OVERLOOKED by the mainstream music media in their end-of-year lists, Jeremy Dutcher’s extraordinary self-released Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa is like nothing else released this year.

Awarded the Polaris Prize, Canada’s top music honour, it’s a set of traditional songs from the 28-year-old’s First Nation community transformed into powerful piano-led ballads, backed by strings and electronics and sung in his native Wolastoqiyik language.

On the Americana front, Lambchop made a strong return with the woozy electronica of This (Is What I Wanted To Tell You), released on City Slang, while Silver Jews frontman David Berman, arguably one of the greatest lyricists of his generation, released his sublime swansong under his new moniker Purple Mountains (Drag City). Tragically Berman took his own life a couple of weeks after the album was released.