My Favourite Albums Of 2020

13. Tanya Donelly & The Parkington Sisters

12. Bonny Light Horseman - Bonny Light Horseman

11. Courtney Marie Andrews - Old Flowers

10. Isobel Campbell - There Is No Other...

9. Laura Marling - Song For Our Daughter

8. Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud

7. Ren Harvieu - Revel In The Drama

6. Fiona Apple - Fetch The Bolt Cutters

5. Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher

4. Greg Dulli - Random Desire

3. Margo Price - That's How Rumors Get Started

2. Neil Young - Homegrown

1. Kathleen Edwards - Total Freedom

Best Gigs Of 2018

It's incredibly hard to rank all the great gigs I've been to this year but one definitely stands out as the best: Jenny Lewis wowing the crowds at Koko. If there was any doubt that the world needs Ms Lewis (and really there isn't) then this concert celebrating her entire career from Rilo Kiley to her forthcoming solo release, certainly proved that she still is as essential and exciting as ever.

Phoebe Bridgers at Islington Assembly Hall

Phoebe Bridgers
Harrison Whitford
Islington Assembly Hall, 23 May 2018

On the cover of Phoebe Bridgers' debut album, Stranger In The Alps, a young Bridgers in her grandfather's yard is blanked out with white paint and made to look like a ghost - the white-sheeted kind - while her grandparents' dog looks on in the background. Funnily enough that slightly faded photo is a beautiful representation of her music. It sounds almost sepia-tinted and filled with old haunting remembrances: memories made ghostly as if they were painted white with sadness and regret.

My Favourite Albums Of 2017

This year has definitely been an interesting one musically, with women in particular releasing many of the best albums of any genre. That wasn't reflected well enough in the end of year polls, in my opinion, but it certainly is in my list. I actually included a couple more men in my first draft before realising that in my heart these were the albums that won me over more than anything else this year regardless of gender.