air texture

In 2011 we've discovered The Only Way Is Essex, we've torn up our own high streets in the name of something or other, and we've planted the seeds for divorce from Europe. Yet out of hard times comes good music - so while 2011 can hardly claim to have been a great year for the UK, it's been a pretty storming affair for electronic music. So how about something cheery for once? How about 10 albums and 10 compilations that made 2011 a better place?

Choosing them wasn't easy - but from a shortlist of several hundred covered by DMC over the year - and a couple that slipped through the reviewing net - we have the following for your listening pleasure: