The 2020 end of year music lists thread

Everybody knows democracy is rigged in 2020.

Jeff Rosenstock defeats Dogleg at last.

Alex Ross's notable performances and recordings of 2020:

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/2020-in-review/notable-performances-and-recordings-of-2020

Props to him for including the Liza Lim and Timothy McCormack.

I think those Pitchfork reader poll results are actually pretty good (notwithstanding that one “contains multitudes” of folklore tracks).

just came here to post that Bandcamp article

Sound Opinions:
https://www.soundopinions.org/show/785

Greg Kot:

1. SAULT, Untitled (Black Is) and Untitled (Rise)
2. Run the Jewels, RTJ4
3. Melkbelly, Pith
4. Angelica Garcia, Cha Cha Palace
5. Fiona Apple, Fetch the Bolt Cutters
6. Bartees Strange, Live Forever
7. Coriky, Coriky
8. IDLES, Ultra Mono
9.Porridge Radio, Every Bad
10. Jyoti, Mama, You Can Bet!
11. Lydia Loveless, Daughter
12. Ganser, Just Look at That Sky
13. Bob Dylan, Rough and Rowdy Ways
14. Nubya Garcia, Source
15. Jay Electronica, A Written Testimony
16. Jason Isbell, Reunions
17. Beach Bunny, Honeymoon
18. Lil Uzi Vert, Eternal Atake
19. Margo Price, That’s How Rumors Get Started
20. Cornershop, England is a Garden

Jim DeRogatis:

1. Shemekia Copeland, Uncivil War
2. Ganser, Just Look at That Sky
3. Angelica Garcia, Cha Cha Palace
4. Jason Isbell, Reunions
5. Run the Jewels, RTJ4
6. Lucinda Williams, Good Souls Better Angels
7. Drive-By Truckers, The Unraveling
8. Margo Price, That’s How Rumors Get Started
9. Lydia Loveless, Daughter
10. SAULT, Untitled (Black Is)/ Untitled (Rise)
11. Idles, Ultra Mono
12. Bob Mould, Blue Hearts
13. Soccer Mommy, color theory
14. Steve Earle, Ghosts of West Virginia
15. Melkbelly, Pith
16. Dua Lipa, Future Nostalgia
17. Wire, Mind Hive
18. U.S. Girls, Heavy Light
19. Shabazz Palaces, The Don of Diamond Dreams
20. Bette Smith, The Good The Bad The Bette

Thanks for the Alex Ross list. I'm listening to Meadow now. It's definitely connecting.

This review is hilarious: https://www.ulyssesarts.com/the-ua-blog/lcms-out-of-silence-meadow

The first ...out of silence release is Meadow, by Linda Catlin Smith, who was born in New York but has long been resident in Canada. Perhaps her music required a move away, a quieter environment, a different pace, another view.

It is not city music. Rather, in its tuning and in its atmosphere, it suggests natural landscapes.

No doubt this is why she has spent the last 40 years in the city of Toronto.

lol!

I'm sure she spent that whole time hunting and chopping wood by her log cabin out in *checks notes* the fourth biggest North American city, population-wise, after Mexico City, New York and Los Angeles.

15 Québécois highlights according to Le Devoir (warning: the article is in French, although not all the albums they cite are francophone):

https://www.ledevoir.com/culture/musique/591430/1-notre-dame-des-sept-douleurs-klo-pelgag

URL is quite the spoiler, heh.

https://thequietus.com/articles/29370-the-quietus-top-100-tracks-of-the-year-2020

https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-radar/the-20-best-debut-albums-of-2020-2835941

https://daily.bandcamp.com/best-of-2020/best-of-2020-connecting-the-dots

The Bab L'Bluz album is officially this year's first big find for me off the EOY lists. They're great.

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), woensdag 2 december 2020 4:06

came across this through your nomination for "Gnawa Beat" and I'm really digging it. merci beaucoup!

finally some real music!

radio x - the best albums of 2020
https://www.radiox.co.uk/features/x-lists/best-albums-2020/

Beabadoobee - Fake It Flowers
Biffy Clyro - A Celebration Of Endings
The Big Moon – Walking Like We Do
Blossoms - Foolish Loving Spaces
Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher
Gerry Cinnamon - The Bonny
Courteeners - More. Again. Forever.
DMA’s – The Glow
Doves - The Universal Want
Liam Gallagher - MTV Unplugged (Live At Hull City Hall)
Georgia – Seeking Thrills
Green Day - Father Of All...
Haim - Women In Music Pt III
The Jaded Hearts Club – You've Always Been Here
The Killers - Imploding The Mirage
The Magic Gang – Death of The Party
Declan McKenna - Zeros
Nothing But Thieves - Moral Panic
Sea Girls – Open Up Your Head
The Strokes - The New Abnormal
Tame Impala - The Slow Rush

Picadilly Records:

Top 100 Albums

Top 20 Compilations

Top 20 Reissues

Picadilly's compilations list is always a favourite

BPM’s Top 50 Albums of 2020
https://beatsperminute.com/bpms-top-50-albums-of-2020/

50. Keeley Forsyth – Debris
49. Lyra Pramuk – Fountain
48. Westside Gunn – Pray For Paris
47. Liturgy – Origin of the Alimonies
46. Ka – Descendants of Cain
45. TWICE – Eyes Wide Open
44. Pet Shimmers – Face Down in Meta / Trash Earthers
43. Boldy James & Sterling Toles – Manger on McNichols
42. Ela Minus – acts of rebellion
41. Lomelda – Hannah
40. Touché Amoré – Lament
39. Buscabulla – Regresa
38. Bartees Strange – Live Forever
37. Tatsuhisa Yamamoto – Ashioto
36. Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud
35. The Koreatown Oddity – Little Dominiques Nosebleed
34. Shabason, Krgovich & Harris – Philadelphia
33. Cindy Lee – What’s Tonight To Eternity
32. Christine and the Queens – La vita nuova
31. Jeff Rosenstock – NO DREAM
30. Leafar Legov – Mirror
29. Empty Country – Empty Country
28. Jessie Ware – What’s Your Pleasure?
27. Them Airs – Union Suit XL
26. Jerskin Fendrix – Winterreise
25. King Krule – Man Alive!
24. Young Nudy – Anyways
23. Lianne La Havas – Lianne La Havas
22. Laura Marling – Song For Our Daughter
21. Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher
20. IZ*ONE – BLOOM*IZ
19. Protomartyr – Ultimate Success Today
18. Ichiko Aoba – Windswept Adan
17. Crack Cloud – Pain Olympics
16. Young Jesus – Welcome to Conceptual Beach
15. Ulla – Tumbling Towards a Wall
14. Deftones – Ohms
13. Yves Tumor – Heaven to a Tortured Mind
12. Kate NV – Room For The Moon
11. Adrianne Lenker – songs and instrumentals
10. Moses Sumney – græ
09. ZOMBIE-CHANG – TAKE ME AWAY FROM TOKYO
08. Fleet Foxes – Shore
07. Owen Pallett – Island
06. The Microphones – Microphones in 2020
05. Fiona Apple – Fetch the Bolt Cutters
04. Half Waif – The Caretaker
03. Boldy James & The Alchemist – The Price of Tea in China
02. Perfume Genius – Set My Heart On Fire Immediately
01. Open Mike Eagle – Anime, Trauma and Divorce

the fader's list is pretty good, imo

https://www.thefader.com/2020/12/15/50-best-albums-of-2020-j-hus-flo-milli-fiona-apple-sault-list

^genuinely surprising #1

s/o to deej for retweeting this list, which is eerily close to my own heart:

the best music from the worst year. been wrestling with this for a strong month. go head and zoom in. 🙏🏿🦀 pic.twitter.com/6q6fwOgAJl

— Lawrence Burney (@TrueLaurels) December 14, 2020

yeah good list

I think my favourite new-to-me discovery from these lists so far has been the album 'Skinned' by ML Buch, which is kind of like a pop Joni Mitchell if she'd been produced by James Ferraro

https://anyines.bandcamp.com/album/skinned

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHa-NMf_L9o

lawrence burney is a good critic, worth following

fader's list is kind of weird to me. why is uzi vert so low lol? a lot of stuff you'd think would be top 25 ... wizkid, uzi, soccer mommy, etc. .. is closer to the bottom of the list

Uproxx which considers themselves to be the heir apparent to Pazz & Jop polled 230 rock critics and this is their list:
https://uproxx.com/critic-polls/the-2020-uproxx-music-critics-poll

I don't have the time to cut and paste it here but Fiona Apple was #1 album and Phoebe Bridgers “I Know The End” was the top song (link goes to song list).

Not a list, per se, but Rough Trade Records (the stores in NYC and the UK) released top picks for staffers in both locations:
https://blog.roughtrade.com/staff-picks-2020

In a similar vein, Mixmag asked a large number of artists for their tracks of the year

https://mixmag.net/feature/the-best-tracks-of-the-year-2020

ha just seen what is #387 on the Uproxxx albums list!

I greatly value 5against4 for its coverage of contemporary classical and far more besides (ambient, 'experimental', free improv, synthpop, electronic, film soundtracks, etc.) so I very much look forward to 2020's EOY list. In the meantime, I thought this was an interesting meditation on what goes into actually making such a list:

http://5against4.com/2020/12/16/best-albums-of-the-year-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-making-lists/

https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2020/12/16/aquarium-drunkard-2020-year-in-review/

Killer Aquarium Drunkard list, as usual. Dangerous for my wallet though, always so many great discoveries.

Reading that 5against4 piece later on, can't wait for their EOY list. I'll chime in and say that I don't know about "one of the best books on music ever written," but 'Words and Music' most certainly is one of the most fun books I've ever read on music.

Aquarium Drunkard's list is incredible, but it doesn't feel like an *EOY* list ('lemme just dump 80% of what I heard this year onto a single page'). Not that I blame them given the task's sheer impossibility.

xp I haven't read it myself, so I'll keep that in mind.

It's a lot of music, but I like how they put some thought into the mini-groupings within the overall list. Keep in mind they also group in reissues and live albums and stuff, so I don't know that it ends up being that much longer than other outlets' lists if you combine their individual categories.

Really happy to see a nod for that killer Brown Acid series from Permanent Records and RidingEasy, so many gems I've picked up there.

Fair enough. I guess I'm simultaneously thankful that they brought at least a dozen amazing-sounding titles to my attention and kind of annoyed with them for ensuring I continue drowning in 2020 releases 'til kingdom come.

Pop Matters - The 20 Best Electronic Albums of 2020
https://www.popmatters.com/best-electronic-albums-2020-2649440753.html

Lots of EOY lists now up on A Closer Listen - electronic, ambient, drone, modern composition, experimental, field recording etc

https://acloserlisten.com/

Love the AD lists

Loads to digest on that mixmag feat

('lemme just dump 80% of what I heard this year onto a single page')

haha, this isn't too far off, really, but i think I prefer that approach!

maybe this has already been covered elsewhere but...

The 25 Best Ghanaian Songs of 2020
https://www.okayafrica.com/ghana-music-songs-best-2020/

The 20 Best Nigerian Songs of 2020
https://www.okayafrica.com/nigerian-music-songs-best-2020/

The 20 Best East African Songs of 2020
https://www.okayafrica.com/east-african-music-best-songs-2020/

15 Great Albums and EPs by South African Indie Artists That Came Out in 2020
https://www.okayafrica.com/15-albums-and-eps-by-south-african-indie-artists-2020/

AD list is top notch! Love that they blurb everything and actually describe the music well enough to give you an idea what it sounds like. Even when they blurb everything, many lists are so abstract in their descriptions that you get no idea if its something you would be interested in checking out.

Agreed, every list should aim for that – just 50 words per blurb is more than enough.

Having knowledgeable and accurate references to other artists helps a great deal. For instance, the name drop of Kevin Ayers in the Spiritual Vegas blurb was enough for me to check it out, and it turns out to have been an excellent reference point and a very cool sounding album!

uh I'll be back in a week after I listen to the dozen shortlisted records from that AD list, thanks

i scrolled thru the AD list and opened 9 new Bandcamp tabs ... and that was probably being careful, cuz i'm busy at work.

I had no idea there was a new Sir Richard Bishop album this year

I did the exact same thing and am now sad to report that I only decided to keep one. :(

xp

Which one pom?

I really like the Brigid Mae Power record on that list, so it's nice to see it get a mention. Co-produced with Alasdair Roberts, if anyone's a fan of his. Really lovely version of the 'The Blacksmith' as made famous by Steeleye Span et al

The Sunn Trio. I'm a sucker for psych rock improvs based on Middle Eastern scales, and I'd never heard of these guys before.

xp