Let me start by acknowledging that this is my first post to the blog in 12 months. While I’d like to blame that entirely on COVID (it seems like an easy escape clause) the truth is more likely a mix of pandemic induced apathy and a previously existing slip in blogging related motivation. But here we are in December and it seems like I should at least get off my hands long enough to bang out my music picks for the year. With any luck, this will trigger at least a little momentum and I’ll see if I can do something to capture a few points of interest from the year that has been 2020.
Now on to the music –
Although this year has been far from standard, my process for putting together these lists is the same as what I’ve been doing and pretty straight forward. I did provide some additional picks this time just because I got worn out trying to keep the list capped at ten and thought a few more wouldn’t hurt anything.
One potential trend in terms of the content of my lists this year is a higher proportion of Alt-country/Americana music compared to the last few. I’m not sure if this is simply because there was a resurgence in those genres or if it actually had more to do with me finding refuge and comfort in music tinged with the sounds of my childhood.
With that out of the way, here are my personal picks for best albums of 2020. Favorite songs will be coming shortly.
MY FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2020
1. RTJ4, Run the Jewels – Yes, these gentlemen have been high on my list several times before, but damnit they just keep dropping standout music that can’t be overlooked. And on top of making the best produced (thanks to El-P) rap albums that surgically pivot between powerful social commentary and humor, they once again demonstrated their uncanny ability to drop these gifts just when the world needs it most. In the last week of 2016 they released their RTJ3 as the reality of Trump’s win was sinking in on all of us. Now in 2020, 9 days after George Floyd is killed and protests are growing widespread, they surprise us with an album putting voice to anger, frustration and a demand for change.
2. SOURCE, Nubya Garcia – I can safely say that Nubya Garcia has been the most fruitful personal music discovery I’ve had in a long time. Added up, I spent more time this year in her musical neighborhood than anywhere else. Not only did I binge on her amazing album of afro-beat infused jazz but exploring her catalog of music opened up a wonderful universe of collaborators and adjacent artists filling a new world of UK jazz that I didn’t know before. (See also Shabaka and the Ancestors, Moses Boyd, both featured later on in my year end review.) All of it jazz that’s been richly mixed with African, Caribbean, hip-hop and electronic influences.
3. Neon Cross, Jaime Wyatt – While Sturgill Simpson may be considered by many as the face of Outlaw Country’s current wave, I’d argue Jaime Wyatt is about as “Outlaw” or Alt-Country as you can get. I heard her say once in an interview that she takes country music and ruins it. Don’t be fooled though, there’s nothing ruined in this album. I was hooked as soon as I heard the opening track, with her smokey voice and the underlying pedal steel guitar. Those who aren’t paying attention may take her for a cynical country misfit but there’s a battle-scarred honesty in her writing that’s not commonly found.
4. Every Bad, Porridge Radio – Dana Margolin’s dusky voice plays perfectly across eleven heaving tracks of emotional release. With an underlayer of DIY post-punk sounds, a splash of Britpop attitude, and just the right amount of avant-garde thinking, this became my favorite “indie-rock” album of the year. In the final track, Margolin may chant “There’s nothing inside / There’s nothing inside,” but this release is full of brash conviction.
5. Cha Cha Palace, Angelica Garcia – I first heard of Garcia when her early single for this album made Barak Obama’s list of favorite songs in 2019. (Yes, another reminder of how amazing things used to be when we had an openminded, cultured, and tasteful president.) However, despite infectious pop tunes like “Karma The Knife,” I didn’t immediately connect with her album as a whole. Maybe because I’m a privileged, middle aged, sorta-hipster white guy and Cha Cha Palace is a syncopated look into what it’s like in America as someone with Latinx roots from East LA. But that’s what’s so impressive about this album – once I took a moment to listen again, I realized (as I like to think Barak did) that Garcia was capturing a side of the diverse reality in America that all of us should (need) to access. “I been trying to tell ya but you just don’t see / Like you, I was born in this country.” Best of all though, she does it with buoyant charm.
6. Cuttin’ Grass – Vol. 1, Sturgill Simpson – Yes, I’m a Sturgill fanboy. Yes, this is actually two albums which contain no new tracks but is instead a collection of songs he’s previously released now reworked in a bluegrass setting. And quite frankly, I’m generally ambivalent about bluegrass music. But similar to Jeff Tweedy’s 2017 album Together at Last, having the courage to re-imagine your own songs in an entirely new format highlights the quality of the material and demonstrates the layers of pleasure we can get from truly great music. (BONUS: When I started writing up this list Vol. 2 was not yet out, but with it’s release last week the combined work – 32 total songs! – demonstrate an amazing depth of material he’s already created in a relatively short professional career.)
7. Good Souls Better Angels, Lucinda Williams – Williams is a highly underrated American song writing legend. For decades she’s been a song-writer’s song writer but for me personally I think this is her best album. There’s a darker, grittier production to the arrangements that seems tailor made for her voice. Then there’s the imagery of her lyrics, the way she creates stories with deceptively simple lines, that she employs in what feels like an album destined to help guide us through the turmoil of 2020.
8. Snapshot of a Beginner, Nap Eyes – Nigel Chapman may have a love-it-or-hate-it vocal style. Think Phil Elverum (Microphones, Mount Eerie), Mark Oliver Everett (Eels), Charlie Fink (Noah and the Whale), or maybe John Roderick (The Long Winters). For me, the sound Chapman and the rest of his Canadian bandmates created with this album was a delightful mix of Stephen Malkmus (a well documented influence) and maybe the pop of an early 90’s era band like James. Then within that sound, Chapman generally creates a vibe of positive but laid back sentiment while guitarist Brad Loughead splashes in tastefully proportioned doses of melodic chaos.
9. Coriky, Coriky – Like many people this year, I went though a period where I was feeling pretty overwhelmed by the ugliness of the outside world. At its peak, I found myself turning to the sounds I loved from the late 80’s and 90’s when (it seemed) life was simpler. Part of this involved a lot of Fugazi – a band that was more than I could appreciate as a 17 year old (and maybe still today). In June, when I heard Ian MacKaye’s new project Coriky was releasing an album I felt a newly re-sparked urge to check it out. While the genealogy of Fugazi is evident from the first track, this is not just an attempt to cash in on the nostalgia for yesteryear. This is sharp, intelligent music leveraging the well honed song writing skills of both MacKaye and bandmate Amy Farina to skewer the inequalities and abuses of our society.
10. Flower of Devotion, Dehd – At times this is garage rock laced with the reverberating echo of surf rock guitars. At other times it’s 80’s pop covered by a stripped down post-punk band. (Maybe even a splash of Blondie meets Tom Petty!) All combined, this Chicago band made a record that hit a sweet spot for me this year – music with attitude that’s still chill enough to let you groove along with it.
11. color theory, Soccer Mommy – Two years after releasing Clean, Sophie Allison’s sophomore album shows that despite being young and presenting what may seem like a carefree sound, she is a musician to be taken seriously. Not only has the attitude of her writing progressed with more confidence, she’s deftly threaded the line of adding richer sound production while still keeping the sincerity that made her immediately standout.
12. Love is the King, Jeff Tweedy – I’d guess some folks argue Tweedy’s songwriting has become less biting and more muted over the years. And throughout many patches of this record, the sound is very simple and even muted, reflecting the washed-out, gray, and sparse environment captured in the album’s cover photo. But with Love is the King I felt this stemmed from the well of maturity, confidence, and resolve Tweedy instills in his music now. It is simple, almost workman like. For me, this album could be the equivalent of watching a truly gifted carpenter at their work, marveling at the simple elegance of a master in their element.
HONORABLE MENTION
Saint Cloud, Waxahatchee
Untitled (Black Is), SAULT
Reunions, Jason Isbell
Daughter, Lydia Loveless
Dinner Party: Dessert, Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper, and 9th Wonder
Punisher, Phoebe Bridgers
Not More Music Crap? 
I look forward to this every year Colby. Honestly, I don’t match up completely with all your picks, but I have been listening to Gillian, Sturgill and Jeff all afternoon/evening. As impressed as I am with your depth and expanse of music knowledge, I have to say I am equally impressed with your literary skill. Love reading what you write, how you express yourself. Do more. You’re very talented.
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