12. 40 Watt Sun - "Perfect Light"

This is a slow-burning record that unfurls itself at a glacial pace. Everything is stripped back and downplayed. It is a masterclass in majestic miserabilism. Patrick Walker has an innate ability to bring to life the sound of a breaking heart. This is a stark and sorrowful collection of torch songs stripped back to their bare minimum. It is consummate songwriting with every unnecessary diversion removed, so all you are left with is the raw pain of rejection.

But there are also swathes of beauty to be found in the maudlin. This is an utterly gorgeous set of songs. They may soundtrack loss and grief, but they do so in an exquisitely elegant way. This is an album that shows that less is very much more and that there is a hypnotic beauty in stark minimalism.