>In a month where the world has apparently readjusted it’s collective taste-barometer to read ‘Crazy’ and decided that SuBo is actually Elvis, Billie Holliday and Jesus all rolled into one big, hairy, overwhelmed package, perhaps listing May’s Top Five Bands is a moot point. Listing Susan Boyle in places 1-5 would not be the most inexplicable thing to do right now.

However, it’s been a corker of a month on ANBAD, with as dizzying and bewildering an array of great new bands as there’s ever been. So we’re bravely going to avoid placing any frumpy Scottish singers and list the Top 5, in no particular order:

Everything Everything – We said: “Everything Everything are now getting the radio play they’ve deserved for a while, and this is purely because they’re punchy, innovative and crafty. Lovely.”

Apple Eyes – We said: “Their song Wild Beasts stands out by a country mile; a song of rare invention, an evolution of ideas and a candyfloss chorus on top…it’s an example of making a song that is more than the sum of its parts.”

Pouff – We said: “Happier than Happy Hardcore, dumber than a bus-full of Premiership footballers and as springy as a pile of mattresses. Deliriously daft FUN.“

5 Turns 25 – We said: “They make music that is almost beyond ambient – only one step beyond the sound of a band warming up, and one step behind true coherency. Yum yum yum.”

And a huge, hairy, SuBo-scented congratulations to May’s Best New Artist, who was:

Beth Jeans Houghton – We said: “Her songs are what synesthesiacs hear when they are bathed in glorious orange sunlight – unnervingly warm, bright and cosy. Taking sweet and gentle folk music and skewering it with shards of crackling weirdness, her songs clasp you softly, albeit with a worryingly firm grip. A wonderful discovery.”

See? A great month of new bands. And not even a hint of Oh-Look-The-Fat-Ugly-Lady-Can-Sing-Like-A-Normal-Person condescension. Vote BethHo, not SuBo!