My Favourite Albums Of 2015

I think this year has been one where I have struggled to find much inspiration in music. I don't know if it's my age finally catching up on me or a lack of music out there to excite me, but I suspect it's the former. I hope it doesn't last but in any case it was pretty easy this time for me to whittle down my favourite albums of the year to just 11. I'm crossing my fingers that 2016 reignites some kind of fire in my music-loving soul but in the meantime here are the few that meant the most to me over the past year.

11. Ryan Adams -1989

Given how middle-of-the-road Ryan Adams has become in recent years I never expected to have him in favourites list ever again, especially what is essentially a novelty album, but there was something that really captured my heart about his track-by-track remake of Taylor Swift's hugely successful album. I like Taylor's original well enough but I have no qualms admitting that Adams' version is by far my favourite. Somehow he's taken her sprightly pop and made it sound like a dark and moody Springsteen record or even, Ryan Adams back in his Heartbreaker days. I can't help it, I really loved it.

10. Florence + The Machine - How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful

I saw Florence Welch live a year before she released her debut album, Lungs, and became the massive worldwide star that she is. I knew she had a fabulous voice and loved her style and sound but I wasn't sure she had the artistry to match. I also think her cover of You've Got The Love, which became her first big hit really, put me off a little as it's such a karaoke kind of song to cover. With her third album, the amazingly titled How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, I think she's finally found her true vision, leaving behind the pop star sparkle, for some true rock grandeur. The visuals she's made to accompany the tracks too, speaks of a true artist of Kate Bush proportions. It's hard to single out any particular track, as each song is so strong and the first six in particular are so epic, powerful and rousing, but I think what I love about this Florence + The Machine above her others is that it feels like it was meant to be heard as a whole piece of music. It's also a much more personal album and the music sounds so much more organic and stripped down. This is the Florence I've always wanted to hear. Now she's found her feet I am so excited at what she will do next.

9. Alela Diane & Ryan Francesconi - Cold Moon

Apparently Alela Diane and Ryan Francesconi, both Portland residents, found each other through their struggle with writer's block and somehow made this moving, gem of a record. It's a beautiful wintry album, sparsely but tastefully backed with former Joanna Newsom cohort Francesconi's stunning guitar work. There were some mixed reviews for this album but for me it carries on what Diane does so well and is a perfect follow-up to her stunning break-up record, About Farewell. Diane still seems to be a bit of a secret, which is so puzzling to me because I think she keeps getting better and better.

8. Wolf Alice - My Love Is Cool 

It's a long time since I've followed the UK music press but from what I've seen Wolf Alice do seem to be among the current NME darlings, which should make me slightly wary, but there's so much 90s alternative in their music that instead it endears me to them. Their sound is definitely all over the place, from swirling,  jingly indie pop to loud feed-backing guitar-riffs, from pretty girly vocals to angry shouts. Most of all it holds huge promise and I can't wait to hear what they do next.

7. Jewel - Picking Up The Pieces

This is the Jewel record that fans, or at the very least, I have been waiting for for years. It's a return to the folk simplicity that launched her career as heard on her debut Pieces Of You. Twenty years later the title makes reference to her classic album and there are songs dating back to the 90s too (most notably Everything Breaks which was a bonus track on her debut) but thankfully she leaves the twee behind and sounds like an older and wiser Jewel, a woman who has worked hard at her song-craft and deserves to be heard alongside her superb guests on this record, Rodney Crowell and Dolly Parton. My Father's Daughter, in fact, sounds a little like a Parton track and it's lovely to hear the two sing together. I don't know if Jewel will ever be cool or even relevant again, but I for one am glad she is still singing from the heart.

6. Marina & The Diamonds - Froot

After the multi-producer, multi-writer approach forced on her by her record company to produce the ultra-pop of Electra Heart, Marina Diamandis decided to take control for her third record and worked with one producer (Dave Kosten of Bat For Lashes fame) and write every single song all by herself. The result it by far her best album yet, where she one moment sounds like an moody indie goddess, the next a crazy Kate Bush-inspired chanteuse and then a total and utter pop star. I really don't know where Marina fits, because despite her glamorous looks and pop sensibility, her music doesn't necessarily slot neatly into the kind of thing that charts nor the alternative world, but that's really why I can't help loving her.

5. Kacey Musgraves - Pageant Material

I think the thing I like most about Musgraves is that she sounds like she absolutely loves and adores traditional country music and wants to continue the tradition, albeit it in a more modern setting. She's full of folksy charm and humour but sounds wiser and smarter than on her debut record. But even more than this her songs couldn't be more catchy, in fact pretty much every song here holds it own and could be a single. This is the kind of country music I wish was more popular these days but I have every faith in Kacey Musgraves carrying the torch for the time being.

4. Sleater-Kinney - No Cities To Love

Sleater-Kinney's comeback album is easily the most exciting record of the year for me, giving me a rush of adrenaline every time I listen to it. Even though I discovered the band back in their heyday I still don't why I didn't just worship them back then, it seems that they had to go away before I fully appreciated their brilliance and power. Thankfully for me they reunited and I finally got to see them live and better than that, that their new album proved them to be as vital and badass as ever.

3. Natalie Prass - Natalie Prass

Natalie Prass seemed to come out of nowhere for me but strangely and unbeknownst to me, I had seen her before as part of Jenny Lewis' touring band. I can't even remember where I first heard her but earlier this year Prass' self-titled debut, with its glorious mixure of classic blue-eyed soul and 70s West Coast singer-songwriter fare, was constantly on my turntable and on my iPod. Prass' voice isn't huge but there is something hugely affecting in its delicacy and this coupled with the beautiful production and superb songwriting makes it sound like some kind of forgotten songwriter masterpiece from long ago. Apparently she's recording the follow-up at the moment and I can't wait to see if she can live up to this impressive debut.

2. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell

My favourite Sufjan Stevens record has always been his most simple: Seven Swans, his beautiful intimate folk masterpiece focusing on his Christian beliefs in an incredibly moving way. His latest album is something of a return to this sparser style but this time dealing with a much more somber subject matter, the death of Stevens' mother, who he had an very complicated relationship with. He wrote and recorded these songs as a way of dealing with his grief and the result is both heart-wrenching and utterly powerful. Anyone who has been through the death of a loved one will find something here to relate to and be moved by and for all his more showy, big sounding records, this is so skilfully and gracefully arranged and crafted it's one of those albums you will find something new in every time you listen to it. I have a feeling this beautiful record is the one that Stevens will forever be remembered for and will only get better with time.

1. Joanna Newsom - Divers

Every Joanna Newsom album is a magical experience, maybe because every song feels like you are escaping into a strange and mysterious world. I had wondered if during the five years since her last record this might have changed given her transformation into celebrity wife (to actor Andy Samberg) and actress (in Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice) but apparently her newfound happiness only made her think more deeply about all she had to lose and how she would live if she ever lost the love of her life. Out of this soul-searching came Divers, which is maybe her most accessible record yet but still a thing of magical majesty full of poetic words that seem to make fantastic stories yet somehow still strike into the depths of your heart, all backed with music full of twists and turns yet full of warmth, wonder and atmosphere. The songs are fairly short for Newsom but the most outstanding track of all is naturally the longest, which just happens to be the title track, a haunting and soul-stirring number that sounds like an old folk tale but strangely feels both cinematic and hugely personal. Genius is a word that is often thrown around lightly but whenever I hear Newsom I really do feel I am hearing the work of someone gifted with something profoundly special.