1. Khurangbin - "So We Won't Forget"
the rest, no order:
Sylvan Esso - "Train"
Sylvan Esso - "Rooftop Dancing"
Jay Electronica - "Universal Soldier"
My Morning Jacket - "Run It"
Prince - "Cosmic Day"
Run the Jewels - "JU$T"
Waxahatchee - "Hell" (connected with me right away, I love the near-yodel; "Lilacs" isn't far behind though)
Four Tet - "Teenage Birdsong"
Gorillaz - "Aries"
Cool stuff, always good to hear from these guys, a rare band that released as many alums as they have over ten years and just kept getting better (not necessarily every album was better than the last - Light Up Gold > Sunbathing Animal or Content Nausea, for example, but in general - I love the Hell out of the last two).
I've had my ticket for the stream for weeks now, can't wait! In fact, despite my interest in doing one of the Sylvan Esso ones or especially the Saint Cloud one, this will be the first proper paid livestream I've done this year (until now I only did free streams of old shows or album releases during quarantine era).
"M. Ward’s Billie Holiday covers set Think Of Spring."
Maybe this will be what he needs to finally put out another good album, because he's been whiffing on original material for more than a decade at this point.
Me three - "Take Care in Your Dreaming" was the first single/advance released that connected in any signifcant way for me, and it was basically the last of what, 5? 6?
That said, Chris thinks the Rivers track is great and seems to have different takes on the other two albums than I do, so I'm still holding my breath a bit. I am definitely more optimistic about it now than I was prior to "Take Care..." and this final run-up to the release. I'd love for it to surprise me and storm my AotY list, and for me to bond with it on the level I did with Wildflower.
OME is usually a favorite, but I haven't connected super much with the new one yet. I'm sure I will sooner or later, though.
The Sharecropper's Daughter from Sa-Roc was cool, too.
Clipping. was cool around Halloween, but it's not overly listenable to me for anything other than horror vibes/vignettes.
In order:
Run the Jewels - RtJ4
Boldy James & Alchemist - The Price of Tea in China
Freddie Gibbs & Alchemist - Alfredo
Black Thought - Streams of Thought V. 3
Jay Electronica - A Written Testimony ("Universal Soldier" is neck and neck with a few RtJ songs for my favorite rap song of the year)
Shabazz Palaces - The Don of Diamond Dreams
R.A.P. Ferreira - Purple Moonlight Pages
Conway the Machine - From King to a GOD
Che Noir & Apollo Brown - As God Intended
Boldy James & Sterling Toles - Manger on McNichols
I love the first 6 (using the term loosely), really like the remaining 4.
I think it was probably the best core-Griselda release of the year (ie. not counting either of the first two Boldy James albums). That or Lulu - Conway was the best album member of the year for me and Benny had the best features of the group, as well as one of my favorite overall sets of features for the year out of anyone).
No Country and True Grit are "late period" favorites for me, but it's noticeable that both are adaptations, whereas the three I mentioned were more fully the Coens' visions (sure, there are elements of pulp detective stories and The Odyssey at play, but those are inspiration).
Burn After Reading and A Serious Man were what started turning me off from them, TBH. They just feel mean for mean's sake, without the frills or flourishes or likeable characters that made things go down easier around the turn of the century.
Revisiting 2020 tracks recently reminded me what monster bops tracks like "Pressure" and "Get Ratchet" are. I never did manage to get into Oakland Nights, but Got It Made was a seriously early-year highlight.
Not to take away from the fact that this movie/soundtrack clearly busted the doors wide open for a new generation of Americana listeners and bands, btw. Maybe I just love a chance to shout out The Band.
I would say The Band's first two albums and The Basement Tapes were more of a starting point for "Americana" the genre, no? As in something taking elements of American roots music and using them to reach contemporary pop/rock listeners (obviously the actual folk, blues, gospel, etc that inspired them and O Brother are the parents of the genre).
Great movie & soundtrack, in any case. This wrapped easily the best era of the Coens for me, which is probably a pretty basic take, but I don't think they were ever consistently at the level of fun, accessibility, and diverse mastery that marked Fargo/Lebowski/O Brother before or after. Their deep, misanthropic cynicism was still at play in those movies, but they had enough vim, charisma, and playfulness around the turn of the century that their movies were palatable while still containing multitudes.
Favorites on this soundtrack:
"Big Rock Candy Mountain" (always great in just about any form I've heard)
"Down to the River to Pray"
"I'll Fly Away" (Kossoy Sisters version - so pretty and sepia-toned it sounds like they opened a portal to 1932)
"Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby"
And yeah, "Man of Constant Sorrow", too.
"Sailing Shoes" > "Hey Julia" > "Sneakin Sally Through the Alley" is too good of a three-song run to not get mentioned somewhere in here. I was blown away when I discovered that stuff years and years after mostly knowing "Addicted to Love" from I Love the 80s commercials.
Album - MMJ - The Waterfall II (but RtJ4 & Saint Cloud are close RUs, so I'm, all for one of them winning since my pick doesn't have a chance)
Song - Khruangbin - "So We Won't Forget"
Totally tracks that he would do a post-reunion AiC song as someone desperate for people to take his own post-reunion stuff seriously. Nice show of solidarity, I guess.
EPs I can remember listening to & liking from 2020:
1. Black Thought - Streams of Thought 3 (if it counts, the previous two volumes definitely were EPs)
2. Conway & Alchemist - Lulu
3. Dinner Party (Dessert)
4. Khruangbin & Leon Bridges - Texas Sun
5. Dinner Party
6. Little Simz - Drop 6
7. KV - Speed, Sound, Lonely KV (I like it - love me some KV - but it felt REALLY minor...Simz, too, to some extent)
Sault 1 (but if we're going for broad collectives of African/diaspora musicians, Keleketla! in all its diverse glory is the real top dog...sorry if that's a forced and reductive comparison since Keleketla is actually African musicians...I just don't know who the Hell is in Sault)
Tea
The only really hard one for me....I had Alfredo ahead most of the year but as my list earlier in here said, I think I'd go Tea for the moment.
:A couple "this or that"s for discussion/weighing in on because there seem to be different takes out there?
Sault 1 vs. Sault 2?
The Price of Tea in China vs. Manger on McNichols?
The Price of Tea in China vs. Alfredo?
Hell yeah, I saw the Forest Hills summer show and am glad I got that in, as badly as I wanted to go to one of the Red Rocks ones.
And while they are my favorite band of my adult life, I like to think I don't gush over everything they do automatically - I thought Evil urges and Circuital were both uneven and flawed, but both Waterfalls have just been so so so good.
I said Sylvan Esso's Free Love had a few high-end tracks ("Train", "Rooftop Dancing, and to a slightly lesser extent "Numb" and "Ferris Wheel) on it but didn't make the album list I shared; that's true of Khruangbin as well. "So We Won't Forget" is my favorite song of the year and the other two early singles are up there, too (+ "Texas Sun" w/Leon Bridges, but that track technically appeared late last year).
So far you're the only person here who listed Ummon, so high five there (als for RtJ, Sylvan, and Yaeji).
Even if The New Abnormal is better than both admittedly strong Shamir albums.
I guess I'll go 20:
1. My Morning Jacket - the Waterfall II
2. Run the Jewels - RtJ4
3. Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud
4. SLIFT - Ummon
5. Four Tet - Sixteen Oceans
6. Bananagun - The True Story of Bananagun
7. Pearl Jam - Gigaton (that's right, fuck off)
8. Boldy James - The Price of Tea in China (Manger on McNichols over this is such a lame take)
9. Black Thoughts - Streams of Thought 3 (but...but..they had Portugal the Man on there, it must suck!)
10. Freddie Gibbs - Alfredo
11. Greg Dulli - random Desire
12. Keleketla! - Keleketla!
13. The Strokes - The New Abnormal
14. Jay Electronica - A Written Testimony
15. Chance デラソウル - Besides
16. King Gizzard - K. G.
17. RAP Ferreira - Purple Moonlight Pages
18. Shabazz Palaces - The Don of Diamond Dreams
19. Stephen Malkmus - Traditional techniques
20. SAULT - Untitled (Black Is)
Archival/live/etc stuff that would absolutely make my Top 25:
Sylvan Esso - WITH (the new studio album almost made my list - it has a few of my favorite songs this year - but this beefed-up live surprise was a real gem)
Neil Young - Homegrown (come on, peak-era NY)
Sturgill Simpson - Cuttin' Grass V1
DARKSIDE - Psychic Live July 17 2014
Tom Petty - Wildflowers & All the Rest
Makaya McCraven / Gil Scott-Heron - We're New Again: A Reimagining by Makaya McCraven (considered just including this on the main list)
Well regular "Layla" is a masterpiece of guitar, passion, and one of the most yearning, beautiful outros in rock music history.
Acoustic "Layla" is a flat turd.
So whichever you prefer.
That said, he had songwriting and vocal assistance from Bobby Whitlock and was fiending for his best friend's wife, and then most of the album had Duane Allman, so it's not like Clapton made his one masterpiece on his own or under normal circumstances.
I wouldn't say it's just Duane, though that's a bit part of why the album is so special.
But the first three tracks on there are all awesome and all Duane-less.
Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs = Top 3 album of the 1970s for me.
Nothing else he's done really revs my engine like that, though - Cream was really good, he shredded on Bluesbreakers, he had a few good solo moments ("After Midnight", "Cocaine", the excellent "Let it Rain")...but for someone with his stature, that's not a ton.
Nah, that lets these guys off (and I LOVE Van Morrison's music, like he's maybe in my Top 10) too easy. Neil Young, Paul McCartney, Roger Waters, Bruce, etc all behave with at least relative public decency and empathy. Van and Clapton are just acting like dicks. This can join Clapton's whole "kick blacks out of England even though your career exists because of black music" bit in his Worst Takes List.
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