This rundown has been compiled from a much larger list of around 150 albums which have spiced up a lengthy succession of otherwise dreary days spent building and replumbing other people’s websites.

Top prize this year goes to the excellent collaboration between Adian Moffat and Bill Wells Everything’s Getting Older. For those of us of a certain vintage this album will have a particular resonance but for thinking music fans everywhere this is a must-have for 2011. PJ Harvey was awarded the Mercury Prize for Let England Shake and, this time at least, the judges were spot on. A stunning album. I was lucky enough to see Baltimore’s Wye Oak live this year when they were the support band for The National. The sublime Civilian has never been far from my playlist.

There is plenty to keep you busy here. From the post-rock loud/quiet of Mogwai’s Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will and the instrumental post-metal of Russian Circles’ Empros through to the experimentalism of Puscifier’s Conditions Of My Parole and David Lynch’s (yup, that one) Crazy Clown Time.

By my count there are 8 albums here by home-grown Scottish artists. Not a bad total. Special mention must go to Martin John Henry (of the late, and much missed De Rosa) and his superb solo debut The Other Half Of Everything.

1. Adian Moffat & Bill Wells – Everything’s Getting Older (open in spotify)
2. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake (open in spotify)
3. Wye Oak – Civilian (youtube clip)
4. The Antlers – Burst Apart (open in spotify)
5. The Decemberists – The King is Dead (open in spotify)
6. Wild Beasts – Smother (open in spotify)
7. King Creosote & Jon Hopkins – Diamond Mine (open in spotify)
8. St. Vincent – Strange Mercy (open in spotify)
9. Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will (open in spotify)
10. Puscifier – Conditions of my Parole (open in spotify)
11. Star Wheel Press – Life Cycle of a Falling Bird (open in spotify)
12. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues (open in spotify)
13. Martin John Henry – The Other Half of Everything (open in spotify)
14. The Dø – Both Ways Open Jaws (open in spotify)
15. Feist – Metals (open in spotify)
16. Bon Iver – Bon Iver (open in spotify)
17. Gazelle Twin – The Entire City (open in spotify)
18. The Field – Looping State of Mind (review and streams)
19. Johann Johannsson – The Miner’s Hymns (open in spotify)
20. Elbow – Build a Rocket Boys! (open in spotify)
21. Kate Bush – 50 Words For Snow (open in spotify)
22. Tom Waits – Bad As Me (youtube clip)
23. Radiohead – The King of Limbs (open in spotify)
24. Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know (open in spotify)
25. Alexi Murdoch – Towards The Sun (open in spotify)
26. Loch Lomond - Little Me Will Start a Storm (open in spotify)
27. Russian Circles – Empros (open in spotify)
28. Vessels – Helioscope (open in spotify)
29. Braids – Native Speaker (open in spotify)
30. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds (open in spotify)
31. David Lynch – Crazy Clown Time (open in spotify)
32. Explosions In The Sky – Take Care, Take Care, Take Care (open in spotify)
33. Low – C’Mon (open in spotify)
34. Bjork – Biophilia (open in spotify)
35. Peggy Sue – Acrobats (open in spotify)
36. Found – Factorycraft (open in spotify)
37. David Thomas Broughton – Outbreeding (open in spotify)
38. Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi – Rome (open in spotify)
39. Anna Calvi – Anna Calvi (open in spotify)
40. RM Hubbert – First & Last (open in spotify)
41. R.E.M. – Collapse Into Now (open in spotify)
42. Christina Vantzou – No. 1 (open in spotify)
43. Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes (open in spotify)
44. The Jezabels – Prisoner (soundcloud track)
45. Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact (open in spotify)
46. Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring For My Halo (open in spotify)
47. King’s Daughters and Sons – If Then Not When (open in spotify)
48. Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost (open in spotify)
49. Thrice – Major/Minor (open in spotify)
50. The Moth & The Mirror – Honestly, This World (open in spotify)

I recall vividly the very first time I was allowed by my parents to go off into a record shop in Edinburgh to purchase a 7″ single. It was 1979, I was 8 years old and I chose to purchase Message in a Bottle by The Police. By way of comparison, during the same visit to the record shop, my 7-year-old brother chose to purchase Dollar’s cover version of I Wanna Hold Your Hand. This divergence in musical taste persists to this day.

With much of what passes for culture in modern Britain leaving almost nothing of value behind after consumption, I have found music has taken on a greater importance in my life with each passing year. Comedy shows on prime-time TV which I previously enjoyed immensely now often leave me feeling short-changed with their increasing laziness. The same tired finger-pointing and sniggering “Nick Clegg’s a secret tory“. No he isn’t. Much closer to the truth is that David Cameron is patently a liberal and the large “C” conservative party no longer exists. But without the tories to bash, where does a card-carrying on-message left-leaning TV comedy panel show direct its ire? Best to maintain the fiction. Yes, I’m looking at you O’Briain!

Anyway, I digress. This morning I heard the new record by Peggy Sue (formerly Peggy Sue and the Pirates), Acrobats (Wichita Records). I did rather like their previous album Fossils & Other Phantoms and it made my Festive 50 last year. You could describe that record as nu-folk with a dark edge, should you like such pigeon-holing. I had been expecting more of the same with Acrobats but I was in for a bit of an eye-opener. The new record is, by any yardstick, a huge leap forward. Production duties on the album are carried out by long-time PJ Harvey collaborator John Parish and, perhaps inevitably, there are echoes of the early-career PJ Harvey here, never more clearly than on the opener “Cut My Teeth”. There is much less reliance on acoustic guitar, ukulele, banjo and the other accoutrements of the self-respecting indie nu-folk band here. This new album shows a bolder, darker side to Peggy Sue. There are a couple of weaker moments during the 45 minute runtime but they are easily forgiven when, overall, the standard is so high. I’ve heard the album twice today and can see already that repeat listening will be rewarded.

Smarter, more engaging and less contrived than some of their nu-folk peers such as fancy dress posh boys Mumford & Sons or Noah & the Whale, Peggy Sue are a band worth keeping an eye on. If you are a fan of PJ Harvey, Anna Calvi, The Sian Alice Group, Laura Marling or Devics and you are also in the market for some new and interesting music, look no further.

Have a listen to the record for yourself here:

1. Get To France

Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite: This song is a lovely piano ditty by John (Cummings). It also features a string arrangement by the wonderful and wonderfully double-barrelled Paul Leonard-Morgan. To my thoroughly dishevelled ears it is reminiscent of Erik Satie, but John could well have been going for something entirely different. He’s hard to read. The song title is, like many of our titles, a shamelessly stolen piece of Scottish colloquialism.

2. Hound of Winter

Stuart Braithwaite: I’d describe this as a power-free power ballad. Which, in essence, is just a ballad. Confessing to writing a ballad is a brave thing to do, though at 35 years of age, abandoning a fear of judgment can easily be confused with bravery. The strings on this are by the irrepressible Luke Sutherland. A man who I recently witnessed convincing our lighting engineer that vegans ate eggs, but only the yolks.

3. Drunk and Crazy

Stuart Braithwaite: A lot of credit for this piece of randomonia must go to the producer of this EP, Paul Savage. This track recorded in three stages. First Barry (Burns)’s piano, then the strings and finally a pile of guitar noise. Somehow Paul managed to arrange all of this in a very imaginative fashion into what you hear. I’m still amazed as to how it turned out. The title is stolen from a country and western album that I found in the DJ booth of the Grand Ole Opry in Glasgow.

4. Does This Always Happen?

Stuart Braithwaite: This is a very simple song augmented again with a great string arrangement by Paul Leonard-Morgan. I’m sure Barry won’t appreciate the compliment but I think his improvised piano part here is really special. The title is a quote from our friend, the musician and artist Tom Schofield, who uttered this in bemusement when he walked into a psychedelic rock show in a very fancy private members club in Glasgow.

The thought of living further north has sometimes flitted through my head, in much the same way as a thought such as I wonder if it’s possible to survive the 40 metre fall from the Forth Road Bridge into the freezing waters of the Forth Estuary?. Sometimes, while staring out into the half-light of yet another blanket-grey morning, I chill myself by imagining what it must be like to live on the Shetland or Faroe Islands. Perhaps such places are studded with windowless pubs, filled with intoxicated inhabitants.

It cheered me to read the story of one such inhabitant on today’s BBC News website …

Drunk Swedish elk found in apple tree near Gothenburg

I know how that elk feels.

[Full BBC News story]

Those of you with hard rock and metal sensibilities may find the releases by Alcest, Black Mountain, Sleepy Sun, Kylesa and Grinderman to your liking. They have certainly enlivened many an otherwise boring work day at the website-building coal face.

I’m also partial to a bit of electronica now and then and Pantha du Prince, Caribou, Four Tet, The Chemical Brothers, Massive Attack and Underworld all had my head nodding with their rather fine albums from 2010. The Underworld record has a bit of a qualitative dip in the middle for 2 tracks – a fact that translated through to their otherwise hugely entertaining live show in November. “Between Stars” and “Diamond Jigsaw” are just not up to scratch and should be quietly forgotten. Netsky gets the vote for début, of the year. His album on occasion veers quite close to being a little cheesy but for sheer bravura drum and bass production values and outright enjoyability it was hard to beat.

Special mention must go to the female quartet of Laurie Anderson, Janelle Monáe, Anaïs Mitchell and Joanna Newsom for their efforts this year. Four epic albums full of invention and otherworldly beauty.

I see from my iTunes listing stats that I’ve listened to Pantha du Prince’s album more than any of the others, but it’s been out since very early in the year and holds an unfair advantage for that reason. 2010 also saw an enormously welcome return for Gil Scott-Heron with I’m New Here. The album’s not perfect but Gil is always worth listening to. However, despite receiving the occasional lukewarm review, I think my album of the year is Steve Mason’s Boys Outside, closely followed by Laurie Anderson’s Homeland.

Seek these albums out (if you have not already sought, I know what discerning people you are). Auditory satisfaction guaranteed.

The list is, as last year’s, not in any order of preference but follows a more conventional alphabetical listing.

Bubbling under …….

Mogwai – Special Moves
Bill Callahan – Rough Travel For A Rare Thing
The Tallest Man On Earth – Sometimes The Blues Is Just A Passing Bird (EP)
Foals – Total Life Forever
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan – Hawk

Under normal circumstances both Mogwai and Bill Callahan would be making my top 50 with ease but their releases this year are live albums and, although both are excellent, I decided to open up the two spots for other records fighting for inclusion on the list.

The film focuses mainly on the recent conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq and the manner in which public consent was, in the opinion of Pilger and others, manipulated by the US and UK governments with the aid of largely unquestioning editors in the mainstream media. Pilger’s passionate viewpoint is, I believe, too politically idealised to achieve the fait accompli he clearly believes he is presenting, however much in the film should be mandatory viewing for all thoughtful people and certainly for all working journalists.

You should watch the film (for free) on your own particular TV-on-demand service or on the ITV player (for the next 28 days).

I recall fondly, long days spent riding the cold hard concrete of Livingston Skatepark, trying to emulate the top pros like Eddie Fiola, Mike Dominguez or even local guys like Dave Frame (pictured at Livingston, left). Ghetto Blaster tape decks pumping out mid-80s pop and hip-hop. Dropping into the deeper part of the double bowl with a rush of adrenaline.  The passing hours and fading daylight of no concern, no real responsibilities to worry us. Aside from the minor discomfort of the occasional fractured wrist or bruised rib, life was a seemingly never ending series of long, freewheeling, fresh air-filled days. Seeing Danny’s film this morning brought all this flooding back and brought a smile to my responsible, middle-aged, tax-generating face.

How different life is now when you’re a bona fide grown-up. Client websites to administer, kitchens to clean, mortgages to fund and children to parent. It is one of life’s ironies that the young do not fully appreciate what they have until it has all but gone. If you are a “youth” and reading this, stop. Go out and play!

Rachel: Daddy?
Me (expecting request for something treat-like): Yeeeees.
Rachel: How do you spell cock?

Woah! This is from leftfield and not at all what I was anticipating. I frantically scan the shelves to try and figure out what might have prompted such an unwittingly frank question.

Me: Do you mean Coke?
Rachel (loudly): No Daddy! COCK!! C (kuh), O (ohh) ….
Me (increasingly uncomfortable in these very public cicumstances): Shhh! What are you talking about?
Rachel: You know, you hit it with a racquet and it goes up in the air.
Me (slightly relieved): Oh, you mean shuttlecock?
Rachel: Yes shuttlecock …. but just cock. C (kuh), O (ohh), C (kuh).
<adopts loud sing-song voice> I can spell cock. I can spell cock!

Good Christ! I hurry from the aisle and the increasing number of raised eyebrows, picturing myself in a courtroom desperately trying to talk myself off some register.

With that in mind, I ventured out from Edinburgh, via Kirkliston, Linlithgow, Grangemounth, Kincardine and Culross, to complete a loop around the River Forth for the second time in as many weeks today. On this occasion I tried out my new Garmin Edge 705 cycling-specific GPS gizmo. It not only guides me around my pre-defined low traffic route perfectly, measures the height gained and lost but also records my heart rate and pedal cadence throughout the ride. As techie boy toys go, it’s right up there. Fantastic.

Over the coming months I’ll be using this new toy to shed the indolent pounds surrounding my lower torso while seeing parts of Scotland I otherwise would never see. My entry to the Etape Caledonia 2011 is already in.

Allez! Allez!

Here is the summary of the route and my (not particularly impressive) stats:

While I think Underworld will never produce anything as compelling as Dubnobasswithmyheadman or Second Toughest In The Infants, which soundtracked a particular period of my life in the mid-nineties, there is something undeniably enjoyable about Barking. There’s a euphoria there. The album starts very strongly with Bird 1, Always Loved A Film and Scribble. After hearing the album three times I feel that, after the fairly uninspiring Hamburg Hotel, it becomes just a little generic through the mid-section. A little bit too much like background music for my tastes. However, the record has a great outro in the downtempo tracks Moon In The Water and Louisiana.

You can hear the new album in full on Underworld’s MySpace page.

Time-lapse video has provided me with some of my most memorable cinematic/TV moments. From Ron Fricke’s wonderful Baraka, Godfrey Reggio’s Koyaanisqatsi or the sequences seen in many of David Attenborough’s BBC wildlife documentaries. Have a look at this beautiful Sean Stiegemeier film, shot in Iceland in the area surrounding Eyjafjallajökul during the more active phase of the current eruptive cycle. Music is by Jónsi of Sigur Rós fame.

The opening section of Dark Night of the Soul reminds me a lot of Sparklehorse’s brilliant It’s a Wonderful Life of 2001. In fact, despite the wealth of talented collaborators involved here, ranging from Nina Persson, Gruff Rhys, Wayne Coyne, Jason Lytle, Iggy Pop and Suzanne Vega, it is the influence of Mark Linkous that comes through most strongly throughout the 13 tracks. There is enough variety of musical style here to appeal to fans of many different genres of music and Danger Mouse ties it all together with masterful production. Very highly recommended.

Inspired by a David Lynch photoshoot, here’s a video preview of the tracks on the record.