CDs of 2008 / Andy Welch

Want to know what to spend those CD tokens on this year? Here are six suggestions:

1. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

From obscurity to music-press darlings in the space of six months, Fleet Foxes are one of this year’s true success stories.

And they’ve done it the old-fashioned way, too, letting their music do all the talking while remaining relatively anonymous themselves. Seattle is famous for many things, coffee and grunge music namely, but this five-piece have very little in common with either of their hometown’s biggest exports.

Their country-folk-tinged debut is at once brand new and ethereal, while sounding totally familiar.

Frontman Robin Pecknold’s angelic voice is the star of the show. Music rarely sounds as beautiful as this.

2. Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid

After almost 20 years together, Elbow finally got the recognition they deserved when they scooped the Nationwide Mercury Prize in September.

Musically, Elbow touch on everything from rootsy blues (Grounds For Divorce) to melancholy lullabies (Mirrorball).

One Day Like This, a highlight of Glastonbury this summer, might be the most euphoric song ever written.

3. She & Him - Volume One

Albums by actresses normally aren’t very good, but the genre peaked when Zooey Deschanel released this in July.

Collaborating with M Ward, a solo artist in his own right, the album brims with the sort of things you might romantically expect to hear on an American radio station in the 1950s.

But perhaps the record’s biggest selling point is that it sounds such fun - you can even hear Deschanel laughing on Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?

4. Duffy - Rockferry

The only UK artist to sell more than a million copies of an album this year, Duffy has become a bona-fide star in 2008.

Her album is defiantly retro, putting the 24-year-old Welsh singer’s Dusty-meets-Lulu voice to best use.

Duffy detractors have criticised her hackneyed lyrics, but Rockferry is so carefully crafted and perfectly performed, it’s as genuine an article as you’re likely to find.

5. Paul Weller - 22 Dreams

After The Style Council split in 1989, Paul Weller embarked on a fruitful solo career.

But no one could have expected this 21-track concept album, including Motown-esque upbeat love songs, free-form jazz, spoken-word interludes and psychedelic jams.

It’s Weller’s most ambitious album to date, and arguably his best.

6. Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul

This, their seventh album, has the strongest opening to an Oasis album since Morning Glory, with one pounding anthem leading into the next.

Liam’s songwriting is also coming good, with his Lennon-esque ballad I’m Outta Time one of the album’s many highlights.

They might be easy for some to criticise, but with music as good as this, they’re impossible to ignore.