An Ocean In Between The Waves

ALBUMS

In previous years, some of you lot have said that it's a cop out when I've just listed my favourite albums in alphabetical order, so this year I've tried really hard to get them into some kind of order of preference. The whole idea of ranking music is arbitrary (I love all of these records and, if I was to do it again three months from now, the order would almost certainly change) and pretty silly (how do you compare a hip-hop record with a singer-songwriter record or jazz record?) but I guess it's kind of fun too, right? What do you think? What did I miss? What were some of your favourite albums and tracks of this crazy, crumby year? Let me know.

#30 Heron Oblivion - Heron Oblivion (Sub Pop)

We left Meg Baird on last year's beautiful Don't Weigh Down the Light (one of my favourites of 2015) sounding spooked, closed off from the world in a house full of memories. Heron Oblivion is like her finally stepping outside, only to find that everything is ablaze; she fights to make her voice heard over the screams of burning trees. It's a visceral listen, closer to Baird's work with Espers than her solo material - only with that band's drones replaced with roaring acid-rock guitars and doomy bass, courtesy of Comet on Fire's Noel Von Harmonson and Ethan Miller.

Heron Oblivion - "Your Hollows"

#29 Drugdealer - The End of Comedy (Weird World)

Weyes Blood's Front Row Seat to Earth was greatly acclaimed upon its release but, though I really liked many of the songs individually, I found listening to the ornate, dramatic album in one sitting to be a wearying experience - far more appealing in small doses. The End of Comedy by Drugdealer (aka Michael Collins) is a tremendous advert for small doses: 31 minutes of "My Sweet Lord" guitar, Syd Barrett bewilderment and classic Laurel Canyon songwriting; as soon as the record is finished, you want to flip it over and take the gentle trip all over again. Weyes Blood's two vocal contributions ("Suddenly" and the Judee Sill-y title track) are just wonderful, among my favourite songs of the year. Lovely too to hear Ariel Pink's voice again on "Easy to Forget". A wee gem.

Drugdealer - "Suddenly"

#28 Unloved - Guilty of Love (Unloved)

Everything is heightened in Unloved's pulpier-than-the-pulpiest-fiction world: shifty Lynchian characters roam around at night under the silvery moon; femme fatales have lips the colour of sin; it contains more deaths than a Shangri-Las Greatest Hits. "Mummy always told me don't talk to strangers" singer and lyricist Jade Vincent whispers on "After Dinner", clearly relishing the task of ensuring no genre trope goes unused; "I could tell you but I'd have to kill" she says at a later point; everyone's damned if they do, damned if they don't. Guilty of Love is how I've always wanted Lana Del Rey to sound, but she rarely does. Soundtrack supremos David Holmes and Keefus Ciancia (True Detective) bring the world to life with richly atmospheric reproductions of 50s girl groups, 60s mod pop and 70s film scores.

Unloved - "Guilty of Love"

#27 Idris Ackamoor & the Pyramids - We Be All Africans (Strut)

A funky, soothing, inclusive jazz record from bandleader and saxophonist Ackamoor, with a very relevant message: "We Be All Africans is a message of survival. A message of renewal. A message that we be all Africans. A message of the beginnings of the human race. Not the black, the white, the red or the yellow race...The Human Race! A message that we are all brothers and sisters. We are all one family, the human family and we need one another in order to survive on this planet that we share".

Idris Ackamoor & the Pyramids - "We Be All Africans"

#26 Karl Blau - Introducing Karl Blau (Bella Union)

It's both strange and entirely fitting that Karl Blau's first LP on Bella Union be called Introducing Karl Blau: strange as the Washington-based singer already has 10+ releases under the belt of his rhinestone-encrusted Nudie suit; fitting as, thanks to BU's leg-up, this will be the vast majority of listeners' first exposure to him. It's also slightly odd that an album serving as an introduction to a singer/songwriter would consist entirely of covers. What's not in doubt, however, is the quality of the music here and Blau's melodic gifts as a singer and interpreter of songs. The tracks are of a 60s and 70s vintage, some familiar ("To Love Somebody", "If I Needed You", The Walker Brothers' "No Regrets"), others new to me (Tom T. Hall's instantly wonderful "That's How I Got Memphis"). Some are performed faithfully, others are taken somewhere entirely new (the majestic, widescreen, 9-minute reading of Link Wray's "Fallin' Rain"). One minor gripe: I must confess to being immune to the charms of "Woman (Sensuous Woman)", Blau earnestly delivering lines made famous by Don Gibson such as "many hearts would break if I don't conquer, this lustful spell you've cast over me" - lines which exist only in syrupy 1970s Nashville country. It's the one corny misstep on a collection of country-soul gold.

Karl Blau - "Fallin' Rain"

#25 Meilyr Jones - 2013 (Moshi Moshi)

"I'm writing to you from my room in Rome", sings former Race Horses jockey Meilyr Jones on "Strange/Emotional". Jones wrote the majority of 2013 during an extended post-breakup stay in the Italian capital, in reflective mood, "an actor recalling previous lives". I bought the album during a visit to Spiller Records, the world's oldest record shop - thought it only right when in Wales. I played it a few times and enjoyed its melodic songs - by turns eccentric, funny and tender - bolstered by exuberant horns and a choir from one of my local hangouts, The Glad Cafe. It was only when I saw Meilyr's set at the Green Man festival that I realised I knew and loved near every song. He was slightly wilder than on record, one of the first of the weekend to engage with the audience, and there WAS something of the actor about him: a charismatic, gangly mix of Jarvis and Morrissey (he even has his own witty "Paint A Vulgar Picture"-style commentary on the music industry in "Featured Artist"). 2013 deservedly won the award for Welsh Album of the Year; why it wasn't nominated for the Mercury is beyond me.

Meilyr Jones - "How to Recognise a Work of Art"

#24 Parquet Courts - Human Performance (Rough Trade)

Human Performance is the most fleshed-out and thought-through demonstration of Parquet Court's jagged riffs and sharp minds (even if those minds are occasionally bamboozled by the situations they find themselves in: "but I was just here?!"). "Captive of the Sun" is a smart and evocative portrait of the sights ("trucks pave the roads with amphetamine salt") and sounds ("car honk duet...dump truck man drops the beat with trash cans, call 911!") of New York, where the protagonist feels stifled and low. The title track poignantly recounts the early days of a romance with a nimble, individual turn of phrase: "those pristine days, I recall so fondly. So few are trials when a life isn't lonely...there's no suspicion, no hesitation believing through the eyes of sure adoration". "Berlin Got Blurry" is terrific cow-punk fun a la Meat Puppets, while "One Man No City" is a far more convincing extended guitar workout than previous attempt "She's Rolling". Though they still wear their Velvet Underground influences a little heavily at times (on "Steady on my Mind" and "It's Gonna Happen"), the stage is set for Parquet Courts to be the next truly great NY band.

Parquet Courts - "Human Performance"

#23 Our Solar System - In Time (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond)

Record label Beyond Beyond is Beyond were a big discovery for me this year. I even got one of their t-shirts with their MO emblazoned across the front: "music for heads, by heads". They put out fine records by Drakkar Nowhere, The Myrrors and Chocolat in 2016, but my personal favourite is In Time by Swedish psych-jazz outfit Our Solar System, an out-of-this-world album where the credits on its sleeve reference "planets" rather than "players". I'm particularly taken with whichever planet is providing bass, propelling these two exploratory 20-minute space-jams forward through time.

Our Solar System - "In the Beginning of Time"

#22 Danny Brown - Atrocity Exhibition (Warp)

An album with a title that references Ballard-via-Joy Division and an opening track that nods to Nine Inch Nails while sounding like something off Metal Box, released on Warp Records - you didn't have to dig too deep to discover Atrocity Exhibition isn't your typical hip-hop LP. Evoking Outkast and Cypress Hill (B-Real even appears on penultimate track "Get Hi"), it is an exhilarating spiral downwards into Brown's wildly creative, at times uncomfortably unhinged mind. The instrumentals are playful, barmy, more punk than any punk-rock record I've heard this year. "Really Doe", with Brown, Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul and Earl Sweatshirt all attempting to outdo each other, is an instant classic.

Danny Brown - "Really Doe"

#21 Ty Segall - Emotional Mugger (Drag City)

Since releasing what many were touting as his commercial breakthrough, 2014's Manipulator, Ty Segall has put out an only occasionally inspired, 70-minute slog-fest (Fuzz II), a 25 minute full-pelt punk record (GØGGS) and now this: the most batshit berserk entry in his ever-growing discography. Backed by the Muggers (including Emmett Kelly, Mikal Cronin, King Tuff, Charlie Moothart and Cory Hanson on off-the-chain keyboards), Ty widens his frame of reference, channeling Captain Beefheart and The Residents on bracingly heavy lo-fi recordings. He even throws in an inspired cover of Eddy Grant's "Diversion" for good measure (who was expecting THAT?). I caught the Muggers at the Glasgow School of Art in June, and though it was slightly disappointing not to see more of Ty with a guitar strapped round his neck (one of rock's most thrilling sights), he put on a powerful show, punching the air and goading the crowd, clearly relishing having the band of his dreams around him.

Ty Segall - "Mandy Cream"

#20 Vanishing Twin - Choose Your Own Adventure (Soundway)

Vanishing Twin's delightful debut has been a turntable regular since its release on Soundway Records at the end of September. With each play, it has moved up another place on this list. As producer, Heliocentrics' Malcolm Catto brings space, depth and his love of jazz and library music to free-floating sci-fi pop songs ("Telescope", "The Conservation of Energy") and highly rhythmic explorations ("Vanishing Twin Syndrome", the title track), performed by players with impressive pedigree - between them they've worked with Floating Points, The Oscillation and Neon Neon. If you dig Broadcast/Stereolab/Ghost Box Records, choose Choose Your Own Adventure.

Vanishing Twin - "Telescope"

#19 The Goon Sax - Up to Anything (Chapter House)

There are two facts that are always brought up about Brisbane band The Goon Sax. One, that they’re ridiculously, sickeningly young, with all three members still comfortably in their teens. And two that Louis Forster is the son of - and bears a striking vocal /lyrical resemblance to - Robert Forster, leader of indie legends, The Go-Betweens. "He has a very good take on what he want to do", Robert has said of Louis. "It feels very natural: that's the main thing". It certainly does and it certainly is: Up to Anything is a sweet, funny and wise expression of what it’s like to be a teenager, of how your palms get sweaty when you're nervous, you hate your weekend job, and a rubbish haircut can feel like the end of the world (in a nice touch, “Home Haircut” includes Edwyn Collins alongside Roger McGuinn, John Lennon and David Byrne in its list of stylishly coiffured idols - surely a nod to Collin’s line “I wore my fringe like Roger McGuinn” on Orange Juice’s “Consolation Prize”). Like Edwyn, Forster is keen to impress on "Up to Anything": "I only do these things so I can tell you all about doing them...I want people to wonder about me". Teenage me, for one, can relate. The happy-sad songs jangle and shuffle satisfyingly in the manner of The Pastels, The Bodines and, yes, The Go-Betweens. Occasionally, like fellow Antipodean Courtney Barnett, The Goon Sax's tunes aren’t quite as sparkling as their lyrics (“Target”’s backing is a bit indie-by-numbers). But that’s very occasionally – Up to Anything is an incredibly impressive and accomplished debut.

The Goon Sax - "Up to Anything"

#18 Whyte Horses - Pop or Not (CRC Music)

That Manchester group Whyte Horses are masterminded by Dom Thomas, a "chronologist who scours the planet for obscure and rare vinyl genius" and makes and sells far-out mixes of his far-flung findings, designed to feel like "looking at a sun drenched mountain range through kaleidoscopic glasses", might give you some idea of what to expect from their debut LP. The titles of two instrumental tracks - "The Other Half of the Sky" and "The Dream Before" - provide further clues. When Pop or Not's opening and title track - another instrumental - gives way to a candyfloss-light drift and singer Julie Margat coos "we are clouds passing by, wandering the sky", you'd be forgiven for snarkily remarking "well, like, OF COURSE you are, duuudes". This is a midsummer day's dream of a record. "Promise I Do" and "Astrologie Siderale" bring wonderful memories (sugar)rushing back to me of my first year of uni, of falling hurriedly in love with the first Concretes album. Jim Noir's Tower of Love is a colourful pop confection of a similar vintage, and it figures that he pops up here (check the Noirish toy-town piano on "Wedding Song") given that the Horses hail from near his "patch". Indeed, for all the talk of travelling the world in search of Brazilian tropicalia and Turkish psych (it takes many hours of studying Gallic girl-group pop to sound as cool and carefree as Whyte Horses do on "La Couleur Originelle" and "Peach Tree Street"), this is a very Manchester record. Jez Williams of Doves contributes, while it's impossible to liberally use shimmering backwards guitar - as on "She Owns The World" - without evoking the Stone Roses' "Don't Stop". A decidedly Northern melancholy lurks in amongst the buttercup cups and daffodil teapots too: there's a sense of yearning and sadness in "When I Was A Scout"'s vocal and analogue synth; confusion and disorientation in "Feels Like Something's Changing"; the second track tellingly isn't called "Little Fluffy Clouds", it's called "The Snowfalls". Whyte Horses have created something both instant and involving, weightless and heavy. It's pop...and, yet, it's not.

Whyte Horses - "La Couleur Originelle"

#17 Car Seat Headrest - Teens of Denial (Matador)

Last year’s Teens of Style, Car Seat Headrest’s first release on Matador, was a sort of primer for an audience new to the songwriting talents of Will Toledo: beefed-up studio versions of songs he had originally self-recorded and put up on Bandcamp. Nothing could quite prepare, however, for the giant leap forward that is Teens of Denial: a witty, complex, crunching rock record with a scope that justifies its 70 minute running time and continues to reveal itself after multiple listens. Toledo lends his Julian Casablancas-like drawl to punchy anthems (“Fill in the Blank”, “Destroyed by Hippy Powers”) and sprawling streams of consciousness (“Vincent”, “Cosmic Hero”), demonstrates a wit and knack for observation that’s seen comparison with The Kinks’ Ray Davies, and - perhaps most remarkably - manages to weave the chorus of Dido’s “White Flag” into the middle of epic “The Ballad of Costa Concordia” and make it not sound rubbish. On 23rd June, the night of the EU Referendum, I saw Car Seat Headrest play in Broadcast; the hairs on the back of my neck stood up as the crowd roared along to “Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales”’s chant of “it doesn’t have to be like this”. Turning on the TV the following morning to images of a cackling, triumphant Nigel Farage, I couldn’t help but think back to that moment.

Car Seat Headrest - "Fill in the Blank"

#16 Kikagaku Moyo - House in the Tall Grass (Guruguru Brain)

Psychedelic rock is usually my bread and butter, but, in truth, there are few albums in that style that I returned to again and again throughout this year - even records that I was greatly anticipating (Goat, Morgan Delt, the Besnard Lakes) that seemed to be doing all the right things failed to make a lasting impression. Maybe it was me rather than them in 2016. House in the Tall Grass the third LP by Japanese band Kikagaku Moyo (translation: "geometric patterns") stood out from the crowd. Closer to folk than rock, with sitars to the fore, its tracks drift like smoke across a clear night sky (check out the sublime "Kogarashi"). When occasional bursts of guitar arrive, like on "Green Sugar" and "Silver Owl", they are doomy in a strangely triumphant way. I find the whole thing utterly beguiling.

Kikagaku Moyo - "Kogarashi"

#15 William Tyler - Modern Country (Merge)

"All of this is magic against death" reads a quote from Mississippi-born poet Frank Stanford in the inner sleeve of William Tyler's Modern Country. At the time of choosing the line, Tyler - an esteemed guitarist who has worked with Lambchop as well as releasing lovely albums and EPs under his own name - almost certainly didn't realise just how prominent a role death would play, and just how necessary the idea of magic would become, in 2016. Modern Country has transported me during many a dark moment. Despite its absence of words, it is a highly emotive and evocative aural road map, taking in country music, folk and cosmic Americana (a mate of mine pointed out that "Highway Anxiety"'s melody is, intentionally or not, lifted from Bob Dylan's theme to Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, but Tyler would no doubt argue that this feeds into a great American folk tradition). Drums skitter, synths soar, Tyler's guitars - both acoustic and electric - sing out crystal clear. "The Great Unwind", the LP's golden closer, fades out four minutes in...only to return with even greater beauty. It's like taking a brief drive through the mountains before being struck anew by the vast expanse of the bright blue sky.

William Tyler - "Gone Clear"

#14 Brigid Mae Power - Brigid Mae Power (Tompkins Square)

Multi-instrumentalist/singer-songwriter Brigid Mae Power - born in London, raised in Derry - recorded this remarkable debut with Peter Broderick in Oregon. The pair use scraped strings and reverberating acoustic guitars to astonishing effect on thrumming eight-minute opener "It's Clearing Now". "Lookin At You In A Photo" and "Sometimes" are sparse heartbreakers, both seemingly played on a dust-covered piano (the former's line "there were some people around us at the time who weren't for us, although they claimed to be" always leaves me with something in my eye; on the later, it's Power's delivery of "sometimes I just want to collapse into you" - herself on the verge of collapse - that finishes me off). Comparisons to Jessica Pratt and Linda Perhacs have been made and are understandable; she performs the whole of "I Left Myself For A While" in the same shrill, haunted shriek that PJ Harvey adopted for her 'White Chalk' LP. But the singer Power most reminds me of is Mary Margaret O'Hara in the way her voice drones, darts and swoops, taking her exactly where she needs to go. An album of strange and great beauty.

Brigid Mae Power - "Sometimes"

#13: Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool (XL)

Plunge into A Moon Shaped Pool's waters and you'll find a record that's both more immediate and deeper than the knotty, thrifty King of Limbs. One that's clearly been pondered over but doesn't feel ponderous or fussy. There's space, there's texture, and those strings! Man, those strings! Normally, when rock bands use orchestras, it's as an expensive afterthought designed to hide deficiencies in songwriting or as a shortcut to achieving an unearned emotional response/sense of awe from the listener. What's impressive here is just how fully and successfully Radiohead have integrated strings into their sound, and how they've used them to hide the joins between songs with vastly varying gestation periods - some over 15 years old. Jonny Greenwood brings all the experience from his extraordinary soundtrack work to the album, with help from London Contemporary Orchestra. Strings stab and nag urgently throughout "Burn The Witch"; the backing on the gorgeous "Glass Eyes" is closer to modern classical than rock music; the band's Serge Gainsbourg/Jean Claude Vannier fantasies are brought to life on "Decks Dark" and "The Numbers", which is almost comical in its sumptuousness. If musically this is Jonny's album, then lyrically - perhaps even more so than usual, following his separation from long-time partner and mother of his kids, Rachel Owen - it is all about Thom. "This is a foul tasting medicine, to be trapped in your full stop" he sings over a swarm of guitars and percussion on "Ful Stop". "All the good times...take me back again". On "Glass Eyes", he wants to be somewhere else too following a ride on a "frightening" train full of "concrete grey" faces; he dreams of getting away from it all, of taking a path down a mountain ("I don't know where it leads, I don't care"). The album closes with a sucker-punch: the long anticipated studio version of "True Love Waits". A fan favourite since the live acoustic version on 2002's I Might Be Wrong, the timing of the song's inclusion feels significant and only adds to its beauty and poignancy. "Just don't leave", a desolate Yorke sings. "Don't leave".

Radiohead - "Daydreaming"

#12 Ryley Walker - Golden Sings That Have Been Sung (Dead Oceans)

I loved Ryley Walker's last LP so much that part of me (the halfwit in me?) was disappointed when I first heard Golden Sings That Have Been Sung and it wasn't Primrose Green Part Two. Over time, however, it has grown on me enormously and probably overtaken its predecessor in my affections. Slightly less in debt to jazzy folk rockers like John Martyn, Tim Buckley and Bert Jansch - a tour with Richard Thompson has clearly freed Walker up and encouraged him to improvise (the deluxe vinyl edition comes with a wild 40-minute live reading of "Sullen Mind") - it feels more individual, closer to the petulant, impulsive young man he is on Twitter. The songwriting and production are fabulous, the bass pleasingly deep. At Green Man, Walker and his band's Park Stage set was sadly sabotaged by billowing afternoon winds. One of my resolutions for 2017 is to see them in a small sweaty room and get lost in their meaningful meanderings.

Ryley Walker - "The Halfwit in Me"

#11 Daniel Romano - Mosey (New West)

Mosey gets my award for 'Most Moreish Album of 2016'. These 12 incredible songs, delivered with passion in off-the-cuff fashion, have been constant companions this year. "File Under: Altruistic Antipathy" it advises on the sleeve, but if you're struggling to find that section in your local record shop, "Cosmic Country" might be a good bet - Canadian Daniel Romano may have swapped the Nudie suit, Stetson and slicked-back hair of old for an Adidas tracksuit and corkscrew curls on his fifth LP, but he continues to align himself with the likes of Lee Hazelwood, Gram Parsons, Gene Clark and Bob Dylan. Just check out the Hazlewood-like phrasing ("my little pet" on "Valerie Leon") and playfulness (the punning titles of "Toulouse" and "Mr. E. Me"); Rachel McAdams, no less, plays Nancy to Romano's Lee, interjecting seductively on "Toulouse". "One Hundred Regrets Avenue" and "(Gone Is) But a Quarry of Stone" are both worthy of Dylan, Blood on the Tracks- and "Judas"-eras respectively, while live recording "Dead Medium" rounds the whole thing off on a spontaneous, rockin' barroom note. Heartfelt, cool and, as I say, addictive fun. In fact, I'm gonna stick it on right now!

Daniel Romano - "Toulouse"

#10 Cavern of Anti-Matter - void beats/invocation trex (Duophonic)

Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia has become a late-September staple on the British festival circuit, doing what it says on the tin, bringing together acts from all corners of the globe performing psychedelic music in all its glorious, mind-altering forms. This year, seven acts on the LIFOP Saturday bill - presumably figuring that while they're over in the UK they may as well cater to the psych heads south of the border too - traveled up for the following day's Psych Sunday all-dayer at Broadcast, and I'm very glad they did - the £12 I paid for my ticket was probably the best £12 I spent all year. Seven acts played over 8 hours; by 7 o'clock I already felt like I'd had my money's worth. Headlining were Berlin-based Cavern of Anti-Matter, masterminded by former Stereolab guitarist/keyboardist Tim Gane. Within 30 seconds of an oscillating synth riff starting up, my mate turned to me and said "I love it already" - we knew we were in safe hands. It was a glorious set of uplifting and mesmeric takes on Krautrock. Like another '90s British pioneer, Geoff Barrow who's making similar music with Beak> and Drokk, Gane has a deep love for this sound and knows exactly what vintage kit to use to get it. Their time in Berlin has also clearly had an effect as there is a distinct techno influence - by the end of their set, many people were dancing, their arms in the air. void beats/invocation trex is a splendid album, best enjoyed on vinyl with its 70 minute running time broken up over three discs: "Tardis Cymbals", rising and falling over 13 minutes, is a perfect side of music, while "Liquid Gate" featuring Bradford Cox - essentially a good Deerhunter track - makes a lot more sense at the end of Side C than it does slap-bang in the middle of the digital version. COAM do variety too: "Black Glass Actions" is soaring and optimistic; "Hi-Hats Bring the Hiss", with its spindly guitars and swarming synths, anxious and oppressive.

Cavern of Anti-Matter - "Melody in High Feedback Tones"

#9 Kevin Morby - Singing Saw (Dead Oceans)

Kevin Morby's "Slow Train" (featuring Cate Le Bon) and "Parade" (the right side of Dark Side Dave Gilmour) were two of my standout singles of their respective years, but for some reason I never got round to listening to their parent albums. After hearing Singing Saw's two taster tracks, "I Have Been to the Mountain and "Destroyer" (a beautiful, saxophone-assisted number which shows up the band of the same name by being a superior version of what they were going for on last year's Poison Season), I wasn't gonna let that happen again. These are troubadour tales elevated by strings, brass, piano, and Alecia Chakour, Hannah Cohen and Lauren Balthrop playing the parts of Leonard Cohen's cooing "angels" (live, Morby's electric band strips them back to their brilliant bare essentials). "Oh I'm drunk and on a star", Morby sings, in his own world. He can drift off for the night, safe in the knowledge that he's made one of the albums of the year.

Kevin Morby - "Destroyer"

#8 Charles Bradley - Changes (Daptone)

Charles Bradley is the real deal, an irresistible mix of hardened life experience – when he throws his arms open wide and screams, you believe his joy/longing/heartache/pain – child-like enthusiasm and genuine humility. “I LOOOVE you!” he'll yelp multiple times during a live performance, and rather than cynically think “I bet you say that to all the crowds”, audiences collectively blush and shout it back at him. His third LP Changes is his most accomplished and varied set of recordings yet, ranging from psychedelic soul (“Change for the World”) to Motown heart-melters (“You Think I Don’t Know But I Know”) to straight-up funk (“Ain’t It A Sin”) to lovely slowies (“Slow Love”). It’s also his most personal album – a tranquil beach and cliff face scene painted by Bradley in 1982 adorns the back cover, along with a dedication to his mother Inez who passed away in 2014. The title track (that rarest of things - a Black Sabbath ballad) was originally inspired by Sabbath’s Bill Ward’s divorce of his first wife; in Bradley’s hands, it becomes a yearning, heartbreaking love letter to his mother: “she was my woman, I loved her so, but it’s too late now, I’ve let her go”. Kitty Empire in the Observer described it as “monumental”, and she was right. (Surely “Changes” should have closed Side A? A breather is very much required following its epic six minutes). My deluxe vinyl edition comes with a bonus disc of ace instrumental versions which bring into clear focus the exemplary playing (courtesy of the Menahan Street Band and Budos Band) and breadth of the material. The version of "Change for the World", renamed "Revelations", is particularly fierce.

Charles Bradley - "Changes"

#7 Angel Olsen - My Woman (Jagjaguwar)

Angel Olsen's fourth album is a warning against complacency ("still gotta wake up and be someone" she sings on opener "Intern"), a breaking down of relationship ideals, a call to be present in the moment. Side A's urgent, emotionally direct rockers demand your undivided attention ("shut up and kiss me, hold me tight!"); Side B asks that you take the time to soak in its tender, slow-building ballads. The ballads are particularly great - with considerable meat on their bones compared to those on previous album, Burn Your Fire For No Witness (just contrast the lush, dynamic likes of "Sister" and "Woman" with the interminably slow and dreary "White Fire"). Olsen is an incredible talent - as fierce as Candi Station, as sensual as Steve Nicks - and My Woman is a fiercely sensual, vital record.

Angel Olsen - "Sister"

#6 case/lang/veirs - case/lang/veirs (Anti-)

While previously enjoying music by Neko Case, KD Lang and Laura Veirs, I'd never felt compelled to buy any of their records. That grouping of names - case/lang/veirs (all lower case, all equal billing) - wasn't on my list of dream collaborations and even when it was announced that the trio were to release an album together it stirred little emotion in me, other than surprise to see Lang's name used in its correct musical context rather than as a punchline below a Stewart Lee article: "KD Lang's let himself go". It's been a most welcome surprise, then, that I have absolutely fallen for this record. The three voices off-set and compliment one another beautifully, on songs that flit between folk, Americana and classic Laurel Canyon pop; Laura's Veirs' "Song for Judee", a fine example of the later style, is a tribute to the singer-songwriter Judee Sill who cut some splendid records in the early 70s ('you wrote "The Kiss", it is beautiful', Laura Veirs correctly acknowledges) and perhaps could have gone on to become a Joni Mitchell or Neil Young-level star if it weren't for her health problems and addictions - instead Sill died from an overdose at the age of 35, depicted here in heart-wrenching detail ('they found you with a needle in your arm, beloved books strewn 'round at your feet'). Veirs was apparently the driving force behind the project and she has a writing credit on every song here. The result? Possibly the strongest A Side of any LP this year, and a B Side - beginning with the magnificent, sweeping "Best Kept Secret" - that isn't far behind. The Lang-led tracks (Blue Fires", "Honey and Smoke", "Why Do We Fight" and "Georgia Stars") are a total revelation, her voice all deep and honeyed and smoked. Neko Case's two cowrites ("Down I-5", "Supermoon"), while occasionally washing over me during play throughs, do add a moodiness, another texture to the record. I could imagine some dismissing case/lang/veirs as too grown-up, too tasteful, too Uncut-subscribing-dad (if the album had just a little more star-power, it would clean up at next year's Grammys...it still might), but they'd be missing out: it really is very, very good indeed.

case/lang/veirs - "Honey and Smoke"

#5 Frank Ocean - Blonde (Boys Don't Cry)

"I'm not brave" Frank Ocean sings on "Seigfried", but Blonde would suggest otherwise. Here is a hotly anticipated follow-up to a neo-soul classic, Channel Orange, that's introspective, banger-free, near drumless, and requires to be listened to multiple times as a whole in an age where people with diminishing attention-spans are picking and choosing their favourite tracks. Give Blonde your time, and the rewards are many: for me, it was about five listens in, when I began to tear up during "Self Control" that everything conversely came into focus. Frank tries to make sense of the present and future by looking back to both mistakes he's made in the past (drug abuse, one night stands) and more innocent pre-Internet times. "I ain't a kid no more, we'll never be those kids again", he sings wistfully on "Ivy". The songs and structures mirror this: blurred like memories; jarring shifts in tone like a Twitter feed. Deeply sad but beautiful, the music often has more in common with psychedelic folk (gentle guitars, the strings that saturate the climax of "Seigfried") and the confessional songwriting and meandering melodies of Joni Mitchell than Drake's "poor me" posturing or The Weeknd. The random bursts of guitar (on "Night") and manipulations of voice (those manic screams at the end of "Ivy") are pure Prince - a Joni nut himself, of course; "Godspeed" is like when The Purple One used to takes us to church on the likes of "Purple Rain". Ocean's Steve Wonderesque voice is exquisite throughout, while all of his chosen collaborators and samples go over really well. Andre 3000 is on ferocious form on "Solo (Reprise)". Beyoncé is, deliciously, relegated to backing vocals duty, adding (admittedly gorgeous) harmonies to "Pink + White"'s coda. The Beatles' "Here, There and Everywhere" is worked brilliantly into "White Ferrari". Hear the plaintive, understated guitar playing on many tracks? That's Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood. Some of the year's most stunning songs - "Self Control", "Seigfried", "Solo", "Godspeed", "Ivy" - are on this quiet blockbuster, which just keeps getting better and better. (I had hoped to get my vinyl copy in time for Christmas but it has been put back till early Jan. Bah humbug!)

#4 David Bowie - Blackstar (RCA)

David Bowie's death on 10th January of this year moved me more than I thought the death of somebody I'd never met could. I switched on 6Music and joined in the communal wake, where DJs were playing Bowie records and grieving listeners felt compelled to write in with what the great man meant to them. It was heartbreaking, funny, beautiful, big-hearted radio, and exactly what I needed to get me through the day. I've been a massive Bowie fan ever since 2002, when, after seeing Hunky Dory in an NME's Greatest Albums list, I cajoled my dad - a Bowie fan from back in the day - into buying the CD for himself, just so I could play it. I adored the album (it's probably still my favourite - the first cut being the deepest, and all that), and proceeded to race through the '70s Bowie catalogue at almost the same speed as he had creatively accelerated through the decade. I had tickets to the 2004 T in the Park where Bowie was due to perform - sadly, days before the festival he suffered a heart attack and had to pull out, to be replaced by The Darkness...The bloody Darkness! Bowie virtually retired from playing live after that. The opportunity to see one of my heroes had passed. The Next Day, Bowie's 2013 return, was a solid album, but a backwards-looking one. Released on his 69th birthday, two days before his death, Blackstar was something else entirely. Fired by contemporary hip-hop and electronica, in collaboration with a fantastic jazz trio, these were Bowie's most exciting, inventive and mysterious seven tracks in decades. Even before all the grieving and revisionist analysis following his passing, fans and critics were in agreement that this was a classic David Bowie record; critics comparing it to his 1976 masterpiece Station to Station (the same 10-minute, multi-section title track openers; short tracklistings where every track has its own specific role to play) unaware that he was about to reach his final destination. This must have brought him great joy, surrounded by his family, in his final days. "We were so thrilled to have him back we failed to notice he was saying goodbye" was a Tweet by Graeme Thomson on the day after Bowie's death, which really moved me. Blackstar was one last flash of inspiration - an astonishing, generous parting gift to the world.

David Bowie - "Blackstar"

#3 Thee Oh Sees - A Weird Exits (Castleface)

There was a strong emotional pull to put David Bowie at the top of this list, but in truth I haven't played Blackstar as much as I have these three. My Top Three Albums by artists who I've followed for a while now and who I believe came up with their best work to date in 2016. You might suggest that Thee Oh Sees have been releasing pretty much the same record (consisting of psychy garage-punk and krautrocky garage-punk, with the odd prog curveball like Drop's "King's Nose" thrown in every so often) every year for the past ten years. And you'd be right. But, for my money, they've never sounded as heavy, pummelling (powered by their new twin drummer lineup) or well-produced as they do on A Weird Exits. With the weird oddball numbers having exited the building, kept back for recently-released companion piece, An Odd Entrances, the coast was clear for eight lean, mean thrilling cuts: "Dead Man's Gun" rushes along like all Thee Oh Sees album openers should, "Ticklish Warrior" and "Gelatinous Cube" are ferocious, in-your-face rockers (Thee Oh Sees in HD), while instrumentals "Jammed Entrance" and "Unwrap the Fiend Pt. 2" bring a scope to the record that belies its 40 minute running time. Reviews of recent live shows suggest that there isn't a better rock band in the world right now (oh, for a Scottish date!) and I wouldn't bet against this lineup bettering A Weird Exits on their next record, which will inevitably appear in six months time. For now, though, this is more than enough.

Thee Oh Sees - "Gelatinous Cube"

#2 King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Nonagon Infinity (Heavenly)

Prolific bands - if they're any good, of course - can very quickly work their way into your affections. And so it is with the ludicrously monikered (and ludicrous sounding, to be honest) King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard and me. I've bought four LPs by the Melbourne seven-piece in the last three years, and now consider them one of my very favourite modern bands. They're lovers of a concept, are Gizzard - I'm In Your Mind Fuzz opened with an exhilarating 20-minute psychedelic-rock suite, Quarters consisted of four jazzy pieces all exactly 10 minutes 10 seconds long, while Paper Mâché Dream Balloon was recorded using only acoustic instruments. Nonagon Infinity is a culmination of everything they've done up to this point - a non-stop road train of whacked-out, scuzzed-up rock'n'roll played with prog-style dexterity and bug-eyed intensity. Each track careers into the next, the last note on the album leading back into the first. As its title alludes to, you could potentially play Nonagon Infinity on a loop forever - perhaps you should. Or at least until the first of their five planned albums for next year arrives in February. Prolific...

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - "Gamma Knife / People Vultures"

#1 Cate Le Bon - Crab Day (Turnstile Music)

Warm, psychedelic, packed with personality: Cate Le Bon has been a favourite voice of mine ever since hearing her debut LP Me Oh My, released on Gruff Rhys' label in 2009. And she just keeps improving - I thought it might've been tough to top the album she put out in 2013, but, for me, Crab Day smashes Mug Museum. Le Bon takes the experimental jams of last year's DRINKS project with Tim Presley (Presley deserves at least a little credit for encouraging the weirdness that's always been there in Cate's voice to come out more in her music) and hammers them into herky-jerky pop shapes, reminiscent of Syd Barrett, Captain Beefheart and Television. The songs are wonky, a little "off" - if they caught you at the wrong angle, you might find them incredibly irritating - but Le Bon's pop sensibility keeps them from collapsing, makes them appear on the level. The lyrics, while perhaps more serious than they let on, are playful and surreal ("a coalition of inescapable feelings and fabricated nonsense), the tunes and melodies just fabulous: "Crab Day", "Wonderful", "I'm A Dirty Attic", "I Was Born On The Wrong Day"...all absolute keepers. I had already decided on Crab Day being my record of the year when I went to see Cate live at the Art School on Monday night - her truly fantastic performance just confirmed it. I grinned like an idiot all the way through. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!

Cate Le Bon - "Wonderful"

TRACKS (by artists not on the Albums list, in alphabetical order)

Amber Arcades – Turning Light (Heavenly)

Badbadnotgood feat. Samuel T. Herring – Time Moves Slow(Innovative Leisure)

Beyond the Wizards Sleeve – Creation (Phantasy)

Big Thief – Masterpiece (Saddle Creek)

Black Twig – 1998 (Soliti)

Boys Forever – Poisonous (Boys Forever)

Moses Boyd – Rye Lane Shuffle (Exodus)

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Jesus Alone (Bad Seed Ltd)

Christine and the Queens – Tilted (Because)

Chris Cohen – Torrey Pine (Captured Tracks)

Cold Pumas – Fugue States (Gringo)

Cool Ghouls – Sundial (Melodic)