My Favourite Albums Of 2016

Some of the greatest albums this year were some of the saddest and certainly inspired by death: David Bowie, Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave, all very different but heartbreaking records. I didn't include Cave on my list because I actually found his album Skeleton Tree, recorded in the aftermath of his son's death, the most difficult to listen to, proving I suppose that death is hardest for those left behind. A lot of my favourite albums this year were definitely dark, because I guess that was my mood in 2016, but I think some were hopeful too. These days I'm finding less solace in music but I am hoping that 2017 will be different.

10. Lydia Loveless - Real

The thing I like most about Lydia Loveless (which is a great country singer name btw) is that one minute she sounds like the most lonesome cowgirl, the next a raucous bar-brawling honky-tonker and then a cooler-than-cool indie rocker. Real is a little more pop than her previous efforts (particularly on tracks like Heaven and Same To You) but of course it's every bit as good and as honest (hence the album name "Real"). There's lovely moments like when she sings "marry me, there's no place in the world I'd rather be" on the song Bilbao or fantastic rocking ones like the amusingly sneering Midwestern Guys, while Longer has an endearing jangly feel and European is foot-tapping country at its best. I don't know too much about Lydia Loveless but I do know I love this album.

9. Warpaint - Heads Up

It took me a while to discover Warpaint but seeing them live this year really helped me appreciate them on a whole different level. It probably helps too that their most recent album, Heads Up, is their most accessible yet. Obviously there will always be hardcore fans who hate any mainstream pop sounds seeping in but calling Heads Up a pop record is a stretch by any reach. That said it definitely has some truly danceable moments and even one tune, New Song, that you could actually sing along with! There's still the deep grooves and atmospheric dreamy, art-rock sounds but this album sounds more like a celebration of the band rather than anything too dark or brooding. The aptly named So Good is a perfect case in point, it's a disco-tinged groove with a cool wordless chant-like chorus that you can't help but move to. The album cover with the girls, still in darkness but holding hands and looking towards the light, pretty much sums up the feel of Heads Up really: fearless and hopeful.

8. Sturgill Simpson - A Sailor's Guide To Earth

It makes sense that Simpson comes from the same scene as Margo Price and Caitlin Rose. Like them, it's clear he loves old-fashioned country music but then he goes and covers Nirvana. To be fair his gentle take on In Bloom is probably my least favourite track on the album but it speaks volumes about Simpson's mission to bring country music into the 21st century in style. His last album, the brilliant Metamodern Sounds In Country Music, certainly demonstrated this too with a wide range of influences and A Sailor's Guide To Earth takes another left turn with his sound. Even the first track on his latest album, Welcome To Earth (Pollywog), starts off like a countrypolitan strings-filled heartbreaker and then turns into a horns-blasting R&B swing (courtesy of Sharon Jones' Dap-Kings). The next tune, Breakers Boar is a sweet and gentle folk number, while Keep It Between The Lines is a funky upbeat country number replacing twang with groove and horns. Apparently the new record is a concept album with the songs addressed to his young son, a guide to help him to find his way in the world, which really, if you think about it, is about as country as it gets and rather sweet too. But most of all Simpson is just a first-rate songwriter and I think this generation's Merle Haggard, which as high a praise as you can get.

7. case/lang/veirs - case/lang/veirs

I must admit I was mostly excited about this unexpected collaboration between Neko Case, k.d. lang and Laura Veirs because I adore Neko so much but I must say this album has really opened me up to the music of Veirs in particular. She's the least known of the three but often shines the brightest on the debut album of this alt-country supergroup. Atomic Number, the Case-penned number that opens the album, is probably the most effective track and shows the trio working together the best. Most of the remaining numbers are really solo tracks with a little back-up from the other ladies. It would have been nice to hear some more Crosby, Stills & Nash-style harmonies (particularly from Case and lang, whose voices have a similar quality) but ultimately the songs sound so great there is little to complain about. Aside from Atomic Number, Song For Judee, Veirs' tribute to Judee Sill is easily one of the standout tracks, while lang's Blue Fires is the most gorgeous modern-day torch song. It would be great to see how they could further the sound on a follow-up record but most of all I would so love to see these magnificent ladies live together. Please, please come to the UK!

6. The I Don't Cares - Wild Stab

There's a chapter in Juliana Hatfield's memoir, When I Grow Up, in which she talks about having a relationship with an unnamed alternative music icon. It turns out it was none other than Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg, who was married at the time, and now he's divorced they have rekindled their romance. More than that, Hatfield was hugely encouraging to Westerberg about digging up and dusting off a bunch of old songs he had written but never released. Her eagerness was obviously contagious because Westerberg asked her to collaborate with him and The I Don't Cares were born. The songs here are mostly Westerberg's and they find him at his punky power pop best. Some of the standout tracks though see them harmonising together and there's even a Hatfield-sung number, Dance To The Fight, where she sounds more Joan Jett than she ever has. Most of all it's so full of energy and joy, it's hard not to fall in love with it really. I hope they stay a couple.

5. Bat For Lashes - The Bride

There's something so elegant about Natasha Khan. Everything she does has just the air of class about it even if it's a noirish tale of a groom killed on his wedding day and the dark thoughts his would-be bride experiences in the aftermath. I was lucky enough to see Khan preview this concept album, complete with bridal costume, in the fitting setting of the Union Chapel and it was thrilling to hear her sing these tunes for the first time and hear her tell the story that inspired them in between songs. The album itself seems to have got a mixed reaction (although it did get a deserved nomination for the Mercury Prize) but I thought it was dark, atmospheric and utterly beautiful. Khan is no stranger to the concept album (I think every one of her releases is something of a concept record in fact) but this has to be her most ambitious and fully realised yet.  Khan really needs to be appreciated more here in the UK for the absolute treasure that she is.

4. Angel Olsen - My Woman

When I saw the first video for Angel Olsen's new album, for Shut Up And Kiss Me, I did wonder if she was going for a bigger audience with a slightly more commercial approach. It turns out, although that song is definitely one of her most catchy, My Woman is more David Lynch and film noir meets 50s torch songs and 90s alternative music. Definitely not something you'd hear on daytime radio anyway. Songs like Intern and Sister are like little movies in a song - tales set somewhere in some strange place, a dark little corner somewhere in America in the early hours of the morning where people slow dance and yearn for lost loves. She's like an indie Patsy Cline, her voice both a croon and a sob, and I absolutely love that about her.

3. Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker

Two of my favourite albums this year are about death, or at the very least tainted by the end looming. Leonard Cohen said he was ready to die and then as a parting gift recorded the most beautiful, graceful and sad album all about it. It's heartbreaking of course but wonderful too. He apparently recorded the album in terrible pain, while sitting in a special medically designed chair. His voice still sounds magnificent though: deep, dark and brooding. On the album's opener, the church-like title track, he tells us "I'm ready my Lord" and "If you are the dealer, I want out of the game". It's sad and poignant but utterly beautiful too. There are lovely warm moments as well, such as on Keep It On The Level with Sharon Robinson's soulful backing vocals and the gorgeous gypsy-feel of Traveling Light. This record proves just what a huge loss to the world of music his passing is but how lucky we were to have Leonard Cohen for so long.

2. David Bowie - Blackstar

Obviously Blackstar would have still been a masterpiece even if David Bowie hadn't died days after its release but it certainly makes it all the more powerful. It's Bowie in his more experimental phase weaving together many different styles, in particular jazz (it was recorded with Donny McCaslin's jazz combo), electronica and art rock. It's weird and dark, at times creepy, and of course a very sad listen but it's as brilliant as anything he's ever done. I still can't believe Bowie is gone, I really can't remember a time when his music wasn't in my life but what a treasure to leave us with. I have a feeling this will be an album that we will still be discovering new things in for years and years to come.

1. Margo Price - Midwest Farmer's Daughter

When I first heard Hands Of Time, which tells a poetic tale of a young woman who is broke, has lost her child and is desperately trying to get a job so she can buy back her family's farm, I thought it was pure fiction. It sounded like a traditional country-style story, the type you find in many old songs, but it turns out it's all completely true, this is Margo Price's life: it's a completely autobiographical tale. That authenticity coupled with Price's obvious love of traditional country music is huge part of what makes Midwest Farmer's Daughter just so special: it's not sparkly or shiny, or privilege pretending to be earthy and "real", Margo Price is simply the real deal. It completely makes sense that Jack White chose it as Third Man Records' first country release as she's the closest thing we have to Loretta Lynn right now but also completely her own person. Hands Of Time is the standout track but its an album full of gems all made the more special by Price's affecting voice. This is the kind of country music I love and Price's album was easily my biggest and best surprise of the year.