The Tune-Yards album 'Nikki Nack' was characteristically and delightfully deranged; Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross released another captivating ambient soundtrack for 'Gone Girl'; Manic Street Preachers released 'Futurology', their most consistently strong effort in a number of years; Aphex Twin made a triumphant return after 14 years with 'Syro' (although I actually preferred the long-awaited 'Caustic Window LP'); The Brian Jonestown Massacre released another solid album 'Revelation'; Esben & the Witch's 'A New Nature' was a welcome return to their gothic form after their dreary second album; and Goat followed up their raucously brilliant debut 'World Music' with 'Commune'.
As my interest in guitar-rock bands has continued to atrophy over the last few years, there were 2 albums this year that really piqued my interest - The Amazing Snakeheads' 'Amphetamine Ballads' and Royal Blood's self-titled debut, both demonstrating that it is still possible to inject some supple aggression into the rigor mortis of contemporary rock music.
10. Liars - 'Mess'
Right from its bizarre opening, being instructed to "pull my face off!", 'Mess' is another engaging and surprising album from Liars, a band who orchestrated an astonishing volte face with 'WIXIW' in 2012, shedding their proto-punk roots in favour of an experimental electronic sound more attuned to someone like LCD Soundsystem. This is one of those albums that rewards repeat listening, unveiling more subtleties and nuances over time.
Highlight: 'Mess on a Mission'9. Little Dragon - 'Nabuma Rubberband'
This fourth album from Swedish electronic act Little Dragon is beguiling and minimalist; an intriguing fusion of Portishead-style trip-hop with down-tempo drum-and-synth sounds clearly inspired by Massive Attack. Instead of leaning on these 1990s influences as a crutch, they only serve to enrich the album, envigorating it with a completely fresh appeal.
Highlight: 'Klapp Klapp'
8. Damien Rice - 'My Favourite Faded Fantasy'
Damien Rice had, before the surprise October release of his third album, been for many a curiously frustrating enigma. After '9' in 2006 he seemed to have retreated to an almost hermetic hush, performing live infrequently and publicly proclaiming a new-found antipathy to the art of song-writing itself. The pleasure to be gained from 'My Favourite Faded Fantasy', and the fact that Rice's ability to craft haunting and plaintive odes to lost love and introspection remains undiminished, is substantial. Whilst overall there is nothing as timelessly classic as his debut 'O', the album contains several worthy gems that reinstate Rice as one of the most gifted singer-songwriters of his generation.
Highlight: 'I Don't Want To Change You'
7. Mark McGuire - 'Along the Way'
Formerly of the band Emeralds, Mark McGuire's 'Along the Way' is a beautiful and enchanting collection of soundscapes that drift and float through the consciousness with metaphysical ease. Largely instrumental, the electronic-acoustic album takes influence from the ambient work of Brian Eno, Boards of Canada and Bonobo, with shimmering guitarwork reminiscent of U2's The Edge.
Highlight: 'For the Friendships (Along the Way)'
6. Lana Del Rey - 'Ultraviolence'
As a mysterious, sensual and nihilistic siren, Lana Del Rey continues to inspire intrigue in me. With her follow-up to the magnificent 'Born to Die', 'Ultraviolence' treads a lot of the same aesthetic pathways but doesn't feel derivative for this, rather a well-accomplished companion piece. The songs are drenched in the kind of Los Angeles vainglorious debauchery of a Bret Easton Ellis novel, louche and alluring, with Del Rey's ethereal and seductive vocals scorched by bourbon, marijuana and lost summer nights.
Highlight: 'Brooklyn Baby'
5. Robert Plant & the Sensational Space-Shifters - 'lullaby... and the Ceaseless Roar'
The 'Golden God' of rock n' roll, Robert Plant continues his solo expedition through musical hinterlands, a persistent and restless quest for fresh textures and tones that seems to infuse him with an almost ageless quality. Drawing from African worldbeat, American folk and blues, and European trip-hop, 'lullaby...' is a thoroughly enjoyable album, equally as vibrant and joyful as his previous album with the same gang of musicians 'Mighty Rearranger' in 2005. Whilst 'Rainbow' soars almost weightlessly, 'A Stolen Kiss' is a forlorn love song that displays Plant at his most vulnerable and revealing. With the media whipping up rumours of Led Zeppelin reformations almost by the week, it is hard to imagine Plant being tempted by such a regressive step again, given that the standard of his solo material remains as strong and as searching as this.
Highlight: 'Somebody There'
4. Mica Levi - 'Under the Skin (OST)'
Jonathan Glazer's wonderful and disturbing film 'Under the Skin' was enforced beyond all measure by Mica Levi's utterly haunting score. With numerous refrains and repetitive passages, the overall effect is as otherworldly and inorganic as the film itself. String loops and deadened echo-beats amplify the overriding sense of unease and disorientation that permeates through the visuals, and succeeds in being one of the most fascinating soundtracks of recent years.
Highlight: 'Lipstick to Void'
3. I Break Horses - 'Chiaroscuro'
Like a modern psychedelic mash of The Velvet Underground, the shoegaze of My Bloody Valentine and the bright indie-electro of M83, I Break Horses' 'Chiaroscuro' manages to exceed the expectations set by their debut 'Hearts' and stand out as being an atmospheric and hypnotic success.
Opening with the enchanting 'You Burn', the album undulates throughout with sumptuous rhythms and synth orchestrations. With only two albums behind them, I Break Horses are the band whose future I am perhaps most excited about.
Highlight: 'Weigh True Words'
2. U2 - 'Songs of Innocence'
Perhaps the most controversial and talked-about album of the year (a remarkable achievement in itself for a band as established as U2), 'Songs of Innocence' is an album that richly rewards repeated listens, and for me stands up sturdily alongside their very finest work. The album fails to accomplish the cohesiveness that made 'The Unforgettable Fire', 'The Joshua Tree' or 'Achtung Baby' such complete albums, the second half is noticeably more interesting and engaging than the more predictable first.
Having jettisoned their long-time production team of Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, Brian 'Dangermouse' Burton provides the band with a fresh and energised sheen that gives the impression that this could almost be a new band's debut album. As a band now approaching 40 years together, with this their 13th studio album, U2 have long been left to roam in uncharted musical territory, loved and loathed in equal measure, yet continuing to defy the legions of critics, explore new territory and simply craft great songs.
Highlight: 'Sleep Like a Baby Tonight'
1. Swans - 'To Be Kind'
Originating back in the New York 'no wave' scene of the early 1980s, Swans (led by multi-instrumentalist Michael Gira) are a formidable and explosive experimental-rock outfit that I have had the pleasure of discovering over the last year. This double-album begins with the monumental 'Screen Shot', and a more devastating opening is scarcely imaginable; the intermeshing guitars and propulsive rhythm section building higher and higher until the volcanic eruption of noise.
The centre-piece, 'Bring the Sun/Toussaint L'Ouverture' is a colossal 34-minute epic of sense-shattering industrial noise alternating with spell-binding and soporific stretches of menacing ambience punctuated by Gira's snarling and brooding vocals. The overall impression is of a band operating at the very height of their powers, conjuring sounds that are as mind-crushing and intense as they are consistently surprising. A masterpiece of an album.
Highlight: 'Screen Shot'
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