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.
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