Albums of the Year 2011 - #1 The Unthanks - Last

So this is it. Our favourite album of the year is Last by Northumbrian folk group The Unthanks. It’s an album that sadly hasn't cropped up on many end of year lists, yet by quite some way Last is the recording that we’ve been most affected by in 2012.

Last is certainly not an album you’d put on at a party. Its sparse arrangements, constructed out of intense piano and haunting strings, accompanied by the tear-jerking and tender vocals of sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank, are incredibly beautiful. There’s a stillness and sadness in much of Last that demands a solitary quiet winter afternoon to listen to it properly, in one sitting with no distractions – as all best albums are. Last is by no means an instant album, there’s no big pop singles, no hype and its critical praise has been reasonably under the radar. Yet let’s be absolutely clear about this, Last is the most exquisite, emotional and uniquely beautiful recorded music we’ve heard all year.

As you slowly weave your way through this enchanting but melancholy repertoire of songs it’s easy to forget that most of the tunes are not originals – so deftly do The Unthanks make them sound like their own. There’s a consistently mournful sound, Becky's breathy sultry vocals in particular giving it this quality. Irrespective of if the band are interpreting prog-rockers King Crimson’s Starless or the Alex Glasgow penned Close the Coalhouse Door, which deals with the tragedy of a mining disaster. “Close the coalhouse door, there’s blood inside,” its compelling in nature. With no artificial reverb on any of the voices and the majority of the album being recorded at home there’s a real purity to Last that we haven’t heard on any other record in 2011.

With a new baby for two members of The Unthanks, a second album The Songs of Robert Wyatt and Antony & The Johnsons, Live From The Union Chapel released at the end of November and shows that have included performances with brass bands it’s been a busy year for The Unthanks.

In 2009 we named their album Here’s The Tender Coming as our eighth favourite album of the year, in 2011 Last goes seven better. As unsettling as it is beautiful, it proves without doubt, that often sad songs are the best songs. Album of the year.

The Unthanks - Queen of Hearts (from the album 'Last')

Albums of the Year 2011 - #2 Adele - 21

What is left to say about Adele Adkins’s second album that hasn’t already been said? It sat at the top of the UK albums sales chart for a third of the year, has stayed in the top 10 for the rest of it, bagged 13 weeks in the US at number 1 and has been number 1 in pretty much every country that has a sales chart; only Hungary (no.11), Japan (no.53), Argentina (no.8),Russia (no.9), Mexico (no.4) and Spain (no.2) not fully succumbing to the charms of 21. It’s a phenomenal success story, particularly in an age when the perceived wisdom is that nobody is buying music anymore. 12 million sales and still counting, 21 has engaged and touched more people in the world than any other release this year.

The reason? It’s ridiculously simple; the music is sublime. Written in the aftermath of the singer's separation from a boyfriend, it deals with traditional themes of anger, revenge, despair, self-examination and forgiveness. Awash with vintage influences from Southern blues, country and soul, 21 is the perfect vehicle for her voice. Whereas 19, her debut album showed hints of greatness (Hometown Glory, Chasing Pavements, Make You Feel My Love), 21 is brimming with it. The music is perfectly weighted to allow Adele’s vocal to be blustery, sincere, insecure, beautiful and powerful; there’s a whole range of emotions on display, often within a single song. It’s one of two albums this year that have brought us to tears in our more vulnerable moments.

21 is a bloody marvellous album. Hell, it even includes a cover version of one of Breaking More Waves favourite bands ever – The Cure.

For once commercial sales and artistic brilliance go hand in hand.

Albums of the Year 2011 - #3 Nicola Roberts - Cinderella's Eyes

Cinderella’s Eyes is the best pop album of the year by a country mile. After the artistically redundant failures of Cheryl Cole and the wasting-floor-space-of-Tesco middle of the road rubbish that was Nadine Coyle’s record, it was left to the ginger princess to demonstrate that sometimes a solo effort can produce something as good, if not better than the group together. Cinderella’s Eyes may have been a commercial flop but it’s an intriguing, confident and quirkily engaging album.

From the word go Cinderella’s Eyes sets out its stall with Beat of my Drum. Dealing with how at the age of 16 Nicola Roberts went from being just a normal kid from Halton Brook estate in Runcorn to being in one of Britain’s biggest girl bands via the TV show Popstars: The Rivals and how uncomfortable, unprepared and out of place she was. “Once upon a time I press rewind, two left feet I had no beat, baby in the corner learning quickly, keep up, keep up,” she sings explaining the steep learning curve she experienced. From that moment on we’re allowed a fascinating, voyeuristic and often upsetting look into her life with Girls Aloud. “Too young to by my own bottle of vodka, so I’d beg the driver please I need another, funny that I was too young for many things, yet you thought I’d cope with being told I’m ugly,” she pipes on Sticks & Stones. “Never been wrapped up in the way I look, so when I got down to London, had the press on my case, coz I didn’t walk round with a smile on my face, called me a rude ginger bitch and say I bought bigger tits, they’re gonna eat all their words, their talking absolute shit,” she spits on Take A Bite. This is Nicola Roberts 2011; defiant, a little analytical, brilliantly angry and having come through the process, a pop outsider ready to take on the world – bang to the beat of her drum indeed.

Whilst this insight into Roberts world may be fascinating, without the songs, you’re hardly likely to come back. This is what sets Cinderella’s Eyes apart. In a world full of beige and LOLpop this is pop at its best – it’s often brilliantly oddball and fearless in its attempts to not mimic the likes of Katy Perry, Rihanna and the like. Whether she’s grappling with Diplo, Metronomy or The Invisible Men, the songs are full of vocal hooks, exuberant classy synths and grab your balls beats and lots of weird ‘where did that come from’ moments of sound that make you want to go back and investigate again. Witty, catchy and just a little edgy Cinderella's Eyes shows how good pop music can be if it dares to jump off a cliff into the depths now and then.

Albums of the Year 2011 - #4 Ghostpoet - Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam

Back in April we said of this album “We’re taking a punt here but it really wouldn’t surprise us if Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam picked up a nomination for the Mercury Music Prize later this year. There’s also a fair chance it’s going to crop up in our own end of year Top 10.” Our punt was right on both accounts.

Ghostpoet’s debut album is a very British, very untypical rap album. As Obaro Ejimiwe raps on I Just Don’t Know “Other MC’s want to talk about crime, but that ain’t me.” Instead Obaro’s languid stream consciousness delivery takes on subjects such as the thoughts of a lonely 44 year old man whose life hasn’t worked out the way he hoped it would (Survive It) and feeling sorry for himself hangovers (Cash and Carry Me Home) with a world-weary, philosophical approach over d-i-y, laptop created electronics and beats. It would be easy for the record’s downbeat delivery and lyrical themes to feel pretty depressing, but because of Ejimiwe’s softly spoken ‘just get on with it’ approach it ends up feeling uplifting and is incredibly engaging.

Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam is one of those rare things in music – an album that stamps its own identity on the map yet feels as welcoming and comfortable as something you’ve known for ages.

Ghostpoet - Garden Path