16. Tramp

The debut album from Chicago based Angel Olsen is both a collection of fine songs and a showcase for her powerful and distinctive vocal style. Familiar to some as the female vocalist from Bonnie Prince Billy's recent live shows, she has recorded this album with the assistance of fellow Cairo Gang guitarist Emmet Kelly. Half Way Home is a striking, emotional listen. The instrumentation is minimal – a delicate electric guitar here, subtle brushes on drums there. Her voice is central to it all and it is extraordinary, ranging between gentle melancholy country-folk to an almost operatic warble. Predictably, she has been compared to contemporaries such as Antony and Marissa Nadler, yet the talent promised here places her favourably with the likes of Edith Piaf and Roy Orbison. - Jonathan Greer

Overall, The Lion's Roar is a bold, beautiful and assertive record that broods in all the right places but still manages to sound uplifting. The Swedish sisters channel a very American aesthetic in everything from their singing to the instruments they use, yet it never comes across affected. - Matt Wright

In recent times, to be labelled a 'singer-songwriter' has become quite undesirable to some artists. King Laconic, aka Brendan Bennett, unshackles himself from such a term by producing an album that sounds more like it was recorded by a 'band' than a 'singer-songwriter'. The Many Moans is an emotional juggernaut guided by a pained falsetto. At times it is full of whirlwind urgency and at others slow and frosty contemplation. A feeling of discontent shrouds the whole project, "I can not abide it" he sings, a sentiment echoed throughout. The album is finished before it has arrived, which means you have to listen to it again straight away. - Richard Kavanagh