ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2012

Our top 5 for your consideration.

1. Frank Ocean: Channel Orange

Grandstanding production, ludicrously catchy Seventies soul melodies and cinematic lyricism marked this 25-year-old R&B crooner’s (right) second album out as a modern masterpiece. In its week of release, it was the first album to reach the UK top 20 purely via downloads.

2. Tame Impala: Lonerism

Australia’s finest Noel Gallagher-approved psych revivalists whipped the promise of their debut into a swirling, stomping, belter of a follow-up. Unsurprisngly it earned them a second album of the year gong in Oz.

3. Richard Hawley: Standing at the Sky’s Edge

Sheffield rockabilly hero dabbles in mystic Britpop wig-outs, and does his bit

for British joss stick sales. A fret-twiddling epic.

4. Grizzly Bear: Shields

A majestic return after a three-year absence from Brooklyn’s foremost purveyors of beard rock. Parked on the office stereo for an unhealthy amount of time.

5. Toy: Toy

These lank-haired Londoners hurled baggy, shoegaze and krautrock into the mix to create one of the year’s most abiding rackets when their debut arrived in September.