THE NICSPERIMENT'S FAVORITE 15 ALBUMS OF 2020
Tonight, the worst year in living memory comes to a close. Have there been
worse in human history? Most definitely. Have there been worse in the 21st
Century? Probably not. Either way, music still exists. Here are my
fifteen sixteen favorite albums of 2020.
16. Gorillaz -- Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez
Here I am with a nice 15-album list, when someone tells me there's a new Gorillaz album. I'm not worried, because I haven't loved a Gorillaz album since 2010's incredible Plastic Beach. Since then, Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's (literally) animated band have focused on some glossy pop experiments that haven't peaked my interest. Well, hello number sixteen because 2020's Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez features collaborations with artists like Elton John and 6lack...on the same track. These songs are all killers, and together, though they weren't originally recorded with the intent, form a satisfying, diverse, yet cohesive whole that delivers nonstop musical goodness. I realize as I type this (weeks after creating this initial list) that a lot of albums on my list this year have no genre. Weird.
15. Childish Gambino -- 3.15.20
Donald Glover is our culture's most prominent polymath, proving himself first as a comedic actor, then as a rapper, then a writer and showrunner and serious actor, and finally as a multifaceted musical artist. At this point, I'm not sure if there's anything he can't do, and it certainly feels like he feels the same way on 3.15.20. The genre-less album is a trippy, gooey, cosmic journey, unpredictable from not only track-to-track, but minute-to-minute, and yet somehow, it all works.
14. Gleemer -- Down Through
The shoegazing Gleemer do not give me what I want. Down Through's first track features an emotive build, which seems to be leading to a massively cathartic instrumental outro. Instead, what release there is comes in a slight guitar distortion punchup and slightly more crashing cymbals in the final chorus...before a muted outro. Gleemer continuously defy expectations in this way, eschewing the sort of big post-rock moments that might have been low-hanging fruit, but consequently creating an album full of small exhalations that add up upon repeat listens.
13. Drive-by Truckers -- The New OK
It seems like the Drive-by Truckers have spent the last seven or eight years in a sort of transition from heavily touring southern rock hell-raisers to elder statesmen who still have something to say. They've always had a wit and intelligence above that of their peers, but in this time-span, it's felt like the band have been gestating a statement they haven't quite found the right way to birth. On The New OK, their second of two albums released in 2020, they get there. The New OK brings back the more raucous stylings of the band's pre-2013 output, while heavily leaning into political and social justice subject matter. These aren't topics the band have avoided in the past, but they're front in center here, from the lyrics to the album cover, with the music not just in the background like on their last few releases, but standing defiantly tall, and only hammering home the point all the harder. Yet with that said, it's a chill, yet searing ballad about Sarah Palin preparing the way for Donald Trump that hits harder than a Dodge Challenger.
12. '68 -- Love is Ain't Dead
Sure, it's just an E.P. However, in 2020, even only 15 minutes of Josh Scogin's authenticity feels vital. On Love is Ain't Dead, Scogin continues to follow his experimental hard rock muse, and these four songs just don't get old.
11. Kaatayra -- Só Quem Viu o Relâmpago à Sua Direita Sabe
Brazilian solo artist, Caio Lemos, released two albums under the Kaatayra moniker this year, though Só Quem Viu o Relâmpago à Sua Direita Sabe is my favorite of the two. Lemos combines Brazilian folk with black metal, ambient, and world music to create an entirely new and beautiful sound. This is an invigorating album that denies genre classification, and should make a name for its creator.
10. Intronaut -- Fluid Existential Inversions
Intronaut have coupled moments of pummeling virtuosity with equally calm and meditative passages for years. Fluid Existential Inversions gets that mix just right, and with a vibe that's just a bit lighter than that of their previous work, yet somehow suits their sound more. Fluid Existential Inversions offers plenty of moments to bang on your steering wheel, then contemplate whether you actually existed to bang on your steering wheel in the first place.
9. Nubya Garcia -- SOURCE
There's a lot I look for in a jazz album, and Nubya Garcia's SOURCE offers all of it and more. It's cool, full of atmosphere, energy, inherent rhythm, variation, vibe, virtuosity. Most importantly, for an hour-long album, SOURCE never drags or gets stuck. The dub, samba, and d&b influences also don't hurt! At 29, the London-based saxophonist and bandleader has created the type of cohesive musical statement most artists don't achieve over a lifetime.
8. Thundercat -- It Is What It Is
I don't know how to describe Thundercat's It Is What It Is. The falsetto-singing Stephen Lee Bruner, aka Thundercat, is a master bassist, and It Is What It Is features his incredible playing in the service of music his Bandcamp account tags as "electronic, r&b, soul, bass, beats, cosmic." All I know is, his persona is charming, and his songs are somehow all fun, funny, contemplative, atmospheric, and mystical at the same time. His band are all great players, with endlessly unspooling lines of saxophone that send me to space.
7. Laveda -- What Happens After
This February, my wife and I found a new Baton Rouge music venue, Mid City Ballroom--wonderful place, great spot, record store on the inside. We felt hip and cool and again, and decided we were going to spend 2020 frequently visiting the venue. The band we saw that night, Laveda, featured a unique, youthful, and highly original spin on shoegaze, and they seemed to be headed for big things, and a full slate of 2020 touring in support of their new album, What Happens After. Well, none of that stuff happened, but What Happens After is a brilliant debut, featuring all of the energy of Laveda's live show, a complex, layered sound, and hope for a new generation of rock bands.
6. Slick Shoes -- Frequency and Rotation
Slick Shoes put out some of the most fun technical skate punk of the late 90's and early 00's, but folded up shop in the mid-00's. Now, they're back to prove they weren't just an anomaly of their time, with an album that's just as high-energy and fun as anything they released in their original career, with an even more stunning technical edge. Most of these guys are in their 40's, but this sounds like the work of a young and hungry band!
5. Kilo -- Maybe We Could
Kilo's glitchy trip-hop and R&B-influenced electronic music miraculously sounds like something both old and new. There are unmistakable downtempo 90's textures here, yet they're layered within modern sounds and production techniques, and a contagious, youthful energy. Chloe Kaul's often melancholy vocals feel like some kind of cleansing rain from another universe throughout this very cohesive set of songs. The album's emotional build and stunning climax gets Maybe We Could an easy spot on this list.
4. Deftones -- Ohms
Over the years, I've realized that Deftones make two types of albums. The rarer of the two is the straightforward and easily digestible type (i.e., the 2003 self-titled album and 2010's Diamond Eyes). The most common, and the platform upon which Ohms confidently stands, is the amorphous, ever-shifting type that takes dozens of listens to unpack, and yet still somehow continues to reveal something new on subsequent listens. The atmospheric hard rock pioneers are miraculously still on the top of their game 30 years into their career. I might be unpacking Ohms for equally as long.
3. Bartees Strange -- Live Forever
Ironically, though the majority of its artists have been white, rock and roll owes most of its roots to black artists. How invigorating is it then, to hear Bartees Strange spend 35-minutes taking those roots back. Live Forever is a blast of energy, an incredibly unique and complete album from start to finish...and this is his debut!
2. Hum -- Inlet
Typically, a reunited band who originally broke up 20 years ago would have lost their edge. Who'd have thought that Hum's fuzzed-out rock would become so heavy and visceral in 2020? Inlet somehow features the 90's alternative band at their best, with extra-deep and crunchy guitar tones, and long, stretched out jams, with Earth-crunching riffs. Inlet is also incredibly cohesive, featuring some of Matt Talbot's deepest, most enjoyable lyrics. Inlet is a musical triumph.
1. Bohren & Der Club of Gore -- Patchouli Blue
Ambient doom jazz purveyors, Bohren & Der Club of Gore, have been making pitch black despair sound incredibly cool for almost 30 years. They experimented more with minimalism in the 10's, which wasn't as much my cup of tea as their earlier work, but they've kicked off the 20's with some of their finest work. Patchoui Blue explores dark, shadow-drenched corners of sound like a band from the end of time. If you traveled to the ultimate ending of all being and existence in the universe, this jazz trio would be standing there, playing in a final, eternal shaft of light, with only darkness behind them. If you tried to walk into that darkness, no matter how many steps you'd take, you'd look back to see them still playing in that same spot, still the exact same distance behind you.
16. Gorillaz -- Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez
Here I am with a nice 15-album list, when someone tells me there's a new Gorillaz album. I'm not worried, because I haven't loved a Gorillaz album since 2010's incredible Plastic Beach. Since then, Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's (literally) animated band have focused on some glossy pop experiments that haven't peaked my interest. Well, hello number sixteen because 2020's Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez features collaborations with artists like Elton John and 6lack...on the same track. These songs are all killers, and together, though they weren't originally recorded with the intent, form a satisfying, diverse, yet cohesive whole that delivers nonstop musical goodness. I realize as I type this (weeks after creating this initial list) that a lot of albums on my list this year have no genre. Weird.
15. Childish Gambino -- 3.15.20
Donald Glover is our culture's most prominent polymath, proving himself first as a comedic actor, then as a rapper, then a writer and showrunner and serious actor, and finally as a multifaceted musical artist. At this point, I'm not sure if there's anything he can't do, and it certainly feels like he feels the same way on 3.15.20. The genre-less album is a trippy, gooey, cosmic journey, unpredictable from not only track-to-track, but minute-to-minute, and yet somehow, it all works.
14. Gleemer -- Down Through
The shoegazing Gleemer do not give me what I want. Down Through's first track features an emotive build, which seems to be leading to a massively cathartic instrumental outro. Instead, what release there is comes in a slight guitar distortion punchup and slightly more crashing cymbals in the final chorus...before a muted outro. Gleemer continuously defy expectations in this way, eschewing the sort of big post-rock moments that might have been low-hanging fruit, but consequently creating an album full of small exhalations that add up upon repeat listens.
13. Drive-by Truckers -- The New OK
It seems like the Drive-by Truckers have spent the last seven or eight years in a sort of transition from heavily touring southern rock hell-raisers to elder statesmen who still have something to say. They've always had a wit and intelligence above that of their peers, but in this time-span, it's felt like the band have been gestating a statement they haven't quite found the right way to birth. On The New OK, their second of two albums released in 2020, they get there. The New OK brings back the more raucous stylings of the band's pre-2013 output, while heavily leaning into political and social justice subject matter. These aren't topics the band have avoided in the past, but they're front in center here, from the lyrics to the album cover, with the music not just in the background like on their last few releases, but standing defiantly tall, and only hammering home the point all the harder. Yet with that said, it's a chill, yet searing ballad about Sarah Palin preparing the way for Donald Trump that hits harder than a Dodge Challenger.
12. '68 -- Love is Ain't Dead
Sure, it's just an E.P. However, in 2020, even only 15 minutes of Josh Scogin's authenticity feels vital. On Love is Ain't Dead, Scogin continues to follow his experimental hard rock muse, and these four songs just don't get old.
11. Kaatayra -- Só Quem Viu o Relâmpago à Sua Direita Sabe
Brazilian solo artist, Caio Lemos, released two albums under the Kaatayra moniker this year, though Só Quem Viu o Relâmpago à Sua Direita Sabe is my favorite of the two. Lemos combines Brazilian folk with black metal, ambient, and world music to create an entirely new and beautiful sound. This is an invigorating album that denies genre classification, and should make a name for its creator.
10. Intronaut -- Fluid Existential Inversions
Intronaut have coupled moments of pummeling virtuosity with equally calm and meditative passages for years. Fluid Existential Inversions gets that mix just right, and with a vibe that's just a bit lighter than that of their previous work, yet somehow suits their sound more. Fluid Existential Inversions offers plenty of moments to bang on your steering wheel, then contemplate whether you actually existed to bang on your steering wheel in the first place.
9. Nubya Garcia -- SOURCE
There's a lot I look for in a jazz album, and Nubya Garcia's SOURCE offers all of it and more. It's cool, full of atmosphere, energy, inherent rhythm, variation, vibe, virtuosity. Most importantly, for an hour-long album, SOURCE never drags or gets stuck. The dub, samba, and d&b influences also don't hurt! At 29, the London-based saxophonist and bandleader has created the type of cohesive musical statement most artists don't achieve over a lifetime.
8. Thundercat -- It Is What It Is
I don't know how to describe Thundercat's It Is What It Is. The falsetto-singing Stephen Lee Bruner, aka Thundercat, is a master bassist, and It Is What It Is features his incredible playing in the service of music his Bandcamp account tags as "electronic, r&b, soul, bass, beats, cosmic." All I know is, his persona is charming, and his songs are somehow all fun, funny, contemplative, atmospheric, and mystical at the same time. His band are all great players, with endlessly unspooling lines of saxophone that send me to space.
7. Laveda -- What Happens After
This February, my wife and I found a new Baton Rouge music venue, Mid City Ballroom--wonderful place, great spot, record store on the inside. We felt hip and cool and again, and decided we were going to spend 2020 frequently visiting the venue. The band we saw that night, Laveda, featured a unique, youthful, and highly original spin on shoegaze, and they seemed to be headed for big things, and a full slate of 2020 touring in support of their new album, What Happens After. Well, none of that stuff happened, but What Happens After is a brilliant debut, featuring all of the energy of Laveda's live show, a complex, layered sound, and hope for a new generation of rock bands.
6. Slick Shoes -- Frequency and Rotation
Slick Shoes put out some of the most fun technical skate punk of the late 90's and early 00's, but folded up shop in the mid-00's. Now, they're back to prove they weren't just an anomaly of their time, with an album that's just as high-energy and fun as anything they released in their original career, with an even more stunning technical edge. Most of these guys are in their 40's, but this sounds like the work of a young and hungry band!
5. Kilo -- Maybe We Could
Kilo's glitchy trip-hop and R&B-influenced electronic music miraculously sounds like something both old and new. There are unmistakable downtempo 90's textures here, yet they're layered within modern sounds and production techniques, and a contagious, youthful energy. Chloe Kaul's often melancholy vocals feel like some kind of cleansing rain from another universe throughout this very cohesive set of songs. The album's emotional build and stunning climax gets Maybe We Could an easy spot on this list.
4. Deftones -- Ohms
Over the years, I've realized that Deftones make two types of albums. The rarer of the two is the straightforward and easily digestible type (i.e., the 2003 self-titled album and 2010's Diamond Eyes). The most common, and the platform upon which Ohms confidently stands, is the amorphous, ever-shifting type that takes dozens of listens to unpack, and yet still somehow continues to reveal something new on subsequent listens. The atmospheric hard rock pioneers are miraculously still on the top of their game 30 years into their career. I might be unpacking Ohms for equally as long.
3. Bartees Strange -- Live Forever
Ironically, though the majority of its artists have been white, rock and roll owes most of its roots to black artists. How invigorating is it then, to hear Bartees Strange spend 35-minutes taking those roots back. Live Forever is a blast of energy, an incredibly unique and complete album from start to finish...and this is his debut!
2. Hum -- Inlet
Typically, a reunited band who originally broke up 20 years ago would have lost their edge. Who'd have thought that Hum's fuzzed-out rock would become so heavy and visceral in 2020? Inlet somehow features the 90's alternative band at their best, with extra-deep and crunchy guitar tones, and long, stretched out jams, with Earth-crunching riffs. Inlet is also incredibly cohesive, featuring some of Matt Talbot's deepest, most enjoyable lyrics. Inlet is a musical triumph.
1. Bohren & Der Club of Gore -- Patchouli Blue
Ambient doom jazz purveyors, Bohren & Der Club of Gore, have been making pitch black despair sound incredibly cool for almost 30 years. They experimented more with minimalism in the 10's, which wasn't as much my cup of tea as their earlier work, but they've kicked off the 20's with some of their finest work. Patchoui Blue explores dark, shadow-drenched corners of sound like a band from the end of time. If you traveled to the ultimate ending of all being and existence in the universe, this jazz trio would be standing there, playing in a final, eternal shaft of light, with only darkness behind them. If you tried to walk into that darkness, no matter how many steps you'd take, you'd look back to see them still playing in that same spot, still the exact same distance behind you.
Comments
I was not familiar with Bartees Strange; he's a terrific singer.
Gorillaz and Elton John? I might just check it out for the sake of mere curiosity...generally speaking, I stay far away from the latter's music.