As always, I’ve listened to a lot of new music this year. It’s been my second year of collecting vinyl, and my second (and last) year of blogging about my monthly discoveries (2017 is likely to be a little too busy to commit to that for another year). This year I’ve split my choices into three categories - my top 10 albums by how many times I’ve played them, my top 10 vinyl purchases, and a selection of other things I’ve listened to this year that I really like.

Top 10 from Last.fm

I’ve used last.fm to track my listening habits for the past 10 years. Whilst it doesn’t track anything I listen to on vinyl (or in fact CD), it does cover everything I’ve listened to on my computer, my phone and my iPad, on a variety of different music players. The following albums are my top 5 based on that criteria, although it should be noted that I also own the Unloved album on vinyl so there is a chance I’ve actually listened to it more than anything else this year.

She Makes War – Direction of Travel Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool Shearwater – Jet Plane and Oxbow Unloved – Guilty of Love Tortoise – The Catastrophist PJ Harvey – The Hope Six Demolition Project Frightened Rabbit – Painting of a Panic Attack Jesu & Sun Kil Moon – Jesu/Sun Kil Moon Yorkston/Thorne/Khan – Everything Sacred The Wedding Present - Going Going

What strikes me about this list is that there are a lot of familiar names there, and I’ve listened to (and written about) most of these artists a lot in the past. The two new names on this list are She Wakes War (my favourite record of the year, and one that reminds me a lot of Trouble Will Find Me by The National in both subject matter and my general emotional response to it) and Unloved (one of several “supergroup” records in my list this year, and one that I keep coming back to).

10 more that I’ve played a lot on vinyl

I started collecting vinyl again two years ago, and these are the ten records from 2016 that I keep coming back to (along with the Unloved album which I’ve already mentioned). It’s interesting to note that only one of these (Black Mountain’s IV) is a double album, and I’m now fairly sure that having something spread across more than one record does limit how much I listen to it.

Iggy Pop – Post Pop Depression Minor Victories – Minor Victories Angel Olsen – My Woman Black Mountain - IV Beyond the Wizard’s Sleeve – The Soft Bounce Pixies – Head Carrier Wild Beasts - Boy King D.D Dumbo – Utopia Defeated RM Hubbert – Telling The Trees The Magnetic North – Prospect of Skelmersdale

This list probably owes a lot to the fact that I get sent one record a month by Rough Trade, and definitely features more newer artists, and debut records. I loved the idea of Minor Victories before I even heard the record (and hearing it didn’t change that), and I really didn’t expect another good Iggy Pop record (and certainly not one that good). There isn’t really a filler track on any of these, and all come highly recommended.

My favourite records of the year (that I’ve not already mentioned)

This is very much the best of the rest, and also a few things I’ve not played that often, but would still say are my favourite records of the year.

Brian Eno – The Ship BadBadNotGood – IV Conor Oberst – Ruminations Bon Ivor – 22, A Million Charlie Hilton - Palana Moby and the Void Pacific Choir - These Systems Are Failing Car Seat Headrest – Teens of Denial Kate Tempest – Let Them Eat Chaos Danny Brown – Atrocity Exhibition Banks – The Alter Melanie De Biasio - Blackened Cities Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Skeleton Tree Okkervil River – Away James Blake – The Colour in Anything Steve Mason - Meet the Humans Knifeworld - Bottled out of Eden Blixa Bargeld & Teho Teardo – Nerissimo Shirley Collins - Lodestar Cate Le Bon - Crab Day Riley Walker - Golden Sings That Have Been Sung Childish Gambino - “Awaken My Love” Anderson .Paak - Malibu Anohni - Hopelessness DJ Shadow - The Mountain Will Fall Wire - Nocturnal Koreans

This last list is much more diverse, with a lot of rap and R’n’B, a little jazz, and a fair few things that defy classification. I think it’s a fair representation of my listening habits over the last year though.