Still winding around to developing a top 10 but this is my shortlist, top 25 popular-ish records this year (not in any real order):

1. Moses Sumney - Grae
2. R.A.P. Ferreira - Purple's Moonlight Pages
3. Cleo Sol - Rose in the Dark
4. Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy Ways
5. Jessie Ware - What's Your Pleasure?
6. Khruangbin - Mordechai
7. Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher
8. Gillian Welch - Boots Vol. 2 - The Lost Songs
9. Courtney Marie Andrews - Old Flowers
10. Lianne La Havas - self-titled
11. Oscar Jerome - Breathe Deep
12. Sault - Untitled(s)
13. Fleet Foxes - Shore
14. Sylvan Esso - Free Love
15. Tim Heidecker - Fear of Death
16. Gabriel Garzon-Montano - Aguita
17. Kevin Morby - Sundowner
18. Sam Amidon - self-titled
19. Rufus Wainwright - Alone Time/Peaceful Afternoon EP
20. Perfume Genius - Set my heart on fire immediately
21. Natalia Lafourcade - Un Canto por Mexico, vol. 1
22. Fiona Apple - Fetch the Boltcutters
23. Raw Poetic/Damu/Archie Shepp - Ocean Bridges
24. Blu & Exile - Miles
25. Nick Hakim - WILL THIS MAKE ME GOOD

This actually aligns pretty well with my most listened to, as well. I'm actually surprised at how little hip hop wound up on the shortlist even though I listened to a lot of releases this year. A lot of it was good, very little was great. Past my top 25 a lot more shows up but it's still pretty spotty.

It was a strange year musically with just an enormous number of top-notch releases in the first four or five months, then a dryspell for a good chunk of summer, and then another great month or two as we headed into fall. Music was definitely a lifesaver this year and that vast majority of my listening was dedicated to new stuff ... sort of a reminder that good stuff was still happening despite how dark this year has been.

Going to circle back and run through some favorite jazz-ish releases later.

-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~