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You may be staying in for a spell, but very good records are coming out–by the bazillion. If your income stream has not been pinched or cut off entirely, try to support your favorite record stores, most of which are thrilled to conscientiously ship items to you, and Bandcamp, where you can help music makers much more directly and often at bargain prices by purchasing their work. Yesterday, I spent $50 with one of the best shops I know of, Lafayette, Louisiana’s Lagniappe Records, and a few weeks ago I dropped $100 with Bandcamp on a day that 100% of consumer cash was being directed to artists represented there. I also hope to assist Columbia’s own Hitt Records in continuing to be Mid-Missouri’s finest. I know I am fortunate to be able to do so.

I’ve listened to 55 releases of fresh music I know I will listen to again with pleasure; call them B+ or 8.5s/10 or better. In addition, 10 reissues of previously hard to find old releases and new issues of music recorded in olden times have convinced me to buy or download them. Enjoy the slideshow of album covers above and imagine your flippin’ through the stacks; try the YouTube “store jukebox” below to sample some of the music I’m touting. Here’s my list, and I’ve checked it thrice. Keep calm, carry on, take care of yourself and those around you, and make time to apply sound salve to your soul at least once a day.

Items in bold are new to the list.

2020 (January 1 – April 1): A Bad Time for Most Anything But Music

1. Gil Scott-Heron and Makaya McCraven: We’re New Again–A Reimagining
2. Kesha: High Road
3. Princess Nokia: Everything is Beautiful
4. Various Artists: New Improvised Music from Buenos Aires
5. Chicago Underground Quartet: Good Days
6. Body Count: Carnivore
7. Irreversible Entanglements: Who Sent You
8. The Good Ones: RWANDA, you should be loved
9. Cornershop: England is a Garden
10. The Third Mind: The Third Mind
11. Shabaka and The Ancestors: We Are Sent Here By History
12. Princess Nokia: Everything Sucks
13. Gard Nilssen’s Supersonic Orchestra: If You Listen Carefully, The Music is Yours
14. Danny Barnes: Man on Fire
15. Jeff Parker: Suite for Max Brown
16. Grimes: Miss Anthropocene
17. K Michelle: All Monsters are Human
18. Fat Tony and Taydex: Wake Up
19. Mr. Wrong: Create a Place
20. Bad Bunny: YHLQMDLG
21. U. S. Girls: Heavy Light
22. The Necks: Three
23. Sunflowers: Endless Voyage
24. Moses Sumney: grae
25. Swamp Dogg: Sorry You Couldn’t Make It
26. Jan St. Werner and Mark E. Smith: Molocular Mediation
27. Lyra Pramuk: Fountain
28. Megan Thee Stallion: Suga
29. Mythic Sunshine: Changing Shapes–Live at Roadburn
30. Denzel Curry & Kenny Beats: UNLOCKED
31. Kefaya + Elaha Soroor: Songs of Our Mothers
32. Jennifer Curtis & Tyshawn Sorey: Invisible Ritual
33. Shopping: All for Nothing
34. Katie Shorr: Open Book
35. The Neptune Power Federation: Memoirs of a Rat Queen
36. Dua Lipa: Future Nostalgia
37. Darragh Morgan and John Tilbury: For John Cage (composer: Morton Feldman)
38. Onipa: We No Be Machine
39. Evan Parker and Paul Lytton: collective calls (revisited) (jubilee)
40. Fire! Orchestra: Actions for Free Jazz Orchestra
41. Natural Child: California Hotel
42. Childish Gambino: 3.15.20
43. Etran de L’Air: Music from Saharan WhatsApp, Volume 1 (EP)
44. MONO: Before The Past
45. Tamikrest: Tamotait
46. Colin Stetson: Color Out of Space (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
47. Lakecia Benjamin: Pursuance—The Coltranes
48. Wayne Phoenix: Soaring Wayne Phoenix Story The Earth
49. Moses Boyd: Dark Matter
50. Kassa Overall: I Think I’m Good
51. Oumou Diabate et Kara Show Koumba Frifri: Music from Saharan WhatsApp, Volume 2 (EP)
52. Dogleg: Mellee
53. Jays Electronica and -Z: A Written Testimony
54. Luke Combs: What You See Is What You Get
55. Jeich Ould Badou: Music from Saharan WhatsApp 03

REISSUES AND PAST RECORDINGS NEWLY BROUGHT TO LIGHT

1. Ranil: Stay Safe and Sound!
2. Lee Scratch Perry with Seskain Molenga and Kalo Kawongolo: Roots from the Congo (reissue)
3. Milton Nascimento: Maria Maria (reissue)
4. Jon Hassell: Vernal Equinox (reissue)
5. Bryan Ferry: Live at the Royal Albert Hall, 1974
6. Pharoah Sanders: Live in Paris 1975
7. Yabby You & The Aggrovators: King Tubby’s Prophecies of Dub (reissue)
8. Various Artists: Léve Léve – Sao Tomé & Principe Sounds ‘70s-‘80s
9. Various Artists: Soul Jazz Records Presents Black Riot—Early Jungle, Rave, and Hardcore
10. Various Artists: Jamaican All-Stars (Studio One)