We always start these end-of-year lists with a disclaimer.
“It’s been a great year for music, and putting a top 5, or 50, in order, is a bit like choosing which of your favourite pets to eat”. Or something.

This year is no different – the bottom ten could easily have made the top half, and #10 (for example) might have ended up top of the tree no another day.

So instead, and particularly if your favourites are lying in the mid-teens, take this list as 50 recommendations to hear before 2018 really gets going.

(Though if you agree with the top 5 or 10, congratulations on your impeccable taste!)

1. Ultras – Ultras (Instinctive Racoon / Hello Thor)

2. Stephen Solo – Pii2 (Last Night From Glasgow)

3. Mitchell Museum – Everett Trap (MM)

4. Sweeney Straddles The Sun – Tarantula (Boffo Bear)

5. Adrian Crowley – Dark Eyed Messenger (Chemikal Underground)

6. Annie Booth – An Unforgiving Light (Scottish Fiction)
7. Spare Snare – Unicorn (Chute)
8. Colin’s Godson – In Silicon Heaven (Puzzled Aardvak)
9. Lyle Christine – Duff Steer (Flaky)
10. The Secret Goldfish – Petal Split (Creeping Bent)

11. Mogwai – Every Country’s Son (Rock Action)
12. Andrew Howie – Lonely Hummngbird (Autoclave)
13. Dawnings – Dawnings (Tromolo)
14. Sumshapes – Cabin Biscuits (Red Wig / Mon Cul)
15. Immigrant – Wounded Healer (Oscarson)
16. Sacred Paws – Strike A Match (Rock Action)
17. The Strange Blue Dreams (Holy Smokes)
18. Triptamines – The Way Which Can Be Named Is Not The Nameless Way (Fitlike)
19. Smackvan – Palace of Varieties (Sans Culottes)
20. Wozniak – Courage Reels (Morningside Young Team)

21. Meursault – I Will Kill Again (Song, By Toad)
22. BMX Bandits – BMX Bandits Forever (Elefant)
23. Siobhan Wilson – There Are No Saints (Song, By Toad)
24. The Hazey Janes – Hans Around The City Live (Armellodie)
25. Dominic Waxing Lyrical – Rural Tonic (Tenement)
26. Sons of the Descent – Lazy Glamour (Brawsome)
27. Pronto Mama – Any Joy (Electric Honey)
28. Out Lines – Conflats (Rock Action)
29. The Just Joans – You Might Be Smiling (Fika)
30. Fat Goth – Enorme (Hefty Dafty)

31. Bdy_Prts – Fly Invisible Hero (Aggrocat)
32. Fatalists – Wayward Navigation (Gamma Proforma)
33. Francis MacDonald and Harry Pye – Bonjour (Shoeshine)
34. Breakfast Muff – Eurgh! (Amour Foo)
35. The Wayne Devro Set – Birdsulfur (Barne Socety)
36. Adam Stafford – Reverse Drift (Gerry Loves)
37. TST: The Southern Tenant – The Chuck Norris Electronic Project: The Horror of the Right (Johnny Rock)
38. The Ladywell Lout – After The Float Rush (LL)
39. Campfires in Winter – Ischaemia (Olive Grove)
40. Sloth Metropolis – Origins (download)

41. MC Almond Milk – Full Day, Cool Times (Save, As)
42. The State Broadcasters – A Different Past (Olive Grove)
43. Art Of The Memory Palace – Voiture Blanch Dans La Nuit (X)
44. Manuela – Manuela (Lost Map)
45. The Jesus and Mary Chain – Damage and Joy (Artificial Plastic)
46. Golden Teacher – No Luscious Life (GT)
47. Spinning Coin – Permo (Geographic)
48. Blue Rose Code – Water Of Leith (Navigator)
49. Marnie – Strange Words and Weird Wars (Disco Pinata)
50. The Vintage Calvinos – An Invitation to Infamy (Stereogram)

E&OE. We’re bound to have forgotten some album or other, so if your favourite is missing then best just assume that rather than it being (IMO) rubbish, it simply got overlooked, perhaps by just being so good everyone was dazzled by its brilliance or it had become so much a part of our lives that it was hiding in plain sight.

Oh, and it’s a bit of a DIY chart this year, so most of them are on Spotify. The rest are on Google…