10) Zola Jesus – Vessel

A fantastic culmination and one of my most recent new discoveries, it just edges into the top 10 by providing me with one of the few dark and damp albums of 2011. Her voice harks back to generations of old and the electronics and dramatic song structures make it a treat to visit the darkness every time.

09) Faun – Eden

Band members have left and been replaced and while you can tell that Faun’s sound has changed forever. It still sits firmly in the Pagan Folk genre they’ve helped create but the vocals are more hymn like, English is introduced and the overall sound is one more of a forest pixie raging war on humanity. Either way, it’s still utterly superb.

08) St Vincent – Strange Mercy

St Vincent makes the most clumsy, sloppy and seemingly out of control music seem to still have order, beauty and integrity. Her third studio album is full of all the quirks, embellishments and random freak outs we’ve come to expect but in a more assured manner and with more layers than ever before!

07) Gregory Douglass – Lucid

Having watched Gregory over various live net shows introduce, change, develop and grow Lucid from a concept into a fully evolved being, it’s a fantastic dream concept album that works from start to finish. Showcasing some great technical wizardry, it features some of the most catchy numbers and some of the most heartbreaking from his career to date.

06) Amiina – Puzzle

From what I thought was a lovely, quaint but slightly one-sided debut, Puzzle lifts Amiina into a new level. The quartet have perfected their craft of weaving the most unlikely of instruments together into lullabies but now also into powerful epic seven minute masterpieces.

05) Bjork – Biophilia

Never one to sit still, Biophilia is a career spanning genre bending full flow freak out. Never compromising, always challenging – it contains highlights of Bjork’s most beautiful, most powerful and most scary moments of her musical career.

04) Tori Amos – Night of Hunters

Tori Amos remains my favourite musical artist of all time. The reason this hasn’t reached the top spot is purely because it’s an album that requires a lot of time and effort to digest and I’m not really there yet. The string arrangements are beautiful and the songs are fantastic. Many have called it a return to form but I never saw her falter. A bold new direction and one that pays off.

03) Lamb – 5

The return of Lamb was unexpected but much appreciated with the perfect blend of Lou’s own solo styles and Andy’s more electronic edges. The album is much more direct and approachable with instant hooks throughout, making it by far my favourite Lamb album to date and hopefully will give them confidence to continue  on.

02) tUne-YaRdS – W H O K I L L

Only discovering the sheer genius of this lady last year, being able to enjoy the growth from début to album number 2 was phenomenal. All the funky vocal collages are still here, as is the home ramshackle production but this time fused with brass and some more tip-top production too. It just seems like such a natural bloom. Magical.

01) Charlotte Martin – Dancing on Needles

The album that keeps giving with all the b-sides being released online, it’s a perfect merger of all Charlotte’s previous works of piano, guitar, keyboard and pounding drums. Her voice is an absolute marvel and every song is as achingly beautiful and painful as the last. Without doubt my album of the year.

Narrowly missing out were PJ Harvey, Kate Bush, Sarah Slean, The Go Team and Omodaka.

In a lovely twist, Tori Amos has released in digital format only an instrumental version of “Night of Hunters”. Removing all the voice, all that’s left is piano and orchestration. It was released without fanfare today in America but strangely holds an April 2012 release for us in the UK. I think that may jump forward however. Samples are available on amazon and iTunes.

From the opener “Shattering Sea” we were treated to some of the most sumptuous versions of Tori’s catalogue to date. As with the last tour, things have suddenly tightened up onto an on rails approach but this time it’s amplified because the quartet are providing a stunning backdrop. “Shattering Sea” along with “Precious Things” were the two big screamers amongst what was a relatively ballad heavy set list although with it just being strings and piano that was to be expected. Other surprises were fantastically dark renditions of “Suede” and “Cruel” where the quartet turned the strings to percussive plucks to provide some excellent backing. As a personal highlight I got a simmering version of “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, a unique version of “Hey Jupiter” and one of my very favourites “Siren”. I say unique for “Hey Jupiter” as sadly during “Way Down” the previous track Tori’s piano suddenly became very distorted through the speakers making that song sound like it was coming through a dodgy bootleg. The problem persisted into Jupiter and so they turned the piano off to sort the problem so the first part was just the strings and vocals!

Another snippet I’d like to mention was that “Star Whisperer” in its full glory live was sensational.

All in all, despite the random technical problem, I was blown away. I always have been entranced with her live and she continues to do so even when she isn’t grabbing her crotch, screaming at high volume and straddling benches.

Opener “Shattered Sea” is growling and dark. The low rumbles of piano thunder against the crashing string and wind instruments as they build and roll like waves of power over the speakers. What’s great about this and every other track is that they are variations of classical themes of the 16th to 18th century. I’m not one to be able to pick out the themes but then going and finding the original tracks after, it’s interesting to see how they’re woven into the track. After the fierce opener “Snowblind” introduces Tori’s daughter Natashya Hawley as a vocal where the two interplay off each other. Natashya’s vocals have a real husk to them and convey a lot of soul. Should she want to, she could have an interesting musical career from the voice alone. The two voices sit very well together as the bluesy and sprawling piano floats in and out.

“Battle of Trees” in a near nine minute epic. The strings in this song are beautifully arranged are they pluck the main melody. Tori’s vocal’s also shine here too with a lot of different ranges hit. It’s not the catchiest song on the album at all but it still has a knack of standing out and staying with you longer afterwards as a general feeling. “Fearlessness” is another track that emotes a feeling as they piano and oboes flow effortlessly. What I will say about both tracks is that upon each listen I find new instrument flourishes and appreciate them ten times more each play through.

“Cactus Practice” is a song that reminds me of Fantasia for some reason. It’s heavily wind instrument based and of all the songs, this is the one that sounds like it still is in the 1800′s. Natashya’s vocals really suit the oboes and bassoons. “Star Whisperer” is the longest track at just under ten minutes. Slow and deliberate, the track slowly evolves and has some beautiful transitions, particularly the “I heard you scream from the other side of the mountain” where Tori is able to flex her piano chops and sound utterly adorable. Tori’s vocals are on top form throughout but the instrumentation often takes the limelight. Here in this track there’s a lovely instrumental section where the track creates a frenzy before it moves into its final few minutes and it’s some of the best music I’ve heard all year.

“Job’s Coffin” is an excellent track. A simple piano riff embellished with horns and clarinets. Natashya takes the lead vocals here with Tori playing backup. It’s just a simple song that sticks in your head for a long time after and it was after Shattered Sea, the next track I stuck straight on repeat. “Nautical Twilight” is very classical with thick arpeggios and a theatrical turn of vocal display. I love how the verses build up to a specific climax which she fades away to reflection straight after. “Your Ghost” is another track that’s got a strong melody and it actually feels very Christmas orientated for some reason and sounds like it sound be on Midwinter Graces! Beautiful and quaint.

“Edge of the Moon” is a song of two halves. The first half is a downbeat and careful and the second half is a full free-flowing burst of energy. I actually thought it was two separate tracks at first but they go so well together with some great dueling vocals. “The Chase” is fantastic track that has an underlying tension throughout as Tori and Natashya dual each other with some fantastic lyrical parries. It’s just something completely different to anything Amos  has done before and so refreshing. “Night of the Hunters” introduces for just one track Kelsey Dobyns as a third voice and her vocals are sublime and angelic. A song of many faces and moods, it shapeshifts around between nostalgia, freeform and some beautiful interplaying and overlaying vocals.

“Seven Sisters” is a gorgeous instrumental between the piano and the clarinet. It really showcases Amos’ power as a composer, a performer and an emotive musician. This is also captured in the album closer “Carry” which is about as close to a single as you could get on this album. A ballad of sorts, it’s the most conventional song alongside Nautical Twilight and Jobs Coffin but holds a completely different emotion. By the time you’ve finished you feel almost like you’ve been reborn by how the previous track feels light an enlightening and Carry feels like a walking away from the wreckage piece.

I’ll make no bones about it, Tori Amos is one of, if not the favourite artist of mine musically but I can absolutely see why others wouldn’t appreciate or like her music. Night of the Hunters will not bring back old fans who want Little Earthquakes part 1,000,000 but this is generally like nothing she’s done before and deserves to be listened with fresh ears and classical lovers will find a new album that they can enthuse over. I for one am bowled over yet again.

This is the fifth Tori Amos concert I’ve been to and this was possibly the most intense and enjoyable to date. With just a piano and a keyboard, she straddles her bench and plays both while howling her tunes with all the energy and empathy you could ask for.

Personal highlights included a haunting opening of “Bells For Her”, a very intense “Precious Things” a aching beautiful “Garlands”, the wails of “Hey Jupiter”, the foot stomping “Beauty of Speed” and a most fiery cover of “Personal Jesus”. However not one song went a miss and I was utterly captivated from start to finish.

If you ever want to see a singer/songwriter bare all on stage, take yourself to a solo Tori Amos concert and you will feel every minute of the road with her. Mesmerising.