Albums of 2020

[Brett]

Sorry, not sorry; big new music dump incoming in this post.

First up, Brenda Leigh, which is the first album from Kurt Newman's Nashville Minimalism Unit. The Unit have released a bunch of standalone pieces over the last couple years, both studio and live jams, but this is all new material; three longish instrumental space country tunes. Bandcamp:


Sam Shalabi has been quite busy lately, having last year put out a solo release, Min, as well as playing on Matana Roberts latest album and leading his psych-jazz big band Land of Kush on their newest offering. This year, two of his bands, Karkhana and The Dwarfs of East Agouza have put out new albums, and Shalabi just last Friday dumped some new solo material. There's 2001002, a two-part collage composition that was originally recorded in 2014 and which later evolved into the 2016 album Isis and Osiris, "See/Saw," a b-side from a further upcoming album, and Gecko, a new album of electronic pieces (not the one "See/Saw" was cut from).

2001002:


"See/Saw": https://samshalabi1.bandcamp.com/track/see-saw

Gecko:


Deerhoof are back with their first new album since 2017's Mountain Moves. The new one is called Future Teenage Cave Artists, and it's out May 29 on Joyful Noise. Two songs accompanied the album release, the title track and "The Loved One."

"Future Teenage Cave Artists":


"The Loved One":


Third Sandro Perri rework of 2020 is a new mix of a track from his Polmo Polpo project, "Dreaming...Again." As usual, this unveils previously buried layers and foregrounds them while de-accentuating the old details.


Finally, Toronto composer Nick Storring is releasing a new album, My Magic Dreams Have Lost Their Spell, out tomorrow. This features Storring's usual technique of layering literally dozens of instruments in a one-man overdub orchestra, playing in the realm of avant-classical, but straying quite a bit into the territory of early 20th century orchestral pop, and some progressive electronic.

[scrub12]

Enjoyed Brian Fallon’s new album, even if it’s short.

[surfndestroy]

Enjoyed Brian Fallon’s new album, even if it’s short.

Just came here to post the same thing. It is an enjoyable listen. Right length for my current ability to concentrate.

[tragabigzanda]

[Chris_H_2]

sorry if this has been mentioned before, but this new album (Saint Cloud) by Waxahatchee is so good:

[Tim]

I noticed that one has been getting good reviews. I'll check it out.

[Chris_H_2]

It’s so nice to have new posters around

[dad]

sorry if this has been mentioned before, but this new album (Saint Cloud) by Waxahatchee is so good:

Chris, I listened to this today. For the record, I love waxahatchee. Only listened once. I love the singles. The song Witches stands out, as well as the closer.

[chewm]

Yeah it is great

[psychobain]

Enjoyed Brian Fallon’s new album, even if it’s short.

spinning it right now
sounds like his best solo album

[psychobain]

Album of the year incoming. I don't need Gigaton anymore.

both new songs are very good

[psychobain]

New Hamilton Leithauser's album out soon, he was the vox on The Walkmen.
Based on these 3 songs...ouch, good stuff

[chewm]

Somehow forgot about what is probably my favorite album so far this year, which is the new Beach Bunny



I'm a total sucker for catchy and well written power pop so this hits all the spots for me. Recommended for anyone who's into stuff like Alvvays or The Beths (who released an even better record than this 2 years ago, so if that's your kinda thing I can't recommend it enough).

[Higgs]

It’s so nice to have new posters around

*returned, previously dormant

[LoathedVermin72]

Current ranking of the 2020 albums I've listened to so far:

The Weeknd - After Hours
Selena Gomez - Rare
Grimes - Miss Anthropocene
Lil Uzi Vert - Eternal Atake
Pearl Jam - Gigaton
Kirk Windstein - Dream in Motion
Die Antwoord - House of Zef

[tragabigzanda]

Top 10 maybe?
Hello Morning
Close Captioned
The Kill
Place/Position
Do You Like Me?
Latest Disgrace
Recap Modotti
Nightshop
Break
Life & Limb

I'd maybe bump Life & Limb for Epic Problem

[chewm]

digging this new dua lipa album tbh

[Jessica Fletcher]

I brought this guy Daniel Romano up in the country thread six or so years ago because he was making ridiculously good country records. That turned out to be a brief phase and he has turned into THE artist of the last decade IMO.
He just released this live album on Friday which is a great intro: https://youvechangedrecords.bandcamp.com/album/okay-wow

And he just released this one two weeks ago on bandcamp for $3, and it's apparently going to be taken down at the end of this month: https://danielromano.bandcamp.com/album ... gher-dream

He's incredibly prolific, and it's all high quality writing and performance.

[VinylGuy]

Seems Fiona Apple is releasing her new album on April 17th.

[Brett]

El Ten Eleven have announced that they'll be releasing a three-album series this year, called Tautology. The physical release is set for September 18 through Joyful Noise, but the first two will be available digitally at earlier dates: May 1 for Tautology I, July 10 for Tautology II, though the first can be obtained now with a preorder of the entire set. The three-album theme is the arc of life from adolescence through the old age, and each album's sound reflects its era. I is the teenage and early adult years, heavier and more aggressive than the band has ever been, veering into a hard rock/metal territory, II represents middle age and is more in line with the band's usual style of grooving instrumental rock, and III is the elder years, more drawn out and ambient.

Here's the first single, "With Report," from Tautology I:


After five years at work in their main projects, Mark T. Smith (Explosions in the Sky) and Matthew Robert Cooper (Eluvium) have resurrected their collaborative duo, Inventions, and will be releasing a new album, Continuous Portrait, on May 29 with Temporary Residence Ltd. This collection is more joyous and playful than their previous outings, but it still plays in the same broader realm of ambient and electronic.

First single, "Outlook for the Future":