Albums
Honourable Mentions: The Voyager - Jenny Lewis, Complete Surrender - Slow Club, Futurology - Manic Street Preachers
5. Wild Onion - Twin Peaks
Some garage-tinged power pop underscored by a heartfelt sincerity. The quality of their punkier efforts varies wildly, but the melancholic slow-burners display a collage of teenage emotiveness woven by a surprising compositional maturity that is really quite delightful.
4. Alvvays - Alvvays
Lo-Fi pop evidently inspired by the likes of The New Pornographers. Alvvays are a little rough around the edges; but their unperturbed urgency, carried by Molly Rankin's kinetic vocals, shine.
3. 1000 Forms of Fear - Sia
After years of commercially-unsuccessful-but-still-great LPs, writing great pop songs, and featuring on great pop songs, Sia is finally emerging into the foreground on a great pop album. The instrumentation on 1000 Forms is hardly introverted, with its rousing synths and cacophonous strings, but Furler's voice is gloriously gargantuan.
2. Lese Majesty - Shabazz Palaces
One of the most endearingly odd groups in Hip-Hop are back, and Lese Majesty is possibly their best work yet. The production is naturally idiosyncratic, pummelled by discordant beats and helter-skelter hooks, and the social satire remains as biting and entertaining as ever.
1. We Don't Have Each Other - Aaron West & The Roaring Twenties
This Folk-Punk blockbuster, the first thing to emerge from Wonder Years lead singer Dan Campbell's side project/alter-ego, Aaron West, is one of the most emotionally resonant albums of the year. A traumatising diary of depression, it is a sensationally powerful account of modern disconnection and loneliness. Lyricists don't come much better than Campbell.
Songs
10. The Voyager - Jenny Lewis
9. Fair Game - Sia
8. Marry Me, Archie - Alvvays
7. You Ain't No Saint - Aaron West
6. Suffering Me, Suffering You - Slow Club
5. Ordinary People - Twin Peaks
4. #CAKE - Shabazz Palaces
3. Divorce and the American South - Aaron West
2. Chandelier - Sia
1. No Black Person is Ugly - Lil B
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