MY 2020 TOP 40. This shit has for real kept me from losing my mind this month.
Items that are bolded are new to the list. Also, I whittled my list down considerable to 50 instead of 200. I just can’t keep up right now.
I have added quick glib-takes on some new stuff.
1. Run The Jewels: RTJ 4 (has great beats, you can dance, think and act to it)
2. Gil Scott-Heron and Makaya McCraven: We’re New Again–A Reimagining
3. Fiona Apple: Fetch the Bolt Cutters (wearing on me a tad but big points for guts and sheer talent)
4. SAULT: Untitled (Black Is) (lots of folks trying to make their mark in this year of serious social justice demanding, not sure if this isn’t the most irresistible force)
5. 79rs Gang: Expect the Unexpected (one of the greatest Mardi Gras Indian albums ever, and those are never bad)
6. Princess Nokia: Everything is Beautiful
7. Boldy James & The Alchemist: The Price of Tea in China (straight outta Deee-troit, weary like GIVE ‘EM ENOUGH ROPE, but straight-shootin’ with fetching beats)
8. Body Count: Carnivore
9. Anna Högberg Attack: lena (One of the greatest young alto saxophonists alive in the midst of an exciting growth spurt)
10. Serengeti & Kenny Segal: AJAI (on the basis of intricacy and artistic control alone, a future cult classic)
11. The Good Ones: RWANDA, you should be loved
12. Cornershop: England is a Garden
13. Neptunian Maximalism: Éons (band name and album title of the year, based on music’s justification of same)
14. Mark Lomax II: The 400 Years Suite (Lomax is a gift to the country–check out his Friday YouTube lunch-hour meditations, which have left me happily weeping–and this condenses a monumental multi-disc project)
15. The Third Mind: The Third Mind
16. Hamell on Trial: The Pandemic Songs
17. Kahil El’Zabar: Spirit Groove (featuring David Murray)
18. Drakeo the Ruler & JoogSzn:Quit Rappin
19. KeiyaA: Forever, Ya Girl
20. Shabaka and The Ancestors: We Are Sent Here By History
21. Bob Dylan: My Rough and Rowdy Ways (old fucker keeps on keepin’ on with the stickin’ and movin’)
22. Irreversible Entanglements: Who Sent You
23. Kesha: High Road
24. Thiago Nassif: Mente (tropicalia lives!!!)
25. Steve Earle: Ghosts of West Virginia
26. Princess Nokia: Everything Sucks
27. Lido Pimienta: Miss Colombia
28. Mike & The Moonpies: Touch of You–The Lost Songs of Gary Stewart (yeah, that’s right, there are songs Gary wrote and didn’t record, and a band with that name actually does them justice, just by CARING)
29. James Brandon Lewis and Chad Taylor: Live in Willisau
30. Various Artists: New Improvised Music from Buenos Aires
31. Moses Sumney: grae
32. Psychedelic Furs: Made of Rain (he sounded old and jaded in his twenties; thus he’s right at home in 2020)
33. Al Bilali Soudan: Tombouctou
34. Jeff Parker: Suite for Max Brown
35. Grimes: Miss Anthropocene
36. Dehd: Flower of Devotion (A band that reminds me of five bands I can’t name that I love. Rock and roll is like that)
37. Mr. Wrong: Create a Place
38. Little Simz: Drop 6 (EP)
39. Moor Jewelry: True Opera (EP)
40. Quin Kirchner: The Shadows and The Light
41. Nicole Mitchell & Lisa E. Harris: Earthseed
42. Asher Gamedze: Dialectic Soul (an ambitious new voice in South African jazz)
43. Jinx Lennon: Border Schizo Fffolk Songs for the F****d
44. Gard Nilssen’s Supersonic Orchestra: If You Listen Carefully, The Music is Yours
45. Beauty Pill: Sorry You’re Here (not my normal bag, but the other day it ripped open my chest, stuck its fist in, and squeezed)
46. Etuk Ubong: Africa Today
47. Swamp Dogg: Sorry You Couldn’t Make It
48. Julianna Barwick: Healing is a Miracle (it is–I can fucking vouch–and her voice and noise help the process along)
49. Conway the Machine & The Alchemist: LULU (EP) (The Alchemist? Believe the hype)
50. Speaker Music: Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry (shit-stirring beats, noise, and occasional words that’s just right for right now, man)
REISSUES AND PAST RECORDINGS NEWLY BROUGHT TO LIGHT
- Wussy: Ghosts
- King Ubu Orchestru: Concert at Town Hall – Binaurality Live 1989
- Luiz Carlos Vinhas: O Som Psicodelico De L. C. V.
- Oneness of Juju: African Rhythms 1970-1982
- Ranil: Stay Safe and Sound!
- Lee Scratch Perry with Seskain Molenga and Kalo Kawongolo: Roots from the Congo (reissue)
- Hiroshi Yoshimura: Green
- Milton Nascimento: Maria Maria (reissue)
- Jon Hassell: Vernal Equinox (reissue)
- Various Artists: Stone Crush—Memphis Modern Soul 1977-1987
- Observer All Stars & King Tubby: Dubbing with the Observer (reissue)
- Roky Erickson / 13th Floor Elevators: You and Me and I (Live)
- Bryan Ferry: Live at the Royal Albert Hall, 1974
- Fela Kuti: Perambulator
- No Trend: Too Many Humans/Teen Love (reissue)
- Pharoah Sanders: Live in Paris 1975
- Nina Simone: Fodder on My Wings
- Yabby You & The Aggrovators: King Tubby’s Prophecies of Dub (reissue)
- Various Artists: Léve Léve – Sao Tomé & Principe Sounds ‘70s-‘80s
- Various Artists: Soul Jazz Records Presents Black Riot—Early Jungle, Rave, and Hardcore
- Lee Scratch Perry: Play On, Mr. Music
- Various Artists: Maghreb K7 Club–Synth Rai, Chaoui & Staifi (1985-1997)
- Brother Theotis Taylor
- Black Ark Players: Black Ark In Dub
- Various Artists: Black Ark, Volume 2