The Yorkshire’s Post albums of the year

A whole wave of exciting releases followed, with the UK album charts arguably as diverse as they have been in years.

If there were surprise number ones for the likes of Slowthai, Mogwai and The Lathums, and Wolf Alice finally topped the charts after two near misses, there were also promising debuts from artists such as Dry Cleaning, Black Country, New Road, Squid, Celeste and Margo Cilker, and welcome mainstream recognition for Arab Strap, Jane Weaver, Little Simz and Floating Points and Pharoah Sanders.

Here, though, are The Yorkshire Post’s top ten choices for albums of the year, as chosen by writers David Hodgson, Andrew Steel, Susan Darlington and Duncan Seaman.

1. The Anchoress – The Art of Losing (K Scope)

The title of The Anchoress’ second album alludes to the multiple losses Catherine Anne Davies, the woman behind the pseudonym, has suffered since her 2016 debut. These inform the material’s dark subject matters of death and miscarriage but, despite this, its tone is frequently defiant and upbeat. Channelling the musical learning of recent projects, including a collaboration with Bernard Butler (ex-Suede), she shifts from grandiose pop to neo-classicism and the stately piano of early Tori Amos. The musical journey reflects her emotional one as she gains the strength to accept that loss can bring new opportunities. (SD)

2. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - Carnage (Goliath)

When Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds channelled their frontman’s grief into their most ambient reckoning of existentialism yet with 2019’s Ghosteen, it signalled the effective close of a chapter in the band’s storied history. Restricted in their opportunity to hone its musicality into sonic, communal catharsis on tour by the Covid-19 pandemic however, the veteran Australian rocker and close foil Warren Ellis twisted their creative energies into their first proper record as a duo, following decades of film scores together. The result marries their stream-of-consciousness narrative skill with meatier musicianship and brutal craft; a record that swings between haunted swoons and feral violence throughout with typically alien skill. Carnage owns its name well – and hurts just like it heels. (AS)

3. Self Esteem – Prioritise Pleasure (Fiction)

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis weren’t the only songwriters to experience a musical catharsis this year. Rebecca Taylor’s second album as Self Esteem finds the Rotherham-born singer-songwriter throwing caution to the wind, turning every element of her debut record Confidence Please “up to 11”. If the album’s main theme is, as she told The Yorkshire Post, “it’s so miserable being a woman and being frightened every day”, musically Prioritise Pleasure is bold and unfettered, heady with the realisation that its creator is, as she sings in the title track, “free”. In allying hooks, strong tunes and experimentation with lyrical substance, Taylor showed it’s still possible for pop music to be meaningful and all too aware of human flaws. (DS)

4. The Killers – Pressure Machine (Island)

5. Lana del Rey – Chemtrails over the Country Club (Polydor)

6. Low – Hey What (Sub Pop)

7. Hannah Peel – Fir Wave (My Own Pleasure)

8. Iron Maiden – Senjutsu (Parlophone)

9. Anna B. Savage – A Common Turn (City Slang)

10. Arlo Parks – Collapsed in Sunbeams (Transgressive)