The 2020 end of year music lists thread

Feels very similar in spirit to p4k's, which is to be expected, I suppose.

Made in Lagos at 74 and Twice as Tall at 21 (the reverse would have been more accurate), slim Afropop pickings on an otherwise interesting list.

agree with that, hopefully they'll include some more african inclusions in their tracks list.

That list reminded me I need to check out that Jeremy Cunningham record.

featuring some honest-to-god imagocore in Machine Girl!

they also included many of the rap albums i liked a lot this year (was kind of a weak year for rap albums overall tbh, much stronger for singles)

ctrl + f 'armand hammer'

no results

shame on u, vice

xp
Hey NYCNative: if the Quietus metal list is still currently down, this Cryptic Shift album was my big new-to-me discovery from it, FWIW
(a slightly more tech take on the sci-fi, slightly prog death angle that Death Incantation and Tomb Mold are perhaps best known for running with over the past 3-4 yrs,
but this release impresses me a fair bit more than either of those bands have, TBH):

https://cryptic-shift.bandcamp.com/album/visitations-from-enceladus

(^ Blood Incantation, whoops)

I, too, was impressed by Visitations from Enceladus but its formlessness is a bug rather than a feature imo. I look forward to their next couple of releases.

Fair enough!
This Vassafor album's the other metal record that I only just got into in the past few days via it getting enough year-end notice to likewise grab my attention--
lots of riffs strung into/after riffs on this one tool, but I really like how these New Zealanders stick an early, thrashy, out-and-out Satanic sensibility with that Antipodean post-Portal caverncore approach with nice murk/clarity balance in the production:

https://ironboneheadproductions.bandcamp.com/album/vassafor-to-the-death

...And, uh, am much more into Swearin' than Waxahatchee, haha

One of my favorite albums of the year is Blake Mills' "Mutable Set"--admittedly a very quiet record that might pride itself on fading away, so perhaps not surprising that I haven't seen it on any EOY lists. I guess since P'fork gave it a BNM I thought it had a chance of showing up on their list, but nope.

"vanishing twin" did ok on the p4k songs list so i'm a little surprised it didn't make the albums list, great album

vice list is interesting as usual, there's lots to dig through there.

been enjoying The Cycle by Mourning (A) BLKstar from the Wire list

the Beatrice Dillon album is really nice listening to on headphones

End-of-year music mix, for a change of pace:

'Hindsight Twenty Twenty': The most essential music of the year of 2020, reflecting our anger, hope, love, fears, beauty and the fight.https://t.co/C3z6ZFfsxP

w/ @SaultGlobal @NAEEMmusic @terencenance @_zeroh @Aho_Ssan @JUNGLEPUSSY @ghostpoet @YvesTumor @RoyKinsey @beautypill pic.twitter.com/hVEjoCB4Yx

— Musicophilia (@musicophiliamix) December 9, 2020

https://musicophilia.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/musicophilia_00_various_-_hindsight-twenty-twenty_2020_cover-a-front.jpg?w=3600

Part I

01 [0:00:00] Sault – “Fearless” (‘Untitled (Rise)’)
02 [0:03:40] Naeem – “Tiger Song” (‘Startisha’)
03 [0:08:10] Terence Etc. – “Like That Tho?” (‘Things I Never Had’)
04 [0:13:00] Zeroh – “The Lord & Nature” (‘BLQLYTE’)
05 [0:17:10] Aho Ssan – “Intro” (‘Simulacrum’)
06 [0:20:40] Junglepussy – “Spiders” (‘Jp4’)
07 [0:23:05] Ghostpoet – “Nowhere to Hide Now” (‘I Grow Tired But Dare Not Fall Asleep’)
08 [0:27:35] Yves Tumor – “Dream Palette” (‘Heaven To a Tortured Mind’)
09 [0:30:30] Roy Kinsey – “Everything is Everything” (‘KINSEY: A Memoir’)
10 [0:33:35] Beauty Pill – “The Damndest Thing” (‘Please Advise’)

Part II

11 [0:38:35] Bartees Strange – “Far” (‘Live Forever’)
12 [0:42:25] Nazar – “Retaliation” (‘Guerrilla’)
13 [0:45:30] Moor Mother & Olof Melander – “Hemlock” (‘Anthologia 01’)
14 [0:48:15] Moses Boyd – “Only You” (‘Dark Matter’)
15 [0:52:20] Wayne Phoenix – “Reserve” (‘Soaring Wayne Phoenix Story The Earth’)
16 [0:53:45] Nnamdi – “Heartless” (‘Black Plight’)
17 [0:56:50] Algiers – “Losing Is Ours” (‘There Is No Year’)
18 [1:00:25] Zsela – “For Now” (‘Ache of Victory’)
19 [1:04:40] Anjimile – “1978” (‘Giver Taker’)
20 [1:09:10] Tek.Lun – “No Peace!” (‘The Opression Olympics’)
21 [1:12:55] Kassa Overall – “Show Me a Prison” (‘I Think I’m Good’)
22 [1:16:20] Jeff Parker – “Go Away” (‘Suite for Max Brown’)
23 [1:21:15] KMRU – “Why Are You Here?” (‘Peel’)

Part III

24 [1:22:00] Infinity Knives & Brian Ennals – “The Black Power Paradox” (‘Rhino XXL’)
25 [1:26:00] Oui Ennui – “A Man Who Began To Suspect He Was Made of Glass” (‘Wytai’)
26 [1:28:10] Dua Saleh – “Windhymn” (‘Rosetta’)
27 [1:31:15] Fusilier – “Upstream” (‘Upstream’)
28 [1:37:20] Loris – “Driver Nephi” (‘Loris’)
29 [1:42:55] Nailah Hunter – “White Flower, Dark Hill” (‘Spells’)
30 [1:45:20] Moses Sumney – “Polly” (‘Grae’)
31 [1:48:55] Zeal & Ardor – “Vigil” (‘Wake of a Nation’)
32 [1:52:05] Space Afrika – “Oh Baby” (‘Hybtwibt?’)
33 [1:54:05] Lamin Fofana – “I Ran From It and Was Still In It” (‘Darkwater’)

[Total Time: 1:59:55]

turning 40 tomorrow so here's my top 40 (listened to) albums from the last 365 days regardless of release year, which is pretty much why I read ILM, to get this from everyone else, so thank you and you're welcome

1 The Sir Douglas Quintet - The Complete Mercury Masters
2 Al Green - Gets Next to You
3 X - Wild Gift
4 Various Artists - Bachata Roja: Acoustic Bachata from the Cabaret Era
5 Mission of Burma - Signals, Calls, and Marches
6 Them - Them Again (feat. Van Morrison)
7 The Funkees - Dancing Time, The Best of Eastern Nigeria's Afro Rock Exponents 1973-77
8 Glen Campbell - The Capitol Years 1965-1977
9 Mulatu Astatke - Ethiopiques, Vol. 4: Ethio Jazz 1969-1974
10 The Dead Milkmen - Big Lizard in my Back Yard
11 James Brown - Love Power Peace (Live at the Olympia in Paris, 1971)
12 Merle Haggard - A Portrait Of
13 The Replacements - Tim
14 The Meat Puppets - II
15 James Brown - Live At Home With His Bad Self
16 Stan Getz - Verve Jazz Masters 53
17 Mac Dre - What's Really Going On?
18 Stephen Malkmus - Traditional Techniques
19 The Howling Hex - All Night Fox
20 Los Tucanes De Tijuana - Para Tucanillos y Tucanillas
21 Susso - Kiera
22 The Left Banke - Walk Away Renée/Pretty Ballerina
23 Jimmy Smith - Softly As A Summer Breeze
24 Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady
25 The Replacements - For Sale: Live at Maxwell's 1986
26 Sharhabil Ahmed - The King of Sudanese Jazz (Habibi Funk 013)
27 Women - Public Strain
28 Al Green - Let's Stay Together
29 Novos Baianos - Acabou Chorare
30 Teenage Fanclub - A Catholic Education
31 The Replacements - Let It be
32 Walter Wanderley - Rain Forest
33 Ghostface Killah - Fishscale
34 Trumans Water - Spasm Smash XXXOXOX Ox & Ass
35 U-Roy - Versions Galore
36 Various Artists - Habibi Funk: An Electic Selection of Music From the Arab World
37 Dick Stusso - In Heaven
38 Dungen - Haxan
39 Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey - Ebenezer Obey in London
40 Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo's Factory (40th Anniversary Edition)

Very cool list--happy birthday

Love the Waxahatchee record, don't care for her earlier efforts though! This one has been on heavy rotation all year. Her take on Country Roads (Take Me Home) with Whitney is very addictive as well.

hb burrito!

The bar is pretty low but Vice is the best list so far. Wouldn't surprise me if it stayed that way.

I don't care for "WAP" but they're the only one so far with RMR in the top 10 which tbh should be in every tracks list this year.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgzgp7/the-100-best-songs-of-2020-noisey

noisey list made me realize "if you're too shy" is pretty underrepresented on these lists

i guess "critically-acclaimed band the 1975" was doomed to be a short-lived phenomenon :)

No Clean Singing's 'great' metal albums of 2020:

https://www.nocleansinging.com/2020/12/09/2020-a-year-in-reviews-the-great/

omg what a nice surprise at the end

https://daily.bandcamp.com/best-of-2020/the-best-club-music-of-2020

Made in Lagos at 74 and Twice as Tall at 21 (the reverse would have been more accurate), slim Afropop pickings on an otherwise interesting list.

― fat ass deep state operative (breastcrawl), dinsdag 8 december 2020 23:41

agree with that, hopefully they'll include some more african inclusions in their tracks list.

― la table sur la table (voodoo chili), dinsdag 8 december 2020 23:47

they did not, just... one: Wizkid's "Blessed" ft. Damian Marley at... 89 (it would be a strange pick as the highlight of the album imho, let alone as the de facto best afropop song of the year).

it's nice to see Lila Iké's "I Spy" in there tho.

The 1975 confuse me in a way that I find unpleasant.

Very well put, that's exactly it for me as well.

Looking forward to the Vinyl Factory album list. In the meantime, this one aligns nicely with my tastes:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/best-music-2020-theo-parrish-pop-smoke/2020/12/07/2039bc8c-3581-11eb-b59c-adb7153d10c2_story.html

Especially happy to see Ulla and Bergsonist in there. Really enjoy those.

I actually went and listened to a bunch of the new album by the 1975 last night, as well as older tracks, to try and figure it out.

The songs are decent pop, lyrics inoffensive and crooned in a fine range of different voices. I think there's something about the production that bothers me. It's very polite and seems made for an Apple commercial-- I want to say it is too quantized, but my music production chops have fallen by the wayside over the past decade.

Los Angeles Times top 10 album list plus honorable mentions list is out. Main item of interest really to me is Kali Uchis new Spanish language album making the top 10 there. That’s a nice late year effort. Also nice to see Moses Sumney there. No one currently living in Latin America, Africa, or Asia made the list.

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2020-12-09/the-10-best-albums-of-2020

...and the accompanying songs list:
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2020-12-09/the-50-best-songs-of-2020#nt=00000176-48c0-d174-adff-7bfdbb600002-liE0promoSmall

calling matt healy's lyrics inoffensive and saying he croons them in a fine range of different voices is a new one for me

those are the two elements that most people hate in my estimation

the 1975 play explicitly with pop artifice and they are meta as hell tbh, i can see how this might grate but calling them polite misses the point a bit

They're post-post-pomo.

or pomenitul in short

Please, I'm post-post-post-pomo.

the text is reading itself, away from our gaze

Precisely.

and that text is the listmakers wondering how the hell to retrofit NEW TAYTAY OMGGGG into their top 20s

1 The Sir Douglas Quintet - The Complete Mercury Masters
YES this is the best, most rockin shit of all time

Please, I'm post-post-post-pomo.

That's not for me to say.

pomo as privilege

It's true, The 1975 are the sound of privilege in 2020.

but are you polite?

(let me know)

Some cool stuff I hadn't heard of on Sasha Geffen's list at Artforum: Dreamcrusher, Mhysa..