producer and engineer who has previously worked on albums by Black Mountain, Destroyer and Cave Singers. When Canadians start singing songs with titles like 'No, My Heart Will Go On', it's usually time to duck for cover, but this opening piece actually recalls the traditionalist '60s American pop revisions of Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward's She & Him output - a far more palatable spewing of sentimentality than the ship-sinking ballad it threatened to be. Not dissimiarly, some of the tracks on Maintenant bring to mind Stuart Murdoch's God Help The Girl project, channelling '60s girl group sounds on 'I'm Not Coming Out Tonight' (featuring Sydney Vermont and Marissa Johnson) and 'Alone At The Pier' (with Rose Melberg). There's a wealth of outside personnel brought in for this album, with the biggest names including Owen Pallett (the artist formerly known as Final Fantasy), Zac Pennington (of Parenthetical Girls) and Mirah (the K Records solo artist and affiliate of Mount Eerie/The Microphones' Phil Elverum). Pallett's 'I'll Quit' exemplifies the sort of elegant big-band dynamics Maintenant can achieve, calling upon widescreen, loungey brass and luscious female backing vocals.

9. Beach House - Teen Dream (Bella Union)

Etheral would be an understatement, dreamlike and majestic sounds filled this album making it a welcome companian whatever the weather, mood or time of day. Zebra, Used to Be and Norway set the standard for great music this year few songs managed to match up to both the brilliance but also the understated immediacy of each track, dynamics barely there instead songs that trotted along in third gear and never feeling the need to accelerate or drop the pace, like a long walk outside of the city, no distractions, just you and nature, simple and beautiful.

Find more artists like Beach House at Myspace Music

Spoiler : What Boomkat Said:

One of the most hotly anticipated releases of 2010, Beach House's Teen Dream follows up the massively lauded Devotion, the album that saw this Baltimore duo reach creative maturity back in 2008. Since then the formula hasn't been tampered with too much, and instead Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand continue to pursue the spartan, hazy tenderness of their prior successes, but with a more developed ear for songwriting and a heightened melodic purpose. Former 7" single, 'Used To Be' is included here, and represents a punchier, somehow more full-blooded incarnation of the band's sound. Similarly, on early highlights like 'Silver Soul' there's a more forceful quality to the mix, something underlined by Legrand's soaring vocals. Following on directly, the woozy, unstable synth tunings of 'Norway' bring a blissfully disorientating quality to what might otherwise sound not unlike a lo-fi, more minimal arrangement of something Fleet Foxes could have come up with - albeit with added Liz Fraser-style vocal tics in the chorus. Production from Chris Coady (a veteran of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Grizzly Bear and TV On The Radio recordings) preserves the beautiful dream-pop gauziness that helped make this band so unique in the first place, but avoids following the sound through to any excessively dissolved, chill-waved conclusion. The result is an album of greater substance than either of its predecessors, and one that gradually reveals its understated brilliance over repeated listens.

8. Tennis - Baltimore/ South Carolina EP's (Underwater Peoples)

Tennis showed fantastic potential, you may argue that something in lost in the poor production of these tracks, i'd rather dwell on what they might be capable of next year if there given even something close to the opportunity Best Coast had and took, brilliant lo-fi girl fronted pop. Cape Dory is just wonderful.

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Spoiler : What Boomkat Said:

Loverly yellow 7" from husband/wife duo, Patrick and Alaina, aka Tennis, featuring three tracks apparently recorded over the last year on their sailboat, while touring the ocean (the Atlantic, presumably). The two A-side tracks are pretty raw bits of bubblegum summer pop, and we really like the B-side 'Marathon' with Alaina's super cute vocals. Don't sleep on this!

7. Magic Kids - Memphis (True Panther)

After already carving the name all over my indie pop loving heart with last years incredible "Hey Boy" single my expectations were left slightly short on initial listening, however given time the majority of the tracks here revealed themselves to be absolute pop gems. Admittedly "Hey Boy" and "Superball" which we'd already heard are still the best of the pick, the latter perhaps even being better than the former, still the closing trio of Sailin, Little Red Radio and Cry With Me Baby brought the album to an exceptional close, more smooth 60's in sound than the songs we'd heard before. A fantastic album that gets better with each listen.

Find more artists like MAGIC KIDS at Myspace Music

Find more artists like MAGIC KIDS at Myspace Music

Spoiler : What Boomkat Said:

Having already given us a taste of their impeccable pop wares with the terrific single 'Hey Boy' (released last year on Goner), this talented bunch of (alarmingly young) musicians deliver their full-length via True Panther, a label that's currently home to up-and-comers like Delorean, Girls and Tanlines. Memphis manages to sound indebted to the greats of American pop, like Brian Wilson and Phil Spector yet without resorting to a retro production sound. Instead, the record sounds full, modern and detailed, thanks partly, no doubt, to the recording by Shane Stoneback, (a mixing engineer whose credits include Vampire Weekend, Sleigh Bells... and even the mighty N'Sync). Stacked with vocal harmonies and upbeat, breezy arrangements the album opens in fine fashion with the brilliant 'Phone' which packs a remarkably well-constructed, hook-laden song into just two minutes. The track is buoyed by horns, strings and harpsichord-like keyboard sounds, setting a template carried over into the equally inscrutable 'Little Red Radio' - a kind of cross between Teenage Fanclub and The New Pornographers. Upon its release last year, 'Hey Boy' sounded freakishly brilliant, but here it's just another track, nestled among songs that are easily its equals: 'Superball', 'Candy' and the excellent 'Skateland' in particular. Recommended.