The Musical Advent Calendar - Door Number Twenty-Three

So close. So, so close. But is second place really the first loser? There don't seem to be too many losers behind Door 23 of the Musical Advent Calendar.

Andy Welch

Wild Beasts – Present Tense (Domino)

I think I've got a (former) Ragged Glories panellist, Ali Mason, to thank for hearing Wild Beasts' first album. And the first time I saw them I was with him at ATP in Minehead, so let's call their fourth album hitting the No. 2 spot on my list this year a metaphorical pouring one out for his absence. It's a remarkable album; so measured, so well put-together, it's just flawless. I'm really surprised it didn't propel them to seriously huge things, so packed is it with melodies and memorable songs such as 'Sweet Spot', 'Pregnant Pause' and 'Simple Beautiful Truth'. I talk about openings of albums being strong, but the closing half of Present Tense is as strong an end to an album as I've heard this year. Maybe Hayden's falsetto will stop them from being true world-beaters, who knows? But Present Tense is a brilliant band's best album to date. 

Rory Dollard

St Vincent - St Vincent (Loma Vista)

You'll have heard about this eponymous record being the belated realisation of St Vincent's talents, but that's wrong because 2011's Strange Mercy was knock-your-socks off brilliant. You'll have heard that her collaboration with David Byrne somehow liberated her creative juices a couple of years back, but that's wrong because there was only one solid gold rock star in that pairing and it wasn't the dude from Talking Heads. You'll have also heard, from a variety of polls, that this is hands down one of the records of the year and even I couldn't disagree with that. She understands the pop game as well as anyone since Madonna, she relishes the presentation as much as David Bowie, she's the funkiest guitarist in the business and she's filthier than Rihanna. Sold, sold, sold and sold.

Matt Collins

Horse Thief - Fear in Bliss (Bella Union)

While their description as a psychedelic folk rock band might be a bit more out there than they really are. Fear in Bliss is a terrific record that could easily slip under the radar. Gentle guitars, and driving melodies from start to finish, with finger drummable tracks to boot. Awesome.

Dom Farrell

St Vincent - St Vincent (Loma Vista)

Building on the excellent foundations laid by 2011’s Strange Mercy, Annie Clark might well have delivered her masterpiece. From the infectious synth riff that introduces 'Rattlesnake', everything about St Vincent bulges with brash confidence and brilliance. The excesses of the MySpace (remember that?) and Facebook age that Clark witheringly pulls apart on 'Digital Witness' means that the journey from the bedroom to the front page of music monthlies can be a swift one. While this is, in many cases, a good thing, the 21st century consequently lacks for bona fide pop stars combining rare talent and a kind-of-forgotten otherworldliness. It has one in St Vincent. Clark’s last two albums and stage shows, from her remarkable guitar playing to her high-heel shuffle dance, scream star quality. The influence of collaborator David Byrne is evident on St Vincent  but the vision is entirely Clark’s throughout a thrilling statement of intent.

Andrew Gwilym

Sharon Van Etten – Are We There (Jagjaguwar)

There’s a load of great music out there, as clearly evidenced by the depth and breadth of the selections made on this blog alone throughout this month. The really special stuff is the song that stops you in your tracks, that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end and then leaves you to ponder a moment in splendid isolation. Sharon Van Etten’s fourth album Are We There has two of those moments in the opening three tracks, and it doesn’t stop there. After the wonderful, gently building opener ‘Afraid of Nothing’, there is little to prepare you for the cathartic, fiery ‘Your Love is Killing Me’. The lyrics, like a lot of the album, are uncomfortably frank and delivered behind an almost martial beat. ‘Break my legs so I won’t run to you/Cut my tongue so I can’t talk to you/ Burn my skin so I can’t feel you/Stab my eyes so I can’t see/You like it when I let you walk over me’ sings Van Etten with an audible tension in her tremulous vocals. Stunning.

John Skilbeck

Ought - More Than Any Other Day (Constellation)

Meet Guy’s track of the day. But don’t let that put you off. Too late, right?

Ought "Today More Than Any Other Day" from Constellation Records on Vimeo.

Pranam Mavahalli

Caribou - Our Love (City Slang)

Dance music is the new folk. Say what? Well if you think that an important component of music is the shared experience, then I’d say it’s hard to see otherwise. In the sixties audiences sat cross-legged obediently listening to singers with acoustic guitars. Now the shared experience is more about the rapture of hearing pumping music in large warehouses. And what makes Caribou's latest record so special for me is that it takes the songwriting intimacy of the folk tradition, but blasts it through a contemporary dance music lens. It might not be the first time that this has been attempted, but it's carried out splendidly here. I think this is Caribou's most emotionally affecting record, and is all the better for it.

Ian Parker

Sharon Van Etten - Are We There (Jagjaguwar)

Of all the albums in my top five this year, I've probably listened to this the least. Not because it's not brilliant, but, in its way, because it is. This is not background music. Are We There demands all your attention, whether you were planning to give it or not. These songs convey such raw emotion, it'd be foolish to attempt to do anything else while they're playing. Van Etten has taken a huge step forward from 2012's Tramp, delivering in full on her promise of combining powerful songwriting and inventive stylings. Brilliant stuff.

Guy Atkinson

Against Me! - Transgender Dysphoria Blues (Xtra Mile)

Not many bands make their most interesting album 17 years into their career, but then again not many bands' frontmen become a frontwoman and make an album about gender dysphoria. Essential listening, even if angsty punk ain't usually your bag.

Steve Pill

Caribou – Our Love (City Slang)

When Our Love's opening track 'Can't Do Without You' dropped this summer it almost singlehandedly took a slot in my top 3, before I'd even heard the rest of the album. The heartfelt vocal loop builds slower than a Brazilian football stadium but when it finally hits fever pitch at around the three-minute mark, the brief rush is more thrilling, dayglo and wondrous than listening to MGMT's debut album played on 45rpm while scoffing Haribo. If you've followed Dan Snaith's early career via the Big Beat psychedelia of Manitoba's Up In Flames and the warped 1960s pop of Caribou's breakthrough 'Melody Day' single, this new direction all sort of makes sense. Like Four Tet before him, he has left behind the tangled web of folktronica and is looking for something simple, direct and dancefloor ready, without sacrificing any of his earlier passions. He manages that throughout Our Love, from the garage-throwback of Julia Brightly and the flute-looped tribalism of Mars to the proggy, dubby house of 'Your Love Will Set You Free'. In all, it's a brilliant soundtrack to South London night buses and perhaps even a step above 2010's near-flawless Swim.

The Musical Advent Calendar - Door Number Twenty-Two

Door Twenty-Two of the Musical Advent Calendar brings us our No. 3 albums of the year, and an array of musical genres. We find out what would happen if Bruce Springsteen discovered yacht rock, learn about something called phantom funk but, perhaps most importantly of all, rescue jazz fusion from the bargain bin. Off we go...

Andy Welch

The War On Drugs – Lost In The Dream (Secretly Canadian)

Often you get albums that sound great on first listen and don't stand up to much scrutiny. Others benefit repeated plays, offering up new elements with each listen until they really get under your skin. Rarely do you get an album like Lost In The Dream that pulled me in from the first play and kept me interested all year. It sounds like Springsteen if he got into yacht rock, Billy Joel if he was slightly less middle-of-the-road and a thousand other comparisons that almost nail what's so brilliant about The War On Drugs' latest album. I can't think of an album I've listened to more this year, and I love it. 

Rory Dollard

Glass Animals - Zaba (Wolf Tone)

A few years ago Daddy G of Massive Attack hailed a new direction for his band and dubbed it "phantom funk". Asked about it when in a, ahem, clearer frame of mind he denied all knowledge, mocked the very idea and moved swiftly along. Glass Animals apparently did the opposite, because Zaba is the first great phantom funk album. L Ron Hubbard made something up out of thin air and it became a religion, surely a genre can be born the same way? For a debut its box of tricks is quite remarkable, one moment sensual and serpentine, the next menacing and mysterious, and the whole thing is weirdly slo-mo car-crash danceable.

Matt Collins

Sharon Van Etten - Are We There (Jagjaguwar)

Sharon van Etten is the darkest singer songwriter around, mostly eschewing the acoustic for electric guitar (and on this album, increasingly electronic textures). And Are We There is a typical SvE outing, full of bitterness, regret and super clever harmonies. Not her best, but still up there with the best of the year.

Dom Farrell

Elbow - The Take Off And Landing Of Everything (Fiction)

After 'One Day Like This' from 2008’s sensational The Seldom Seen Kid took Elbow overground, Bury’s favourite sons arguably strained a little too hard for further festival singalong moments on follow-up Build A Rocket Boys. Not that there wasn’t plenty to recommend from Guy Garvey’s musing on his childhood and growing up in north Greater Manchester, and The Take Off And Landing Of Everything picks up many of those delicately woven lyrical threads in the present day - gruff but perpetually hopeful middle age.  The result is some of Elbow’s most beautifully evocative music, with Garvey operating as a master of his craft. The coda to 'Fly Boy Blue/Lunette' might be the finest thing they’ve ever committed to record. It’s preposterously good. When 'My Sad Captains' references “the corner boys” from “Lippy Kids” - the previous album’s high point - Garvey uses the old Springsteen trick of reflecting mistily on romantic ideals that agonisingly and inevitably fall short. Much like a lot of his work on Elbow’s sixth record, he absolutely nails it.

Andrew Gwilym

Jack White – Lazaretto (Third Man Records)

God bless Jack White. God bless dear old brilliantly bonkers Jack White. We need to find ways to cryogenically freeze or clone this man, the world needs him. No matter the band or the project, he delivers and second solo album Lazaretto is no different. White has always been a man who can turn his hand to any genre, and he surfs through plenty with aplomb. Blues, country, soul, rock, even hip-hop and funk. It’s all here. The title track is magnificently crazed, White almost raps the lyrics before a brief stop and an unstoppable almost metal-like rush towards the finish. ‘High Ball Stepper’ is that rare gem of an instrumental that keeps full grip of your attention. But the high watermark is ‘That Black Bat Licorice’. It contains the best use of the word “avuncular” ever put to record, and a brilliant section where White bemoans his baby making his fingers histrionic, which is followed by two unhinged guitar lines. Live it is unforgettable. What a guy.

John Skilbeck

Sharon Van Etten - Are We There (Jagjaguwar)

Many of Sharon Van Etten’s songs start slowly and build through moments that take away the breath to giant climaxes, and her career is heading in a similar direction judging by Are We There. There was little to catch the seasoned Van Etten listener off guard on album number four from the New York resident: familiar themes of heartbreak, oppression, regret and desire streaked through pared-back musical arrangements. Yet there was plenty to exalt, from an increasingly remarkable artist. Did I mention I’m seeing her play the Brudenell in April? Bit giddy about that one.

Pranam Mavahalli

Flying Lotus - You're Dead (Warp)

Ah jazz fusion, the musical genre that hipness forgot. Weather Report had the chops, and Steely Dan had the hits, yet neither had the records that you'd use to impress or friends or a potential mate with. Which makes Flying Lotus' latest all the bolder for taking this much maligned genre and turning it on its head by injecting some much needed coolness. You're Dead splices jazz fusion with Flylo's hallmarks (hip-hop, electronica, 8-bit chiptunage) and to thrilling effect. It references Miles Davis, features cameos from stars such as Snoop Dogg, and yet Flylo's unique artistry and vision suffuses it all. Given my expectations, this album could have really disappointed, but if anything it's made my admiration for him grow.

Ian Parker

Temples - Sun Structures (Heavenly)

Beatles-esque melodies? Check. Byrds-style rhythms? Check. Swirling psychedelic sounds beamed in straight from 1967. You're covered here. Does it sound like an album 44 years after it's time? Actually, no, it's got more than enough modern touches, but even if it didn't, who cares? We've already wasted enough words on here debating whether or not it matters if a record has a retro tinge. Stuff this good is timeless.

Guy Atkinson

White Lung - Deep Fantasy (Domino)

Angular, snotty punk with one of my favourite guitar sounds in recent years.

Steve Pill

Jolie Holland – Wine Dark Sea (Anti-)

Some 13 years after Parky and I first DJed together, is 2014 finally the time when our musical tastes wholly overlap like some fantastical Venn diagram that just contains a big circle filled with every great album ever? Given that he has spent half the year hoovering up Blue Note reissues and dropped GoGo Penguin in the Ragged Glories countdown, while I've chosen to put two old-timey gals in my own top 24, the signs were looking positive. But alas, no. It won't come as too much of a spoiler for me to reveal that my top two albums aren't both by Neil Young. And while this is the second ex-member of the Be Good Tanya's to make a truly beautiful solo album this year, both have charmed me by dint of not sounding too country-ish after all. While Frazey Ford went old school soul, Jolie Holland has added a swampy atmosphere and bluesy guitar licks more in keeping with her Anti- label mates like Chuck E Weiss and Tom Waits. Lovely stuff.

The Musical Advent Calendar - Door Number Twenty-One

Beck as Heston Blumenthal. Steve Pill as Phil Daniels. And Jack White as a Yorkshire vicar. If that's not enough, we've got our No. 4 albums of the year behind Door 21 of the Musical Advent Calendar.

Andy Welch

Damon Albarn – Everyday Robots (Parlophone)

I was well and truly Team Oasis during the great Britpop wars of 1995. So much so when 'Roll With It' went up against 'Country House' I hid all my Blur CDs in a box under my bed and pretended I'd never heard them. I'm now (a lot) older and (a tiny bit) wiser. Wise enough to recognise Damon Albarn's considerable talent. I've always thought his non-Blur projects have had moments of brilliance, but suffer as a whole, like he could compile the greatest ever career retrospective, but I'd have to be paid a lot of money to listen to most of Dr Dee again. Everyday Robots, however, is a classic from start to finish, even Mr Tembo. It's about an elephant, you know? Did anyone mention that? I was a little disappointed with the downbeat mood at first, but the more I listened, the more I fell for the songs, from the simple beauty of 'Lonely Press Play', the sublime switch at 4.14 in 'You & Me', and the neo-gospel of 'Heavy Seas Of Love', which for my money is one of the very best songs he's ever written.

Rory Dollard

Jack White - Lazaretto (Third Man Records)

I went to a carol service a couple of weeks ago where the vicar made some fairly edgy gags about the Virgin Mary and Snapchat. It was kind of funny, but didn't stop him delivering a super serious Christmas message after the laughter died down. That guy is the Jack White of provincial Yorkshire Christianity. Because I'm sure of two things: 1) when he's yelling and hollering and riffing his way through his 2014 blues-rock reboot tongue is lodged semi-permanently in cheek. 2) regardless of that, nobody believes in this stuff more than him. It's a bit of paradox but once you've reconciled with it the whole Jack White pictures falls rather neatly into focus.

Matt Collins

First Aid Kit - Stay Gold (Columbia)

Any First Aid Kit album automatically gets a place in my top 10 albums of the year, such is their talent for producing Americana-tinged records of such high quality. All the key ingredients are there - gorgeous harmonies, crafted tunes and a maturity way beyond their years. This one adds a note of sadness slightly inevitable for a band that’s been on the road for so many years, but it’s even more to their credit that they don’t express it tritely.

Dom Farrell

Spoon - They Want My Soul (Loma Vista)

Having never been completely aware of the previous decade’s most critically acclaimed band according to Metacritic is probably one of the many reasons that my contributions to this blog are something approaching a complete shambles. In what may have been a bid to uphold the integrity of this fine institution, Ian pointed me in the direction of Spoon’s latest release and I’ve been making up for lost time ever since. They had me within the first minute of opener 'Rent I Pay' - They Want My Soul’s chugging, stomping opening track - as the grinding guitars panned from left to right and back again. There are countless more little bits of magic like this to delight the musical nerd within and yet the album as a whole hangs together nicely, never quite becoming overly smart-arsed.

Andrew Gwilym

Angel Olsen – Burn Your Fire for No Witness (Jagjaguwar)

This album came perilously close to being left out of my top 10, but I was nagged by the feeling I would be committing a heinous crime in electing to leave it out. A few last-minute listens convinced me of this and so here it is, pretty high up in the top 10. Angel Olsen, once of Bonny Prince Billy’s backing band, struck out on her own with Half Way Home in 2012, a roots based pondering on the ways of the heart. That was good, this is stunning. Olsen’s voice is absolutely captivating, it leaves you hanging on her every word. There is more range than previously. ‘Hi-Five’ is the most delightful track here with its couplet of ‘Are you lonely too? Hi-Five, so am I’ but the centrepiece is the brooding near seven-minute epic ‘White Fire’. Leonard Cohen must hear it and be convinced it is one of his own, but it is all Olsen and all wonderful.

John Skilbeck

Marissa Nadler - July (Bella Union)

A stately masterpiece, Marissa Nadler’s July presents balladry tinged with ennui and gloom but bearing the occasional sense that the darkest days will have passed once, or indeed if, the next sunrise comes. She tells stories, stark and always descriptively vivid, that are timeless, that certainly would not be pegged to her generation. These are songs to last through the ages, with a hint of Leonard Cohen at his most stripped back and restrained. 'Dead City Emily' is a haunting poetic puzzle, hinting at being locked into a relationship, and at seeking solace in quite the wrong place.

Pranam Mavahalli

Clark – Clark (Warp)

A huge sounding journey of a record, packed with tracks that bang as standalones, and yet which cohere as all great albums should. It succeeds in sounding otherworldly, yet oddly human too. The last track 'Everlane' is among the most beautiful pieces Clark has produced.

Ian Parker
Beck - Morning Phase (EMI)

If I'm going to a supposedly fancy Italian restaurant for the first time, I don't think about what to order. I get the spaghetti bolognese. Not because I'm unadventurous - honest - but because if I'm wanting to test their mettle, I want to know they can do something special with something that's run of the mill. Where am I going with this? Who knows, but hear me out. Beck is in the Heston Blumenthal category of musicians - records like Mellow Gold and Odelay are a musical snail porridge, but - just as I imagine Heston does a mean beans on toast - it shows the depth of his talent that, when all the effects are stripped away, Beck can write raw songs of a special beauty. This is why Sea Change was always my favourite Beck album. At least until February, when a record billed as the sequel, Morning Phase, came along 12 years later and surpassed it.

Guy Atkinson

The Twilight Sad - Nobody Wants to be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave (Fat Cat Records)

Everything this band touches turns to gold in my eyes and this latest effort has been a warm, smothering blanket during these grim winter nights.  

Steve Pill

Lone – Reality Testing (R&S)

I've not lived in Manchester for the past seven years but, like Phil Daniels and his beloved park, there will always be a bit of my heart devoted to it. It always makes me happy to discover great music made by Mancs and none more so than Lone. And now, after his early hip hop stylings and the sunburnt psychedelia of 2012's Galaxy Garden, comes his career best in Reality Testing. It's an album that manages to stir up all sorts of nostalgia for nights out in Manchester, while still sounding effortlessly assured and fresh. 'Restless City' is like a lost Fat City cut, all downbeat jazziness and US import hip hop guest spots. 'Aurora Northern Quarter' meanwhile captures all that is good and bad in its namesake area, from strident Sankeys-ready pianos to that lounge-y wine bar beat that only ever sounds good in the red-brick bars north of Piccadilly Gardens. 'Airglow Fires' is the clincher though, six minutes of post-Warehouse Project euphoria that instantly feels forward-thinking yet familiar. It's been a while, Manchester, but it sounds like you're in good hands.

The Musical Advent Calendar - Door Number Twenty

I think it's pretty well known that if any member of our panel is prone to a corporate sell-out, it's Pranam. It was just a matter of time, but today's Musical Advent Calendar reveals not only our top five albums of the year, but also a fairly naked plea for the next record of jazz-fusion Sonic Youth covers Pranam produces to be delivered directly into mobile phones and tablets the world over as a tie-in to the launch of Apple underwear. 

Andy Welch

Ryan Adams – Ryan Adams (Pax Am)

"I look forward to your explanation of how Ryan Adams' best impression of his former self merits number five..." said one Ian Parker when I submitted my Top 24 this year. (Or 23 as it turned out, seems I can't count) Anyway, to our esteemed host Mr Parker and anyone else who'll listen, I'll say Ryan Adams is Ryan Adams' best album since Gold. As much as I've loved and obsessed over almost every one of his albums, I don’t think he's sounded as effortless and as natural as he does on this self-titled album since that wonderful second solo album. There are criticisms it's plodding AOR, and there are moments where that's true. It happens that I both really like plodding AOR, and that Ryan is capable of middle eights like the one in 'Stay With Me', that lift an otherwise competent-but-unremarkable song into the realm of the greats. Maybe I am wrong about placing this album so highly and Ian's right, but even if this is an impersonation of Adams' former self, he's tricked me into believing it's the real deal.

Rory Dollard

Elbow - The Taking Off And Landing of Everything (Fiction)

Okay, serious hats on for a moment. I had a big old hit of terrible family news in March while I was working in Bangladesh. For those who haven't idled away a few weeks in Chittagong, it feels a pretty long way from home. For my entire time away, this was pretty much the only album I could stomach. Guy Garvey is a wonderfully humanist writer - big on the small things and light of touch with the heavy stuff - and you could build a house on the foundations of those flat vowels of his. I know Elbow don't work for everyone - this panel included - but I'd buy any of them a pint for the way they shared the load a bit when I needed it.

Matt Collins

Teleman - Breakfast (Moshi Moshi)

Rising from the ashes of Pete and the Pirates, Teleman write the simplest tracks the indie kids have heard in a long time. The nasal falsetto vocals are nothing new but the understated synth lines sit perfectly on the messy guitars, and it’s genuinely hard to pick out a filler among all the killers on Breakfast.

Dom Farrell

Beck - Morning Phase (EMI)

By reuniting much of the backing band from 2002’s much-loved Sea Change and throwing them a loping Laurel Canyon-style songbook to get their chops around, Beck was arguably setting himself up for a fall. But the strength of Morning Phase is in songs that are so sublime and so beautifully played and arranged that further, immersive repeat listens feel at least as necessary as rifling through your collection for its decade-old companion album. Everything here unfolds in a contemplative golden haze of sunlight and sunset. A simple gorgeous record.

Andrew Gwilym

Manic Street Preachers – Futurology (Columbia)

I spent an awful lot of my younger years listening to the Manics and the Stereophonics. If you were a kid with a guitar growing up in south Wales they were proof that the dream was possible, in fact they were the reason I wanted a guitar in the first place. About a decade ago I was on the verge of losing complete faith in both bands. Lifeblood was out, and it wasn’t very good. Language, Sex, Violence, Other? was also out and that wasn’t very good either. But while the Phonics have wholly disappeared up Kelly Jones’ backside never to be worthy of a listen again, the Manics have responded with a string of very good to great albums. The run started on Send Away the Tigers and has continued through Journal for Plague Lovers, Postcards From a Young Man and Rewind the Film. But Futurology tops the lot, this is a powerhouse performance, a band treading new ground while still sounding unmistakably like themselves. Inspired by Simple Minds Empires and Dance this album flies out the gate and does not let up. Not so long ago the Manics would have made a right pig’s ear out of tracks like ‘Europa Geht Durch Mich’ and ‘Dreaming a City (Hugheskova) – just think back to ‘Miss Europa Disco Dancer’ on ‘Know Your Enemy’ -  not so here. This is a triumph.

John Skilbeck

Perfect Pussy - Say Yes To Love (Captured Tracks)

Favourite memory of Glasgow 2014, those Commonwealth Games that I spent largely split between a travel tavern and a windowless office? Must have been the jaws of senior management that dropped when I revealed on a welcome evening off that I’d been to see Perfect Pussy. It was that, or the decision by a weary but intrigued reporter to Google their videos on an office desktop PC. Or maybe it was the intensely fierce show PP played that previous night at Mono, supported by the excellent Tuff Love and Joanna Gruesome: three bands to save your life. Yeah, that was the highlight. Say Yes To Love was an unremitting barrage of insistent conviction, the unsparing lyrics of singer Meredith Graves fused to angry, seminal noise rock.

Pranam Mavahalli

Lone - Reality Testing (R&S)

I have very conflicted feelings about over the ubiquitous mobile phone. Yes, it's reduced face-to-face contact, there's something unnerving about constantly being connected to the virtual world, and I'm sure it's having a negative effect on my attention span. But then, there's apps like Shazam - which can name pretty much any track just by hearing it – that are absolute lifesavers. If it hadn't been for Shazam, I wouldn't have known that the storming track below, being played in Manchester Arndale's Super Dry was Airglow Fires was by Lone. I probably wouldn't have spent the next six months playing it on repeat. I might never have gone on to buy the album, and it probably would never have made my list. All hail Apple and the ubiquitous iPhone!

Ian Parker

Drive-By Truckers - English Oceans (ATO)

There was a point when it might have been over for the Drive-By Truckers. In the three years since Go-Go Boots was released, they've endured a mini-soap opera behind the scenes. Jason Isbell had already left because being in a band with his ex-wife Shonna Tucker wasn't panning out, and then Tucker upped and left and took her new boyfriend, guitarist John Neff, with her. Mike Cooley could be forgiven for being in the middle of a three-year writing block as all that went on. As they pondered the future, Cooley and co-frontman Patterson Hood took a break to release solo records and it seems Cooley's - a live album featuring stripped down versions of old DBT songs - did the trick in reinvigorating the songwriter within. English Oceans is the sound of a new DBT. Where once they prided themselves on having three songwriters and a three-guitar assault, all those dramas have persuaded Cooley and Hood that two is plenty, and they have returned with renewed focus. Cooley has rediscovered his touch, and while Hood's songs are the backbone of this record, it is Cooley who provides the stand-out moments in 'Shit Shots Count' and 'Made Up English Oceans'.

Guy Atkinson

Joyce Manor - Never Hungover Again (Epitaph)

Featuring one of the bangers of the year, 'Heart Tattoo', this third album from Joyce Manor is jam packed with scuzzy pop-punk gems that soundtracked much of my summer.

Steve Pill

Frazey Ford – Indian Ocean (Nettwerk)

Not the only ex-member of the Be Good Tanya's to figure in my top 24, but it's safe to say if you're going to come off like a cross between Cat Power's The Greatest and Stevie Nicks-era Fleetwood Mac, I'm gonna heart on you big time. Roping in the original Hi Records rhythm section was a masterstroke here, adding a smooth soul edge to Ford’s righteous country vignettes. September Fields for one is the soundtrack to sipping craft beer in the dive bar of your dreams. Oh and if Parky places this highly in his final 24 as well, he only has me to thank after he was all set to overlook it.