Thomas Blake

While this won’t be the only album of reworked material recorded in 2020, the strength of Alasdair Roberts early work means it will certainly be one of the best.

These songs have found a match in Trembling Bells that is perhaps unexpected but nonetheless perfect. If there were any justice, London would cement Askew’s place as one of our most valuable songwriters.

An evocative mixture of psychedelic folk and hauntology – a fertile sound-world of tape loops, spine-tingling vocals and an almost visceral connection to the natural world.

Brigid Mae Power’s generosity of spirit permeates all of these songs, even the ones that describe hardship. This is her most accessible work to date, but also her most intricately layered: genuinely beautiful, quietly challenging and perfectly self-contained.

Never Work is by far Kom’s most impassioned and political lyrical statement to date. Augmented by Sharratt’s superb, understated singing and musicianship, it shows just how relevant protest music is, and how much fun it can be.

Recorded at home during the lockdown, Howling at the Sun feels like the much-needed companion to a season of uncertainty and isolation: it is by turns sad, cheering and reflective, and full of the melodic inventiveness, the freshness and, ultimately, the positivity we have come to expect from Randolph’s Leap.

Twenty-one years ago Hefner released one of the finest break-up and make-up albums of its era. To say that Hayman has done it again may be a bit reductive – in no sense at all is this a nostalgia trip, quite the opposite in fact – but nonetheless, this is one of the finest records of a consistently brilliant and varied solo career.

Jurado is the perfect songwriter for these strange times. He is wistful without ever wallowing in nostalgia, and he balances heartbreak with hope in a way that few artists can. This represents some of his finest work to date.

Thomas Blake interviews the Gigspanner Big Band, our Artists of the Month, who demonstrate they are admirably democratic not just in their music-making process, but also in their interviews where everyone gets their say.

Good Times Older is a winner on many fronts but it also gives us some idea of just how gifted Jack Sharp is as a singer and interpreter of song. We can only hope that his foray into the world of traditional music continues.

iyatraQuartet’s music is a timely reminder of that all-important link between people and their art, and Break The Dawn exists as a complex, stunningly-performed artefact that offers a little hope in dark times.

Natural Invention is a piece of music that feels thrillingly, frighteningly, beautifully of our time. With the Gigspanner Big Band, Peter Knight has assembled a group of musicians intent on making some of the most important and exhilarating art ever to sit under the banner of folk music.