Why wait until the end of the year to round up the best albums of 2012? Especially when those poor LPs released into the wild during January and February will be unfairly overlooked in favour of the artists who cleverly put their records out two weeks before Guardian critics come to make their lists (not that this ever tricks us, but still ...). We're convinced that 2012 has already been a stellar year for music – from avant hip-hop to disco-tinged electro – so we thought we would celebrate the best music made in the last six months. Of course, you will agree entirely with us – you always do! – but if you feel there's something we've missed why not let us know in the comments section below!
R.I.P. - Actress
A techno study of the fall of man, R.I.P. shifts through rooms of uniquely realised sound, full of squirming electricity, thudding bass and wisps of static. But as the euphoric likes of IWAAD show, there's still a chance to party.
The Bravest Man in the Universe - Bobby Womack
Coaxing Womack back into the recording studio was one thing – placing his voice in such a futuristic setting quite another, although Bobby's simple guitar playing still shines through.
Something - Chairlift
Few people expected "that band who did the iPod advert song" to return with a record as captivating as this. The 80s are hardly a novel fount of inspiration, but Something – propelled by Caroline Polachek's beguiling vocals – locates the precise point where pop meets art.
The Money Store - Death Grips
With a sample of Venus Williams's screamed serve alongside a man shouting that he'll make your waters break in the Apple store, this is body-horror rap rich in ideas, oxygen, piss and vinegar – the sound of an angry, culture-glutted web generation.
Love Songs – A Time You May Embrace - Krystle Warren
One of the most original voices out there – Warren is a darling of the English folk scene, but here she also eases between soulful balladry and scat jazz, country, soul and jazz.
One Day I'm Going To Soar - Dexys
Twenty-seven years after Don't Stand Me Down was released to widespread bafflement that took years to turn into acclaim, Dexys return with an album every bit as confounding, theatrical, strange and painfully honest.
Django Django - Django Django
You can hear shards of everything from The Beach Boys to The Beta Band to UK garage in Django Django's kaleidoscopic sound, but ultimately, it doesn't sound like anything else around at the moment: a fabulous slice of modern British psychedelia.
Locked Down - Dr John
Collaboration between the New Orleans legend and Black Keys' Dan Auerbach producing, which makes old sounds seem fresh. Stuffed with Mississippi blues, voodoo funk, and contemporary references to crack houses, the Night Tripper is in exhilarating, vintage form.
Visions - Grimes
That Grimes would set the benchmark for autonomous pop was by no means a given upon the release of the idiosyncratic, lo-fi synth haze Visions, but since its release, Claire Boucher has become something of a star.
In Our Heads - Hot Chip
Consistency isn't the sexiest word in pop, but these days seeing the name "Hot Chip" stamped on a record is as close as you can get to a seal of quality. This is a beaming, technicoloured affair, keen to parade its influences – from disco to slow jams – but never at the expense of a joyous melody.
Blunderbuss - Jack White
The Lionel Messi of rock – he strums! He scores! – picked over the entrails of his broken marriage to a backing less skeletal but no less feral than that of the White Stripes. The blues were twisted, once again, into a shape both recognisable but thrillingly new.
Classical Curves - Jam City
There's something initially offputting about Jack Latham's version of post-dubstep funk: it's cluttered and jarring, almost inhuman-sounding. Stick with it, though, and it draws you inexorably into its world.
fin - John Talabot
Barcelona-based producer Talabot's debut album exists somewhere heady and humid, at the intersection between deep house, Balearic and disco. It sounds fantastic: rich and varied, thick with melodies, underpinned by a creeping sadness.
Born To Die - Lana Del Rey
The authenticity debate – was she really a murderous, cocaine-ravaged starlet escaped from David Lynch's mind? What do you mean, no? – has overshadowed the fact that this remains one of the year's freshest pop records.
Old Ideas - Leonard Cohen
"All I've got to put in a song is my own experience," Laughing Len said this year. But what experience: songs about death, misanthropy and lust with the wisdom and humour that comes from 77 extraordinary years on this planet.
Given To The Wild - The Maccabees
Where their debut contained giddy guitars and a song about their local swimming pool, their third album finds them pondering mortality within melancholy epics deserving the comparisons with the Blue Nile and Talk Talk.
Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded - Nicki Minaj
Just who Nicki might really be is a question that remains after this second album, half of which sees her spitting in a multitude of tongues over hip-hop beats, half of which contains some pop monsters – and no bad thing.
Give You the Ghost - Poliça
A constantly shifting tableau of pop, jazz funk and R&B filtered through indie sensibilities: it sounds unpromising, but this offshoot of soft-rock collective Gayngs master music as perpetual motion.
Yo - Roberto Fonseca
The Cuban pianist works in the tradition of Herbie Hancock and Abdullah Ibrahim but stretches out here with collaborators including the Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara.
Words and Music - Saint Etienne
Saint Etienne return with hymns to pop messageboards, to buying singles at Woolies, to a friend's impeccable taste: all present, all glorious.
Contenders
The next 10 records mentioned in dispatches for this list - which may find they've wormed their way further into our affections by the end of the year – were as follows:
Bruce Springsteen's Wrecking Ball
Dean Blunt and Inge Copeland's Black Is Beautiful
El-P's Cancer for Cure
First Aid Kit's The Lion's Roar
Kindness's World, You Need a Change of Mind
Michael Wollny's Wasted & Wanted
Paul Buchanan's Mid Air
Paul Weller's Sonik Kicks
Sharon Van Etten's Tramp
The 2 Bears' Be Strong
The list was pulled together by Ben Beaumont-Thomas, Emily Brinnand, Adam Boult, Robin Denselow, John Fordham, Michael Hann, Tim Jonze, Caspar Llewellyn Smith, Paul MacInnes, Alex Macpherson, Rebecca Nicholson, Alexis Petridis, Jude Rogers, Dave Simpson and Kieran Yates.
