Well, that's it for this year's top albums but along the way there was a whole heap of unbelievable music released. Tonnes more contenders and a bunch of records that I didn't even get to listen to that may have been able to make the cut had I gotten round to it. Not all can be mentioned, but here is a list of this year's most notable honourable mentions in no particular order.

• Bicep - Bicep
• Feist - Pleasure
• Bonobo - Migration 
• Declan McKenna - What Do You Think About The Car?
• BROCKHAMPTON - SATURATION I & III
• Can't Swim - Fail You Again
• Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes - Modern Ruin 
• Wolf Alice - Visions Of A Life 
• J HUS - Common Sense
• Jordan Rakei - Wallflower
• Marika Hackman - I'm Not Your Man
• Meg Mac - Low Blows 
• King Krule - The OOZ
• Sylvan Esso - What Now 
• Foo Fighters - Concrete And Gold 
• Ibeyi - Ash 
• Mount Kimbie - Love What Survives
• Sinead Harnett - Chapter One
• Miguel - War & Leisure
• Kweku Collins - grey 
• Jaden Smith - SYRE
• Haim - Something To Tell You
• Charlotte OC - Careless People
• Mr Jukes - God First 
• N.E.R.D - NO ONE EVER REALLY DIES
• Smino - blkswn
• The National - Sleep Well Beast
• Khalid - American Teen
• Toro y Moi - Boo Boo

Check out a favourite track from each of these albums (+ a couple extras) on a handy playlist here. 

If you'd have told me at the beginning of the year that this album would be closing in on my top 10 albums of the year I wouldn't have believed you. I probably would've said something like "honourable mentions maybe", but after just one listen I knew that this would be a hard one to top. In at number 12 is Denai Moore with We Used To Bloom.

Not to be misconstrued, I've been a fan of Denai's work for a while now but until this album she was more of a "one to watch" for me. Well thank God I did keep watching because this sophomore record is glorious. This album manages to balance stripped back with powerful almost effortlessly. The addition of horns, strings and backing vocals from time to time lifts the album up where necessary and adds a fullness I can't explain. The album keeps its tone fairly consistent throughout and some may even criticise it for seeming "samey" but the album levels out seamlessly. It's almost necessary because had there been more experimentation, this may have resulted in some of the message being left behind.

Big time favourites of mine at the moment are "Leave It Up To You", "Bring You Shame", "Does It Get Easier?" and "All The Way (fet. Kwabs)". A lot of the tracks on this album feel cathartic -like both listening to it and creating it act as a release for emotions relating to anxiety, political fears, societal woes, depression or all the above. Every-so-often while listening I'll find myself picking up on a particular lyric that just says everything that I didn't even know I wanted to say before. "Does It Get Easier?" in particular was an elevating moment for me on this album - the kind of song that makes you want to just throw your up in the air in agreement.

The album finisher "All The Way (feat. Kwabs)" made it very clear to me why there was only one feature on the whole record - a match made in heaven - leaving the album on an emotionally satisfying note.

It feels like forever that I've been waiting for new material from Lianne, so when I heard this single (in fact the opening track on the record) last month I was ecstatic. Going by that you can guess how I felt when she dropped the video for the single a few hours ago...

LIANNE LA HAVAS - UNSTOPPABLE

After my recent interview with Little Dragon's bassist Fred here, I was really looking forward to this show. I was intrigued to see what they would bring to the table. They're so versatile and skilled that they could have taken it in literally any direction they wanted. All I knew was that it was going to be great...

Their support act Nao (pronounced Nay-Oh) stepped on stage with this fiery energy, I was just blown away from the start. She reminded me a little of a slightly sassier Ego Ella May. But oh my goodness what a performance! I'd go and watch a whole headline show with just her to be honest. Because her songs were so feisty and powerful, I was shocked when she started speaking and her voice was so soft spoken and sweet. Either way, her songs were awesome, particularly lyrically and she is a performer! I felt like she really had an alter ego stage presence when she was performing. I look forward to hearing more from her very soon. Get your hands on her EP So Good here - you will not regret it.

Then, Little Dragon. I just have to start by saying that their setlist was absolutely perfect. Beginning to end it just flowed so beautifully. Yukimi is a fireball! Girl can dance! Her voice actually might have sounded even better live than on record. Also, she is one of the only (if not the only) artists I've seen that can and will hit every note that she does on record, live. Even Beyoncé, will sometimes switch up a tough note on the record for a slightly more 'comfortable to hit' note live. So the fact that Yukimi was hitting all these tough notes was not a small thing. There were notes that I was literally waiting for her to alter or maybe give to the crowd to sing but she never did. Brilliant. As a band, they play so comfortably together. There were a few points where it just seemed like they forgot that the crowd was even there, they were just doing their own thing. Everything and everyone just seemed to click. Cohesive. Their talent was enhanced by the fact that they made things seem so effortless. As much as I hate focusing solely on the lead singer, Yukimi genuinely took the whole show to the next level. She found a way to harness everyone's awesomeness and present it to the audience in a neat package. Brava! One of the best musical performances I've seen all year, hands down. Little Dragon are a blessing to watch.

Ending their set with "Twice" made my night. That song is genius. Some stand out tracks were "Shuffle A Dream", "Underbart", "Please Turn" and of course "Klapp Klapp" but if I'm honest, everything was fantastic. I'd happily go and see them 3, 4 or 10 more times.

Overall Rating - 9/10


Here are some pictures from the night...

I thought I'd start off with a classic because although there have been quite a few more recent albums that have affected me, it's important to lay the foundation and pay homage to musical heroes of the past as well as present...

Jill Scott is an exceptional vocalist and songwriter and this album easily puts forward some of her best work to date. It's an album that I myself grew up listening to and I'm sure that a lot of the people reading this have heard the song "Golden" taken from it, whether they realised that it was her or not.