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He's a brilliant beacon, turning a dazzling spotlight on some of the best new music from home and abroad via his Radio 1 show. He's also a very lovely chap, this Huw Stephens fellow, and he's kindly put together his top five albums of 2010 for you to zoom off and investigate with your ears. So, toodles lugholes - to listen to the acts in question, and also to Huw's Radio 1 pages for all your tracklisting, video, photo and iPlayer needs, here.

"Digging deeper, demanding new music, scratching away from the mainstream, 2010 brought us so much great new music. It was hard to pick, but here are my top five albums of the year..."

Perfume Genius - Learning
A beautiful, personal, heart-breaking album which is simple and subtle. It's one of those rare, once-in-a-lifetime collections of songs that instantly open up the songwriter's soul.
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Y Niwl - Y Niwl
From nowhere, a north Wales surf-rock band who blew my tiny little mind with this collection of fun, musical, guitar beauties. What they lacked in lyrics they made up with warmth and character.
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Gonzales - Ivory Tower
Another album to prove that Chilly Gonzales is a musical one-off, a true genius, a man with so much ideas and the ability to pull them off with class, style, panache and classical dexterity. I bow down at his weird altar.
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Pulled Apart By Horses - Pulled Apart By Horses
Confident, bolshy, funny and exciting music from a band who brought an energy and a sense of fun to domestic rock.
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Mice Parade - What It Means to Be Left-Handed
Such a beautiful, individual and glorious album. The instrumentation, the rhythms, the vocals: it lit up a million train trips for me this year.
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