The 2020 Music End of Year Thread

[DFF]

Listened to the Haim album literally this morning. Pretty good, 3/5. 

 

[LittleDaniel]

its nice to see waxahatchee getting a lot of love, i don't remember this happening for their previous releases.

arbitrarily numbered list time!

1. ajj - good luck everybody
2. the mountain goats - songs for pierre chauvin
3. open mike eagle - anime, trauma, and divorce
4. waxahatchee - saint cloud
5. spillage village - spilligion
6. everything put out by griselda's big three because i can't really separate it
7. bad moves - untenable
8. huh probably could have made it to ten if i didn't group griselda huh oh well

i'm sure i'll think of something later. i still need to listen to jeff rosenstock's new album and the other album put out this year by the mountain goats but for some reason i just haven't been able to do it.

[RPS]

I had written an essay about why Fiona Apple's Fetch the Bolt Cutter was the best album I heard this year and the best album I have heard in at least 5 years, but it got erased when I accidentally closed the browser. At this stage, it is probably in my top album of all time discussion. There are albums I can distinctly remember at times of my life and how integral they were - being unemployed and listening to Blonde by Frank Ocean, learning about David Bowie's death and mourning with Blackstar, breaking up with my boyfriend and processing the experience with Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear. April 17th was the day that quarantine from COVID-19 became tolerable because I had Fiona Apple. Throughout this year, there have been times my favorite song has shifted - somedays Shameika, somedays Under the Table, somedays Cosmonauts. But the album helped me get through this year. 

[METALMAN]

Here's the NME list. NME isn't quite the trendmaker it once was, but here it is anyway:

 

https://www.nme.com/features/nme-best-albums-of-the-year-2020-2835612?fbclid=IwAR0HJX4zida8Bg0eJvbTBEUm7dyNgbKp1v7pgClUiO7Y4GMdCgNTLcY29gc

[DFF]

515 Albums and 101 EPs later, I've finalised my end of year lists. You can read my Top 150 Albums and Top 50 EPs on my blog here: https://garethjhunt.wordpress.com/2020/12/27/top-albums-and-eps-of-2020/

There's a couple of Spotify playlists included. One track per release (two notable absentees because the albums are Bandcamp only). 

[RPS]

On the flipside of DFF's very detailed list, my top 6 of the year in order would be: 

1. Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters
2. The Avalanches - We Will Always Love You
3. Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia / Dua Lipa - Club Future Nostalgia 
4. Perfume Genius - Set My Heart on Fire Immediately
5. Jeff Rosenstock - NO DREAM
6. PUP -  This Place Sucks Ass EP

 

 

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

The only change I'd probably make to the list I posted earlier in the thread is bumping Stand Atlantic down for Dragged Under's The World Is In Your Way.

[METALMAN]

Here's the Guardian list btw. Not really surprising, apple is up top as per

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/dec/01/the-50-best-albums-of-2020

[GoGo Yubari]

Here's a YouTube playlist I made of 20 songs this year that I like. This isn't really in order so much as I tried to make it a functional playlist that accurately reflects the music that came out this year that I liked, including a couple nods to music from entertainment I consumed that left a big impression on me. Track listing behind the cut:

Spoiler

1. "Look Over Your Shoulder" by Busta Rhymes (feat. Kendrick Lamar)

2. "The Divine Chord" by The Avalanches (feat. MGMT, Johnny Marr)

3. "Donuts Mind If I Do" by CHAI

4. "Aries" by Gorillaz (feat. Peter Hook & Georgia)

5. "circle the drain" by Soccer Mommy

6. "Care" by beabadoobee

7. "Something Stupid (Instrumental)" from the Better Call Saul soundtrack (performed by Lola Marsh, I think?)

8. "Billy and Beau" by Brennen Leigh

9. "Graceland Too" by Phoebe Bridgers

10. "Ladies" by Fiona Apple

11. "In a Good Way" by Faye Webster

12. "claws" by Charli XCX

13. "This Is What They Say" by Carly Rae Jepsen

14. "First Class Bitch" by Confidence Man

15. "XS" by Rina Sawayama

16. "The Adults Are Talking" by The Strokes

17. "Waves" by Hum

18. "On Our Way" from the Final Fantasy VII Remake soundtrack

19. "Introvert" by Blue Wednesday

20. "Words Cannot Describe (2020 Version)" by Mirah

I was tempted to also make a companion playlist that's the songs that left the biggest first impression on me this year that aren't actually from this year but that ambition has gone as-yet-unrealized.

If I had to pick a favorite album from this year it's Fetch the Bolt Cutters for sure. To quote a tweet about the matter:

Quote

Fiona Apple was waiting for the entire world to descend into restless melancholic rage and then once we all started pacing our kitchens in our underwear in the middle of the night she was like, “You’re ready.”

There was just no better time for it. The restlessness of it, the way the lyrics demand your attention and justify that attention, the fact that like RPS I went through a journey of not settling on which song I liked the most (for me it was "Shameika," then "Cosmonauts," then it's mostly settled on "Ladies" but "Rack of His" has made a really strong case). I've always liked Fiona Apple, I have all of her albums and a lot of her songs are real favorites of mine, but I've never been swept up in one of her albums before like I was with this one. It also has one of the best happy-ending stories in music this year, in that Fiona wrote "Shameika" not even 100% sure if the girl in the story was actually named that or even existed at all only for it to turn out that she's real, she has/had a career as a rapper, and they reconnected and collaborated on a song together.

Honorable mention for albums would be the Gorillaz album with the convoluted name that came out this year. It's their best since Plastic Beach.

[Gorka]

Oh sweet, Confidence Man on someone's list. They're such a fun group!

[METALMAN]

I'm very very late to this one but I'm halfway through Future Nostalgia and it is indeed very good indeed. If I'd actually heard it last year it would definitely have been among my favourites of the year.

 

edit: okay I've finished this now and while it drops off a bit in the second half - with one song being utterly shit - it's still very good. 

[RPS]

1 hour ago, metalman said:

I'm very very late to this one but I'm halfway through Future Nostalgia and it is indeed very good indeed. If I'd actually heard it last year it would definitely have been among my favourites of the year.

 

edit: okay I've finished this now and while it drops off a bit in the second half - with one song being utterly shit - it's still very good. 

Boys Will be Boys or Good In Bed? 

[METALMAN]

1 hour ago, RPS said:

Boys Will be Boys or Good In Bed? 

Boys Will Be Boys. Now, I know Ms Lipa says “If you're offended by this song you’re clearly doing something wrong”, but hopefully I can plead mitigating circumstances by stressing that it is the stupefyingly dull dirge-like nature of the music that offends me rather than the lyrical content.

[RPS]

I have NO idea why that song was on the album. It is so bizarre.