In an album-packed year, I’ve decided to look back at some of my favourite records from the past 12 months.

For me, the year’s most impressive feat has been the deluge of records from Aussie psych band King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard who delivered on their promise to drop five albums in a year.

Gumboot Soup, which was released on New Year’s Eve, capped off a year which started with February’s Flying Microtonal Banana followed by Murder of the Universe in June and Sketches of Brunswick East in August before the band gave Polygondwanaland away for free in November.

In no instance has it been quantity over quality but Polygondwanaland was a heavy favourite.

The year began well with the equally prolific Ty Segall releasing a heavy-hitting self-titled album that combined a T-Rex swagger and a Black Sabbath punch.

After his attempt at turning at whatever-you-call-that-thing-that-Taylor-Swift-does into moody Nebraska-era Bruce Springsteen, Ryan Adams released a divorce-influenced Prisoner in February that was his best record in well over a decade.

An album that blew me away the first time I heard it in March and has continued to do so right into December was the synth-laden Interplanetary Class Classics by The Moonlandingz. It had everything from a glam strut and a Cramps whirl to a punkish Mark E. Smith snarl. Highly, highly recommend.

An album that has topped (quite rightly) most end-of-year lists is Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. It follows 2015’s To Pimp A Butterfly which - I’m out of superlatives on - was undoubtedly been one of the album’s of the decade. DAMN saw a turn in style but was equally as phenomenal.

A quick mention for Thee Oh Sees who released two albums in 2017 (ORC and Memory of a Cut Off Head) and who were, by a country mile, the best band I have seen live this year.

To round off my recap, I must praise Father John Misty, Thundercat, Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile, Queens of the Stone Age, Tyler, the Creator and The War on Drugs who all made excellent records.

Sadly, we must also say goodbye to Chuck Berry, Chris Cornell, Gregg Allman, Prodigy and Tom Petty.

Here’s to another great year of music in 2018.