JAN 21 — Even though I’m a musician and singer-songwriter in a band, anyone who’s ever hung out with me for a bit will tell you that I talk about films way more than I do about music. It’s not that I love music less or anything like that, as I’m just as obsessive in my geek fandom of music as I am of films.

But I think the fact that there are far more worthy and interesting new films to talk about every year than there are new bands, artists or albums, means I almost always end up all enthusiastic about new films or a newly discovered director every time I open my mouth.

But 2011 has been a pretty good one when it came to new albums; some of them not hip or big enough to end up on any of those big end-of-year lists by Pitchfork, Spin, Rolling Stone or Mojo, to name but a few.

So here they are, and I hope they’ll fill your ears with pleasure after you’ve hunted them down after reading this. Oh, and honourable mentions must first go to the release of The Beach Boys’ “Smile”, finally seeing the light of day after being shelved since the 60s, and the reliably brilliant new albums from The Black Keys and Fountains Of Wayne. Off we go to the list now!

Yuck — (Self titled) — Yuck is a UK band that sounds like a 90s American alternative rock band, and they’ve graced almost all of the big year-end lists with this sweet and unpretentious debut album. Anyone wondering what the big deal is when they’re “only” trying to sound like Dinosaur Jr, The Lemonheads and Pavement will have to eat their words once they actually listen to the remarkably fantastic set of songs that grace this album. It’s lo-fi, it’s derivative, but none of this matters a jot as the songs, every single one of them, are simply a joy to listen to. I basically listened to this album for the whole of last year, and I’m still nowhere near bored with it!

Havok — Time Is Up — I may play power pop with my band, and my tastes in music usually tend to lie with the more melodic side of things, but I’ve always kept an ear out for the kind of metal music that I grew up with, namely thrash metal and doom/stoner metal. Eighties style old school thrash metal has been enjoying a revival in the last five to six years with new bands like Municipal Waste, Toxic Holocaust and Evile waving the flag for the new generation. US band Havok is more or less a new addition to this scene, and they’re on Candlelight, a relatively small label in the metal scheme of things. But this stunning, all-killer-no-filler, second album from them is such a quantum leap in quality and confidence that I personally think they’re now at the forefront of the new thrash metal scene, with Municipal Waste as their only rival.

Army Navy — The Last Place — If you’ve watched the film “Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist” or listened to the soundtrack CD, then I think you’d have noticed this band’s outstanding brand of jangle pop as one of the soundtrack’s highlight. Mining a tougher and brasher sound with this new album but without losing their natural instincts for that spine-tingling jangle and killer melodies, this is a pop album so good, so catchy and so generous that it’s a real crime that it sort of slipped through the cracks amongst the hipster indie crowd. This one deserves to sell big.

Locksley —  (Self titled) — Fellow alumni, together with my band, of Rolling Stone magazine’s 25 Best Bands of Myspace list in 2006 (oh, how quick the world wide web changes!), this third album by US garage pop masters Locksley is basically a repackaging of the songs from their first two albums, all of them either remixed of remastered (with one of them re-recorded with brilliant new arrangements) to take advantage of the fact that their song “The Whip” was featured prominently in the animated film “Rango”, and in the film’s trailer as well, which is one heck of an achievement for an unsigned band. So this might “only” be a repackaging, but this album is such an engaging listen that I don’t even care about that!

Cloud Nothings — (Self titled) — Cloud Nothings is basically a one-man band who first made a name for itself the way most bands do these days, through blog-of-mouth. Famed for their infectious lo-fi tunes, the band has taken a bold step with this album by hiring a producer and recording in a studio for this second album. The results, while still awfully lo-fi to the ears of normal listeners, is quite shockingly clean-sounding to people who are already fans, which doesn’t really hurt as the relatively crystal clear production leaves a lot of room for us to hear the many little sweet things happening in the more or less hectic songs. A cool little harmony part here, a memorable call-and-response part there, addictive guitar licks everywhere. Really, what’s not to love?

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.