10 Lux by Rosalía
“Art pop” is a flexible designation that gets tossed around a lot. But Spanish flamenco disruptor Rosalía is a genuine avant-garde populist, whose fourth album threw symphony orchestras at dramatic digital productions. As strings vied with bass, she unleashed her conservatoire-trained, party-honed vocals, singing of the perils of love and faith in multiple languages. Interweaving the stories of martyred medieval women and early female Buddhists with 21st-century tales of relationships gone wrong, Lux was an ambitious record that only this singer could have made.
9 In Limerence by Jacob Alon
The debut of Scots singer-songwriter Jacob Alon updated Nick Drake for today, while also attracting comparisons to Jeff Buckley and Sufjan Stevens. Here were finger-picked guitar songs, surrounded by understated band arrangements, which announced a deep, tender new voice – both powerful and vaporous. Drawing on folk tradition but setting songs in clubland and Crete, Alon mined their past experiences to create an album with universal resonance.
8 West End Girl by Lily Allen
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Ubiquitous, riveting and unflinching, Lily Allen’s unexpected comeback album was more than just a viral success; it cast a harsh light on love in the modern world. Lightly fictionalised but quivering with truth, her song cycle about the breakdown of an open marriage rather like her own packed in black humour and sordid details, while always in keeping with Allen’s breezy retro style.
7 Everybody Scream by Florence + the Machine
Florence Welch has never avoided the uncanny. On her sixth album, the singer summoned spirits and sought the wisdom of the ancients as never before. Like several records this year, Everybody Scream circled around a central event – in this case, Welch’s life-threatening ectopic pregnancy. There were further torments here as the singer tackled a toxic relationship (Buckle), desire (Witch Dance), and raged against the male criteria of greatness with female strength.
6 Lotus by Little Simz
The lotus is a hardy bloom that grows out of muddy waters. Little Simz’s sixth album came after the UK rapper had a major financial falling out with her longtime producer and childhood friend Inflo. The result was a sizzling creative rebirth, fuelled by feelings of betrayal. Excoriating tracks such as Thief and Flood were just one chapter of the story: Simz questioned herself on Lonely, started a party with former collaborator Obongjayar on Lion, shouted out Amy Winehouse on the punky Young and channelled the authority of Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu on the standout track Free.
5 Let God Sort Em Out by Clipse
Sixteen years after Virginia’s premier coke-rap duo last released music, solo titan Pusha T and his semi-retired brother Malice finally released one of the most assured, scalpel-sharp comebacks in hip-hop. Few rappers elevate street threat, swagger and philosophical musings to the Thornton brothers’ level of lyricism; here, the death of their mother and other mature adult concerns supplied rich new seams of feeling. Producer Pharrell Williams – the architect of Clipse’s previous albums – was back on board, fitting studio sessions in alongside his day job at Louis Vuitton.
4 The Universe Will Take Care of You by James Holden & Wacław Zimpel
James Holden is one of the UK’s finest left-field creators, operating across genres, somewhere on the cusp of electronic music and a quest for trance states. This year’s collaborative album with the Polish avant-clarinettist Wacław Zimpel combined Holden’s synth sorcery with Zimpel’s omnivorous musical instincts; both played instruments and messed with gear. Carbonated burbles, bells, unquantifiable percussion – this was an album best experienced as a kind of sound bath: its spirit and sense of wonder provides an antidote to the past 12 months.
3 Cotton Crown by The Tubs
Indie rock has repeated itself umpteen times over. But echo chambers have never sounded as energised as on this record by the DIY band the Tubs. Distilling decades of jangle and melodic post-hardcore into guitar gold, Cotton Crown didn’t merely satisfy recherché record collectors. Instead the songs of lead singer Owen Williams are singalongs: full of self-lacerating revelations, they are good-time tracks about some very bad times.
2 Black British Music by Jim Legxacy
Full of nostalgia for old waves of Black British creativity while announcing a talent for our times, Jim Legxacy’s second album put the young rapper-singer-producer at the forefront of a new age of genre-busting British MCs. From emotive hyperpop bangers such as Father to the OutKast-quoting indie rock of ’06 Wayne Rooney, Legxacy’s scope is dazzling. And in among the mischievous samples and stylistic swerves are vulnerable tales of heartbreak and loss.
1 Getting Killed by Geese
Geese’s third album captured lightning in a bottle. Getting Killed is a guitar-band masterpiece, blending the idiosyncratic sound of four Brooklyn schoolfriends with frontman Cameron Winter’s deliciously inscrutable wordplay and lightly worn classic rock influences. Throughout, there’s butt-shaking psych-rock, sweet emotion and a commitment to unironic beauty, no matter the band’s surface snark. And it’s not just Winter, whose solo album, Heavy Metal, also deserves mention, either: the levels of musicianship and production detailing here are all on point.