Another year gone, and this ritual of marking cultural time begins to feel as if it arrives ever more frequently, and the act of placing creative works (not all of them quite qualify as albums) in order feels ever more arbitrary. As ever, please see this as an act of sharing rather than an act of ranking and judging. There is roughly an ascending order here, but it is hardly rigorous. I could have chosen an entirely different set of music from my Longlist and still have felt comfortable with it. And yet I do feel remarkably happy with this list. Without much purposeful consideration for representation, it again includes a good proportion of female artists. It represents the sheer breadth of recorded music in the 2020s pretty well. It highlights some works worthy of wider attention alongside some choices that will be predictable for anyone who knows me or my musical interests. It also includes a handful of artists that are new to me this year and I am glad to still be making valuable musical discoveries in my 40s.
Some things that stand out for various reasons: The kaleidoscopic range of Dave Harrington’s musical vision (he is one of my favourite musicians right now); Mike Reed’s multidisciplinary supergroup The Separatist Party who were superb both live and on record this year; a mountain of material from the thrilling and uncompromising Kate Gentile; PJ Harvey blessing us with an old cliche by genuinely ‘returning to form’; Peter Gabriel finally ending our wait of over 20 years; L’Rain crafting something vivid, otherworldly, artful and moving; a couple of inventive and idiosyncratic hip hop albums from Aesop Rock and Armand Hammer; some moving last testaments from much missed artists (the beautiful and honest sounding reconstructed final Sparklehorse album, Ryuichi Sakamoto and jaimie branch - the sheer energy and resistance spirit of the latter showing there would have been so much more to come); Rosali making a left field album of guitar improvisations under the Edsel Axle moniker (her return as Rosali on Merge next year should be a big deal); Lucinda Williams partially recovering from a stroke to make an album as strong and confident as any she has made; Depeche Mode sadly now being a man down after the unexpected passing of Fletch but making the best record they have made since Ultra; for better or for worse the entire Tzadik catalogue going on Spotify and suddenly having easy access to the maverick and wonderful world of John Zorn; Corinne Bailey Rae’s refusal to be pigeonholed; Wadada Leo Smith belatedly channelling electric Miles to spectacular effect; my album of the year somehow combining a deft and strong melodic sense with provocative abstractions and abrasions and making it sound like the most natural thing in the world. That album, and the welcome return of Cornelius, were probably the two things to go most unfairly under the radar this year.
Sunny War - Anarchist Gospel (New West)
Tara Clerkin Trio - On The Turning Ground (World of Echo)
Jenny Lewis - Joy’All (Blue Note)
Angel Bat Dawid - Requiem For Jazz (International Anthem)
Alasdair Roberts - Grief In The Kitchen and Mirth In The Hall (Drag City)
Nourished By Time - Erotic Probiotic 2 (Scenic Route)
Marnie Stern - The Comeback Kid (Joyful Noise Recordings)
Patrick Shiroishi - I Was Too Young To Hear Silence (American Dreams)
Raze Regal & White Denim Inc - Raze Regal & White Denim Inc. (Bella Union)
Fergus McCreadie - Sketches (Edition)
David Preston - Purple/Black Vol. 1 (Whirlwind)
Klein - touched by an Angel (Parkwuud Entertainment)
Teenage Fanclub - Nothing Lasts Forever (PeMa)
Jamila Woods - Water Made Us (Jagjaguwar)
Kassa Overall - ANIMALS (Warp)
Blue Lake - Sun Arcs (Tonal Union)
Darius Jones - FLuXkit Vancouver (its suite but sacred) (We Jazz)
Moritz Von Oswald - Silencio (Tresor)
Laura Groves - Radio Red (Bella Union)
Dustin Wong - Perpetual Morphosis (Hausu Mountain)
Ricardo Dias Gomes - Muito Sol (Hive Mind)
Sam Dunscombe - Two Forests/Oceanic (Black Truffle)
Theo Parrish and Maurissa Rose - Free Myself (Sound Signature)
billy woods and Kenny Segal - Maps (Backwoodz Studios)
Jessie Ware - That! Feels Good! (UMO)
Jlin - Perspective (Planet Mu)
Bex Burch - There Is Only Love and Fear (International Anthem)
Mendoza/Hoff/Revels - Echolocation (AUM Fidelity)
Joseph Shabason - Welcome To Hell (Telephone Explosion)
Irreversible Entanglements - Protect Your Light (Impulse!)
Umlaut Chamber Orchestra - Zodiac Suite - Mary Lou Williams (Umlaut)
Amor Muere - A Time To Love, A Time To Die (Scrawl World)
James Brandon Lewis - Eye Of I (ANTI-)
James Brandon Lewis Red Lily Quintet - For Mahalia, With Love (Tao Forms)
Sufjan Stevens - Javelin (Asthmatic Kitty)
Radian - Distorted Rooms (Thrill Jockey)
Eddie Chacon - Sundown (Stones Throw)
Arooj Aftab/Shahzad Ismaily/Vijay Iyer - Love in Exile (Verve)
Waclaw Zimpel/Shackleton/Siddharta Belmannu - In The Cell Of Dreams (7K!)
Peter Gabriel - i/o (Real World)
Loraine James - Gentle Confrontation (Hyperdub)
Myra Melford’s Fire and Water Quintet - Hear The Light Singing (Rogue Art)
Allison Russell - The Returner (Birds of Chicago/Fantasy)
Moss Freed/Union Division - Micromotives (Discus Music)
Hiss Golden Messenger - Jump For Joy (Merge)
Isolee - Resort Island (Resort Island)
Paul Simon - Seven Psalms (Owl Records/Sony)
Nate Scheible - Plume (Warm Winters)
Cornelius - Dream in Dream (Like Ltd/Warner Music Japan)
Iris DeMent - Workin’ On A World (Songs of Iris)
Sylvie Courvoisier - Chimaera (Intakt)
Corinne Bailey Rae - Black Rainbows (Black Rainbows Music/Thirty Tigers)
Bill Orcutt - Anxiety Of Symmetry (Fake Estates)
Bill Orcutt - Jump On It (Palilalia)
Creation Rebel - Hostile Environment (On-U Sound)
Multitraction Orchestra - Reactor One (Alex Roth/Aion/Superpang)
John Zorn - New Masada Quartet Vol. 2 (Tzadik)
Meg Baird - Furling (Drag City)
Aksak Maboul - Une Aventure de VV (Songspiel) (Crammed Discs)
Gerald Cleaver/Hprism/Brandon Lopez - In The Wilderness (Positive Elevation/577)
Gerald Cleaver - 22/23 (Positive Elevation/577)
Blake Mills - Jelly Road (New Deal/Verve)
Slauson Malone 1 - Excelsior (Warp)
Califone - Villagers (Jealous Butcher)
Sparklehorse - Bird Machine (ANTI-)
Setting - Shone A Rainbow Light On (Paradise of Bachelors)
Lucinda Williams - Stories From A Rock N’ Roll Heart (Highway 20/Thirty Tigers)
Armand Hammer - We Buy Diabetic Test Strips (Backwoodz Studios)
Julie Byrne - The Greater Wings (Ghostly International)
Depeche Mode - Memento Mori (Venusnote/Columbia)
Historically Fucked - The Mule Peasants Revolt of 12,066 (Upset The Rhyhm)
Bob Dylan - Shadow Kingdom (Columbia)
Edsel Axle - Variable Happiness (Worried Songs)
Henry Threadgill Ensemble - The Other One (Pi)
Daniel Bachman - When The Roses Come Again (Three Lobed)
PJ Harvey - I Inside The Old Year Dying (Partisan)
The Necks - Travel (Northern Spy)
Anohni & The Johnsons - My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross (Rebis Music/Rough Trade)
Sebastian Rochford & Kit Downes - A Short Diary (ECM)
Rob Mazurek Exploding Star Orchestra - Lightning Dreamers (International Anthem)
Natural Information Society - Since Time Is Gravity (Eremite)
Ryuichi Sakamoto - 12 (KAB America/Milan/Sony)
Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Chapter Five: In The Garden (Constellation)
Jonny Nash - Point Of Entry (Melody As Truth)
Yo La Tengo - This Stupid World (Matador)
Wadada Leo Smith and Orange Wave Electric - Fire Illuminations (Kabell)
Aesop Rock - Integrated Tech Solutions (Rhymesayers Entertainment)
Kate Gentile and International Contemporary Ensemble - b i o m e i.i (Obliquity)
Kate Gentile - Find Letter X (Pi)
jaimie branch - fly or die fly or die fly or die ((world war)) (International Anthem)
Dave Harrington - The Pictures (Minaret)
Mike Reed - The Separatist Party (We Jazz)