Like Coleen McLoughlin at the Burberry sale, there were tough choices to be made, but what follows is a list of the 10 albums which most rocked the GrapeVine stereo this year.

Those who didn’t quite make the list included the likes of Athlete, The White Stripes and KT Tunstall.

No doubt they’re all devastated . . .

10. Cut Copy — Bright Like Neon Love

The Aussies supported Mylo in Dundee back in May, and just squeezed their fellow bedroom twiddler out of the top 10 with an album which flew, or rather danced, under a lot of people’s radars.

Seventies prog, eighties pop and French-style disco house . . . the mind of Cut Copy main man Dan Whitford is surely a strange but interesting place.

9. Nine Black Alps — Everything Is

The sound of Seattle, 1993, alive and well in Manchester more than a decade later. Unlike so many Nirvana-wannabes, Nine Black Alps found the perfect balance of youthful energy and doleful disaffection.

They also rediscovered that time-tested melodies + choruses formula, then took it into the school lab and added the magnesium. Explosive stuff.

8. We Are Scientists — With Love And Squalor

The boys from Brooklyn followed in the footsteps of The Killers and The Bravery by heading across the Atlantic to break the UK market before gunning for success back home.

They’ve got the goods to back it up too — a succession of new-wave pop songs to be raving to your mates about after only one listen.

Yet another band who found that a touch of disco goes a long way.

7. Kanye West — Late Registration

The US rapper probably won’t be making President Bush’s top 10 — or even the playlist on that iPod he reputedly takes cycling — but almost everyone else will have him there.

In between taking on the most powerful man in the world, West produced an album more mature and polished than its predecessor. And even managed to make that guy out of Maroon 5 sound okay.

6. Franz Ferdinand — You Could Have Had It So Much Better . . .

. . . but probably couldn’t have expected much more from the Glasgow lads, who had the eyes of the world on them as they followed up a genre-shaking debut.

It was a test they came through with flying colours, dismissing the cynics with equal parts cockiness and catchiness. Songs about Mao-Tse Tung and the wives of famous painters? It’s obvious really . . .

5. Arctic Monkeys — Beneath The Boardwalk (Demos)

Okay, I know it’s not exactly an album, but this was one of the finest collections of songs to emerge from 2005, and if the charts included shady file-sharing downloads it would have sat firmly in number one spot.

The official album is due early next year, but for now the chav-bashing demos that won the Sheffield lads their record deal provided proof that new music is about much more than flogging ring tones.

4. Babyshambles — Down In Albion

This was the album that could — and probably should — have been the best of the year.

In 16 tracks, Pete Doherty highlighted both his musical genius and the shambolic lifestyle which prevented him realising the group’s potential.

What emerged from the hype was an album of often brilliant songs which sounded like works-in-progress. All but the most dedicated of fans were left wondering what might have been.

3. Sugababes — Taller In More Ways

The scariest women in pop continued to defy the odds in 2005 with their fourth release, producing yet more perfect chart fodder long after they should have been consigned to the place where Hearsay, All Saints and S Club live.

While Push The Button was a clear highlight, almost every track from Taller In More Ways could be a top ten single. The recent line-up change — Amelle Berrabah replacing Mutya Buena — is unlikely to have any impact on their success.

2. Gorillaz — Demon Days

If you always considered The Simpsons Sing The Blues to be the pinnacle of cartoon-related music, it was time to take a long, hard look at yourself.

With Demon Days., Damon Albarn and his ramshackle selection of chums took the Gorillaz art-pop experiment to a new level. The result was sometimes baffling, always challenging — and frequently brilliant.

1. The Magic Numbers — The Magic Numbers

They grinned, and the world grinned with them. From the moment their debut release hit the shops in June, Romeo and Co were destined to be the band of the summer.

The singles Love Me Like You and Forever Lost were what the sunburned punters were singing, but you’d be hard pushed to find a single weak spot on the year’s most uplifting album.