There’s no shortage of variety in this year’s best Manc music albums shortlist.

From a Saddleworth wunderkind to a long-time Salford indie veteran, they are all here and all doing it brilliantly.

It has been a busy year on the Manc music scene, but here are our top five albums which, if you don’t already own, should really be putting on your Santa wish-list....

Number 5: Blaney - Urban Nature

As the organiser of the Salford Music Festival, ex-Trigger Happy frontman Ed Blaney has long been a visible presence on the local scene, passionately championing his hometown’s music pedigree.

But with Urban Nature, his long-awaited debut solo record, it was finally Blaney’s turn to seize the spotlight.

With the help of a few friends, including The Fall’s Mark E. Smith, Blaney ploughed an eclectic, energetic furrow, darting between gnarly garage-rock, psych-rockabilly and frazzled post-punk. Binding everything together was, of course, a proud, beating Salfordian heart.

Key track: Poison Fishes

Number 4: The Breath - Carry Your Kin

(Image: Emily Dennison)

Tantalising in theory; and in reality, a creative union between singer/flautist Rioghnach Connolly (of folk-hoppers Honeyfeet) and guitarist Stuart McCallum (of The Cinematic Orchestra) surpassed our already high expectations.

Befitting an album which was first conceived over various jam sessions in Connolly’s home kitchen (while the Irish singer knocked up some culinary treats), Carry Your Kin’s charm lay in its organic, unhurried sense of musicality.

Tough to pigeonhole, it flowed easily between soul, folk and ambient styles, a beautiful record which allowed two of Manchester’s finest talents to flex their artistic muscles like never before.

Key track : Carry Your Kin

Number 3: Kiran Leonard - Grapefruit

To describe Grapefruit – the second album from Saddleworth’s musical maverick Kiran Leonard – as ‘ambitious’ would be the understatement of the year.

One of Britain’s most original and idiosyncratic songwriting talents, the 20-year-old gave us a record that was packed to the rafters with ideas and concepts: Friedrich Nietzsche, Samuel Beckett, math-rock, space-jazz and chamber-pop were all crammed onto an album which was by turns astounding, accomplished, and infinitely rewarding.

Listen to the album now, ten months on from its release, and we defy you not to find something new and pleasurable lurking within its dense, intricately-layered sonic tapestry.

Key track: Pink Fruit

Number 2: MONEY - Suicide Songs

(Image: Eddie Garvey)

An album which tackled themes of existential dread and despair, and was unashamedly entitled Suicide Songs? Released back in January, it was as though Manc trio Money were already predicting the unremittingly bleak 12 months which lay ahead of us.

Not that Suicide Songs made for uneasy listening, mind. Much like their acclaimed debut album, 2013’s The Shadow of Heaven, Money’s second LP throbbed with cathartic passion and rage, its big emotions suitably carried by thunderous-sounding guitars, drums, brass sections and gospel choirs.

And besides, how could anyone not like an album which featured a track entitled Cocaine Christmas and an Alcoholic’s New Year?

Key track: All My Life

Our winner: Whyte Horses - Pop Or Not

Originally released on a limited pressing in 2015, Whyte Horses’ debut album, Pop Or Not, was finally given an official release this year – which is just as well, for the wider world should not be denied a record of such breathtaking beauty.

A psych-pop masterpiece dripping with romance, adventure and – most importantly – gorgeously hummable tunes, Pop Or Not wonderfully reflected the mindset of its creator, Dom Thomas, the co-founder of the Finders Keepers record label and self-styled ‘music chronologist’.

As Thomas stated earlier this year: “For me, the ultimate goal has always been to make a record that sounds as if it’s always existed, that is, its existence is something that sounds so natural and evolved it just slips into the psyche as if it’s always been there.”

With Pop Or Not, Thomas’ mission was certainly accomplished. Recorded during a three-month sojourn in Italy with a load of battered analogue equipment, it’s a record full of genre-defying songs – a kaleidoscopic swirl of dreamy melodies, clever arrangements and shimmering guitars - which pulled off that all-too rare trick of instant accessibility and magical otherworldliness.

Album of the year? No disrespect to the competition, but this was a clear one (Whyte) Horse race.

Key track: Promise I Do