[Skuj]

So, anyway.....

Anybody dig Mr Perfume Genius?

[Skuj]

Originally Posted by Skuj

On another note: King Gizzard are starting to bore me.

Speaking of reassessments after the initial spins, I now love this new KG album!!

(Sue me.)

[Severian]

Originally Posted by Skuj

So, anyway.....

Anybody dig Mr Perfume Genius?

Yeah. Not super consistent but it has some truly great tracks. “Describe” is one of my favorites of the year

[Savage Clone]

Just got the new White Hills album, which I pre-ordered several months ago. Worth waiting for, and very different stylistically for them. It’s almost industrial in the truest sense, incorporating sounds from New York and some really good graphic design sensibilities as well. I like how they keep us guessing. One of the most interesting groups of the last decade.

[Bytor Peltor]

Just this morning I stumbled across a Lovesliescrushing split w/ Fiorella16 that was released back in April 2020. The six Letany tracks by Loveliescrushing were recorded in January 2020......all the fuzzy hollow drone you need for 2020

[choc e-Claire]

It's time to crown the FuzzFaves of 2020:

10. The Microphones - Microphones in 2020. Phil Elverum returns to his early project, sharing his life story in a softly beautiful 45-minute epic. Perhaps not one for regular listening, but it's emotional and shows that artistic growth can often bring you right back.

9. Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts V: Together. After a decade of film scoring, Reznor and Ross added to the Ghosts series with two related but distinct albums. Together is superior, with slow, extended tone poems that try to offer tranquility and hope.

8. Hum - Inlet. Perhaps a little samey, but when you're as good at the one style - heavy shoegaze that threatens to drift into space at times - as Hum, the comeback is all that we really needed with our year. Hard-edged but vibrant, one of the best revivals in recent memory.

7. Ringo Deathstarr - Ringo Deathstarr. The self-titled record from the Austin group plays straight to their strengths, but they've added some heft that hints towards higher ambitions. Dreamy vocals, noisy guitars, almost trying for shoegaze on an arena scale.

6. Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters. Just because times aren't great doesn't mean you can't be playful, and Apple's long-awaited fifth album delivered in spades, goofy lyricism and unconventional instrumentation delivered with sincerity and self-confidence.

5. Daniel Avery & Alessandro Cortini - Illusion of Time. Perhaps softcore noise from two talented keyboard experimentalists, this is undoubtedly a headphone record - loud, colourful drones that summon up their own world. Floaty, loud, absolutely one to soak in.

4. clipping. - Visions of Bodies Being Burned. The social backdrop of 2020 seeps in to Diggs' work, making an already tense record drip with anxiety and a sense of disturbance. The gritty production means you can't afford to breathe, but you're so involved you won't have to.

3. Autechre - SIGN. After several years of getting increasingly impenetrable and glitchy, the Rochdale duo take what they've learned since the 90s and scale it back, making an album that's sparse, beautiful, and their most accessible in decades.

2. A.G. Cook - 7G. The founder of PC Music attempts to give the genre its White Album - one of the most ambitious debuts ever, swinging from schizoid drum-and-bass to soft glitchfolk to dance-floor highlights, and even including a couple of cover songs.

1. Arca - @@@@@. A journey through the most experimental reaches of electropop, this 62-minute mixtape goes through thirty fragments that toy with identity, sexuality, and self-perception. Powerful, exploratory, it's the 'album' of the year.

Also, HM to the single of the year: 'mos thoser' by Food House. The lead single from the Gupi/Fraxiom collaborative LP; manic hyperpop with absurd zoomer lyrics, consistent adrenaline, and an incredible breakdown (you'll know when you hear it). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Sy0C55ryXc

[The Soup Nazi]

Originally Posted by Skuj

Thanks for the suggestion.

"Suggestion"?! I didn't go to Vietnam to come back and see my orders reduced to "suggestions" by slacker X-ers! OBEY MY COMMAND, SKUJ!

[The Soup Nazi]

Wilco's 2020 recommendations. I wonder which member voted for Napalm Death...

 

There's a lot to say about 2020, but we're gonna let the music do the talking. This year Summerteeth Deluxe Edition was released alongside new tunes from Wilco, Jeff, Nels, The Autumn Defense, Expandards and Birdy On The Moon.

But if those don't keep your ears occupied, the band put together a list of (some of) their favorite albums from the year. Check that out below and listen to a sampling here.

Nicole Atkins Italian Ice
Fiona Apple Fetch the Bolt Cutters
William Basinski Lamentations
Bill Callahan Gold Record
Neil Cowley Building Blocks Pt. 1, 2, 3
Deerhoof Future Teenage Cave Artists
Bob Dylan Rough and Rowdy Ways
Fleet Foxes Shore
Bill Frisell Valentine
Freddie Gibbs Alfredo
Molly Joyce Breaking and Entering
Roland Kayn A Pan-Air Music
Will Kimbrough Spring Break
Mary Lattimore Silver Ladders
Ingrid Laubrock Dreamt Twice, Twice Dreamt
Le Ren Morning and Melancholia
Mary Halvorson's Code Girl Artlessly Falling
Megan Thee Stallion Good News
Katie Melua Album No. 8
Ron Miles Rainbow Sign
Miyamoto is Black Enough Burn / Build
Napalm Death Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism
Agnes Obel Myopia
Ohmme Fantasize Your Ghost
Jim O'Rourke Steamroom 47-51
Jeff Parker Suite For Max Brown
Verneri Pohjola The Dead Don't Dream
Rainsticks October Onwards
Run The Jewels RTJ4
John Scofield Swallow Tales
Eric Slick Wiseacre
Bartees Strange Live Forever
Thundercat It is What It Is
We Jazz Records We Jazz Records 7"
Jonathan Wilson Dixie Blur

[Skuj]

I may have missed The Flaming Lips - American Head love in this thread.

[Skuj]

Originally Posted by The Soup Nazi

"Suggestion"?! I didn't go to Vietnam to come back and see my orders reduced to "suggestions" by slacker X-ers! OBEY MY COMMAND, SKUJ!

Wait....you went to 'Nam?

[Severian]

Originally Posted by Skuj

I may have missed The Flaming Lips - American Head love in this thread.

I didn’t lose my mind for it or anything, but it was probably their best studio album since Embryonic. Definitely their best since The Terror. Nice to hear them making some semi-earnest music again instead of just spazzing endlessly about sci-fi and fantasy stuff over bleeps and bloops.

[The Soup Nazi]

Originally Posted by Skuj

Wait....you went to 'Nam?

Yeah, also Korea, WWII, and almost made it to WWI but Gal Gadot stopped it before I could get to Europe.

[Skuj]

So, what did we conclude then?

Fetch The Bolt Cutters?

[choc e-Claire]

That does seem to be the consensus pick amongst us here, yes.

[_slavo_]

Originally Posted by choc e-Claire

8. Hum - Inlet. Perhaps a little samey, but when you're as good at the one style - heavy shoegaze that threatens to drift into space at times - as Hum, the comeback is all that we really needed with our year. Hard-edged but vibrant, one of the best revivals in recent memory.

oh YES.

[choc e-Claire]

Someone (who I had to cut off for other reasons) was deadset on that as their AOTY. It was fun, didn't blow me away but I could definitely rock to it. Need to check out their other stuff.

[Skuj]

Y'all made me research this and begin hearing it...….