There’s just too much music these days.

No wonder that so much great stuff – a disturbing amount – slips through the cracks.  Here’s a list of artists and albums that you may have missed over the past 12 months.

Cults/Cults
A boy-girl band from Manhattan who went from mysterious indie duo to major label signing in the space of just a few months. I dare you not to sing along.

Cut Copy/Zonoscope
Third album from this Australian electronic band, which has been nominated for a Grammy. 

EMA/Past Life Martyred Saints
EMA is Erika M. Anderson, who makes music out of what seems to be a succession of life crises. It’s the kind of powerful, painful stuff that Courtney Love used to make about twenty years ago.

PJ Harvey/Let England Shake
No two PJ Harvey albums ever sound alike.  Her tenth album is nothing short of stunning.  No wonder it won Britain’s Mercury Prize.

Lykke Li/Wounded Rhymes  
Think of her as Sweden’s answer to Bjork and Tori Amos but without the attendant weirdness.  A hit in Scandinavia, it should have garnered more mainstream attention elsewhere.

The Kills/Blood Pressures  
Yes, I have a thing for Alison Mosshart , whom you might remember from working with Jack White in The Dead Weather.  If the band name sounds familiar, it might because the other half of the band, Jamie Hince, married Kate Moss this past summer. 

My Morning Jacket/Circuital  
Think a more psychedelic Kings of Lion.  Maybe their Grammy nomination in the Best Alternative Album category will goose things for the band.

– Alan is the host of the radio show The Secret History of Rock.  Reach him at alan@alancross.ca