AOTY 2020 (music publications)

[gigpusher]

3 minutes ago, Quark said:

Winner or no I've got so much time for Burgess after this year.  The listening parties themselves have been great, but the way he's then handled the social media side of it has been relentlessly cheerful. Top banana.

Yep he is an all round good egg. The work he has done with Gorilla and The Deaf Institute has been stellar as well. Just seems like one of those genuinely good guys. I've not had as much time to listen to the listening parties as I would have liked but I have listened to a couple live and a few on the catch up website and they have been joyful. Gutted I missed the Broken Greek one the other night so will have to catch up on that one. 

[lighthouse]

Here is the big one: https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/best-albums-2020/

2020 belongs to Fiona Apple. 

[FloorFiller]

2 hours ago, lighthouse said:

Here is the big one: https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/best-albums-2020/

2020 belongs to Fiona Apple. 

Pitchfork’s lists really don’t have the same oomph factor that they used to, mostly because they just look the same as every other publications these days, but good stuff nonetheless.

RIP Tame Impala, Sufjan Stevens and Car Seat Headrest. Better luck next time fellas.

edit: also kind of crazy that Pitchfork completely missed the boat on Sault. Seems like the exact kind of thing they’d be all over. 

Edited December 8, 2020 by FloorFiller

[dentalplan]

1 hour ago, FloorFiller said:

Pitchfork’s lists really don’t have the same oomph factor that they used to, mostly because they just look the same as every other publications these days, but good stuff nonetheless.

There was definitely a moment in like 2016 or 2017 where it suddenly mattered a lot less. Around the time of the Conde Nast takeover. The Needle Drop might be ‘the big one’ in today’s age, if there is such a thing.

Fiona Apple’s album definitely seems like the one critics are enjoying more than the average Joe.

[Guy Incognito]

The Wire

1. Beatrice Dillon - Workaround

2. Moor Mother - Circuit City

3. Mourning A BLKstar - The Cycle

4. Bob Dylan - Rough And Rowdy Ways

5. Duma - Duma

6. Jeff Parker & The New Breed - Suite for Max Brown

7. Still House Plants - Fast Edit

8. Jennifer Walshe - A Late Anthology Of Early Music Vol 1: Ancient To Renaissance

9. White Boy Scream - Bakunawa

10. Carl Stone - Stolen Car

11. Backxwash - God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It

12. Armand Hammer - Shrines

13. Sarah Davachi - Cantus, Descant

14. Zeroh - BLQLYTE

15. Bill Nace - Both

16. William Basinski - Lamentations

17. Albert Bouchard - Re Imaginos

18. Rhodri Davies - Telyn Rawn

19. Quelle Chris & Chris Keys - Innocent Country 2

20. Special Interest - The Passion Of

21. Irreversible Entanglements - Who Sent You?

22. Aksak Maboul - Figures

23. Liv.e - Couldn’t Wait To Tell You

24. Ellen Fulman & Theresa Wong - Harbors

25. ONO - Red Summer

26. The Soft Pink Truth - Shall We Go On Sinning So The Grace May Increase?

27. Sun Ra Arkestra - Swirling

28. Fiona Apple - Fetch The Bolt Cutters

29. Autechre - SIGN

30. Gogoj aka Sheng Jie - Oviparity

31. Mary Halvorson’s Code Girl - Artlessly Falling

32. Jay Electronica - A Written Testimony

33. PRAED! Orchestra - Live In Sharjah

34. Angel Bat Dawid & Tha Brotherhood - Live

35. Tara Clerkin Trio - Tara Clerkin Trio

36. Crazy Doberman - Illusory Expansion

37. Oliver Coats - Skins n Slime

38. Clipping - Visions Of Bodies Being Burned

39. Mary Lattimore - Silver Ladders

40. Pink Siifu - NEGRO

41. Sara Serpa - Recognition

42. Thundercat - It Is What It Is

43. Anna Von Hausswolff - All Thoughts Fly

44. Neptunian Maximalism - Eons

45. Headie One x Fred again. - GANG

46. Neil Charles - Low And Beyond

47. Wendy Eisenberg - Auto

48. Asher Gamedze - Dialectic Soul

49. Tricky - Fall To Pieces

50. Sylvia Hallett - Tree Time

[FloorFiller]

35 minutes ago, dentalplan said:

There was definitely a moment in like 2016 or 2017 where it suddenly mattered a lot less. Around the time of the Conde Nast takeover. The Needle Drop might be ‘the big one’ in today’s age, if there is such a thing.

Fiona Apple’s album definitely seems like the one critics are enjoying more than the average Joe.

Yeah ol’ Melonhead is certainly the tastemaker of today’s kids, although what with it being just one guy I’m not sure his end of year lists have quite the same effect - probably just gonna be 100 Gecs at #1

Yeah I’m a big fan of Fiona’s album but it’s not had nearly the same impact in the real world as critics would have you believe. No fault on her though - guess it’s just a little too arty or off kilter for a lot of people and hardly a banger fest.

[FloorFiller]

Vice/Noisey:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7a7xa/the-100-best-albums-of-2020-noisey

[SwedgeAntilles]

12 hours ago, FloorFiller said:

Yeah ol’ Melonhead is certainly the tastemaker of today’s kids, although what with it being just one guy I’m not sure his end of year lists have quite the same effect - probably just gonna be 100 Gecs at #1

Yeah I’m a big fan of Fiona’s album but it’s not had nearly the same impact in the real world as critics would have you believe. No fault on her though - guess it’s just a little too arty or off kilter for a lot of people and hardly a banger fest.

This is where I am. I'm a huge fan of the album but Pitchfolk giving it 10/10 and saying "no music has ever sounded quite like it." was always going to backfire somewhat. 

[Brave Sir Robin]

12 hours ago, Guy Incognito said:

The Wire

1. Beatrice Dillon - Workaround

2. Moor Mother - Circuit City

3. Mourning A BLKstar - The Cycle

4. Bob Dylan - Rough And Rowdy Ways

5. Duma - Duma

6. Jeff Parker & The New Breed - Suite for Max Brown

7. Still House Plants - Fast Edit

8. Jennifer Walshe - A Late Anthology Of Early Music Vol 1: Ancient To Renaissance

9. White Boy Scream - Bakunawa

10. Carl Stone - Stolen Car

11. Backxwash - God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It

It's really quite amusing seeing these hip publications squeezing Bob in to their lists. The respect is universal.

[Quark]

59 minutes ago, Brave Sir Robin said:

It's really quite amusing seeing these hip publications squeezing Bob in to their lists. The respect is universal.

Hip replacements, amirite?

Hello? Is this thing on?

[SwedgeAntilles]

1 hour ago, Quark said:

Hip replacements, amirite?

Hello? Is this thing on?

 

[Mouseboy11]

17 hours ago, FloorFiller said:

Vice/Noisey:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7a7xa/the-100-best-albums-of-2020-noisey

Full Whack No Brakes getting the respect it deserves

[EssexIndie]

NME have released their top 50...

https://www.nme.com/features/nme-best-albums-of-the-year-2020-2835612

 

 

[FloorFiller]

31 minutes ago, EssexIndie said:

NME have released their top 50...

https://www.nme.com/features/nme-best-albums-of-the-year-2020-2835612

 

 

Arctic Monkeys Live at the Royal Albert Hall taking all of the top ten slots. Never change NME.

[priest17]

43 minutes ago, EssexIndie said:

NME have released their top 50...

https://www.nme.com/features/nme-best-albums-of-the-year-2020-2835612

 

 

I'm first in line to bash the current NME but that's not a bad list. 

[dentalplan]

https://www.economist.com/prospero/2020/12/07/the-best-albums-of-2020

The Economist's list:

• BC Camplight - Shortly After Takeoff
• Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia
• Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters
• Fluisteraars - Bloem
• Gwenifer Raymond - Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain
• HAIM - Women in Music, Part III
• Run the Jewels - RTJ4
• Sa-Roc - The Sharecropper's Daughter
• Sault - Untitled (Black Is)
• Soccer Mommy - color theory
• Bruce Springsteen - Letter to You
• Chris Stapleton - Starting Over
• Stick in the Wheel - Hold Fast
• Taylor Swift - folklore

Edited December 13, 2020 by dentalplan

[dentalplan]

@Andre91 @FloorFiller that Fluisteraars album might be one for you guys if you ain't already clocked it.

[gigpusher]

4 hours ago, dentalplan said:

https://www.economist.com/prospero/2020/12/07/the-best-albums-of-2020

The Economist's list:

• BC Camplight - Shortly After Takeoff
• Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia
• Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters
• Fluisteraars - Bloem
• Gwenifer Raymond - Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain
• HAIM - Women in Music, Part III
• Run the Jewels - RTJ4
• Sa-Roc - The Sharecropper's Daughter
• Sault - Untitled (Black Is)
• Soccer Mommy - color theory
• Bruce Springsteen - Letter to You
• Chris Stapleton - Starting Over
• Stick in the Wheel - Hold Fast
• Taylor Swift - folklore

Wow the Economist's list things are getting hardcore 😄 I am suddenly realising just how many publications do an end of year list 🤯

[dentalplan]

20 minutes ago, gigpusher said:

Wow the Economist's list things are getting hardcore 😄 I am suddenly realising just how many publications do an end of year list 🤯

I know. Those are the ones I'm most interested in now - the least predictable.

Here's that hotly anticipated Gardener's World Album of the Year.

https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/geranium-phaeum-album/

[gigpusher]

21 minutes ago, dentalplan said:

I know. Those are the ones I'm most interested in now - the least predictable.

Here's that hotly anticipated Gardener's World Album of the Year.

https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/geranium-phaeum-album/

😄 

My most visited record shops list 

https://www.piccadillyrecords.com/counter/feature.php?feature=1024

[Andre91]

5 hours ago, dentalplan said:

@Andre91 @FloorFiller that Fluisteraars album might be one for you guys if you ain't already clocked it.

Thanks for the tip! It’s definitely my sort of thing. Nice and bleak for this time of year. 

[SwedgeAntilles]

https://www.theskinny.co.uk/music/opinion/albums-of-the-year/the-skinnys-top-albums-of-2020

The Skinny not springing any big surprises 

[scrippit]

On 12/8/2020 at 2:55 PM, lighthouse said:

Here is the big one: https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/best-albums-2020/

2020 belongs to Fiona Apple. 

What no Sault?!

[FloorFiller]

32 minutes ago, scrippit said:

What no Sault?!

They didn’t review either of the latest two albums, despite having one of their previous ones in their ‘overlooked albums’ section at the end of last year. Weird omissions considering how the Pitchfork of old would’ve been all over this mysterious act releasing two stellar albums a year.

[gigpusher]

3 hours ago, Ddiamondd said:

Surprising not to see Sault make it. They were in the running during internal voting, might have just missed the top 50.

Wonder if the project hasn't connected as much in the States, where their R&B market is very much vibrant and dominant, and their jazz scene still a fringe concern.

But could just be two great-albums split the vote and they were #51 or something.

I suspect it could be that. There's a hair's breadth between them and if you don't want to pick both of them it can make people pick neither.