13. Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass

Good old predictable YLT. Although, they're predictably unpredictable . Predictably, this album sags a bit in the middle, but starting with the 10 minute drone machine of "Pass the Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind" is excitingly unpredictable.

This is better than "Summer Sun" and "I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One", but not as good as "And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out".

12. Isis - In The Absence of Truth
As so aptly put on Allmusic, this is music that seeks the white heart of nothingness that beats in most music; that centre of the song that tunes out everything else. In the right frame of mind this album approaches that intensity and weight. It's incredibly heavy, yet it moves and mutates with a grace and litheness that's occasionally breathtaking. I'm only just starting to unearth this properly.

11. You Am I - Convicts
Attitude is sometimes all you need. If it gets you back up on your feet, dukes in the air, swinging at shadows at least you're back. This was such a surprising and energetic return from You Am I. Maybe I should rephrase - sometimes attitude and a break are what you need to relight the fires. You Am I are back and burning bright, and I don't think they're burning up.

10. The Knife - Silent Shout
Such a cold and calculated album, full of strange sounds, but it's metallic heart beats like any other. It's got a streak of otherness running through it - it's undenaibly and absorbingly weird.

9. The Drones - Gala Mill
This feels like an important album - it's one of the few albums around that deals honestly with the horrors in Australia's past in an unapologetic and disarmingly straightforward way. But it doesn't rest with tales of Australia's convict nightmare - the state of the world gets a thorough damning in opening track "Jezebel". It's a mean, ragged and nasty song, just like it's subject matter.