The real best album of last year

In a desperate wish to avoid the appellation of a derided genre, this young man from Asheville, North Carolina has been described by the press as Americana, slacker rock, indie and alt-country. But we at The Spectator will call it how it is: this is country rock, pure and simple. And if country rock isn’t slacker, indie and a little bit alt, then it’s the Eagles – and nobody wants to start going down that road.

Of the four albums generally thought to have been the best of last year across a vast number of publications, I’ve reviewed three of them for you – Beyoncé, Fontaines D.C. and Charli XCX’s meretricious, boring brattery. This is the fourth and dang I wish I hadn’t missed it, because it’s the best of the lot. I’d heard some previous stuff from Lenderman and been interested if not captivated. This growls its way to brilliance.

The title track is scuzzy and cool, but crucially gives you a tune you can hang on to and want to hear again. ‘On My Knees’ is a magnificent Crazy Horse thrash, while the single ‘She’s Leaving You’ sounds like Buffalo Tom when they were worth listening to (for about two-and-a-half minutes, in 1994). ‘Wristwatch’ is the Byrds dipped in red southern mud, while ‘Joker Lips’ conjures up a previous, and now sadly dead, weirdo slacker: Mark Linkous.

There is not quite the imagination here of a Sparklehorse but hell, this has been a thinnish few years for country rock and Bright Eyes’s pieties have begun to grate a little. So start the new year off listening to something you always used to listen to but thought was dead and buried. It cheered me up a lot.