The albums that i have been listening to non stop for the last 6 months and still think are fantastic on every listen are:
For Emma, Forever ago - Bon Iver
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Glasvegas - Glasvegas

Also absolutely loving the new Bruce Springsteen album. Only had it a month or so but its superb. He is going to blow Glastonbury away. Cant wait!

I think the best two albums that have been released in the past 6 months are Ben Kweller's Changing Horses and Neko Case's Middle Cyclone.

However, as for records that I've only heard in the past 6 months, I can't stop playing Kings of Convenience's Riot on an Empty Street.

3 Recent ones -
The Phantom Band - http://open.spotify.com/album/0WF378u1dCymLprelvFelQ,
Decemberists - http://open.spotify.com/album/1sz92mfSuxW3JDkGwH3R4N,
Woodpigeon.
Some a little bit older -
M. Ward - http://open.spotify.com/album/6VRxZUhefalxWw5i4sVmzw,
Whispertown 2000 - http://open.spotify.com/album/45x4j5hRl7He8WYHrFJSM5,
Strand of Oaks,
Empire of The Sun - http://open.spotify.com/album/7qYFdWcOtRwRLRytSh8K5g,
Andrew Bird - http://open.spotify.com/album/0thwdlNSVUYUhqI1uiScM9
Back a bit further -
Animal Collective (still album of the year, so far) - http://open.spotify.com/album/3Ew40olMfd5X4BvqfuFoqF,
Ladyhawke - http://open.spotify.com/album/2nDNcIJqRetJsUI7Syv3kH,
Duke Special, Brooke Waggoner,
Jesca Hoop - http://open.spotify.com/album/2gsCdM1ys02EtGtNTo4liQ,
Friendly Fires - http://open.spotify.com/album/0QwtkeAKiM5sw6siAiIO8u,
TV On The Radio - http://open.spotify.com/album/1nj2Tvse0XTmAZg63pVkkP,
Emiliana Torrini - http://open.spotify.com/album/4SgkvdGPTSZgjG25zztiwG,
Bowerbirds.

Can I go back and include a shout out for
Bon Iver - http://open.spotify.com/album/2wBGb1zLSWrmiOdinWE831
and Fleet Foxes - http://open.spotify.com/album/6UaRSBqoruFQQNd6bUb1E4?
Too late, done.

But the very best of the last 6 months (even though it's a lot older - I only found it recently) is 'Glory Hope Mountain' by The Acorn, an album which just keeps on calling me back and delighting me more each time I succumb. Beautiful. Beguiling. Stunning. Extraordinary.
Hear it here: http://open.spotify.com/album/5rrgb7r4LLIyxEeSlqycd6

The Gourds : what the Pernice bros would sound like after listening to loads of old stones and faces records.
Marvellous!
A second for Ben Kwellers latest, Changing Horses.
It seems to have been a good year for 2009 releases, with e-music being especially accommodating, what with Andrew Bird, M Ward (only good in parts) and Antony & the Johnsons all cropping up promptly, let alone the new Cara Dillon, Hill of Thieves.

A truly beautiful record. Nina Persson's best ever work.

I found it a little odd. Undoubtedly lashings of first rate stuff, but seems to want to embrace too many styles, as a result at least a 1/3 of the record falls foul of my palate. I hadn't realised the debt she owes to Aimee Mann.......

Micachu - Jewellery
Super Furry Animals - Dark Days / Light Years
Decemberists - Hazards of Love
Amadou & Mariam - Welcome to Mali (I've listened to this the most, but skip the 2 or 3 dreadful collaborations)

Coldplay - Viva La Vida
Killers - Day and Age
Andrew Bird - Noble Beast.

all brilliant, all packed with great tunes.

Reviews records in the independent and I generally think he's pretty good. However, he once gave 5 stars to an album by Robert Gomez - Brand New Town and said it was his record of the year so far. As Gomez was from the same town and on the same label as Midlake, I duly bought it. Vastly overrated in my opinion and featured on no-one's best of lists at the end of the year - not even Andy Gill's.

As for the last 6 months, my ones to watch are Hazards of Love - The Decemberists and Beware - Bonnie Prince Billy.

Most overrated - Animal Collective.

I like some of him, in small doses, the only actual CD I own being the revised/revamped selection "Sings Palace Music", which I love. I bought it because the reviews said it was drenched in the best of Nashville sessioneers, and was not disappointed. They are saying loads of pedal steel on this also, as his other stuff can be a tad bleak. There are 2 votes here for it. Any dissent?
I am also pencilling in the new Bill Callaghan for purchase. Is it as good as the reviews suggest? Word bloggers opinion, please.

Playing a lot of

Bruce - Working on a Dream
Teddy Thompson - Piece of what you need
Fireman - Electric Arguments
Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke
Killers - day and age.

Their Cd "Furr" has not been off the player...anyone who likes Fleet Foxes,Decemberists and Big Star will love it. Not yet on Spotify unfortunately. Check out their Myspace page or download their SXSW gig on NPR All Songs Considered at ITunes Podcasts for free. There is also a the Decemberists SXSW gig from last week playing the new CD in full live there also for free :-)

"In Ghost Colours" and "Ladyhawke" too. And also "Fantasy Black Channel" by Late of the Pier, which is fabulously bonkers.

Haymaker is tremendous.
Also Gretchen Peters and Tom Russell - One to the head,one to the heart.
Candi Staton - Who's hurting now? - includes best song I have heard for months in Lonely don't.
M Ward - love it all.
Dark was the night compilation - has made my buy 2 Andrew Bird cd's currently on order.

Also wending their way are the new JJ Cale cd and the Bonnie Prince Billy one which are both overdue - anyone noticed Amazon are taking longer than they used to?

Klang! - The Rakes
Fever Ray - Fever Ray
The Future Will Come - The Juan Maclean
It's Blitz! - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Junior - Royksopp
Kingdom of Rust - Doves
I Feel Cream - Peaches
Dark Days/ Light Years - Super Furry Animals

2009 is looking good

Tonight - Franz Ferdinand. Especially the dub disc

The public seem to love the new Kings of Leon album. It's been in the top five (or thereabouts) of our charts since it was released.

Royksopp and Killers - very enjoyable.

Joe Bonamassa - big fan, disappointing album, all a bit dull.

Pet Shop Boys - I like it in a music to washes dishes sort of way. Are they trying to rewrite the Doctor Who theme too?

Melody Gardot - now that I've finally got around to listening to it.

Older reissues - Saxon's first album and most enjoyable of all, Glen Campbell's Greatest Hits.

I can find the Gourds on Spotify but there doesnt seem to be any music attached to them. What am I doing wrong? Thanks

My choices:
Teddy Thompson - v v good album-
Kings of Leon - there, I've said it. The love that dare not speak its name
Goldfrapp - not sure if Seventh Tree is 6 months old or older but theres some lovely stuff there. Somebody put the live choral version of Caravan Girl on the Word's infinite playlist. Awesome
Its Blitz - Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs - wow

I would say that my single favorite is London Zoo by The Bug. It's really good, just-about-on-the-edge-of-pop underground dance album, with some fab gust singers exchaning vocal duties.

It's a cracker!

"So many things that get me angry!"

The Kings of Leon - It´s pretty simple but effective
Teddy Thompson - A Piece of What You Need is damn good, great voice
The Decemberists- The Hazards of Love is astonishing

White Lies ~ To Lose My Life Or Lose My Love
Secret Machines ~ Secret Machines

but i got it less than six months ago if that counts, and it's bang-on...

dark captain, light captain - miracle kicker

Decemberists and Doves latest are looking like must haves. Also being drawn to Secret Machines new one. 2009 looking good already.

Not sure when this came out, but I downloaded it from iTunes around Xmas. I keep coming back to this album, it has a lot of light and shade, and refreshingly is non-demure and quite 'rock'. There's no single track on here that I like as much as In State from her previous record, but for me that's setting the bar pretty high.

She looks like a fun person too:

I have one of her earlier albums which I loved - looks like there may be a new addition!!

I can't get enough of Steve Winwood's Nine Lives (fairly recent I think). There's nothing revolutionary about it, it won't change your life, but I really like the loose feel of it and play it a lot. There are a few bum notes on there, how often do you hear that these days? It's a very human record.

The Bug - London Zoo

Plus -

Hildur Gudnadottir - Without Sinking (instrumental, mainly cello. Inspired by many hours on flights looking at clouds apparently. A lot better than the description makes it sound funnily enough...)

Merger - Exiles In A Babylon (a lost reggae gem from 1977 just reissued).

I don't think it's been a vintage 6 months but these are what I've been playing most (I know the Grand Duchy album is quite new but I think it's Frank Black's best for years).
Ingrid Michaelson - Be OK
Spinto Band - Moonwink
Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby - Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby
Mates Of State - Re-arrange Us
Grand Duchy - Petit Fours
Bricolage - Bricolage

...but London Zoo by The Bug continues to blow me away. A true album, too, not just a bunch of songs. Same goes for the new Animal Collective, really demands to be heard in its entirety and keeps revealing new layers. Los Angeles by Flying Lotus is an uncategorizable gem, filed as hip-hop but really more of a modern-day composer album, if that doesn't sound too wanky.

Jaydiohead, the Radiohead/Jay-Z mashup. I won't blame fans of either artist for being wary of this, but give it a shot, you'll be so glad you did. It works in the way these things are supposed to but almost never do, i.e. it recontextualizes and re-energizes both elements, creating something outstanding and unique in its own right and sending you back to the originals with fresh ears. Suddenly you realize just how funky Radiohead have often been, and what a brilliant writer (in the literary sense) Jay-Z can be.

and The Secondary Modern's folk-opera ode to Harlow 'Pram Town'?

I haven't stopped playing it for the last month, absolutely essential!

jaydiohead.com will get you a quality download. cheers.

Folie a Deux is the best album of the last 6 months, probably the last year. Ignored by many because they are wrongly labelled 'emo' (what is that anyway?) FOB have some of the best songs I have heard in years.

The new Gomez album arrived this morning (pre-ordered, officially out on Monday, though I'd already checked it out on their myspace). Sounds excellent, will be high on my list.

In New York, apparently - but perhaps only in the same way that The Who 'live' at Leeds. Yes, I'm speaking, of course, about the post-Mahavishnu Moog-meister's 'Jan Hammer Group: Live In New York', a newly released 1975 recording from a club date with terrific sound and loads of atmosphere. It's more satisfying, I think, certainly more powerful sonically, than any of his '70s studio albums. If you care at all for the Jeff Beck/Jan Hammer Group 'Live' from 1976 (issued at the time), this is in the same league - with Steven Kindler (violin) instead of Jeff (guitar). Available as a download-only from Jan's website via iTunes, CDBaby, amazon (US) etc. Trust me, it's more exciting and less annoying than you might think...

The Teitur album ('The Singer'). It's packaged, and sounds, like a kind of variety show, with really interesting arrangements (xylophone, horns, bowed bass...). Uneven, but that's part of the charm.

The new one from Dan Auerbach (from The Black Keys) "Keep It Hid" is a beauty! For my money much more interesting and entertaining than the last Black Keys record. Give it a go.

The new one from The Church is another in a long line of brilliant albums by them. This will be released soon (got my pre-release copy at a recent gig). Beautiful melodies, guitar interplay to die for, atmospherics a-plenty and simply gorgeous songs. This would be their most Pink Floyd sounding record. I think that's record of the year for me thus far (can't see anything coming close actually).

Yesterday saw the Leonard Cohen live in london Cd hit the mat. The content is sublime, but the quality is astonishing.
Today saw the Live DVD scooped up as it flew through the letter box.
Again...if you have a decent surround system...and you only ever buy one music dvd...make it this one.

White Lies - To Lose My Life
The Killers - Day and Age
Pet Shop Boys - Yes

Not sure if Aimee Mann's &%@^% Smilers! was more than 6 months ago or not, but it still gets a lot of play in these parts.

The Zappa reissue Lumpy Money - 40th anniversary 3cd audio documentary is worth the trouble it takes to get it from the States.

Rewiring Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, the whole album redone and reworked is surprisingly good. The whole idea seemed quite scary to me when I picked it up, but it stands up to repeated playing.