The 2020 end of year music lists thread

it owns

xp The Mr. Bungle album is sick

The Graun's jazz top 10 link

I'm particularly curious about their number one, that I've not heard of before. (I did catch her in the 'Last Five Years' Bowie doc that was released some time ago)

Genuinely impressed by how quickly keyiaa has catapulted to the top of critical acclaim, I love it but it felt pretty niche, I thought she’d really go on the next project but it’s moving fast

Cool to see

Guardian jazz list is interesting. Several things on there I like a lot (Metheny, Redman, Rollins, the Blue Note compilation, Bley, Schneider). I do think if you're only listing 10 albums you shouldn't include one that's just a reissue of one of the best-known albums in the history of jazz, though.

Maria Schneider's music is tough to get hold of. She doesn't release it to streaming services; you have to pretty much buy it directly from her. But Data Lords is my favorite thing I've heard by her, by a sizable margin. Worth seeking out.

Thanks unperson. Saw that she only made available a single track from the album on spotify, which is fair enough of course. No really a way to hear it before purchase. But based on that, what I've read and your comments backing that up I'll bite.

Top 100 metal albums of 2020 courtesy of Grizzly Butts:

https://grizzlybutts.com/2020/12/21/the-top-100-albums-of-the-year-2020/

Resident Advisor - 2020's Best Albums
https://www.residentadvisor.net/features/3787

Various - HOA 10-12
Slikback - /// + ///II
KMRU - Peel + opaquer
Ulla - Tumbling Towards A Wall
E.M.M.A. - Indigo Dream
Theo Parrish - Wuddaji
BOOF - Rebirth Of Gerberdaisy
Beatrice Dillon - Workaround
Various - Physically Sick 3
Ana Roxanne - Because Of A Flower
Jonnine - Blue Hills
Moodymann - Taken Away
Yves Tumor - Heaven To A Tortured Mind
Shinichi Atobe - Yes
Actress - Karma & Desire
Duval Timothy - Help
Yaeji - What We Drew 우리가 그려왔던
Jasmine Infiniti - BXTCH SLÄP
Headie One - Edna
RA Album of the Year: DJ Python - Mas Amable

Yaeji record v. good

Electronic Sound:

30. Hilary Woods - Birthmarks
29. Rival Consoles - Articulation
28. Andy Bell - The View from Halfway Down
27. Gaudi - 100 Years of Theremin (The Dub Chapter)
26. Doug McKechnie - San Francisco Moog 1968-72
25. Nyx Nótt - Aux Pieds de la Nuit
24. Sink Ya Teeth - Two
23. Scissorgun - All You Love is Need
22. Belbury Poly - The Gone Away
21. Benge - Thirteen Systems
20. Luke Vibert - Amen Andrews / Modern Rave / Rave Hop
19. Max Richter - Voices
18. Black Devil Disco Club - Lucifer is a Flower
17. Ben Lucas Boysen - Mirage
16. Katie Gately - Loom
15. JARV IS... - Beyond the Pale
14. Luke Abbott - Translate
13. Blancmange - Mindset
12. ACR - ACR Loco
11. Róisín Murphy - Róisín Machine
10. Kl(aüs) - Kl(aüs) 2
9. Roger Eno & Brian Eno - Mixing Colours
8. Polly Scattergood - In This Moment
7. The Orb - Abolition of the Royal Familia
6. Soulwax - EMS Synthi 100: DEEWEE Sessions Vol 01
5. Polypores - Azure / Flora
4. Cabaret Voltaire - Shadow of Fear
3. Working Men's Club - Working Men's Club
2. John Foxx and the Maths - Howl
1. Kelly Lee Owens - Inner Song

Katie Gately should be on more lists.

https://fastnbulbous.com/lucky-20/#albums

As always, RSTB shows up in the end and shows how a list can be a piece of art in itself:

http://www.ravensingstheblues.com/favorite-albums-of-2020/

those Haus of Altr comps (+ various AceMo/MoMA Ready projects) have been absolute fire

my other favorite dance music series this year is New York Dance Music, with a lot of overlapping personnel

As always, RSTB shows up in the end and shows how a list can be a piece of art in itself:

http://www.ravensingstheblues.com/favorite-albums-of-2020/

This is exquisite! a handful of things on here that I know and love, and loads of unknowns to dig into over the next week

I voted in the Wire poll, and the only LP from my ballot that made the top 50 was the Soft Pink Truth. Some years are like that, though.

Andy's (RSTB) aesthetic is just so meticulously curated that I'm compelled to give the ones that did not grab me another chance too. Half my late entries list comes from his:

https://fastnbulbous.com/lucky-20/#late

Boomkat's AOTY is DJ Python, full list does not seem up yet.

is now: https://boomkat.com/charts/boomkat-end-of-year-charts-2020

Of course they wanted to send another email after announcing their number one, so here's the Boomkat 100

xp damnit

Had not noticed there was a new Eyvind Kang and a new Maria Minerva

Really great to see the Hilary Woods album getting traction in some of these lists - it got a bit lost in March but is so perfect for this time of year (and, you know, for this kind of year)

https://www.residentadvisor.net/features/3788
Top Tracks

boomkat tryna bankrupt me again

gotta they're showing a lot of self-control by not including the excellent jonnine standish record they put out

still haven't heard the mica levi which apparently "shifts the template to a sort of scuzzed dreampop somewhere between MBV and that Chopped & Screwed hookup with the London Sinfonietta", mmmm hmmm

It is amazing, yes

listening to it now. sounds like surfer rosa-era pixies playing in a sewer pipe?

Are you talking about the whole album (which is great) or the title-track (which is incredible) there?

title track is dogs barking for thirty seconds?

Ffs we're talking about entirely different albums aren't we

Mica Levi's pop band Good Sad Happy Bad also returned this year lol

Oh right! I was talking about 'ruff dog'. Some good dead c-esque scuzziness on some of the songs, i don't hate it! Will check out the other one though, thanks for the tip

Okay this sounds way different. Classic boomkat move going for the sewercore option

Many and multiple xps

Enjoying the Material Girl album. Some of the references a bit on the nose? Perfect for the fug of this time of year. And loving the KeiyaA. The bass on 'Negus Poem 1&2' nearly made this melt shit his pants.

This new Mica Levi album is great too!

hey imago, heads-up on this one from the boomkat list:

Lol K — The Breeze (Halcyon Veil)
Yeah this is the shit; the standout debut album of intricately woven, asymmetric and offbeat drill/pop from London’s Lol K, starring vocals by Coby Sey and LA Timpa. It’s a shockingly strong followup to their debut EP for Mica Levi and co’s Curl Recordings, developing a crafty set of queer, sensuous pop, configured in brilliant, surprising ways for Halcyon Veil. Highly recommended if yr into Vegyn, Mica Levi, Tirzah, Yves Tumor, Slowthai... T

it's not all great tbh but it has some neat songs on it. might be up your street?

ooh ty will investigate...

biggest surprise from the boomkat list is that helena hauff has questionable taste in television

Ruff Dog is so great! Like a big warm scuzzy blanket.

did not know there was new mica levi!

This seems like a fairly interesting/diverse list (don’t know why he didn’t make it longer, tho): https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/best-music-2020-theo-parrish-pop-smoke/2020/12/07/2039bc8c-3581-11eb-b59c-adb7153d10c2_story.html

that’s paywalled for me - care to c&p that list?

1. Theo Parrish, ‘Wuddaji’

The only place to go dancing in 2020 was inside your own body, so good thing this veteran Detroit producer-DJ makes music for exactly that. Parrish’s carefully studied, profoundly physical approach to rhythm can teach you new ways to move. It might even teach you new ways to live.

2. Noname, ‘Song 33’

The backstory is longer than the song: In June, this Chicago rapper tweeted her disappointment in “top selling rappers” for failing to get involved in the Black Lives Matter movement, and while she didn’t name names, J. Cole felt targeted and recorded a diss track that nobody asked for. Noname replied with “Song 33,” a 70-second sotto voce demolition job and a blueprint for how tomorrow’s protest anthems (and/or rap beef) might feel exponentially humane.

3. Pop Smoke, ‘Meet the Woo 2’

Whether it was pouring from the windows of passing cars or boiling over on the loudspeakers at Black Lives Matter protests, this Brooklyn rapper’s deeper-than-God voice was ubiquitous in 2020 — which means we’ve been mourning him on a daily basis. Twelve days after the release of this billowing, juggernaut album, Pop Smoke was killed in Los Angeles.

Hailey Whitters.
Hailey Whitters. (Harper Smith)
4. Hailey Whitters, ‘The Dream’

Fame-thirsty country singers can be a desperate bunch, but this well-hydrated Iowa songwriter never chases after authenticity, probably because her songs feel so inherently lifelike — plain and simple on the surface, but with layers of human complexity roiling quietly beneath.

5. Sir E.U, ‘Rare Issue’

Spend five minutes tumbling through this District rapper’s swirl of consciousness and you’ll encounter Kristi Yamaguchi and Wynton Marsalis, Hewlett-Packard printers and drone strike missiles, and Sir E.U himself, of course, “an all-girl band in a one lone man,” stanned by God, and “like the Iraq War . . . older than Billie Eilish” — all of this delivered in a visionary sigh.

Caetano Veloso.
Caetano Veloso. (Kyle Gustafson for The Washington Post)
6. Caetano Veloso and Ivan Sacerdote, ‘Caetano Veloso and Ivan Sacerdote’

The fact that this gentle colossus of Brazilian song released this modest little album — a series of tidy duets with the young clarinetist Sacerdote — to zero fanfare only underscores its humility and elegance.

7. Playboi Carti, ‘@ MEH’

One of rap’s wildest stylists continues to advance his dazzling flows, but on this masterpiece tune, listen to how Carti seeps, sinking his liquid rhymes into the music until his voice becomes one with the cyclone of digital confetti twisting around him. Forgive the mixed metaphor, I’m dizzy.

8. Various artists, ‘HOA010’

“In these trying times, we come together to stake claim on the roots of techno and its potential future.” So goes the manifesto of 20-odd Black dance-music producers who assembled for this righteous compilation album on the burgeoning HAUS of ALTR label. Released on Juneteenth, it felt like a statement and a celebration.

9. Drakeo the Ruler, ‘We Know the Truth’

After spending nearly three years in jail on charges he was never found guilty of, the great Los Angeles rapper is finally free, resuming his pathfinding career with meticulous rhymes and charismatic smirks.

Anna von Hausswolff.
Anna von Hausswolff. (Gianluca Grasselli)
10. Anna von Hausswolff, ‘All Thoughts Fly’

Think about the term “background music” in a very literal sense and you’re talking about a sound as vast as the world around you. That’s how this album of ambient pipe organ drones feels after a few spins: deeply immersive, incomprehensibly big.

11. Lil Baby, ‘My Turn (Deluxe)’

Rapping in extroverted smears that sound as immediate as interior thoughts, this year’s breakout rap star knows where he stands in a system that asks us to transpose our humanity into content: “I done put my heart inside a box and tried to sell it to ’em.”

12. Ulla, ‘Tumbling Towards a Wall’

Ambient music “must be as ignorable as it is interesting.” Have we worn that ancient Brian Eno maxim out yet? If so, this Philadelphia soundscaper seems to be proposing a new one: Ambient music must do as much as possible while making us feel like it’s not doing anything at all.

13. Bergsonist, all 2020 recordings on Bandcamp

This year, the Morocco-born producer seemed to be approaching rhythm as a diaristic practice, releasing fresh techno jottings on the streaming platform Bandcamp nearly every Friday of the pandemic. Eavesdropping on her weekly routine allowed her music to become a part of yours.

Makaya McCraven.
Makaya McCraven. (Leslie Kirchoff)
14. Makaya McCraven, ‘Universal Beings E&F Sides’

The fact that this Chicago jazz drummer’s most mesmerizing album was culled from the leftovers of his 2018 record, “Universal Beings,” should make us wonder what else is hiding in the fridge.

15. Beatrice Dillon, ‘Workaround’

The British producer’s pristine electronic rhythms sound as if they were recorded in the sterility of an airless void, but her music still finds a way to feel teeming, funky and alive. Yes, germaphobes have every right to be stressed right now, but not here. It’s music.

thanx, Moka. great looking list that, more would have been nice (just like the Time Magazine ones)

Whenever that dude writes about mumble rap its Cringe City

*it's

"well hydrated"??

I think that was supposed to counterbalance "Fame-thirsty country singers" earlier in the same sentence but it's still o_O

The Hailey Whitters album is mostly so bad (a few decent tracks) that this take would make me doubt the rest of the list, if I didn't already know the mentioned music of Bergsonist, McCraven, and omg Beatrice Dillon's Workaround. Though I'm totally ignorant of the other picks.

Although as I said on Rolling Country, if Kacey Musgraves' The Golden Hour is your inspiration, then Whitters' album may indeed seem (well-hydrated or whatevs).

i found some things to like on the whitters album but my gf was repulsed by how much it sounded like a homogenized kacey musgraves slurry and now i am not allowed to play it in the house.

https://www.passionweiss.com/2020/12/29/the-pow-best-albums-of-2020/
https://www.passionweiss.com/2020/12/28/best-rap-songs-2020/

What an albums list, thanks forks!! Will def take my belated self to check out Theo Parrish right now, and glad to see Jessie Ware, Nubya Garcia, and Jeff Parker in thee midst of all this.