November: Bon Iver - Holocene

"I can see for miles, miles, miles."

Slight delay in announcing November's rotm as I've been on holiday. But that holiday gave me time to really listen to the new Bon Iver record and appreciate just how good it is. In particular, the tracks 'Perth', 'Calgary' and the quite brilliant 'Holocene'. And so, while it might have been released slightly pre-November, it's 'Holocene' that gets November's rotm.

First time I heard it I knew I liked it, but then it continued to grow on me, which is when I know that I really like a song. The constant, echoed guitar riff underpins the whole thing but - a bit like Okkervil River's 'Mermaid', an earlier rotm - there's so much more going on and to listen closely for. I remember once reading that classical music students have to complete exercises where they are given a piece of music that they have to listen to and they need to be able to dissect it into all the constituent instrument parts. This would probably make brilliant subject material.

Listening to the track reminds me so much of our holiday, driving across hundreds of miles of the long, flat roads of Wisconsin and Minnesota under early winter's sharp blue skies. The line "I can see for miles, miles, miles" pretty much speaks right to that. As we were driving, Clare absently said that this album was the perfect music to accompany our journey. She was right.

October: Ryan Adams - Lucky Now

"Am I really who I was?"

For a man who gave up music just two years ago, Ryan's output (three albums in the last 12 months) doesn't seem to have suffered too much.

'Ashes & Fire' is one of the first RA albums in a while tho where I really feel that he's started employing some quality control again. Easy Tiger is underrated and Cardinology had some fantastic individual tracks, but neither really felt like they were quite as complete as some of his earlier records. I guess it's hard when the benchmarks he's set are always going to be a bit of a crown of thorns. But this time it does feel like he's been a bit more patient and selective about choosing and recording the songs that are right for this album, rather than just rushing to get something out there.

'Lucky Now' was the first single off of the record and so gets October's rotm by virtue of being first out of the Ashes & Fire box, altho I could easily have selected any of about four or five from this collection. It's also a nice bookend to the 'old' Ryan Adams - a look back at who he used to be, "all that's faded into memory."

The guitar solo coda is unmistakeably signature RA too. It's been a while since I heard something new feel so familiar simply because of the guitarist's playing style.

> Bonus video of 'Ashes & Fire' included below the single. Just because he has to be seen live to really appreciate how good he is.

September: Dum Dum Girls - Bedroom Eyes

"I fear that I'll never sleep again."

This month's choice was a tough call. Lana Del Rey finally released July's rotm and her debut release turned out to be a double A-side, backed with new song 'Blue Jeans'. It will almost certainly end up as my record of the year and in any other month Blue Jeans would have taken the sotm prize on its own.

But having already given lead track 'Video Games' the nod in July - and with the release of the new Dum Dum Girls album 'Only in Dreams', I can't look past the brilliant 'Bedroom Eyes'. It's the kind of indie-girl pop that I'm a total sucker for (and which has been sadly missing since Elastica downed tools).

Pretenders-styled girl guitar bands will usually get my attention. Hot Pretenders-styled guitar bands with great tunes will steal my heart and my money.

August: Sarabeth Tucek - Get Well Soon

"It just takes time."

Sarabeth Tucek's new album 'Get Well Soon' was one of the more depressing but untold stories of the recent London riots.

One of Sony's distribution centres is based in north London and the rioters probably didn't think much of throwing a few firebombs at a major label. Unfortunately, this was also a major distribution centre for many independent labels and artists (165 in total), none of which can afford to have their stock destroyed, and yet found themselves caught up in the crossfire.

'Get Well Soon' was one such album - the promotional work was all done, the cds were pressed and ready for distribution...only for all the hard work to - quite literally - go up in flames. It's a real shame for a number of reasons (quite apart from the cost to the label, Sonic Cathedral, and the artist herself), because this should have been a bit of a breakthrough for Sarabeth. She'd had great press in the UK nationals (ranging from Q to the NME; from the Guardian and Times, even through to the Daily Mirror) and so the timing sucked.

Sympathies aside, 'Get Well Soon' is an excellent album from an excellent and under-exposed artist. The writing is deeply personal - both emotionally and physically - and none more so than on that title track, 'Get Well Soon'.

It's a song that's both easy to hear and difficult to listen to. The melody is undoubtedly easy on the ear, but the lyrics and themes (grief following the loss of her father, as well as mental fragility) are clearly from a harder place.

July: Lana Del Rey - Video Games

"Only worth living if somebody is loving you."

My friend Gab has great taste in music and she occasionally chucks a recommendation my way, so when my little instant messaging box started flashing recently I knew it was either going to be

a) a request for any good new songs I've heard, or

b) a tip in the right direction.

"Have you heard Lana del Rey yet? I think you'll like her."

And so I opened up the link and sat and listened.

It's brilliant.

Moody, sultry, stringy, beatsy, melodic, brilliant. Just a brilliant first single.

Let's see how she goes...

June: Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

"What's my name, what's my station? Oh just tell me what I should do."

The fear I had with the new Fleet Foxes album was that it couldn't live up to either the hype or its predecessor. From the second I heard a leaked copy of the first track, 'Montezuma', I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I'm still not sure if it's quite as magical as the debut was but it's a real good record, nonetheless.

Title track 'Helplessness Blues' is probably my standout. Both lyrically and thematically as well as musically. Is it better to be unique - but alone - "like a snowflake", or just "a functioning cog in some great machinery", with all the communal benefits that brings? As great as the first album certainly is, the existential challenges sure weren't hitting too hard back then.

May: King Creosote and Jon Hopkins - Bats In The Attic

"It's such a waste of all that we had."

It was only a matter of time before personal favourite King Creosote made an appearance. New album 'Diamond Mine' (which he wrote and recorded, on and off, with Jon Hopkins over seven and a bit years) is truly gorgeous stuff, easily an early record of the year contender. The pair complement each other so naturally that you could easily assume they'd been writing together for years. Which they kind of have, given the album's gestation period, I guess.

Picking one track was tough but 'Bats in the Attic' just about won through because of how well I think it shows the two styles meshing. KC's easy melodies play over Hopkins' programmed piano and drum beats. Acerbic lyrics get sweetly whispered, leaving just enough room for doubt as to whether they're a simple lament or more lashing criticism ("How I'll laugh out loud about that when I read your simple novel that uses all our real names").

Regret captured beautifully.

April: Emily Jane White - The Law

"You can peer into the weaknesses and the bleakness in me."

Emily Jane White is someone who I've followed since her 2007 debut 'Dark Undercoat'. She's been making a bit of a name for herself in France without ever having the commercial success in the UK that she really deserves.

'The Law' is probably my favourite thing she's ever done. It starts with a beautifully picked guitar intro and a gentle melody. It's a seemingly light folk song. Just singer and acoustic, with little hint of the darker turn that the song will soon take once EJW sings of being able to "peer into the weaknesses and bleakness in me".

A piano suddenly thumps menacingly away. The volume slowly rises. She's "seen a glimpse of mortal hell". She wasn't joking when she admitted in an interview that "It isn't my job to write happy songs...and I'm ok with that".

Her French label, the excellent Talitres Records, are offering the song free as a download when you sign up to her mailing list, here.

March: Ryan Adams & The Cards - Death and Rats

"It's not supposed to rain today."

I've been listening to the newish Ryan Adams & The Cardinals a lot and love the song 'Death and Rats', in particular. Smithsy, jangly guitar is usually a pretty decent blueprint for a song to follow. Scary that this was something he'd just knocked out and wasn't even planning on releasing.

In other news, something I very much liked this month was Will Sheff's take on those people who were complaining that they'd never heard of the person who won 'Best New Artist' at the Grammys...

"I read pages and pages of people shouting in all caps "I'VE NEVER HEARD OF THEM" as if that's a valid musical critique, as if that's anything but a braying declaration of proud ignorance."

Will Sheff is fast becoming my hero.

February: Okkervil River - Mermaid

"And my heart fills with love, with too much love to bear."

I came across Okkervil River by complete fluke, about nine months ago. I clicked on a friend's Stumbleupon link to look at something completely different (it was some pictures of cakes, not so surprisingly for those who know me well...). Then, once I'd looked at that, I clicked on the 'Stumble' button and it brought up a list of the ten best Valentine's songs that people probably wouldn't have heard. Okkervil River's 'A Stone' (from their album 'Black Sheep Boy') was one of the first tracks I...erm...'stumbled upon'. And I loved it.

Back to the future and I'm now a huge Okkervil fan, so was well pleased to find out this week just gone that their new album ('I Am Very Far') is out in May. And before that, they've released this single, 'Mermaid', which won't be on the album for some maddeningly bizarre reason.

There's so many little touches on this which you only pick up on closer listens. Like the use of mandolin strings to conjure up the sound of the mermaid's "freezing fins fluttering" or the drum patterns which batter and blow the song and ship towards its stormy finale. The fact that everything here was recorded 'live', except for Sheff's vocals and the string section, is pretty damned amazing.

Another reason that I'm such a big Sheff and Okkervil River fan is the guy's poetry. I love a great tune and melody but a song that also gives you great lyrics and which tells a great story is worth double, to me.

"With a sickening flick of her tail, circling,
Her gills fill with cold, salty water.
She thrashes and twirls,
Her freezing fins, fluttering.

"My hands meet and they press to a point in the air,
But my mouth fills with more panic than prayer."

Like many Okkervil River songs, I found that I only started to get the best out of Mermaid once I'd listened to it a couple of times to really hear what's going on beneath the surface and to truly get a feel for the lyrics and metaphor at play. It's this blog's first 'record of the month' but I reckon it'll go some way to be beaten.

Introducing the band

What this isn't.

This isn't going to be a deep and personal reflection of who I am or what I've been doing every day. Facebook already caters for my day-to-day sense of self-importance.

What this is.

My records of the month. Every month.