It’s 1st December 2020 and time for our Album of the Year Poll. Cue trumpets or cue disinterest, whatever. Let’s find out who is going to fill the coveted No4 spot behind Bob, Bruce and Taylor.
Same rules as ever – a maximum of twenty new albums released this year (no re-mastered lost masterpieces, no live concerts from back in the day). All albums over the twenty cut-off figure will be discarded. First on your list gets twenty points, next nineteen and so on. If you choose to post in ascending order instead then I’ll simply scoff at your silliness and stick to my rules ie first on list is your No 1. If you struggle to name twenty albums (like what I will, IMHO there have been some belting albums released this year but they are pretty thin on the ground) then just list as many or as few as you like,
Only thing I ask is Artist Name first followed by Album Title. “Cressida Rising – Heartbreak Hotel” means nothing to me.
Voting closes midnight 31st December – as we ain’t goin’ nowhere this Christmas there is every chance I will have ample time to double and triple check the results. There is also every chance that Dai will then step in and say “You’ve got it Wrong again”.
Best of luck everyone !
ps Mods – can you pin this to the top of the page, please?
Them NZ Hip Hoppers, eh?
I must give the Kylie album a listen – it’s everywhere!
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/dec/01/the-50-best-albums-of-2020?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
It’s good. Not Taylor good, but good nonetheless.
I am waiting until McCartney III is out before posting mine (18th).
I salute you, sir, for taking on this task one more time. You truly are our Lodestar..
Does this count as a new album?
Dave Alvin – From an Old Guitar: Rare and Unreleased Recordings.
I think it does as the material has never been released as an album.
It’s not my shout, so ignore me if you like, but I don’t think anything predominantly recorded outside this past year should be counted.
… slippery slope. I know what you mean but pretty much anything released from January to March would have been recorded in 2019.
Twas for this kind of thing I started on Dec 1st. I’m with Mike H – if, for example, Dylan’s Lost Album from 1969 (you know, the one with Frank Zappa and Alma Cogan) is found next week then despite its magnificence (who knew Alma played the accordion so well?) it won’t appear in our poll.
Possibly
Rotters!
However, I accept your adjudication & will not submit it.
Yes it does or should. I hope so because it will be in my list.
You are a brave man, Lodey! I doff my hat to you!
Wow, has it really been a year? Unbelievable how quickly this year has passed.
Lodey, how about a slight scoring tweak this year? Last year Bruce was the clear winner. However, I went through and recalculated the results, only counting the entries that had at least 15 albums and Bruce didn’t even make the top 2. Lana Del Rey won by a mile.
Over the years, the entries that only have a handful, or even one, album on their list tend to favour the same old artists (Ry Cooper, Richard Thompson, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon), naturally, as these are artists for whom they have always bought their albums. I totally get that, cos there are plenty of artists for whom I do the same. So when all the votes are in we end up with a pile of entrants that have a top 20 or top 15, but also a load of entrants where people are simply entering the one or two albums they have bought/heard.
So how about weighting the entries a little bit, by giving a maximum of, say, 10 points for the top album of anyone who enters less than 10 albums (then 9 for their second and so on) and 15 points for anyone who enters between 10 and 14, only giving the full 20 points to the top album if the list has at least 15 albums on it?
I say this whilst intending no offence to anybody who doesn’t listen to much new music for whatever reason, and I know it’s easy for me to say, as it’s much easier for me to listen to more music, with me sitting at home and not working, etc. I’ve actually spent most of the year listening to 50s and 60s jazz albums, as I’ve found this year’s new music to be a tad disappointing, but I know that for various reasons, such as work or family commitments many people don’t get the chance to explore much new stuff (or even just aren’t inclined to!), so I hope nobody takes offence. I’m not trying to say that my top album (or anyone’s who submits 15-20 on their list) is better than your top album, I just think it skewers the poll somewhat when someone says “I’ve only bought one album this year, the Paul Simon one, and to be honest I find it a bit dull, but I’ll just enter that as my number one” and it subsequently gets 20 points.
I shall now don my tin hat and go back to cleaning my shower, truly the most disgusting of the household chores!
Aren’t showers self-cleaning?!
writes A. Student..
Seriously, it was gross. It took me around 3 hours to clean it properly, admittedly with a couple of breaks to let my arms come back to life. After I had finished I was left with all the bottles that usually stand in the bottom of the shower, so I called the kids in to see which ones actually get used. My 15 year old daughter, who regularly uses fake tan and hair dye, said, “urgh, how come the bottom of the shampoo bottles have gone all brown?”. The whole sodding shower had gone all brown!
Naaa. There are many reasons for not entering a full twenty, not least the honesty that there may not be twenty worth honouring in a best-of list. I’m guessing I will list five. If such a rule came in, I would be encouraged to fill it out with also rans, just to get full marks to my fave.
I would say just list 5, not 20, but that is because I only know about 5 new albums a year. Wonder how many here actually listen more than once to 20 new albums a year. Certainly some, but in the minority I would think.
During the 33 years this poll has been going (fact check here) I’ve tinkered with various scoring systems. For example Formula 1 where 25 points goes to the first choice, 18 next and the bottom pile 1 point each. Or if you only list 5 then your No1 only gets 5 points etc.
Our tried and trusted system looked after by an impeccably impartial Head Judge (another fact check here) whilst not perfect is still I think the fairest (even if you scoundrels more often or not get it Wrong).
As you were.
Isn’t Formula 1 where old geezers call each other names?
Your use of the term “old geezers” is ageist. Are you incapable of contextualising?
Can it, grandad!
PS. Mods, I said “can it”…
20 new albums a year?
My bank balance indicates that I buy many more.
I also listen at least a dozen times to each one.
Twenty a year might be what my wife thinks…… The reality doesn’t bear thinking about, especially when I have box, a big box, of those awaiting their turn for a listen. In year and brand new take precedence, meaning some oldies new to me have a very long wait…..
I concurr, only 20! Just because some of you are lightweights and don’t do your duty and visit your local record emporium at least twice a week.
It should be a minimum of 30.
20 per year wouldnt begin to cover it.
Can I go first then? How exciting. There’s a good chance that The Avalanches album due in a few weeks would make it onto a real year-end chart, but if they were that fussed about their place on my list they should have got it out earlier, shouldn’t they?
Bow Church – The Spirits In This Forest Are Older Than Your Gods
Taylor Swift – Folklore
Levellers – Peace
Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud
Run The Jewels – RTJ4
Bruce Springsteen – Letter To You
Upsammy – Zoom
Fluisteraars – Bloem
Daniel Avery – Love And Light
Svalbard – When I Die Will I Get Better?
Clint Mansell & Clint Walsh – Berlin
AA Williams – Forever Blue
Jeff Rosenstock – No Dream
Craven Faults – Erratics And Unconformities
Jon Brooks – How To Get To Spring
Chris Forsyth x Garcia Peoples – People’s Motel Band
Daniel Davies – Signals
Nubya Garcia – Source
Lightning Orchestra – Source And Deliver
Indica Dubs – Showcase Chapter 5
Why, thank you KD for getting the show started. And beautifully formatted as well!
I’ve listened to precisely two of your choices (mmm, wonder what they might be) but my son recommended Indica Dubs a wee while back.
Right then, how do you open an Excel spreadsheet again?
No numbers so is that 20 pts to 1 pt or 10 pts each?
As clearly (fact check, please) stated in the Rules & Regulations I don’t need no numbers. First one listed gets 20 points, next 19.
Apart from Gary, his three each get nil points cos he doesn’t like the Bruce record
Shouldn’t that be “steenkeeng” numbers?
I wrote “steenkeeng” but auto correct deleted it
And yet it let covfefe through. Deep state right there.
3 of them will make it into mine.
The Avalanches is the one album I am likely to cast a vote for this year, but I’m waiting to hear it first (and I deliberately haven’t listened to any of the singles or previews). Rumour has it they have gone a bit off-message with this one…..
I’ve only heard four new albums this year. One of them, Bruce Springsteen’s, doesn’t make my list.
In order of preference:
The Beautiful Fear – Waltz of the Moonshine Blind
Son Little – aloha
Cerys Hafana – Cwmwl
None of these albums exist. I’ve looked.
But if you think about it, does anything really exist?
Only, in a sense, the thinking about it, Gar.
I could only manage eighteen! There’ll all from my iTunes library – I haven’t actually bought physical copies. In fact I don’t think I’ve bought physical copies of ANYTHING this year – ghast!
Frank Zappa and The Mothers – The Mothers 1970
Thelonious Monk – Palo Alto (live)
Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways
Joachim Cooder – Over That Road I’m Bound
Darren Watson – Getting Sober For The Rest Of The World
Bill Frisell – Valentine
Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride & Brian Blade – Round Again
Frank Zappa – Halloween ’81
Frank Zappa – Zappa movie soundtrack
Carla Bley, Andy Sheppard and Steve Swallow – Life Goes On
Reb Fountain – Reb Fountain
Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets – Live at the Roundhouse
Mike Nock, Hamish Stuart, Julien Wilson, Jonathan Zwartz – This World
Norah Jones – Pick Me Up Off The Floor
Plone – Puzzlewood
Brian Eno – Film Music 1976-2020
Keith Jarrett – Budapest Concert (live)
Elvis Costello – Hey Clockface
Steve Kilbey – Eleven Women
Green Seaugull – Cloud Cover
Garcia Peoples – Nightcap At Wits’ End
Frankk Zappa – “Zappa” Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Joni Mitchell – Archives Vol 1
Bruce Springsteen – Letter To You
Grateful Dead – American Beauty – The Angel’s Share
David Bowie – Metrobolist
Cressida Rising – Heartbreak Hotel
Er …
Your last pick is deleted (it’s actually Heartbreak Hotel by Cressida Rising).
You’re no fun.
Since I’m such a musical gadfly/lover of old, best of 2020 probably = albums I’ve listened to more than once. But I’m happy with this list, some of which I’ve listened to several times…
Bruce Springsteen – Letter to You
Fleet Foxes – Shore
Brandy Clark – Your Life is a Record
Sufjan Stevens – The Ascension
Gwenifer Raymond – Strange Lights Over the Mountain
Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways
Rose City Band – Summerlong –
Bonny Light Horseman – Same
Bluetongue: Australian Guitar Quartets – Guitar Trek
Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud
I note that overnight there has been a backbench rebellion re allowing albums recorded prior to 2020 but not released till this year to be admitted into our poll.
I simply will not tolerate such a flagrant undermining of my authority so accordingly I agree that albums recorded prior to 2020 but not released till this year be admitted into our poll.
Yay! Dave Alvin is back in.
You are the boss, but shouldn’t there be a separate one for such albums? I see Metrobolist above, a new name but actually a remix of a 50 year old album with exact same songs, not a new album at all.
My list of such albums would be much longer but I will only include new material released in the wonderful year of 2020 in my (short) list.
I haven’t got where I am today by being consistent or even logical. These are the New Rules and they will not change, I can guarantee that (fact check needed here).
6 of mine are MUSIC that was RECORDED before 2020 but only released on an ALBUM this year (sorry for the IMPORTANT looking caps but – um – it’s important…)
Anyway don’t we usually do a separate list of re-releases, remasters etc?
There still can be separate polls for re-releases and remasters if anyone is foolish enough to volunteer. This poll here contains albums first and only released in 2020 even if they might have been recorded previously. I’m off to find some kittens and some sheep
And I’ve just read Dai’s post properly. Metrobolist (whatever that is) does not comply with The Rules.
This is prima facie evidence of Deep State conspiracy to disenfranchise, with Bill Barr Wrongness and Rudai Giuliani frankly making a mockery of the voting procedure. They’ll be after our hanging chads next, sheeple!
Archive releases should be in a different poll was my original understanding. Don’t really see how Zappa music from 1970 has anything to do so with 2020. Would The Quietus to this? Absolutely not!
This poll is fake, stop the count. I will not be voting.
The Zappa album is A NEW ALBUM, Dai, not a re-release. It’s the soundtrack to A NEW FILM about Zappa. It in NO WAY contravenes the rules set out by LoW, to which I refer you. Can we now please move on? THANK you. So very much.
Amazing how somebody dead for more than25 years can make a “new” album. It is an archive release and belongs in such a section, but will bow to our fearless leader, even if it makes the poll a nonsense.
Calm down old chap – “a nonsense” is a tad strong don’t you think?
Bit of fun this is, that’s all. We could argue forever and a day about what constitutes a “new record” but I for one am happy with where have got to.
I know. Am just worried that a year that has produced a decent amount of good new music could result in our very influential blog declaring the best album of 2020 to be a (mediocre) David Bowie effort recorded in 1970, and only remixed this year. Makes no sense to me, means we could have included Beatles albums last few years (Pepper, White, Abbey Road).
But having run a couple of polls this year I send you my best wishes nevertheless.
Agreed. Should be new music by active acts.
Think you have misunderstood. If a previously recorded album but completely new to the public is released in 2020 that can be voted for. Remasters, messings about can’t.
A new album is an album released during the stated timeframe that has not been previously released – when the recordings were made is irrelevant. This isn’t a poll of music recorded this year – perhaps some of this years’ albums contain music that was recorded in the year previous. I for one applaud Mr. Wrongness’ wise and balanced adjudication.
Stuff recorded recently of course counts. If your favourite album of all time was re-released every year in a new mix with a new cover would it be your album of the year every year?
Dai – think you have misunderstood
He’s just being willfully stubborn, Lodey. Let’s go and have a nice cup of coffee and ignore him.
Has anybody formed the Afterword Poll Research Group yet?
Surely we have enough ruddy-faced reactionaries to get Lodey to drive the whole site off a cliff.
*raises copy of The Watchtower from back of hall*
Goodness me sir, your “Watchtower” is very impressive!
If we were to take a lead from the comics, they tend to classify exhumed vintage recordings, scrubbed up and polished, as ‘old’. So, even if the Zappa soundtrack is brandspanking , if it is he and his band of those days from those days, recorded in those days, it’s hardly new, is it? Whereas’Fragments’, by Bear’s Den, which has had a shout I am pleased to see, is old songs but re-recorded in a different setting and with different arrangements, therefore is new. Like last years Curse of Lono album. So I find myself siding more with Dai.
Yes, some tracks on 2020 new releases may have been some time in fruition but it would be daft to call them invalid on that basis. It would be like saying you hadn’t eaten between Xmas and New Year as everything consumed on those days was old, as in left overs from meals cooked a little earlier. But, if you had a big vom on Boxing morning, and accidentally or deliberately swallowed it to call it a new meal would be wrong. And gross.
Yebbut a new album is a new album. The Zappa soundtrack is a new album, produced and released this year. If it is thrown out then frankly democracy and common sense and everything the plain-thinking man in the street holds dear is under threat. It’s the thin end of a very slippery wedge.
The solution then is to decide that there are 20 albums that are better than the Zappa album, this precluding it from your list…….
Polly Scattergood – In This Moment
Bright Eyes – Down in the weeds, where the world once was
Psychedelic Furs – Made Of Rain
Kathleen Edwards – Total Freedom
Bruce Springsteen – Letter To You
Alice Boman – Dream On
Andy Bell – The view from halfway down
Annie – Dark Hearts
The Strokes – The New Abnormal
Catherine Anne Davies & Bernard Butler – In Memory of My Feelings
Eels – Earth To Dora
It’s Immaterial – House for Sale
James Dean Bradfield – Even In Exile
Jonathan Wilson – Dixie Blur
Kleerup – 2
Morrissey – I am not a dog on a chain
Taylor Swift – Folklore
Travis – 10 Songs
Badly Drawn Boy – Banana Skin Shoes
Pet Shop Boys – hotspot
“Polly Scattergood is a British singer-songwriter. She has been described as ethereal, dark, intense and quirky, while her musical style has been described as “early 21st century electro-dance-pop of London proper””.
I’ll be listening later…
That’s not the Polly Scattergood I knew, then.
her 3rd album , all good, but this one definitely deserves a bit more attention
Glad to see her mentioned – I loved Nitrogen Pink when that was out a few years back
@mdavies27
The Psychedelic Furs album was one of the 4 I’ve purchased this year. Enjoyed it at first but then found it a bit one paced. Dull even. What did you think?
Looks like he likes it as his third bested album of the year.
@baron-harkonnen
Maybe mdavies likes dull (in my opinion) music?
I don’t think anyone would argue previous psychedelic furs albums were particularly eclectic, but I think the songwriting is strong after so long away. I enjoyed it on release and continue to enjoy it which works for me.
Fair enough, I wasn’t being arsey btw, just that it hasn’t really grown on me. It’s an ok album .
No problem at all, ‘Wrong Train’ is one of my most played tracks this year. Hope they’ll be able to tour someitme in 2021
Wrong Train has been around a while before appearing on this album I believe ? They’re still worth seeing live even if the sax player is a dead ringer for Freddie Starr.
Here’ my list. A very Good year for female acts.
1: Fiona Apple – Fetch the Bolt cutters
2: Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud
3: Public Practice – Gentle grip (Very good Blondie’ish new wave band that’s kind have flown under the radar this year.)
4: This is the Kit – Off On On
5: Sparks – A steady drip drip. (The only O.A.P. act who’s delivered an album as good as the stuff from their prime.)
6:Run the Jewels – RTJ 4 (Sorry to bring Hip Hop onto the boards but this is a great snap shot of modern America.)
7:Working mens Club – ST
8:Hinds – The Prettiest curse (Shame the festivals were cancelled these Girls would be stars now.)
9: Pottery – Welcome to Bobby’s Hotel (Americans discover Teardrop explodes!)
10:Fontaines D.C. – A hero’s Death
Fetch The White Coats at No1? I’m going to have to invent a new Rule…
@arch-stanton
Agree re: Sparks.
Here goes…..
Fantastic Negrito – Have You Lost Your Mind Yet ?
Rose City Band – Summerlong
Dawes – Good Luck With Whatever
Joe Bonamassa – Royal Tea
Pretenders – Hate For Sale
Abel Ganz – Life Of The Honey Bee and Other Moments Of Clarity
Bears Den – Fragments
Dyble Longdon – Between A Breath And A Breath
GoGo Penguin – GoGo Penguin
Bruce Springsteen – Letter To You
Diana Krall – This Dream Of You
Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways
Pineapple Thief – Versions Of The Truth
Blue Rose Code – With Healings Of The Deepest Kind
Kandace Springs – The Woman Who Raised Me
Jakko M Jakszyk – Secrets & Lies
Melody Gardot – Sunset in The Blue
Lickerish Quartet – Threesome, Vol 1
Travis – 10 Songs
Fish – Weltschmerz
A few that didn’t quite make the cut and I’m sure it will be different if I did again tomorrow…….
I’ve never been particularly fond of Travis, but I am a fan of Susanna Hoffs, so I watched the video for the song they have done together. The song and video are excellent, possibly my favourite song of the year, but I separated from my wife of 20 years recently, so I get quite emotional every time I listen to it.
I so wanted the album to be of the same quality as that song, but sadly, no Susie means back to mediocrity.
Been thinking about your scoring system Lodes, and I think I’ve hit on a system that’s fair no matter how many you have in your list. Simply give each LP one point each. For who among us wishes to bestow relative rank on such an intangible thing as music? Who, I say?
There has to some ranking going on surely? If we give everything one point then an album a lot of people like but isn’t their actual favourite could end up winning the coveted (fact check, please) title
As far as I can see, you’ve made no mention in the rules about footwear. Are we to assume it has no relevance?
Brown shoes don’t make it.
If your shoes were bought in 2020 they’re in.
If one point is given to every vote, then there will only be a handful of albums getting more than one, and several thousand in a “huge dump” of undifferentiated singletons. What I propose is an “electoral college” system whereby certain participants’ votes get given higher value than others’. My own, for example, would be worth one thousand times (say) Dai’s.
I think a better way would be to let everyone vote as many times as they want to. That’s what reality TV programmes like X-Factor, Britain’s Got Talent and Mastermind do. Such a system would reward the amount of tenacity and passion that each album inspires. If Lodey gives his address and phone number we could include postal and telephone votes too.
Let’s combine the two systems to ensure absolute fairness and representative accuracy. We can all vote as many times as we like, but those votes cast by the Electoral College (I’m suggesting myself and you at this stage, Gar) will be worth one thousand votes cast by those whose contributions are not so highly valued (or at all, if we’re honest).
I also suggest opening it up to include packaged food items and paints and surface coatings in general.
I can supply surface coatings.
hurrrr
We’ll need security points here, here, and here.
Oof, that’s a cold finger!
Yes and the ones that get more than one vote, will – what’s the word? – win! It’s complex I know, but have a bit of a think on it. *rolls eyes like a Great White having lunch*
Here’s my 2020 list. Do stay safe, everyone!
1 Chuck Prophet – The land that time forgot
2 Nicole Atkins – Italian ice
3 Songhoy blues – Optimissme
4 Thelonious Monk – Palo Alto
5 Loma – Don’t shy away
6 Sarah Davachi – Cantus, descant
7 Jason Isbell & The 400 unit – Reunions
8 Juliana Barwick – Healing is a miracle
9 Kansas Smitty’s – Things happened here
10 Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher
11 The Haden triplets – The family songbook
12 Ghost funk orchestra – An ode to escapism
13 Surprise chef – Daylight savings
14 Larkin Poe – Self made man
15 Kamaal Williams – Wu hen
16 High pulp – Mutual attraction vol.1
17 Paul Burch & WPA Ballclub – Light sensitive
18 Daniel Avery & Alessandro Cortini – Illusion of time
19 Eels – Earth to Dora
20 Grant Lee Philips – Lightning, show us your stuff
Nice list!
Hadn’t realised Larkin Poe had put out an earlier album to last months somewhat patchy covers album.
Excuse me but I think the adjudicator should not comment on individual lists and his approval of Izzy’s list betrays a personal bias inappropriate to the spirit of the poll. Nyer.
Thanks!
Good shout for Grant Lee Phillips
Sh*t year for gigs, pretty good year for recorded music.
1. Bob Mould – Blue Hearts
2. Sparks – A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip
3. Duncan Reid & The Big Heads – Don’t Blame Yourself
4. Block 33 – 6:36 To Liverpool Street
5. Sensible Gray Cells – Get Back Into The World
6. Paul Weller – On Sunset
7. Humdrum Express – Ultrcrepidarian Soup
8. Massive Wagons – House Of Noise
9. Sports Team – Deep Down Happy
10. Fontaines DC – A Heroes Death
11. Green Day – Father of All Motherfuckers
12. Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott – Manchester Calling
13. Kate Rusby – Hand Me Down
14. The Damned – The Rockfield Files
15. The Professionals – 123 EPs
(OK, I admit it – I padded this out to 15 using a couple of EPs, although The Professionals 3 EPs have 12 tracks, which is tantamount to an album innit)
Still waiting on Macca and Accadacca – things might change in the next for weeks …
Waiting for Accadacca myself (fact check, please)
No live albums from back in the day. Hmm.
I’m thinking of driving this bus off a cliff
It’s Sir Cliff to you, pal..
Has polling started?
IT’S FINISHED! EVERYTHING COMING IN AFTER THIS MUST NOT BE COUNTED!
Most droll
Have you got your shoes on ? What colour?
Just ten from me…
1. I Like Trains – Kompromat
2. Vladislav Delay, Sly Dunbar & Robbie Shakespeare – 500 Push Up
3. Sky Cries Mary – Secrets Of A Red Planet
4. Dom & Roland – Lost In The Moment
5. Working Mens Club – Working Mens Club
6. Youth Meets Jah Wobble feat Hollie Cook – Acid Punk Dub Apocalypse
7. Leifur James – Angel In Disguise
8. Loma – Don’t Shy Away
9. Andy Cooper – L.I.S.T.E.N
10. Lee Scratch Perry Meets Daniel Boyle – To Drive The Dub Starship Through The Horror Zone
I bought 19 this year that qualify as 2020 releases. One was rather dreadful. Of the rest here we go in order of likeyness:-
1 Chuck Prophet – The Land That Time Forgot
2 A Girl Called Eddy – Been Around
3 Della Mae – Headlight
4 Rachel Newton – To The Awe
5 Brandy Clark – Your Life is a Record
6 Merry Hell – Emergency Lullabies
7 The Rheingans Sisters – Receiver
8 Sierra Hull – 25 Trips
9 Bonny Light Horseman – Bonny Light Horseman
10 Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud
11 The Mammals – Nonet
12 George Sansome – George Sansome
13 Margo Price – That’s How Rumors Get Started
14 Kim Richey – A Long Way Back; the Songs of Glimmer
15 Laura Marling – Song for our Daughter
16 Ray LaMontagne – MONOVISION
17 Courtney Marie Andrews – Old Flowers
18 Blue Rose Code – With Healing of the Deepest Kind
Just a suggestion, but would it be a good idea to have the actual Votes as separate page and stuck to the top of the blog page and with an obvious “THIS IS THE POLL” type header (as so few have been added yet and there’s a lot of …erm…discussion on this introduction).
Ah, you are trying to be sensible! I only started early so we could decide what voting system is “best”. I’m with you
You stick it out, we’ll pin It. Fnarrgh
On second thoughts leave it to me. It will all work out in the end. What can possibly go Wrong?
Remember people, Dai is Fake. Vote here or vote nowhere
I’m sure there’s more, but this’ll do
Kompromat – I Like Trains
Lunatic Soul – Through Shaded Woods
All India Radio – The Shining Cosmos
Bill Frisell – Valentine
Nubya Garcia – Source
Catherine Anne Davies / Bernard Butler – In Memory of My Feelings
Matt Berry – Phantom Birds
Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah – Axiom
Ben Watt – Storm Damage
The Unthanks – Diversions vol 5 Live and Unaccompanied Wamer – Wooden Box With Strings
Leyla McCalla – Vari-Colored Songs
Max Richter – Voices
Tori Handsley – As We Stand
Matthew Halsall – Salute to the Sun
A Girl Called Eddy – Been Around
Mogwai – ZeroZeroZero
Tim Bowness – Late Night Laments
James Elkington – Ever-Roving Eye
Once and Future Band – Deleted Scenes
Good to see another vote for I Like Trains. My favourite by a distance.
1. Fiona Apple – Fetch The Bolt Cutters
2. Sault – Untitled (Black Is)
3. Matthew Halsall – Salute To The Sun
4. Shabaka And The Ancestors – We Are Sent Here By History
5. Nat Birchall Meets Al Breadwinner – Tradition Disc In Dub
6. Callum Au & Claire Martin – Songs And Stories
7. Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia
8. Eighth Blackbird – Singing In The Dead Of Night
9. Run The Jewels 4
10. Rose City Band – Summerlong
11. Moses Boyd – Dark Matter
12. Diana Krall – This Dream Of You
13. Jeff Parker – Suite For Max Brown
14. Pete Judge – Piano 2
15. Melody Gardot – Sunset In The Blue
16. Agnes Obel – Myopia
17. GoGo Penguin
18. Stefano Bollani – Piano Variations On Jesus Christ Superstar
19. Disclosure – ENERGY
20. A Girl Called Eddy – Been Around
My dad would be so proud of me. No less than three beautiful female jazz vocal albums, all gorgeous voices singing songbook classics over a lush backing, the perfect antidote to the troubles of 2020. In the end, the arrangements determined their order.
Special mentions go to Childish Bambino for the most unlistenable record of the year and Zara McFarlane for an album so far from her usual fare that it will probably take me a decade to fully appreciate it.
Three best live albums, new versions of old material, therefore both archival and current:
Pere Ubu – By Order Of Mayor Pawlicki
Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets – Live At The Roundhouse
The Unthanks – Diversions Volume 5 Live And Unaccompanied
“Childish Bambino” would be a bit tautologous, non? Still, being declared “the most unlistenable record of the year” by someone who picked Fetch The Bolt Cutters as his number one album ..? That has to sting..
I see Rolling Stone has Taylor at No1 and Fiona at No2. From the sublime to the….
If ever I needed confirmation that Tiggs’ and my musical tastes are polar opposites it’s here. And long may it continue!!
Well, I’m annoyed with him. I had high hopes. I even enjoy a challenge but 5.12.20 is just ridiculous. Naughty, naughty boy!!
I thought at first you were referring to 3.15.20 and I thought you can’t be serious – it’s a delight. I’m relieved to see you meant another record.
Steve Earle – Ghosts of West Virginia
Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy
Ryley Childers – Long and Violent History
Luke Howard – The Shadow
Errr that’s it
2 way tie for I am disappoint award Broos and Jason Isbell
Runaway winner overrated album – Taylor Swift.
And as for you…
ps totally agree re Jason, a huge disappointment. If this was his first record one would think “This is really good, this guy is going somewhere”. But it’s not.
Surprised I am the only nominator for Steve Earle. Not even in people’s top twenties
He’s in mine, when I get round to it.
Well, it’s early days, but not much sign of consensus yet. Good luck with pulling this together, Lodes.
Well, early indications from the exit polls already suggest a runaway leader.
BROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCE!
He needs all the votes he can get (it’s been a tough year) so if anyone wants to vote for his “Hammersmith 75 Show The Second”. then them new rules allow such a thing
Blue Rose Code – With Healings of the Deepest Kind
It’s Immaterial – House for Sale
The Magnetic Fields – Quickies
Ben Watt – Storm Damage
Jim White – Misfit’s Jubilee
Hania Rani – Home
Mathew Halsall – Salute to the Sun
Nat Birchall – Mysticism of Sound
Nat Birchall meets Al Breadwinner – Upright Living
The Aliens – Electronville
Various – Return to Y’hup – the World of Ivor Cutler
Isobel Campbell – There is no Other
Nat Birchall meets Al Breadwinner – Tradition Disc in Dub
Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways
Fiona Apple – Fetch the Bolt-cutters
King Creosote – KY10, A step into the unknown
Fergus Mccreadie Trio – Live at Black Rock
Yay a vote for the Itsy’s @lando-cakes
Indeed – I trust I will not be the only one?
My best of 2020: Also-rans and no-hopers:
1) Various Artists – Blue Note Re:Imagined
2) SAULT – Untitled (Black Is)
3) Gary Bartz & Maisha – Night Dreamer Direct To Disc Sessions
4) Nubya Garcia – Source
5) Jeff Parker – Suite For Max Brown
6) Carla Bley, Andy Sheppard, Steve Swallow – Life Goes On
7) Kansas Smitty’s – Things Happened Here
8) Moses Boyd – Dark Matter
9) Shabaka & The Ancestors – We Are Sent Here By History
10) James Copus – Dusk
11) Andrew Wasylyk – Fugitive Light And Themes Of Consolation
12) Chien Chien Lu – The Path
13) Golden Mean – Through Walls
14) Ill Considered – East / West
15) Matthew Halsall – Salute To The Sun
16) Elina Duni/Rob Luft – Lost Ships
17) Tenderlonious – Quarantena
18) Jas Kayser – Unforced Rhythm Of Grace
19) John Surman/Ben Surman – Oceanic Rifts
20) Bow Church – The Spirits In This Forest Are Older Than Your Gods
Here are mine:
1) Willie J Healey – Twin Heavy
2) SAULT – Untitled (Rise)
3) Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways
4) Matt Berninger – Serpentine Prison
5) Khruangbin – Mordechi
6) Four Tet – Sixteen Oceans
7) Adriann Lenker – Songs and Instrumentals
8) Bibio – Sleep On The Wing
9) Jim Noir – AM Jazz
10) Gorillaz – Song Machine Part One
11) SAULT – Untitled (Black Is)
12) Laura Marling – Songs For Our Daughter
13) Bananagun – The True Story Of Bananagun
14) Phenomenal Handclap Band – PHB
15) Jason Isbell – Reunions
16) A Certain Ration – Loco
17) Sufjan Stevens – The Ascension
18) Erland Cooper – Heather Blether
19) Andrew Wasylyk – Fugitive Light And Themes Of Consolation
20) Jonathan Wilson – Dixie Blur
I’m sure I’ve forgotten something but it’s been a good year for music IMHO.
I think Sault (and, to a lesser extent Nat Birchall Meets Al Breadwinner) are suffering from releasing two superb albums in one year. Those of us, like me, who try to maximise our lists by including just one album per artist split their votes.
I did wonder whether I should include both Sault albums but in the end decided that they were both amongst my favourite twenty of the year and I shouldn’t over-think it. But I think you’re right, though I am surprised that most people seem to think (Black Is) is better than (Rise).
There isn’t much to choose between them. I suppose I opted for the first and most political.
Not sure of the logic here. If you feel both albums by Sault are in your Top Twenty then put them there!
“Sault are a pseudonymous British music collective
making a mixture of rhythm and blues, house and disco. Despite critical acclaim, they eschew interaction with the media.They frequently foreground black-centric issues”.
I tend to nominate one album per act in these kind of polls because there are so many to choose from to squeeze into a limit of twenty. I did the same when we could list our top one hundred favourite albums of all time. Otherwise, it would be all Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bob Marley, David Bowie, The Beatles, Steely Dan, Roxy Music, Artha Franklin, Tom Waits, Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding, Lee Perry, Talking Heads, The Rolling Stones, Pixies, Kendrick Lamar, Agnes Obel…..
And?
Nina Simone, Melody Gardot, Kanye West, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, Art Blakey, The Velvet Underground, Elvis Costello, Matthew Halsall, Nat Birchall….
Disingenuous. If your own personal Top Twenty is all twenty albums released this year by the executors of Jimmy Boo & The Boo Boos (god rest their souls) then that’s your Top Twenty
The Boo Boos haven’t been the same since Bunty left them.
I can vote how I like.
At least every one of my nominations are albums conceived in the last 24 months and released in 2020.
Cuh!
…and no-one tells Tigger what time to go to bed!
Is it that time already?!
Yeh but at Carrow Road today 2000 home supporters were allowed in. When Norwich scored their last gasp winner a chant was aimed at the non-existent away fans “You’re not singing anymore, you’re not singing anymore”
Crystal Palace did that once, at Anfield. All the Liverpool fans had left and they were keeping the away fans behind, like they used to, so when the home fans had all gone, the Palace fans started singing ‘You’re not singing any more’ at an empty Kop. It was very funny. They had just been beaten 9-0.
I haven’t bought a lot of new stuff this year so my list is somewhat shorter:
Max Richter – Voices
Nubya Garcia – Source
Moses Boyd – Dark Matter
The Necks – Three
Bob Dylan – Rough & Rowdy ways
Jason Isbell – Reunions
Hania Rani – Home
Neil Young – Homegrown
Bersarrin Quartett – Methoden und Maschinen
Nils Frahm – All Encores
Ooh. The Necks!
Indeed. The first track on the album “Three”, which is entitled “Bloom”, doesn’t sound at all like the Necks normally do. IT ROCKS.
When I first played that track I genuinely thought I had two tracks playing at once.
Like many before I struggled compared to previous years but I did manage 20.
1. Jeff Tweedy – Love Is The King
2. Kevin Morby – Sundowner
3. Throwing Muses – Sun Racket
4. Elvis Costello – Hey Clockface
5. Kate Rusby – Hand Me Down
6. Lambchop – Trip
7. Bob Dylan – Rough & Rowdy Ways
8. Bruce Springsteen – Letter To You
9. Drive By Truckers – The Unraveling
10. Steve Earle – Ghosts Of West Virginia
11. Various Artists – Wilcovered
12. Lyr – Call In The Crash Team
13. Travis – 10 Songs
14. Bill Fay – Countless Branches
15. Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud
16. Jayhawks – XOXO
17. Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott – Manchester Calling
18. Pretenders – Hate For Sale
19. Sunbirds – Cool To Be Kind
20. Marc Almond – Chaos and a Dancing Star
Interesting chart. There must be a fair bit of rivalry in the Kevin Morby/Katie Crutchfield household. You’ve put Kevin up there at no.2, while his good lady wife/partner, Waxahatchee, languishes at no. 15.
Bruce Springsteen – Letter To You
Ray Lamontagne – Monovision
Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways
Jason Isbell – Reunions
Drive By Truckers – The New OK
Kathleen Edwards – Total Freedom
The Jayhawks – Xoxo
Drive By Truckers – The Unraveling
Bonny Light Horseman – Bonny Light Horseman
Mary Chapin Carpenter – The Dirt and The Stars
Jonathan Wilson – Dixie Blur
Laura Veirs – My Echo
Steve Earle – The Ghosts of West Virginia
Pretenders – Hate For Sale
Gretchen Peters – The Night You Wrote That Song
Due to general stupidity and failing to turn over my piece of paper I have missed off two albums. @Lodestone_of_Wrongness please use the revised list here. Doh!
Bruce Springsteen – Letter To You
Ray Lamontagne – Monovision
Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways
Jason Isbell – Reunions
H.C. McEntire – Eno Axis
Drive By Truckers – The New OK
Kathleen Edwards – Total Freedom
Chuck Prophet – The Land That Time Forgot
The Jayhawks – Xoxo
Drive By Truckers – The Unraveling
Bonny Light Horseman – Bonny Light Horseman
Mary Chapin Carpenter – The Dirt and The Stars
Jonathan Wilson – Dixie Blur
Laura Veirs – My Echo
Steve Earle – The Ghosts of West Virginia
Pretenders – Hate For Sale
Gretchen Peters – The Night You Wrote That Song
@boneshaker Dear God – post this at the bottom of thread like what I asked!!!
Honestly, I don’t know why….
Well to be fair, that instruction is below my post, so I hadn’t read it. I shall now re-post my post above at the bottom of the thread. Does this mean my choices will all get counted 3 times? I do hope so.
Interesting little round up here by Norman Maslov. Made me curious to hear some of the entries, for those who might be looking for inspiration.
Why is he wearing a hat? He’s wearing a t-shirt, so it isn’t cold.
He’s actually a Conehead scout from the planet Remulak and doesn’t wish to advertise the fact. Either that or he’s a slaphead and doesn’t want people to know.
Well, a week in and the excitement is rising. (fact check here, please – it’s all gone a bit quiet as everybody (?) waits for the new McCartney or AC/DC before casting their votes).
Anyways, voters might be thin on the ground but we’ve already had 229 different albums listed!
I’ve just done a quick calculation and the average age of posters on here appears to 59.35 years. So it’s a tad surprising (fact check here, please) that two old men are currently romping ahead.
ps if anyone wants to make changes to their votes (which you are free to do right up until midnight 31st December) please do so at the bottom of the thread so I don’t miss them.
pps only one vote so far for Marc – surprising! (fact check here, please)
Marc Almond is 63.
Let’s rectify that then
1. Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia
The only thing that might have stopped this being number one was playing it so much while waiting nine months for something else as good to come along.
2. Blu & Exile – Miles
I’ve said it here before but, back in the mid seventies I was laughing at the sad old guys trying to revive Buddy Holly from a mere 15 years before and, now, here am I basking in a whole Sandinista! length triple of the fresh new hip hop sound from 1993.
3. SAULT – Untitled (Rise)
Might have been number two, but they’ll get plenty of votes.
4. Marc Almond – Chaos And A Dancing Star
He is 63, but he’s still looking so fresh-faced. Either he’s had work done or it’s whatever he’s putting in his stomach.
5. Natalia Lafourcade – Un Canto por México, Vol. 1
Initially, I thought this was like a Mex version of Van and The Chieftains’ Celtic Heartbeat, but most of – and most of the best – songs are compositions by Nat and her collaborators from Los Cojolites. Pity none of her recordings can quite capture the lightning of her live performances
6. Taylor Swift – Folklore
Like a lot of albums in a less than great year the better songs here lift the others. Miley Cyrus also successfully teamed up with worthy hairy blokes with great success on Dead Petz and, as with that record, this benefits from pruning.
7. Darren Hayman – Home Time
Coming from a band many on here would dismiss with the term “indie landfill” he’s producing quite a body of work.
8. A Girl Called Eddy – Been Around
You know this one.
9. Chika – Industry Games
Pedants will quibble that this is an E.P. but in a tough year no record has made me grin so much.
10. Courtney Marie Andrews – Old Flowers
11. Open Mike Eagle – Anime, Trauma and Divorce
12. TheColorGrey – OVERCOME
13. Lorenzo Senni – Scacco Matto
14. Black Thought – Streams Of Thought Vol.3: Cane and Abel
15. Resistance Revival Chorus – This Joy
Surprised this one’s not pinging the AW radar. There’s a whole constituency on here for whom this album is tailor-made.
16. Kelly Lee Owens – Inner Song
17. Spoek Mathambo – Tales From The Lost Cities
18. E.M.M.A. – Into Indigo
19. Princess Nokia – Everything Is Beautiful
20. RJD2 – The Fun Ones
And, just to add, when I get a minute I will be starting to assemble a playlist of all this. Last year’s was 45 hours 42 minutes – I’m confident we will beat that..
still mulling, still mulling. And waiting for Macca. But not AC/DC.
Same here (the mulling, not Macca). Got a giant haul last week that I haven’t listened to the required times yet to make judgements. This has been an odd year for me – I probably bought half as many albums as usual (although most of the ones I got are very good) and I haven’t felt like listening to music much most days. Not really Covid-related, as my life has been almost unchanged by what’s been going on!
I’ll get the list done before deadline; if not sooner then during Christmas!
I’m just relistening to my top 10, but I think Marc Almond is going to be my number 1. I think it’s the best thing he’s done since his first album with Soft Cell. I’ll be surprised if the new McCartney one troubles the scorers. It’s okay. I’d put it slightly ahead of McCartney II (I’m baffled by the praise that album gets, Coming Up is a cracking song, but the rest varies between average and awful), but miles behind the first McCartney album, which is one of my favourites of his. I’m sure it will be lavished with praise, but it isn’t making it into my top 50.
The quibble I have with the Marc album is that so many of the songs are just a bit too long. You’re thinking “Yeah, that’s great”, but then there’s another bit (sometimes with mood-spoiling shrieking guitars). It reminds me of The Arcade Fire, the way they have this irritating habit of speeding up songs at the end. That trick worked one time! now quit it!
For me, Ted Gioia’s list of the 100 Best New Albums of the year (in alphabetical order) is always one of the most reliable, eclectic and fascinating end-of-year lists, including plenty of interesting music that’s not mentioned elsewhere.
His list for 2020 has just landed. Tuck in…
http://tedgioia.com/bestalbumsof2020.html
It’s amazing how they keep finding never-heard-before recordings of the likes of Monk, Blakey, Ellington. Long may they continue.
A quick scan failed to reveal Bob, Bruce or Taylor. Wilful obscurantism. Or possibly somebody with a bigger brain than what I got.
my top 10 of the year (I couldn’t find anywhere near 20 that grabbed me enough to list)
1. A Girl Called Eddy – Been Around
2. Bonny Light Horseman – Bonny Light Horseman
3. Mary Chapin Carpenter – The Dirt and The Stars
4. Andrew Wasylyk – Fugitive Light and Themes of Consolation
5. Jeff Parker – Suite for Max Brown
6. Fleet Foxes – Shore
7. Khruangbin – Mordechai
8. Laura Marling – Song For Our Daughter
9. Jonathan Wilson – Dixie Blur
10. Taylor Swift – Folklore
This is why these lists are great. Two 1st places in a row for A Girls Called Eddy made me check it out. It is brilliant. (Why have I not heard this before? I note there was an excellent review when it came out. I must pay more attention in future). Just arrived today. Now I have to decide where in my 20 it goes.
Oh no! A 2nd Taylor album to assess as well. Big decisions to make.
totally agree about Eddy. Never heard it before, now it’s on the list.
I managed to find 20 – there were some albums I really liked just a few tracks from very much eg Laura Marling, Rufus Wainwright but not enough of the the album to make it onto the list.
1. Been Around – Girl Called Eddy
2. Rumer – Nashville Tears
3. Secret Sisters – Saturn Return
4. Bill Fay – Countless Branches
5. Rose Cousins – Bravado
6. Melody Gardot – Sunset in the Blue
7. Laura Veirs – My Echo
8. Diana Jones – To a Refugee
9. Gillian Welch – The Lost Songs Vol 2
10. Keaton Henson – Monument
11. Courtney Marie Andrews – Old Flowers
12. Gretchen Peters – The Night You Wrote That Song
13. Dolly Parton – A Holly Dolly Christmas
14. Haden Triplets – The Family Songbook
15. Vanwyck – God is in the Detour
16. Kate Rusby – Hand Me Down
17. Bonny Light Horsemen
18. My Darling Clementine – Country Darkness
19. The Unthanks – Diversions no 5
20. Jonathan Wilson – Dixie Blur
Been Around have a new album called A Girl Called Eddy, eh?
Are Haden Triplets the same as The Haden Triplets?
It’s a tough job I’ve got deciding who is going to be second behind Ms Swift.
ps is the Dolly Xmas album any good – I haven’t wanted to be disappointed?
I think it doubtful there are Haden Sextuplets. You need to throw yourself into the Xmas spirit with the Dolly album (see my review at end of my post on Blogger LXX). It has a bit of everything, massed choirs, lovely duet with Willie Nelson, riotous version of All I Want for Christmas, a couple of spiritual numbers, Dolly singing “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” in a cutesy kind of way. If you go with it, it’s a lot of fun.
Tis indeed huge fun!!
@Carolina More than great fun, it’s brilliant!
Fantastic, Lodey. Glad you think so. It’s like being at a Xmas party at Dollywood with choirs, celebrity guests and the unique Dolly magic!
I believe one of the Haden triplets is married to top Hollywood funnyman Jack Black.
He just doesn’t know which.
Is it still 2020? Why did no one tell me “Brooooce” has dropped another one ffs.
Frazey Ford – U kin B the Sun.
Laura Marling – Song For Our Daughter
Thundercat – It Is What It Is
I’m sure I must have posted on here once this year at least, so I feel OK about pitching in with my meagre (but lovingly curated) list. I’ve limited it to records I have actually bought.
Johanna Warren – Chaotic Good
Sarah Davachi – Cantus, Descant
Gilroy Mere – Adlestrop
Gwenifer Raymond – Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain
HC McEntire – Eno Axis
Snowdrops – Volutes
Jon Brooks – How To Get To Spring
Once a year, once a day – it’s all good!
Also, I haven’t even HEARD of any of those artists – so you get a big plus from me
@eyesteel : Have you heard the new BJ Cole or Will Van Horn’s “Pedal Steel Guitar” or is that too much like taking work home?
The latter is good, the former I haven’t dared approach as hawaiian music is not my cup of char.
@eyesteel Never heard of any of these guys so at least one of them is going to be second to Taylor
All 100% Afterword friendly!
@retropath2 Indeed I haven’t, and I must confess to an uneasy relationship with pedal steel instrumental albums – that said, I’ll defo check ’em out!
All 100% Afterword friendly!
The playlist is up and running. Steel yourself if you’re not shuffling as it begins with all of Kid Dynamite’s selections 😃
Good work and thank you
Thanks for your thanks, @Lemonhope but, although I do like the idea that AWers might get a kick from dipping in, my true motive is the selfish one of pleasing myself. Last year I discovered the ace How Do You Love by The Regrettes (which I think only person on the whole site voted for) and I’m already intrigued by a few of the albums I’ve sampled from this year’s list. Also: a great way to find out the The Wailing Souls (or whoever you fancy) had a new record out..
the 2020 albums by
Fleet Foxes
paul weller
andy bell
R.S.A.G.
roisin murphy
Sault (black is)
The psychedelic furs
morrissey
roy ayers
tony allen/hugh masekala
khruangbin
RSAG? Richard Stilgoe and guests possibly?
@seekenee If Dai was running this he would disqualify you re your blatant disregard for album titles.
RSAG – if that’s that Irish bloke has he released an album this year?
Yep he has title is chroma
It’s Finnegan’s Wake in here!
Aye aye on phone innit
You should publish a book! Don’t change a thing…
Finnegans Wake, Lodi. You’ll have Mr. Thep on yo’ ass.
The fall (bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonner-
ronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk!) of a once wallstrait oldparr.
If you ask me.
A Girl Called Eddy Been Around
Bruce Springsteen Letter To You
Dawes Good Luck With Whatever
Nada Surf Never Not Together
Bonny Light Horseman Same
Abel Ganz Life Of The Honeybee and Other Moments of Clarity
Dyble & Longdon Between a Breath and a Breath
Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit Reunions
Wishbone Ash Coat of Arms
Gretchen Peters The Night You Wrote That Song
George Marinelli Self Made Fool
Lonely Robot Feelings Are Good
Richard Marx Limitless
Allman Betts Band Bless Your Heart
The Hanging Stars A New Kind of Sky
Mama’s Gun This Is The Day
Another formatting meltdown for Lodestone. Who do you think you are? James Joyce?
..and I would have to strongly disagree with the statement that “Lonely Robot Feelings Are Good”..
All you need is a few “in the midnight hour”s and it’s a Van the man monologue
And potted shrimps, of course.
Well excuse me for stepping out of line. It was not my intention to upset the Afterword Police. In fact, it hasn’t been, for the umpteen years I’ve been on this site.
There’s only one Police you need to worry about here. Upset us and you’ll see the meaning of upset.
At ease
Apologies. Wine had been taken ☹️
Hey, we’ve all been there! And no doubt will be increasingly in the next few weeks as we cower in our dystopian hovels wearing our Christmas cracker hats and pondering this year to end all years.
Thank you.
Now we know what’s going to hold the coveted No2 spot behind Folklore.
Scuse me, my cup seems to have runneth over…
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/dec/10/taylor-swift-announces-second-surprise-album-of-2020-evermore
Why, its almost as if you’d vote for a record without needing to go to the bother of actually listening to it….
And, very good as folklore is, I’m the camp of those who think it would be even better with a bit of judicious editing. So I would be pleasantly surprised if this new one, which is presumably the stuff they didn’t think good enough to go on folklore, is up to the same standard.
No demos or cast-offs here – “We just kept on recording”.
My daughter chucked some CDs out recently and I had a flick through Swift’s 1989 album, mainly because I have Ryan Adams’ version. It sounded quite good, so I decided to keep it. Following this I have just given in to Lodey’s championing of Ms Swift’s new ones and listened to both albums. I was very pleasantly surprised.
Folklore didn’t start off anything like the tweeny pop I expected. Doesn’t she sing the ‘We are never, ever, getting back together’ song that my kids sang when they were little? Either way it sounded really good. Or should I say it started very good, because I also felt it dipped a bit in the middle, before finishing strongly. Evermore, on the other hand, didn’t dip at all and I found it to be even better and it could very well end up in my top 20.
A mate of mine got to cuddle her last year. He was recording one of her songs for a charity single and she turned up and surprised him. He’s only a mate that I know to talk to, rather than someone I’m in touch with by phone, and I haven’t seen him since then, what with the pandemic, but I bumped into his dad before the lockdown and we both agreed he was a spawny git!
Was that this?
Is your mate one of the dudes in the stude..?
yes, that’s it
Wow and WOW!
I keep thinking that if I look in my shed, Olivia Colman will be in it. After all, she’s in every fucking thing else.
That’s great
Hat.
Er, so this is the re-post of my revised post, now at the bottom of the thread as per instructions. Which now makes a double hamper’s worth I believe.
Bruce Springsteen – Letter To You
Ray Lamontagne – Monovision
Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways
Jason Isbell – Reunions
H.C. McEntire – Eno Axis
Drive By Truckers – The New OK
Kathleen Edwards – Total Freedom
Chuck Prophet – The Land That Time Forgot
The Jayhawks – Xoxo
Drive By Truckers – The Unraveling
Bonny Light Horseman – Bonny Light Horseman
Mary Chapin Carpenter – The Dirt and The Stars
Jonathan Wilson – Dixie Blur
Laura Veirs – My Echo
Steve Earle – The Ghosts of West Virginia
Pretenders – Hate For Sale
Gretchen Peters – The Night You Wrote That Song
I thank you!
FWIW
Sparks – A steady drip drip drip
It’s Immaterial – House for sale
Psychedelic Furs – Made of Rain
Bubbling under…Doves – The Universal Want. I’ve not actually listened to this yet of course but I bet it’s better than the Psychedelic Furs. These are the only new 4 albums I’ve bought this year.
The Jayhawks – Xoxo
The Beths – Jump Rope Gazers
Chuck Prophet – Land That Time Forgot
The Riverbreaks – Canyons
The Just Joans – The Private Memoirs and Confessions of The Just Joans
A Girl called Eddy – Been Around
Waxahatchee – St Cloud
Nada Surf – Never Not Together
Blue Rose Code – With Healings of the Deepest Kind
Land Of Talk – Indistinct Conversations
Close Lobsters – Post Neo Anti
Wailing Souls – Back a Yard
The Hanging Stars – A New Kind Of Sky
Hanemoon – Mammals
Isobel Campbell – There Is No Other
@salty
Close Lobsters!!
Ladies ladies ladies ladies
Fiona Apple – Fetch The Boltcutters
Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia
Róisín Murphy – Róisín Machine
Haim – Women In Music Pt. III
Khruangbin – Mordechai
Nothing unlistenable or self indulgent about Fiona’s album of the year to my mind. I liked it from the off, it draws you in. All killer, no filler. The rhythms are great and always interesting. Piano and singing exemplary. She briefly goes a bit Yoko at the end of the opening track, which is fine.
Khruangbin is like The Shadows goes dub with a bit of easy listening here and there, it’s quite ambient and suitable for hotel lobby bars, which is a recipe for pleasure in my book.
Going Yoko down in Acapulco?
…I’ll get me hair peace
Yoko fakes orgasms?
You’re asking the wrong person I’m afraid.
TMFTL…
I match the Guardian 1 and 2 choices again, same as last year. Proof if proof be need be of something. Being a real Guardian kind of guy I guess.
Only one album mattered to me this year and it’s an absolute masterpiece.
Yello- Point.
I thank you…
…and I’ll take it to the other extreme from Mrbellows, cos here’s my top 50. I know the bottom 30 will be disregarded as far as the poll goes, but I’m listing them anyway, cos they are all worthy of a mention. I had been thinking it was a disappointing year, but I think this is a good top 50 and the top 8 particularly will be favourites of mine for years to come.
At the top, I think this is Marc Almond’s best album since the first Soft Cell one, so I’m really looking forward to the forthcoming Soft Cell comeback album. It’s also good to see Damien Jurado continue his fine form and I think this one is his best one too, or it’s certainly his best one since Rehearsals For Departure. I think I said something similar a couple of years ago, so he’s just getting better and better!
It’s been a pretty disappointing year for rap though. However, the British superrapgroup (think I’ve just invented a new word) The Four Owls, which features Fliptrix and my favourite British rapper, Verb T, among others, released what I think is their best album to date. It was helped by features from some American big-hitters, such as DJ Premier, Masta Killa and Kool G Rap. There’s also a cracking album that brought Canadian producer Elaquent to my attention, with guests such as Oddisee, Blu and Guilty Simpson providing the verses.
All this and a brilliant ambient album from Nine Inch Nails…
1 Marc Almond – Chaos and a Dancing Star
2 Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways
3 Jhené Aiko – Chilombo
4 The Weeknd – After Hours
5 Thievery Corporation – Symphonik
6 The Four Owls – Nocturnal Instinct
7 Damien Jurado – What’s New, Tomboy?
8 Elaquent – Forever Is A Pretty Long Time
9 Norah Jones – Pick Me Up Off the Floor
10 Joe Pernice – Richard
11 Ghostpoet – I Grow Tired But Dare Not Fall Asleep
12 Kid Abstrakt & Emapea – Jazzy Vibes
13 Moses Boyd – Dark Matter
14 Dom & Roland – Lost in the Moment
15 Apollo Brown & Che’ Noir – …As God Intended
16 Alpha & Omega – Shadrach, Meshach And Abednego
17 Third Root – Passion Of The Poets
18 Taylor Swift – evermore
19 Nat Birchall Meets Al Breadwinner – Tradition Disc In Dub
20 Sault – Untitled (Black Is)
21 Phoebe Bridgers – Destroyer
22 Isobel Campbell – There Is No Other…
23 Jamo Gang – Walking With Lions
24 Nicolas Godin – Concrete And Glass
25 Emancipator – Mountain Of Memory [Remixes]
26 Skepta, Chip & Young Adz – Insomnia
27 Moar – Boom Bap Mentality
28 Nine Inch Nails – Ghosts V: Together
29 Felt – Felt 4 U [This is Slug (from Atmosphere) & Murs’ Felt, and not Lawrence’s!]
30 Tricky – Fall To Pieces
31 Matthew Halsall – Salute to the Sun
32 Taylor Swift – folklore
33 Eleven & Jason D – Strike Back
34 Deadbeat & Paul St. Hilaire – Four Quarters Of Love And Modern Lash
35 Ka – Descendants Of Cain
36 Kehlani – It Was Good Until It Wasn’t
37 Ólafur Arnalds – Some Kind Of Peace
38 Destroyer – Have We Met
39 Various Artists – Blue Note Re:imagined
40 Wiley – Boasty Gang – The Album
41 Charlie Smarts – We Had A Good Thing Going
42 Sault – Untitled (Rise)
43 Thurston Moore – By the Fire
44 Nubya Garcia – Source
45 Seba Kaapstad – Konke
46 Kruder & Dorfmeister – 1995
47 Moses Sumney – græ
48 Sa-Roc – The Sharecropper’s Daughter
49 The Jayhawks – XOXO
50 Bruce Springsteen – Letter To You
I’ve decided your Nos 21 and 32 deserve a higher ranking so I’ve given then twenty points each. Only fair.
Can I point out that had you heard any of my top three (and by “top” I mean “only”) I don’t doubt Bruce would have been knocked off the list. With a bullet.
I shall listen to them tomorrow, although I have a suspicion I won’t understand much of your third choice. My coveted number 50 slot was a toss up between Bruce and Pet Shop Boys – so he did well making the list. If it wasn’t for Chris Lowe chucking the sodding wedding march in the last track Bruce would have been out.
@gary – I gave the three albums a listen, as promised
The Beautiful Fear – not really the kind of thing I’d listen to, I’m afraid
Cerys Hafana – this was nice, but I don’t think it’s one that I’d listen to
Son Little – now you’re talking! This one sounded great through my iPad whilst making everybody their (different) dinners, so it’s getting a second (proper) listen through the speakers tomorrow, where I can play it nice and loud without the clattering of pots and pans and knives and forks and a little boy whining, demanding I turn my “rubbish music” off so he can watch somebody playing a video game on youtube! It’s definitely deposing the Boss from position 50, and maybe even Sault at 20.
Coolio! He’s kinda like an American Michael Kiwanuka, isn’t he? Glad you liked it. Far more worthy of a listing than that silly Brucey person.
You, outside!
I’ve listened twice to the Son Little – it’s alright I suppose.
Hats off @paul-wad
With all you have to contend with, I doff my cap.
Yes, hats off to you Paul.
However, I’m surprised there is no place in your top fifty for Run The Jewels.
I’ve never really got into the project. They’re alright, the first two albums especially, but they just haven’t grabbed me as much as they’ve clearly grabbed everyone else. But to be honest, I’m not that taken with their solo stuff either, or even (and this may be sacrilege) Funcrusher Plus. Took me ages to track down a copy of that for an affordable price too.
Losing myself in music is how I take my mind off things. It’s going to be a rough patch just after Christmas, as the divorce/financials/custody issues come to their conclusion, and then we’re moving house. I am NOT looking forward to moving. I’ll be getting the removal men to pack up for me, although I don’t want them touching my music/comics/books/etc, so I’ll be doing that myself. All whilst waiting patiently for the vaccination programme to get to band 6, particularly as I haven’t been too well recently. A nursing mate of mine was on the BBC website last week, as one of the first to get the jab in Wales, the jammy get, but as he’s still working in A&E fair’s fair. But with all my medical issues and two kids at school it feels like Russian roulette every time they come home.
The big plus point at the moment is the change in my daughter since her mother left. You wouldn’t believe it. She’s attending school (albeit a private school 15 miles away – an expensive last resort), doing well, has ditched all the yobbos she was hanging around with, the fags, drugs and (mostly) the booze has stopped, she has a plan for college and she’s a pleasure to be around. We haven’t had one argument in the house since the wife left a few months ago, apart from when I’m trying to convince the boy he needs a shower. She’s not getting on with her mum though, so she’s here with me, and my little lad is with me about 75% of the time. But home is a far, far better place to be than it was 6 months ago. And my bedroom no longer smells like a brewery. All because one person left, who’da thunk it?
New year, new start Paul. Best wishes to you and yours.
Indeed. Hope 2021 is much, much better for you Paul.
Good to hear that about your daughter, Paul.
Bless you for this undertaking, Lodestone, especially as we all know Bob will win (is it any good?; haven’t listened myself). Here’s my Top 20. The first 10 have stayed fairly set for a long while but the quality control might slip the further down I go. But anyway, Album Title, Artist’s Name, you say? Am looking forward to seeing the final list:
1. Jarv Is …
Beyond the Pale
2. Doves
The Universal Want
3. Katy J Pearson
Return
4. Porridge Radio
Every Bad
5. Roísín Murphy
Roísín Machine
6. Dana Gavanski
Yesterday Is Gone
7. Lianne LeHavas
Lianne LeHavas
8. Marie Davidson
Renegade Breakdown
9. Charli XCX
how i’m feeling now
10. Hinds
The Prettiest Curse
11. Taylor Swift
Folklore
12. The Avalanches
We Will Always Love You
13. Burt Bacharach and Daniel Tashian
Blue Umbrella
14. Samantha Crain
A Small Death
15. Fenne Lily
Breach
16. Dirty Projectors
Earth Crisis
17. Miley Cyrus
Plastic Hearts
18. Daniel Romano
How Ill Thy World Is Ordered
19. Courtney Marie Andrews
Old Flowers
20. Johnathan Wilson
Dixie Blur
Cheers – Bob is by no means romping away with it (he’s 97 you know)
….in the fens and spinneys.
Enduring image.
Is The Bob album any good? Yes. Yes it is. Very. As are three of the four records in your list I’ve heard. To be honest I was disappointed with the Jarvis record on first listen and didn’t go back – must give it another try.
I’m usually about two years behind with new releases but this year, since I was locked down in the UK I actually got round to buying some new music before I managed to fly back out again
My favourites from this year
Night Chancers – Baxter Dury
Disco Volador – The Orielles
Been Around – A Girl Called Eddy
Countless Branches – Bill Fay
Burning! Burning! – Oddfellows Casino
The Gone Away – Belbury Poly
The Long Now – Luxembourg Signal
Dolly Birds and Spies – The Cleaners From Venus
House For Sale – It’s Immaterial
Beat Poetry for Survivalists – Luke Haines & Peter Buck
Texas Sun – Khruangbin and Leon Bridges
Night Chancers have an album called Baxter Dury? Honestly, I don’t know why…
Belbury Poly, eh, that’s a name I remember a brief google explore of a year or three back, before being distracted: another brief exposure has me hating the expense of reading others lists…
Apologies Lodestone, I obviously didn’t read the first post properly, and thanks for bothering!
Now corrected
Baxter Dury – Night Chancers
The Orielles – Disco Volador
A Girl Called Eddy – Been Around
Bill Fay – Countless Branches
Oddfellows Casino – Burning! Burning!
Belbury Poly – The Gone Away
Luxembourg Signal – The Long Now
The Cleaners From Venus – Dolly Birds & Spies
It’s Immaterial – House For Sale
Luke Haines & Peter Buck – Beat Poetry For Survivalists
Khruangbin and Leon Bridges – Texas Sun
No problem!! And thanks…
??
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/dec/15/the-best-albums-of-2020-no-4-perfume-genius-set-my-heart-on-fire-immediately?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
??
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/dec/16/the-best-albums-of-2020-no-3-rina-sawayama-sawayama?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
??
It’s been a very good year:
1. Ben Lukas Boysen – Mirage
2. Pet Shop Boys – Hotspot
3. Ólafur Arnalds – some kind of peace
4. Flaming Lips – American Head
5. Taylor Swift – Folklore
6. Max Richter – Voices
7. Childish Gambino – 3.15.20
8. Dustin O’Halloran & Volker Bertelmann – Ammonite (OST)
9. Sparks – A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip
10. Gidge – New Light
11. Nils Frahm – Empty
12. The Avalanches – We Will Always Love You (likely to be higher by the end of the year)
13. Laura Marling – Song for our Daughter
14. Fleet Foxes – Shore
15. Nils Frahm – Tripping With Nils Frahm
16. Sports Team – Deep Down Happy
17. The Lemon Twigs – Songs for the General Public
18. The Strokes – The New Abnormal
19. Caribou – Suddenly
20. Chubby & The Gang – Speed Kills
Two favourite classical albums worth a listen:
Jacques Vandeville – Musique de Courbet pastorale du XVIII siecle
The Sixteen/Handel – Acis and Galatea
Good to see you, Handsome!
Always a pleasure to see you, Handsome, and you have an excellent list. However, I need help. I haven’t got on with Childish Bambino at all. Can you guide me to the way in, please?
I am definitely not an expert on CG and had heard none of his stuff prior to the ‘This is America’ track. ‘3.15.20’ is definitely worth a listen.
I went to the trouble of buying but I just don’t understand it and I like a challenge.
I tried rather a lot with it but in the end concur with Tigger (fact check here needed)
Do you mean a way in to Childish Gambino in general, or just this album? I was really disappointed with the new album. I’d been so looking forward to it, as This Is America is ace. But he’s done better albums. I’d suggest listening to Because the Internet, Culdesac or R O Y A L T Y. Having said that, don’t expect to hear anything that’s up there with the greats. Those three are good albums though, and he is a very talented chap.
Just this album – a disappointment after This Is America
1 The Left Outsides – Are You Sure I Was There?
2 The Hanging Stars – A New Kind of Sky
3 Smoke Fairies – Darkness Brings the Wonders Home
4 The Dream Syndicate – The Universe Inside
5 Chuck Prophet – The Land That Time Forgot
6 Green Seagull – Cloud Cover
7 Levellers – Peace
8 Alison Cotton – Only Darkness Now
9 The Asteroid No 4 – Northern Songs
10 Andy Bell – The View From Halfway Down
11 The Warlocks – The Chain
12 Pure Reason Revolution – Eupnea
13 Fleet Foxes – Shore
14 Tunng – Dead Club
15 Ryan Adams – Wednesday
16 The Pretty Things – Bare As Bone Bright As Blood
17 Jack Sharp – Good Times Older
18 The Jayhawks – XOXO
19 The Waterboys – Good Luck, Seeker
20 Alex Rex – Andromeda
No 15 – bold choice!
A nice round 14
1 Nick Cave – Idiot Prayer: Nick Cave Alone at Alexandra Palace
2 Chuck Prophet – The Land That Time Forgot
3 Baxter Dury – The Night Chancers
4 New York Rhapsody – Lang Lang
5 Mulatu Astatke and Black Jesus Experience – To Know without Knowing
6 Take Vibe EP – The Take Vibe EP
7 Steve Earle – Ghosts of West Virginia
8 Bruce Springsteen – Letter to You
9 Neil Young – Homegrown
10 Pretenders – Hate for Sale
11 Jason Isbell – Reunions
12 Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways
13 Dave Alvin – From an Old Guitar: Rare and Unreleased Recordings
14 Paul Weller – On Sunset
Good to see you squeezed D. Alvin in ..
As presented in more detail on another thread:
1. Vox Clamantis – Cyrillus Kreek: the Suspended Harp of Babel
2. Faten Kanaan – A Mythology of Circles
3. Nat Birchall – Mysticism of Sound
4. Matthew Halsall – Salute to the Sun
5. Alabaster DePlume – To Cy and Lee: Instrumentals Vol. 1
6. Andrew Wasylyk – Fugitive Light and Themes of Consolation
7. Elfa Rún Kristinsdóttir, Sabine Erdmann and Magnus Andersson – Baroque Violin Sonatas.
8. Mike Polizze – Long Lost Solace Find
9. Oumou Sangare – Acoustic
10. David Boulter – Yarmouth
11. Jeff Parker – Suite for Max Brown
12. Andy Shauf – The Neon Skyline
13. Joan Shelley – Live at the Bomhard
14. Nat Birchall Meets Al Breadwinner – Upright Living
15. Nat Birchall Meets Al Breadwinner – Tradition Disc in Dub
16. Pete Judge – piano 2
17. Espen Eriksen Trio – End of Summer
18. Elkhorn – The Storm Sessions
19. Mammal Hands – Captured Spirits
20. Grégoire Maret – Americana
It’s gone before The Committee – apparently the Poll Organiser has objected saying ” I personally have not heard a single one of these albums, are they real?”
Correction: I listened to the Yarmouth one, couldn’t find a catchy single in there.
Then you’re not paying attention – 4 of those were also in my list…
Yes they were on your list and yes I still had not listened to a single one bar Yarmouth
Finally, been spending December working through the New Albums list, and have got to inbox empty on the year (though many still from 2019)
1. Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia
2. Doves – The Universal Want
3. Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher
4. Cabaret Voltaire – Shadow of Fear
5. The Big Moon – Walking Like We Do
6. Wire – Mind Hive
7. Taylor Swift – Folklore
8. Matt Berninger – Serpentine Prison
9. Disq – Collector
10. Fontaines DC – A Hero’s Death
11. Cornershop – England Is A Garden
12. Sault – Untitled (Rise)
13. Sault – Untitled (Black Is)
14. Sports Team – Deep Down Happy
15. EOB – Earth
16. Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways
17. Pet Shop Boys – Hotspot
18. Bob Mould – Blue Hearts
19. Four Tet – Sixteen Oceans
20. Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud
See, I’ve listened to at least 15 of these… always liked moseley.
1. BC CAMPLIGHT – Shortly After Takeoff
2. A GIRL CALLED EDDY – Been Around
3. CORNERSHOP – England Is A Garden
4. THE AVALANCHES – We Will Always Love You
5. PHOEBE BRIDGERS – Punisher
6. FLEET FOXES – Shore
7. BADLY DRAWN BOY – Banana Skin Shoes
8. JARV IS.. – Beyond The Pale
9. MATT BERNINGER – Serpentine Prison
10. GORILLAZ – Song Machine Season One
11. THE APARTMENTS – In And Out Of The Light
12. COURTNEY MARIE ANDREWS – Old Flowers
13. GARY OLSON – S/T
14. DANIEL ROMANO – How Ill Thy World Is Ordered
15. LAURA MARLING – Song For Our Daughter
16. WORKING MEN’S CLUB – S/T
17. TAYLOR SWIFT – Folklore
18. ARBORIST – A Northern View
19. RUFUS WAINWRIGHT – Unfollow The Rules
20. SUFJAN STEVENS – The Ascension
Bubbling under – Bright Eyes, Eels, Nada Surf, Pet Shop Boys, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Catherine Anne Davies & Bernard Butler, Doves, Kathleen Edwards.
Thanks as ever for doing this
1. Run the jewels – RTJ4
2. Fantastic Negrito – have you lost your mind yet
3. Taylor Swift – Folklore
4. Sufjan Stevens – Ascension
5. Sault – Rise
6. Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher
7. Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy ways
8. Sault – Black Is
9. Haim – women in music pt III
10. Pet Shop Boys – Hotspot
11. Nick Cave – Idiot Prayer
12. Elvis Costello – Hey Clockface
Nae probs.
ps did you miss out A G**l Ca***d Ed**? I’ll put it in anyway…
A very enjoyable year, music wise anyway
1. Cheer-Accident – Chicago XX
2. International Teachers Of Pop – Pop Gossip
3. Fleet Foxes – Shore
4. Surprise Chef – Daylight Savings
5. Working Men’s Club – Working Men’s Club
6. The Lemon Twigs – Songs For The General Public
7. Julian Cope – Self Civil War
8. Songs Of Yearning – The Revolutionary Army of The Infant Jesus
9. Sufjan Stevens – The Ascension
10. Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Viserals
11. Matt Berry – Phantom Birds
12. Keeley Forsyth – Debris
13. Sparkle Division – To Feel Embraced
14. Plone – Puzzlewood
15. Such Small Hands – Carousel
16. Roger Eno & Brian Eno – Mixing Colours
17. Jaga Jazzist – Pyramid
18. Hen Ogledd – Free Humans
19. AK/DK – Shared Particles
20. Erland Cooper – Heather Bleather
Bubbling Under
Wire – Mind Hive
Tame Impala – The Slow Rush
Sujan Stevens, Lowell Brams – Aporia
Warm Digits – Flight Of Ideas
GoGo Penguin – GoGo Penguin
Wire – 10:20
John Foxx and The Math – Howl
Belbury Poly – The Gone Away
Laura Veirs – My Echo
Dd you miss out A G**l Ca***d Ed**? I’ll put it in anyway…
Eh @ip33 how did I miss a new Copey album? And is it any good?
Missed off my radar too. I used to be the Keeper of the Cope on the old site. Must confess, Trip Advizor didn’t encourage me to listen to any new.
It’s one of his best for years IMHO. ‘Your Facebook, My Laptop’ is particularly fine.
There are many albums up above that I have never heard, nor am I ever likely to hear them. By the same token many of these are likely to remain unheard by many Afterworders.
1 Mary Chapin Carpenter – The Dirt And The Stars
2 Kathleen Edwards – Total Freedom
3 Brandy Clark – Your Life Is A Record
4 Shelby Lynne – Shelby Lynne
5 Jason Isbell – Reunions
6 Chuck Prophet – The Land That Time Forgot
7 Ingrid Andress – Lady Like
8 Lori McKenna – The Balladeer
9 Bruce Springsteen – Letter To You
10 The Secret Sisters – Saturn Return
11 It’s Immaterial – House For Sale
12 Caleb Caudle – Better Hurry Up
13 Gill Landry – Skeleton At The Banquet
14 Drive By Truckers -The Unraveling
15 Thad Cockerell – If In Case You Feel The Same
16 Tenille Townes – The Lemonade Stand
17 Lily Hiatt – Walking Proof
18 Ben Watt – Storm Damage
19 Jayhawks – XOXO
20 Lucinda Williams – Good Souls Better Angels
When I was a lad I spent many an hour poring over LP covers while enjoying the music.
Recalling my teenage self, I think I can safely say I would have spent quite some time staring at that Ingrid Andress album cover..
Bit surprising that there’s a 2020 Shelby Lynne album and you’re the only person on the AW so far to nominate it, @Carl.
I had noticed the lack of love for Shelby. I think it will probably be on SteveT’s list.
Yes, indeed, I know what you mean about the Ingrid Andress artwork and it’s attraction to younger males (and older ones too). Another unique pick so far too.
Lilly H won’t be a loner for long either. I do admire you, @carl , for the ability to keep your powder for, broadly, one main genre. So much cheaper than my scattergun tastes.
A slight, but significant revision, having realised I have left a favourite out:
1 Mary Chapin Carpenter – The Dirt And The Stars
2 Kathleen Edwards – Total Freedom
3 Brandy Clark – Your Life Is A Record
4 Shelby Lynne – Shelby Lynne
5 Jason Isbell – Reunions
6 Chuck Prophet – The Land That Time Forgot
7 Ingrid Andress – Lady Like
8 Lori McKenna – The Balladeer
9 Bruce Springsteen – Letter To You
10 The Secret Sisters – Saturn Return
11 Frazey Ford – U Kin B the Sun
12 It’s Immaterial – House For Sale
13 Caleb Caudle – Better Hurry Up
14 Gill Landry – Skeleton At The Banquet
15 Drive By Truckers -The Unraveling
16 Thad Cockerell – If In Case You Feel The Same
17 Tenille Townes – The Lemonade Stand
18 Lily Hiatt – Walking Proof
19 Ben Watt – Storm Damage
20 Jayhawks – XOXO
You mean Lucinda loses her 1 point (the only point she has gained so far)? You’re a cruel, cruel man..
I hold my hands up and accept the criticism (shades of the Cultural Revolution).
It is strange how some of the music press have seen fit to include this album in their end of year lists, yet in recent years have overlooked far stronger albums from her.
Yet, as you note, the sole point she had received has been lost, while at the same time there are a fair few LW fans on this site who haven’t voted for Good Souls… because they don’t see it as a particularly good LW album.
Which I guess indicates the incestuous nature of the music press, because I don’t otherwise understand why they rate it so highly.
Her Lu’s jukeboxes are great, tho’. Vols 1 -4 on bandcamp.
@Carl I did vote for Lucinda but on my post and I need to revise before @Lodestone-of-Wrongness has a breakdown. I need to delete a couple and replace them with a couple of new entries but I think her album with retain its place and after an absence of hearing it for a couple of months I played it the other week and it is a strong album.
Its not as good as the magnificent ‘Ghosts of Highway 20’, or ‘Blessed’, but I like it too, and it will be on my list for sure.
@carl
Still really impressed by House for Sale. Played it today, excellent.
@carl
I’m really impressed by House for Sale.
Food for thought. They even use the same scoring system as you, Lodey.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-55336503
Is Phoebe not getting much love on The Afterword?
Currently in 19th position… and she’ll be getting a nice number of points from yours truly.
1. A Certain Ratio – ACR Loco
2. A Girl Called Eddy – Been Around
3. Pretenders – Hate For Sale
4. Eileen Rose – Muscle Shoals
5. Denise Johnson – Where Does It Go
6. Sophie Hunger – Halluzinationen
7. Kansas Smitty’s – Things Happened Here
8. Star Feminine Band – Star Feminine Band
9. Working Men’s Club – Working Men’s Club
10. Catherine Anne Davies & Bernard Butler – In Memory Of My Feelings
11. Starless – Earthbound
12. The Psychedelic Furs – Made Of Rain
13. Emily Barker – A Dark Murmuration Of Words
14. Fontaines DC – A Hero’s Death
15. No-Man – Love You To Bits
I really liked the Field Music and Joe Jackson albums, but they were apparently 2019.
I recently bought the Eileen Rose album on the recommendation of @Carl following the recent swapsies. A reet fine recommendation too.
I’ve been a fan and friend since my pal wrote songs with her – over 20 years ago. Jeez.
It’s her best album since her first two. If you don’t already have them, get yourself Shine Like It Does and Long Shot Novena. And the Party Dress EP while you’re at it. She recorded them with, and had as her band, most of Del Amitri.
At Our Tables (which she released in 2008) was an excellent album from Eileen. One I much prefer to Muscle Shoals, which has its moments, but I had hoped for so much more.
As I recall her association was more with Alabama3 than Del Amitri.
1st LP: 3 Dels, 2 A3.
2nd LP: 3 Dels, 1 A3 & a Sex Pistol.
Both recorded at Troy Town, Rochester (Kris Dollimore’s studio).
She did BVs on a A3 single, but nothing by the Dels.
The first two are best, the next two pretty good – At Our Tables with the live CD is the better – the next two not essential, Muscle Shoals a – cliché alert – return to form (still not as good as the first two, though).
I remember Eileen giving me a promo of the first album as I drove along the Euston Road after a gig at the Borderline. Isn’t it funny what sticks in your mind?
Second album – there’s a Rut on it too
I stand corrected.
I am very dull.
Best Afterword catchphrase, and one that probably all of us should wear on a T-shirt! 😀
I was in the chippy that used to be on the corner of Charing Cross Road and Oxford Street after seeing a gig at the Borderline, can’t remember who, but Eileen Rose was supporting. It was the second time I’d seen her supporting someone there in a matter of weeks. One time she had a couple of Dels in the band, but I don’t think they were there the other time (they might have been though, it was a long time ago!). Anyway, I recognised the bloke behind me in the queue at the chippy as one of her guitarists, so I got chatting to him. Nice bloke, offered to put me on the guest list when they were there again, later that week, supporting someone else, but I was seeing someone else the same night. Oh for being young, mortgageless and childless in London in the 90s, going to 2-3 gigs per week!
I bought her first album, in fact I think I bought it at one of the shows, but haven’t heard anything else. I tend to go down this thread when it’s finished and listen to what I don’t know, so I’ll make sure to give this one a listen.
@fentonsteve According to Wiki Field Music was released on 10 January. It’s going on my list anyway.
Seems like a lifetime ago, as does the gig.
It was my last gig, excluding my birthday party the week after. Pretty much the last time I left the house.
What a time to be alive!
Some may deem Fenton dull but that’s a nae bad list
It seems Smudger’s right, please insert Field Music – Making A New World at number 6 and bump all the rest down by one.
I really am very dull, though.
Ww
1 The Third Mind – The Third Mind
2 Bruce – Letter to you
3 Waterboys – Good luck, seeker
4 Dave Alvin – From an old guitar
5 Bob Dylan – Rough and rowdy ways
6 The Orb – Abolition of the Royal familia
7 Backstage Gurus – Mediterranean Odyssey
8 Transglobal Underground – Walls have ears
9 AC/DC – Power Up
Eclectic that is…
@Johnny99 Your number 1 is excellent and I will add to my list when I revise it later.
My album of this and many other years – I have been playing it constantly since it was released. Outstanding
Lots of records competing for the lower placings here. However, like Brexit, but with considerably less significant implications, this thing just needs to get done. So here’s mine.
1. Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways
2. Fiona Apple – Fetch the Bolt Cutters
3. Laura Marling – Song for Our Daughter
4. Cornershop – England is a Garden
5. Frazey Ford – U Kin B the Sun
6. Moses Boyd – Dark Matter
7. Nadia Reid – Out of My Province
8. Courtney Marie Andrews – Old Flowers
9. Lucinda Williams – Good Souls, Better Angels
10. Oumou Sangare – Acoustic
11. Taylor Swift – folklore
12. Son Little – aloha
13. Lanterns on the Lake – Spook the Herd
14. Fleet Foxes – Shore
15. Blue Rose Code – With Healings of the Deepest Kind
16. Mary Chapin Carpenter – The Dirt and the Stars
17. Robert Vincent – In This Town You’re Owned
18. Arborist – A Northern View
19. Paul Weller – On Sunset
20. A Girl Called Eddy – Been Around
I’m going to turn your list upside down. Ah, that’s better
Apart from “Fetch The White Coats” which has been removed on the grounds of Bad Taste.
To be honest I’m still not sure I should have picked Girl Called Eddy over Liane La Havas, Bright Eyes or Matthew Halsall…
It deserves its place at the top of your list
U Kin B the Sun: only came out as a solid product in Uk in the spring, but was “released” last year. I think I voted for it last year based on, I think, my Bandcamp download. Can I vote for my cd this year?
I’ve just asked the Head Judge and he said “How the hell should I know?”
The physical release was in February I think and it’s in Mojo and Uncut’s lists for this year. Not that it makes any odds, mind you – not sure anyone else has voted for it…
I think I’ll risk the time/space continuum and give it a 2nd, two years running.
There have been a few nominations for Frazey, including in my revised list, having bizarrely omitted her in my original selection.
Thanks for organising, Mr Wrongness:
1 Katie Pruitt – Expectations
2 Taylor Swift – Folklore
3 Bruce Springsteen – Letter To You
4 Haim – Women In Music Part III
5 Bob Dylan – Rough And Rowdy Ways
6 Maria McKee – La Vita Nuova
7 Taylor Swift – Evermore
8 Lilly Hiatt – Walking Proof
9 Chuck Prophet – The Land That Time Forgot
10 Fish – Weltschmerz
11 Gypsy Dynamite – Café Dynamite
12 Lucinda Williams – Good Souls Better Angels
13 Gretchen Peters – The Night You Wrote That Song
14 Pet Shop Boys – Hot Spot
15 The 1975 – Notes On A Conditional Form
16 Colter Wall – Western Swing And Waltzes And Other Punchy Songs
17 North Mississippi Allstars – Up And Rolling
18 Paul McCartney – McCartney III
19 Kylie Minogue – Disco
20 Travis – Ten Songs
No problem, Robert – and Merry Xmas one and all!!
OK, I’m ready to give my verdict.
Just a note: I’m the biggest Jeff Tweedy fan and I love his new album, but I’m not going to vote for it until it’s time for the 2021 list, because it’s only available as download/streaming/on YouTube this year. I only vote for albums I own, and I don’t do downloads. Just in case anyone wonders why I didn’t vote for it! 😉
1 Adrianne Lenker – Songs and Instrumentals
2 Andy Shauf – The Neon Skyline
3 A Girl Called Eddy – Been Around
4 Tame Impala – The Slow Rush
5 John Moreland – LP5
6 Alice Boman – Dream On
7 Moses Sumney – Grae
8 Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways
9 Slowgold – Aska
10 Kevin Morby – Sundowner
11 Bonny Light Horseman – Bonny Light Horseman
12 Emily Barker – A Dark Murmuration Of Words
13 Dana Gavanski – Yesterday Is Gone
14 Sam Doores – Sam Doores
15 Watkins Family Hour – Brother Sister
16 Anders F Rönnblom – BLÄRK! Ballader och Mysterier
17 Courtney Marie Andrews – Old Flowers
18 Native Harrow – Closeness
19 Mattias Alkberg – Bodensia
20 Tami Neilson – Chickaboom!
Bubbling under:
Frazey Ford, Vasas Flora Och Fauna, The Jayhawks, Bill Fay, Jonathan Wilson, Perfume Genius, RYMDEN, Rufus Wainwright, The Innocence Mission
Shame – the Jeff Tweedy album is a belter (see my nominations later today). Nice list by the way!
1. Laura Marling – Song for our Daughter
2. Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways
3. Elvis Costello – Hey Clockface
4. Lucinda Williams – Good Souls Better Angels
5. Nick Cave – Idiot Prayer
6. Bill Fay – Countless Branches
7. Bill Callahan – Gold Record
8. Maria McKee- La Vita Nuova
9. Drive By Truckers – The Unraveling
10. Margo Price – That’s how rumours get started
11. Bettye Lavette – Blackbirds
12. Diana Jones – Song to a Refugee
13. Bruce Springsteen – Letter to you
14. Fleet Foxes – Shore
15. Fontaines D.C. – A Hero’s Death
16. Emma Swift – Blonde on the Tracks
17. Jason Isbell – Reunions
18. Jeff Tweedy – Love is the King
19. Mark Lanegan – Straight Songs of Sorrow
20. Rufus Wainwright – Unfollow the Rules
1. Paul McCartney – McCartney III
2. Woods – Strange To Explain
3. Taylor Swift – Folklore
4. Chip Wickham – Blue to Red
5. Nubya Garcia – Source
6. Andy Bell – The View From Halfway Down
7. Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids – Shaman!
8. Pantha Du Prince – Conference Of Trees
9. Damu The Fudgemunk – Ocean Bridges
10. Mary Lattimore – Silver Ladders
11. Bob Dylan – Rough And Rowdy Ways
12. Roedelius – Wahre Liebe
13. Matthew Halsall – Salute To The Sun
14. King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard – KG
15. Keeley Forsyth – Debris
16. Jeff Parker – Suite For Max Brown
17. Wolfgang Muthspiel – Angular Blues
18. Nine Inch Nails – Ghosts
19. James Dean Bradfield – Even In Exile
20. Ka – Descendents Of Cain
I’m afraid that Billy Shears can’t vote for Paul McCartney. So it’s another 20 points for A Girl Called Eddy.
Things are really hotting up at the top of the Leader Board – some old bloke what can’t sing anymore is well in front but still all to play for. Possibly. Perhaps. Vote now, vote soon, Vote!!
Twenty more for the Mighty Wrongness…
1. Gwenifer Raymond – Strange Lights over Garth Mountain
2. Wire – Mind Hive
3. Bob Mould – Blue Hearts
4. Dyble Longdon – Between a Breath and a Breath
5. Diana Krall – This Dream of You
6. Nat Birchall – Mysticism of Sound
7. Mary Chapin Carpenter – The Dirt and the Stars
8. Field Music – Making a New World
9. Matthew Halsall – Salute to the Sun
10. Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher
11. The Amorphous Androgynous and Peter Hammill – We Persuade Ourselves We are Immortal
12. Rumer – Nashville Tears
13. Nick Cave – Idiot Prayer
14. HC McEntire – Eno Axis
15. Cabaret Voltaire – Shadow of Fear
16. Jess Williamson – Sorceress
17. Shelby Lynne – Shelby Lynne
18. The Unthanks – Diversions no. 5 – Live and Unaccompanied
19. Craig Armstrong/Calum Martin – The Edge of the Sea
20. Cowboy Junkies – Ghosts
Many thanks – looking forward to the deep analysis…
I will have to accept I’m not going to have time to absorb the new and unheard, so, sorry Blue Note Re-Imagined, Sam Amidon, Olafur Arnalds and those perusing this thread always adds to the never ending purchase list…..
1. Matt Berninger – Serpentine Prison
2. The Chair – Orkney Monster
3. Frazey Ford – U Kin B the Sun
4. Agnes Obel – Myopia
5. Bebel Gilberto – Agora
6. Bear’s Den with Paul Frith – Fragments
7. Blue Rose Code – With Healings of the Deep
8. Peat & Diesel – Light My Byre
9. Sam Lee – Old Wow
10. Rose City Band – Summerlong
11. John Moreland – LP5
12. Project Smok – Bayview
13. Nubya Garcia – Source
14. Rolling Coastal Blackout Fevers – Sideways to Italy
15. Cunning Folk – A Casual Invocation
16. Mungo’s Hi-Fi x Marina P – Soul Radio
17. Mavericks – En Espagnol
18. Levellers – Peace
19. Lilly Hiatt – Walking Proof
20. Margo Price – That’s How Rumors Get Started.
Narrowly squeezing out Pretenders/Hate For Sale, My Darling Clementine/Country Darkness, Waxahatchee/St Cloud, Hanging Stars/A New Kind of Sky .
I’ve been weighing up Cunning Folk on Spotify, checking whether it matches the reviews. Sounds interesting, but I won’t have ingested it in time for the end of year.
Nice to see the Orcadians showing such a high placing. Haven’t seen sight nor sound of them for years.
Cunning Folk is at times naive pagan tosh and at times, more times, luckily, life affirming motorik folk, a little like, if nothing like, King Creosote.
Orkney Monster is just terrific : way better than the generic folk rock of Hammer Junkie.
And all the way from the Languedoc (where it’s bloody freezing
1.Taylor Swift – Folklore (simply, a work of genius)
2. A Girl Called Eddy – Been Around (a revelation: Steely Dan says hello to Hall & Oates and look, Prefab Sprout are here too!)
3. Jeff Tweedy – Love Is The King (and his new book is ace-in-a-bucket as well)
4. Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud
5. Steve Earle – Ghosts of West Virginia
6. Gillian Welch & Dave Rawlings – Boots No2 The Lost Songs
7. Gillian Welch & Dave Rawlings – All The Good Things Are Past And Gone
8. Taylor Swift – Evermore (not as consistent as Folklore but there are real gems in there)
9. Ryan Adams – Wednesdays (still a little uncomfortable listening to it but…)
10. Toots And The Maytals – Got To be Tough (see you, old fella)
11. Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit – Reunions (as noted elsewhere nowhere near his best but it’s still pretty fine)
12. Moses Sumney – Grae
13. Fleet Foxes – Shore ( I really don’t like Fleet Foxes but this is really good)
14. Bruce Springsteen – Letter To You (every Brooce cliche is in here and yet…)
15. Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher (not my usual fare but won me over in the end)
16. Bob Dylan – Rough & Rowdy Ways (nowhere near as amazing as the critics and the voters of this here poll claim but at least he’s not murdering Frank Sinatra and/or Christmas)
What a great description of AGCE.
Flutters eyelashes. You dull – never!
I’m going to turn your list upside down. Ah, that’s better
Re AGCE – I hear The Pretenders in Someone’s Gonna Break Your Heart (which is a good thing).
Actually, that’s a fine list. I was sorry I couldn’t find room for Gillian Welch
Always liked you
Doves – The Universal Want
A Certain Ratio – ACR Loco
Laura Marling – Song for our Daughter
EOB – Earth
This is the Kit – Off Off On
Field Music – Making a New World
Laura Veirs – My Echo
Scott Matthews – New Skin
Rufus Wainwright – Unfollow the Rules
The Unthanks – Diversions Volume 5
Secret Machines – Awake in the Brain Chamber
Joan as Policewoman – Cover Two
Bit of a late surge occurring by Laura Marling. Quite right too; it’s a great record.
Currently 7th with a bullet….
Now here’s an odd and fun fact about Laura Marling’s albums and me:
I have loved every other album she has released (under her own name) from her debut (didn’t like it) until this year’s album (didn’t like that one either). So I really shouldn’t buy the albums that I “know” I won’t enjoy, but I still do it, just in case that this rule should eventually come to a stop.
I’ve never experienced anything like it with any other artists…
She’s not made a record I dislike – I think she’s an amazingly consistent artist. However, if you pushed me to pick my favourite three albums, it would, I realise, indeed be her 2nd, her 4th and her 6th.
I don’t actively dislike the other albums, I just find them dull and disappointing coming after the previous absolutely brilliant album…and I end up not listening very much to them. I’m sure all of them have some great tracks, just not an album’s worth of them IMO.
Have only heard 5 or 6 new albums in full this year, many snippets of other albums mainly courtesy of my daughter
1. Bruce Springsteen
2. Jeff Tweedy (physical release 2021)
3. Dua Lipa
4. Bob Dylan
5. Paul Weller
6. Paul McCartney
(197 Fiona Apple, so chronic I don’t include it)
Heard Taylor Swift too, but found it extremely bland and nothing special at all (the first one)
Your second to last sentence is spot on.
Your last sentence has, unfortunately, rendered all of your votes ineligible.
Note: I only include albums bought as physical product (i.e. CDs)
A Girl Called Eddy – Been Around *
Chuck Prophet – The Land That Time Forgot
Fantastic Negrito – Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?
Son Little – Aloha
Dave Alvin – From An Old Guitar
Melody Gardot – Sunset In The Blue
Brandy Clark – Your Life Is A Record
Taylor Swift – Folklore
Whitney Rose – We Still Go To Rodeos
Lilly Hiatt – Walking Proof *
Chris Stapleton – Starting Over
Jason Isbell – Reunions
Brent Cobb – Keep ‘Em On They Toes
Margo Price – That’s How Rumours Get Started
Jarv Is – Beyond The Pale
The Pretenders – Hate For Sale
Jessie Ware – What’s Your Pleasure
Lori McKenna – The Balladeer *
Ingrid Andress – Lady Like *
Dianna Krall – This Dream Of You
* Those marked with asterisk are all new to me in December, picked off lists already posted above. If they are off your list thank you for expanding my taste. There are many more I wish to investigate but I need to draw a line somewhere.
For completion, I also bought:
1.Taylor Swift – Evermore. Not arrived yet so too late to properly assess.
2.The Jayhawks – XOXO ^
3.Shelby Lynne – Shelby Lynne ^
4.Kandace Springs – The Women Who Raised Me ^
5.The Waterboys – Good Luck Seeker ^
^ these 4 are among my favourite artists & I would have expected them to be in a top20 of mine, however they didn’t engage me.
5.Bob Dylan – Rough & Rowdy Ways. I appreciate it but it’s not the album I will reach for when I want to hear Bob.
6.Wille Nelson – First Rose Of Spring. Nothing wrong with this, just no room for it.
7.Eels – Earth To Dora. Same as above.
8.Mollie Tuttle – But I’d Rather Be With You. Fine album, but it is just cover versions, so points off.
9.McCartney III. Nearly made top 20.
For a pet dog you have fine taste…
Why, thank you. I knew you would approve of my no.1.
Any 1st time showings on my list?
Chris Stapleton? Brent Cobb? Whitney Rose?
Add Jessie Ware to your virgins (which is surprising given its favourable reviews elsewhere)
I was sure I had seen her elsewhere. Must’ve been the Guardian / Indie lists.
Agree about the Kandace Springs and Molly Tuttle – they’ve both done much better than their records this year.
As I think I am the only person to nominate both Lori McKenna and Ingrid Andress I am pleased you’ve investigated them and moreover enjoyed them.
I’m surprised you are disappointed by Shelby Lynne though. I have most of her albums and this is the first I have bought that my wife likes enough to choose to play, rather than just listen to it when I have chosen it.
Carl, I tried Shelby again but it’s still not doing it for me. I think it’s the production. Her voice is too sharp to my ears on this album. I particularly dislike the big piano ballad “Here I Am”. I have everything she has released since 1999 which is why I’m so surprised that I don’t like it much.
It’s great that your wife likes it, that’s always a bonus.
I will be re-visiting your list to see what other treasures I can find.
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – Reunions
Matt Berninger – Serpentine Prison
Taylor Swift – Folklore
Bruce Springsteen – Letter to you
Dawes – Good Luck With Whatever
Kathleen Edwards – Total Freedom
Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy ways
Tyler Childers – Long Violent History
Sadler Vaden – Anybody Out There
A Girl Called Eddy – Been Around
Drive By Truckers – The Unravelling
Steve Earle – Ghosts of West Virginia
Taylor Swift – Evermore
North Americans – Roped In
Adrianne Lenker – Songs
Drive By Truckers – The New OK
Eels – Earth to Dora
John Moreland – LP5
The Jayhawks – Xoxo
Jonathan Wilson – Dixie Blur
Only 10 from me, but that is pretty good, as I am normally a year behind on most the albums.
1) Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways
2) Mary Chapin Carpenter – The Dirt and the Stars
3) Taylor Swift – Folklore
4) Emma Swift – Blonde on the Tracks
5) A Girl Called Eddy – Been Around
6) Kim Richey – A Long Way Back: the Songs of Glimmer
7) Paul McCartney – McCartney III
8) Bruce Springsteen – Letter To You
9) Emmy the Great – April
10) Kathleen Edwards – Total Freedom
Thanks Lodestone and also a tip of the hat to @niallb for flagging the BLH album earlier in the year.
A very happy and safe 2021 to everybody.
With the caveat that I haven’t yet heard Macca, Laura Veirs, Chris Stapleton or Taylor’s second album …and the Gorillaz album might be a bloody masterpiece but it’s too early to say…
Bonny Light Horseman – Bonny Light Horseman
Steve Earle And The Dukes – Ghosts Of West Virginia
Bruce Springsteen – Letter To You
Bright Eyes – Down In The Weeds, Where The World Once Was
Rufus Wainwright – Unfollow The Rules
Lucinda Williams – Good Souls Better Angels
Bob Dylan – Rough And Rowdy Ways
Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher
Fontaines D.C. – A Hero’s Death
Taylor Swift – Folklore
Elvis Costello – Hey Clockface
Songhoy Blues – Optimisme
Seth Lakeman – A Pilgrim’s Tale
Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit – Reunions
The Waterboys – Good Luck, Seeker
Gorillaz – Song Machine, Season One
Teddy Thompson – Heartbreaker Please
The Boomtown Rats – Citizens Of Boomtown
Baxter Dury – The Night Chancers
Jerry Joseph – The Beautiful Madness
You’re welcome. Good list.
I’ll just sneak these in here. I’ve not listened to a lot of new albums, as usual, individual tracks is where it’s at.
Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia
Taylor Swift – Folklore
Sault – Rise
Disclosure – Energy
Girl Called Eddy – Been Around
Sault – Black Is
Kylie Minogue – Disco
Here’s 15 albums that I’ve enjoyed this year. With a lack of commuting to work I haven’t had as much time to listen to music this year.
1. Matt Elliott- Farewell to all we know
2. Sault- Untitled (Black is)
3. Happyness- Floatr
4. Nadine Shah- Kitchen Sink
5. Sault- Untitled (Rise)
6. Field Music- Making a new world
7. BC Camplight- Shortly after take off
8. EOB- Earth
9. Jim White- Misfit’s Jubilee
10. Four Tet- Sixteen Oceans
Fontaines D.C.- A Hero’s death
Badly Drawn Boy- Banana skin shoes
Lanterns on the Lake- Spook the herd
Idles- Ultra mono
Rustin Man- Clockdust
Thank you for compiling this list, Lodey. It is much appreciated and I for one can’t wait to see the results.
Thank you for your sterling effort, Mr. Wrongness.
1. Fiona Apple – Fetch The Bolt Cutters
2. Waxahatchee – St. Cloud
3. Laura Marling – Song For Our Daughter
4. Kevin Morby – Sundowner
5. Monophonics – It’s Only Us
6. Damien Jurado – What’s New, Tomboy?
7. Bonny Light Horseman – Bonny Light Horseman
8. This Is The Kit – Off Off On
9. Matthew Halsall – Salute to the Sun
10. Fleet Foxes – Shore
11. Nadia Reid – Out Of My Province
12. Innocence Mission – See You Tomorrow
13. Ben Watt – Storm Damage
14. The Avalanches – We Will Always Love You
15. Real Estate – The Main Thing
16. Caribou – Suddenly
17. Soccer Mommy – Color Theory
18. Katy J Pearson – Return
19. Soccer Mommy – Color Theory
20. Andy Shauf – The Neon Skyline
Another vote for Laura Marling and for Fiona Apple – hoorah! Looking forward to see what spurious reason Lodes comes up with for disqualifying for Ms Apple from what will surely be a position near the top of the chart.
Lots of people who like records I have enjoyed this year seem to rate Waxahatchee. Guess I should investigate it. That’s the joy of these threads.
Just in. Fetch The White Coats: a “spurious reason” = “it’s crap”. I may well be Wrong, of course…
Anyways, it’s disqualified.
Excuse me whilst I go have a closer look at these polling machines… seems to be a malfunction of some sort.
Soccer Mommy there twice @lemonhope …..
I saw that!
Dang!
Please replace the number 19 with Destroyer – Have We Met
Thanks
1. Sparks – A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip
2. Bright Eyes – Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was
3. Hailey Whitters – The Dream
4. Flat Worms – Antarctica
5. Brennen Leigh – Prairie Love Letter
6. Brendan Benson – Dear Life
7. Whitney Rose – We Still Go To Rodeos
8. Anna Burch – If You’re Dreaming
9. Margaret Glaspy – Devotion
10. Eels – Earth To Dora
11. Aubrie Sellers – Far From Home
12. Billy Nomates – Billy Nomates
13. Drive-By Truckers – The New OK
14. Margo Price – That’s How Rumors Get Started
15. Willie J Healey – Twin Heavy
16. Dana Gavanski – Yesterday Is Gone
17. Bruce Springsteen – Letter To You
18. Elvis Costello – Hey Clockface
19. Gum Country – Somewhere
20. Catholic Action – Celebrated By Strangers
Some expansion… if anyone’s interested…
No 1 would probably have been Bright Eyes if the first track wasn’t such a waste of space but you have to be 100% solid to beat a Sparks album.
No 3 (Hailey Whitters) New to me, if anyone, like me, prefers the first Kacey Musgraves album to the last one, give this a spin!
No 4 At the start of the pandemic, I was sure the July Flat Worms gig was in no danger!
Nos 5, 7, 8 & 9 Hopefully we’ll see all these toured in the UK in 2021. Prairie Love Letter may be Brennen’s best to date.
No 6. Yipee!! A new BB album without the rest of the Racounteurs!
Nos 19 & 20. Like others, I take end of year lists as recomendations and these are two from the Paste list and I think they may have ended higher in my list if I’d known about them earlier.
That’s it, Nos 3, 11, 12, 15, 16, 19 & 20 are all ‘new to me’ artists.
Run the Jewels – Rtj4
Teyana Taylor – The Album
Porridge Radio – Every Bad
Indica Dubs – Showcase Chapter 5
Laura Marling – Songs for my Daughter
Dub Syndicate – No bed of roses
Rose City Band – Summerlong
Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud
Zion train – Illuminate
Manasseh – Manasseh meets Praise
Run the Jewels – Rtj4
Teyana Taylor – The Album
Porridge Radio – Every Bad
Indica Dubs – Showcase Chapter 5
Laura Marling – Songs for my Daughter
Dub Syndicate – No bed of roses
Rose City Band – Summerlong
Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud
Zion train – Illuminate
Manasseh – Manasseh meets Praise
Ah, always someone trying to cheat…
How can you stay mad at someone with hair that great..?
You know, he’s even more ravishing in real life.
😳
1 Rheingans Sisters – Receiver
2 Fay Hield – Wrackline
3 Juana Molina – Anrmal Live in Mexico
4 Moore Moss – Spectres
5 Oumou Sangare – Acoustic
6 Will Pound – A Day Will Come
7 Sam Lee – Old Wow
8 Laura Cannell and Friends – These Feral Lands Vol 1
9 Dreamers Circus – BlueWhiteGold
10 John Doyle – The Path of Stones
11 Jack Rutter – Gold of Scar and Shale
One album is head and shoulders above the rest. I have bought, listened and liked more than 11, but none others warrant an end of year list.
Fascinated to see Spectres in there, @thecheshirecat: I confess I found it a little too clever for it’s own good. I prefer them as the trio, if somehow still without without Jack Rutter, if that makes sense. More straightforward tunes than conceptual jiggery-pokery around “hauntology”
It definitely works for me. Basically, they’ve been listening to Lau, and that indicates great taste.
OK (but having said, how was your take on Folksongs, the Lau ‘accoustic’ EP? I was a little underwhelmed, in truth.
Think I’m going the full arran, retreating to simpler fare…..
That’s why it didn’t make my list. I really don’t see the point of it. They haven’t done anything very interesting at all with those five songs, and if there’s one thing you expect Lau to do, you expect them to be interesting, if not always sublime. Much as I love Kris Drever’s voice, neither the EP nor his solo album cut it.
Checking back, it seems that mostly this year I have been listening to “old” or “new to me” stuff. My list is extremely small – there was a fair bit of stuff that was OK but not things I would include in a best of 2020 list (including the Bruce, Taylor and Bob efforts).
These were the ones that got me actually excited, though:
1. A Girl Called Eddy – Been Around
2. Paul McCartney – McCartney III
3. Nubya Garcia – Source
4. Paul Weller – On Sunset
That’s all folks
Good on you for sorting this L0W, as of this moment the list looks like this, in the next moment it will probably be different…
Eels – Earth To Dora
Jim White -Misfit’s Jubilee
Bob Mould – Blue Hearts
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band – Letter To you
L.A. Salami – The Cause of Doubt and the Reason To Have Faith
Emmy The Great – April
Sault – Untitled (Black Is)
Jarv Is.. – Beyond The Pale
Working Men’s Club – Working Men’s Club
Fiona Apple – Fetch The Bolt Cutters
Billy Nomates – Billy Nomates
Commoners Choir – United Kingdom
Fontaines DC – A Hero’s Death
Jinder – Almanac For The Failing Days
Gad Whip – Fanimal Farm
Moses Sumney – Grae
Jinder – Silver Age
Paul McCartney – McCartney 3
Paul Heaton and Jaqui Abbot -Manchester Calling
Bob Dylan – Rough and Ready Ways
Good to see Jim White getting a shout. He missed out on my list by a whisker but I’ve been enjoying him a lot this last few weeks of having to stay in.
Personally I think 2020 was overall a very good year although there may have been an element of some artists rushing product out because they had no touring revenue – not blaming them. Although Drive By Truckers have been around a long time yet they released their best 2 albums in the same year in my opinion. I have only listed one because I didn’t want two by the same artist in the same list but they both should be there. Anyway here goes:
Third Mind – Third Mind
Mary Chapin Carpenter – The dirt and the stars.
Bonny Light Horsemen – Bonny light horsemen.
Dave Alvin – From an old guitar
Jess Williamson – Sorceress
Elvis Costello – Hey Clockface
Bob Dylan – Rough and rowdy ways
Amorphous Androgynous – We persuade ourselves we are immortal
Shelby Lynne – Shelby Lynne
Olafur Arnalds – Some kind of peace
Lucinda Williams – Good souls better angels
Drive by Truckers – The unravelling
Rose City band – Summerlong
Flaming Lips – American Head
Kathleen Edwards – Total freedom
Eels – Earth to Dora
Waterboys – Good luck seeker
Bright Eyes – Down in the weeds where the World once was
Khurangbin – Mordechai
Brigid Dawson and the Mothers Network – Ballet of the apes
Apologies to Bruce and Jarvis who could have easily been included but had to be left out at the last moment.
As well as those artists who’ve rushed albums out to get some revenue, I think there are quite a few who’ve found themselves with the time to write and record stuff that ordinarily might not have come to light until next year, if at all. Some interesting collaborations and swerves in new directions, that might not have happened if they hadn’t had some free time.
I agree Mike. For example My Darling Clementine which is Micharl Weston King and his wife Lou Dalgleish did a fantastic album of Costello covers Country Darkness which had the added bonus of Steve Nieve playing keyboards. A great album which narrowly missed my list. Also the Amorphous Androgynous which appears on my list includes a significant contribution from Peter Hammill.Strange bedfellows? Not on this evidence.
Left it late to catch up with listening over Xmas:
1. Emily Barker – A Dark Murmuration Of Words
2. Bob Dylan – Rough And Rowdy Ways
3. Nadia Reid – Out Of My Province
4. Bruce Springsteen – Letter To You
5. Paul McCartney – McCartney III
6. EOB – Earth
7. The Innocence Mission – See You Tomorrow
8. Robert Vincent – In This Town You’re Owned
9. Sam Lee – Old Wow
10. Rachel Newton – To The Awe
11. Taylor Swift – evermore
12. Sparks – A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip
13. The Boomtown Rats – Citizens Of Boomtown
14. Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher
15. JARV IS… – Beyond The Pale
16. Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia
17. Laura Marling – Song For Our Daughter
18. Mary Chapin Carpenter – The Dirt And The Stars
19. GoGo Penguin – GoGo Penguin
20. Joshua Burnell – Flowers Where The Horses Sleep
I’m beginning to think you right, Bozzo.
Evermore is even better than Folklore
Yes – both rather good, however I think Evermore has a bit more variety. I don’t envy you collating all this stuff!
I think perhaps you rather overestimate the thoroughness of Loday’s collation methodology.
You lost me after “I think”…
Another vote for Rachel Newton’s To The Awe. We’re on a roll here!!
Tentative steps on her road to world (or at least Afterword) domination. Bought on a Bandcamp Friday whim – excellent album.
and it really should be in thecheshirecat territory. ’bout time I got round.
A certain J Tweedy from Belleville has just asked if he can vote. I said ok
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 Laubrockv- Dreamt Twice, Twice Dreamt
Le Renv- Morning and Melancholia
Mary Halvorson – Code Girl Artlessly Falling
Megan Thee Stallion – Good News
Katie Melua – Album No. 8
Ron Miles – Rainbow Sign
Then unfortunately I had to tell him his No2 actually means I can’t include him in our poll. Such a loser.
1 Bob Dylan – Rough And Rowdy Ways
2 Sam Lee – Old Wow
3 Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets – Live At The Roundhouse
4 Sparks – A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip
5 Robyn Hitchcock – The Man Downstairs
6 Jonathan Wilson – Dixie Blur
7 Julian Cope – Self Civil War
8 Nick Cave – Idiot Prayer
9 Laura Veirs – My Echo
10 Bright Eyes – Down In The Weeds
11 Marc Almond – Chaos And A Dancing Star
12 Bruce Springsteen – Letter To You
13 Chuck Prophet – The Land That Time Forgot
14 The Waterboys – Good Luck Seeker
15 Paul McCartney – McCartney III
16 A Girl Called Eddy – Been Around
17 Belle And Sebastian – What To Look For In Summer
18 Moses Sumney – Grae
19 Sufjan Stephens – Ascension
20 The Pretenders – Hate For Sale
The Dylan is a class above the rest: album of the century for me. It is a literate, layered and tuneful masterpiece. He has been working on this one for years. Ignore at your peril.
The best:
Pat Metheny – From This Place
Eddie Chacon – Pleasure, Joy and Happiness
Jimmy Heath – Love Letter
Elina Duni/Rob Luft – Lost Ships
Cory Wong and Jon Batiste – Meditations
Vox Clemantis – Cyrillus Kreek: The Suspended Harp of Babel
Roomful of Teeth/Michael Harrison – Just Constellations
Aaron Diehl – The Vagabond
Jyoti and Georgia Anne Munrow – Mama, You Can Bet
Lakecia Benjamin – Pursuance: The Coltranes
Lori Williams – A New Book
Melody Gardot – Sunset in the Blue
Jose James – No Beginning No End II
Janne Mark – Kontinent
Jarrod Lawson – Be the Change
Shelby Lynne – The Healing*
Gregoire Maret – Americana
Natalie Duncan – Free
Gretchen Peters – The Night You Wrote That Song
Michael Wollny – Mondenkind
The rest:
Christian Sands – Be Water
Ceelo Green – Is Thomas Callaway
Cosmic vibrations feat Dwight Trible – Pathways and Passages
Fred Hersch – Songs from Home
Matthew Halsall – Salute to the Sun
Gabriel Latchin Trio – I’ll Be Home for Christmas
Oded Tzur – Here be Dragons
Devin B Thompson – Tales of the Soul
Kenny Barron/Dave Holland Trio – Without Deception
Benjamin Moussay – Promontaire
Kurt Elling – Secrets are the Best Stories
Luciana Souza/WDR Big Band – Storytellers
Kamasi Washington – Becoming (Soundtrack)
John Carroll Kirby – My Garden
Dino Saluzzi – Albores
Brad Mehldau – Suite: April 2020
Dominik Wania – Lonely Shadows
Gil Scott Heron/Makaya McCraven – We’re New Again
Johann Johannsson/Yair Elazar Glotman – Last and First Men
Cleo Sol – Rose in the Dark
* Not sure whether this is new material – appeared early December with very little info.
Oy, you! Get out of my pub – there’s only room for one Duco in here! “Roomful of Teeth” – yeah, yeah….
1. Fiona Apple – Fetch the Bolt cutters
2. Jeff Tweedy – Love Is The King
3. Dawes – Good Luck With Whatever
4. Flaming Lips – American Head
5. Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud
6. Sufjan Stevens – The Ascension
7. Mulatu Astatke & Black Jesus Experience – To Know Without Knowing
8. Frazey Ford – U kin B the Sun
9. Bill Callahan – Gold Record
10. Fleet Foxes – Shore
11. A Girl Called Eddy – Been Around
12.Drive By Truckers – The Unraveling
13. Laura Marling – Song for our Daughter
14. Margo Price – That’s How Rumors Get Started
15. GoGo Penguin – GoGo Penguin
16. BC Camplight – Shortly After Takeoff
17. Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets – Live at the Roundhouse
18. Courtney Marie Andrews – Old Flowers
19. Blake Mills – Mutable Set
20. Jarv Is – Beyond The Pale
I would have really liked to get Springsteen in, but it was excluded on the grounds it had a couple of truly unlistenable tracks.
Here’s what has been rocking Nottinghamshire this rotten year –
1. Venus Furs – Venus Furs
2. Cornershop – England is a Garden
3. Doves – Universal Want
4. Sparks – A Steady Drip Drip Drip
5. Baxter Dury – Night Chancers
6. Bob Vylan – We Live Here
7. Billy Nomates – Billy Nomates
8. Badly Drawn Boy – Banana Skin Shoes
9. The Lovely Eggs – I am Moron
10. The Lemon Twigs – Songs for the General Public
11. Julian Cope – Self Civil War
12. Sault – Black Is
13. Sault – Rise
14. Bob Mould – Blue Hearts
15. The Big Moon – Walking Like We Do
16. Idles – Ultra Mono
17. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Sideways To a New Italy
18. This Is The Kit – Off On On
19. A Girl Called Eddy – Been Around
Tantalising one short of a top 20. Happy new year all. F-off 2020. Let’s hope that vaccine works!
Ok, so I’m like Ronnie Corbett (short and late). I haven’t actually listened to that much from this year. So its a short list.
1. Taylor Swift – Folklore (I am so out of touch I thought this would be controversial)
2. Childish Gambino – 3.15.20
3. Fontaines D.C. – A Hero’s Death
4. Sparks – A steady drip, drip (first Sparks album I bought since Indiscrete 45 years ago)
5. Julian Cope – Self-Civil war
6. Paul McCartney – III (I’ve only listened once so it would be unfair to be higher)
And that’s it. Lots of stuff on these lists that makes me want to listen to them.
But will have to wait until after my Xmas Bob Marley box set, and all those Prince CDs I keep buying from MusicMagpie.
(oh and probably Evermore)
I don’t normally listen to much newly released music, but I am enjoying working my way through the 400+ albums on the lists above. My small selection is below
Dua Lips: Future Nostalgia
The Allergies: Say The Word
Meridian Brothers: Cumbia Siglo XXI
Minyo Cumbiero: From Tokyo To Bogota
Harold Budd & Robin Guthrie: Another Flower
You forgot your Number 6, “A wee lassie formerly known as Ed”
Thanks, but it wasn’t for me. A lot of female singer songwriters in the lists and few of then stood of from the others. If you want my initial selection of 15 more from the lists, then it would be:
Sault – Untitled (Black Is)
Nubya Garcia – Source
Nat Birchall Meets Al Breadwinner – Tradition Disc in Dub
Andy Bell – The View From Halfway Down
A Certain Ratio – ACR Loco
Ben Watt – Storm Damage
Baxter Dury – The Night Chancers
Alice Boman – Dream On
Ingrid Andress – Lady Like
Gillian Welch – The Lost Songs Vol 2
Surprise Chef – Daylight Savings
Hinds – The Prettiest curse
Cabaret Voltaire – Shadow of Fear
Dana Gavanski – Yesterday Is Gone
Diana Jones – Song to a Refugee
I’d forgotten how much I liked the Dana Gavanski album…
I’d forgotten how much I liked the Dana Gavanski album…
I think you need a memory test.
Ah I’m getting the hang of this posting malarkey one day at a time 🤷♂️
Keep up the good work.
Just heard one of my best records of 2021, the Steve Earle & the Dukes tribute to his son, ‘JT’. Available on monday as a stream or hard copy mid march, it’s terrific. His best since El Corazon. If it isn’t in my tops by end of year, it’s going to be an outstanding year for music.
The Album Steve Earle Never Wanted to Make: A Tribute to His Son https://nyti.ms/38N25ZF