Best Of 2021: The Top 25

As wild a ride as 2020 was, at least it had some kind of trajectory. We were learning to live with a pandemic, taking action to put it in the rearview. We were rallying to the cause of dumping Trump. There were fears and challenges aplenty along the way, but also a narrative to which our storytelling genes could give shape. Then came 2021, with so many neck-snapping reversals for every step forward that any shape the story had would resemble that of the path of a worm chewing its way through wood. 

Fortunately, there was no shortage of new music, including dozens of albums that I leaned on like a crutch. I am filled gratitude once again for all the players, writers, singers, producers, labels, and other elements of this delicate ecosystem who were able to keep going. Still, I worry about some who seem to have dropped away, like Novelty Daughter, Natalie Prass, and Jane Church, and hope they are OK. And while I was glad to see some semblance of a return to concerts and touring, I only attended a handful of shows as I am as yet unable to project myself into an indoor space crowded with my fellow music lovers. It was a privilege to see the shows I attended, all of which were outdoors. 

It's hard to say how the lack of the additional dimension a live performance can provide to a piece of music is affecting my devotion to the artists I follow, but I can only work with what I have. I can be certain that my feelings for the 25 albums below - and the many others I will share in genre-specific lists - are as strong as any other year. I hope you find some measure of comfort, joy, inspiration, validation, energy, and all the things you look for in music in these miraculous releases. 

All of the albums below - except one - were written about in previous posts; click through to read my original review. Listen to selections from all of them in this playlist or below to get the flavor of each release as you explore. While my use of Spotify is certainly fraught with concern about how artists are paid, it has also connected me to music I might never have heard, which I have gone on to support in a myriad of ways. I urge you to do the same should you hear something you love. We need all hands on deck to keep the lifeblood of music flowing!

1. Fruit Bats - The Pet Parade

2. Hiss Golden Messenger - Quietly Blowing It Note: M.C. Taylor also gifted us with a most supremely chill holiday album in O Come All Ye Faithful, featuring gorgeous originals like Hung Fire and Grace alongside covers of everything from Joy To The World and Silent Night to Woody Guthrie's Hanukkah Dance and CCR's As Long As I Can See The Light. The deluxe edition came with a separate disc of dubbed out versions, also available here, that are absorbing, immersive, and some of my favorite music ever from Hiss.  

3. Scott Wollschleger & Karl Larson - Dark Days

4. Jane Weaver - Flock

5. Elsa Hewitt - Lupa

6. Eye Knee Records Note: This is not an album but a series of remarkable singles released by Holly Miranda, Amb. Parsley, and Chris Maxwell's new collective label. Ranging from sweetly hilarious to delicate and from devastating to inspiring, they made for an incredible playlist that became a crucial listen for me. I can't suggest more strongly that you get yourself to their Bandcamp site to buy all these songs and make your own playlist!

7. Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever Note: Having signed on for a month of Disney+ to watch Get Back, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to watch Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter To Los Angeles, which featured stunning orchestral versions of every song from Eilish's sophomore album. Played by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the engaged direction of Gustavo Dudamel and with string arrangements by David Campbell, the reworks were exquisitely sensitive to the songs and further convinced me of their elemental strength. I can only hope for an audio-only release of the concert!

8. Raoul Vignal - Years In Marble

9. Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra - Promises

10. Mallu Magalhães - Esperança

11. Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg

12. Spektral Quartet - Anna Thorvaldsdottir: Enigma

13. Domenico Lancellotti - Raio

14. Madlib - Sound Ancestors

15. Summer Like The Season - Hum

16. Wavefield Ensemble - Concrete & Void

17. Faye Webster - I Know I'm Funny HaHa

18. Tyler, The Creator - Call Me If You Get Lost

19. The Muckers - Endeavor

20. Amy Helm - What The Flood Leaves Behind

21. Ben Seretan - Cicada Waves

22. Cassandra Jenkins - An Overview On Phenomenal Nature

23. Arooj Aftab - Vulture Prince

24. Courtney Barnett - Things Take Time, Take Time My heart sank the first time I listened to this, her third album. Where was the low-slung bass of Bones Sloane and the locked-in drumming of Dave Mudie? Where was Dan Lunscombe to provide guitar and keyboard interplay? Why did she choose to work with Stella Mozgawa from the perpetually underwhelming Warpaint? Now, I knew some of those choices were due to the multiple lockdowns in Australia during the pandemic, but still, I was disappointed with what I was hearing. But two songs grabbed me initially and kept me coming back until the whole album just snapped into place. The first of these was Here's The Thing, the most vulnerable song she's ever recorded, filled with romantic yearning - a color that has been mostly absent from her wonderfully clever songwriting. The second was Turning Green, which has some creative drum machine deployment, meditative keyboards, and builds slowly to a terrific guitar solo, abstract and angular yet restrained. The lyrics reveal a sort-of love song ("You've been around the world/Lookin' for the perfect girl/Turns out she was just livin' down the street) that in its series of missed connections seems never far from current events. Take It Day By Day is the perfect prescription for these times, with a chorus that reminds us never to take the survival of others (or ourselves) in isolation for granted: "Tuesday night, I'm checking in/Just to see how you're going/Are you good? Are you eating?/I'll call you back next week." There's more variety here than on her last album and a bravery to the way she's just putting herself out there, with no attempt to conceal her fears or enervation in the face of all that's gone on these last two years. Also, the stripped back intimacy of the production foregrounds some of Barnett's most well-developed melodies and seems to welcome a personal connection to the record, making it feel like a dispatch from a friend. It's Barnett's best album since her debut. As the title instructs, give it the time it deserves and you just might feel the same.

25. UV-TV - Always Something

You may also enjoy:
Best Of 2020: The Top 25
Best Of 2019: The Top 25
Best Of 2018: The Top 25
Best Of 2017: The Top 25
Best Of 2016: The Top 20
Best Of 15: The Top 20
Best Of 14 (Part 1)
Best Of 14 (Part 2)
Best Of 2013
The Best Of 12: Part One
The Best Of 12: Part Two
The Best Of 11
Best Of Ten
A Blog Is Born: Best Of 2009

The Best Of 2021 (So Far)

The year's halfway point is a good opportunity to take stock of the music that has been animating my year, some of which I haven't had a chance to write about yet. As always, what constitutes the "best" is simply what has demanded repeat listening because of the way it connects to my heart, soul, brain, and body, not necessarily due to a higher level of "excellence" than the other music I've written about. Here goes nothin'!

Previously covered albums are linked to their original review. Click play here or on the playlist below to listen while you read.

1. Fruit Bats - The Pet Parade

2. Hiss Golden Messenger - Quietly Blowing It

3. Scott Wollschleger & Karl Larson - Dark Days

4. Elsa Hewitt - Lupa "Rivers and streams feeding my dreams," Hewitt sings in Car In The Sun, a line that captures everything I love about her music. Part of the reality of flowing water is that it's "never the same twice" - but, just as the Thames is always the Thames, Hewitt's music is always an invitation to a universe of wondrously hazy electronic ethereality, familiar from album to album, but never precisely the same. The fact that I'm quoting lyrics when talking about Lupa is one aspect of what makes it a new step for her: eight of the nine tracks have lyrics, when usually the opposite is true. Often any singing she does is wordless, another texture in the layers of gauze she assembles. While she's still swathing her voice in reverb, you can read along with the words either on Bandcamp or within the j-card of the limited-edition cassette. Just as her music maps out a luscious interiority, occasionally defined by beats, her lyrics have the immediacy of conversation and the intimacy of a journal entry, like these opening words from Howl: "What am I up to?/I'm just upstairs, trying to cope with/Heavy wordless love in my chest/How do I continue? How?" In addition to this extra content, the rhythms are often more intricate and defined than they have been, a drift towards the shiny lights of pop music, and one which feels entirely organic. Squirrelex opens with another lyric that feels like a mission statement: "i am warm but not too warm/i am on a journey that i adore/i am like a shaman on mtv/the cameras obstructed by fog." I adore her journey, too, in all its warmth, chill, and fog.

5. Tak Ensemble - Taylor Brook: Star Maker Fragments

6. Jane Weaver - Flock

7. Domenico Lancelotti - Raio

8. Madlib - Sound Ancestors

9. Floating Points, Pharaoh Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra - Promises

10. Sō Percussion and Friends - Julius Eastman: Stay On It

11. Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg

12. Wavefield Ensemble - Concrete & Void

13. Faye Webster - I Know I'm Funny HaHa In my review of her third album, Atlanta Millionaire's Club, I noted that Webster could almost be Natalie Prass's little sister. Now, on her lush fourth album, she inched even closer, recording some of it at Spacebomb Studios and engaging Trey Pollard, their in-house polymath, to conduct some of the arrangements. By leaning further into to her country-soul inclinations she also seems ever closer to her genuine self. One of my favorite songs is Kind Of, which also seems to be a deep cut, at least if Spotify play counts are to be believed. With an organ and pedal steel dueling for the stars and a guiro's ratchet sound driving the rhythm, she ends the song by repeating the chorus, "And I feel kind of tucked away," for over a minute before relinquishing the song to the music. It's as if she casting a spell - and I'm entranced. Kind Of leads into to Cheers, which has a grungy strut yet manages to retain a delirious melancholy, the two songs forming the backbone of her most consistent album yet. And I haven't even mentioned the brilliant Better Distractions, which even managed to attract the attention of Barack Obama, or whoever creates his playlists, when it was released as a single in 2020. I do admit that my devotion to this album is not hurt at all by the fact that Prass hasn't released anything in three years. It's not that one replaces the other - and I hope Prass is OK - but they hit similar sweet spots. And it's one of my sweet spots that needs attention!

14. Mallu Magalhães - Esperança If you want to know what a smile sounds like, listen to Magalhães sing "Chin-chin-chin chin-chin chin-chin-chin" on the chorus of Barcelona from her fifth album. You will soon be smiling yourself, whatever mood you were in when you started listening. As she revealed on Facebook, the album was completed over a year ago, but she just could not see launching it in the midst of the world's troubles. That's a debatable point, but the good news is that we now have this lighter than air confection to propel us through whatever comes next. Recorded in Portugal and co-produced by her fellow Brazilian Mario Caldato, Jr., Esperança finds Magalhães perfecting her sublime blend of bossa nova, fifties-inflected pop, soul, funk, jazz, and folk. Look no further for a direct injection of pure pleasure.

15. Christopher Cerrone - The Arching Path

16. Raoul Vignal - Years In Marble As on his exquisite second album, 2018's Oak Leaf, Vignal's latest finds him generating rainswept bliss with his fingerpicked guitar, hushed voice, and the sensitive drums and percussion of Lucien Chatin. However, Vignal, who also plays bass, synth, sax and bamboo flute on the album, is also coming out of the shadows a bit, with more uptempo songs and an increased dynamism to his sound. To Bid The Dog Goodbye, for example, has flourishes (electric guitar! bongos!) and stopped-tempo moves that evince a subtle drama. But the core of it all is that guitar, which he plays with the off-hand perfection of a Michael Chapman or Nick Drake. After honing his craft for the last three years, Vignal should be top of mind for anyone seeking the finest in contemporary singers, songwriters, and guitarists.

17. Anika Pyle - Wild River

18. Tyler, The Creator - Call Me If You Get Lost With 2019's Igor, Tyler arrived at a new pinnacle of creativity and emotional connection, a trajectory he continues with this kaleidoscopic album. His ability to bare his soul while sailing over a multitude of genres, from synth-pop to RnB to lovers rock, with a casual virtuosity is truly remarkable. Similar to Frank Ocean, who makes an uncredited appearance here, Tyler is trying to reconcile where he is now - and who he is now - with where he came from. But he avoids solipsism by letting in the outside world through well-deployed guest spots, which do nothing to reduce the individuality of his achievement. One key feature is a voice memo from his mother describing her devotion in no uncertain terms: "I'd stand in front of a bullet, on God, over this one." Her concern somehow becomes ours and strengthens the bond between listener and artist. The centerpiece of the album is the nearly 10-minute Sweet/I Thought You Wanted To Dance, in which he transforms two well-traveled songs (this one and this one) into a two-part suite of love and loss that dazzles in all directions. As a producer, Tyler is like a painter who chooses just the right color from a polychrome palette. In addition to the transformed samples, he adds RnB singers Brent Faiyaz and Fana Hues as the perfect surrogate and foil, respectively, to illustrate the story. Tyler's ambition is as massive as his talent and, at this point, it's hard to imagine the former outstripping the latter. After Madlib, this is the hip hop album of the year - and number three is not even close!

19. Ben Seretan - Cicada Waves

20. Patricia Brennan - Maquishti

21. Amy Helm - What The Flood Leaves Behind

22. Adam Morford & Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti - Yesterday Is Two Days Ago

23. Cassandra Jenkins - An Overview On Phenomenal Nature

24. Mndsgn - Rare Pleasure Sometimes an artist has to go backwards to move forward. Or something like that. Whatever the lesson, this third album from the composer, singer, and producer Ringgo Ancheta delivers on all the promise in his first, 2014's Yawn Zen in ways I couldn't even imagine, especially after Body Wash, the disappointing follow up from 2016. Richly immersive from the opening seconds, Mndsgn constructs something like the Muzak from a divine elevator, jazzy, woozy, and soulful sounds that seem to beg you to find a hammock immediately and just sway along. While wonderful, Yawn Zen, was just the bare bones of his heavenly vision. Inviting brilliant collaborators like arranger Miguel Atwood-Ferguson to help realize those ideas is just one reason Rare Pleasure succeeds on all levels - and lives up to its title perfectly.

25. Arooj Aftab - Vulture Prince

Keep up with all my listening across all genres in these playlists: 
Of Note In 2021
Of Note In 2021 (Classical)
Of Note In 2021 (Electronic)
Of Note In 2021 (Hip Hop, R&B & Reggae)
Of Note In 2021 (Jazz, Latin & Global)
Of Note In 2021 (Rock, Folk, Etc.)
Of Note In 2021 (Out Of The Past)

You may also enjoy:
Best Of 2020 (So Far)
Best Of 2019 (So Far)
The Best Of 2018 (So Far)
Best Of 2017 (So Far)

AnEarful acknowledges that this work is created on the traditional territory of the Munsee Lenape and Wappinger peoples.

Record Roundup: Americana The Beautiful

For the last four or five years, there's been an increasingly bitter battle over what it means to be an American. There are some of those among us who might even have found themselves questioning the whole enterprise, i.e. how good could this place be if it produced those people with those ideas? But most days, the good outweighs the bad, even if the latter can get an unholy grip on the reins for a moment. Turning towards albums like those reviewed below can be a part of both appreciating the good and gathering strength to resist the bad. We must be doing something right if music like this still grows here, alongside those amber waves of grain. Reap the harvest.

Hiss Golden Messenger - Quietly Blowing It The critic's job can be tough when an artist nails it in their own words, as HGM's M.C. Taylor does in his essay, Mourning In America, when he says, "I'm not sure what the difference is between celebrating and mourning. I feel like I was doing both at the same time." There in a nutshell is the array of moods, from joy and sorrow to hope and regret, found here, masterfully distilled and blended into a complex whole, like one of those whiskies made from 12 different barrels of varying ages. In that same essay, Taylor also talks about the difficult journey to Quietly Blowing It, which began in late 2019 when, blown out on the trail and unsure of his purpose, he cancelled his first Australian tour - he hated disappointing people but  says "it felt like the best $10,000 I'd ever spent" - and came home to his family. 

From the outside perspective, part of the conundrum Taylor was confronting is what might be termed the corrosive effect of success, which can burn off rough edges, dispel mystery, and tie up loose ends in the misguided quest for more of the same. When his last album, the beautiful Terms Of Surrender, earned his first Grammy nomination (for best Americana album), perhaps it also allowed some of those voices, both external and internal, to intrude enough for him to doubt his process. But the best defense against that lay in his own remarkable discography, now ten albums strong and stretching back to 2008. That Grammy nom - and the increasing attention that led to it - was arrived at without compromise, in his continual pursuit of realizing songs that combined the personal and the universal while paying homage to his musical forebears and honing his own distinct sound.

Beginning with three hymn-like chords on a keyboard (likely played by Devonne Harris, of Richmond, VA stalwarts Butcher Brown), Way Back In The Way Back welcomes you to the album like an old friend, with chiming guitar joining in and soon that Matt McCaughan backbeat I've rhapsodized about before (or it could be Brevan Hampden, who's just as good). As the song wends its way with a weary strength through lyrics that hint at the exhaustion Taylor described, a pair of saxophones join in, played by Stuart Bogie and Matt Douglas, lending muscle and building a foundation for a guitar solo both stylish and raw (sounds like Josh Kaufman, but the great Buddy Miller is also in the credits), and the sense of a man who knows exactly how to express himself is undeniable before the song is even over. But if he doesn't put the couplet, "Up with the mountains/Down with the system," on a t-shirt I will feel free to question his merch strategy!

Now, last time around, some sought to make hay out of the fact that Scott Hirsch, who had been on many prior albums, was not present. He's back this time, lending his lap-steel and synth expertise, yet Phil and Brad Cook, who were on several albums as well as being in the touring band from time to time, are absent this time. While Brad's sensitive bass playing and Phil's over-driven guitar and harmonica solos and dominating abilities on the organ are always highlights onstage and on album, HGM has always been Taylor's vision and I have seen nothing to indicate that anything interpersonal is involved. Scheduling is a more likely culprit, as both Cooks are busy in many kitchens, including their own. Hell, if Phil makes an album as good as Southland Mission again, I'll be actually happy he wasn't on this one. And never forget that Alex Bingham, who plays bass here, created what Aquarium Drunkard called the "song of the year" in 2019. This is all just to say: Whether you're a longtime Hiss fan or newer to the band and listened before you read the credits, you knew you were in good hands just by the sound of the thing.

The Great Mystifier is a nifty country-tinged mover, with twin-lead guitars tipping their hat to Duane and Dicky, while Mighty Dollar is molasses-slow, with a funky groove for Taylor to preach his anti-prosperity-gospel gospel: "It never fixed a broken heart/It never made a dumb man smarter." Give the man a mega-church for the truly righteous. The song kind of grinds to a halt, leaving a space for the achingly gorgeous title track, limned with Hirsch's lap-steel, to make its mournful way. "The shape of things/Don’t look so good/On the TV there’s a riot goin’ on," Taylor sings, recognizing our recent history while giving tribute to Sly Stone who caught 1970 with as much acuity on that classic album. Curtis Mayfield also gets called into the room on Hardlytown, with its rousing "People get ready" in the pre-chorus. If It Comes In The Morning, a co-write with Anaïs Mitchell, also has a gospel flavor, providing a needed uplift continued by the solid-rock folk of Glory Strums (Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner). Thus bolstered, Taylor feels free to sink into the near despair of Painting Houses, co-written with Gregory Alan Isakov and one of the saddest songs he's recorded. 

Angels In The Headlights, a glorious slice of spaced-out cowboy music that seems barely tethered to earth, fluttering heavenward on Hirsch's steel wings, may be the shortest at just under two minutes, but if Taylor ever plays it live, I hope it goes on for 20. Sanctuary, which ends the album, could almost serve as a mission statement for the whole HGM project, with its perfect opening and closing lyrics: "Feeling bad/Feeling blue/Can’t get out of my own mind/But I know how to sing about it." It already feels like a standard, too, partly because it was released a while ago, but mostly due to Taylor's emotionally engaged craftsmanship, both with his pen and in the studio. The same could be said of Quietly Blowing It as a whole, which Taylor produced solo, arriving at one of the deepest expressions of his art yet released. Careful, dude - keep this up and you just might blow it for real by getting even more successful.

P.S. HGM is one of THE great live acts - if you want a reminder of all we've been missing since March 2020, check the dates to see if they're coming to a venue near you.

Jeffrey Silverstein - Torii Gates As he did on last year's wondrous You Become The Mountain, Silverstein is mapping out a very distinctive territory where tributaries of the New Age river flow into a gentle stream of sun struck Americana. A key element is Barry Walker Jr.'s pedal steel, which seems to take as much from Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois's Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks as it does from Nashville. Spare bass from Alex Chapman and Silverstein's guitar and vocals complete the picture, along with an occasional drum machine. Songs seem to emerge out of the atmosphere on repeated listens, and one they do, the mood and the melodies will be tough to shake off. No matter, you can just play it again...and again...

Corntuth - The Desert Is Paper Thin On his debut album, Music To Work To, this Brooklyn-based artist applied a canny songwriting sense to the tools of ambient music for a winning combination that was as good to work to as it was to just listen. Here, he takes us on an imagined journey through the American southwest, adding the organic tones of his own acoustic guitar - often miked extremely closely - and the pedal steel of Pete Finney, who's worked with Mike Nesmith, Beck, and everyone in between, to the electronic textures. The sound is sublime, with the looped nature of the songs making for a hypnotic experience. Between Silverstein and Corntuth, Hiss Golden Messenger has some good company in the spaced-out cowboy music genre - book a flight. The album releases on July 16th but you can pre-save the first single now to hear it on July 2nd - and keep an eye on Corntuth's site, Bandcamp, and Flow State for more information to come.

Amy Helm - What The Flood Leaves Behind The story we tell ourselves and others about why a record works or doesn't work is just that - a story. But the working or not working is a real thing that can't be explained away. So, I could tell a story about Helm's first two albums seeming to come from an obligation to her heritage as the daughter of the legendary Levon Helm, or maybe diluted by producers or music biz affiliations. But who knows? All I can say is that, while the second album, This Too Shall Light, was getting closer, I was not compelled to keep listening. That all changes here, with these ten new songs quenching a thirst I didn't know I had, and it's a drink of which I have yet to tire. I can tell myself story about that, too, about her prodigal return to Levon's studio, home of his rambles and where she may have first raised her voice in public. Or I could talk about Josh Kaufman, who produced and played a half dozen instruments beyond his usual brilliant guitars, and who seems to be able to create a place of comfort for artists, where they can produce their best work. 

And if you're a Hiss Golden Messenger fan looking for Phil Cook, he's here, too, along with expert rhythm section Michael Libramento (bass) and Tony Mason (drums). They're intrinsic to the success of the album, along with Daniel Littleton's electric guitar and the superb horn section of Stuart Bogie (sax) and Jordan McLean (trumpet), who even give some Garth Hudson wooziness to Renegade Heart, the final track. Helm has also come into her own as a songwriter, writing or co-writing seven of the songs here, showing an ease with her history (from Cotton And The Cane, co-written with Mary Gauthier: "My father was a sharecropper’s son/Handed hope and hymns to ease the pain" and "Heroin, I’m locked out again/On the side of the road") and a fine use of imagery (from Coming Home: "Found a picture of her/I framed it in gold now it burns up the room"), making songs that feel simultaneously new yet familiar, personal and universal.

Maybe she learned some of those lessons from M.C. Taylor, whose sterling song, Verse 23, opens the album, applying a Dylanesque resonance and concision to lines like "Some got caught in the wanting/And some lost the feel/Some got lost in their own eyes/And went crazy on the hill." But the true glory of the album is Helm's voice, rich and earthy now, reminiscent of Frazey Ford, and less concerned with conveying words as with carrying emotional weight. Whether on gentle songs like that opening track or the gutsy funk of Breathing, everything she does feels completely natural and from the heart. So take all the stories you've heard or told yourself about Amy Helm and close the book. This is a new volume and one I suspect we will be reading for a long time. It should be great to hear live, too.

You may also enjoy:
Record Roundup: American Harvest
Cornucopia Of Folk And Americana
Autumn Albums, Part 1
Autumn Albums, Part 2
Hiss Golden Messenger Holds Back The Flood
New Americana, Part 1: Phil Cook
New Americana, Part 2: Hamilton Leithauser & Paul Maroon

Best Of 2020: Rock, Folk, Etc.

Like I've probably said too many times before, I was born in 1964 so this realm is in my epigenetic makeup. More than 60 percent of my Top 25 was from these genres, but that was only scratching the surface of what excited me. Previously covered albums are at the top and then there are a couple dozen more must-hear albums. Don't take the sub-genres too seriously, just a noble attempt to group like with like. Press play on this playlist or below to listen while you read.

Of Note In 2020: Rock, Folk, Etc.
Nadia Reid - Out Of My Province
Ocean Music x Jerome Ellis - Morsels - Note: Get the cassette; only 18 remaining!
Squirrel Flower - I Was Born Swimming
Dana Gavanski - Yesterday Is Gone
Ultraista - Sister
Wire - Mind Hive - Note: See also the equally excellent 10:20.
Porridge Radio - Every Bad
Dogleg - Melee
The Strokes - The New Abnormal
Lucinda Williams - Good Souls, Better Angels

Best Of 2020 (So Far)
Them Airs - Union Suit XL - Note: See also Doped Runner Verse, which shoots off in some interesting new directions for this combo.

Record Roundup: Songs And Singers
Caitlin Pasko - Greenhouse
The Dead Tongues - Transmigration Blues
Alex Rainer - Time Changes 
Emma Swift - Blonde On The Tracks
Billie Eilish - Live At Third Man Records

Record Roundup: In Their Prime
Michael Zapruder - Latecomers

Record Roundup: Catching Up (Sort Of)
S.G. Goodman - Old Time Feeling
Jeffrey Silverstein - You Become The Mountain
Melody Fields - Broken Horse
Boogarins - Levitation Sessions and Manchaca Vol. 1

Live And Direct
No surprise: the shutdown of concerts has led to a slate of live albums, many catalyzed by Bandcamp Fridays to devote proceeds to one important cause or another - or just to support artists who depend on the road for their livelihood. Here are a few of my favorites.

Father John Misty - Off-Key In Hamburg Recorded in 2019 with an eight-piece band and the 14-piece Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt:, this 20-song career overview finds the good Father in spectacular form. Your $10 will go to the the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund - and give you hours of pleasure.

Scott Hirsch - Hirsch and the Minglers Live at The Colony, Tulsa. March 17, 2018 Supposedly recorded on an old Teac by "Wizard," this mesmeric live set is best experienced on the home-dubbed cassette, which adds an extra layer of murk. The digital version is pay-what-you-will with 100% of the proceeds split between the Black Wall St. Times and the Oklahoma ACLU. Your generosity will be rewarded!

Stargazer Lilies - Live At Sherman Theater I've been listening to these volume-driven varlets for several years and this virtual performance recorded in November 2020 shows them now ready for the big stage at your local festival. Nine bucks gets you the album and a private link to view the concert video - put it up on the flatscreen.

Scott & Charlene's Wedding - Live At The Tote This collection, caught on a steamy January night in Melbourne finds Craig Dermody's shambolic band putting 10 years of work to rest in storming fashion. Every home should have at least one SACW album - why not make it this one?

Arctic Monkeys - Live At The Royal Albert Hall Recorded in 2018 just after the release of Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, this set finds the band handling the atmospheric demands of the new material like the pros they are, while still sounding hungry on the early material. All proceeds go to War Child UK and that clear vinyl package sure looks sweet.

Frankie & The Witch Fingers - Levitation Sessions While I'm still stung by the fact I haven't seen these psych-infused heavy groovers on stage, this lessens that a bit - while providing a fine introduction to their sound.

Hamilton Leithauser - Live! At The Café Carlyle I always wanted to get to one of these shows, but the ticket price and minimum kept me away. Now I have this perfect keepsake of the loose vibe Leithauser encourages at these shows, recorded in January 2020. The cover of Randy Newman's Miami that opens the album is a perfect introduction to what is to come. The band is killer, too, with Morgan Henderson and Skyler Skjelset from Fleet Foxes on hand, along with Walter Martin, Jr. from The Walkmen. With Stuart Bogie (Antibalas) on horns and Nicole Atkins on backing vocals, the riches are almost embarrassing, but someone of Leithauser's titanic talents deserve no less.

Hiss Golden Messenger - Forward, Children and School Daze The staggering density of M.C. Taylor's songwriting catalog is well-represented by these TWO live albums, both fundraisers for Durham Public Schools students, which repeat no songs. The first is from one night at the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, NC, and gives a good idea of the dynamics of a typical Hiss concert (I've been to a few!), while the second cherry-picks from several shows. Taken together, you get two-and-a-half hours of one of the best live performers of our time, right in your living room, and the privilege of lending a hand to public schools.

Phil Cook - Eau Claire, WI - 8​/​13​/​2016 @ Eaux Claires Festival Out of the seven(!) shows Cook has made available on his Bandcamp, I grabbed this one due to my romantic need to experience the Eaux Claires Festival any way I can. It's a great show, too, with the Guitarheels, including Ryan Gustafson of the Dead Tongues, in full flight. Pick any show at random and your $5 will guarantee a good time that's equal parts heartwarming and joyful.

Folk-And/Or-Americana-Infused

Loma - Don't Shy Away Two years ago, I wasn't sure if we would hear more from this group of Emily Cross, Dan Duszynski, and Jonathan Meiburg (of Shearwater) after their debut, which I called a "compelling blend of haunting folk and immersive sonics." It seemed they were unsure as well, but interest from Brian Eno and their own motivations impelled them onward to this gorgeous collection. The folk influence is still there, but there's also hypnotic electronic gleam, even a bit of Giorgio Moroder, on this one, including Eno's work mixing the last track, Homing. With Cross's serene vocals lending consistency to the variety of sounds and structures, Loma sound ever more like a real band. Now, let's see how they do with that "difficult third album."

Tomberlin - Projections Following up the gauzy folk of 2018's At Weddings, Tomberlin displays a wispy strength on this 5-song EP of carefully augmented future sing-alongs.

Jeff Tweedy - Love Is The King Well, he told us he was low-key, so this downbeat collection contains few surprises - but still gives a good helping of what makes him one of our key songwriters. 

This Is The Kit - Off Off On Kate Stables shows the magic of Moonshine Freeze was no accident. Inventive horn arrangements spice up mesmerizing song-craft infused with the melodies of British isles ancients. Accept no substitutes - and when she says “Keep going,” you will believe her.

Lera Lynn - On My Own That title is no joke - Lynn wrote, sang, played, and produced every note. But when you fall for her rich voice and pop-rock-folk smarts, how it got made will be the last thing on your mind.

John Calvin Abney - Familiar Ground Inserting himself ever-more firmly into the clearing created by Wilco, Elliott Smith, Gene Clark, etc., Abney has given us an exceptionally well-crafted set, with many songs speaking directly to our present moment.

Chris Maxwell - New Store No. 2 There are few writers in any medium who combine cleverness and wisdom so seamlessly. Featuring the best production of his career, touching on British psych and Laurel Canyon slickness, this is a new landmark for Maxwell.

Charlie Kaplan - Sunday Although I often argue with what Kaplan deems important in his newsletter, he gets all the influences right here - from Lou Reed and Leonard Cohen to the Stones - with the added thrill of hearing someone discover their own voice.

Indie Pop

Eric Slick - Wiseacre The title implies a lack of seriousness, but Slick knows what he's doing - and he keeps the pop-soul party from Natalie Prass's last album going quite nicely. He even has her in for a duet on one track. Sweet.

Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher It took a few listens to connect the catharsis of the last track, I Know The End, to what had come before, but finally a complete album emerged, and one making a considerable leap from her first. Led by her deceptively airy voice, Bridgers crafts songs that overlay universal themes on personal experiences with wit and skill. 

Art-Rock

Bartees Strange - Live Forever While I don't share his reverence for The National, if that was part of his path to this dazzling debut, so be it. There's more variety (and passion) here than some display in a whole career.

Matt Berninger - Serpentine Prison Despite my anti-Nationalist comment above, perhaps it's just the Dessners that leave me cold. In either case, working with the legendary Booker T. Jones has brought out a new side to Berninger, with well-shaped melodies and an all-too relatable emotional landscape of sorrow and regret. The production finds a perfect balance between Booker T.'s classicism and Berninger's avant-indie leanings. 

Historian - Distractions and Barriers In the 60's it wasn't uncommon to release two or more albums in a year, so why not Chris Karman in 2020? Take your pick from the dark propulsion of Distractions to the washy sketches of Barriers.

Eclectica 

Carabobina - Carabobina This collabo between Boogarins bassist Raphael Vaz Costa and Sao Paulo-based engineer Alejandra Luciani delivers on the promise of "Brazilian noise pop" with serene confidence.

Cornershop - England Is A Garden Easily their best since that stunning third album, with all the bittersweet fun that implies. They have now been born for the eighth time. Or the second - you know what I mean!

Bananagun - The True Story Of Bananagun These Aussie pranksters outdo nearly everyone on this list for sheer quotient of FUN. Leader  Nick van Bakel must have a hell of a record collection.

Fleur - Fleur I may have misspoke - Fleur's updated Ye-Ye, expertly backed by Les Robots, may have Bananagun beat at the "fun" game. What the heck, get'em both!

Kol Marshall - Elemental Truths To A Funky Beat Producer/engineer/multi-instrumentalist Marshall concocts head-nodding grooves with touches of funk and reggae - and a much-needed dose of Walter Becker's attitude. 

Aksak Maboul - Figures 30 years later, Marc Hollander brings back these art-punk legends, joined by dulcet-toned Veronique Vincent, and for 13 tracks the results are astonishing. The next nine songs however...skip'em.

Rock ON

Andy Bell - The View From Halfway Down The first track satisfies my Ride needs more than their reunion albums, but going solo has also given Bell the freedom to explore and he lands on distant shores, finding treasure on each one.

Adeline Hotel - Solid Love The most focused collection of Dan Knishkowy's introspective indie yet, sensitively and warmly accompanied by Whatever's Clever founder Ben Seretan, et al. 

Post-Punk 4 Life

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Sideways To New Italy Two albums in and RBCF have found more passion and personality, lending their two-guitar jangle new urgency and interest, with soaring melodies and biting solos. I'm glad they stuck with it - and that I kept listening.

Fontaines D.C. - A Hero's Death Album two finds these Irish purveyors of rote retro punk embracing the beauty and darkness of post-punk to much more convincing - and even thrilling - effect.

Self Defense Family - 2020 Singles Upstate NY post-punkers get back on their singles grind and release an album's worth of great songs. Listen to my playlist, then get to Bandcamp to buy your favorites.

There's more to be found from 2020 in my archive playlist and you can keep up with 2021 here.

You may also enjoy:
Best Of 2019: Rock, Folk, Etc. 
Best Of 2018: Rock, Folk, Etc. 
Best Of 2017: Rock, Folk, Etc.
Best Of 2016: Rock, Folk, Etc.

AnEarful's First Decade: 100 Best Albums Of The 2010's

Editor's Note: Before getting to my original intro, which I wrote back in early January, I have a couple of thoughts. I’ve been listening to this playlist of 99 (should be 100 - more on that later) albums for a while now and it’s been a wonderful reminder of what a rich decade just passed, even if it almost seems like a mirage at this point. In fact, I considered abandoning the whole project as the world moved to living one day at a time in the midst of a deadly pandemic. But then I realized that the current state of things only made it more necessary to take a trip into the recent past and remind ourselves of who we are as humans when we are at our absolute best. Read on and revel in it all!

One of the hazards of my vocation is that I’m often so consumed by keeping up with current releases that months, if not years, might go by without listening to a favorite album from, say, 2013. That means that listening to the 100 albums described below has been like a college reunion where everyone you see is your best friend. That alone has made this process more than worthwhile. I’ve also tried to make it bearable by approaching it with a lightness of being, recognizing that I will be kicking myself in six months about a record I’d forgotten to highlight and knowing that anything I write here in no way invalidates the hundreds of records I covered in the past decade that are not included. Even that EP by that band that later broke up was part of what made my decade so musically extraordinary.

Since deciding to keep the list to 100 led to many painful choices, I decided to put it in a strictly alphabetical order, which has the added benefit of keeping the eclectic nature of my listening front and center - that’s how I shelve my LP’s and CD’s, after all. I also kept it to one album per artist to include more variety, using my brief comments to acknowledge those with multiple classics. 

Even though I’m not setting a strict order and selecting one album as the “Best Of The Decade,”  I have enjoyed the consensus I’ve seen building around albums like David Bowie’s Blackstar, Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly, Frank Ocean’s Blond, Solange’s A Seat At The Table, and Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. These are all records that, with uncanny acuity, combine passion, innovation, and a pop sensibility that makes them as impossible to ignore as clickbait even as they teach us new things. 

Yet in my world, Holly Miranda, Richard Aufrichtig, Chris Trapani, Novelty Daughter, and others with a smaller global footprint are just as important as the world-beating artists listed above. Everyone below is on the same level here, and I hope you will give each an open-minded listen to see if you agree. 

Note: My mixtape sensibility rebels slightly at opening the playlist with a 48-minute orchestral track, but Become Ocean is a work of rare grandeur. I will forgive you if you skip ahead to more bite-sized samples, but I hope you won’t. I also hope you will dig into the full albums of anyone who catches your ear. 

John Luther Adams - Become Ocean (2014)  This staggering work makes a mockery of the word “immersive” - it would be more apt to say that it just exists, as implacable and impressive as the ocean itself. The Seattle Symphony's performance is beyond perfect. Be sure to give Become Desert (2019) and the chamber pieces, like The Wind In High Places (2015), a listen as well. 

The Amazing - Picture You (2015)  Psych-rock is rarely this sublime and, as proved by their other albums, this exercise in veiled power was harder to pull off than it sounds. 

Arctic Monkeys - Tranquility Base Hotel And Casino (2018) Alex Turner’s songwriting, always this band’s super-power, was acutely attuned to a variety of muses on the three excellent albums (also including Suck It And See (2011) and AM (2013)) they made during the decade. This one also created a new sonic universe for these indie-rock stalwarts, lending it an extra glow.

Nicole Atkins - Slow Phaser (2014)  Hooks? You want hooks? Atkins lavishly doles out about three per song, stringing them along melodies Bowie would want for his own. Catchy, smart, and fun. 

Richard Aufrichtig - Troubadour No. 1 The #1 album of 2019. When I suggested this transcendent collection of chamber-folk-art-dance-rock (I call it "heart music") for an issue of Off Your Radar, one of my colleagues wrote, “This is the album I needed to hear right now.” That goes for you, too. Fan Fiction For Planet Earth (2019) is more rocked up and also a must to hear. Aufrichtig is one of my favorite discoveries (and people) of the century so follow him here to make sure you don't miss a thing!

BADBADNOTGOOD & Ghostface Killah - Sour Soul (2013) Wu-Tang has had their ups and downs lately, but Killah had a darn good decade, and this collab with the Toronto jazz-funk band was especially dazzling. 

Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit And Think And Sometimes I Just Sit (2015)  I still remember where I was when I first heard Avant Gardener and this album lived up to its promise - and then some. Also don't miss The Double EP: A Sea Of Split Peas (2014) and Tell Me How You Really Feel (2018).

Baroness - Yellow and Gold (2012) While the band was reshaped by a devastating bus accident, there’s no need for any special pleading on behalf of the lethal swing of this album. Seeing them back on stage also warmed the heart amidst the shredding. 

Beck - Morning Phase (2014) Of the three albums Beck put out since 2010, this is the only one that’s end-to-end great. Ironically, he’s been chasing the pop chimera ever since he earned the AOTY Grammy for this lush and timeless exercise in folk rock. 

Bon Iver - 22, A Million (2016) Some were turned off by Justin Vernon’s avant-pop maximalism on Bon Iver, Bon Iver (2011) the follow-up to For Emma, but it set off a ripple effect that defined the era in both rock and hip hop. 22, A Million managed to go further out sonically while being as nakedly emotional as that classic debut. An unexpected consequence of Vernon's success is that one of the most talented studio rats now does most of his best work on stage. That's not to dismiss i,i (2019), which was shot through with great beauty and invention. Of the multitude of side projects from Vernon, only Repave by Volcano Choir (2013) hit the heights of his best work.

Boogarins - Manual (2015)  These Brazilian psych-rockers haven’t put a foot wrong since that time they almost blew out the plate-glass at Other Music in their first NYC concert. Start here or with any of the other records they’ve put out, including La Vem a Morte (2017), Sombrou Duvida (2019), and a glorious live album, Desvio Onirico (2017). 

David Bowie - Blackstar  (2016) Bowie’s return to active duty was one of the great stories (and museum shows) of the decade, made even more astonishing by the two superb albums he released, The Next Day (2013) and especially this last opus, making his death’s sting that much sharper. Can it really be that we lost Bowie, Lou Reed, Leonard Cohen, Scott Walker, and Prodigy all in the span of just a few years?? Who's left to explicate our darkest nights of the soul? And don't say "Nick Cave" - I'm immune.

Breton - Other People’s Problems (2012) The first time I heard a song by this art rock collective it nailed me to my chair and I had to listen three or four times. Then I needed more, an itch scratched by this debut album and the great second album, War Room Stories (2014). Discover them now if they were off your radar and follow the thread with Miro Shot, the current project of singer/songwriter/producer Roman Rappak. 

Car Seat Headrest - Teens Of Denial (2016) After maybe a dozen hit or miss self-released albums, Will Toledo’s songwriting came into focus while finally getting the production worthy of his vision. Also a Top 10 live band!

Zosha di Castri - Tachitipo (2019)  Nothing musical is alien to this marvelous composer of intricate chamber and vocal works. No surprise that some of the best ensembles extant (Talea, ICE, etc.) played on this debut portrait album.

Chance The Rapper - Acid Rap (2013) Just when it seemed that we were paying for Kanye's revolution by having to endure Drake, Chancelor Bennett came along with his tough but sweet and utterly human jams. Follow-up Coloring Book (2016) was also awesome but 2019's The Big Day was a sanctimonious slog. He's still young, though, so I wouldn't count him out.

Anthony Cheung - Dystemporal (2016) Cheung's compositional rigor is only matched by his melodic invention. One of our most exciting composers and the performances from Talea Ensemble and Ensemble Intercontemporain are precise and fully engaged. Cycles And Arrows (2018) is also essential.

Jace Clayton - The Julius Eastman Memory Depot (2013) Clayton put his own stamp firmly on these slippery piano works even as he became one of the standard bearers for the resurgence of interest in Eastman. Also known as DJ/Rupture, Clayton also gifted the decade with a wonderful book, Uproot: Travels in 21st-Century Music & Digital Culture.

The Clientele - Music For The Age Of Miracles (2017) Just when it seemed as if this most indie of indie bands would be lost to the prior decade, during which they released five albums, they put out this astonishing album, as rich a vehicle for Alasdair MacLean's vision of 60's-inflected psych-pop as could be imagined. If this really is it for them, I can survive on my memories of seeing them in concert - twice.

Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker (2016) Between Bowie, Cohen, and Walker, it was a decade ripe with pitch-black poetry. This was the best of the four collections of new songs that began with Old Ideas in 2012 and ended with the posthumous Thanks For The Dance (2019), but they all have much to offer, as do the live albums, especially Can't Forget: A Souvenir of the Grand Tour (2015).

Hollie Cook - Twice (2014) I could have easily picked the other two albums Cook released during the decade - the self-titled debut (2011) or Vessel Of Love (2018) - as they are all divine (if increasingly sophisticated) updates on lover's rock. Sheer heaven!

Phil Cook - Southland Mission (2015) Cook, one of the great utility men of Americana (keys, guitar, harmonica, vocals) didn't just step out of the shadows on this album so much as EXPLODE. Seeing it happen on stage was pure joy.

The Darcys - Aja (2012) While their other releases, especially Warring (2013) and Hymn For A Missing Girl (2014), were also excellent, this intense full-album cover of the Steely Dan classic was my introduction to this Canadian band. While they've now devolved into also-rans of poptimism, I'll always have this album and memories of seeing them burn it down at the Mercury Lounge.

Domenico - Cine Privê (2012) Brazilian genius Domenico Lancellotti also gifted us The Good Is A Big God in 2018, with both albums providing forms of escape through smart, inventive songs that took in the whole of his country's musical history.

Drinker - Fragments (2019) Rising from the ashes of Isadora, a beloved New York band, Aaron Mendelsohn joined forces with Ariel Loh and started delivering sublime electro-pop, with this album fully meeting the promise of debut single Which Way Is South? The new decade is theirs to rule.

Du Yun - Dinosaur Scar (2018) This protean performer and composer is almost too good for a Pulitzer Prize. Based on this blazingly brilliant collection as well as recent concerts at the MATA Festival, Miller Theatre, and Carnegie Hall, I predict that award will be forgotten in the light of the astounding achievements yet to come.

Bob Dylan - Tempest (2012) No one could have guessed that, after visiting us with this bloody and brilliant album of all new material, our greatest songwriter would spend the next few years exploring the great American songbook. There were bright spots there, too, though they were often overshadowed by the near constant flow of earth-shattering releases in the Bootleg Series, with my favorite being Trouble No More – The Bootleg Series Vol. 13 / 1979-1981 (2017). But it was Tempest that towered over the decade, predicting the "American carnage" yet to come.

Billie Eilish - When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go (2019) This one snuck up on me after originally avoiding the hype. Along with her brother, Finneas, Eilish came up with a set of songs showing remarkable emotional range and sonic invention. With her sold-out arena tour cancelled for the immediate future, maybe we'll get her sophomore effort sooner rather than later, which could be one silver lining to the pandemic!

Brian Eno (with Jon Hopkins and Leo Abrahams) - Small Craft On A Milk Sea (2010) Eno kicked off the 2010's at full strength, with a collection of short, varied pieces that could have easily fit in his series of Music For Films. For more purely ambient expressions, catch up with these beauties: Lux (2012), Reflection (2017), and Music For Installations (2018).

Epic 45 - Weathering (2011) Back then, I called this an "achingly gorgeous ambient-folk song cycle" - and so it remains.

Father John Misty - Fear Fun (2012) I was already on a Fleet Foxes-driven binge into the austere folk of J. Tillman when Sub Pop slid into my iTunes with the first video from this album. I was immediately sold and pre-ordered it - and every subsequent release, with I Love You, Honeybear (2015) and Pure Comedy (2017) completing a trilogy that bestrode the decade. If God's Favorite Customer (2018) was a bit of a letdown, you can't say he didn't earn it. His live act has always been fantastic, too - get a taste on Off-Key In Hamburg (2020), released to support the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund.

Field Music - (Measure) (2010) More recent albums, while good, have failed to match the impact of this double album, which put all the strengths hinted at on earlier records like Tones Of Town (2007) on full display - and then some. So maybe more of a culmination than a new beginning, but still untouchably great.

Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues (2011) Even though Robin Pecknold's personal journey meant only two albums during the decade, it's impossible to imagine the era without them. And Crack-Up (2017) was more than worth the wait.

Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Zam (2019) Punked-up prog or progged-out punk - call it what you want but it ROCKS with a lethal combo of precision and insanity.

Freddie Gibbs and Madlib - Bandana (2019) When this dream duo debuted in 2014 with Piñata, I called out Gibbs for letting Madlib carry the day. What a difference five years makes - on Bandana the two operate as equals and the results were the best hip hop of 2019.

The GOASTT - Midnight Sun (2014) Almost 20 years into his career, Sean Lennon, working with Charlotte Kemp Muhl (his collaborator in life and music), stirred up the classic of psychedelic pop I always thought he had in him, especially after seeing them live in 2011. I'm still waiting for these two to get it back together, although I have been enjoying UNI, Kemp Muhl's glam metal groovers, quite a bit. Maybe this decade will belong to UNI - if they ever release an album!

Golden Retriever - Seer (2014) Bass clarinet, modular synth - and the entire goddamned universe. Step inside. The only caveat is that nothing else they've done reaches these heights, but I'm way past caring about that now. Truly magical.

Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble - Return (2017) Gorgeous electro-acoustic chamber music, recorded live, then chopped and screwed by composers Adam Cuthbert, Matt Finch and Daniel Rhode, founders of the slashsound collective. Start here and follow up on all of them, especially Cuthbert who makes immersive and explosive electronic music under his own name and as I-VT.

Jonny Greenwood - Inherent Vice (2014) Choosing between this, Norwegian Wood (2011), The Master (2012) and The Phantom Thread (2018) was almost a random decision. Any way you slice it, the man had an incredible decade, also working with his hero, the late Krystof Penderecki and releasing two albums and touring the world with Radiohead. But the way his finely pitched blend of melancholy and whimsy interacts with the pop songs Paul Thomas Anderson chose for Inherent Vice makes it an especially sweet journey. And I still haven't seen the movie.

David Greilsammer - Scarlatti:Cage:Sonatas (2014) This object lesson in juxtaposition, stunningly executed by Greilsammer, exposed both Scarlatti's innovation and Cage's classicism. It's the only solo piano record on this list - that should be all you need to know.

Guilty Simpson - Detroit's Son (2015) I'm still baffled that this album didn't blow up worldwide. The beats, by Australian producer Katalyst, are next level, and Guilty's rhymes are hard, witty, and laced with compassion and rage. I'm also bummed that my interview with him disappeared into a black hole. But it's not too late to hear the record - get to it.

Elsa Hewitt - Dum Spiro Spiro (2017) With three albums in 2017 and two more since of distinctly handmade electronic pop and ambient music, Hewitt has created a musical universe of rare charm that has become an important part of my galaxy of listening. Catch up.

Hiss Golden Messenger - Lateness of Dancers (2014) Considering this was M.C. Taylor's fifth album as Hiss, it was I who was late to the dance. But I'm so glad I made it - he's a touchstone artist for me now, with every one of his albums hitting the top ten ever since. Also one of the great live acts of our time - experience some of that magic by buying his new live album, a fundraiser for Durham Public Schools students.

Jon Hopkins - Immunity (2013) Hopkins arrived on my radar via his collaboration with Eno (see above) and this exceeded all my expectations even so. While he's yet to hit this sweet spot of rhythm, melody, and texture ever since, I'm not one to complain!

Hospitality - Hospitality (2012) God, I love this record (and Trouble from 2014), it's blend of melody and melancholy so inviting that I'm now part of a small legion who Googles their name on the regular looking for more - or answers about what happened to them.

Benji Hughes - Songs In The Key Of Animals (2016) Whether employing irrational exuberance or Nilssonian melancholy, this album was life raft when I needed it most. Now Hughes and I are foxhole family and I'll always be grateful.

Iron & Wine and Ben Bridwell - Sing Into My Mouth (2015) Kiss Each Other Clean (2011), Ghost On Ghost (2013), and Beast Epic (2017) all had their moments, but as a songwriter it was an uneven decade for Sam Beam, ranging from new standards to immaculately produced but forgettable tracks. On this album of covers, however, he proved himself one of the greatest singers alive - and a great collaborator for sharing the spotlight with Bridwell of Band of Horses.

Julia Jacklin - Crushing (2019) Don't Let The Kids Win (2016) was a wonderful record, but on this sophomore release the Aussie singer/songwriter leapt to the front ranks with a combination of vulnerability and craft that is a rare thing indeed. The title could also refer to the sensation of being at her concert at Warsaw last year - buy tix early next time she hits the road!

Jamie XX - In Colour (2015) This delightfully, yes, colorful collection still sounds aggressively hip five years later. While The XX don't do it for me, We're New Here (2011), Jamie XX's reworking of Gil Scott-Heron's last album convinced me he was a major talent.

Andy Jenkins - Sweet Bunch (2018) There were few better songs released in 2018 than those on Jenkins' long-awaited debut - and Matthew E. White was the perfect producer to realize them.

Junkie XL - Mad Max Fury Road (2015) As gloriously maximal as the movie, an incredible return to form for George Miller and one of the best action flicks ever made. Sequel?

Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music (2012) This is still head and shoulders above any of the Run The Jewels albums. Eight years later and I'm more convinced than ever that El P needs to go back behind the boards and leave the mic to the Killer.

Killing Joke - Pylon (2015) No other band this far out from their debut (1979) has all the original members and is making music at heights equal to their early days. Simply astonishing - and one of the most overwhelming concert experiences you can have.

Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly (2015) I was on the fence about Lamar until this album came out - and then I was all in. Lyrically dense and musically rich, this is hip hop of the highest order. And Damn. (2017) was just as good.

Hamilton Leithauser - Black Hours (2014) Songs for days, all the feels, production to die for - and the singing! Lord, this is great stuff. Dear God from 2015 was stripped down brilliance, but the jury is still out if Leithauser can reach for the stars like this without Paul Maroon, the guitarist he worked with since The Walkmen. Signs are pointing to yes for his next album.

Mastodon - The Hunter (2011) No big story to tell, just a straightforward collection of blissfully detailed hard rock from a band that relishes a great melody as much as extreme guitar crunch. Though they stumbled a bit with their next album (Once More 'Round The Sun, 2014), Emperor Of Sand (2017) was a near-return to form. Seeing them in concert was also a treat.

The Mavericks - In Time (2013) Their last great album, Trampoline, came out in 1998 so I had relegated these country-conjunto-Americana-Cubano experts to the past - so this masterpiece of fun was a kick in the head Sinatra wouldn't have ignored. Did you?

Holly Miranda - Mutual Horse (2018) This album might have been her pinnacle (so far), but Miranda ruled my decade like few other artists. Each album, from the dreamy debut to the self-titled second album (2015), to this one, was a gift. And I saw her live as often as possible - you should, too.

Mount Kimbie - Crooks & Lovers (2010) They claimed to have not known what they were doing when they made this, but maybe that's why it's so full of surprise and off-kilter magic. Their live show was a blast, too - unfortunately they've increasingly lost the plot ever since.

Mutual Benefit - Skip A Sinking Stone (2016) Heartfelt, witty, and melodically rich, the occasionally spectral folk-rock songs of Jordan Lee were a central pleasure of the decade, whether here or on Love's Crushing Diamond (2013), or Thunder Follows The Light (2018).

Mystical Weapons - Mystical Weapons (2013) Pure madness - and instrumental virtuosity of a most creative kind from Sean Lennon (guitars, bass, synths) and Greg Saunier (drums). More in tune with electric Miles or early Pink Floyd than free jazz. I consider myself privileged to have seen them in concert.

Michael Nicolas - Transitions (2016) This is the exemplar of what a modern cello album can be - curated, produced, and performed with perfection. I'll forgive Nicolas for not giving us a follow up yet - after all, he's a key player in Brooklyn Rider, International Contemporary Ensemble, and Third Sound.

Novelty Daughter - Semigoddess (2016) Faith Harding combines her glorious voice with tactile electronics, sometimes verging on dance music, creating blends and juxtapositions that intrigue and inspire. Great lyrics, too, growing more introspective on Inertia (2017) and Cocoon Year (2018). Keep up with her DJ sets here.

Nordic Affect - Raindamage (2017) Electro-acoustic chamber music from Iceland, full of texture and emotion, played with utter commitment. Not to be missed.

Cian Nugent - Night Fiction (2016) Immersive indie rock by a master guitarist who loves to ride a slow build. As much informed by Nugent's Irish background as the Velvet Underground's third album.

Jenny O. - Automechanic (2013) Packed with musical and emotional detail, each tightly crafted song here is set like a little gem by producer Jonathan Wilson, an achievement they matched on Peace & Information in 2017.

Frank Ocean - Blonde (2016) Channel Orange (2012) so exceeded the promise of nostalgia/ultra, his mixtape from 2011, that the internet grew even more hysterical than usual waiting for a follow-up. Finally, we were bequeathed this mysterious miracle of future R&B and art rock. Ocean has kept hysteria at bay with a fairly steady supply of great singles, but that ain't going to last...we need more.

Angel Olsen - All Mirrors (2019) Olsen has been on one of the most intriguing musical journeys of the decade, traveling through spare folk, indie rock, electro-pop, and more before arriving at this explosive masterwork of song and style. Burn No Fire For No Witness (2014) and My Woman (2016) are also essential. Where will she take us next?

Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold (2013) While these classicists of the NYC underground (think VU and Sonic Youth) have been coasting on this album ever since, that does nothing to diminish its glories. Ridgewood, Queens has never been the same.

Perfect Pussy - Say Yes To Love (2014) Between the provocative name and Meredith Graves' intrusion into the traditionally male space of neo-hardcore singing, there was even more noise surrounding this band than what was on their records. Cutting through all that, I heard a lapidary blend of art rock, free jazz, punk, and ambient. After seeing them live, I predicted a long career - but it was not to be. They released one more single and disbanded in 2016. Some of their spirit lives on in Empath, the wonderful Philly band driven by PP's drummer, Garrett Koloski.

Natalie Prass - The Future and The Past (2018) You want personality? Prass has it in spades: quirky, smart, funny, relatable. She could be your next best friend, but she just happens to be a wildly talented singer and songwriter. Her stunning debut (2015) got the full Spacebomb treatment from Matthew E. White - strings, horns, etc. - and on this one she pivoted beautifully into an ultra-slick realm of utterly addictive pop.

Olivia De Prato - Streya (2018) Like Nicolas's Transitions, this album represents an ideal of what a solo string album can be. Electro-acoustic wonders lie within, including a distillation of Missy Mazzoli's signature piece, Vespers For A New Dark Age. De Prato has also been busy with Ensemble Signal, Victoire, and the Mivos Quartet, so I can be patient while waiting for the next solo album.

Prodigy and Alchemist - Albert Einstein (2013) After his release from prison in 2011, Prodigy was rolling through the decade like a Lambo on run-flats. Albert Einstein, his second full-length with producer Alchemist, was one of the best albums of his career, filled with intricate storytelling and king of the streets braggadocio. The Bumpy Johnson Album (2011) and The Hegelian Dialectic (2017) are both well worth tracking down, too, as is The Infamous Mobb Deep (2014). Here's hoping his estate corrects that legacy soon. It was a privilege to see this legend in person - both onstage and off.

Pusha-T - Daytona (2018) While there were many fine moments in his other post-Clipse albums, My Name Is My Name (2013) and (especially) Darkest Before The Dawn: The Prelude (2015), this was the first album that reached the heights of that classic duo. Kanye West's production showed he still had it, even as he seemed to be losing his MAGA-loving mind.

Quakers (2012) Portishead's Geoff Barrow joined forces with their engineer 7-Stu-7 and Katalyst (see Guilty Simpson above) and dropped a seismic collection of beats, rhymes, and life with a variety of handpicked voices, including Jonwayne. Still not sure why this collection didn't land with the force I expected. Get to it now and see if you agree.

Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool (2016) After the slightly enervated The King Of Limbs (2011), I wondered if these geniuses were going to go their separate ways. After all, Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke both had much going on in their solo careers, as did drummer Ed O'Brien, a trend which has only continued since this sigh-inducing collection came out. So maybe this is their Abbey Road - one more album made the way they used to - and nobody does it better.

Lou Reed and Metallica - Lulu (2011) Damn the haters, this album has only gotten better with time. Hard to believe we lost Bowie and Reed in the same decade, isn't it?

Debby Schwartz - A Garden Of My Own (2014) I've known Debby for decades and always liked her voice and way with a song. Even so, none of her previous work prepared me for the glory of this album, as deep and moving an investigation of Brit/Appalachian folk-rock style as anyone who ever assayed the genre. Simply magnificent.

Sleigh Bells - Treats (2010) Pity none of their other albums matched the kicky, sexy, tuneful fun of this still LOUD debut - but many artists would give their eyeteeth for one album this good. For a true follow-up look to the debut from art-pop insurrectionists 100 Gecs (2019). Maybe they can come up with more than one decent record.

Solange - A Seat At The Table (2016) This album, the first mature work by the younger sister of Beyoncé, has only grown in stature since it was released. Elegant R&B serves as a carrier for powerful thoughts, both political and personal. When I Get Home (2019) was a journey into pure mood and also excellent.

Spoon - They Want My Soul (2014) Spoon is one of the most consistently great bands of all time, so you could toss a three-sided coin in the air to pick this one over Transference (2010) or Hot Thoughts (2017). Leader Britt Daniel also found time to churn out A Thing Called Divine Fits (2012), a one-off from his side project with Dan Boeckner, furthering his campaign for the title of hardest working man in rock. Not that it would matter if he wasn't so damned good at what he does.

The Strokes - Angles (2011) There was a day in 2011 when my wife and I, after initially being turned off by its gleaming surface, simultaneously realized the genius of Angles. I called her from my coffee run and we had a moment together. Comedown Machine (2013) was also damned good and then things seemed to dissolve - until earlier this month when they delighted us again with The New Abnormal.

Kate Tempest - Everybody Down (2014) The globalization of hip hop has bequeathed us many fascinating records and this is one of the most fascinating. Novelistic details wedded to furiously danceable tracks make for an addictive listen. Her other albums, while good, haven't had the staying power for me. But I would leap at the chance to see her on stage again. 

Ken Thomson - Restless (2016) Music for two instruments hasn't sounded this monumental since Shostakovich's Viola Sonata, Op. 147. The dazzle and passion of Ashley Bathgate (cello) and Karl Larson (piano) could not be more perfect, making for a modern classic.

Anna Thorvaldsdottir - Aerial (2014) Another almost random choice - In The Light Of Air (2015) and Aequa (2018) are equally astonishing statements from this master shaper of sound. One of the greatest composers alive - I will always drop everything to hear something new from her.

Tiny Ruins - Olympic Girls (2019) The songs of Hollie Fulbrook are elemental in all the important ways. They will instantly feel like old friends even as they take you new places. Even without the exquisite production, I would have taken notice of the leap in craft on this, her fourth album. Can't wait for more.

Christopher Trapani - Waterlines (2018) My jaw hit the floor with a clunk when Lucy Dhegrae and Talea Ensemble launched into this piece at Roulette in Brooklyn. Somewhere inside I'm still reeling. The rest of the album is also wonderful, complex and conceptual, yet aimed straight at the heart.

Gecko Turner - That Place By The Thing With The Cool Name (2015) When I listen to Gecko Turner I often flash back to that moment when a colleague walked into my office while Gone Down South (2010) was playing and said, "Oh, you've got the GOOD stuff." Yes, I do - but it's Gecko who makes the good stuff, with funk, soul, reggae, bossa nova, Afrobeat, and jazz seeming to ooze from his pores. A new album from Gecko has been an event in my house since 2006 - get on board.

Tweedy - Sukirae (2014) I'm going to be contrarian and let this songwriting masterclass stand in for everything the Wilco Industrial Complex released last decade. Some of it was amazing, like Star Wars (2015), some of it was great, like The Whole Love (2011) or Glenn Kotche's Adventureland (2014), and some of it was just OK (you figure it out). But anything Wilco or Tweedy related will always zoom to the top of the to-listen pile and Sukierae and Star Wars most rewarded that devotion in recent years.

Volcano Choir - Repave (2013) The other great Justin Vernon product of the 2010's and, while the lyrics can still be oblique, much of it feels more emotionally direct than Bon Iver, Bon Iver. No shame if you forgot this one - that's what I'm here for!

Scott Walker and Sunn 0))) - Soused (2014) With this and Bish Bosch (2012), both supreme works of art, and various soundtracks, Walker was in the midst of one of his busiest decades since The Walker Brothers broke up in 1968. He's one of my touchstone artists and I have not yet reached acceptance that he left us with a nearly finished album in the can - pretty please 4AD?

The Walkmen - Heaven (2012) Before giving us the term "extreme hiatus," one of the greatest rock bands of the 2000's went out with a bang. The title is an accurate reflection of where this album will take you - extreme sigh.

Warhaus - We Fucked A Flame Into Being (2016) In which Maarten Devoldere, member of  Belgian rockers Balthazar, comes into his own as a songwriter, singer, and persona. Burns bright indeed, and the self-titled follow-up (2017) was nearly as hot. These journeys into scabrous wit and moody grooves seemed to have also given Balthazar a lift, as proven by Fever (2019).

Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010) Even as its creator tried our patience, this hip hop monolith never receded in importance. Yeezus (2013) was very different but equally astonishing. After the dazzling but fragmented The Life Of Pablo (2016) (and its mindblowing live show) things got a little dicey, with Ye (2018) being actively terrible. But the struggle for redemption (musically, anyway) is one of West's main motivations and thus he was driven to make Jesus Is King (2019), which had me  singing "Hallelujah!"

Matthew E. White - Big Inner (2012) As the head of Spacebomb, White's footprint as a producer and record-man is so large that it's easy to forget that he made two terrific albums in the 2010's, this one and Fresh Blood (2015), both combining folk, gospel, soul, and country (call it "cosmic American music" - worked for Gram Parsons). Although not all it works, Gentlewoman, Ruby Man (2017), an album of covers with Flo Morrissey, was a nice bonus.

Lucinda Williams - Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone (2014) While neither this nor the other two albums of new songs (Blessed (2011) and The Ghosts Of Highway 20 (2016)) made into my "best of the year posts," in retrospect they have gained more weight, beautifully embellishing Williams' status as an American icon. And in concert, her mastery (and that of guitarist Stuart Mathis) came through even more clearly. Devastating.

Jonathan Wilson - Rare Birds (2018) As a committed devotee of rock, my decade would have been almost infinitely impoverished if not for the rise of Jonathan Wilson, whether here or on Gentle Spirit (2011) or Fanfare (2013). He also can't be beat on stage - see him whenever you get a chance. He shows no sign of slowing down, either, kicking off this decade with the fantastic Dixie Blur.

Wire - Change Becomes Us (2013) Like Killing Joke, there's no reason a band that started in the late 70's should still be this incredible, releasing some of the richest music of their career on this and Red Barked Tree (2011), another art rock standout. Still slaying in concert, too. While they coasted a bit on Wire (2015), Nocturnal Koreans (2016) and Silver/Lead (2017) returned them to their adventurous best - fortunately, the same can also be said of their latest, Mind Hive.

Scott Wollschleger - American Dream (2019) This brilliant composer announced himself loudly on Soft Aberration (2017), a collection of knotty chamber music, and then sealed the deal as one of the best of our time with this masterwork. The performance by Bearthoven (Karl Larson, Pat Swoboda, and Matt Evans) is equally impeccable, making this one for the ages.

Daniel Wohl - Corps Exquis (2013) Wohl is a master of texture, combining electronic and acoustic instruments to arrive at a sound world that is distinctively seductive. Holographic (2016) left me cold but Etát (2019) was a glorious return to form.

Thom Yorke - Anima (2019) Not content to rest on his Radiohead laurels, Yorke has also become a  consistently great purveyor of electronic art songs on his own, as shown here and on Tomorrow's Modern Boxes (2014). Then there was the future funk of Atoms For Peace (2013), which was even better in concert, and the truly terrifying Suspiria (2018), which gave his bandmate Jonny Greenwood a run for his money in the world of soundtracks. Stay busy, Mr. Yorke.

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Best Of 14 (Part 2)
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The Best Of 12: Part One
The Best Of 12: Part Two
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