The month's best music: Cam, Erykah Badu, SunnO))) and more

A ranked list of notable new recordings we heard in December — and because we refuse to lower our standards just because this month's release schedule was especially light, it's a short list.

1. Cam, “Untamed”

That title is misleading. Aside from a few four-letter hey-nows, this debut album from California country singer Camaron Ochs is quite tame. But it's also quite excellent, packed tight with laugh-out-loud songs, sob-into-pillow songs and up-all-night songs, each warmed and brightened by the singer's winning voice.

2. Cass McCombs, “A Folk Set Apart”

Everyone seems to have read that Japanese closet-cleaning book this year, even McCombs, the great folk outsider whose latest collection is subtitled “Rarities, B-Sides & Space Junk, Etc.” Punky and poetic, this is some etcetera worth running your fingers through.

3. Erykah Badu, “But You Caint Use My Phone”

Badu's surprise album about love and telecom includes quirky re-dos of famous ring-tunes — hits by New Edition, Usher, Drake and her own forever-fresh “Call Tyrone” — but the standout lyric here is a new brag that suggests the most effective remedy to digital distraction is sex: “I can make you put your phone down.”

4. SunnO))), “Kannon”

On the veteran drone metal troupe's latest opus, the music-making feels less like performance and more like spiritual practice, using distorted guitars to excavate the bliss that's buried deep inside our boredom.

5. Ariana Grande, “Christmas and Chill”

Not to scramble holiday sentiments, but let's be thankful for this young woman's annual efforts (two years running, at least) to generate Christmas music with more rum-pum-pum-pum and less fa-la-la. Nota bene: The last track on this six-song EP might actually be about climate change.