Not only did I have some spare time on an interstate flight to actually think about this, but I did my homework beforehand and prepared a list of albums from last year to work through and rate, at the behest of a couple of old friends. Here goes, with a few ultra-quick explanations:

• pelle carlberg - in a nutshell (a bit more middle-aged than jens lekman. and there's that great song about mike joyce...)
• j.p. shilo - as happy as sad is blue (ex?-hungry ghosts guy. fabulous, even though i had to order it from Smells Like Records, and he's a Melbourne artist!)
• gravenhurst - the western lands (Warp is signing guitar bands, now?)
• jens lekman - night falls over kortedala (the older albums are certainly magical, legendary stuff. but this is still really good.)
• electrelane - no shouts, no calls (I guess it's the last one, then. but they went out on a strong note, at least.)
• david kilgour - the far now (I've yet to hear him put a foot wrong)
• blonde redhead - 23 (not sure how i feel about it with respect to older stuff, but found myself listening to it a fair bit anyway)
• devastations - yes, u (i like this more than the previous album, possibly thanks to the extra noises.)
• arthur & yu - in camera (chi? did you hear this?)
• richard hawley - lady's bridge (particularly un-hip but i don't care. we would've played "born under a bad sign" (from previous album) at our wedding, if it weren't for the name...)

honourable mentions:

• angels of light - we are him (i've been mining the back-catalogue via emusic. surprisingly, it's all good so far)
• new estate - is it real? (go and see them live. really.)
• mick harvey - two of diamonds (maybe not as un-hip as richard hawley, but getting there.)
• low - drums and guns (yeah, i like the old stuff and the new stuff)
• von südenfed - tromatic reflexxions (i gather Mark E. Smith just got sacked from the band, so consider it a one-off, then? prolly better than this year's Fall album, which was reasonably good nonetheless.)

things that might've been higher if i'd got around to listening to them more:

• githead - art pop
• bill callahan - woke on a whaleheart
• stephen cummings - space travel
• okkervil river - the stage names
• deerhoof - friend opportunity
• the pink stainless tail - the infinite wisdom of
• ladybug transisitor - can't wait another day