The 2020 end of year music lists thread

low-cal classical is a great name & def something I like a lot

I will go for the others too, playing the Debussy-Rameau off that NPR list now (Vikingur Ólaffson), a little higher cal I guess

beautiful record that ólaffson one

Love seeing Sault at #1 for NPR.

Surprised to see Tame Impala on the list at all - I thought that was a huge critical dud. (I certainly didn't like it!).

I root for the Spillage Village collective, love a lot of their past work (including various Earthgang & JID releases). But I was disappointed in the album they released this year.

the tame impala record is the best tame impala record imo

puts me in the mind of like a sprawling '70s double album with weird subspaces to get lost in, while also being majorly funky and fusion-y

Based on Rob Mitchum's sheet, NPR has ~ 5 or 6 albums in their top 20 that don't appear on any of the other lists logged so far. For those who haven't checked out the Katie Pruitt thread/album yet (their #16), I expect it to do well in the ilm poll.

Here's the sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vpxZunN4M8gvnsireG4TEPSlA-pxo8Ta9Y6Kj8zgWwg/edit#gid=1452150872

the extent to which the zines concur is always just incredibly mindnumbing

if only they were to concur with specific user such as imago instead

well i wouldn't want that either, but there are SO MANY albums released in a year & yet the overlap on these lists is always just ridiculous, it (criticism) really is just mutual backscratches and lifestyle blogging now

at least the quietus list, for example, is genuinely unlike any other, even if i don't like most of it

anyway can we get on with the ILX EOYs which are invariably an improvement on all this nonsense

I haven't looked at Rob's spreadsheet yet so maybe I'd be proven wrong, but the NPR one seemed generally filled with stuff I haven't seen popping up a lot (with a few obvious exceptions). Seemed to be the first one of the "big" ones I've seen that had a ton of stuff I was unfamiliar with.

yeah that's fair

Assume Chloe x Halle was covered in the rolling R&B thread but I'd never heard of them before. Made the Complex, NPR, and Uproxx lists.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9HIaGcBocc

Yes – "Do It" is one of the year's top tracks for sure.

ilx 2020 traxpoll feels absolutely wide open tbh

https://medium.com/@joshuacopperman1/what-your-favorite-album-of-2020-says-about-you-930285dad454

Excruciating

Impressive, I couldn't even make it past the first sentence in the first blurb.

It took 16 people to write that

A contender for OK, is this the worst piece of music writing ever?.

Hahaha yeah it’s not good

"Hm, the lead single was called 'Cardigan', this one just writes itself!"

I hope you won't mind my x-posting it there, Moka.

xp

I’m also certain half of the jokes in there are recycled from previous years. I think the concept could be fun but the execution in here is trying too hard.

are you saying they do this every year

actually i have some dim memory now

Not at all pom. It’s worthy of that thread.

I have no beef with the concept itself, but it's just one faceplant after another.

Lolol wow

Some pop album: You are a messy bitch who TikTok bisexual lighting horoscope candle bops swipe right corncob

You’re honestly weird to be around.

You’re honestly weird to be around.

You’re honestly weird to be around.

You’re honestly weird to be around.

You’re honestly weird to be around.

That Ari one though, jfc.

a Singles Jukebox contributor trying too hard???

(sorry, I know there's a few TSJ writers on here but I couldn't resist)

https://www.gorillavsbear.net/gorilla-vs-bears-songs-of-2020/
https://www.npr.org/2020/12/03/931771524/the-100-best-songs-of-2020-page-1
https://consequenceofsound.net/2020/12/top-50-songs-of-2020/full-post/

here's some songs lists. as usual i'm enjoying the stuff from gvb's i haven't heard before, even the salem track

none of those do anything to convince me that this isn't the most open year for EOY tracks in ILM history

Yeah I could hazard some guesses for album of the year, but I haven't got a clue about tracks.

yeah absolutely, it seems like "WAP" is the critical consensus pick which i'm sure will do decently here but can't imagine it coming close to winning

and there's been no 🎈 afaict

If memory serves, there was never much of a 🎈 consensus on this side of the pond.

i'll have to figure out which of the million great sun-el-adjacent sa deep house tracks to heavily campaign for

I’d be open to make this years poll a top 100 for tracks instead of the usual top 77 given how diverse it could get.

nah 77 is fine, if anything the diversity means we'll have a spectacular 77

the important thing is to start the nominations thread asap ;)

SALEM at the #1 spot for gvb makes me lol but there’s at least 5 songs in that top 20 that I think I would consider in my own top 20.

Oddly enough there’s not a song in NPR’s top 20 which I’d consider (or even heard) and I found myself agreeing with most of their top albums list.

Still not a bad list I guess

These 5 are also top 20 2020 for me:

02 SAULT | Wildfires
04 070 SHAKE | Guilty Conscience
12 BULLION | We Had a Good Time
14 OKLOU | Entertnmnt
17 WESTERMAN | Blue Comanche

I expected way more love for Haim and Ariana Grande at this EOY lists.

If memory serves, there was never much of a 🎈 consensus on this side of the pond.

We got a whole month and a whole bunch more music left to come out!