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Dan Cairns

1 ARCADE FIRE Funeral (Rough Trade) On track three of this sublimely beautiful album, its Canadian creators throw back their heads and holler “Hey” as the drums and guitar pile in. It’s impossible to think of another musical moment in 2005 that so perfectly sums up what it is to be alive in one of pop’s greatest and most action-packed years.

2 MARTHA WAINWRIGHT Martha Wainwright (Drowned in Sound) Famous parents: check. Famous sibling: check. Cowed, uncertain of herself, struggling to find her own voice: are you kidding? With a cracked croon and a wracked heart, Ms Wainwright blasted her way into contention.

3 KATE BUSH Aerial (EMI) Devotees approached this comeback, 12 years in the making, with anxiety and caution. Could it possibly live up to the weight of expectations? Containing music unlike any being made today, Aerial is a challenging journey, but you emerge at the other end in a state of numbed rapture.

4 THE MAGIC NUMBERS The Magic Numbers (Heavenly/EMI) Fans at their live shows display a fervour akin to a revivalist meeting. At first, the album didn’t seem to capture this, but any misgivings were soon banished by the beauty and heartbreak of the songs.

5 LINA The Inner Beauty Movement (Hidden Beach/Sony BMG) Dropped by her previous label, this Texan soul singer came up with the perfect riposte: a truly outstanding album that took her unique blend of hip-hop, classic soul and speakeasy jazz to another level.

6 ELBOW Leaders of the Free World (V2) Elbow made it three ace albums in a row with this searing set inspired by the romantic disappointment of their singer, Guy Garvey. Chris Martin claims that the Bury band inspired Coldplay’s comparatively insipid X&Y. That album may have got the sales, but this one gets to the bruised heart of the matter.

7 ROOTS MANUVA Awfully Deep (Big Dada) A brush with Mercury- nominated success caused Rodney Smith no end of personal problems, which he emerged to tell us about on an album that had one foot in Brit-hop and another in what can only be called music-hall for the 21st century.

8 HANNE HUKKELBERG Little Things (Leaf) This Norwegian singer’s debut listed bicycle spokes among its instrumental tools. Alongside the whimsy, however, there coexists an acutely observational and unsentimental rigour.

9 BRITISH SEA POWER Open Season (Rough Trade) Love, death, melting icecaps and insomnia cures were just some of the subjects addressed on this rhapsodic album.