15. Jacob Alon – In Limerence

The debut record by Scottish folk singer-songwriter Jacob Alon is a beautiful, fragile thing. When I first heard In Limerence, I wondered if it might be too slight to have much longevity; in fact, it’s precisely its delicacy that has kept me coming back to it. The record’s translucent melodies float around, untethered, while Alon’s otherworldly falsetto soars above them. Their finger picking is technically impressive but very restrained (almost unexpectedly so: on ‘Elijah’, for instance, I think most guitarists of this quality would feel compelled to show off). I also really like the occasional sections of simple, shifting percussion (see ‘Amber’; ‘I Couldn’t Feed Her’). Lyrically, while there are moments of deeper passion (as on ‘Confession’), for the most part Alon opts for a sort of tender, nymphy melancholy – which fits the music here perfectly. Overall, this is an impressive debut by a young artist, with signs of the potential for much more. In Limerence fully deserves its Mercury Music Prize nomination and – of course, far more prestigiously – its placing on this List.