The 2020 end of year music lists thread

Idk, normally I'd agree with you but that RT list is a genre* list and is not interesting (to me)

* indie, to be specific, which I know is irritatingly nebulous, but I know it when I see it :)

Well it's an extremely bad indie list

Haha fair enough

gotta think record sales factor into rough trade's formulation a bit.

and the reason they make their list so early is that they're primarily a retail operation and want to give their consumers a gift guide.

I like Rina Sawayama's record quite a bit. Seems like Dirty Hit can't miss these days. Still, #3 is shockingly high!

watch me c+p the first 100 posts of last year’s thread

or alternatively:

wake me when you’re done, I guess you’re the only one having fun

this is my favourite time of the year though

Decibel's list is up, another early one:

40. Dark Fortress, Spectres from the Old World, Century Media
39. Fawn Limbs, Sleeper Vessels, Roman Numeral
38. Exgenesis, Solve et Coagula, Rain Without End
37. Megaton Sword, Blood Hails Steel – Steel Hails Fire, Dying Victims
36. Oranssi Pazazu, Mestarin Kynsi, Nuclear Blast
35. Svalbard, When I Die, Will I Get Better, Translation Loss
34. Enslaved, Utgard, Nuclear Blast
33. In the Company of Serpents, Lux, Self-released
32. Xibalba, Años En Infierno, Southern Lord
31. Wake, Devouring Ruin, Translation Loss
30. Cirith Ungol, Forever Black, Metal Blade
29. Proscription, Conduit, Dark Descent
28. Celestial Season, The Secret Teachings, Burning World
27. Midnight, Rebirth by Blasphemy, Metal Blade
26. Krallice, Mass Cathexis, Self-released
25. ACxDC, Satan is King, Prosthetic
24. Temple of Void, The World That Was, Shadow Kingdom
23. Atramentus, Stygian, 20 Buck Spin
22. Tombs, Under Sullen Skies, Season of Mist
21. Haunt, Flashback, Church
20. Kirk Windstein, Dream in Motion, eOne
19. Pallbearer, Forgotten Days, Nuclear Blast
18. Lamp of Murmuur, Heir of Ecliptical Romanticism, Self-released
17. Godthrymm, Reflections, Profound Lore
16. Dropdead, Dropdead, Armageddon
15. Ripped to Shreds 亂 (Luan), Pulverized
14. Vile Creature, Glory, Glory! Apathy Took Helm!, Prosthetic
13. Of Feather & Bone, Sulfuric Disintegration, Profound Lore
12. Armored Saint, Punching the Sky, Metal Blade
11. Incantation, Sect of Vile Divinities, Relapse
10. Goden, Beyond Darkness, Svart
9. Paradise Lost, Obsidian, Nuclear Blast
8. Uada, Djinn, Eisenwald
7. Sweven, The Eternal Resonance, Svart
6. Necrot, Mortal, Tankcrimes
5. Spirit Adrift, Enlightened in Eternity, 20 Buck Spin
4. Paysage d’Hiver, Im Wald, Kunsthall Produktionen
3. Imperial Triumphant, Alphaville, Century Media
2. Eternal Champion, Ravening Iron, No Remorse
1. Napalm Death, Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism, Century Media

It gives the olds (Napalm Death, Paradise Lost, Göden, Incantation, etc.) more credit than they deserve at present, methinks.

I soured on the Imperial Triumphant after repeated listens – Vile Luxury was much more convincing in the songwriting department. Anyway, I haven't heard all of these (yet) but if I had to put together a top 50 today, the only contenders would be Paysage d'Hiver, Necrot, Lamp of Murmuur, Atramentus and Oranssi Pazuzu.

The Göden was especially bad. It simply doesn't stand comparison with its immediate ancestor (Winter).

Decibel's and my metal priorities this year have been...unaligned

Yeah, I'm not thrilled with that list. I like the Napalm Death a lot, but not nearly AOTY level, since I don't think it's as good as their last couple. I do really love the Imperial Triumphant and Paysage d'Hiver, so I'm glad to see those high up.

Don't get me wrong, the Napalm Death and Paradise Lost LPs aren't bad by any stretch of the imagination (I do think the Incantation is too bland for comfort, though). Like you said, they're just not EOY list material.

Looking at that list makes me feel like it was kind of an underwhelming year for metal.

paradise lost are on a streak of great records tho. napalm death too but i still haven’t heard the latest

Their top 3 will be on my list, and I'm happy to see Slift and Chuck Prophet. I'm glad they're at least delaying the coronation of Fetch the Bolt Cutters a little, because I expect that's going to top a lot of lists and I just have trouble sitting through it.

xpost - The Napalm Death is good! Don't get me wrong, not underselling it at all, but considering how killer their recent run has been, I can't help but think it pales compared to Apex Predator and Utilitarian.

Given Decibel's mainstream-ish proclivities, Deftones's non-inclusion is shameful imo or are they not 'extreme' enough for a list that puts Eternal Champion at #2?

(xposts my post was about Rough Trade not Decibel, obv.)

Figured, though it might have been cool to see Slift crack Decibel's list too!

I liked the Napalm Death, Imperial Triumphant, and Incantation albums a lot. On the other hand, I am completely done trying to give a shit about Enslaved and the Necrot was just OK. Glad to see Spirit Adrift place that high; I figured most critics would basically flip that one and the Pallbearer (which bored the shit out of me). The Deftones album is better than a lot of the other stuff (that I've heard) on that list; it's one of the best records of the year.

Things I included on my Wire year-end list that would have been cool to see on the Decibel list:

Neptunian Maximalism, Éons
Behold the Arctopus, Hapeleptic Overtrove
Xythlia, Immortality Through Quantum Suicide

Neptunian Maximalism presumably too eccentric for Decibel.

Why would you even try getting into Enslaved btw? It’s obviously not your cup of Nordic tea, just as I couldn’t give two shits about anything with ‘core’ in it (except maybe grindcore, and only up to a point).

enslaved are proggy enough for them to seem at least ostensibly like unperson's kind of thing, though i get why he doesn't give a shit

Fair enough. It’s true that BM has taken increasingly more of a backseat in their work over the past decade or so.

The Armed are probably gonna drop theirs inside the next 2 months anyway, rendering all existing metal lists hasty

Why would you even try getting into Enslaved btw? It’s obviously not your cup of Nordic tea

Between Below the Lights and Axioma Ethica Odini, they exhibited just enough potential on each album to keep me handing out second chances. At their Floyd-iest, they almost become something I could really love...but then the death growls come back and I give up on them again. At this point I've given up for good. (They were really boring the one time I saw them live, too, but they were the middle band between Skeletonwitch and Amon Amarth, so the odds were stacked against them.)

pvmic

xp

Enslaved’s Floyd impressions are very solid indeed and I do wish they’d tap into that vein (even) more often.

Stuff that wasn't on the Decibel list I might have included:

Neptunian Maximalism - Eons
Hum - Inlet (I know, not really metal but I would have pushed for it here)
SUMAC - May You Be Held
Deftones - Ohms (see Hum)
Old Man Gloom - Seminar IX
Bell Witch & Aerial Ruin - Stygian Bough Vol 1
Elder - Omens
Pyrrhon - Abscess Time
Lowrider - Refractions
Primitive Man - Immersion
16 - Dream Squasher

somehow I knew Sault would be at the top of that Rough Trade list. They'll no doubt top a lot of lists this year, even with vote splitting.

Don’t much care for OMG & Bell Witch but I liked all the others. Love the NM, Deftones and Lowrider in particular.

Glad to see someone else that liked the Lowrider, kinda took me by surprise with how great it was!

Same, it’s one of my most listened to metal albums this year, by far!

7. Sweven, The Eternal Resonance, Svart

out on Ván Records, not Svart

Yeah, looks like Decibel fixed that on their list now.

somehow I knew Sault would be at the top of that Rough Trade list. They'll no doubt top a lot of lists this year, even with vote splitting.

lol while I was listing to (Rise) last week I was wondering how the ilx year-end poll is going to handle that. Because that's the kind of thing I think about. (I mean, I assume they'll be handled as two separate albums, and will probably still do well in the poll. But you could make a case for treating them as a double album. Same with the two Adrianne Lenker releases.)

I counted the two Autechre albums as one when submitting my year-end list to The Wire. I bet lots of other people will too.

I'm kinda into lists this year more than the last few because there has been sooooo much good music released, it's one of the few bright spots of 2020 but also overwhelming. And it's still coming.

The Lenker ones were released and reviewed as one package, so I don't see a challenge with that one. I could def see some vote splitting with Sault though.

I definitely see both the Sault and Autechre releases as separate albums. I also look at the Lenker ones as separate, but think there is more of a case to be made for putting them together.

they are literally packaged together in shops

Decibel list makes me feel it has not been an outstanding year for metal

Decibel list is missing a LOT. Including loads of stuff that other ILXors itt haven't caught

victory over the sun, fortress of the olden days, psalm zero, lychgate, mamaleek, azusa, salqiu, couch slut, biesy, hail spirit noir, fucking MYSTRAS, molde volhal, crisis sigil, wyrmwoods

all unmentioned, all worthy. it's always been a good year

oh man i missed a new couch slut record? what am i doing

this is possibly going to be an interesting list year. Other than Fiona Apple I don't know what the consensus albums are. Folklore? Rough & Rowdy Ways? Jessie Ware? Phoebe Bridgers?

unless the critics have gotten more interesting, yes

should be charli obv

should be Brandy!! haha

UNCUT's AOTY has anticipated the ILM poll winner for the past 2 years! This will not continue:

75. Kelly Lee Owens - Inner Song
74. Jeff Parker - Suite for Max Brown
73. Doves - The Universal Want
72. Tamikrest - Tamotait
71. Andy Bell - The View from Halfway Down
70. Bill Fay - Countless Branches
69. Honey Harper - Starmaker
68. Steve Earle & the Dukes - Ghosts of West Virginia
67. Matt Berry - Phantom Birds
66. Six Organs of Admittance - Companion Rises
65. Garcia Peoples - Nightmare at Wit's End
64. Nadine Shah - Kitchen Sink
63. HC McEntire - Eno Axis
62. Aoife Nessa Frances - Land of No Junction
61. Elvis Costello - Hey Clockface
60. Lianne La Havas - Lianne La Havas
59. Julianna Barwick - Healing is a Miracle
58. BC Camplight - Shortly After Takeoff
57. Tony Allen & Hugh Masekela - Rejoice
56. The Lemon Twigs - Songs for the General Public
55. Khruangbin - Mordechai
54. Perfume Genius - Set My Heart On Fire Immediately
53. Sufjan Stevens - The Ascension
52. Hen Ogledd - Free Humans
51. Haim - Women in Music Pt.III
50. Margo Price - That's How Rumors Get Started
49. Gwenifer Raymond - Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain
48. The Necks - Three
47. Working Men's Club - Working Men's Club
46. Roger & Brian Eno - Mixing Colours
45. Bright Eyes - Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was
44. Eddie Chacon - Pleasure, Joy and Happiness
43. Sarah Davachi - Cantus, Descant
42. Róisín Murphy - Róisín Machine
41. Keeley Forsyth - Debris
40. Brigid Dawson & the Mothers Network - Ballet of Apes
39. The Psychedelic Furs - Made of Rain
38. Bonny Light Horseman - Bonny Light Horseman
37. Sparks - A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip
36. Destroyer - Have We Met
35. Shabaka & the Ancestors - We Are Sent Here By History
34. Rose City Band - Summerlong
33. Bananagun - The True Story of Bananagun
32. The Flaming Lips - American Head
31. Afel Bocoum - Lindé
30. Cornershop - England is a Garden
29. Songhoy Blues - Optimisme
28. Lucinda Williams - Good Souls Better Angels
27. Kevin Morby - Sundowner
26. Rolling Blackouts CF - Sideways to New Italy
25. Nubya Garcia - Source
24. Moses Sumney - Græ
23. Paul Weller - On Sunset
22. Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters
21. James Elkington - Ever-Roving Eye
20. Bruce Springsteen - Letter to You
19. Brigid Mae Power - Head Above the Water
18. Frazey Ford - U Kin B the Sun
17. SAULT - Untitled (Black Is)
16. Stephen Malkmus - Traditional Techniques
15. Fontaines DC - A Hero's Death
14. Courtney Marie Andrews - Old Flowers
13. Tame Impala - The Slow Rush
12. Moses Boyd - Dark Matter
11. Jason Isbell - Reunions
10. Laura Marling - Song for Our Daughter
9. Shirley Collins - Heart's Ease
8. JARV IS... - Beyond the Pale
7. Bill Callahan - Gold Record
6. Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud
5. Thundercat - It Is What It Is
4. Drive-By Truckers - The New OK
3. Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher
2. Fleet Foxes - Shore
1. Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy Ways

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.

Theo Parrish and Jessie Ware are must listens; the latter might as well be my fave album of the year and Parrish's "This Is For You" might as well be my single of the year.

5against4's list, pt. 1:

http://5against4.com/2020/12/30/best-albums-of-2020-part-1/

Norman Records lists:
https://www.normanrecords.com/features/albums-of-the-year-2020

(Slum of Legs in the 'Nearlies' one)

Vogue UK’s 12 albums of the year, quite a few ILM favourites, including Wizkid:

https://www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lifestyle/article/best-albums-2020

5against4, pt. 2:

http://5against4.com/2020/12/31/best-albums-of-2020-part-2/

https://finestkiss.wordpress.com/2020/12/30/albums-2020/

this joel lavoie album from the 5vs4 list is blowing me away

https://mikroclimat.bandcamp.com/album/souvenir

Anti-Gravity Bunny's drone list
https://www.antigravitybunny.com/?p=12746

Are most labels and bands just printing smaller and smaller runs of physical LPs and CDs these days? I'm somewhat surprised by how many albums I'm learning about from year end lists, only to find out there are all sold out everywhere. The Sault albums being one example, but also the Bdrmm and Jack Cades albums from that (really good) Finest Kiss list. I don't remember running into this nearly as often in years past. I know some of this is due to pressing plant schedules being already screwed up before COVID even factored into things, but this also seems to go for CDs just as much as vinyl.

tl;dr I can't remember a year end list season when I've had more than 10 records on my list that I'd love to buy a physical copy of, but literally can't.

Did the anti gravity bunny dude sell all his records in the end?

It's becoming increasingly clear that when it comes to smaller labels, you better be ready to buy something as soon as the pre-order is announced, otherwise there is a very good chance you've already missed the boat. It's a bummer to read about a new album that was only released four months ago, but is already out of print.

Are most labels and bands just printing smaller and smaller runs of physical LPs and CDs these days?

Speaking as someone who's going to be releasing records next year, yes. 500-1000 copies is really all that's sustainable at this point unless you're a pop act. I'm going to be doing runs of 500 CDs, and after that it's download-only unless demand proves to be absurd (it won't).

That totally makes sense, I get it. Just sort of puts a damper on the joys of discovering something that slipped by under the radar.

have your say: ILM's 2020 End of Year Tracks & Albums Poll / VOTING AND CAMPAIGNING THREAD

Some good stuff in this multi-pocketed bag:

https://www.sequenza21.com/2021/01/music-from-behind-a-mask-schells-picks-for-2020/

https://www.npr.org/2021/01/14/956649529/2020-best-jazz-albums-critics-poll

NPR jazz critics poll of 148 voters. In addition to best jazz album, there's a separate jazz vocalist list, reissue list, and Latin Jazz list

Maria Schneider's Data Lords was the critics choice — no surprise, though relative unknown Sara Serpa's victory in the Vocal category in a year when both Kurt Elling and Gregory Porter released new albums was. A Thelonious Monk concert recorded at the unlikeliest of venues — a Northern California high school auditorium — in 1968 was voted the year's prize rara avis (my catch-all designation for reissues and never-before-issued finds), and the 23-year-old alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins's Omega ran away from the pack in Debut.

2. Ambrose Akinmusire
On the Tender Spot of Every Calloused Moment (Blue Note)

3. Eric Revis
Slipknots Through a Looking Glass (Pyroclastic)

NPR Latin Jazz from above

Latin
1. Arturo O'Farrill/The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, Four Questions (Zoho)
Votes: 18
Bandleader Arturo O'Farrill translates the essential inquiry at the heart of W.E.B DuBois' tract, The Souls of Black Folks, into an epic symphonic exploration. How does virtue face down violence? O'Farrill and his orchestra respond with polyrhythmic vivacity and harmonic elation. Yet, the lightly spoken sections — Dr. Cornel West's contribution — invoke the deep suffering that prompted DuBois to write more than a century ago, and O'Farrill to compose today. –Suzanne Lorge

2. Aruán Ortiz With Andrew Cyrille and Mauricio Herrera, Inside Rhythmic Falls (Intakt) 11

3. Gonzalo Rubalcaba & Aymée Nuviola, Viento Y Tiempo: Live at the Blue Note Tokyo (Top Stop Music) 6

3. Diego Urcola Quartet Featuring Paquito D'Rivera, El Duelo (Sunnyside) 6

3. Papo Vázquez Mighty Pirates Troubadours, Chapter 10: Breaking Cover (Picaro) 6

6. Dafnis Prieto Sextet, Transparency (Dafnison Music) 5

6. Manuel Valera New Cuban Express Big Band, José Martí En Nueva York (Greenleaf Music) 5

https://afropop.org/articles/albums-from-2020-highlights

afropop .org radio show/podcast blog

album titles in the link

Rocky Dawuni
Songhoy Blues
Elida Almeida
Aricia Mess from Putumayo presents Brazil-Samba, Bossa, and Beyond
Hailu Mergia
Groupe RTD
Gordon Konang
Linos Wengara Magaya & Zimbaremabwe Mbira Vibes
Modeste Hugues & Kilema
Artists for Peace & Justice- Let the Rhythm Lead: Haiti Song Summit Vol. 1
Ali Bilali Soudan
Herb Alpert
Andal Sukabe from Music from Saharan WhatsApp 7 Sahel Sounds
Penny Penny
Nahawa Doumbia
Ballake Sissoko
Oumou Sangare - Acoustic
Monty Alexander

^^ very enjoyable, thanks for posting

i need to make a point to listen to that regularly in 2021