remember saying things like ‘we’ll sleep when we’re dead’: last year’s records, 2012;

It’s been a funny wee year. Sitting on the sofa earlier, surrounded by two days’ worth of flu-ridden tissues, I was feeling even more dispirited than I normally do at this time of year. It doesn’t feel as if it’s been one of big, dramatic accomplishments or monumental changes. But then I realised that I was writing from a sofa in a completely different part of Glasgow to the sofa that I was writing from two months ago, being pestered by cats who didn’t even exist this time last year, and that I should stop being so silly.

The very thought of having turned 30 and slowing down terrifies me, but you know that already. I spend much of this year in psychotherapy, precisely so that I would stop having these vaguely threatening conversations with my self-conscious, and the subtle changes that are invisible to everybody else that I have accomplished in the process are something that I should be very proud of.

And on a less personal note, this has been a pretty impressive year for me as far as journalism is concerned, particularly given how demanding – and exhausting – the day job can be. Had you told me last year that I would have become a television critic for example, as I have been fairly regularly for The Arts Desk of late, I would have thought you were having me on; and as for getting paid to write about music for The Herald..! To say nothing of it getting me out of the door and to gigs a lot more frequently than I had been doing. As I was putting together the traditional bloggers’ “albums of the year” list I realised that I had plenty of material to take me way beyond the traditional 20 I’ve tended to limit myself to in the past. I’ve listened to a lot of music this year. And – my experiences with rabid fans of Leona Lewis and Chris Brown, and trying to forget I heard the new Lostprophets album, aside – lots of it has been brilliant.

So as to not bombard you with opinions, I have included links where applicable to reviews and interviews with the acts listed below. Let me know what I missed out on in the comments.

50. Matthew Ryan: In the Dusk of Everything [buy]
49. Andrew Bird: Break it Yourself [buy]
48. Patti Smith: Banga [review] [buy]
47. Milk Maid: Mostly No [review] [buy]
46. Martha Tilston: Machines of Love and Grace [review] [buy]
45. La Sera: Sees The Light [interview] [buy]
44. Sleigh Bells: Reign of Terror [review] [buy]
43. Regina Spektor: What We Saw From the Cheap Seats [review]
42. She Makes War: Little Battles [review] [buy]
41. Wallis Bird: Wallis Bird [review] [buy]

40. The Unwinding Hours: Afterlives [live] [buy]
39. The Twilight Sad: Noone Can Ever Know [buy]
38. Lucero: Women & Work [interview] [buy]
37. Kasey Anderson & the Honkies: Let the Bloody Moon Rise
36. Tori Amos: Gold Dust [interview] [buy]
35. The Mountain Goats: Transcendental Youth [buy]
34. Sera Cahoone: Deer Creek Canyon [review] [buy]
33. Karine Polwart: Traces [review] [buy]
32. Damien Jurado: Maraqopa [buy]
31. Craig Finn: Clear Hearts Full Eyes [live] [buy]

30. Best Coast: The Only Place [review] [buy]
29. Esperi: In A Moment, Emotion, Sentiment [review] [buy]
28. Gaggle: From the Mouth of the Cave [review] [buy]
27. Micah Schnabel: I’m Dead, Serious [buy]
26. The Corin Tucker Band: Kill My Blues [buy]
25. The Lumineers: The Lumineers [review] [buy]
24. Beth Orton: Sugaring Season [review] buy]
23. Miaoux Miaoux: Light of the North [buy]
22. Yusuf Azak: Go Native [buy]
21. Titus Andronicus: Local Business [review] [buy]

20. The Gaslight Anthem: Handwritten [buy]
“The New Jersey band’s major-label debut ramps up the big rock choruses, but retains an intimacy through its wistful lyrics and Fallon’s bruised vocal delivery.” (July)

19. PAWS: Cokefloat! [buy]

18. First Aid Kit: The Lion’s Roar [buy]
“A second album of harmonious folk that’s crying out desperately for a summery listen.” (February)

17. John K Samson: Provincial [buy]

16. BOY: Mutual Friends [buy]
“This is a smart, quirky album you really ought to get your hands on before it is deservedly played to death in every coffee shop and on every half-creative advertising campaign this summer.” (June)

15. Amanda Palmer & the Grand Theft Orchestra: Theatre is Evil [buy]
“Palmer is the picture of a frontwoman, trialling a rockier sound on songs like Want It Back, The Killing Type and Melody Dean.” (October)

14. Human Don’t Be Angry: Human Don’t Be Angry [buy]
“[HDBA is] as good a name as any to describe a predominantly instrumental project which, although slipping in such trademark Middleton titles as ‘Getting Better (At Feeling Like Shit)’ seems to aim for something a little more playful with its clever instrumental loops and flourishes.” (April)

13. RM Hubbert: Thirteen Lost and Found [buy]
“There’s him and her and they’re making their escape, although things will never be the same again.” (February)

12. Kathleen Edwards: Voyageur [buy]
“‘A Soft Place To Land’ is perhaps the most desperate, heartbreaking adult lovesong I have ever heard, so full of resolve and resignation and longing that I challenge anybody who’s ever had a door close on their heart not to cry.” (January)

11. Father John Misty: Fear Fun [buy]

10. Cat Power: Sun [buy]
“It’s many things – sonically challenging, wildly ambitious, sprawling, experimental and possessed of an Iggy Pop guest vocal on a track that hits eleven minutes in length – but never difficult.” (August)

9. Taylor Swift: Red [buy]
“Swift’s sweet, bright voice, ear for a pop hook and lyrics that scan like the diary of a particularly articulate lovestruck teen are the perfect comfort music for the pre-winter ills.” (October)

8. The Menzingers: On the Impossible Past [buy]
“It seems since signing to Epitaph these PA punks know what to do with a tune.” (January)

7. Bruce Springsteen: Wrecking Ball [buy]
“Oh, make no mistake: with lines like ‘when your whole world comes tumbling down all those fat cats will just think it’s funny’ this album certainly presents an anger and political awareness that – dare I say it – makes the Obama-endorsing antics of Working on a Dream look like mere cheerleading. But it’s hopeful too.” (March)

6. Meursault: Something for the Weakened [buy]
“The first thing that strikes you is the voice. At once coarse and warm, like the creak of the stairs of your childhood home as it settles in at night, Meursault’s Neil Pennycook sounds like a man with more than a few stories to tell.” (July)

5. Fiona Apple: The Idler Wheel… [buy]
“‘I just want to feel everything’, Apple asks of her troublesome brain; but the slight skip in her vocal acrobatics betrays an idea she is trying on for size in a darkened room before committing herself.” (June)

4. Japandroids: Celebration Rock [buy]
“Their half-yelled sloganeering and joyous woah-oah-oah choruses are positively life-affirming, lighting up the classic rock power chords that punctuate at least the first half of the album with the final fireworks of youth.” (December)

3. Franz Nicolay: Do The Struggle [buy]
“Nicolay’s stories are not usually immediately horrific but as words tumble from his lips at speed they create partial pictures, leaving the listener to fill in the blanks.” (July)

2. Sharon van Etten: Tramp [buy]
“She can sound as angelic as the voice that carried the high school choir … But when she lets go she’s a sorceress, dark and guttural – sometimes even on the same song.” (July)

1. Jenny Owen Youngs: An Unwavering Band of Light [buy]
“Stop the presses, but with lines like ‘numb’s no good but it sure beats the hurt’ the lady with the greatest initials in music has once again penned my life in songs I can sing along to.” (April)