6. Orville Peck - Stampede
He dresses like the Lone Ranger and has the singing chops of Johnny Cash and Chris Isaak. But who is that masked man?
South African (now living in the US) alt-country star Orville Peck is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside a pair of cowboy boots. He's not afraid to push boundaries and buttons, sometimes using country music to champion gay rights (pretty ballsy considering America's current swing back to conservatism, as mentioned by John Grant earlier in this list), but he's equally good at playing it "straight" musically, in terms of genre. His third album is a collaborative duets effort, on which Orville manages to drag in an impressive array of confederates, from Willie Nelson, Margo Price and Beck to Elton and Kylie, making each artists' contribution true to their own musical background. Or, as he puts it...
"I wanted to make sure that every single song on the album felt like a true 50/50 collaboration of me and the other artists' style and sound and genre. I didn't want to just feel like a bunch of Orville Peck songs that feature verses from other artists. I wanted each one to be an actual collaboration. Every single song on the album is entirely its own thing, dependent on who the artist is. It's a really fun journey. It's definitely the most adventurous I've ever been in terms of genre. It's some of the most country songs I've ever done on this album and some of the least country songs I've ever done on this album."
A large number of these tracks have become essential companions this year (even the more obvious covers like Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting and Rhinestone Cowboy), but the record's so diverse I'm struggling to choose the best song... or even most representative.
This?
Orville Peck & Willie Nelson - Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond Of Each Other
Or this?
Orville Peck & Kylie Minogue - Midnight Ride
Or this?
Look, I don't care if it was forty years ago
When you won high school spelling bee
What are you even talking about?
Not everybody can spell hippopotamus
And that's at least something you can hang on to
I can't even understand you with that thing on your face
Margo, you sure take the O out of country
And you put the L in stupid
Orville Peck & Margo Price - You're an Asshole, I Can't Stand You (and I Want a Divorce)
In the end, I'm settling for this purely on the basis of the video...
5. English Teacher - This Could Be Texas
The last time I included a Mercury Prize winner in my personal list of the year's best albums was way back in 2011 (PJ Harvey, to save you the googling). That's how unhip I am. And yet, for some strange reason, I was ahead of the curve when it came to English Teacher. Could be that I was simply taken by the band name? Or the fact that they hail from my neck of the woods (lead singer Lily Fontaine was born in Huddersfield and grew up just over the Pennines in Colne, and the record made waves for being the first Mercury winner in 9 years not to come from London)?
Musically, the indie-art-punk twanging isn't a million miles away from Florence Shaw and Dry Cleaning, but the lyrics are much more personal, dealing with questions of cultural identity in a touching, honest and humorous fashion.
I am the world's biggest paving slab
But no one can walk over me
I am the Pendle Witches, John Simm
And I am Lee Ingleby
I am the Bank of Dave, Golden Postbox
And the festival of R&B
I'm not the terrorist of Talbot Street
But I have apocalyptic dreams
You should see my armoury
4. Wolves Of Glendale - Wolves Of Glendale
From the sublime then, to the ridiculous. I challenge you to scour the whole of the blogosphere and find anyone else who has included Wolves of Glendale in their year end countdown.
I offer no defence except that this record made me grin like nothing else this year, and I listened to it for far longer than I probably should have...
I was forbidden from playing namesakes #4 after my partner heard the opening 10 seconds, and it's taken me until this morning to find the time, It's not great. My choice is #13
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