The Guardian’s album of the year

2.0, the debut album from young South London trio the xx has been named “album of the year” by the Guardian, beating off the likes of Fever Ray and Wild Beasts.

Here’s what one of the paper’s scribes had to say: “What’s perhaps most impressive about this record is that a band so youthful, let loose in the studio to explore the outer sonic reaches, showed so much restraint. Rather than bombarding the listener, here was a sonic landscape in which every note mattered, every pause meant something and every half-whisper had enough emotional impact to knock down skyscrapers.”

Amongst the other top albums in the critics’ pole were the Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion and La Roux’s self titled debut.

You can buy all of the CDs listed in the Guardian chart right here.