I think a helluva lot of us will agree that 2010 has been super duper strong across the board, probably up there with 2007 as one of the best 12 months of releases in a while. I mean from a personal perspective I have albums that would rank somewhere in the 20s or even 30s on my EOY list that would have been comfortable top 10 contenders last year, or the one before it.

But are the high level records of 2010 - the ones snagging the top spots in critics lists and that - better than ones in 2006/7/8/9? Obviously there's been more time to absorb others but if you look at what are generally thought of as the 'best' albums of the recent past (Ys, Third, Nouns, Merriweather, Sound of Silver, Veckatimest, Fleet Foxes, Person Pitch, Whatever People Say, Two Dancers, Silent Shout etc) then can you see the likes of The Suburbs, MBDTF, Sir Lucious Left Foot, High Violet, Teen Dream et al slotting in? Or was it a year of widespread 8/10s with little to rise above into an echelon of being really great?

And what about from your own viewpoint, as well as critics?