Listen, I know I’m supposed to say something here about how it’s been a really crazy year, a really tough year. Maybe I’m supposed to add something about music helping to heal some of the pain, or at least talk a little about the state of the music industry after 9 months of struggling through a pandemic which has made live performance impossible. And listen, it has been a tough year (for those in the music industry and beyond), but others have written much more cogently about that than I ever could, and if I’m being completely honest, I’m fucking sick of talking about Covid-19.

So, here’s some good music that came out this year. There was loads of it. Let me know what your favourites were in the comments below.

---

The following list is dedicated to MF DOOM, a giant amongst men.

---

50. AceMoMa – A New Dawn

[Haus Of Altr]

The debut collaborative full-length from the prolific duo of AceMo and MoMa Ready finds the New York producers on top form, flitting between house, techno, breaks and more, always keeping the tempo and insanity dials pushed equally high. The tunes here are raw and unclean, but still primed for our eventual return to the dancefloor, whenever that may be.

49. Nealo – All The Leaves Are Falling

[DFL]

If you come to hip-hop records exclusively for youthful anger or fresh-faced flexing then you may be disappointed by All The Leaves Are Falling, a grown-up hip-hop album for grown-ups. As he enters the autumn of his life (although, still in his 30s, that metaphor may be exaggerating his age a bit), Dublin rapper Nealo is equal parts jaded and content, and this can be heard in the music; he’s been around the world, he has accepted the things he cannot change, and he’s ready to impart that wisdom to the masses. Most of all, though, All The Leaves Are Falling is a record that is 100% sincere; Nealo has no time anymore for millennial irony that only serves to mask true feelings – he is ready to wear it all on his sleeve.

48. Pole – Fading

[Mute Records]

The new record from German dub-techno veteran Pole was inspired by his mother’s Alzheimer’s, and is a touching and melancholy listen that highlights all that is compelling about experimental dub music. And what better genre to explore dementia than dub? In the same way that the hauntological music of Burial and The Caretaker utilise barely audible samples and the tiniest hints and fragments of melody to create the impression of a fading past and a time out of joint, dub music often resembles the act of grasping on to memories. The music here is typically understated and minimal, but it is the small glimmers of hope and the faint breaths of happiness that elevate it beyond another typical experiment in Berlin post-techno. Pole uses all the classic techniques of crackle, reverb and tape delay but with considerable skill to create a truly expressive ode to his mother and a fine example of the best the genre has to offer. 

47. Kali Uchis – Sin Miedo (del Amor y Otros Demonios) ∞

[EMI / Interscope]

The singing on some of these tracks (eg. ‘La Luna Enamorada’, ‘Que Te Pedí//’) is out of this world. So good, in fact, that at times you get the feeling that all the samples and trap beats are a distraction, and you would just rather be alone with Kali Uchis and her voice. Then a track like ‘Aquí Yo Mando’ comes in and makes you rethink all of that, the Rico Nasty-assisted trap song that is also one of the best hip-hop tracks of the year. This is the thing about Kali Uchis, as evidenced by her 2018 album which presented a world tour of about ten different genres: she can do it all. Her latest album is another example of her flexing her considerable artistic muscle.

46. Zebra Katz – LESS IS MOOR

[ZFK]

I’ll be honest: I had begun to have doubts that Zebra Katz even existed. After ‘Ima Read’ featured in Rick Owen’s 2012 Paris Fashion Week show, the song blew up, and with good reason; it was such a class track. So good, in fact, that when the subsequent 8 years passed with near radio silence, I began to wonder if Zebra Katz was even a real person, or if ‘Ima Read’ was made in a lab somewhere in Rick Owens HQ. But along comes 2020, with Zebra Katz’ full-length debut in tow, an insane album that is equal parts hip-hop and modern day club music collage.

45. DJ Python – Mas Amable

[Incienso]

Mas Amable plays out at one constant tempo, feeling more like a DJ set than a traditional album. But all of the tracks here are original compositions, all in DJ Python’s signature “deep reggaeton” sound; this is rhythm music for reading to, dembow for ambient heads.

44. Ólafur Arnalds – some kind of peace

[Decca Records]

A stunning blend of classical and ambient from the Icelandic multi-instrumentalist, who melds electronics with piano and string arrangements expertly. A rare oasis of tranquility in a long, stressful year, some kind of peace takes the listener deep into the Icelandic wilderness and out the other side, into a place where everything, if even only for a moment, is fine.

43. Elvis Depressedly – Depressedelica

[Run For Cover Records]

Lo-fi experimental pop from Mathew Lee Cothran, the seventh under his Elvis Depressedely moniker. Don’t be put off right away; while the music is gloomy, there is beauty to be found, along with some genuinely catchy indie pop songs. At times through this ever-increasingly tough year, this album was the perfect salve.

42. Against All Logic – 2017-2019

[Other People]

Have you ever heard the (very plausible) theory William Shakespeare the playwright – as William Shakepseare the man – was actually made up of multiple playwrights, all writing plays in a similar style and publishing and performing them under the same name? Such is the sheer breadth of Shakespeare’s ouevre, the theory goes, that it surely could not possibly be the work of one singular man? Well, sometimes I wonder if there’s not a similar thing going on with Nicolas Jaar, who in 2020 released two studio albums under his own name, and another under his Against All Logic pseudonym, a collection of idiosyncratic techno tracks where the Chilean legend lets his hair down and has some fun.

41. Yaeji – What We Drew 우리가 그려왔

[XL Recordings]

The debut full length from the effortlessly cool Yaeji is a slick fusion of house, hip-hop and indie that represents a more minimalist turn for the Korean-American electronic musician. The mixtape is a lesson in restraint, making for great late night listening.

40. Gigi Masin – Calypso

[Apollo Records]

Italian composer and ambient musician Gigi Masin went largely unheard of for decades, his best known work Wind being independently released in 1986 but only gaining real popularity in the 2000s, after it was sampled by the likes of Bjork and Nujabes. In 2014, the exquisite reissue label Music From Memory released a compilation of his music spanning 25 years, and Masin has been experiencing a career renaissance ever since. Now 65 years old, he continues to release new music, this time with the audience he always deserved.

39. Nazar – Guerrilla

[Hyperdub]

The latest in a string of recent innovative releases from the legendary Hyperdub label, Guerrilla is the debut album from Nazar, a refugee of the Angolan Civil War in which his father fought as a rebel. The record draws sonic inspiration from the likes of Nazar’s labelmate Loraine James, fusing noise, bass and unsteady rhythms together to create a new sound that he’s dubbed “Rough Kuduro”. The music draws on the guerrilla warfare of the war and the mark it left on the collective memory of Angolans worldwide. This is music that intensely examines the past, while still sounding as futuristic as anything else around. ‘FIM-92 Stinger’ and ‘Bunker’ are particular highlights.

– Originally published on therockisdead.com June 29th 2020.

38. Jeff Parker – Suite For Max Brown

[International Anthem]

Veteran session guitarist Jeff Parker returned this year with his 7th album as band leader, a stunning ode to his mother. Parker is at his best and most expressive when he allows his stunning guitar work to shine through, but Suite For Max Brown also incorporates funk and ambient into a truly kaleidoscopic jazz record. Parker may be into his 50s now, but the music here sounds as current as anything else out right now, stunning improvisations played over looped drum patterns.

37. Military Genius – Deep Web

[Unheard Of Hope]

Deep Web is the debut solo project of Bryce Cloghesy, a member of the Vancouver-based collective and “rehabilitative outlet” Crack Cloud. The record feels satisfyingly small, an intimate and personal affair, with every minuscule detail pored over and perfected. The tracks include hints of post-punk, techno and folk, but the dominant sonic theme seems to be one of reticence, almost as if you have accidentally found yourself eavesdropping on some dark secret from the other side of a wall without actually being able to make out what’s being said. Indeed, Cloghesy’s voice here is at times completely indecipherable, his low mumbles shrouded by the heavy, minimal instrumentation. Dark and reflective and with no obvious message or meaning to cling on to, Deep Web is perfect for some late-night contemplation.

– Originally published on therockisdead.com June 29th 2020.

36. Perfume Genius – Set My Heart On Fire Immediately

[Matador]

Set My Heart On Fire Immediately may fall short of the ecstatic highs of Mike Hadreas’ previous Perfume Genius record (which placed at #3 on the 2017 edition of this list), but it still represents an impressive expansion of his sound into new, daring territories, and is a beautiful, tender addition to the art-pop canon. Hadreas is by now comfortable operating in the dramatic, and at times his latest album plays out like an epic musical, a theatrical ode to the body.

35. Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud

[Merge Records]

On her 5th solo album, Katie Crutchfield aka Waxahatchee crafts a truly wonderful slice of American folk music. The lyrics are poetic and the choruses powerful, but the most impressive thing about Saint Cloud is its sound, and more specifically the way in which the sound so successfully conjures images of pick-up trucks, open landscapes, sunsets, straw, wheat-fields and dilapidated barns. On album highlight ‘Lilacs’, Crutchfield gets existential: “And the lilacs drank the water, and the lilacs die, and the lilacs drank the water, marking the slow, slow, slow passing of time”. At its best, Saint Cloud is able to slow time down completely, making it stop.

34. Ana Roxanne – Because of a Flower

[Kranky]

Ana Roxanne makes ambient music that on its surface may seem run-of-the-mill, but after a couple of listens begins to reveal a rare depth and a yawning beauty. Roxanne’s music audibly ruminates, with its masterful drones, haunting keys and tender vocals, but equally it instigates, representing a space for forced contemplation on the nature of the world and all of the supposed truisms we are conditioned to accept.

33. Moses Boyd – Dark Matter

[Exodus]

An artful and skillful synthesis of UK club music and jazz, beginning with the grime-infused opener ‘Stranger Than Fiction’ and subsequently moving through garage, dub and more. This is jazz music played through the prism of the club, jazz music that is meant to be danced to as much as it is admired. This ambitious cross-over could fall flat on its face, just like it regularly does in the many embarrassingly bad jazz house and electro funk records of the 21st century. But unlike artists in those genres, Boyd is a jazz musician first, and this is a jazz record first, propelled by the rhythms of the dancefloor sure, but always in service of something brave, new and exciting.

32. The Soft Pink Truth – Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase?

[Thrill Jockey]

Drew Daniel of Matmos started his The Soft Pink Truth project following a challenge from a friend that he couldn’t make a house record. These humble beginnings are mostly lost on Shall We Go On Sinning, Daniel’s 5th album under the alias, as the infectious house of older tracks like ‘Do They Owe Us A Living?’ makes way for an album of heady electronica and ambient. The record is a beguiling listen, the religious themes obvious but forever just out of reach. This is healing music, sure, but it’s far from ethereal, always grounded in reality through the hands and fingertips of trusted collaborators and community.

31. Jackie Lynn – Jacqueline

[Drag City Records]

This is the second album released under Circuit Des Youx’s trucker alter-ego. Yes, you read that right, trucker alter-ego. Jackie Lynn is a long-haul truck driver carrying cargo across America. Think long nights on the road, the smell of petrol and cigarettes, regular stops at gas stations dotted across the Ballardian landscapes of highways and overpasses. The tracks here are varied, from the indie-rock thrust of ‘Shugar Water’ to the Twin Peaks-core waltz of ‘Dream St’. This is the Americana of Springsteen channeled through a palette of disco, shoegaze, and techno, a 21st century update on classic working class blues.

– Originally published on therockisdead.com June 29th 2020.

30. Aoife Nessa Frances – Land Of No Junction

[Ba Da Bing]

On Land Of No Junction, Irish singer-songwriter Aoife Nessa Frances imbues folk music with smatterings of psych-rock, dream-pop, shoegaze and more. This is no singer-and-guitar affair; there are intricate orchestral arrangements, moving basslines, deliberate percussion and electronic flickers, all used sparingly and smartly, always in service of the album’s overall vision. There is heartbreak here, but also small moments of peace and joy, a deeply intriguing and impressive debut album.

29. Lyra Pramuk – Fountain

[Bedroom Community]

Berlin-based vocalist Lyra Pramuk recorded Fountain exclusively using her voice: pitched, processed and layered, it plays the role of every instrument, haunting and delighting in equal measure. Despite coming entirely from a human source, Fountain barely sounds organic at all. According to Pramuk’s own Bandcamp page, the record “explores a post-human, non-binary understanding of life”. It is similar in this way to last year’s Holly Herndon album Proto, but while that record took something digital and made it organic (the “vocals” on Proto came from an AI named Spawn), Pramuk does the opposite, reimagining the human voice as something cyber and malleable. The result is experimental record as exquisite as you’re likely to hear this year.

– Originally published on therockisdead.com June 29th 2020.

28. Mary Lattimore – Silver Ladders

[Ghostly Intl.]

Moody ambient sounds from the LA-based harpist that conjure images of a beach at night, equal parts tranquil and terrifying, the ocean deeper and darker than you can even imagine. The creation of this expansive atmosphere is helped by the involvement throughout the record of Slowdive’s Neil Halstead, who lends his guitar playing and sheogaze production techniques to the harpist’s beautiful compositions. The resulting record is a fine achievement in sonic design and world-building, with some beautiful and haunting melodies to boot.

27. Ka – Descendants of Cain

[Iron Works]

Brooklyn hip-hop artist (and full-time firefighter) Ka first came to my attention with 2016’s laser-focused, minimal Honor Killed The Samurai, and he continues to impress on the follow-up. He raps with the confidence of a legend on a victory lap, despite rarely getting the accolades of his peers like Roc Marciano, over self-produced beats that feel more like a movie soundtrack than traditional hip-hop beats. The most striking thing about his beats is the almost complete lack of snare drums, and it is within the sonic space left over that Ka shows off his skills, weaving words of street wisdom and tales of violence together with an effortlessness that more successful artists could only dream of. The music here, like on his last record, is a masterclass in restraint, removing every element but that which is deemed absolutely necessary. I can’t think of another rapper who could successfully take a beat as sparse as ‘Old Justice’ (consisting only of a reverbed acoustic guitar and a singer humming) and rap a hook as hard as this: “Round here everybody know the truth / A body for an eye, a body for a tooth / That’s why I kept the shotty on the stoop”.

– Originally published on therockisdead.com June 29th 2020.

26. The Weeknd – After Hours

[XO / Republic]

By now, The Weeknd is a seasoned pro: he’s been a mainstay on the charts for the best part of a decade, and he wants us to believe that he’s fed up of it all; all the fame and associated trappings. He spends a lot of time on his new record talking about leaving LA and trying to get away for a bit, lamenting that going on tour is the only vacation he gets (forgive me if the brags about how big his private jet is temper my sympathy somewhat). The result is the best Weeknd project since his mixtape era. It can sometimes go unnoticed just how good of a singer The Weeknd is: he truly has one of the most remarkable and unique singing voices of his generation; whether that’s been wasted on a lot of nonsense pop is of course still up for debate, but After Hours is as good as he’s been in years.

25. Sign Libra – Sea To Sea

[RVNG Intl.]

Weirdly enough not the only moon-related album released on RVNG this year that features on this list, Sea To Sea is a collection of shimmering weightless grime and bass music, each track named after one of the moon’s many seas. Sign Libra is the alias of Latvian musician Agata Melnikova, whose previous record Closer to the Equator utilised tropical instrumentation and rhythms. This Crash Bandicoot-core sound is still present in places on Sea to Sea (eg. ‘Sea of Waves’), but much of what is found here is what you might imagine a rave might sound like on a planet where percussion was neither invented nor discovered. ‘Sea of Islands’ in particular is just begging to be rapped over by a daring enough grime artist.

24. Roisin Murphy – Roisin Machine

[Skint Records]

For how long, do you think, has Roisin Murphy had the idea to do a song called ‘Murphy’s Law’? It seems so obvious. but perhaps including your name in a song title requires a certain level of confidence in one’s status as an icon that Murphy had yet to gain. After all, she has stated that after the break-up, both artistically and romantically, with her Moloko bandmate Mark Brydon, she didn’t know if she had the ability to make music without him. All of that seems silly now, as Murphy solidifies her role as the grand matriarch of dance-pop, effortlessly cool and cooly effortless. On Roisin Machine, Murphy is operating with a new level of swagger on a record of cross-generational thoughtful dancefloor pop from a true legend.

23. Cindy Lee – What’s Tonight To Eternity

[W.25th / Superior Viaduct]

Women were a Canadian art rock band active for a few short years until 2012, when guitarist Christopher Reimer died in his sleep aged 26. Two of the other members of the band then went on to form the band Viet Cong, now releasing music under the new name Preoccupations. The fourth and final member, Patrick Flegel, has spent the intervening years performing as Cindy Lee, his drag queen alias and self-proclaimed “confrontation pop” star. Flegel’s latest release as Lee is an arresting and at times disconcerting listen, an ethereal journey through John Carpenter horror-movie synths, twisted Giorgio Moroder basslines and Twin Peaks haunted lounge music. The music has the time-out-of-joint qualities of a Caretaker record, but don’t let that fool you: there are full-fledged songs here, complete with rhythms, grooves, melodies and choruses. That being said, What’s Tonight To Eternity is still a profoundly murky affair, including song titles like ‘I Want You To Suffer’ and a sample of a Satanist lamenting the breakdown of her relationship with the Devil.

22. Sven Wunder – Eastern Flowers

[Piano Piano]

A fusion of Turkish psych-rock with European jazz and funk, Eastern Flowers is the debut album from mysterious Swedish artist Sven Wunder. Originally released in 2019 as Doğu Çiçekleri, this is a record that rides the wave of the newfound popularity in Anatolian psychedelic music with considerable poise, showing off relentlessly funky grooves and stunning instrumentation. This is the first time I’ve been introduced to the Turkish string-instrument known as the Bağlama (or saz), and I’ve got to say I’m obsessed. Whoever is playing the instrument on here is absolutely killing it. Despite having no real information about the musicians involved, the amount of sampling vs. live recordings, or anything else for that matter, Eastern Flowers is still a spellbinding, joyous and downright fun listen; a thrilling romp through imagined hip-hop samples and spy-film soundtracks.

– Originally published on therockisdead.com June 29th 2020.

21. Adrianne Lenker – songs

[4AD]

Adrianne Lenker is one of the busiest women in music. With her band Big Thief, she released not just one but two of the best albums of 2019, and has followed it up with a year later with two albums of her own; instrumentals is a lovely record of two extended ambient tracks, but it is on songs where her real quality shines over 11 expertly crafted songs. Away from her band, it mostly just Lenker’s guitar and voice, left on their own to produce the perfect autumnal record, released in the middle of one of the worst Octobers in recent memory.

20. Boldy James & The Alchemist – The Price Of Tea In China

[ALC]

One of five projects he released this year. The Price Of Tea In China finds Detroit rapper Boldy James on top form, rapping confidently and with considerable skill over minimalist Alchemist beats. His sound is a perfect match for the Griselda Records crew who he has since joined, hard but laid back street raps over beats that fit the same description. The Price Of Tea In China represents yet another high-point in the renaissance of The Alchemist’s career, but it is James who is the star of the show, rarely putting a foot wrong throughout the entirety of the record’s run time. This is street rap as brooding and impressive as it comes.

19. Kate NV – Room for the Moon

[RVNG Intl.]

Just like her RVNG label-mate Sign Libra, Kate NV combines tropical and cosmic rhythms, analog and digital sounds, and corporeal and ethereal textures to generate new, imagined worlds through her music. In this way, the Russian experimental musician can be placed in the ‘Fourth World’ lineage of Jon Hassell (or the ‘Fifth World’ of NTS’ Ian Kim Judd), in which primitive and futuristic sounds are combined to create the ritual music of non-existent societies. But where Hassell crafted imagined ritual music, Kate NV crafts imagined pop music. Where Hassell’s music enchanted and confounded, hers thrills. Room for the Moon is as cohesive as it is eccentric, a sci-fi art-pop treasure.

18. Riz Ahmed – The Long Goodbye

[Mongrel]

Riz Ahmed, like Natalie Portman (seriously, read her Wikipedia) is one of those annoying people that you sometimes come across who are just naturally good at every single thing they try. Hilarious in Four Lions before moving on to more “serious” acting roles in Nightcrawler and Star Wars, then becoming the first Muslim to win a lead acting Emmy off the back of his role in HBO’s The Night Of, all while showing off his rapping chops as one half of the wonderfully idiosyncratic super group Swet Shop Boys (alongside Heems of Das Racist). Now, reverting to his real name after years of releasing music as Riz MC, Ahmed has released his magnum opus; The Long Goodbye is a heady concept album about his “breakup” with the United Kingdom in the wake of the Brexit vote and the rise of far-right nationalism in the country. A weaker rapper might have crumbled under the weight of such a metaphor, but Ahmed is no mug, navigating the theme sensitively, intelligently and with considerable skill.

17. Brigid Mae Power – Head Above the Water

[Fire Records]

I’ve been following the career of Galway singer-songwriter Brigid Mae Power for quite some time now. 2018’s The Two Worlds was a spellbinding journey through dreamy folk, highlighting a singular vocal talent. On her third record, however, Power has finally arrived fully formed as a bonafide songwriter, with intimate, personal stories sung over dense, lush production. Still, though, it is her voice that captures the imagination, a truly spellbinding voice that rises and falls in glorious waves. A fantastic record melding the best of folk, country and dream-pop.

16. Molchat Doma – Monument

[Sacred Bones]

A Belarusian post-punk band inspired by late Soviet Union-era Russian rock, catapulted to stardom by teenagers on TikTok, most of whom likely couldn’t tell you the difference between Ian Curtis and Ian Paisley? You couldn’t capture the hauntological character of today more succinctly than that. As much of the Western world jolts to the right, there is a newfound nostalgia for communism being fostered amongst young people who weren’t alive the first time round, much of the baggage shed as the neoliberal propaganda machine moves on to new targets (drugs, immigrants, terrorism). Not only are some young people craving communism for its political ideals, they are also attracted to a certain aesthetic of Soviet-era communism; or more accurately, a Western idea of the Soviet Union, an imagined peak through time and behind the Iron Curtain and all of the associated gloom, mystique and socialist realism. For proof of this, see: Soviet Visuals; the renewed interest in the works of Andrei Tarkovsky; and Molchat Doma, doomer music extraordinaries.

15. Juliana Barwick – Healing Is A Miracle

[Ninja Tune]

The fourth studio album from the Los Angeles-based composer promises restoration at a time of utter disarray, providing a warm, comforting sonic landscape for weary souls to get lost in, comforted by the knowledge that things can improve. The music here is far from intimate, a varied collection of all-encompassing tracks that aim to heal the world, through the power of drones, bass and reverbed choral arrangements. If Juliana Barwick is a preacher, I am a proud member of the congregation.

14. J Hus – Big Conspiracy

[Black Butter]

The most impressive thing about J Hus’ second studio album is its efficiency. Almost every track follows the same formula: take a great beat, drop an incredible hook and two verses over it, let the beat play out for a few bars and then move on to the next. There’s no interludes, no extended intros or outros, no melodic breakdowns; J Hus is confident in his ability to keep your attention without all of those superflous additions, and that confidence is well founded. Big Conspiracy is packed full of memorable tracks, as Hus brags, boasts and threatens his way through the record with considerable skill and ease. The real beauty, however, is in the hooks; just as he did back in the ‘Dem Boy Paigon’ era, J Hus yet again proves himself as the master of the afro-swing hook. Forget all of the awkward lines about sex (“Say ah J Hus make your pum-pum sore” is a particularly cringe-inducing offering); the vibe is pretty much just right.

13. Kean Kavanagh – Dog Person

[Soft Boy Records]

It was a long-time coming, but the debut project from Soft Boy Records co-founder and longtime Kojaque collaborator Kean Kavanagh finally arrived this year. Dog Person establishes Kavanagh’s sound as wholly distinctive from anything else around, combining earworm indie hooks with stunning instrumentation and a dense production palette. There is humour from the start, with a hilarious recording of kids on a bus leading directly into ‘Roll Over’, a song about spotting a neighbour out during a long day of drinking and accosting him for a cigarette. The highlight of the project is ‘Sideways’, a hip-hop adjacent track that I literally cannot get out of my head, no matter how hard I try. Dog Person is a high-point in what was another great year for forward-thinking Irish music, while for their Christmas lineup RTÉ inexplicably stuck with the same rotating cast of washed up old men. Maybe the executives in Dublin 4 haven’t yet received the memo: Glen Hansard is cancelled, there’s a new dog in town.

12. Headie One & Fred again.. – GANG

[Relentless]

Headie One’s “softboi drill” mixtape blew me away the first time I heard it, with all of its weird electronics, moody textures and next-level rapping. And yes, I am aware that this is exactly the type of drill record that I’m supposed to like; a drill record with an IDM sensibility and features from Sampha and Jamie XX? Yup, this is drill for white music nerds. Still, there’s no denying that it represents an example of a rare thing these days: a hip-hop album that truly feels like its pushing boundaries and moving into new sonic territories. The features are impressive not only because of who he’s managed to get on here (FKA Twigs, Jamie Xx, Slowthai & Sampha), but also because they never threaten to steal the show; despite a run time of just over 22 minutes, there’s plenty of time for Fred again..’s insane production to shine through, and the same goes for Headie himself. A brave, bold project.

11. Kehlani – It Was Good Until It Wasn’t

[Atlantic Records]

It Was Good Until It Wasn’t is further proof that Kehlani is one of the most consistent – and consistently underrated – RnB artists of her generation. As she sings (and sometimes sing-raps) over a series of varied beats, it is her efficiency that you notice most; many of these tracks clock in at just over 2 minutes, and there is very little filler. She is a master at one-off earworm melodies in verses (such as “I know all the stories from your tattoos” in Bad News, a line that has been stuck in my head since May), and her lyrics are relatable and infinitely quotable. The personality Kehlani puts forward on this record is equal parts cocky and vulnerable, chanelling both Megan thee Stallion’s Hot Girl braggadocio and her own deep insecurities. It Was Good Until It Wasn’t doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it is yet another great example of the thoughtful, catchy brand of pop-RnB that Kehlani has made her own.

10. Kelly Lee Owens – Inner Song

[Smalltown Supersound]

While Owen’s stunning 2017 debut fused techno with ambient, her follow-up introduces an artist now comfortable operating in the realms of dream-pop and art-rock as well. Inner Song portrays an artist operating with higher than ever confidence, as the techno tracks have gotten bigger and the indie pop tracks have gotten gotten more expansive. Much of the record follows an unusual pattern of banger; pop song; banger; pop song, but the stylistic jumps never feel jarring. Owens is so adept at both styles, in fact, that it would be a shame to dilute her sound in favour of one of the two. This symbiosis between techno and indie is summed up expertly in album highlight ‘On’, which begins as a stunning dream-pop song before slowly developing and mutating into a much larger beast.

9. SAULT – Untitled (Black Is / Rise)

[Forever Living Originals]

Two great albums. Couldn’t pick between them. SAULT.

8. Working Men’s Club – Working Men’s Club

[Heavenly Recordings]

It took me until midway through November to finally get around to listening to this, as it sat there for half the year ignored and unwanted in my Google Doc titled “albums to listen to 2020”. It might have taken me a while to give it a go, but my God am I happy that I did. What a fucking band. It seems like it’s been ages that we’ve had a young band that everyone can really get excited about, that fully blows you away the first time you hear their first song. And if you haven’t heard them already, stick the album on right now and let the opening track ‘Valleys’ do just that; this is New Order synth-pop but with the house grooves upgraded to Todd Terje proportions, all led by vocalist Syd Minsky-Sargeant’s post-punk, Mark E. Smith-like utterances. I’ve been waiting for years for someone to make a Madchester synth-punk record that still surprises and delights in 2020 – Working Men’s Club have done so and then some.

7. 21 Savage – SAVAGE MODE II

[Epic Records]

On Savage Mode II, 21 Savage ascends to a new plane of excellence, firmly confirming his place as one of the best rappers of the current era. The beats from Metro Boomin are predictably brilliant, but Savage’s rapping has gone up a level: he’s introduced new flows while always maintaining that horror-movie delivery he’s become known for. For an artist who has barely been operating at the top for half a decade (his career interrupted by a run-in with ICE), Savage raps with a remarkable confidence, often sounding like a seasoned vet on a victory lap rather than the relative newbie that he is. The three-track run from Mr. Right Now to Slidin is one of the most glorious I’ve heard in years. Oh and also, this record wins the inaugural The Rock Is Dead Beat of the Year (Rich N***a Shit) and Cover Art of the Year awards too. Phenomenal.

6. Nubya Garcia – SOURCE

[Concord Jazz]

Just in case you haven’t been paying attention, I should let you know: UK jazz is having a bit of a moment right now. It’s been called a golden age, spearheaded by the inimitable Shabaka Hutchings (whose own album this year just missed out on my top 50, and whose album with The Comet Is Coming was one of my favourites of last year), but also featuring the likes of Moses Boyd, Emma-Jean Thackray and Joe Armon-Jones. However, the true star of the UK’s jazz golden age, in my humble and uneducated opinion, is saxophonist, composer and bandleader Nubya Garcia. Born in Camden Town to a a Guyanese mother and Trinidadian father, Garcia is representative of the multi-cultural makeup of the modern UK jazz landscape, and is far from shy in drawing musical inspiration from that heritage; SOURCE incorporates everything from reggae to cumbia throughout its 60 minute run-time. A frenetic, soulful debut record from one of the most exciting young artists around.

5. Nicolas Jaar – Cenizas

[Other People]

It is interesting that Jaar mentions [on his own website] that we are “living in a time of complete transformation, a metamorphosis – and the transformations are happening within as well”, because what more fantastic metamorphosis than that of ashes into the phoenix? We are indeed living in a time of great change and upheaval – both positive and negative – and these changes and the anxieties associated with them can be felt within us, too. In recognising the intrinsic link between the macro (societal) and the micro (personal), both in their darkness but also in their transformations, Jaar recognises the collective nature of depression, anxiety, sadness and cultural decay – we all have our negative shards, we are all transforming into something different, but we are not alone. In our neoliberal, hyper-individualised world, it is easy to forget this, and to fail to acknowledge that depression and anxiety are as much sociological issues as they are psychiatric. In calling on us to embrace the darkness in order to find our way out of it, Jaar warns against doing so alone. This is as much a political statement as it is a personal one.

– Originally published on therockisdead.com April 7th 2020.

4. Yves Tumor – Heaven to a Tortured Mind

[Warp Records]

Rock music needed saving (resurrecting?), but who would have thought the artist to do so would be Yves Tumor? The experimental artist was until recently best known for making serene ambient and electronic music, although 2018’s excellent Safe In The Hands of Love offered hints towards this new bold direction. But look at an Yves Tumor video now; they have become a bonafide art rock star, with an on-stage and on-screen confidence paired with a visual sensibility that has become rarer as rock music has become less prominent. And with Heaven to a Tortured Mind, they have crafted one of the most cohesive, unique rock records in years, featuring female vocalists like Kelsey Lu and – believe it or not – Wynter Gordon of ‘Dirty Talk’ fame, who has now rebranded as Diana Gordon and sings on the best track on the album, ‘Kerosene!’.

3. Charli XCX – how i’m feeling now

[Atlantic Records]

What other global pop sensation would dare begin and end an album in the way that Charli Xcx did with pink diamond and visions? This is the kind of boundary-pushing visionary we’re dealing with here, an artist capable of simulatenously running the gamut from underground electronic music to bonafide radio hits in a way last seen with Yeezus-era Kanye. how i’m feeling now is perhaps her greatest achievement yet; made primarily at home during lockdown, the record successfully synthesises album-Charli and mixtape-Charli for a pop record unlike any other. At times she seems almost unbearably happy, finally coming to terms with her enjoyment of that rarest of modern delights: a truly happy and loving relationship. At other times, her insecurities break through as it becomes apparent that she is anxious that all of this is simply too good to be true.

Charli cannot be accused of cynically appropriating nostalgia for UK club music: she began her career performing at illegal warehouse raves as a teenager, and there is no watering down of the club spirit that we’ve grown accustomed to seeing on other crossover records. Charli is legit. In many ways she is the quintessential 2020 popstar, fusing nostalgia for early 2000s electronic music with a hyperreal Gen Z sensibility, imbuing cold, futuristic and harsh electronics with a sentimentality and a humanity that is at times jarring but perfectly in tune with the realities of the modern world. Her music exists in the meeting of the anxieties of the modern digital landscape with the memories of Y2K-era anxieties about the same things. Charli’s futuristic pop is so effective precisely because it’s no longer futuristic: this is the present, this is us; in all of our confusing, on-edge glory.

2. Pa Salieu – Send Them to Coventry

[Atlantic Records]

Straight from the first hook (“You bad? Then rise up your Glock”), you know you’re in for a treat. What subsequently plays out in front of you is 38 minutes of the best hip-hop of the year, the mind-blowingly good newbie Pa Salieu taking you on a journey through an infectious mix of afro-swing, road rap, dancehall and drill that will leave you hungry for more. If a rapper brought out one song as good as the opener ‘Block Boy’ in their entire career they could retire happy; Pa Salieu does it at least 5 times on his debut record. ‘Frontline’ was already a classic by the time the album was released, and the BackRoad Gee-assisted ‘My Family’ is every bit as good. Seriously, I know I’ve said it already, but it’s worth saying again: I cannot get over how many good tracks are on this album. Banger after banger after banger. Before January of this year and the release of ‘Frontline’, Pa Salieu was a practical nobody; now he’s arguably the most hyped rapper this side of the Atlantic. Not a bad for 2020 for someone who got shot in the head just last October. 

1. Actress – Karma & Desire

[Ninja Tune]

Karma & Desire plays out like a 100-minute hypnosis session, building from an entrancing and meditative beginning to a rapturous, hedonistic crescendo. As such, consuming the album from front-to-back is less of a listen and more of an intense, personal experience. This comes down, ultimately, to the sequencing: Actress is a masterful sequencer, and the pacing of the album is near perfect. The trance-like aura of the record is enhanced by his use of pads and drones, white noise, whispering and sultry vocals, and repetitive one- and two-bar loops. For the majority of the album’s length, the music moves along at barely a whisper, meaning that when the beat finally come in about two-thirds of the way through, the come-up is very real indeed. An understated gem of an album that rewards repeated listening, and further proof (if it was needed) of Actress’ singular talent and vision.