The 2020 end of year music lists thread

Really glad to see the JD Allen album show up on the Quietus jazz list. It's a great record, but exactly the kind of thing that falls through the cracks because there's no hook or gimmick for a critic to latch onto; it's just three guys playing really, really well together in a traditional style — if you like circa-1964 John Coltrane, you'll like Allen — but absolutely putting their own spin on it. (Full disclosure: JD is a friend, and I wrote the liner notes for the album.)

vc, that's fair – I do agree that there's an audible progression.

I would also be interested in seeing the WIRE lists.

I helped put on a show for Mourning A BLKStar here in Philly once— it turned into a total nightmare because of a serious miscommunication with the venue, and I ended up having to pay their entire fee out of my own pocket (long story!). BUT!! They were an exceptionally good live band, and interesting, fun people to be around. Glad they're getting love.

that RS song list has Oxlade’s “Away” at 23 - I approve. I also like that they have Curtis Waters’s “Stunnin’” somewhere too. I love that big dumb track.

do we have a thread where Mourning A BLKStar has been discussed? this is srsly great stuff

they’ve hidden those lists very well, I went to the site but wasn’t able to find them. do you have a link?

no, it's in the print issue out today...

Wire Magazine - Releases Of The Year 2020

1. Beatrice Dillon - Workaround
2. Moor Mother - Circuit City
3. Mourning A BLKstar - The Cycle
4. Bob Dylan - Rough And Rowdy Ways
5. Duma - Duma
6. Jeff Parker & The New Breed - Suite for Max Brown
7. Still House Plants - Fast Edit
8. Jennifer Walshe - A Late Anthology Of Early Music Vol 1: Ancient To Renaissance
9. White Boy Scream - Bakunawa
10. Carl Stone - Stolen Car

11. Backxwash - God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It
12. Armand Hammer - Shrines
13. Sarah Davachi - Cantus, Descant
14. Zeroh - BLQLYTE
15. Bill Nace - Both
16. William Basinski - Lamentations
17. Albert Bouchard - Re Imaginos
18. Rhodri Davies - Telyn Rawn
19. Quelle Chris & Chris Keys - Innocent Country 2
20. Special Interest - The Passion Of

21. Irreversible Entanglements - Who Sent You?
22. Aksak Maboul - Figures
23. Liv.e - Couldn't Wait To Tell You
24. Ellen Fulman & Theresa Wong - Harbors
25. ONO - Red Summer
26. The Soft Pink Truth - Shall We Go On Sinning So The Grace May Increase?
27. Sun Ra Arkestra - Swirling
28. Fiona Apple - Fetch The Bolt Cutters
29. Autechre - SIGN
30. Gogoj aka Sheng Jie - Oviparity

31. Mary Halvorson's Code Girl - Artlessly Falling
32. Jay Electronica - A Written Testimony
33. PRAED! Orchestra - Live In Sharjah
34. Angel Bat Dawid & Tha Brotherhood - Live
35. Tara Clerkin Trio - Tara Clerkin Trio
36. Crazy Doberman - Illusory Expansion
37. Oliver Coats - skins n slime
38. Clipping - Visions Of Bodies Being Burned
39. Mary Lattimore - Silver Ladders
40. Pink Siifu - NEGRO

41. Sara Serpa - Recognition
42. Thundercat - It Is What It Is
43. Anna Von Hausswolff - All Thoughts Fly
44. Neptunian Maximalism - Eons
45. Headie One x Fred again. - GANG
46. Neil Charles - Low And Beyond
47. Wendy Eisenberg - Auto
48. Asher Gamedze - Dialectic Soul
49. Tricky - Fall To Pieces
50. Sylvia Hallett - Tree Time

apologies in advance for any typos

B. Dillon and B. Dylan together at last

...and in the correct order

Thanks!

no problem! can do some of the genre lists a bit later if there are any requests

wow once again i love the wire list

thank you, NickB!

9. White Boy Scream - Bakunawa

Yesssss.

Wire Magazine - Releases Of The Year 2020

2. Moor Mother - Circuit City
21. Irreversible Entanglements - Who Sent You?
Good for Moor Mother, doing Philly proud almost placing two records in their top 20!

5. Duma - Duma
Brilliant Kenyan industrial grind.

11. Backxwash - God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It
My favorite hip-hop album this year.

44. Neptunian Maximalism - Eons
Lots of metal friends love this but I got bored about 90 minutes in.

Good list.

I'm a Wire voter and I'm surprised someone else voted for Éons to get it into the top 50. These were my lists:

TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2020
Ambrose Akinmusire, On The Tender Spot Of Every Calloused Moment (Blue Note)
Shabaka And The Ancestors, We Are Sent Here By History (Impulse!)
Neptunian Maximalism, Éons (I, Voidhanger)
Autechre, PLUS/SIGN (Warp)
Spirit Adrift, Enlightened In Eternity (20 Buck Spin)
Anna Högberg Attack, Lena (Omlott)
Darragh Morgan/John Tilbury, Morton Feldman: For John Cage (Diatribe)
Napalm Death, Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism (Century Media)
Behold The Arctopus, Hapeleptic Overtrove (Willowtip)
Xythlia, Immortality Through Quantum Suicide (I, Voidhanger)

TOP 10 REISSUES/ARCHIVAL RELEASES OF 2020
Anthony Braxton, Town Hall 1972 (Trio)
Pharoah Sanders, Live In Paris 1975 (Transversales Disques)
Cecil Taylor & Tony Oxley, Birdland, Neuburg 2011 (Fundacja Słuchaj)
Sonny Rollins, Rollins In Holland (Resonance)
The Meters, Gettin’ Funkier All The Time (Cherry Red)
Iggy Pop, The Bowie Years (Universal)
Randy Holden, Population II (RidingEasy)
Masayuki Takayanagi New Direction Unit, Axis/Another Revolvable Thing (Blank Forms Editions)
Sir Lord Baltimore, Complete Recordings 1970-2006 (Cherry Red)
The Stooges, Live At Goose Lake August 8, 1970 (Third Man)

22. Aksak Maboul - Figures

Massively satisfying slab of systemspop aceness - totally approachable and glorious fun

Glad to see the Anna Högberg Attack and Neptunian Maximalism on your list, unperson.

That performance of For John Cage is predictably superlative, but I've been totally burnt-out on Feldman for a long time now, especially his 1980s stuff.

Really glad to see the JD Allen album show up

Listening to this now, it's really good!

I'm a Wire voter and I'm surprised someone else voted for Éons to get it into the top 50

The person who complied the 'avant rock' top ten (Antonio Poscic) included Neptunian Maximalism in there too, so i guess that's the other voter. Also in that list: Duma, ONO, Imperial Triumphant, OOIOO, Bloodmist, Bill Nace, tetema, Faucet, Expander

NickB, do they still run the 'critical beats' list? if so, could you post it?

sure, here you go...

Wire Critical Beats 10 (compiled by Joe Muggs)

Anz - Loos In Twos
Andrew Weatherall - Unkown Plunderer
Nazar - Territorial EP
Azu Tiwaline - Magnetic Service EP
Krust - TEOE Remixes #1
KG - Sensei EP
Robert Hood / Floorplan - The Struggle / Save The Children
Uj Bala - Grey Gardens
Lila Tirando A Violeta - Tungsten Tears
Hard Ton - Beats For Straight Boys

many thanks!

good call on Kassa VC; i thought this was his breakout year

― the serious avant-garde universalist right now (forksclovetofu), Sunday, 6 December 2020 21:50 (yesterday) link

got an honorable mention slot on Carl Wilson’s list for slate, that’s something I guess!

https://slate.com/culture/2020/12/best-albums-2020-plus-best-songs.html

Textura's lists are up:
https://www.textura.org/archives/articles/2020top10s.htm

The NPR individual lists haven’t been shared yet have they?

Liking this a lot better.

https://www.npr.org/2020/12/04/942133359/the-best-music-of-2020-npr-staff-picks

Oh the Textura reps for:

Christian Löffler: Parallels (Beethoven): Shellac Reworks

That’s a great one! Love it.

And that’s about the only record I know from that list...

That Burial comp is frankly depressing. The more recent material on disc 1 pales in comparison with the 'classics' on disc 2.

though rival dealer is on the first disc and that's his very best release

Title track is good and serves as an appetizer for disc 2, but I've never been too keen on 'Hiders' and 'Come Down to Us'.

Anyway, Textura's EOY picks are always welcome but that classical list couldn't be any further from my own tastes.

Damn, Wire's list was about the only hope I had for Zeroh's 'BLQLYTE' to get its due, so bummer to see it come in only at #14.

I listened to the Rebecca Hennessy album once when Textura reviewed it the first time and it was p good iirc. I still don't completely know how I manage to have so little overlap with any of these lists, even Wire and Textura, although I feel like I listen to and enjoy a decent amount of music.

I mean, there is probably is stuff I would like on those lists.

I've been writing for The Wire since 2002 and I've only heard 15 of those albums:

2. Moor Mother - Circuit City
5. Duma - Duma
6. Jeff Parker & The New Breed - Suite for Max Brown

11. Backxwash - God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It

21. Irreversible Entanglements - Who Sent You?
24. Ellen Fulman & Theresa Wong - Harbors
27. Sun Ra Arkestra - Swirling
28. Fiona Apple - Fetch The Bolt Cutters
29. Autechre - SIGN

31. Mary Halvorson's Code Girl - Artlessly Falling
34. Angel Bat Dawid & Tha Brotherhood - Live

42. Thundercat - It Is What It Is
43. Anna Von Hausswolff - All Thoughts Fly
44. Neptunian Maximalism - Eons
48. Asher Gamedze - Dialectic Soul

I just listened to the Jeff Parker and tbh I was a little surprised they would pick this as the best jazz album of the year. I did like the last track quite a bit. A lot is likeable, though, and it may well benefit from more listens.

xp heard 16:

1. Beatrice Dillon - Workaround
4. Bob Dylan - Rough And Rowdy Ways
11. Backxwash - God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It
12. Armand Hammer - Shrines
13. Sarah Davachi - Cantus, Descant
15. Bill Nace - Both
16. William Basinski - Lamentations
24. Ellen Fulman & Theresa Wong - Harbors
28. Fiona Apple - Fetch The Bolt Cutters
29. Autechre - SIGN
33. PRAED! Orchestra - Live In Sharjah
38. Clipping - Visions Of Bodies Being Burned
39. Mary Lattimore - Silver Ladders
43. Anna Von Hausswolff - All Thoughts Fly
44. Neptunian Maximalism - Eons
48. Asher Gamedze - Dialectic Soul

Armand Hammer, Sarah Davachi, Ellen Fulman & Theresa Wong, Autechre, Anna von Hausswolff and Neptunian Maximalism are the ones I'd stan for.

Re: Textura, Causa Sui sounds pretty cool – laid-back fusion-y psych rock jamming.

I also enjoyed track 1 of the Douglas MacGregor. Simple yet emotionally effective solo guitar work.

The Moor Mother album at #2 is kinda the highest ranking jazz record on the list, as it’s pretty much a stealth Irreversible Entanglements record with more electronics than usual and some guest vocalists.

Anna Högberg Attack sounds good so far.

I saw this Lewsberg album show up a few places. At first they just seemed like V.U. fetishists to me, but they've got their own thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61P-0bAuqTM

The Quietus's metal sub-list, which is better than most imo, although I'm not sold on the rankings:

https://thequietus.com/articles/29321-the-best-heavy-metal-2020

The Rambler (aka ex-ILXor Tim Rutherford-Johnson) published an excellent list of mostly contemporary classical EOY picks:

https://johnsonsrambler.wordpress.com/2020/12/08/rambler-releases-of-2020/

The Liza Lim is a no-brainer and the Clara Iannotta is amazing as well.

been revisiting this year's code orange record and it's like.... so amazing, and apparently way too cool to be on a metal list

https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/best-albums-2020/

oh genuinely surprised waxahatchee is #2? amaarae and burna boy are indeed the token afro picks

Metalcore isn't my jam, but does the Code Orange top the Gulch?

xp

imo it's a computer program that splices together metalcore, nu-metal, and straight up linkin park pop-alt-metal and it's glitching really intensely

Re: 1975 not showing on EOY lists

the music critic establishment rallied together two years too late to anoint the 1975's worst album their best and then turned on them arbitrarily after they made a far better record. this is how you know they're an incredible band.

— jordan (@jordansarge) August 10, 2020

digidoom metal xp

Waxahatchee at #2 is a joke.