Lots of great music this year, with The Clientele’s I Am Not There Anymore (Merge) the best of the bunch for me.

Having won critical acclaim since the early 1990s for their soothing vocals and reflective, reverb-heavy chamber-pop, on their new album the Hampshire-born three-piece add electronica, sampling, jazz and classical music into the mix to create a masterwork. For me their atmospheric music has a strong association with long summer days, and their new set is inspired by the summer of 1997, when lead singer Alasdair MacLean’s mother died.

I’ve also been blown away by two Americana albums. Ozarker (Loose) by US musician Israel Nash channels the Heartland Rock he grew up on to create an exhilarating, sometimes political set of widescreen music with huge guitars and even bigger choruses. Sam Blasucci, one half of Californian country rock group Mapache, released Off My Stars (Innovative Leisure). If you imagine Flying Burrito Brothers-era Gram Parsons transplanted to 2023 you are getting close to the delightfully laid back and soulful altcountry Blasucci conjures up on his solo debut.

Omitted from this year’s Uncut and Mojo end of year lists, the reissue of Roxy Gordon’s Crazy Horse Never Died (Paradise of Bachelors) was a revelation for me. Originally released in 1988 and seemingly subsequently forgotten, it’s a lo-fi set of poems/songs from the Texan artist and activist, who has Choctaw and Assiniboine ancestry. Railing against the ethnic cleansing and sexual abuse of Native Americans, Christianity, environmental destruction, Capitalism, Communism and “money itself,” it’s one of the most singular and insurrectionary records I’ve heard for a long time.

After beginning work on a new album in 2021, Julie Byrne’s musical partner and producer, Eric Littmann, died suddenly, aged just 31. The Buffalo-born singer-songwriter went on to complete the record — the spellbinding The Greater Wings (Ghostly International). Full of deep grief and renewal, fans of Weyes Blood and Julia Holter will get a lot of out of Byrne’s quietly majestic work.

A shout out too for The Record (Interscope) from Boygenius. A supergroup made up of gifted millennial US singer-songwriters Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridger, the release of their female-focused full-length debut felt like a big cultural moment, with the indie rock torch wrestled out of the hands of often entitled — and sometimes abusive — male artists.

This year has confirmed Ireland is absolutely teeming with incredibly talented young folk artists. Based around her distinctive voice and otherworldly music, Lisa O’Neill’s All Of This Is Chance (Rough Trade) is a modern masterpiece. Lankum’s darkly fantastical False Lankum (Rough Trade) has been placed at or very near the top of the end of year lists I’ve seen, and for good reason. John Francis Flynn’s superb second album Look Over The Wall, See The Sky (River Lea Recording) is a little more sonically experimental than his debut, but still compelling listening. And let’s not forget the rough and rowdy Irish Rock N Roll (BC Records) from The Mary Wallopers, a barnstorming set full of working-class struggle and strife (and a healthy dose of disgust aimed at the elite).

Finally, London Brew (Concord Jazz) has really grown on me since it was released in March. Recorded by a group of London-based jazz stars — including Nubya Garcia (tenor sax and flute), Shabaka Hutchings (tenor sax, clarinet, flute, kalimb) and Tom Skinner (drums, percussion) — it’s a tribute to Miles Davis’s 1970 epoch-making Bitches Brew double album. Like its progenitor, the instrumental London Brew is chockful of bullish jazz rock, though it’s far from a nostalgia trip, with hip-hop beats, futuristic sounds and lots of surprises. Just don’t expect an easy listen with this one.