Album: Nathaniel Rateliff, In Memory of Loss (Rounder / Universal)

Released to very little fanfare last year, In Memory of Loss travelled by word of mouth from one discerning music lover to the next.

Now given the major-label heave-ho it deserves, this is an album that will sound as perfect in 10 years' time as it does now. Comparisons to Bon Iver, Lambchop and Leonard Cohen tell only one part of the story. It's better than you can imagine. Hell, it's probably the best album of its kind that you will hear all year.