`Come on baby do the Jukebox jive," sang Auteur Luke Haines on How I Learned To Love The Bootboys and if it was one thing having a Rubettes-sample providing one of the songs of the year, it was quite another for The Flaming Lips to come in from the left field to win just about everything. Yikes, what next, Camper Van Beethoven at No 1? Talvin Singh won The Mercury and if you had been paying attention you could have won some money on that; Cotton Mather spooked everyone out with their Mersey Beat sound; Wilco showed us which were teeth and which were not and The Wondermints (Brian Wilson's backing band) came up smelling of Smile with Bali Moby and Beck kept it real for collage style Rock Art (in a X Ray style), while dance found new heroes (about time too) in Basement Jaxx, whose Remedy effort was mighty stuff.

Hip-hop got a going over from The Roots with their Things Fall Apart and Folk never sounded better than it did in the hands and voice of the fab Kate Rusby on Sleepless. Back to The Auteurs and their nostalgia-fest couplet: "Can't get in the disco, can't dance anyway", which provided some lyrical kicks, as did the esteemed Joe Strummer on what was most definitely one of the songs of the year, (from his solo album,) From Willesden To Cricklewood: "Come with me and be no good, be a madman on the street, sing something out like Reet Petite, Let's hip-hop at the traffic lights, 10 thumbs up and smilin' bright, Crossing all the great divides/colour, age and heavy vibes, From Willesden to Cricklewood/I tell you the town looked again". Good stuff Joe, you've almost atoned for the sins of Fat Les.

Still on Strummer and nostalgia, it was very much The Year of The Clash as they got the full retrospective treatment and if you haven't heard From Here To Eternity or seen Westway To The World that's your problem, not theirs. Please never reform.

Still in greatest hits/compilation land, The Go-Betweens released Bellavista Terrace, which was very nice, but if they wanted to do a real hits album they should just have re-released Liberty Belle and The Black Diamond Express because that truly is great.

Here's a quick Irish top five:

1. Frank and Walters: Beauty Becomes More Than Life (I'm not giving up on this band).

2. The Revenants: Septober Nowonder.

3. The Stars of Heaven (but of course): Unfinished Dreaming.

4. Pugwash: Almond Tea.

5. Brian: Bring Trouble.

The best Irish single by a country mile was October Swimmer by JJ72 (amazing stuff) and expect The Marbles to become fully fledged next year. Cad eile: Glastonbury was a go-go and the Scrumpy tasted nice; The MTV Awards made me want to do something ugly - there'd be a life ban on them coming back if I had my way; Orbital in Edinburgh Castle were pretty bloody amazing, hearing Dave Bowie sing Drive In Saturday live had me feeling a bit funny, as did Morrissey doing Last Night I Dreamt Somebody Loved Me. Loafing oafs in all-night chemists indeed. Oh, and unexpectedly hearing The Blades in a Berlin nightclub was rather good. A CD box set from that lot would be nifty.

Enough: I can see the jury returning with their verdict. These are the albums that battered their sausage this year. I think The Flaming Lips steal it, although Moby does well too. I haven't heard the Charles Lloyd album but if it's good enough for Donal Dineen, it's good enough for me.

My verdict:

1. The Flaming Lips: The Soft Bulletin

2. The Auteurs: How I Learned To Love The Bootboys

3. Cotton Mather: Kontiki

4. Wondermints: Bali

5. The Roots: Things Fall Apart/Kate Rusby: Sleepless

David Gray:

1. The Flaming Lips: The Soft Bulletin

2. Pullman: Turnstiles and Junkpiles

3. Tom Waits: Mule Variations

4. Jim O'Rourke: Eureka

5. The Beta Band: The Beta Band

Dave Fanning

1. The Charlatans: Us and Us Only

2. Moby: Play

3. Death In Vegas: The Contino Sessions

4. Little Mothers: The Worry

5. Blur: 13

6. Wilco: Summerteeth

Donal Dineen

1. Mogwai: C.O.D.Y.

2. Tindersticks: Simple Pleasures

3. Basement Jaxx: Remedy

4. The Frames: Dance The Devil

5. Charles Lloyd: Voice In The Night

Andy Pemberton, Editor Q magazine

1. The Flaming Lips: The Soft Bulletin

2. The Beta Band: The Beta Band

3. TLC: Fanmail

4. Moby: Play

5. Chemical Brothers: Surrender

Tom Dunne

1. Shack: HMS Fable

2. Pavement: Terror Twilight

3. Moby: Play

4. The Frames: Dance The Devil

5. Flaming Lips: The Soft Bulletin

And that concludes the voting from The Sleeve Notes jury.