New music is truly one of the only things that kept us going in 2020. Thank you so much for supporting us this year and dealing with all of the crazy ups & downs. We hope 2021 is truly much better for everyone…
Love – Reckless
Philip Cerza
My favorite record of 2020 is Live Forever by Bartees Strange.
Other 2020 releases I loved:
Altar of Harmony // Luke Schneider
Always Tomorrow // Best Coast
Blue Hearts // Bob Mould
Circles // Mac Miller
Coriky // Coriky
Fantasize Your Ghost // Ohmme
Fetch The Bolt Cutters // Fiona Apple
Fine Line // Harry Styles
Folklore // Taylor Swift
Getting Into Knives // The Mountain Goats
grae // Moses Sumney
Imploding The Mirage // The Killers
Inlet // Hum
Just Look At That Sky // Ganser
Lianne La Havas // Lianne La Havas
May Our Chambers Be Full // Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou
The New Abnormal // The Strokes
NO DREAM // Jeff Rosenstock
The Passion of… // Special Interest
Punisher // Phoebe Bridgers
Reunions // Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit
Saint Cloud // Waxahatchee
Stay Alive // Laura Jane Grace
SUGAREGG // Bully
Suite For Max Brown // Jeff Parker
That’s How Rumors Get Started // Margo Price
Things I Never Said // Oceanator
We’re New Again // Makaya McCraven & Gil Scott-Heron
Women In Music Pt. 3 // HAIM
**Honorable mentions: Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia, my girlfriend’s AOTY and a real good soundtrack for quarantine chores. David Byrne’s American Utopia on Broadway. Tom Petty’s Wildflowers and All The Rest. Prince’s Super Deluxe Sign O’ The Times. Wilco’s Summerteeth remasters. Sturgill Simpson’s bluegrass LP. RTJ4. Fuzz III. The Go-Go’s documentary and new song. Fountains of Wayne’s “Hackensack” with Sharon Van Etten for the Jersey 4 Jersey benefit (RIP Adam Schlesinger). The Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen records that sort of sound like goodbyes. And Michael Imperioli’s record with his band Zopa. It hasn’t gotten a physical release yet but I hope we carry it when it does because I swear it rules. Thank you for supporting Reckless this year. Black Lives Matter.
JOSEPH SEGER – BEST OF 2020
SMUT – POWER FANTASY EP (BAYONET)
ADRIENNE LENKER – SONGS & INSTRUMENTALS (4AD)
LOMA – DON’T SHY AWAY (SUB POP)
NAKED ROOMATE – DO THE DUVET (TROUBLE IN MIND)
DAVID NANCE – STAUNCH HONEY (TROUBLE IN MIND)
GIRL FRIDAY – ANDROGYNOUS MARY (HARDLY ART)
GEN POP – PPM66 (POST PRESENT MEDIUM)
P22 – HUMAN SNAKE (POST PREDENT MEDIUM)
BIG JOANIE – SISTAHS (REPRESS. DAYDREAM LIBRARY)
SPECIAL INTEREST – THE PASSION OF… (THRILLING LIVING)
CHRONOPHAGE – THE PIG KISS’D (CLETA PATRA)
STRAW MAN ARMY – AGE OF EXILE (D4MT LABS INC.)
MUTANT STRAIN – MUTANT STRAIN (SORRY STATE)
SNIFFANY & THE NITS – GREATEST NITS (THRILLING LIVING)
PYLON – GYRATE (NEW WEST)
PYLON – CHOMP (NEW WEST)
PUBLIC ACID – CONDEMNATION EP (BEACH IMPEDIMENT)
SWEEPING PROMISES – HUNGER FOR A WAY OUT (FEEL IT)
FRUMPIES – FRUMPIE ONE PIECE (KILL ROCK STARS)
DEALER – BOOGIE, BOOZE, & BIRDS (SPLATTERED)
SATANS RATS – WHAT A BUNCH OF RODENTS (OVERGROUND)
VARIOUS ARTISTS – ELLAS SON ELECTRICAS – MUJERES EN EL
UNDERGROUND METALICO ESPANOL 82-91 (BEAT GENERATION)
WHITE HEAVEN – OUT (REPRESS. BLACK EDITIONS
LOMELDA HANNA (DOUBLE DOUBLE WHAMMY)
MARY LATTIMORE SILVER LADDERS (GHOSTLY)
U.S. GIRLS HEAVY LIGHT (4AD)
PHOEBE BRIDGERS PUNISHER (DEAD OCEANS)
SQUIRREL FLOWER – I WAS BORN SWIMMING (POLYVINYL)
Benjamin Hegy
2020*
New Releases
Jacoti Sommes- travel time [orange milk]
Priscilla Ermel- origens da luz [music from memory]
Beatrice Dillion- workaround [pan]
phantom posse- forever underground [orchid tapes]
Jeff Parker & the New Breed- suite for max brown [int’l anthem]
Neil Young- homegrown [reprise]
Zebra Katz- less is moor [vinylfactory]
Sarah Davachi- cantus, descant [late music]
Ana Roxanne- because of a flower [kranky]
Pharaoh Overlord- 6 [rocket recordings]
Sun Ra Arkestra- swirling [strut/ art yard]
Lucrecia Dalt- no era solida [rvng intl.]
Nidia- nao fales nela que a mentes [principe]
Teleplasmiste- to kiss the earth goodbye [house of mythology]
Flaming Tunes (Gareth Williams & Mary Currie)- s/t [superior viaduct]
Label OTY: Blue Note
I’ve spent much of 2020 listening to these classic recordings at home via their ongoing “Tone Poet” & “Blue Note 80 & Classic” series. These reissues sound great and offer great value and should offer example of how reissues should look and sound.
I’d also like to formally thank my friends, coworkers and the internet for constantly providing me with music. If it weren’t for you all, I would still be at home listening to CCR, more than I still do. Also, sincere gratitude to every one of our customers that continues to support our stores, this industry and our livelihoods.
Eternal shout outs: song writers, music makers, sound generators, home recordists, noise enthusiasts, gear geeks, two channel audio, electronics designers & engineers, global supply chains, Taylor Swift for still printing CDs, scented garbage bags full of wet DVDs, all the middle aged dudes, mental illness, everyone that’s ever worked retail or food service, YOUTUBE/discogs/Spotify, theQuietus, every record store ever and the people that go there, brick & mortar hi-fi shops, the US Postal Service, delivery drivers, digital chess, return policies, usb cables and every dog i’ve ever loved. RIP my attention span
John Massey
—10 things I liked from Reckless:
Lomelda / Hannah (Double Double Whammy) — my favorite album of 2020 sounds pleasant enough at first and then you get drawn into its urgent and oblique world: talking in circles, running up against the edges of life, like a poem or a math problem, or maybe she’s just writing about hanging out with your friends in a parking lot, I can’t really always tell, but anyway it’s a killer record
Katie Dey / mydata (Run For Cover) — the first good album ever made about going online succeeds partly because of schubert-level songcraft and partly because it sounds cool as hell. The 2020s will be the decade of MIDI strings and you can take that to the bank. Public criers beware: save this one for your room
Hum / Inlet (Earth Analog) — 2020 has been a banner year for loud snare drums. At first I loved this album but thought the snare drum was way too loud. Now to be honest I think it’s not loud enough
Shinichi Atobe / Yes (DDS) — I would love to listen to this record while standing on the moving sidewalk at a large airport
Brandee Younger + Dezron Douglas / Force Majeure (International Anthem) — probably 2020’s least “ambitious” int’l anthem release gets the nod because it’s the only thing I’ve heard this year that has managed to calm me down for more than 30 seconds at a time
The Beths / Jump Rope Gazers (Carpark) — is there like a school that New Zealand bands go to? What’s going on down there?
Fenne Lily / Breach (Dead Oceans) — Phoebe British. Do you see what I did there
Emma Ruth Rundle + Thou / May Our Chambers Be Full (Sacred Bones) — 3 things I am legally bound to respect for all time: grunge, Louisville KY, and spelling “magical” as “magickal”
Ratboys / Printer’s Devil (Topshelf) — E-flat Major is back baby. it’s good again. Awoouu (wolf howl)
Mike Hanapi / With Kalama’s Quartet (Mississippi) — there’s a lot of bad/corny pre-Renaissance Hawaiian music out there but this loving reissue is the real deal. Anyone with even a passing interest in Hawaiian music / Pacific music in general needs to buy two copies of this immediately
—plus a few things i liked from bandcamp:
Bats / There’s a River Up High (Citrus City)
Morhping (sic) / Distance Learning Suite (Strudelsoft)
Fennec / Free Us of This Feeling (self-released)
K-Lone / Cape Cira + the Falls EP (Wisdom Teeth)
DJ Python / Mas Amable (Incienso)
Thanya Iyer / KIND (Topshelf)
Max Gowan / Last Companion (Z Tapes)
Oldsoul / You Were Overwhelmed (Counter Intuitive)
Miserable Chillers / Audience of Summer (self-released)
Dylan Sowle
Best Albums of 2020:
1. Torres – “Silver Tongue” (Merge Records)
2. AJJ – “Good Luck Everybody” (AJJ Unlimited LTD)
3. Jeff Rosenstock – “No Dream” (Polyvinyl Record Company)
4. Bright Eyes – “Down In The Weeds, Where The World Once Was” (Dead Oceans)
5. The Flaming Lips – “American Head” (Warner Records)
6. Bob Dylan – “Rough And Rowdy Ways” (Columbia)
7. Melkbelly – “Pith” (Wax Nine Records)
8. Phoebe Bridgers – “Punisher” (Dead Oceans)
9. The Magnetic Fields – “Quickies” (Nonesuch)
10. Fire-Toolz – “Rainbow Bridge” (Hausu Mountain)
11. Lowell Brams & Sufjan Stevens – “Aporia” (Asthmatic Kitty Records)
12. Dan Deacon – “Mystic Familiar” (Domino)
13. Omar Souleyman – “Shlon” (Mad Decent)
14. Deeper – “Auto-Pain” (Fire Talk)
15. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – “Chunky Shrapnel” (Flightless)
Honorable Mentions:
1. Idles – “Ultra Mono” (Partisan Records)
2. Danzig – “Danzig Sings Elvis” (Cleopatra)
3. The Black Lips – “In A World That’s Falling Apart” (Fire Records)
4. Nick Cave – “Idiot Prayer” (Bad Seed Ltd.)
5. Wasted Shirt – “Fungus II” (Famous Class)
Best Reissues:
1. Hiroshi Yoshimura – “Green” (Light In The Attic)
2. Dear Nora – “Three States: Rarities 1997-2007” (Orindal Records)
3. The Boys Next Door – “Door, Door” (Warner Music Australia)
4. Michael Rother – “Sterntaler” (Grönland Records)
5. Fountains Of Wayne – “Welcome Interstate Managers” (Real Gone Music)
6. Jonathan Richman – “I, Jonathan” (Craft Recordings)
7. that dog. – “Totally Crushed Out!” (Third Man Records)
Luke Dahlgren
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Horse Lords – The Common Task (Northern Spy)
RUNNER-UP
Bergsonist – Middle Ouest (Optimo)
A BAKER’S DOZEN MORE THAT I LOVED
Civic Center – The Ground Below (American Dreams)
Couch Slut – Take a Chance on Rock ‘n’ Roll (Gilead)
Alabaster DePlume – To Cy & Lee: Instrumentals Vol. 1 (International Anthem)
Earth To Mickey – Brace & Bit (LA Club Resource)
Green-House – Six Songs for Invisible Gardens (Leaving)
Jon Hassell – Seeing Through Sound: Pentimento Vol. 2 (Ndeya)
Military Genius – Deep Web (Tin Angel)
OOIOO – nijimusi (Thrill Jockey)
Kelly Lee Owens – Inner Light (Smalltown Supersound)
Theo Parrish – Wuddaji (Sound Signature)
Protomartyr – Ultimate Success Today (Domino)
Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou – May Our Chambers be Full (Sacred Bones)
Westerman – Your Hero is Not Dead (Partisan)
PLUS: A HANDFUL OF
REISSUES, COMPS & LOST TREASURES
Jon Hassell – Vernal Equinox (Ndeya)
Heron – Heron (Trading Places)
Miguel Noya – Canciones Intactas (Phantom Limb)
Pylon – The Pylon Box (New West)
Neil Young – Homegrown (Reprise)
ALSO: CHECK OUT THESE BANDCAMP GEMS!
BB – Hey Ladies (Puss)
D.K. – The Goddess Is Dancing (Good Morning Tapes)
E-Live – Boogie For Life (Star Creature Universal Vibrations)
Mor Elian – Clairvoyant Frog (Visible Spectrum)
K-LONE – Cape Cira (Wisdom Teeth)
Molero – Ficciones del Trópico (Holuzam)
Significant Other – Postdrome (Well Street)
Ulla – Tumbling Towards a Wall (Experiences Ltd.)
v/a – All Welcome (Good Morning Tapes)
Lea Board
In no particular order:
Run The Jewels “Run The Jewels 4”
Phoebe Bridgers “Punisher”
The Strokes “The New Abnormal”
Molchat Doma “Monument”
Idles “Ultra Mono”
Dehd “Flower of Devotion”
Bright Eyes “Down In The Weeds, Where The World Once Was”
Sheet Ghosts “Did It Ever Happen?”
Mort Garson “Music From The Patch Cord Productions” (Compilation)
Tones On Tail “Pop” (Reissue)
Matt Jencik
Actress Karma & Desire
Daniel Avery & Alessandro Cortini Illusion of Time
Julianna Barwick Healing is a Miracle
The Bats Foothills
Bing & Ruth Species
Burial/ Four Tet/ Thom Yorke Revolution/His Rope
Brian Case Parallel Voices
Pascal Comelade Sentimientos
Coriky Coriky
Count Ossie & the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari Grounation
Country Westerns Country Westerns
Patrick Cowley Some Funkettes
Cryptic Shift Visitations from Encleladus
Sarah Davachi Cantus, Descant & Bandcamp releases
Alabaster Deplume To Cy & Lee: Instrumental Vol. 1
Bob Dylan Rough & Rowdy Ways
Eluvium Virga 1
Enslaved Utgard
FACS Void Moments
Feminazgul No Dawn for Men
Fielded Demisexual Lovelace
Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist Alfredo
Grifteskymfning Bedrövelsens Härd
Irreversible Entanglements Who Sent You?
Clarice Jensen The Experience of Repetition as Death
Katatonia Jhva Elohim Metha LP reissue
L-Seven L-Seven
Adrianne Lenker Songs & Instrumentals
Klara Lewis Ingrid
Lurker of Chalice Tellurian Slaked Forest
Lustre The Ashes of Light
Malokarpatan Krupinské Ohne
Gia Margaret Mia Gargaret
The Microphones Microphones in 2020
Midwife Forever
Molchat Doma Monument
Oranssi Pazuzu Mestarin Kynsi
Paysage d’Hiver Im Wald
Pylon Box
Ana Roxanne Because of a Flower
Mamman Sani Unreleased Tapes 1981- 1984
Skeleton Skeleton
The Stooges Live at Goose Lake August 8th, 1970
Sweven The Eternal Resonance
Gillian Welch & David Rawlings All the Good Times
Hiroshi Yoshimura Green
Neil Young Homegrown
Neil Young Archives Vol. II
Zombi 2020
Andrew Min
porridge radio – every bad
freddie gibbs/the alchemist – alfredo
gorillaz – song machine vol 1
loma – don’t shy away
bully – sugaregg
1975 – notes on a conditional form
haim – women in music pt III
hypoluxo – hypoluxo
george clanton & nick hexum – s/t
nothing – the great dismal
slowdive reissues
-pygmalion
-blue day
-holding our breath
-slowdive
Jake Lingan
Actress, “Karma & Desire” (Ninja Tune)
Arthur, “Hair Of The Dog” (Honeymoon)
Autechre, “Sign” & “Plus” (Warp)
William Basinski, “Lamentations” (Temporary Residence)
David Behrman, Paul DeMarinis, Fern Friedman, Terri Hanlon & Anne Klingensmith, “She’s More Wild…” (Black Truffle)
Dean Blunt, “Roaches 2012-2019” (World Music)
Bill Callahan, “Gold Record” (Drag City)
N Chambers, “Facets” (Love All Day)
Com Truise, “In Decay, Too” (Ghostly International)
Cotton Casino, “The Reflection” (Eye Vybe)
Angel Bat Dawid And Tha Brothahood “Live”, (International Anthem)
Crazy Doberman, “Illusory Expansion” (Astral Spirits)
Deep Space Duo, “Spacetones” (Love All Day)
Deerhoof, “Future Teenage Cave Artists” (Joyful Noise)
Diamond Soul, “Maya’mi” (Orange Milk)
Beatrice Dillon, “Workaround” (PAN)
Euglossine, “Psaronius” (Orange Milk)
Fire-Toolz, “Rainbow Bridge” (Hausu Mountain)
Gerrit Hatcher & Jakob Warmenbol, “Sublime Again”
Horse Lords, “Common Task” (Northern Spy)
je’raf, “Throw Neck” (Amalgam/ No Index)
Jessy Lanza, “All The Time (Hyperdub)
Lama Lobsang Palden & Jim Becker, “Compassion” (Drag City)
Klara Lewis, “Ingrid” (Editions Mego)
Toshioki Matsumura, “A Visual Brain 1986-1993” (chOOn!!)
Scott McGaughey, “You Don’t Need A Key To Leave” (Shmee)
Makaya McCraven, “Universal Beings E & F Sides” (International Anthem)
Brett Naucke, “EMS Hallucinations” (American Dream)
Nonlocal Forecast, “Holographic Universe(s?)! (Hausu Mountain)
Quicksails, “Blue Rise” (Hausu Mountain)
Ohmme, “Fantasize Your Ghost” (Joyful Noise)
Aki Onda, “Nam June’s Spirit Was Talking To Me” (Recital)
ONO, “Red Summer” (American Dream)
Jim O’Rourke, “Shutting Down Here” (GRM Portraits)
Ana Roxanne, “Because Of A Flower” (Kranky)
Andy Slater, “Unseen Reheard” (No Index)
Carl Stone, “Stolen Car” (Unseen Worlds)
Thundercat, “It Is What It Is” (Brainfeeder)
Michael Vallera, “Window In” (Denovali)
Reissues:
African Head Charge reissues (On-U Sound)
Barry Cleveland with Bob Stohl and Kat Epple, “Stones Of Precious Water” (Morning Trip)
Pedro Comelade, “Sentimientos” (Etats-Unis)
The Entourage Music & Theatre Ensemble, “The Neptune Collection” (Folkways)
Flaming Tunes, “Flaming Tunes” (Superior Viaduct)
Fluence, “Fluence” (Etats-Unis)
Motohiko Hamase reissues (WRWTFWW)
Jon Hassell, “Vernal Equinox” (Ndeya)
Prince, “Sign ‘O’ The Times” Super Deluxe (Paisley Park
Pylon reissues (New West)
Akio Suzuki, “Analopos” (Room 40)
Hiroshi Yoshimura, “Green” (Light In The Attic)
Zoviet France reissues (Vinyl On Demand)
Jamie Drier
Surgeon – Raw Trax 2
Shitcluster – Meat Thief
E-Saggila – Dedicated to Sublimity
Beau Wanzer – Kitchen Clock
Half Waif – Caretaker
Vladislav Delay/Sly & Robbie – 500 – Push Up
Marcel Dettmann/Silent Servant/ Pye Corner Audio Issue # 2
Marie Davidson & L’oeil Nu – Renegade Breakdown
$hit & $hine – Malibu Liquor Store
Gary Errera
John Frusciante – MAYA
He continues with electronic music and this time he really hit his stride. Recalls Squarepusher, Aphex Twin, Venetian Snares. Pretty amazing this same guy made Curtains, many other solo records, and wrote all the good RHCP songs back in the 90s.
Dave Cartwright
*in no particular order (except for Duma, Duma wins 2020)
Duma – Duma (Nyege Nyege Nyege)
Bergsonist – Middle Earth (Optimo)
Sockethead – Harj-o-marj (Youth)
Paysage d’Hiver – Im Wald (Kunsthall)
Beau Wanzer – Busted & Bamboozled (Ophism)
Locked Club – Atom Hell EP (Tram Planet)
Playa S & Playa D – Da Summa Mix of ’97 (Tape House Chicago)
Various – Joyous Sounds! (Chicago Research)
Satoshi & Makoto – CZ – 5000 Sounds & Sequences II (Safe Trip)
Orphx – Fragmentation (Hospital Productions)
Steven Rahman
In the year 2020, I found it extremely hard to keep up with things
that were released, so this is not a list of things that were
necessarily better than the other things that came out. They are just
things that I happened to be exposed to, & that helped to lighten the
load…
Without Further Ado:
1. Spillage Village – Spilligion
I mean… what do you do when one of the most interesting collectives
in Hip Hop drop a near perfect record? It’s a sermon & a service. It’s
the kind of rapping that my head longs for, but also a message that
resonates in my heart without ever feeling preachy. It’s so good, I
would bet good money it’s the thing I’ve come back to most over this
year.
2. Sen Morimoto – Sen Morimoto
Sen Morimoto’s sense of self seems to be unshakeable. He bends & flips
genres & styles but, it always sounds like Sen. I was looking forward
to this record, particularly after his removal from the virtual
concerts this year, & it delivers. It’s got it’s quirks & it’s
strangenesses, but it fits together really well & I enjoy the vibe.
3. Khruangbin & Leon Bridges – Texas Sun/ Khruangbin – Mordechai
I love very little as much as I’ve come to love Khruangbin’s unique
sound. It’s just masterful what they’re able to do with what seems
like a really minimalist approach. Then if you add Leon Bridges, who
is for what little money I have one of the better writers in soul
music today, you’ll get something that not only works, but just seems
natural.
4. Open Mike Eagle – Anime, Trauma, & Divorce
Unapologetic Art Rap… but with knock. I think this is the best thing
I’ve ever heard from Mike & I don’t know that I would have believed
that was possible after Dark Comedy. It’s a serious record, but the
comic timing & absurdity is still there. It’s such a fun listen even
with the morbid subject matter.
5. Tank & the Bangas – Friend Goals
This is probably my favorite band in the world right now. They are
whimsical & joyous, & a balm in a cold world. This was done over the
course of the quarantine as they weren’t able to spend much time on
the road, & instead turned that into some really thick tunes.
A few honorable mentions:
Grip – Proboscidea, Kirby – Sis., Tayla Parx – Coping Mechanisms, Run
The Jewels – RTJ4, Kipp Stone – Homme, Nick Grant & Tae Beast – God
Bless the Child, Deante Hitchcock – Better, Emily King – Sides, Dezron
Douglass & Brandee Younger – Force Majeure
Ade Mitchell
1.ALFREDO-FREDDIE GIBBS&ALCHEMIST
2.WU HEN-KAMAAL WILLIAMS
3.1985-KNXWLEDGE
4.IT IS WHAT IT IS-THUNDERCAT
5.SHOOT FOR THE STARS/AIM FOR THE MOON-POP SMOKE
6.I CANT GO OUTSIDE-CHANNEL TRES
7.SPILLIGION-SPILLAGE VILLAGE
8.PRAY 4 PARIS-WESTSIDE GUNN
9.BURDEN OF PROOF-BENNY THE BUTCHER
10.A WRITTEN TESTIMONY-JAY ELECTRONICA
HONORABLE:FUCK THE WORLD-BRENT FAIYAZ
ANTHONY ILLARDE
SHARHABIL AHMED The King Of Sudanese Jazz (Habibi Funk LP)
DAVID BOWIE Metrobolist (Parlophone LP)
BUDOS BAND Long In The Tooth (Daptone LP)
CHEAP TRICK Out To Get You! Live 1977 (Legacy LP)
CHICANO BATMAN Invisible People (ATO LP)
PASCAL COMELADE Sentimientos (Etats-Unis LP)
ELVIS COSTELLO Hey Clockface (Concord LP)
DAMNED Rockfield Files (Spinefarm LP)
NAPOLEAN DEMPS Norma Jean (Daptone 45)
DU-RITES A Funky Bad Time (Old Maid LP)
MORT GARSON Music From Patch Cord Productions (Sacred Bones LP)
GILBERTO GIL With Os Mutantes (Audio Clarity LP)
A GIRL CALLED EDDY Been Around (Elefant LP)
GROUPIES Primitive (Beat Rocket LP)
HELIOCENTRICS Telemetric Sounds (Madlib Invazion LP)
IVEYS Maybe Tomorrow (Audio Clarity LP)
KENNELMUS Folkstone Prism (Modern Harmonic LP)
KINKS Glenhenry Winners (Mississippi LP)
BARABARA LYNN The Atlantic Years 1968-1973 (Run Out Groove LP)
ROD McKUEN Beatsville (Modern Harmonic LP)
MONOPHONICS It’s Only Us (Colemine LP)
PRETENDERS Hate For Sale (BMG LP)
SLADE Cum On Feel The Hitz (BMG LP)
STRIKE UNDER Immediate Action (Wax Trax LP)
SUN RA A Fireside Chat With Lucifer (Modern Harmonic LP)
SCOTT WALKER Songs From His T.V. Series (Pleasure For Music LP)
WILD CHERRIES I’m The Sea (Just Add Water 45)
VARIOUS Beach Blvd (Radiation LP)
VARIOUS Behind The Dykes: Beat, Blues And Psychedelic Nuggets From The Lowlands 1964-1972 (Music On Vinyl LP)
VARIOUS Cleveland Confidential (Superior Viaduct LP)
VARIOUS The Land Of Sensations & Delights: The Psych Pop Sounds Of White Whale Records 1965-1970 (Craft LP)
Sean Rowader
Here are my favorite releases from 2020:
1. Dorian Electra – My Agenda (Electronic / Futurepop) [Digitally Self-Released]
-Dive into the Sea of Electra, drown in jewelry and accessories before growing digital gills that deliver oxygen to the most neglected recesses of your being. Abrasive, unapologetic, kind, loving, and inventive.
Favorite track: My Agenda (ft. Village People, Pussy Riot)
2. Channel Tres – i can’t go outside (Hip Hop / Detroit Techno) [Digital Release on GODMODE]
-Somewhere between Hip Hop and House, Channel Tres is on a couch, in a plane, in the sky. How can something be so fire yet so chilled out?
Favorite track: fuego (ft. Tyler, The Creator)
3. Yin Yin – The Rabbit That Hunts Tigers (Funk / Psychedelic) [LP on Les Disques Bongo Joe]
-Nose-riding a 16 foot surfboard in the lotus flower stance, meditating on the crest of a wave that never crashes. Time isn’t a straight line, it’s a fundamental element of limitless dimensions.
Favorite track: One-Inch Punch
4. Horse Lords – The Common Task (Krautrock / Avante-Garde) [LP on Northern Spy]
-Carl Linveld said it best, “Horse Lords are like using a fidget spinner to map out a migraine aura. I mean that in the best way possible.”
Favorite track: Fanfare for Effective Freedom
5. Kid Cudi – Man on the Moon III: The Chosen (Hip Hop / Neo-Psych) [LP on Wicked Awesome]
-Triumphantly, Scott Mescudi completes the trilogy he started 11 years ago. Cudi voyages into new territory and production while retaining all his unique idiosyncrasies that made him so likeable in the first place. This is like joyriding through your own neural pathways.
Favorite Track: Lovin’ Me (ft. Phoebe Bridgers)
6. CB Radio Gorgeous – EP (Punk / Hardcore) [7-inch on Thrilling Living]
-Fast and frenzied, glamorous and grimey, high on energy and low on fluff, and always over too soon. The first band I would see live when shows can return.
Favorite track: The Devil
7. Foxy Shazam – Burn (Glam-Rock / Hard-Rock) [LP on EEEOOOAH]
-If there was ever a year that needed Foxy’s comeback the most, it was this one. A true test of what it means to be uplifting, undeniable, and unstoppable. A national treasure of Smithsonian magnitude.
Favorite track: Into the Wild
8. Yves Tumor – Heaven to a Tortured Mind (Psych-Soul / Art-Pop) [LP on Warp]
-When I was laid up in hospital with a shattered ankle and a staph infection, isolated from my people, and disoriented from 3 surgeries worth of anesthesia, it was this album that I found most comfort in. Thank you Yves.
Favorite track: Gospel for a New Century
9. Luke Schneider – Altar of Harmony (Ambient / Lap Steel) [LP on Third Man]
-A truly beautiful, honest, meditative, and mind blowing experience from one of the most legendary lap steel guitarists of our time. This is what happens when a humble session musician finally gets the spotlight. Prepare to catch your own jaw on its way to the floor.
Favorite track: somnificus
10. 100 Gecs – 1000 Gecs and the Tree of Clues (Hyperpop / Comp) [LP on Dog Show]
-Never did I think I’d be penning a remix album on my AOTY list, but here we are. Lots of different genres, collaborators, and styles cohesively come together.
Favorite track: gecgecgec (ft. Lil West, Tony Velour)
Honorable Mentions:
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – K.G.
Osees – Protean Threat
Idles – Ultra Mono
Hayley Williams – Petals for Armor
Machine Gun Kelly – Tickets to my Downfall
Run The Jewels – RTJ4
Ho99o9 – Blurr
Dogleg – Melee
Thundercat – It is what it is
Nine Inch Nails – Ghosts V
Kip McCabe
Kip’s “some things I liked in 2020”
Budos Band “Long in the Tooth”
Bill Callahan/Bonnie Prince Billie covers series
Rob Mazurek Exploding Star Orchestra “Dimensional Stardust”
Run The Jewels “RTJ4”
Idles “Ultra Mono”
Hum “Inlet”
Jeff Parker “Suite for Max Brown”
Tyler Lopez
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Paysage D’Hiver – Im Wald [Kunsthall]
Other Favorites
DJ Akoza – Control Theory [Doom Shop]
Kjostad – Extinctionist [Chondritic Sound]
Beau Wanzer – Busted & Bamboozled [Ophism] “have you ever eaten tater tots from Skylark?…”
Of Feather & Bone – Sulfuric Disintegration [Profound Lore]
Paysage D’hiver – Im Traum (along w/ the other 4 singles released this year.) [Kunsthall]
Leandro Fresco & Rafael Anton Irisarri – Una Presencia En La Brisa [A Strangely Isolated Place]
THX1312 – Intentionally Decapitated Police Officer [Deathbomb]
THX1312 – This Speedcore Kills Fascists [MOBCORE CHICAGO]
Guilt Attendant – Suburban Scum [Hospital]
Michael Vallera – Window In [Denovali]
King Von – Welcome to O’Block [Empire]
Internal Rot – Grieving Birth [Iron Lung]
Old Tower – The Last Eldolon [Profound Lore]
Nonlocal Forecast – Holographic Universe(s?)! [Hausu Mountain]
Vatican Shadow – Persian Pillars Of The Gasoline Era [20 Buck Spin]
Dead C – Unknowns [Ba Da Bing!]
TrippJones x SpaceGhostPurrp x Loko Los – Gladiator Season, Vol. 2 [self]
Bing & Ruth – Species [4AD]
Container – Scramblers [Alter]
DJ Speedsick – Blood Mixed With Shit Mixed With Blood [Psychic Liberation]
Turia – Degen Van Licht [Eisenwald]
Undergang – Aldrig i livet [Me Saco Un Ojo]
Undeath – Lesions of a Different Kind [Prosthetic]
Lamp of Murmuur – Heir Of Ecliptical Romance [Death Kvlt]
William Basinski – Lamentations [Temporary Residence Limited]
Temple Nightside – Pillars of Damnation [Iron Bonehead]
Autechre – Sign [Warp]
Destruct – Echoes Of Life [Grave Mistake]
Vomir – Quarantine A-OK [Deathbed Tapes]
Microphones – Microphones In 2020 [P.W. Elvrum & Sun, Ltd.]
Ike Release – Personality Fragments [Episodes]
Bryan Smith
Bought and enjoyed in 2020
Jeff Parker : Suite for Max Brown
Cryptic Shift : Visitation from Enceladus
Daniel Avery & Mossimo Cortini : Illusion of Time
X – Alphabetland
Malokarpatan – Krupinske Ohne
Coriky – Coriky
Songhoy Blues – Optimisme
Sweven – The Eternal Resonance
Havukruunu – Uinuos Syomein Sota
Bedsore – Hypnagogic Hallucinations
Reissues:
Miles Davis – Double Image
Bill Evans – Some Other Time (The Lost Session From The Black Forest)
Lee Morgan – The Cooker
J* & K* – Stonebone
Various – Black Riot (Early Jungle, Rave And Hardcore)
Flaming Tunes – Flaming Tunes
Young Marble Giants – Colossal Youth 2LP
Budget bin (re)discoveries:
Urban Verbs – Urban Verbs (1980)
Belfegore – Belfegore (1984)
Dave Edmunds – Repeat When Necessary (1979)
cheap classical CDs!
Friends of the store
Emily Elhaj (Reckless alum)
ALBUMS
Lomelda – Hannah (Double Double Whammy)
SAULT – Untitled (Black Is) (Forever Living Originals)
Cindy Lee – What’s Tonight To Eternity (W. 25th)
Lambchop – TRIP (Merge)
Kacey Johansing – No Better Time (Night Bloom)
Oliver Coates – skins n slime (RVNG Intl)
Ana Roxanne – Because of a Flower (Kranky)
Tasha “But There’s Still The Moon” (Father/Daughter)
Deerhoof – Future Teenage Cave Artists (Joyful Noise)
TOPS – I Feel Alive (Musique)
U.S. Girls – Heavy Light (4AD)
Sofia Bolt – Share a Glass (self)
Chris Cohen “Physical Address” (Mexican Summer)
Gum Country – Somewhere (self)
Jeff Parker – Suite for Max Brown (Int’l Anthem)
Lucinda Williams – Good Souls Better Angels – (Highway 20/Thirty Tigers)
The Innocence Mission – See You Tomorrow (Thérèse Records)
Keeley Forsyth – Debris (The Leaf Label)
Sam Burton – I Can Go With You (Tompkins Square)
Jeremy Cunningham – The Weather Up There (Northern Spy)
Sweven – The Eternal Resonance (Ván)
Dean Blunt – Roaches 2012-2019 (World Music)
Alabaster dePlume – To Cy & Lee: Instrumentals Vol. 1 (Int’l Anthem)
Aretha Franklin – Just For Music (JFM)
Wire – Hive Mind (pinkflag)
Damar Davids – Bronze (Maximum Exposure)
Valentina Goncharova – Recordings 1987-1991, Vol. 1 (Shukai)
Jeremiah Meece – Suffering (self)
MJ Guider – Sour Cherry Bell (Kranky)
Michael Vallera – Window In (Denovali)
Equip – “Airship Theme (Fast Air Travel)” (self)
Peel Dream Magazine – Agitprop Alterna / Moral Panics (Slumberland)
Cut Worms – Nobody Lives Here Anymore (Jagjaguwar)
Gregor – Destiny (Chapter Music)
Country Westerns s/t (Fat Possum)
Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad – Run This Town OST (Linear Labs)
Ohbliv – Spirit Medicine B Sides (694479 Records DK)
Yebba – Distance (RCA)
Mary Lattimore & Paul Sukeena – “Dreaming of the Kelly Pool”
REISSUES
Solomon Ilori – African High Life (Alternative Fox)
Kraftwerk catalog (Parlophone)
Brian Wilson & Van Dyke Parks – Orange Crate Art (Omnivore)
Sun Ra – Haverford College 1980 Solo Piano (Sun Ra)
Ceramic Hello – The Absence of A Canary (Ice Machine)
PJ Harvey – Dry (Too Pure)
Neil Young – Homegrown (Silver Bow)
Stephen Malinder – Pow Wow (Self)
Jonathan Richman – I, Jonathan (Craft)
Duval Timothy – Brown Loop (Carrying Colour)
Robert Wyatt – His Greatest Misses (Domino)
The London Suede (Demon Records)
Christie Coyle (Redeye Distribution)
HAIM – Women In Music Pt. III – Columbia
Arca – KiCk i – XL
Grimes – Miss Anthropocene – 4AD
Yves Tumor – Heaven To A Tortured Mind – Warp
Fleet Foxes – Shore – ANTI-
NOTHING – The Great Dismal – Relapse
Tame Impala – The Slow Rush – Interscope
Arca – @@@@@ – XL
Rose City Band – Summerlong – Thrill Jockey
Adrianne Lenker – songs – 4AD
The Avalanches – We Will Always Love You – Astralwerks
Dave Martin (Captured Tracks)
New Records
Thurston Moore – By the Fire – Daydream Library
Kawaguchi Masami NRS & Kryssi Battalene – S/T – C/Site
Facs – Void Moments – Trouble in Mind
Lavender Flu – Barbarian Dust / Tomorrow Cleaners – In The Red / Meds
The Silence / Masaki Batoh – Electric Meditations / Smile, Jesus Loves YOU!- Drag City
Magik Markers – 2020 – Drag City
David Nance – Staunch Honey – Trouble In Mind
Dead C – Unknowns – Ba Da Bing!
Don Howland – Endgame – In The Red
Lewsberg – In This House – 12XU
Patois Counselors – The Optimal Seat – Ever/Never
E – Complications – Silver Rocket
Bill Nace – Both – Drag City
Rubber Blanket – Our Album – Spacecase
Gunn-Truscinski Duo – Soundkeeper – Three Lobed
Chubby & the Gang – Speed Kills – Static Shock
Lifeguard – Dive – self released
Cindy – Free Advice – Paisley Shirt/Mt. St. Mtn / Tough Love
75 Dollar Bill – Live at Tubby’s – Grapefruit
Raspberry Bulbs – Before The Age of Mirrors – Relapse
Bailterspace – Concret – Self Released
The Bats – Foothills – Flying Nun
Heavy Discipline – S/T – Painkiller
Chloe Alison Escott – Stars Under Contract – Chapter Music
Brain Drugs – S/T – Self Released
Reissues/Archival
Divine Horsemen – Live 1985-1987 – Feeding Tube
Vertical Slit – Live at Browns – Siltbreeze
L Seven – Unreleased, Studio and Live – Third Man
Stooges – Live At Goose Lake August 8th, 1970 – Third Man
White Heaven – Out – Black Editions
Pylon – Box – New West
Jimi Hendrix – Live in Maui – Experience Hendrix
A Burning Bus – S/T – In The Red
Endless Boogie – The Gathered and Scattered Vol. 1-4 – No Quarter
Faith – Live at CBGB’s – Outer Battery
UFO – Live in Youngstown – Chrysalis
V/A – We Were Living in Cincinnati – Hozac
V/A – Jobcentre Rejects Vols 3 & 4 – On the Dole
Def Leppard – The Early Years 1979-1981 UMC
Hawkwind – At the BBC – Parlaphone
Redd Kross – Phaseshifter / Show World – Third Man
Reigning Sound – Home For Orphans – Merge
Pole – 1-3 – Mute
Musica Transonic – S/T – Black Editions
Sonny Vincent – Diamond Distance & Liquid Fury – Hozac
Whirlywilrd – Complete Discography – Hozac
Eddie Criss Group – Undertaker – Hozac
Toho Sara – S/T – Black Editions
Velvet Underground – Live at the 2nd Fret
United Mutation – Dark Self Image – Radio Raheem
Singles / EPs
Home Blitz – All Through the Year – Sophomore Lounge
ISS – Too Punk For Heavy Metal – Total Punk
Native Cats – Two Creation Myths – Rough Skies
Limousine Beach – Stealin’ Wine + 2 – Tee Pee
Rat-Nip – A Comfortable Chair – Song Book Records
Matt Jencik – Mind Out of Joint / 1969 in Pittsburgh – Self released
Chris Brokaw – Heaven – Self Released
Speed Plans – Field of Vision – Self Released
Public Acid – Condemnation – Beach Impediment
Yo La Tengo – Sleepless Night – Matador
Invalid – Demo – Cruel Noise
Walkin’ Bulldog – Powerglide Vol. 1 & 2 – Self Released
Big Joanie – Cranes in the Sky b/w It’s You – Third Man
White Stains – Demo – Cruel Noise
Peace Talks – A Lasting Peace – Cruel Noise
Andy Larsen (Matador Direct)
New albums
M. Takara and Carla Boregas – Linha D’Água (El Rocha Records)
Valentina Magaletti, Marlene Ribeiro – Due Matte (Horn of Plenty)
Kübler Ross – Kübler Ross (Akashic Records)
Sarah Davachi – Cantus, Descant (Late Music)
Alan Braufman – The Fire Still Burns (Valley of Search)
Vladislav Delay – 500 Push-Up (feat Sly and Robbie) (Sub Rosa)
Beatrice Dillon – Workaround (Pan)
Ambrose Akinsmusire – on the tender spot of every calloused moment (Blue Note Records)
Lewsberg – In This House (12XU)
Cindy Lee – What’s Tonight To Eternity (W.25th)
Special Interest – The Passion Of (Night School/Thrilling Living)
Crazy Doberman – Illusory Expansion (Astral Spirits)
Nailah Hunter – Spells (Leaving Records)
CS + Kreme – Snoopy (Trilogy Tapes)
EPs, singles, collections, reissues, etc
Don Cherry – Om Shanti Om (Black Sweat Records)
Charles Curtis – Performances and Recordings 1998-2018 (Saltern)
Nkisi – Initiation (Initiation)
Neutrals – Personal Computing (Slumberland Records)
Xylitol – I’m Pretty Sure I Would Know If Reality Were Fundamentally Different Than I Perceived It To Be (Thrilling Living)
Alvin Lucier – String Noise (Black Truffle)
Coil – Musick To Play In The Dark (Dais)
Harry Pussy – Superstar (Palilalia)
Panasonic – Remix EP (Sahko Recordings)
Marika Politissa – All Parts Dark (Olvido Records)
Flaming Tunes – Flaming Tunes (Superior Viaduct)
Home Blitz – All Through The Year (Sophomore Lounge)
Time Cow – Time Cow’s Live Prog Dancehall From Home (Boomkat Editions)
Brett Grossman: former employee/ current staff veterinarian
Thirty-Nine Albums in Twenty-Twenty I listened to repeatedly:
Adrianne Lenker “Songs” (4ad)
Tristan Perich “Drift Multiply” (New Amsterdam)
Beatriz Ferreyra “Echos+” (Room40)
Dirty Projectors “5EPs” (Domino)
R.A.P. Ferreira and The Jefferson Park Boys “Purple Moonlight Pages” (Ruby Yacht)
White Poppy “Paradise Gardens” / “Sound Meditations 2” (Not Not Fun Records)
Cindy Lee “What’s tonight to Eternity” (W. 25th)
Laura Marling “Song for Our Daughter” (Chrysalis/ Partisan)
KMRU “Peel” (Editions Mego)
Fiona Apple “Fetch the Bolt Cutters” (Epic/ Clean Slate)
Joanne Robertson “Painting Stupid Girls” (World Music)
Angel Olsen “Whole New Mess” (Jagjaguwar)
Honey Radar “Sing the Snow away” (Chunklet Industries)
Yves Jarvis “Sundry Rock Song Stock” (Flemish Eye)
Jockstrap “Wick City” (Warp)
Jay Electronica “A Written Testimony” (Roc Nation)
Dehd “Flowers of Devotion” (Fire Talk)
Carl Stone “Stolen Car” (Unseen Worlds)
Sarah Davachi “Gathers” (Boomkat Editions), “Cantus, Descant” (Late Music)
Field Works “Ultrasonic” (Temporary Residence Limited)
Tara Clerkin Trio “Tara Clerkin Trio” (Laura Lies In)
Loving “If I am only My Thoughts” (Last Gang Records, Inc.)
Model Home “One Year” (Disciples)
William Basinski “Lamentations” (Temporary Residence Limited)
Liv.e “Couldn’t wait to tell you…” (In Real Life Music Publishing LLC)
Julianna Barwick “Healing is a Miracle” (Ninja Tune)
Lucrecia Dalt “No Era Solida” (Rvng Intl.)
Isabella, Jasper, and Simon Fisher Turner “Savage Songs of Brutality and Food” (Soleilmoon)
Otta “Songbook” (BOKKLE PIAS)
Military Genius “Deep Web” (Unheard of Hope)
Aki Onda “Nam June’s Spirit Was Speaking To Me” (Recital)
Ulla “Tumbling towards a well” (Experiences Ltd)
Jyoti “Mama, you can bet!” (SomeothaShip Connect)
No Home “Fucking Hell” (Hungry and Undervalued)
Markus Floats “Third Album” (Constellation)
Ian William Craig “Red Sun Through Smoke” (130701)
Lomelda “Hannah” (Double Double Whammy)
Built to Spill “Built to Spill plays the songs of Daniel Johnston” (Ernest Jenning Record Co.)
Katie Gately “Loom” (Houndstooth)
Reissues/Archival:
Philip Corner “Chord: B Major/ Bb Minor 9 / Gong! (Transcription for Low Strings) (Unseen Worlds)
Imaginary Softwoods “Annual Flowers in Color” (Amethyst Sunset)
Lol Coxhill and Morgan-Fisher “Slow Music” (Aguirre)
Stephan Mathieu and Ekkehard Ehlers “Heroin” (Keplar)
Craig Kupka “Crystals” (Smithsonian Folkways)
Julia Reidy “Vanish” (Editions Mego)
Roedelius “Tape Archive Essense 1973-1978)” (Bureau B)
The The “See Without Being Seen” (Cinéola)
Songs not on records or on records I like less
Vague Imaginaires “Mais qu’est-ce Que”
Autechre “Esle 0”
Circa 2000 “The Echoing Green”
Pure X “Middle America”
Divino Niño”Made up My Mind”
Helena Deland “Seven Hours”
Bianca Scout, j.b. Glazer, Cameron Molloy, Harald Smart, Jacob Samuel, Elena Isolini “Dark Lore Bingo”
Sparkle Division “Sparkle on Sad Sister Mother Queen/ No Exit”
Shit and Shine “Cream Tee”
Teleplasmiste “A Goodly Company”
Sharhabi Ahmed “Kamar Dawa”
Ty Segall/ Cory Hanson “She’s a Beam”
Tricky “Vietnam”
Y La Bamba “Mariposa De Coalcomán”
Zia + Oscar Jan Hoogland “Trip The Light Fantastic”
Lemon Twigs “Live in Favor of Tomorrow”
CEL “Pink Korridor”
Aki Tsuyuko “Above another Lake”
Princess Nokia “Sunday Best”
MinaeMinae “Algenüberzug”