This year, for me, it’s been all about lyrics. But before I begin I warn you – some of the records discussed here are from 2001. But I only really fell head-over-heels-with-them in 2002. Bite me! I’m not a first date girl. I like to take my time.

Mike Skinner was my surprise love. I remember hearing ‘Let’s Push Things Forward’ for the first time: that voice, those words, the cheek, the wit and the wisdom. Amazingly The Streets proved not to be a one hit wonder. Original Pirate Material is a frantic freeze-frame of real life in the 2000s. Skinner tells it like it is with such clarity, acuity and poetry that Pirate Material is as much a headphones hit as a dance-floor punch. Hundreds of listens later I’m still hearing it afresh.

Lift To Experience released their debut The Texas Jerusalem Crossroads in 2001. But it wasn’t until early 2002 that I really came to appreciate the full force and scope of this epic. Religion is a topic too infrequently touched on in music anymore. Josh Pearson grew up the son of a Texan preacher and …Crossroads is a concept album exploring Christianity 2000 years on – “The USA is the centre of Jerusalem”. Pearson’s lyrics incorporate childhood prayers, long forgotten hymns and conversations with God regarding the whole soul-selling business. It’s an album that’ll appeal to anyone – like myself – who’s terrorised by the iron fist of organised religion.

Conor Oberst released two albums in 2002. The first as Desaparecidos, the second as Bright Eyes, both with vastly different styles but equally chocka with fine words. Oberst writes like a man obsessed. ‘What’s New For Fall’ and ‘Lover I Don’t Have To Love’ were two of the best singles of the year, the former a taut, guitar-driven dissection of consumerism, the later a dark, haunting tale of fame and fucking. Thank God somebody still cares.

And finally one last discovery late for 2001 – Jeffrey Lewis. You could say his album The Last Time I Did Acid… is poorly produced, badly played and not very well sung. You’d not necessarily be wrong. But just listen to ‘Chelsea Hotel Oral Sex Song’ – I defy you not to love it.

I promise to try keep up better in 2003…