Okay, I'll step up to the plate. Here's what I was going to post on Wednesday before I got caught up in actual work:

'Our Endless Numbered Days' by Iron & Wine, a beautiful, lush album despite its relatively spare instrumentation. The lyrics are intelligent and heartfelt without being clever or maudlin, conveying the hitherto discussed and lauded sincerity with elegance and seemingly without effort. The perfect accompaniment to those cold winter mornings when I'm sitting inside with a coffee and the newspaper and want to feel at once insulated from the world and connected to it . He has one of those rich, warm voices, like Nick Drake's, that seem to reassure with each note. Highly recommend, as the disc gets better with each listen.

'Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts' by M83, which goes 180 degrees in the opposite direction, cranks out a massive, swirling wall of sound, that channels My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless", and at times, Sigur Ros. The melodies build slowly and patiently before exploding into a hammering yet blissful crescendo. What the hell am I talking about? I don't know. But I can say that for all its colder, electronic harmonies, I find it puts me in that same cosy state of being as the Iron & Wine disc.

So to sum up: Quieter record + immediate, soft vocal = intimate whereas Louder record + barely discernable vocals = intimate.

Rather than slowly trotting these out as if they were manna from Heaven, here are the rest of my songs of the year:

'Float On' by Modest Mouse, which can get a wee bit tiresome in spots, particularly its military drum beat, everybody-join-in-with-the-chorus denouement, but the syncopated beats more than atone

'Take Me Out' by Franz Ferdinand, starts off like a great Strokes song, switches gears and gets even better, and which should be the single of the year though I'm willing to replace it with 'Jacqueline', if only for the kickass chorus, "It's always better on holidays...that's why we only work when...we need the money!"

'Check it Out' by the Beastie Boys for that pow-pow-like sample in the verses that packs a whallop and puts an extra little spring in my step. Used to great effect in an episode of 'The OC', to a series of quick edits of characters walking through the lobby of a casino.

'Surfin' on a Rocket' by Air, which pairs a sweet poppy harmony of overlaid vocals with a souful catchy ambient sound that most critics would call 'ethereal'. Sometimes that's not a good thing but in this case it is.

Honourable mentions include: 'The Love Song' by K-Os, 'Fallen Angel' by Elbow, 'Run' by Snow Patrol, 'Train from Kansas City' by Neko Case, 'Fit But You Know It' by The Streets, 'Sommersault' by Danger Mouse and Zero 7, 'Loosen Your Hold' by South, 'Little House of Savages' by The Walkmen, 'Retour a Vega' by the Stills and 'Farther On' by Vetiver.

Whew....one more album to post next week...