Heresy and creed --- Ten
One of the best albums from the tail-end of last year. A massive improvement on 2011's "Stormwarning" and a great successor to 2006's "The twilight chronicles". If you like AOR/Melodic rock with punch and just the right amount of gentle ballads, you'll probably love this album. I know I do.
The tall ships --- It Bites
Turned on to this by the famous Anteater, and I love it to death. Progressive pop rock with some epic tracks, and a new singer in John Mitchell (Arena/Frost*/Kino/John Wetton). I've been a bit meh about their output since "Once around the world" but this blows everything away.
and finally, like everyone else with taste I've been reeling from
Push the sky away --- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Easily the best thing he's done since "No more shall we part", a stormer of an album: the quiet, desperate voice of anger and bitterness sheathed in silent steel that's the musical equivalent of a sharp knife stabbed in your back so deeply and so quickly that you don't even have time to realise you're bleeding out. Stunning, a real return to form.