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