The best albums you probably didn’t hear this year

JAMES REED

MIKE PATTON “Mondo Cane’’ Considering he has one of the most chameleonic, and thrilling, voices in rock, it isn’t exactly a surprise that Patton decided the time was ripe to record an album of Italian pop songs from the 1950s and ’60s, in Italian (mostly). He’s brought this “why not?’’ attitude to his many and diverse post-Faith No More projects. Here with a choir, band, and 40-piece orchestra, Patton runs through a spectrum of moods and vocal styles. The songs are by turns sumptuous and romantic (“Deep Down’’), furious and rocking (“Urlo Negra’’), spare (“Scalinatella’’), and swellegant (“Quello Che Conta’’). The album is offbeat for sure but not off-putting, and language is no barrier with music this lovely.

SARAH RODMAN

JORGE DREXLER “Amar la Trama’’ Drexler, a Uruguayan singer-songwriter who was Latin America’s best-kept secret until he won an Academy Award in 2005 for his song “Al Otro Lado del Río’’ from “The Motorcycle Diaries,’’ took a novel approach to making this album. To avoid the sterility of a studio, he recorded “Amar la Trama’’ in four days in front of a small audience chosen from an online contest. Weaving in and out of rootsy folk, after-hours soul, and acoustic blues, the album has a loose and ultimately intoxicating charm. It’s as if you’re in the front row as Drexler’s poetic tales unfold with a lean band backing him. If Drexler has never been on your radar, “Amar la Trama’’ is the best excuse to remedy that. (Bonus: He’ll be performing at Berklee Performance Center on Jan. 20.)

JR