It’s been a fascinating week here at State, counting down our writers and photographers’ choice of their favourite albums of the year to date. Here are the final five, culminating in our clear winner. Hopefully you’ll have discovered something new along the way, it’ll be interesting to see how many of these still feature on our list come December…

Here’s the full list:

25-21 | 20-16 | 15-11 | 10-6 | 5-1

5. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues
“It’s almost like the band stop trying to be folkies, and just write and play for themselves…” Review

4. And So I Watch You From Afar – Gangs
“Like a hand-grenade, you don’t know exactly when it’s going to go off, just that it will…” Review

3. Austra – Feel It Break
“The common denominators throughout are the nod to the darker side of ’80s new wave…” Review

2. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
“Let England Shake is stacked high with rotting flesh and dead bodies…” Review

1. tUnE-yArDs – WHOKILL
“If you don’t mind a bit of a sonic adventure, you just better follow along…” Review