Meilyr Jones - 2013 (2016)

The year in question was 2013, a curious time in Jones' life, when the weeks were scored by loss and pleasure and revelation, and when, after the end of both his band, Race Horses, and his relationship, he made a short but transformative trip to Rome, drawn by a fascination with sculpture and Byron and Berlioz, and by a desire to "see something new and different". The songs that emerged from that time proved quite different to anything he had written before, and form one of the most beautiful and sincere albums of this year; 13 songs in which joy and rapture are tempered by wit and humour, by jubilant pop melody and rock and roll muscularity.