The great Leonard Cohen, who featured on the cover of the Christmas issue of Hot Press and again – along with David Bowie and Prince – on the Hot Press Annual has claimed the Christmas No.1 album mantle with his wonderful final album You Want It Darker.

The record, which was produced by his son Adam Cohen, was also the Album of the Year, as voted by Hot Press music critics.

It held the top spot despite a strong performance by Little Mix, who are at No. 2 with Glory Days. Another Canadian superstar Michael Bublé zoomed from No.11 to No.4 with Nobody But Me, skipping over James Arthur (up from No.7 to No.5 with Back from The Edge) and Bruno Mars (No.10 to No.6 with 24K Magic).

Irish albums are reasonably well represented overall, with the late Joe Dolan’s Orchestrated Vol.1 at No. 3; Nathan Carter’s Beautiful Life at No. 10; Walking on Cars' Everything This Way at No.17; Planxty’s Between The Jigs and the Reels at No.18; Gavin James' Bitter Pill at No.22, after a remarkable 57 weeks in the charts. Others to feature between No.30 and No.60 include Tommy Fleming, Picture This, Hozier, The Dubliners and Red Hurley.

Hanging in at No.43, Bruce Springsteen’s Greatest Hits has, according to the official IRMA website, been an astonishing 537 weeks in the charts...