Dan Foster

10: Lightning Dust - Infinite Light
This just doesn't sound like a side project. Think Mazzy Star, think Patti Smith, think Nick Cave… Warm and comforting, it's as close as you're going to get to the soundtrack of a hibernation. Perfect for those long and cold winter nights. Not quite what you would expect from a Black Mountain-associated offshoot. Class.

9: Andrew Bird - Noble Beast
Investigated on the back of his contribution to the mightily awesome Dark Was The Night compilation, Noble Beast doesn't disappoint. Catchy songs, witty and insightful lyrics. Could have been higher up the list if it wasn't for a slight lull in the third quarter. We'll let him off for that, though. Almost too clever for his own good, Bird even manages to make whistling sound cool.

8: The XX - xx
Four south Londoners making miserable songs about sex and relationships. Stripped back and honest, xx is so refined that it comes off sounding more like a good band's third or fourth effort devoid of any unnecessary over production. Perhaps quiet is the new loud? Keep music miserable, I say.

7: Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Bit of a surprise this one. Downloaded on impulse and turned out to be the catchiest record of the year. Album opener Lisztomania makes me want to dust off my best Footloose moves and head down the local discotheque to start a dance-floor riot. Quite simply perfect pop. Sits somewhere between 'Is This It'-era Strokes and Of Montreal's Hissing Fauna.

6: Memory Tapes - Seek Magic
Memory Tapes is the work of one man, Dayve Hawk. Imagine a fusion of the Cocteau Twins' atmospheric spacial awareness, Yeasayer's spiritual core and New Order at their prime and you're not far off. Track Bicycle has to be one of my highlights of 2009. Quite simply brilliant. Even more so when you consider it's the work of just one man.

5: Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
Dave Longstreth of Dirty Projectors is an amazing songsmith. Or should I say composer? Bitte Orca is the first album for the Dirty Projectors which cements their pop flair and wildly inventive capabilities. It's one of those all too rare albums that manages to be instantly catchy, challenging and technically impressive all at the same time. Every track's a winner but if I could only have one it'd be Useful Chamber.

4: Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
This is where I get all boring and predictable. It's unusual for me to form an emotional connection with what to all intents feels like a dance record, but tracks like My Girls, In the Flowers and Brother Sport have an almost instant classic feel. Take the very best of the Beach Boys and pass it through the Euphoria-iser (if ever there was such a thing) and maybe this is what you'd get. Original and good. Very good. Not often you can say that these days.

3: The Antlers - Hospice
"I wish that I'd known in the first minute we met, the unpayable debt that I owed you. Because you'd been abused by the bone that refused you and you hired me to make up for that.” The opening lines from Hospice set the mood for what has to be the most desperate and emotionally destroying record since the Arcade Fire's Funeral. Gorgeous and hauntingly beautiful.

2: Wild Beasts - Two Dancers
One of those albums you'll either love or hate. For me, Two Dancers is one of the best UK albums to have been released in recent years. Musically there are some parallels with Elbow's Asleep in the Back (particularly when Tom Fleming steps up to lead vocal duties on All the Kings Men) but it's Hayden Thorpes' eccentric operatic delivery that gives the band their real identity. If you can get to grips with that you'll love it. Nice lads and great live too.

1: Dragonslayer - Sunset Rubdown
Ever wondered what might happen if David Bowie and Meat Loaf made babies? And then they left those babies in a cave to be brought up by wolves? Those feral children would grow up to make music that sounds like Sunset Rubdown. It's wild, it's exciting and it's my most listened to album of 2009 - hands down. If you want something a little different, check it out. Life tastes better with Sunset Rubdown in it.

Tracks of the year
10: The XX - Crystalised
9: Cursive - From the Hips
8: Dirty Projectors & David Byrne - Knotty Pine
7: Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks
6: Phoenix - Girlfriend
5: Wild Beasts - All the Kings Men
4: The Antlers - Two
3: Memory Tapes - Bicycle
2: Animal Collective - My Girls
1: Sunset Rubdown - Idiot Heart

Emperor's New Clothes
The Cribs - Ignore the Ignorant

It's Good, But Not That Good
Girls – Album