The support means the world to me, and thanks to your kind contributions I was able to go and visit my boy in Britain. I'll try and mock up a proper recap blog—though I am notoriously terrible at doing those, I don't think I've ever managed a proper recap blog for any of the various conventions I've gone to over the years. I guess there wasTop Ten Musical Releases of 2020 · 9:37am Jan 23rd, 2021
alright I know this is pretty late but I've been struggling with my shitty job and also there was that literal fucking insurrection so things have been a bit busy as of late. i said i'd do this though and i kinda did want to get back into the habit of doing it since i stopped at the end of 2015 and it's a small thing to keep me from completely losing my mind ig. music is something i care about a lot and is probably me favorite medium of art. enjoy my top picks for last year.
10. Black Dresses - Peaceful As Hell [noise pop/hyperpop]
I sure wish Black Dresses hadn't broken up this year. These gals created an absolute nightmare with noise, and it's an incredible pop trip to boot. this is a hyper-digital take on noise pop, a genre which has in the past been mostly associated with shoegaze and dream pop (ie, mostly distorted poppy alt rock). Black Dresses is something fucking else. They've got a ton of work (most of it can be found on youtube) but I'm still super bummed they won't be making any more. It's pretty hard to describe, you really just gotta listen to it for yourself. Infectiously catchy, crazy noisy—really reminds me of the myspace era (god rest its soul) of just absolutely abusing DAWs and DIU collisions of ironic-but-not-really pop, electronic, and punk.
We even got a pmv for the best song on the album!
9. Hospital Bracelet - Sober Haha JK Unless [emo]
Not an album, but rather a single release, and honestly this single song is better than a lot of the full albums I heard this year. That's not a shot at the albums—that's a testament to how good this one song is. It's a gorgeous and heartbreaking emo song about one of the hardest things there is to do in this world. The way the synth organ comes in halfway through the song is crushing, too. Honestly feeling like Hospital Bracelet is going to be one of the names to really watch for in emo coming around in the 20s.
8. Dorian Electra - My Agenda [hyperpop/bubblegum bass]
Dorian Electra is the fucking best. They're so incredibly extra with their mannerisms and the baroque/futurism fashion fusion, and their music—holy hell. 2019's Flamboyant is absolutely amazing weirdo pop bangers that are as hilarious as they are sexy. It's kinda nice to be so incredibly seen like this. They're also one of the first straight-up enby pop artists that I've come across and it's super cool to have that representation. My Agenda is a concept album about masculinity, particularly how it comes out through incels and nice guys and neckbeards and edgelords through the internet. Dorian delivers another helping of wacky and provocative bangers with an insane guestlist (ffs she got Rebecca Black in on the thing, not to mention fukken Pussy Riot and The Village People on the same song.) While short, it's as fascinating as it is bop after absolute bop.
7. clipping. - Visions of Bodies Being Burned [horrorcore/industrial hip-hop]
I was looking forward to this one for a while. clipping. has been a favorite hip-hop group of mine since their 2014 debut. Led by Daveed Diggs, most famously the actor of Lafayette from Hamilton, clipping. is an incredible exercise in how noise and industrial roots can be applied to hip-hop as well as how hip-hop and rapping is one of the more poetic and story-driven genres of music. 2019's There Existed an Addiction to Blood was a fantastic follow-up to their self-titled from earlier in the decade, and was the first to showcase the incredible cohesiveness of a full on concept album/hip-hop horrorshow. The story that is told through Addiction to Blood is harrowing and suspenseful, and really speaks so much to Daveed's narrative chops. We can't discount the production quality here too either, though; that's what really makes it. The use of stereoscopics is especially powerful, and at one point Daveed is literally just rapping over the ambient sounds of the street he (or rather, the character he's narrating) is walking down with expert precision. Visions of Bodies Being Burned may not be as exciting to me as Addiction to Blood, but it's a close race. I honestly think I only enjoy Addiction to Blood more because I've had more time to enjoy it. Bodies Being Burned has a lot more instrumental diversity, and the story being told—while similar in its themes of rough street life, bloodthirsty women serial killers, and the oppressive and suffocating presence of city environments that feel as if they're a monster all of their own—sticks out as more than just a pale imitation of Addiction to Blood. I see it not even as a sequel, but rather a sister, to the record that precedes it. Together they tell a story through a collection of stories inlaid within one another in the same setting, with an overlapping cast, and an omnipresent theme. The city won't sleep until it eats you alive.
6. Apistat Commander - Break My Ribs [experimental emo/lo-fi indie]
Named after the best Xiu Xiu song, I wouldn't expect this band—really it's one guy around my age, so we'll call it an "act"—to be anything more than a Xiu Xiu ripoff, and I was right in the best possible way about that. From weird, jittery, overly artificial and synthetic and cold pop distortions to soft, vulnerable acoustic passages, to bleating, jarring, histrionic noise, this project oozes emotion. If you like that kinda stuff, absolutely check this project out. Or if you just like weird, emotional music. I gotta admit I found them through looking up the Xiu Xiu song, and then noticed that they'd done a cover of Have A Nice Life's Bloodhail, which is crushing if I'm being blunt. My man's got a gorgeous voice. Definitely worth checking out for sure, and Apistat's other work is fantastic as well. Fuck, my favorite song of theirs isn't even on this album. Still, this release is more than worthwhile. Give it a listen. Yknow, for me?
5. The Microphones - The Microphones in 2020 [indie folk]
There's not much I can say about this one. If you know anything about what's been happening with the microphones/mt eerie's Phil Elvrum over the past couple of years, you'll sorta be expecting this. I mean, I was. I was still fucking blown away. This is the fourth album Phil's made after the death of his wife; 2017's A Crow Looked At Me brought us right into his emotional state in the aftermath of her passing, 2018's Now Only served as a showcase of his tentative healing, and 2019's Lost Wisdom pt 2 is a project with Julie Doiron where Phil indulges himself a bit while still carrying on with his feelings of loss. The sound of Mount Eerie changed dramatically when Phil lost his wife Geneviève. Mount Eerie had, until A Crow Looked At Me sent the direction into a drastically minimal direction instrumentation-wise and maximal direction emotion-wise, been carrying on the tradition The Microphones had left behind, producing ethereal and cryptic folk with a heavy emphasis on nature. The Microphones, most noted for The Glow Pt 2 (a fantastic indie folk record, possibly one of the best ever recorded), was retired as a project in 2004 due to Phil feeling he'd outgrown that phase of his life musically. So to see him pick the name back up in 2020 felt like a moment of great significance, especially after his "trilogy of mourning". And honestly, it absolutely is. To a non-fan (and admittedly, I've been following Phil's work since mid-2013 when I was a wee Regilet of 15 [shoutout to anyone who's stuck around since then]) it may seem a bit strange and erudite, to say the least. It's a very repetitive, minimal work that rambles at times and is very self-referential. That's what makes it work so well for me; this feels like an autobiography being done at the spur of the moment, genuinely improvised and spilt forth in the most heartfelt way Phil can muster. I know it's a lot of homework to go through, but I'd heavily recommend listening to The Glow pt 2, The Microphone's Mt Eerie (the album Phil ended up naming the next phase of his artist venture after), and then the aforementioned "Trilogy of Mourning" before going into this record. I feel like it's necessary to get the full impact. I understand if that's a turnoff for those who are literally just hearing about Phil now, but it'll help to explain why this particular release ended up so high on my list. I'd also very much recommend watching the accompanying video with the album, which consists of one track set over said video. If anything, take this as an opportunity to get into Phil's work via The Glow pt 2. It's a foundational moment of 21st century indie, and "I Want Wind To Blow" is one of the most gorgeous songs ever.
4. The Avalanches - We Will Always Love You [plunderphonics]
This one actually took me totally off-guard. The Avalanches have long been known around the underground music scene as having produced one of the most amazing plunderphonic (entirely sample-based) records of all time, Since You Left Me. I think it is physically impossible to be sad listening to that album. This album is... quite the opposite. With a fairly impressive guestlist that includes the likes of MGMT, Johnny Marr, and Rivers Cuomo (and that's just the start), this album is a feeler. It's not as overtly depressing as some of the other music I mention here, but the themes of long distance relationships, digital prisons, and the glittery nostalgia that surrounds the whole thing like a gossamer cocoon really hit me hard. I will say that the first half of the record is WAY stronger than the second half, but that's more to speak of how great the first half is more than anything. Plus by the time the end creeps up on ya, it starts getting strong enough to rival the first half for the last few songs.
3. Charli XCX - How I'm Feeling Now [hyperpop/deconstructed club]
Charli XCX has become one of my favorite artists as of late, and I gotta say this kinda took me by surprise. I wasn't a huge fan of her earlier stuff, and I can remember actively avoiding her work back at the beginning of last decade when i was in middle school/high school. Then all of a sudden she drops Charli last year which snuck up as one of the best albums of the decade, period. The follow-up for this year, How I'm Feeling Now, isn't quite as strong, but only by a hair. It's still infectious banger after infectious banger, with a splash of quarantine blues thrown in for good measure. The thing I love about Charli's new direction is it's a perfectly natural evolution of her old style and just... amazing pop. It's the poppiest pop out there. It's literally "hyperpop", which one could take to mean "pop that's hyperactive" (colloquial terminologies for it include Adderall pop and sugarpop) but with Charli she really pushes to be hyperpop, as in the hyperreal; pop at its most maximal. She's got the money to make some incredible production choices and her skill as a singer/hook-writer really shines through where she just creates pop that burns your fucking dopamine center out. It truly feels like the future predicted from like, 2007. plus it's kinda sexy ngl
2. Phoebe Bridges - Punisher [indie folk/indie rock]
As a long time fan of Connor Oberst (of Bright Eyes fame), and Elliott Smith (of Elliott Smith fame), I knew this album wasn't going to disappoint after I read up on some of Phoebe's credentials—having done work with Oberst and being a massive Smith stan herself. I was initially exposed to her work via the title track of this album, which I think spotify threw at me at random, and then several of my neat and cool friends kept playing her a lot which got me invested in the full album. And what can I say? This is just really good, emotional indie folk rock with very clever lyrics. It's not groundbreaking, it's just good, and honestly I love that kind of music that is just a shining example of the genre it's in. Ya did Elliot proud, Phebes.
Honorable mentions:
Touche Amore's Lament [screamo/emocore]; a follow-up to their 2016 album Stage 4 about the singer/lead guitarist's mother passing away from cancer. It's a bit poppier, a bit more straightforward, but it's raw enough to still hold onto the emotional hardcore roots that got me into them to begin with.
Sematary's Hundred Acre Wrist (Hosted by DJ Sorrow) [crushed trap/hexD/emo trap]; Sematary is one of the emo bois riding in on the new wave of emo trap/internet trap which has been dubbed "crushed trap" or "hexD", abundant with post-ironic/sincere embracing of a post-MySpace teenage life on the internet and semi-contemporary internet aesthetics. Lots of bitcrushing, hence "crushed". He also samples some more obscure shit (including everyone's favorite genre, blackgaze) and his partner-in-crime Ghostmountain always brings forth some pretty slick flows. Overall, though, he has an authenticity and depressive streak that reminds me of why I liked emo trap so much to begin with; it's some honest, DIY late teenage music about being stuck in a life you hate. Also DJ Sorrow slays the production side of shit here.
Black Wing's No Moon [synthpop/darkwave]; one of Dan Barrett's many musical projects (he's also the main dude behind Have A Nice Life and Giles Corey <among others> and the co-founder of Enemies' List Home Recordings which puts out a lot of gorgeous and soul-crushing bleak music), Black Wing is a more synthy, groovy experience than some of his other works, including the ones that he is most well known for. Lotta cool throwback to those goff raves of the early 90s I never got to attend bc i wasn't born yet (ah, those were the days...)
1. The Ascension - Sufjan Stevens [folktronica/synthpop]
Yeah, this may not be Sufjan's strongest work, but he still put out the best album of the year IMO. This not being one of his stronger releases really speaks to the quality of his body of work as an artist. A lot of people are saying this is like a weaker Age of Adz (looking at you, melonboi), but whatever, fuck them. When I first listened to this album there wasn't a moment on it that didn't stun me, and even on repeated listens only a few tracks on this 80 minute experience have worn thin on me. This thing is absolute earcandy on every track, and the lyrics are absolutely impeccable considering this nightmare of a year we've had. It's a beautiful story about trying to keep your faith (as Sufjan is a good lil Christian boi) in times that are not only trying, but in times where it seems some of those who hold your faith itself is to cause for a lot of the suffering and hardships around you. It's about being able to find beauty is an ugly, ugly world that keeps getting uglier with no foreseeable dawn to come after it is darkest. It's about not being able to do anything to help anyone, and about being overwhelmed and exhausted. It's about all of this mess, and all of this agony, and still being in love with someone so much that it hurts to be apart from them and it's hard to breathe while you're in the same room as them. Don't do to me what you did to America.
yeah i know this is RYMcore. bite me
here's the full topsters of my top 42 of the year
and if you liked me ranting about music maybe i'll do this some more in the future who's to say (me; i am to say. but i am a notoriously bad judge of what i'm going to be doing in the future so there u go)
oh yeah and i guess i might write a pony story or something
as if anyone'd actually want something lame like that tho
Some of my favorite releases of the past year (in no particular order (that you haven’t already mentioned)):
Igorrr - Spirituality and Distortion
Jessie Ware - What’s Your Pleasure?
Rina Sawayama - Sawayama
Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia
Code Orange - Underneath
Poppy - I Disagree
Run the Jewels - RTJ4
Tkay Maidza - Last Year Was Weird, Vol. 2
The Weeknd - After Hours
Taylor Swift - Folklore (fuck you, this some of the best music she’s made since transitioning to pop).
Have listened to Black Dresses, Dorian, clipping., Charli, and Phoebe, and I concur wholeheartedly.
based taste
Oh shit, new Avalanches. :O And Dorian Electra put out a new album? I am so there!
Or I would be if I wasn't a year and a half behind on new releases like always. ;_; Music is hard.
5440702
based on what?
5440689
After Hours and What's Your Pleasure were pretty decent. I haven't heard most of the others, I'll check 'em out. One note on Swift's album is that I'm kinda pissed at her for cosplaying "indie" folk when she's a multi-million dollar popstar and can afford to make this kind of music while pretty much everyone else in the scene goes broke bc the pandemic keeps them from touring. I've never been a huge Swift fan though, she as a person revolts me and almost all of her music is nigh unlistenable.
5440725
all u gotta do is make music the only thing you do
e-z p-z
5441085 Sawayama is particularly amazing. Her sound has such a rich mid-to-late 90’s feel to it that I miss so much.
5441085
there's too much other neat stuff :(
5441088
oh near, i'll give it a look
5441097
spoken like someone without crippling depression
5441085
bofa deez NUTS
5441183
who tf is joe
5441135
True, my depression is livable. :B