B&C's 2020 Albums of the Year Thread

[GirlsAloudFan]

You listen to that Sex Church record yet, you bitch?

 

[LemonMelon]

It is possible that this new Avalanches album will force me to change my list. We shall see what tonight brings.

Ah hell, it's close.

They don't miss.

 

[bono_212]

And I find it odd that this is a "band" where the members all play instruments, but I just can't detect any personality in the music/instrumentation itself. If you told me it was all programmed by producers I'd believe you, so it winds up sounding like Haim is just the one lead singer sister propped up by a lot of beats and window dressing, and doesn't sound any different in that regard than the CRJ album.

Same old story, same old song and dance. A girl or boy group has one member that gets the attention and suddenly it becomes all about that one member. If you go back and listen to their first album, I think you'd see it's a pretty stark contrast.

I still like everything they're doing, but I had to pretty immediately accept the fact that they jumped ship to become a pop act very quickly.

 

[iron yuppie]

Any recommendations for 2020 hip-hop albums? It seems like it might have been a down year, but I could be overlooking a bunch of stuff as well.

 

[cobl04]

Not a lot stuck with me sadly. Black Thought's Streams of Thought vol 3 is something I'll revisit, I haven't listened to Jay Electronica's long-awaited record.

I will give a big shoutout to an Aussie though - Tkay Maidza's Last Year Was Weird vol 2 is a lot of fun, she's a great talent.

 

[LemonMelon]

Any recommendations for 2020 hip-hop albums? It seems like it might have been a down year, but I could be overlooking a bunch of stuff as well.

Oh yeah. I'll stick with more low key and jazz inflected rap for you:

Freddie Gibbs - Alfredo
RAP Ferreira - Purple Moonlight Pages
Boldy James - Manger on McNichols
The Koreatown Oddity - Little Dominiques Nosebleed
$ilkmoney - Attack of the Future Shocked, Flesh Covered, Meatbags of the 85
Ka - Descendants of Cain

And then, if you want a real outlier, there's Backxwash's God Has Nothing to Do With This Leave Him Out of It, which is a hard rock and black metal-inspired industrial rap album about conflicts with a religious upbringing while transitioning from male to female. It won the Polaris Music Prize and is one of the most relevant and exciting rap albums of the year.

 

[bono_212]

This year has been all about Ka - Descendants of Cain, for me.

 

[LemonMelon]

It was actually a really good year for rap, just more low key than normal because a number of major artists didn't release anything. I thought it was better than 2019, even though there wasn't anything I liked as much as Bandana.

 

[iron yuppie]

Oh yeah. I'll stick with more low key and jazz inflected rap for you:

Freddie Gibbs - Alfredo
RAP Ferreira - Purple Moonlight Pages
Boldy James - Manger on McNichols
The Koreatown Oddity - Little Dominiques Nosebleed
$ilkmoney - Attack of the Future Shocked, Flesh Covered, Meatbags of the 85
Ka - Descendants of Cain

Lol, you definitely know my tastes. I'll check some of these out.

 

[gump]

Alright, here we go.

1. Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters (13)
2. Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud (13)
3. Perfume Genius - Set my Heart on Fire Immediately (10)
4. Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher (10)
5. Moses Sumney - grae (10)
6. SAULT - Untitled (Black Is) (9)
7. Destroyer - Have We Met (7)
8. Fleet Foxes - Shore (6)
9. soccer mommy - color theory (5)
10. Adrienne Lenker - songs (5)
11. Jessie Ware - What’s Your Pleasure? (4)
12. Laura Marling - Songs for our Daughters (4)
13. US Girls - Heavy Light (2)
14. TORRES - Silver Tongue (1)
15. Flaming Lips - American Head (1)

H/M
Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy Ways
Caribou - Suddenly
Sufjan Stevens - The Ascension
Yves Tumor - Heaven to a Tortured Mind
Grimes - Miss Anthropocene

Fiona is operating on such a different level than everyone else that I think she deserves her own category this year.

It's been years since I've listened to a new record as much as I did Saint Cloud. There are no low points, no songs to skip. It's gorgeous throughout. One of the best Americana albums in a long time, and one that would have been my #1 most other years.

I struggled a lot with Miss Anthropocene. I think musically it would have made my top 10, but when you are making a record about a dystopian future and climate change, and you are married to (and actively defending) Elon Musk, I just can't. Points withdrawn for lack of sincerity here.

I can't recommend that SAULT album enough, I find it one of the most overlooked albums of the year.

Oh, and my favorite songs:

soccer mommy - circle the drain
Waxahatchee - Lilacs
Grimes - Delete Forever
Fiona Apple - Cosmonauts
HAIM - The Steps
Charlie XCX - forever
Perfume Genius - Without You
Phoebe Bridgers - Kyoto
Adrienne Lenker - anything

 

[lazarus]

Fiona is operating on such a different level than everyone else that I think she deserves her own category this year.

I don't think anyone else is as creatively adventurous either lyrically or musically as she is right now.

 

[LemonMelon]

As far as the Sault albums go, I liked Rise waaaaaay more than Black Is. They developed their sound a lot in just 3 months.

 

[the tourist]

Glad to hear Deep Sea Diver’s Impossible Weight got album of the year as voted on by KEXP listeners. They’re one of the best kept secrets in music these days.

 

[gump]

B&C's 2020 Albums of the Year Thread

As far as the Sault albums go, I liked Rise waaaaaay more than Black Is. They developed their sound a lot in just 3 months.

I’m partial to the more spontaneous, jamming quality of the first one, even though Rise is great too. I also think the African influences are more fleshed out in Black Is. Bow is thrilling, and excites me more than anything on Rise (though Strong and Fearless are both great songs in their own right). I’m just happy to have a group like this to listen to. Though more global in the nature of their concerns, they are worthy heirs of the Black Messiah tradition in my view.

 

[DaveC]

no love for thundercat here?

 

[cobl04]

I bought it and listened to it, and it just didn't stick with me sadly. Very little of his recorded music does. I find it all pleasant and but the vocals just do nothing for me. Incredible live though.

 

[DaveC]

understandable. it stuck with me because of its sense of loss and desire to move on. he wrote it to cope with the passing of mac miller but i also lost a few of my people this year so it resonated with me in a certain way. i also was really hyped up to see him live for the first time ever on march 17th, and everything fun in the world shut down less than a week before the show, and as a result i had it on heavy rotation this year.

 

[bono_212]

Haven't heard the new one, but I agree, that Thundercat is one of those acts I LOVE live, and never listen to their records (or at least hardly) at all.

 

[LemonMelon]

Dragonball Durag and Fair Chance are great songs.

 

[Joey788]

Here we go - Best of 2020!

1. Fiona Apple: Fetch the Bolt Cutters (15)
2. Torres: Silver Tongue (14)
3. Porridge Radio: Every Bad (12)
4. Soccer Mommy: color theory (10)
5. Phoebe Bridgers: Punisher (9)
6. Eve Owen: Don’t Let the Ink Dry (6)
7. Silverbacks: Fad (6)
8. Hayley Williams: Petals for Armor (6)
9. This Is The Kit: Off Off On (5)
10. Waxahatchee: Saint Cloud (5)
11. Doves: The Universal Want (4)
12. Anjimile: Giver Taker (4)
13. Taylor Swift: folklore (2)
14. The Killers: Imploding the Mirage (1)
15. Bambara: Stray (1)

Honorable Mentions:
Sufjan Stevens: The Ascension
Braids: Shadow Offering
Becca Mancari: The Greatest Part
Kaki King: Modern Yesterdays
Grimes: Miss Anthropocene

Favorite Songs of the Year: “I Know the End” by Phoebe Bridgers, “Shameika” by Fiona Apple, “Tell Me You Love Me” by Sufjan Stevens, “circle the drain” by soccer mommy and “Dressing America” by Torres
Favorite Debuts: Eve Owen: Don’t Let the Ink Dry and Silverbacks: Fad
Biggest surprise: Taylor Swift not only dropping two albums this year, but having them be the best work of her career.
Biggest disappointment: I love Savages, but Jehnny Beth’s solo album did nothing for me.
Favorite Older Discoveries from this year: Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Seventeen Seconds by The Cure, Devils & Dust by Bruce Springsteen
Most anticipated for 2021: Julien Baker’s Little Oblivions, St. Vincent’s new album and hopefully the return of concerts
Artist of the Year: It must be Fiona Apple for crafting a true instant classic. I feel like this album will be discussed and analyzed and loved for years to come.

 

[iron yuppie]

Albums
1. Nicolas Jaar: Cenizas (15)
2. Perfume Genius: Set My Heart on Fire Immediately (13)
3. Mary Lattimore: Silver Ladders (12)
4. Adrianne Lenker: songs (10)
5. Grimes: Miss Anthropocene (10)
6. Jessie Ware: What’s Your Pleasure? (8)
7. Kelly Lee Owens: Inner Song (7)
8. Il Quadro di Troisi: s/t (6)
9. Ambrose Akinmusire: On the Tender Spot of Every Calloused Moment (5)
10. Destroyer: Have We Met (4)
11. Westerman: Your Hero Is Not Dead (3)
12. Hayley Williams: Petals for Armor (2)
13. Julianna Barwick: Healing Is a Miracle (2)
14. Khruangbin: Mordechai (2)
15. Bonny Light Horseman: s/t (1)

I listened to a lot of downtempo and atmospheric stuff this year, which is heavily reflected in this list. As I went back though these albums, the theme I most noticed is fragility: the dissonant acid jazz of Nicolas Jaar’s Cenizas; the ambient harps on Mary Lattimore’s Silver Ladders (with contributions from Slowdive’s Neil Halstead); the escapism of Adrianne Lenker’s songs; the choir hymns of Julianna Barwick’s Healing Is a Miracle. A few things on here might not be widely known: Il Quadro di Troisi is a collaborative project of two Italian electronic artists; Ambrose Akinmusire makes jazz albums in the classic Blue Note sound; Westerman’s album is a yacht-rock throwback; Bonny Light Horseman is an Americana project that reminded me of Raising Sand, one of my all-time favorite albums.

Songs
Tame Impala: It Might Be Time
Perfume Genius: Describe
Sufjan Stevens: The Ascension
Westerman: Confirmation
Sylvan Esso: Ferris Wheel
Caribou: You & I
Romy: Lifetime
Future Islands: For Sure

Live album
Nick Cave: Idiot Prayer (this would be my album of the year in this list if live records were allowed)

Disappointments
Fleet Foxes: Shore
Tame Impala: The Slow Rush

Album everybody loves but I couldn't get into
Phoebe Bridgers: Punisher

 

[bono_212]

Album everybody loves but I couldn't get into

My response to this would be EXTREMELY unpopular.

 

[Hewson]

My response to this would be EXTREMELY unpopular.

Would you need to fetch your bolt cutters to get out of the thread?

 

[the tourist]

I’ve been listening to a bunch of 2020 releases over the last week. I may wind up being able to participate after all. If I hit 35 albums that came out this year, I’ll join in.

 

[bono_212]

Would you need to fetch your bolt cutters to get out of the thread?

I would indeed.

 

[cobl04]

Listening to more 2020 records. My initial listen to American Head positive, but subsequent listens have me a bit more meh on it. It starts really strongly, and ends pretty strongly too, but it feels a bit formless, and its reliance on hippy lyricism hurts it quite a bit. Dinosaurs on the Mountain is awful.

I've not listened to Yves Tumour before, but I'm impressed with, if not entirely taken by, Heaven to a Tortured Mind. They sound VERY like Tunde Adebimpe.

 

[cobl04]

Another late entry that will definitely make my list - Gordi's Our Two Skins

 

[LemonMelon]

Here is a playlist of some of my favorite 2020 tracks, sequenced as best as I could manage:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0srbxyHEj9YSjShl2ikANy

I also did a writeup for the playlist, including a review of each track here: https://rateyourmusic.com/list/Traviud/annotated-playlist-the-best-tracks-of-2020/

 

[the tourist]

I just recently also relistened to American Head. I’ve been thoroughly underwhelmed with The Flaming Lips lately. And when I say lately, I mean since At War With The Mystics. Sorry cobbler, but I didn’t care for Embryonic at all. I had gotten to the point of not really caring when they released anything anymore.

But I like American Head decently. I think it’s solid, and to me it’s their best since At War With The Mystics. That said, because the bar is fairly low on that, and despite the fact that I find this year in music to be a weaker class, if it makes my top 15, it will be near the bottom of the list.

 

[cobl04]

Nice, Trav! enjoyed reading that. God, Jody is such a fucking banger. Also, I adored Dan Deacon's Gliss Riffer, so tried to give this year's album a spin, but realised I just don't need that much of him spread so thin.