The 2020 end of year music lists thread

in fact, the one that's at #5 in the RYM singles chart. it's...genuinely incredible

hi moka

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/19/arts/music/clipping-daveed-diggs-chapter-319.html

Different initials, must be some other guy.

Hi!

Ok ok I’ll check them out. They sound good enough on paper.

going through the gvb songs playlist and wow "volcano" by eartheater is great

also nabozo please make that poll!

Don't think Jhene Aiko's showed up on any of these lists. I really love that album.

Some people think her songwriting's too ethereal, I think that airy dreaminess is a strength, but regardless, the album is her best-selling yet, relatively late in her career she's found a new popular peak, while doing her own thing, against trend, so she's unique enough and I think it's weird that she's totally ignored in this setting.

also nabozo please make that poll!

The New York Times jazz list:

1. Immanuel Wilkins - Omega
2. Jyoti - Mama, You Can Bet!
3. Charles Lloyd - 8: Kindred Spirits
4. Asher Gamedze - Dialectic Soul
5. Exploding Star Orchestra - Dimensional Stardust
6. Nduduzo Makhathini - Modes of Communication: Letters From the Underworlds
7. Keith Jarrett - Budapest Concert
8. Susan Alcorn - Pedernal
9. Sun Ra Arkestra - Swirling
10. Webber/Morris Big Band - Both are True

The Slate jazz list:

1. Ron Miles - Rainbow Sign
2. Charles Lloyd - 8: Kindred Spirits
3. Jimmy Heath - Love Letter
4. Maria Schneider - Data Lords
5. Aaron Diehl - The Vagabond
6. Ran Blake and Christine Correa - When Soft Rains Fall
7. Ben Perowsky - Upstream
8. Matthew Shipp Trio - The Unidentifiable
9. Raphaël Pannier Quartet - Faune
10. Fred Hersch - Songs From Home

Each of these lists contains at least one album that's on my own year-end list, which will be up at Stereogum next week. But there's also a lot of stuff on both that's...fine, but hardly the best music of the year. (The Sun Ra album is a curiosity, the Charles Lloyd is as dull as 95% of his work, I don't even think the Jyoti album is jazz, and I will never understand why critics like Fred Hersch — or Keith Jarrett — as much as they do.)

xps eartheater is incredible
well worth checking irisiri from a couple of years back if you haven't

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

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Thursday, December 3, 2020 4:06 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Agreed, though Haim has been top 10 on a few lists - Stereogum, Exclaim, Uproxx.

Other surprises to me so far:
- The 1975 - expected them to land in the 30-50 range of lots of lists and instead I've barely seen them at all
- Phoebe Bridgers is now #1 on Rob's sheet - maybe I'm misremembering (?) but the consensus Punisher has garnered seems at odds with the fact Stranger in the Alps barely registered in 2017, which I prefer

Psych rock list courtesy of The Quietus:

https://thequietus.com/articles/29311-the-best-psych-rock-2020

can literally guarantee that the Slift album is better than all of those combined

the Charles Lloyd is as dull as 95% of his work

He always skirts that line but much of his ECM material is quite good. I haven't heard his latest, mind you.

Jarrett at his absolute best is unfuckwithable. The Budapest Concert is by no means up there, although given the circumstances of his retirement I'm not surprised that it's garnering plaudits.

This is going to sound awful but I can't stand French bands that sing in English, especially when the accent is that thick. The Slift would make my EOY list otherwise.

The aggregate list of albumoftheyear currently has fiona apple, run the jewels and phoebe bridgers as the top 3 albums:

https://www.albumoftheyear.org/list/summary/2020/

yeah of course it does

quite admire pom's francophone purity haha

Rolling Stone

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-albums-2020-1096814/

Would it seriously be a dealbreaker for non-francophone heavy psych enthusiasts if they were singing in French instead?

Let’s be real

Fiona Apple >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Taylor Swift’s album

xp of course not!

moka you don't need to press FA's case lol, she will smoke taytay in trax and albums and probably everyone else too

I'd rather watch that horrible video of David Guetta riffing on 'I have a dream' (clearly a 10/10 on the Villejuif scale) twenty times over than hear another note of Taylor Swift's music ever again.

Finally Ariana makes a list. But Sheffield’s blurb is stupid.

If you're curious to compare some algorithmic 2020 lists constructed from Spotify listening patterns, the first version of my 2020 Around the World explorer (with data through 11/30) is up with country and genre lists and a few global ones:

http://everynoise.com/2020_around_the_world.cgi

(this will get updated again with full calendar-year data after 12/31)

I actually really love her record from this year, but I'm so embarrassed when I say out loud, "I really like Soccer Mommy". Such a terrible name.

It's a great album!

Finally Ariana makes a list. But Sheffield’s blurb is stupid.

― wet tip hen ax (egg drop mix) (morrisp), Friday, December 4, 2020 9:37 AM (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

These blurbs can be very formulaic

Aren’t these ppl paid to say something interesting about music?

(Sorry, guess I have a chip on my shoulder. At least she made the list.)

- Phoebe Bridgers is now #1 on Rob's sheet - maybe I'm misremembering (?) but the consensus Punisher has garnered seems at odds with the fact Stranger in the Alps barely registered in 2017, which I prefer

― Indexed, Friday, December 4, 2020 9:15 AM (thirty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I also prefer Stranger in the Alps, but I feel like it was kind of a slow burner that people discovered over time. I heard it when it came out in late 2017, but it wasn't until early 2018 that it really clicked with me, and I remember being kind of surprised that I was still enjoying it a year later. Her involvement in boygenius and Better Oblivion Community Center also contributed to her growing stature in between albums, which meant that a lot of people were primed to be excited for Punisher, and there was a bigger publicity machine behind it.

Yeah tbf I learned about Stranger in the Alps from the NYT EOY recap.

^ otm, every word (xpost to jaymc)

by the end of 2017, there was very little buzz about Stranger in the Alps (which I also prefer)

obviously that has changed now

i knew she'd been nominated for a Grammy, i didn't realize she'd been nominated for 4!

It's a weird feeling when an artist you think was unduly ignored in one cycle suddenly gets heaps of praise (too much?) in the next. Like, I'm very happy for her! But also, Punisher is like the ~50th best album I heard this year?

it’s not exactly surprising given what came before, but the continued lack of love (or even acknowledgement) for (of) African pop and house in all its shapes and forms by these supposed arbiters of musical taste, even in what was on many levels a breakthrough year, is something to behold.

so far - please do correct me if I’ve missed something - we’ve had:

albums:
Burna Boy • TWICE AS TALL (#37 Consequence of Sound)
Duma • DUMA (#15 Quietus - not *quite exactly* pop or house tho!)
Tiwa Savage • CELIA (#10 Time)
Wizkid • MADE IN LAGOS (#43 Guardian)

songs:
Prince Kaybee ft. Shimza, Black Motion & Ami Faku • Uwrongo (#9 Time)
Sun-El Musician ft. Azana • Uhuru (#37 NPR)
Tiwa Savage • Dangerous Love** (#95 NPR)
**weirdly for one of its remixes, as if the original wasn’t magnificent enough

so a grand total of 4 albums and 3 songs, each of them only mentioned once. very impressive.

not for the first time, Time Magazine (or their music person at least) showing everybody they know where it’s at

feeling alone but correct in the "punisher > stranger" camp today

I love them both, but I'm with you in that Punisher is the slightly better record.

if the record you're going to complain about getting a lot of year-end list love is punisher... idk, we got it pretty good this year

it’s not exactly surprising given what came before, but the continued lack of love (or even acknowledgement) for (of) African pop and house in all its shapes and forms by these supposed arbiters of musical taste, even in what was on many levels a breakthrough year, is something to behold.

so far - please do correct me if I’ve missed something - we’ve had:

albums:
Burna Boy • TWICE AS TALL (#37 Consequence of Sound)
Duma • DUMA (#15 Quietus - not *quite exactly* pop or house tho!)
Tiwa Savage • CELIA (#10 Time)
Wizkid • MADE IN LAGOS (#43 Guardian)

songs:
Prince Kaybee ft. Shimza, Black Motion & Ami Faku • Uwrongo (#9 Time)
Sun-El Musician ft. Azana • Uhuru (#37 NPR)
Tiwa Savage • Dangerous Love** (#95 NPR)
**weirdly for one of its remixes, as if the original wasn’t magnificent enough

so a grand total of 4 albums and 3 songs, each of them only mentioned once. very impressive.

not for the first time, Time Magazine (or their music person at least) showing everybody they know where it’s at

― fat ass deep state operative (breastcrawl)

I’m sure most of those will make the ILM top 77 tracks and that’s the only list that matters

xp not complaining! just surprised it's the #1 overall album so far

yeah, def not complaining here, either. i like it more than Indexed ... i think it's a top 10 record of this year. and Stranger was more like top 3 or top 5 of that year.

they're both incredible! and i'm happy to see Punisher at the top of lists. i just think jaymc was spot on with his analysis of why this feels so different than Stranger did.

i mean, my place that i write for didn't even review Stranger when it came out. at year-end list season, i had to convince them to put it in the albums list and let me write a new blurb for it.

It's a weird feeling when an artist you think was unduly ignored in one cycle suddenly gets heaps of praise (too much?) in the next.

i think this is really common, maybe moreso than it used to be? ... critics - esp. those at bigger pubs focusing on bigger stuff - miss out on a great small record, then discover it in the subsequent years or hear so much about it that when the next album comes out, they latch onto it early and over-praise it to make up for missing out on the previous one. i see it all the time on twitter.

(i'm NOT saying this is Brad w/r/t Punisher!)

I like Stranger, I like Punisher more, and if she makes the pop-rock-folk-psych record that I hope is her next one, I'll love it.

(Punisher isn't in my personal top 10, but if we were going for lyrics alone it would be)

It's a weird feeling when an artist you think was unduly ignored in one cycle suddenly gets heaps of praise (too much?) in the next.

Ah yes, the Be Here Now effect.

????

I would hardly call the record before Be Here Now "unduly ignored"!

the effect is much more akin with what happened to Weyes Blood, who released 3 masterpieces in a row, with only the 3rd widely recognised as such

i was pretty certain either bob dylan or taylor swift would RS's #1 and i probably should have bet on it.

Yeah Strangers.. was my favourite of the last decade, but I didn't hear it until a year after its release.

fwiw breastcrawl, Pitchfork seem to have gone all in on afrobeats this year...we'll see I guess

I would hardly call the record before Be Here Now "unduly ignored"!

It's generally considered that music critics overrated Be Here Now because of a perception that they had underrated What's the Story Morning Glory. It's the canonical example of such an overreaction IMO. (I disagree that they underrated What's the Story in the first place, but that's irrelevant)

well established that a breakthrough in the ILM EOY top 10 is key part of the campaign for the following year's #1 spot