What were the best albums of 2016? The Press critics pick their favourites...

David Bowie, Blackstar (ISO/RCA). An obvious choice? Possibly, but still, I believe, the correct one. On first listen, before Bowie’s death was announced, this was an easy four-star album. Following the news of his passing, it was tempting to add a fifth and repeat listens make it clear this was deserving.

Not a commercial album and no obvious singles, but an outstanding reflection on mortality by a true great approaching the end of his life. All artists should aspire to creating something a tenth as beautiful and meaningful as Blackstar, let alone the rest of Bowie’s back catalogue.

In short, this was the bar the rest of 2016’s album had to clear, and nothing really came close.

Honourable mentions:

White Denim, Stiff (Downtown Records): Good old-fashioned 70’s-style rock. Proud to be a throwback, and very good at it.

Skinny Lister, The Devil, The Heart & The Fight (Xtra Mile): Outstanding folk rock with heart, passion and amazing live shows. See them if you can in 2017.

The Courteeners, Mapping The Rendezvous (Ignition Records): For me, the first time I’ve really heard this band and it sounds like I’ve been missing out. De La Salle is the best Oasis B-side Noel Gallagher never wrote.

Margo Price

Paul Rhodes's album of the year:

Margo Price, Midwest Farmer’s Daughter (Thirdman Records). After a life of hard knocks and music business setbacks, Price arrived like a bolt of lightning to shake up the country music firmament.

Initially rejected by the Nashville bigwigs before being rescued by Jack White’s label, it is fitting that a country outsider had the keenest ears in Music City. Hands Of Time is a standout, an instant classic in the very best Loretta Lynn mould.

There is barely a weak song, and Price is a wonderful singer too, full of evocative twang; both powerful and aching and on Tennessee Song; soulful and sensuous. Fittingly, she has a strong work ethic to boot.

A UK tour and a new album are already in sight for 2017, with Price heading for Leeds Brudenell Social Club on January 25.

Standard blazer of the year: Willie Nelson, Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin (Sony Legacy).

Sonic daring award: Paul Simon, Stranger To Stranger (Concord Records).

Multicultural kook alert: Stranded Horse, Luxe (Talitres).

New look Yorkshire folk heroines: O’Tooley & Tidow, Shadows (No Masters).

Christine And The Queens aka Heloise Letissier

Ian Sime's album of the year:

Christine And The Queens, Chaleur Humaine (Because). Ironically, with the Brexit decision in the bag, a handful of acts including Christine And The Queens’ Heloise Letissier and Lukas Graham and Caro Emerald eventually gave us a tantalising taste of Euro pop at its best.

Chaleur Humaine is an uber-sophisticat- ed, cool, understated and gloriously chic confection, fusing elements of electro pop, jazz and more traditional chanson.

The dual use of English and the mother French tongue is delivered with ele- gance. Once heard, the hypnotic pulse of Tilted is lodged in the conscious forever.

This is a clever, knowing set, delivered by an act with a visual flair as bewitching as the album.

Re-inventing the duet with A-list chums: Barbra Streisand, Encore: Movie Part- ners Sing Broadway (Columbia).

Close harmony heaven: Olivia Newton- John, Beth Neilson Chapman & Amy Sky, Liv On (OBA Records).

Long awaited return of one our great est writers: Barry Gibb, In The Now (Columbia).

Music to accompany a journey through the Milky Way: Vangelis, Rosetta (Decca).

Marissa Nadler

Mark Stead's album of the year:

Marissa Nadler, Strangers (Bella Union) A tribute to no-fuss, album-by-album musical progression and expansion.

Although that sort of approach is always likely to prove more successful if you happen to have Nadler’s voice, lyrical curiosity and sheer ambition.

Over the course of seven albums, her goth-folk scope has moved from sparse to lush, without compromising the enchanting nature of her songwriting.

Ethereal but accessible, Strangers is simply a beautiful piece of work. And given that Nadler just keeps improving, it makes her next offering a tantalising prospect.

Bad Mood = Good Songs album of the year: Anohni, Hopelessness (Rough Trade).

Took Four Years To Appear But Was Worth The Wait album of the year: Wild Nothing, Life Of Pause (Bella Union).

Could Have Been A Shambles But Somehow Works album of the year: Jack White, Jack White Acoustic Recordings 1998-2016 (Third Man/XL Recordings).

Self-Regard Seldom Leads To Self-Awareness album of the year: Jake Bugg, On My One (Virgin EMI).

Bat For Lashes: bridal suite

Charles Hutchinson's album of the year:

Bat For Lashes, The Bride (Parlophone). The bride is left waiting at the altar but not because she has been jilted in Bat For Lashes’ harrowing bridal suite of songs.

Instead the groom is killed in a car crash en route to the church, and so begins a remarkably affecting “concept album” from multi-instrumentalist, singer and visual artist Natasha Khan.

She calls it a “soundtrack for a feature- length film in mind”, and that soundtrack is the sound of pain, loss and grief, collated with co-producer Simone Felice in a Woodstock mountain studio.

Khan’s voice is pure, her soundscapes experimental, her vision audacious, on 2016’s companion piece to Bjork’s Vulnicura.

In a year of female trios, this was the best: Case/Lang/Veirs, Case/Lang/Veirs (Anti- Records)

Done with politics (haven’t we all), now he’s embracing life by the sea: Steve Mason, Meet The Humans (Double Six)

The most beautiful, bruised but healing record of light and dark, for summer, for winter, for break-ups and new starts: Benjamin Francis Leftwich, After The Rain (Dirty Hit Records)

The best Berlin record since Bowie: Agnes Obel, Citizen Of Glass (Play It Again Sam)