50 From 2020

 For those without the time or inclination to wade through over 500 albums from across the year (and who can blame you?), of if you are in any way curious as to which have stayed with me the most, here is a shorter selection of 50 from the year. I won't necessarily claim they are the best, some are very personal (and predictable, if you know me) choices. They are loosely ordered with favourites at the top, but I care less and less for ranking or standouts these days! 

First of all, I'm going to cheat and introduce an award for Artist of the Year - which will go to Moor Mother, for having the sheer audacity to play a major role in (at least) six great albums this year. If I had to pick a favourite of them, it would probably be the Irreversible Entanglements record. 

Andrew Tuttle - Alexandra

Maria Schneider - Data Lords

Bob Dylan - Rough & Rowdy Ways

Mourning [A] BLKstar - The Cycle

Daniel Blumberg - On&On&On&On&On...

Bonny Light Horseman - Bonny Light Horseman

Speaker Music - Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry

Frazey Ford - U Kin B The Sun

Rob Luft - Life Is The Dancer

Pulled By Magnets - Rose Golden Doorways

Bruce Springsteen - Letter To You

Armand Hammer - Shrines

The Necks - Three

Tyshawn Sorey - Unfiltered

Jeff Parker - Suite For Max Brown

Nathan Salzburg - Landwerk Vol 1/Landwerk Vol 2

Junk Magic - Compass Confusion

Rob Mazurek Exploding Star Orchestra - Dimensional Stardust

Shabason, Krgovich & Harris - Philadelphia

Nate Wooley - Seven Storey Mountain VI 

Starebaby - Natural Selection

Hiss Golden Messenger - Forward, Children/School Daze

Jeremy Cunningham - The Weather Up There

MoonMot - Going Down The Well

Horse Lords - The Common Task

Tatsuhisa Yamamoto - Ashioto

Okkyung Lee - Yeo-Neun 

Greg Fox - Contact

North Americans - Roped In 

Krononaut - Krononaut 

Irreversible Entanglements - Who Sent You? 

Aesop Rock - Spirit World Field Guide 

Mary Halvorson - Artlessly Falling

Martin Pyne - Spirit Of Absent Dancers 

Gregoire Maret, Romain Collin, Bill Frisell - Americana 

H.C. McEntire - Eno Axis 

Pretty Sneaky - Pretty Sneaky

William Tyler - New Vanitas

Michael Wollny - Mondenkind 

Caleb Dolister - Daily Thumbprint Collection 3: The Wandering 

Seafarers - Seafarers 

Shabaka & The Ancestors - We Were Sent Here By History

Eli Winter - Unbecoming 

Pink Siifu - Negro

Matthew 'Doc' Dunn - Rain, Rain, Rain

Coriky - Coriky 

David Torn - Fur/Torn 

Jasper Høiby - Planet B 

Fiona Apple - Fetch The Bolt Cutters

Gillian Welch & David Rawlings - All The Good Times 

2020 In New Music Part 14

 upsammy - Zoom (Dekmantel) 

Gelatinous electronica. 

Victoria Monet - Jaguar (Tribe) 

A songwriting presence behind some massive pop hits (including Ariana Grande's 7 Rings), Victoria Monet's Jaguar is futuristic R&B, sexually forthright R&B. 

Vladislav Delay - Rakka (Cosmo Rhythmatic) 

Five years on from his last album, during which time Sasu Ripatti initially gave up on music before returning via some soundtrack compositions. Rakka is a heavier, more confrontational beast, combining electronica with more extreme noise elements. 

Vula Viel - What's Not Enough About That? (Vula Viel) 

Third album from Bex Burch's group is vibrant, poised and alive. Although released before lockdown, the questions it posits ('Are you alive? Are you loved? What's not enough about that?') seem pertinent in a year when excess and entertainment were necessarily stifled. 

V.V. Lightbody - Make A Shrine Or Burn It (Acrophase) 

Lush but unconventional theatrical pop. 

Waclaw Zimpel - Massive Oscillations (Ongehoord) 

Polish clarinettist and multi-instrumentalist making immersive sound design. 

Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud (Merge) 

Katie Crutchfield has always had an instinctive skill with melody but on Saint Cloud, she finally finds a sound and arrangements that adequately support and enhance her songs. 

Wax Machine - Earth Song Of Silence (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond) 

Refined psychedelia from Brighton. 

Webber/Morris Big Band - Both Are True (Greenleaf) 

Superb, inventive and playful big band writing. 

Wendy Eisenberg - Auto (Ba Da Bing)

Gently freeform, liberated, challenging songs. 

Wesley Wolffe - Wesley Wolffe (Total Works) 

Arty post-punk jousting. 

Westerman - Your Hero Is Not Dead (PIAS) 

Gently manipulative and experimental pop songwriting. 

White Denim - World As A Waiting Room (Radio Milk) 

30 day album project - typically blistering. 

William Basinski - Lamentations (Temporary Residence) 

The source material for the tape loops on Lamentations apparently dates back across Basinski's life and career, going back 40 years in some cases. This might explain why the music here sounds so timeless and enduring. These meditations on grief are haunting and captivating. 

William Tyler - Music From First Cow (Merge) 

William Tyler - New Vanitas (Merge) 

Soundtrack for Kelly Reichardt's film (sadly delayed by the pandemic in the UK) and low key solo album take William Tyler a step away from the ensemble vistas he has been focusing on for the past few years and back into more intimate, introspective mode. 

Witch Prophet - DNA Activation (Heart Lake) 

Imaginative and effective fusion of Ethiopian jazz, R&B and hip hop. 

Wolfgang Muthspiel - Angular Blues (ECM) 

A nuanced and adroit trio with Scott Colley and Brian Blade handling both originals and standards. 

Woods - Strange To Explain (Woodsist) 

Dreamlike, textured album recorded in California. 

Yaeji - What We Drew (XL) 

Detailed and carefully constructed first full length mixtape. 

Yello - Point (Universal)

A very welcome return from Boris Blank and Dieter Meier, very much playing to their strengths (perhaps too much so in the case of Waba Duba, which could have sat very comfortably on Flag). 

yMusic - Ecstatic Science (New Amsterdam) 

Contemporary chamber music. 

Yo La Tengo - We Have Amnesia Sometimes (Matador) 

Yo La Tengo - Sleepless Night (Matador) 

No official new album from YLT this year, but instead some diverting and satisfying additional projects. Sleepless Night is a warm and charming set of covers, placed alongside a drifting, beautiful new song called Bleeding. We Have Amnesia Sometimes finds the band recording and releasing some of their 'formless' studio improvisations. 

Yves Jarvis - Sundry Rock Song Stock (Anti) 

Brilliant use of multitracked vocals as part of the music's overall texture. 

Yves Tumor - Heaven To A Tortured Mind (Warp)

Space age rock music. 

Zachary Cale - False Spring (All Hands Electric) 

Bittersweet, poetic songs. 

Zara McFarlane - Songs Of An Unknown Tongue (Brownswood) 

McFarlane continues to develop her own voice, and is becoming more assured and a clearer communicator with every album. Here, her various genre preoccupations are subsumed more thoughtfully within a clear and coherent overall sound. 

2020 In New Music Part 13

Tambourinen - Wooden Flower (Centripetal Force)

Potent psychedelic project from multi-instrumentalist Grant Beyshcau. 

Tamikrest - Tamotait (Glitterbeat) 

Billed as a louder, rockier album from the Malian group - but this is a little misleading. Beyond a couple of heavier tracks, this might be their most texturally and dynamically diverse record to date. 

Tangents - Timeslips (Temporary Residence) 

Excellent, vivid fourth album from the Australian group, crafting curious, percussive and involving sound worlds.

Tara Clerkin Trio - Tara Clerkin Trio (Laura Lies In) 

Strange, escapist, otherworldly music. 

Tashi Dorji - Stateless (Drag City) 

Brilliantly abrasive solo guitar work. 

Tatsuhisa Yamamoto - Ashioto (Black Truffle) 

Yamamoto's first full international release - two superbly realised, patiently developing long pieces combining percussion, field recordings, electronics and guest musicians. 

Taylor Swift - Folklore

Taylor Swift - Evermore 

Perhaps due to the involvement of Aaron Dessner and Justin Vernon, these surprise releases were very much the hipster's choice of pop albums in 2020. I wasn't fully sold on Folklore's glossy backwoods vibes, but the wordy, savvy Evermore demonstrates Swift's skills as a songwriter. 

Tenci - My Heart Is An Open Field (Keeled Scales) 

Minimal, striking song craft from the Chicago singer-songwriter. 

Terje Rypdal - Conspiracy (ECM) 

Typically sweeping, atmospheric sounds from the great guitarist. 

Terry Allen and the Panhandle Mystery Band - Just Like Moby Dick (Paradise Of Bachelors) 

First set of new, original songs from Allen since 2013 is rich in allusive narratives and well drawn arrangements. 

The Avalanches - We Will Always Love You (Modular Recordings) 

Pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this, having been somewhat unmoved by Wildflower - the collaborations with guests work really well, everything subsumed into a wider, coherent whole, despite being a bounty of sounds and ideas. 

The Budos Band - Long In The Tooth (Daptone) 

Killer grooves, killer horns, great sound. 

The Dead Tongues - Transmigration Blues (Psychic Hotline) 

Possibly the strongest of Ryan Gustafson's albums as The Dead Tongues and, as we can't listen to Ryan Adams anymore, this will do very nicely. 

The Homesick - The Big Exercise (Sub Pop) 

Great blend of wiry indie rock and pastoral elements. 

The Howling Hex - Knuckleball Express (Fat Possum) 

Typically ragged and frayed genius from Neil Hagerty. 

The Magnetic Fields - Quickies (Nonesuch) 

Never ones to miss an opportunity to build an album around a gimmicky concept, here Stephin Merritt's outfit deliver an album of many pithy, very short songs. The format works well for Merritt's brand of sardonic wit. 

The Microphones - Microphones in 2020 (PW Elverum & Sun) 

One very long, very moving song-story. 

The Necks - Three (ReR)

Another triumphant set of improvisations from the band expert in conjuring sheets of sound. 

The Orb - Abolition Of The Royal Familia (Cooking Vinyl) 

Vintage electronica pioneers sound fresh and revitalised. 

The Soft Pink Truth - Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase? (Thrill Jockey) 

Dense atmospherics and revitalising sounds from Drew Daniel, on an album that apparently began life as a response to the rise of facism around the world. 

The Third Mind - The Third Mind (Yep Rock) 

Something of a mighty supergroup, with Richard Thompson drummer Michael Jerome, Dave Alvin, Victor Krummenacher, David Immergluck, and special guest Jessie Sykes. They brilliantly interpret music by Alice Coltrane, Tim Buckley, Paul Butterfield and others. 

The Transcendence Orchestra - Feeling The Spirit (Editions Mego) 

Ambient, healing music from Anthony Child. 

Theo Parrish - Wudaaji (Sound Signature) 

Typically soulful and deep club music from one of the great innovators. 

Thiago Nassif - Mente (Gearbox) 

Nassif organises a vast supporting cast on this album of unconventional, unclassifiable groove pop. 

This Is The Kit - Off Off On (Rough Trade) 

Absorbing, turbulent and intricate songs from Kate Stables. 

Threadbare - Silver Dollar (No Business) 

Radical, deconstructed, often heavy jazz from clarinettist Jason Stein, who readers may know from Natural Information Society. 

Three Queens In Mourning/Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Hello Sorrow/Hello Joy (Textile) 

Alasdair Roberts, Jill O'Sullivan and Alex Neilsen take on the Will Oldham repertoire with predictably tremendous results. 

Throwing Muses - Sun Racket (Fire) 

Intense and incandescent, but sometimes hushed and tightly coiled. 

Thumbscrew - The Anthony Braxton Project (Cuneiform) 

Compelling approach to as yet unperformed Braxton compositions. There's clearly an affinity for Braxton's music and his concerns here, but also an individual freedom too. 

Thundercat - It Is What It Is (Brainfeeder) 

The virtuoso bassist continues to create thrillingly complex and inspirationally vivid contemporary fusion.

Tim Berne's Snakeoil - The Fantastic Mrs. 10 (Intakt)  

This feels a bit rawer and more insistent than the previous few Snakeoil albums - the project continues to develop in new and interesting ways. 

Tim Garland - ReFocus (Edition) 

An imaginative, audacious but empathetic reworking of Stan Getz's Focus album - Garland really excels at these broad canvas arrangements. 

Tim Heidecker - Fear Of Death (Spacebomb) 

Warm, loose and free wheeling album of 70s inspired country and soft rock pastiches. This jars with the album's thematic preoccupations with death and mid-life anxieties, itself a curiously effective device. 

TJO - Songs For Peacock (Orindal) 

A covers album of sorts - but a uniquely moving, unexpected and personal one, serving as it does as a mixtape dedication to Tara Jane O'Neil's late brother. 

Tomas Tello - Cimora (Discrepant) 

Unique sounding, contemplative instrumental music drawing on Peruvian traditions. 

Toots & The Maytals - Got To Be Tough (Trojan Jamaica/BMG)

Toots Hibbert is a massive loss. I reviewed this for musicOMH here. 

Trees Speak - Shadow Forms (Soul Jazz) 

Tucson, Arizona based experimental act explore motorik/Krautrock vibes. 

Tricky - Fall To Pieces (False Idols)

Characteristically terse and claustrophobic music from Tricky - working well with new vocalist Marta. 

Tristan Perich - Drift Multiply (New Amsterdam/Nonesuch) 

Contemporary composition for 50 violins and 50 loudspeakers. 

Tunes Of Negation - Like The Stars Forever and Ever (Cosmo Rhythmic) 

Second mysterious and hypnotic album from Sam Shackleton's trip with Takumi Motokawa and Raphael Meinhart. 

Tyshawn Sorey - Unfiltered (Bandcamp) 

More robust and brave contemporary music from the immense and uncompromising Tyshawn Sorey - pulling in all manner of different directions and offering constant surprise. A Bandcamp exclusive - but not set up to enable embedding, perhaps because, as the title suggests, these pieces are long, unedited and difficult to digest. 

https://tyshawn-sorey.bandcamp.com/album/unfiltered

2020 In New Music Part 12

Sam Amidon - Sam Amidon (Nonesuch)  

I reviewed this for musicOMH here. 

Sam Burton - I Can Go With You (Tompkins Square) 

Perfect reverb soaked laconic songs. 

Sam Gendel - Satin Doll (Nonesuch)

Sam Gendel - DRM (Nonesuch) 

Crazy video game jazztronica. Deconstructed standards on Satin Doll, modern standards (Old Town Road!) and original compositions on DRM.

Sam Lee - Old Wow (Cooking Vinyl) 

Another excellent album of repurposed folk material that sounds fresh, engaging and spirited. 

Santrofi - Alewa (OutHere) 

Tremendous Ghanaian Highlife. 

Sarah Davachi - Cantus, Descant (Late Music) 

Sarah Davachi - Figures In Open Air (Late Music) 

More mesmeric, immersive soundscapes. Figures In Open Air captures some assured live performances and is intended as a supplementary work. Cantus, Descant is a brilliantly coherent, strangely moving work for various organs and keyboards. 

Sarah Louise - Earth and Its Contents (Bandcamp) 

Originally created as a soundtrack for Nick Crockett's film Fire Underground, this elemental music now stands alone as it is made more resonant by climate change and by the pandemic. 

SAULT - Untitled (Black Is) (Forever Living Originals)

SAULT - Untitled (Rise) (Forever Living Originals) 

Supposedly mysterious artists shy of the limelight but actually no doubt an exceedingly effective PR project, Sault's two albums this year captured the BLM Zeitgeist with righteous protest and jubilant celebration. Most likely the work of producer Inflo and singer Cleo Sol (whose own somewhat overshadowed album was masterful). 

Schnellertollermeier - 5 (Cuneiform) 

Polyrhythmic delirium. 

Seafarers - Orlando (Bandcamp) 

Jazz musicians tackling modern original folk songs - vocals from the tremendous and very versatile Lauren Kinsella. 

Secret Machines - Awake In The Brain Chamber (TSM)

Welcome return of heavy progressive shoegaze outfit. 

Shabaka and The Ancestors - We Are Sent Here By History (Impulse!)

For me, the best and most important of Shabaka Hutchings' various projects. 

Shabason, Krgovitch & Harris - Philadelphia (Idee Fixe) 

Intimate, hushed songs capturing the detail of the mundane and the routined. Not sure I get the same satisfaction from making the bed, but the consolations of the home life meant something more in lockdown. 

Shabazz Palaces - The Don of Diamond Dreams (Sub Pop) 

Inventive and compelling avant-hip hop. 

Shackleton/Zimpel - Primal Forms (Cosmo Rhythmic)

Three long, slow building pieces in this successful collaboration between Sam Shackleton and Polish clarinettist Waclaw Zimpel. 

Shamir - Shamir (Bandcamp)

Shamir - Cataclysm (Bandcamp) 

Artful pop music with wide-ranging vocal presence. These albums are refreshingly different from Shamir's prior work - much less disco and much more angular rock band. 

Shirley Collins - Heart's Ease (Domino) 

Collins' assured comeback continues apace with this graceful collection, providing beautiful framings for Collins' conversational and direct delivery. This includes four new non-traditional tracks. 

Sibusile Xaba - Ngiwu Shwabada (Komos) 

Part of the maskandi and malombo traditions but also clearly with a distinctive and individual approach, this album of South African guitar and vocal music, apparently recorded in one continuous take, is revelatory. 

Sidi Toure - Afrik Toun Me (Thrill Jockey) 

More softly rhythmic. beautiful and joyful music from Mali with Toure joined by guitarist Mamadou Kelly and Boubou Diallo on calabash. 

Silver Scrolls - Music For Walks (Three Lobed) 

The title would suggest that this music is very much for me - and indeed, its combination of meditative, reflective space and exploration of rock music terrain is robust and effective. 

Sink Ya Teeth - Two (Hey Buffalo) 

Great art pop for the dance floor. 

Sir Richard Bishop - Oneiric Formulary (Drag City) 

Some fascinating divergences and tangents on this one, from electric guitar pieces to use of keyboards. 

Siti Muharam - Siti of Unguja (Romance Revolution On Zanzibar) (On The Corner) 

The granddaughter of legendary taraab singer Siti Binti Saad places her own interpretation on romantic musical traditions. 

Six Organs Of Admittance - Companion Rises (Drag City) 

Ben Chasny wrote, recorded and played everything here, sometimes adroitly blending acoustic guitar performances with treated vocals and electronics. This is not a lockdown record (it was released back in February), but one that maybe inadvertently set the scene for that type of independent, reflective release. 

Skeletons - If The Cat Comes Back (Shinkoyo) 

Nebulous, floating, curious song structures from Matt Mehlan. 

Skyway Man - The World Only Ends When You Die (Mama Bird Recording Co.) 

Country got soul.

Slauson Malone - Vergangenheitsbewältigung (Bandcamp) 

Brilliantly uncategorisable, disorientating, sonic verbiage. 

Sonar with David Torn - Tranceportation Vol. 2 (RareNoise) 

Second volume of lattice like groove structures with the innovative guitarist guesting. 

Songhoy Blues - Optimisme (Transgressive) 

Desert blues now with urgent, punkish energy. 

Space Afrika - hybtwibt? (Bandcamp) 

Mixtape of sounds, samples and recordings reconstructed with a strong narrative. Revenue donated to a range of BLM related charities. 

Sparkle Division - To Feel Embraced (Musex International/Temporary Residence) 

Bizarre collaboration between William Basinski (sometimes playing saxophone) and Preston Wendel. 

Sparks - A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip (BMG) 

One of the most consistently imaginative and underrated of bands. 

SPAZA - Uprise! (Mushroom Hour Half Hour) 

Subtly stirring improvised score documenting the battle against Apartheid. 

Speaker Music - Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry (Planet Mu) 

Released without prior publicity in response to the death of George Floyd and the issues again highlighted as a result, DeForrest Brown Jr.'s second full album for Planet Mu is intellectual and theoretical but also visceral, hard hitting and uncompromising. A compelling amalgam of words and rhythm. 

Spencer Zahn - Sunday Painter (Cascine) 

Beautiful, lush, atmospheric instrumentals - delivered with a sense of painterly detail. 

Spike Orchestra - Splintered Stories (Tzadik) 

Sam Eastmond's radical modern big band music with remarkable dynamic range and intensity. 

https://www.tzadik.com 

Squarepusher - Be Up A Hello (Warp) 

Tom Jenkinson still has the ability to surprise and delight - and this favours his mischievous side. 

Starebaby - Natural Selection (Pi)

Dan Weiss' David Lynch-inspired noisy electric ensemble continues to produce music of impressive intensity and impact. 

Steve Spacek - Houses (Black Focus) 

Minimal and efficient soulful dance music. 

Stillefelt - Stillefelt (Stoney Lane) 

Chris Mapp's excellent ambient jazz trio offers space for contemplation and reflection. 

Still House Plants - Long Play (Bison) 

Still House Plants - Fast Edit (Bison) 

Bursts of combative defiance - free improvisation with a DIY/punk energy, interaction built on anxious and querulous interjections. 

Sufjan Stevens - The Ascencion (Asthmatic Kitty)

Sufjan Stevens and Lowell Brams - Aporia (Asthmatic Kitty) 

I'm still somewhat unconvinced by Sufjan Stevens' detours into electronic music - the clutter seems to too often detract from his emotional intentions. Still, The Ascension still has sublime moments and belongs here for its vaunting ambition alone. The instrumentals on Aporia, made in collaboration with his step father, radiate a genuine warmth. 

Sun Araw - Rock Sutra (Sun Ark) 

Manic and gleeful electro weirdness. 

Sun Ra Arkestra - Swirling (Strut) 

First studio album from the Arkestra, corralled by the great Marshall Allen, in over 20 years. Still very much in touch with the core astral concerns. 

Surprise Chef - Daylight Savings (Mr Bongo) 

Lithe and breezy groove pieces, recorded over the course of a single weekend. 

Susan Alcorn - Pedernal (Relative Pitch) 

Expanding the vocabulary and possibilities of the pedal steel guitar. Also, dream ensemble with Mary Halvorson, Mark Feldman, Michael Formanek and Ryan Sawyer. 

SUSS - Promise (Northern Spy) 

Dreamscapes of the American west. 

Swamp Dogg - Sorry You Couldn't Make It (Joyful Noise Recordings) 

A great new set of country soul songs to relish. The sadly missed John Prine guests on two tracks.