Sound: High energy and highly melodic British-sounding punky/poppy rock from a French quintet. Synths and organs grind, bounce or creep and guitars jangle, jump or swirl, and there’s a good balance between amped up and sedated, and dark and bright…

Update: Death Vessel’s quiet, under-the-radar album Nothing Is Precious Enough For Us finds its way into the Top 20, which means that now THREE acts with the word “death” in their moniker have made it onto this list. Intriguing. In the meantime, the debut album Take Me to the Sea by Jaguar Love - a band that includes former members of The Blood Brothers and Pretty Girls Make Graves - gets nudged out.

1. My Morning Jacket Evil Urges (ATO)
2. Conor Oberst Conor Oberst (Merge)
3. Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend (XL)
4. T.I. Paper Trail (Grand Hustle/Atlantic)
5. Adele 19 (XL/Columbia)