You know how it is, you buy a music magazine or you pick up a paper and there they are, these new bands looking longingly up from beneath a headline screaming out about how they're the best thing since 2 Unlimited. There are so many of them; everybody saying how amazing everyone else is, hype flying left right and centre, and it's hard to know what to think anymore. I feel that it is my duty to sift through the sand to find the chunks of pure musical gold and to do this I have come up with an incredibly technical system. I can't go into exactly what this system involves (I'd have to kill you, all 4 of you), but trust me when I say it's pretty mind-blowing. Here goes:

First up is heart-breakingly cool electro due, Crystal Castles with 'Courtship Dating':





Next up is bearded loner Bon Iver with 'Stacks':





I think it's becoming clearer, no? It's not a system that's been used before so bare with me...

Up next is the-Klaxons-did-it-so-why-can't-we-even-if-we-are-two-years-late..er... Late Of The Pier with 'Space And The Woods':





Finally, we have the four-part harmony loving Fleet Foxes with 'White Winter Hymnal':





Conclusive proof that beards are in and electropunknurave is out. This is fact now. Remember where you heard it first.