1. LCD Soundsystem American Dream

OK, David Bowie had Blackstar and Bob Dylan had Time Out Of Mind, but it’s rare for songwriters to unveil some of their best works after they reach their mid-forties. With American Dream, however, James Murphy (now 47) this year released what stands as his finest record so far.

Often dismissed as a snarky, sarcastic hipster making music about making music, Murphy’s 10 songs here demonstrate that the musician has grown up by just the perfect amount: on Black Screen he’s using drum machines and synths to back an examination of loss and grief, one that seems to start with the death of his friend David Bowie and ends with a look at the whole cosmos; on the waltzing title track his past excesses and ageing have led to depression and emptiness; on Tonite he amusingly riffs on the lyrical preoccupations of modern pop, before admitting that he’s “a hobbled veteran of the disc shop inquisition…”

Musically, American Dream is a mature, stunning effort too, with the tracks expanding (seven minutes on average) and building on the work of some of the 20th century’s greatest musicians to create something that feels vital and enthralling. So Oh Baby mixes Suicide with Soft Cell, Change Yr Mind peppers Talking Heads groove with molten Robert Fripp guitar, Tonite laces ESG funk with Kraftwerk monotony, and How Do You Sleep? evolves from Public Image-like tribal doom to a Chicago house pulse, and then a final, ecstatic two minutes that could really only be LCD Soundsystem.

That Murphy managed to create such a masterpiece of sound, rhythm and emotion mostly on his own is an incredible feat; that he did it seven years after he split LCD after a triumphant Madison Square Garden gig is even more amazing. Frankly, American Dream shouldn’t have been this good, but it’s lucky for us all that it is.

Tom Pinnock