Garcia Peoples - Nightcap At Wit's End (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond)
Psychedelic rock and roll both spirited and sensitive, with strong melodic content and a real sense of empathy and interaction in the ensemble.
Gerycz/Powers/Rolin - Beacon (Garden Portal)
Intriguing trio of guitar, hammered dulcimer and percussion creating undulating, contemplative mood pieces.
Gillian Welch & David Rawlings - All The Good Times (Acony)
You wait many years for a new Gillian Welch album, and then four come along at once. The Lost Songs series provided a veritable bounty of riches (see reissues and comps list, assuming I have time to finish it!) and this lockdown covers album, complete with beautiful imperfections, proved once again that their two voices in harmony may be one of the world's most beautiful sounds (rivalled perhaps only by Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker from Low). Particularly moving was their version of Hello In There, underlining the very sad loss of John Prine to Covid-19.
Good Sad Happy Bad - Shades (Textile)
The group formerly known as Micachu & The Shapes still making effective off-kilter, ragged, avant pop, but with a different focus. Keyboardist Raisa Khan now handles lead vocals, and CJ Calderwood is added on saxophone and additional electronics. The result is a cleaner, more dreamlike and fully realised sound world.
Gordon Koang - Unity (Light In The Attic/Cargo)
Eleventh album from the Sudanese artist who has sought asylum in Australia. Comes with a powerful message and also a sense of collective unity in the music too.
Greg Dulli - Random Desire (Royal Cream/BMG)
It's hard to get a handle on what makes a Greg Dulli solo project and what makes a Twilight Singers or Afghan Whigs project now - but this is his most robust and powerful work outside either of those monikers.
Greg Foat - Symphonie Pacifique (Strut)
Wide-ranging, genre-crossing, lush sounding album from UK pianist.
Greg Fox - Contact (RVNG Intl)
Impressive, texturally rich album of solo percussion plus electronics that combines melodic improvisation with intensity generated from speed of movement, drawing from jazz, metal and electronica. It's also worth noting that the interview with Fox in Wire magazine was one of the most inspiring musical discussions of 2020 for me.
Gregoire Maret, Romain Collin & Bill Frisell - Americana (ACT)
Beautiful trio of harmonica, piano and guitar exploring American country and folk traditions and other contemporary music within its orbit. Includes gorgeous interpretations of Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms, Bon Iver's re: Stacks and Jimmy Webb's Wichita Lineman.
Guided By Voices - Surrender Your Poppy Field (Guided By Voices)
Guided By Voices - Mirrored Aztec (Guided By Voices)
Guided By Voices - Styles We Paid For (Guided By Voices)
Just the three albums of crunchy, oblique power pop from Robert Pollard this year!
Gunn - Truscinski Duo - Soundkeeper (Three Lobed)
Steve Gunn and John Truscinski continue to draw a huge span of possibility from the guitar-drums duo format, from noisy squall to meditative exchange via steadfast, restrained grooves.
Gwenifer Raymond - Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain (Tompkins Square)
Dark, gothic folk-blues and outstanding guitar playing.
Hailu Mergia - Yene Mircha (Awesome Tapes From Africa)
Groove heavy latest from Ethiopian keyboardist and accordionist is at once both relaxed and enlivening.
Hamerkop - Remote (Drag City)
Promising debut from this blissful synth pop duo.
Hayley Williams - Petals For Armour (Atlantic)
Album collating three ambitious, meticulously crafted and modern sounding EPs from the Paramour singer.
Hazel English - Wake UP! (Marathon Artists)
Insistent and infectious songs with great choruses.
H.C. McEntire - Eno Axis (Merge)
Brilliantly evocative songwriting with a sense of landscape and place. I reviewed this for musicOMH
here
Heather Leigh - Glory Days (Boomkat Editions)
A lockdown work that succeeds in broadening the scope of Heather Leigh's arrangements, sometimes incorporating rhythmic foundations, electronics, atmosphere and energy alongside her more familiar pedal steel guitar features.
Helen Money - Atomic (Thrill Jockey)
Imaginative, versatile and refreshing use of the cello on this very personal work.
Helena Deland - Someone New (Luminelle Recordings)
One of the year's strongest pop albums - sadly not much remarked upon more broadly. The writing is slippery and fascinating.
Helm - Saturnalia (After)
A live recording from 9am at the close of the Saturnalia festival, these three long pieces brilliantly capture the ebbing of vitality and alertness.
HHY & The Kampala Unit - Lithium Blast (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
Percussion meets dub meets West African musical traditions and electronics in this exciting, heady, masterfully constructed synthesis.
Hilary Woods - Birthmarks (Sacred Bones)
More cinematic ghostliness from the former JJ72 member now very much defining her own sound.
Hiss Golden Messenger - Forward, Children (Merge)
Hiss Golden Messenger - School Daze (Merge)
No new studio album from Hiss this year, but MC Taylor continues to fulfil his promise of a release every year with these two outstanding live albums with completely different set lists. Both albums are essential, but School Daze best captures the incandescence of the Hiss full band vibe. This is where I turned when I most missed the feeling of being together at a show.
Horse Lords - The Common Task (Northern Spy)
One of the most exciting bands currently at work, with music that is both fearsomely intelligent and also celebratory.
Hum - Inlet (Earth Analog)
Full powered, muscular return from the noisy shoe gazing group.
Hunteress - The Unshackling (Boomkat Editions)
One of many projects from the great Laura Cannell this year, this introduced entirely new facets to her music, with synthesisers, electronics and vocals.
Huw V Williams - Equidistant Between (HVW Recordings)
The bassist and composer leads an exploratory trio with saxophonist George Crowley and drummer Devin Grey that captures a sense of space as well as bustling activity.