My 2008 in Music (Part 1)

It was difficult to reduce this category to just ten albums last year and so I added two later. This year that has proven impossible to all intents and purposes so this year I've decided to do it slightly differently.

I've chosen to split albums into two groups. The first of twelve (below) and the second (probably of ten or twelve) and, although you could argue that there will inevitably be a grey area between them, it might be worthy of discussion!
This is the first list and these are my most 'indispensable' albums of 2008. The selection is of course totally biased by my own tastes but this year two albums released by a major label feature on it, and justifiably so I feel. It is, as ever, a rather nebulous concept of a 'top 12' - there is no way that I'm going to attempt to put them in any order other than alphabetical by artist and without additional comment.

• Amy LaVere - Anchors and Anvils
• Beth Rowley - Little Dreamer
• Black Mountain - In The Future
• Carrie Rodriguez - She Ain't Me
• Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
• Duke Spirit - Neptune
• Eilen Jewell - Letters From Sinners and Strangers
• Jill Jackson - Jill Jackson
• Laura Marling - Alas I Cannot Swim
• Oh Laura - A Song Inside My Head, A Devil In My Bed
• Phantom Limb - Phantom Limb
• Xela - In Boca Al Lupo
  

It includes two 'major label' releases, which is up from just one in last year's (original) list, and it probably isn't a quirk of statistics. I suspect my next ten choices, which I shall reveal shortly, will show that to be a significant, if rather minor, change.