As usual, the dudes got it wrong. While the likes of Panda Bear and Arcade Fire were stroking their beards, wondering how to hide their tracks, the ladies went straight for the pop jugular unashamed, and rightly so.

On Brilliant Colors' debut album, Introducing, this all-girl trio looks to genres long gone for inspiration, specifically the fuzzed-out, riff-heavy shoegazer sound.

Camera Obscura's heartfelt, Glasgow twee proves My Maudlin Career is nothing to scoff about.

Strange and indefinable, Does You takes the listener on a nuanced journey from quirk and whimsy to melancholy and yearning.

Eschewing the hopeful lullabies and languid odes to taking it easy that made her famous, Corinne Bailey Rae has drastically changed her tune on The Sea, the first release since the death of her husband in 2008.