The Music of 2020

I'm not going to get into how insane this year was; you have an endless amount of other outlets to satisfy that urge. I'm simply going to go through the year in music as it played out in my ears, usually for the better but sometimes for the worse. There was so much new music that I, a mere mortal, just didn't have the time or patience to touch on everything new I downloaded or listened to this year here (shoutout Apple Music), and there's certainly plenty I haven't even gotten to yet. What I am going to go through, I will go through chronologically. Let's get right to it!

Pinegrove - Marigold (1/17) 🥶

Though we may have been naive to the pandemic then, January didn't start out innocently at all. The New Jersey crew in the yellow and blue came back fast after Skylight, released in September 2018, right after their return from the hiatus of whatever all that was. (The fact that it's still unclear what exactly transpired and if anything truly cancel-worthy happened is very confusing.) But while that album was shelved for a year while they ceased operation, this was their first record of all-new material since the aforementioned events. It's another set of reliable pedal steel-tinged rockers, though it does feel a little weird to listen to given all the controversy, especially when it sounds like it's being referenced directly, as it does on multiple tracks here.

Looking at it through that lens, I can see either being put off by this or feeling like Evan Stephens Hall is working through what happened in his music. If you can ignore or internalize what happened, what you have is yet another solid album in the growing Pinegrove canon. They turn the heat up for more up-tempo cuts like "Moment" and "Phase," know when to cut a good thing short in "Spiral" and even envelop you in a toasty instrumental cut -- the title track/album closer, featuring just two simple chords that wash over you like the tide coming in on the beach. "Dotted Line" gets the album cracking right away, while "The Alarmist" provides another lyrical gem in "Can I believe in me before I knew you beautifully?" And "Endless" is the sing-along crowd-pleaser of the bunch.

Some of the lyrics are a little too cute ("Neighbor") and some musical moments teeter on the border of being weightless ("No Drugs," "Alcove"), but Pinegrove really has their formula down. While this album doesn't surpass any of their previous highs, they've come through with another solid group of songs, and I only continue to look forward to what they do next... even if that is releasing the 47th live versions of the same songs.

Bonny Light Horseman - Bonny Light Horseman (1/24) 🐴

Pretty much every album that came out in the first half of this year - particularly in the first two and a half months - are all huge "That album came out this year?!?!" albums, but this one might be at the top. I was still taking the subway to work at this time! Bonny Light Horseman is the self-titled debut of a super-group of sorts that turns old folk tunes - and I'm talking hundreds of years old - into modern-sounding and impeccably-produced beacons of beauty, interwoven with lush harmonies and gorgeous acoustic finger-picking. Most of the lyrics hearken back to olden times, but often the sentiments are just as true today.

"Deep in Love" is a standout track, and its repetitive "Don't you break my heart" coda might be the top moment on the album. Justin Vernon shows up (the group did meet at his Eaux Claires Festival in 2018) on lead single "Bright Morning Stars," a mostly a cappella track that instantly grabbed me. Elsewhere, those harmonies and guitar plucking are captivating on "The Roving," while "Magpie's Nest" successfully sounds like a hot, sticky summer day in the heat of a southern state. This may be the most starkly stunning record of the year, so check it out if it flew under your radar.

Wolf Parade - Thin Mind (1/24) 🤕

Short entry here. This was, unfortunately, one of my disappointments of the year. In the last half-decade Apologies to the Queen Mary has become one of my overall faves, while 2017's Cry Cry Cry was one of the best of the past decade. So the fact that it's now 10 months later as of this writing and basically nothing from this album has made an imprint on me is too bad. Listening back to it now, I can't exactly put my finger on why because it's very much in the vein of their last record, but while the guitar licks are there, the songs just don't feel as well put-together as they've been in the past. That, and I think some of the lyricism is a bit too on-the-nose about our technological and societal woes. It's definitely not bad, but it's not exactly memorable. Sorry, wolf boys.

Tame Impala - The Slow Rush (2/14) ⏳

This album also feels like an eternity ago, which is funny considering it felt like an eternity in the lead-up to it. Kevin Parker, a noted perfectionist, was tinkering endlessly before breathing a word about his followup to 2015's excellent Currents, but then proceeded to engage in an almost year-long album rollout, pushing out five singles in the meantime and diluting the experience in the process. Even for my most favorite bands, I may listen to the first single - maybe two - but will then save the rest for when the album drops. So in that regard, I mostly just waited longer than others to hear the majority of this. For starters, I do dig the title (get it?) and the cover is pretty awesome.

Now, on to the music... the bottom line is it's a good album that's not quite great and doesn't match up to their last few releases. One issue is it's overstuffed; it's only six minutes longer than Currents, but it's one song fewer and a couple of the big'ns just don't really cut the mustard or justify their runtime. The album works best in its shorter, punchier tunes: "Instant Destiny," "Borderline," "Is It True." (Not true, however, for interlude "Glimmer," two minutes that could easily have been left off.)

On some of the longer tracks: I empathize with Parker's feelings towards his late father on "Posthumous Forgiveness," but the song takes a bit too long to get *there*. "Tomorrow's Dust" I don't really care for, and while I like "Breathe Deeper" and "It Might Be Time," they seem like B-versions of the group's best songs. On the plus side, I enjoy the patient positivity of "On Track," and the funky "Lost in Yesterday" is a groovable dance track that basically doubles as Parker's mental state during the making of this album: "'Cause it hurts to be lost in yesterday / And you're gonna have to let it go someday."

As Tame Impala cruises forward, the band moves further away from psych rock into disco and dance pop territory. Of course that's not my ideal trajectory, but I'm still on board. This may have come off a little harsher than intended, but overall I feel like the songs on The Slow Rush just aren't there in comparison to Tame Impala's past work. You could still find many worse ways to spend an hour.

Real Estate - The Main Thing (2/28) ‍👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

If you know me or are familiar with my tastes at all, you'll recall that Real Estate was one of my favorite bands of the past decade. But after some #MeToo-related lineup changes, they lost a bit of luster as they returned with the uneven In Mind. I was looking forward to their next release - their first written as a fully new five-piece - and it finally came out at the end of February. In fact, I saw them do a live acoustic set and Q&A session a mere week before our country shut down due to the pandemic in March. Whew, that was close!

Anyway, to the album! It's ... fine. I'm not sure whether it's better or worse than In Mind, but obviously it's not on par with their first three. I'm not super into lead single "Paper Cup" or its synthy lead. "Friday" offers a sleepy introduction to the album, but then while "Gone" is slow, as well, I actually like its languid pace and pinballing bass. With at least three kids now, Martin Courtney worries about them on the sweet "You," a simple but effective tune. My main issue with the band now continues to be that I think Julian Lynch's guitar tone and lead playing simply pales in comparison to those of the exiled Matt Mondanile.

The other issue is just that Martin Courtney's songwriting has seemingly reached a peak that he can't quite eclipse, both lyrically and musically. The thing is, though, that I like the plaintive melodies (though not always the lyrics) he puts together, so I like the breezy (shot) "November" and the wistful (shot) "Silent World." "Procession" also succeeds in sounding like classic Real Estate, while "Shallow Sun" again nails the band's uncanny ability to make a song sound like a nostalgic sunset.

Elsewhere, "Falling Down" is another sleeper, the title track is a lesser version of a standard Courtney tune and "Also a But" is Lynch's first foray into Real Estate songwriting that is on one hand more interesting than anything else the band has ever recorded but on the other hand pretty incongruous with the rest of the group's output ... and also just not that exciting. Finally, the questionably wimpy lo-fi instrumental "Brother" ends the album. I'm still into the band overall, but my fears that their best days are behind them continue to be proven.

Soccer Mommy - color theory (2/28) 🌈

This is one of the more solid releases of the year. It does, however, perpetuate a trend of not capitalizing the names of album and song titles, something that probably shouldn't aggravate me for at least another 20 years. But anyway, "Your Dog" was one of my favorite tracks of 2018, though I wasn't totally as bullish on Sophia Allison's first album, Clean, as a whole. This record, though, really brings it all home for me. It's directly in the vein of unfussy 90s/early 00s indie pop rock, something you'd be likely to hear on VH1 or Z100 at the time. But even though the texture feels reminiscent, Allison makes it feel all her own. Her songwriting is catchy, moody and often soul-baring ("But I'm not so pretty / When I am naked") and creative ("I am 'fake it til you make it' in a can"), which could read as embarrassing or childlike but comes off as earnest and true.

"circle the drain" might be the best track on the album, a sugary release of emotion that has great guitar instrumentals and effortless songwriting. "royal screw up" and "night swimming" are two of the quietest tracks on here, while "lucy" cranks up the rawk right before we depress again on "stain." And back to the nostalgic theme, you've got (the excellent) "yellow is the color of her eyes," with a similar chug (and lyrics, natch) of Coldplay's "Yellow" from 20 years ago, and "crawling in my skin," an obvious callback to Linkin Park's "Crawling." This album isn't complicated. It's just really good guitar pop with meaning behind it.

Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud (3/27) 🌦️

We've done it. We've reached the album of the year! Co-album, anyway. But you'll have to keep scrolling to find out what the other one is. 😇

Going into this, I wasn't particularly excited. Katie Crutchfield's last full-length, 2017's Out in the Storm, had some good tracks on it but seemed like pretty bland rock to me. So I was particularly pleasantly surprised to hear lead single "Fire" take a step back and rework the monotonous sound of OITS into a gentle layering of Americana textures. The guitars were more discernible, her stark, unique voice more bold in the mix and there was room to incorporate more instrumentation at a relaxed pace. She wrote this in recovery for alcoholism in the wake of her last album, and it's easy to see her transformation in the pace and writing of these songs.

"Oxbow" kicks things off with a gong hit and immediately signals a reset, with her thesis plainly stated: "I want it all." The album is like fresh air on a country road, and nowhere is that better exemplified than in "Can't Do Much." This goes for the rest of the album, but I love the twangy guitars and her everyday person-like harmonies. It's no secret she doesn't have a The Voice-type voice, but that makes start-of-love lines like "I want you all the time / Sanity nullified" hit that much harder, as they could be coming from someone like you or me. The aforementioned "Fire" is at once breezy, melancholy and confident, amassing all the strengths the album has to offer on one track.

And the truth is that the album is kind of one-note, something I just ascribed to Waxy's prior album, but much like how that album cover was emblematic of its style, this one is also directly proportional to its music: rustic, country-influenced and clear-headed. And this sounds like a better lane for her. "Lilacs" has one of the most sing-along choruses on the album and you can practically hear the plants in the pond on it. And before I go on too much here, the rest of Saint Cloud plays in a similar vein, sometimes a little more restrained ("Arkadelphia," "Saint Cloud") and sometimes let loose a little bit more ("Hell," "War").

We've played this album endlessly in our apartment and on road trips this year, and it became one of our most comforting records to return to in a year full of discomfort. Definitely unexpected, and that makes it even sweeter.

The Strokes - The New Abnormal (4/10) 🗽

I'm not sure how many fans would admit this, but this iteration of The Strokes is as close to being the best version of the band that's ever existed. No, they're obviously not as influential as they were when they were kids and unleashed Is This It into the world, but this album is better than any of us could have expected and in a vacuum could maybe, possibly, questionably, perhaps rival said Is This It. Alright ... maybe not, but I really like it. First off, I will hear no slander about their last full-length, 2013's (man, it's been seven years?!) Comedown Machine. It wasn't highly publicized and they put it out to satisfy their record contract, but it consisted of punchy garage rock with the occasional slow-burner ("80s Comedown Machine").

With The New Abnormal, The Strokes are branching out into the longest passages they've ever put together, far from the fast-tempo'd Is This It or even Comedown Machine. They're not languid in pace either, but they kind of build on themselves until Julian Casablancas is yelping into his modified microphone; over half the tracks on this album are over five minutes long. After a computerized drumbeat, "The Adults are Talking" starts things off with a simple guitar line that continues throughout the whole time, with Casablancas starting out singing tenderly before swirling up to his falsetto pleading.

"Selfless" is a sweet mid-tempo rocker that sounds romantic, "At the Door" is an oddly endearing synth-led jam, and if "Bad Decisions" were about 40 bpm faster, it would have been at home on either Is This It or Room on Fire. "Eternal Summer" and "Why Are Sundays So Depressing" were rendered obsolete the moment the album was released, as the pandemic has canceled both, but both hearken back to the group's younger days. "Not the Same Anymore" sees The Strokes rocking out more and, finally, "Ode to the Mets" is an excellent album-ender, almost the equal of the album opener, except it's a synth line guiding the way as opposed to a guitar. Casablancas equates the hopefulness and hopelessness of his youth to his favorite baseball team until he ends up almost shouting in the climax as the epic finale bids us adieu.

It really feels like The Strokes are more The Strokes now than they ever have been, even if Is This It set them on fire. And I, for one, am more intrigued about their future now than I ever thought I would be before ... even if it takes another seven years before their next outing.

Car Seat Headrest - Making a Door Less Open (5/1) 🚪

Honestly, I just can't believe this album came out this year. I thought Teens of Denial and 2018's re-recorded version of Twin Fantasy were both really good, and this one was barely passable. Frankly, it's hard to remember much at all about this album except for meh lead single "Can't Cool Me Down" and the mess that is "Hollywood." I remember there being a few other notable moments on here, like the back half of "There Must Be More Than Blood" and the out-of-place acoustic number not sung by Will Toledo, "What's With You Lately," but between the pandemic and life and other music, this was not one of the more memorable releases of 2020. What does it also have going against it? One of the worst title and cover combinations in recent memory.

Muzz - Muzz (6/5) ‍🍑

Yup, this was also this year - only just over six months ago. It only lasted two weeks, maybe, but I was pretty into this one. Muzz is the unfortunately-named debut album from the unfortunately-named supergroup Muzz, comprised of Paul Banks of Interpol, Josh Kaufman of Bonny Light Horseman (hey, shoutout top of this listicle!) and many others, and Matt Barrick of The Walkmen. It's not the strongest record as a whole, but it plays to each member's strengths (Banks' crooning, Kaufman's musical versatility and tenderness, and Barrick's competent rhythm) well enough to yield a couple of really nice tracks, particularly "Everything Like It Used to Be" (my favorite), "Bad Feeling," "All Is Dead to Me" and "Red Western Sky." I would not be mad at some of these songs appearing on a chill indie playlist next summer when we're all back at outdoor bars...

Built to Spill - Built to Spill Plays the Songs of Daniel Johnston (6/12) 😡

The absolute most disappointing album of the year. If you know me, you know I'm a huge Built to Spill fan. Finally it was announced that the Boise crew was coming out with their first new music in five years, and then we found out it was a covers album. That in itself was a major disappointment, but then you get to the actual music they covered and recorded. I am not a Daniel Johnston fan and as of this writing, I'm still not sure what his appeal was (sadly, he died last year). So speaking as a major BtS fan with no affinity for DJ, this is total crap. The songs themselves are not very good, and the way they were recorded for this record sound incredibly uninspired and offer no attention to detail. It's almost like they just got together and decided to do and release this on the fly.

The combination of waiting half a decade and then experiencing the toughest year many of us have experienced to have BtS announce an album and then come out with this was a very sour cherry on top of the year in music. Lead singer/writer/guitarist Doug Martsch is famous for being reclusive, changing bandmates and, now, taking forever between albums, so I have almost lost hope for what they do next, whenever that may be. Their last original album, 2015's Untethered Moon, was really solid, but this makes me think he may not have anything left in the tank. I certainly hope I'm wrong.

Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher (6/18) 💀

So I know this is high on many year-end lists and received tons of accolades when it came out, but I'm more here to talk about one particular song than the album as a whole. It is objectively good, but it doesn't quite light me on fire as others this year have. I like the pop-rock of "Kyoto," the quiet devastation of "Garden Song" and the string-laden beauty that is "Graceland Too." Overall, though, it is a little slow and one-note for me, though I think she delivers some great lyrics ("The doctor put her hands over my liver / And she told me my resentment's getting smaller") and crushing turns of phrase ("They killed a fan down by the stadium / Was only visiting, they beat him to death").

Then we get to crash-land with "I Know the End," which might be the best song of the year. Almost six minutes long, it starts out slow but steady, Bridgers' soothingly shattering voice ruminating about tour life and the apocalypse. Then the song shifts as Bridgers lovingly if somewhat hauntingly describes taking a road trip up the coast as the strings begin to swell, the percussion comes into focus and the horns begin to blare. The instrumental passage at 3:58 after she guesses that the end is, in fact, near, is beautiful and could have gone on for a while longer and I would've loved it; the horns naturally make you think of other indie acts that use brass, like Beirut, Fanfarlo or even Modest Mouse's "Spitting Venom."

But then she screams. It feels jarring and abrupt, but totally warranted. In that moment, all the frustration and pent-up energy of the sh*t we've had to go through this year and the past several years is unleashed, and it truly feels cathartic. The music shifts up in key and the instruments start skittering and convulsing in the background before they fade out, leaving Bridgers' heaving breaths (and some relieved chuckling) to close out the record. This song is great, and stylistically completely emblematic of this year. Well done on that one, Phoebe.

HAIM - Women in Music Pt. III (6/26) 👩‍🎤👩‍🎤👩‍🎤

And now we've arrived at my co-album of the year! Similarly to Waxahatchee, but to a much larger extent, this album wasn't even on my radar before it came out. I mean, I knew it was coming and that they had released some singles for it, but I've never been big on the band. I didn't love their past singles (yes, even "The Wire") and their influences seemed to be too pop, too dance, too 80s for me. And the truth is their style seems to be pretty similar now than in the past, so I'm not entirely sure what changed for me, but I think the answer is: the songs are better. Sixteen tracks (including three bonus tracks, for some reason, which were released starting all the way back in July 2019!) of real excellence (except maybe "3 AM") to bop your way through times good and bad.

"Los Angeles" kicks things off with some saxophone before the drumbeat comes in, and it turns into a shimmering ode to their city that they are grappling with loving. "The Steps" is pure road trip fodder, the guitars and drums given a thick EQ treatment to feel sludgy on a hot summer day with one of the best choruses on here. "I Know Alone" is almost late 90s-esuqe in its R&B-ness, with what sounds like computerized drums, vocals and samples throughout. "Up From a Dream" sounds ... dreamy ... with another great chorus and Annie Clark-style shredding mixed in there, and it's followed by "Gasoline," maybe the best jam on here: more syrupy guitars, a slow-tempo'd beat and some of the best harmonies to sing along with. Did I mention this was great for a road trip?

You can tell this is one of my favorite albums since I'm listing basically every song: "Don't Wanna" is another contender for best song on the album. It just sounds triumphant and full at the end with horns thrown into the mix and the Haim sisters all singing a tailor-made hook together; it sounds like what you'd come out with if you used an online algorithm to find the boppiest chorus for a group like this. And I haven't really mentioned the content of the songs yet, but the girls are both facing some tough realizations with their places and relationships in life, but also bringing a good message to their fellow females to be strong and not take sh*t when unjustly confronted or tried to be made lesser than by their male counterparts ("Man From the Magazine").

"Another Try" and "I've Been Down" are two more absolute vibey gems on here, while "Leaning on You" and the sweet, heartbreaking "Hallelujah" are the sisters singing (at least partially) about each other, how they wouldn't be where they are without each other and how they wouldn't trade it for the world. And you can tell their love for and trust in each other have led them to make a cohesive 16-track banger that gave us something to smile about and take our minds off other stuff in this grueling year. Congrats to them on this accomplishment.

My Morning Jacket - The Waterfall II (7/10) 👎

I'm only including this on here to say how disappointing this record was as well. This is another case of a band taking a long time between releases (solo efforts notwithstanding), only to release something with less than half the impact of what came before it. Add in the fact that it's a supposed sequel to their last work, 2015's excellent The Waterfall, and you have a doubly disappointing effort. Sorry, guys, but there's really nothing here that stuck with me.

Taylor Swift - folkore (7/24) 🍂

Shocking, I know, to find a Taylor Swift album on here. But what was I supposed to do with The National's Aaron Dessner producing this and Bon Iver appearing as well? I had to check it out! And guess what, the music is absolutely gorgeous, and I can't help but wonder what this would sound like with Matt Berninger's smooth, dour croon on this as opposed to the light and airy Swift because so much of the instrumentation sounds emblematic of music on The National songs that already exist.

I come into this knowing nothing concrete about The Music of Taylor Swift™️ other than having pretty standard awareness of her singles and musical trajectory throughout the years. I have never purposely listened to a Taylor Swift song before this. (Conversely, I wonder what this will do for The National's stature, which is already pretty high, though nowhere near Swiftian levels.) So based on this album alone, it feels like a success, but not as successful as it could have been. The main issue is it's just way too long at 17 tracks and an hour and seven minutes. This is already rightly considered her 'indie' turn, but if this was 10 songs long, it could have been a classic, or at least in the vein of Vanessa Carlton's teen pop-shedding skin of 2015's Liberman. I really dig the first nine tracks, but "illicit affairs" (yeah, she does the lowercase thing too, now 🙄) sounds a little more childish lyrically and in delivery in comparison, and the rest - while sounding flawless - is a little bit of a slog to finish.

It's impossible to overstate the exquisiteness of Dessner's fingerpicking, ivory tickling and string arrangements. It helps Swift feel (until, or at least aside from "illicit affairs") at her most effortless and natural. Her duet with Bon Iver's Justin Vernon on "exile" is excellent. "mirrorball" floats in like an innocuous late-90s pop tune and "august" is the perfect combination of Swift's knack for catchy melodies, a flourish of instrumentation and that wistful air of the end of summer. So, overall, well done, Swift, and congratulations, Max, for venturing out a little bit and giving this a chance. 🤝

The Killers - Imploding the Mirage (8/21) 🎰

We've arrived at our mid-aughts revival, with this and the new Bright Eyes record both coming out on this same day. Admittedly, I'd never even listened to a full Killers album before this one, though I do have most of the songs from Hot Fuss. So this was a new venture for me, but it's actually pretty solid and enjoyable. Lead single "Caution" sits perfectly in their sweet spot, a rousing heartland rock anthem that could have been released on any of their albums and been a smash hit. Lead track "My Own Soul's Warning" is also great, simmering at first before exploding during the chorus and interlude. (Brandon Flowers does do the exact same "Oh, I ..." as Julian Casablancas does in "Hard to Explain" in this song, though.) The title track that closes the album is ace as well, with Flowers' swirling, roller-coaster vocals in the chorus sounding as epic as the album cover. Is he being metaphorical or literal?

Overall, the first half of the album is stronger than the second half. I like the outro of "When the Dreams Run Dry" and "My God" is a pretty passionate stomper, but I don't really care for the machismo lounge-singer swaggering of "Fire in Bone" and "Lightning Fields" kind of just passes without leaving much of an imprint. So even though this is their first full album I've listened to, it sounds like a pretty standard affair for The Killers: big Springsteenian vocals, character-driven lyrics, and impassioned guitar lines & synths built into the texture to affix that 80s sheen. Listen to this on a road trip; you won't be disappointed.

Bright Eyes - Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was (8/21) 🌱

Going into 2020, did we need a new Bright Eyes album? Questionable. But as the pandemic raged on and the release date for Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was drew nearer, it almost felt like this would be a sort of comfort food, and that it couldn't come fast enough. (Another reason for that would be its overlong rollout.) There is something about having a warm, familiar blanket when things feel bleak. And though the album is too long and somewhat same-y, it's a pretty solid effort that yields some rewards.

Being a Bright Eyes record, it had to start off with some spoken-word intro, and it honestly just drags down the start of it. After waiting nine years for a new album, they could have turned the page on that necessity. The standouts to me on here are "Stairwell Song," a loving song for Conor Oberst's late brother that features typical Oberstian clever turns of phrase ("You like cinematic endings" right before the strings swell to what sounds like the end of a movie), and "Calais to Dover," which both feature a ringing arpeggio of some sort that add an intriguing texture to the sound.

Otherwise, I'd say "Dance and Sing," "Mariana Trench," "Just Once in the World," "Persona Non Grata," etc., etc., etc. are all B-level Bright Eyes songs that get the job done if never really inspire. But in 2020, especially for me being a decade-plus removed from being a teenager, this was never going to stimulate me the way it once did. So with all that in mind, it's a pretty good return that justifies its existence without being revolutionary in any way.

The Front Bottoms - In Sickness & in Flames (8/21) 🔥

Big day for August 21st! I first came to hear this New Jersey band via their ubiquitous single "Twin Size Mattress" from their 2013 album, Talon of the Hawk. That song was played on Rutgers radio all the time as I drove around my hometown and surrounding areas back then, and while the song is great, that album - which seemed to have broke them - didn't quite hook me in the same way. This album, the only other music of theirs I've heard, really did the trick for me. They've beefed up their sound a bit, retaining their acoustic charm and heart-on-your-sleeve, tell-you-about-my-mundane-day sarcastic musings, but adding in much more instrumentation to create a fuller offering.

It's funny because I've seen some critiques on this album saying the lyrics aren't pointed enough or too immature and the music is too pop or strays too much from their acoustic freak folk aesthetic. But I, as someone who wasn't so crazy about their standard sound and only knows one other album of theirs to begin with, am really into this one. Pretty much every song is a bop, from the opening positive thrush of "everyone blooms" to the nostalgic lament of "montgomery forever" to the downcast but rousing singalong of "the hard way." Every song is truly strong until the last couple lose a bit of steam, but overall I really enjoy this one and can see myself returning to it, as I have already. Oh, and though they capitalized the album title, we've got another band here who doesn't respect the sanctity of capitalized song titles. 🙄

The Flaming Lips - American Head (9/11) 🛸

Man, The Flaming Lips have been at it for a real long time now. And, yeah, it would be pretty hard to avoid diminishing returns after close to 40 (!) years. And ... they haven't avoided them. They never fully imploded, but while there was plenty to enjoy, the grab-bag schizophrenia of Embryonic, the chilling hopelessness of The Terror, the faux return-t0-form of Oczy Mlody and soundtrack of sorts King's Mouth all ranged somewhere between uneven to lightweight in the wake of their impressive late 90s-early aughts run. And I'm here, pleased to tell you that this album is really good -- their best effort since At War With the Mystics. Now, I understand if you're more into drone or horrorcore and liked The Terror more or if you were just in love with how versatile they were on Embryonic, but if you adored The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, this will hit the spot.

This album feels less fantastical and more emotional, rooted in reality and history -- particularly that of lead singer Wayne Coyne's late, drug-addled brother. And while sometimes they sing about drugs like a stoned high schooler would, the passion and, frankly, beauty they put together in these tracks is remarkable for how veteran they now are. The first song, "Will You Return / When You Come Down," is downright lovely and forlorn, a missive from those living in the world to come. "Dinosaurs on the Mountain" is classic Lips silliness, but childish in a very endearing way. "Mother Please Don't Be Sad" is ... sad but pretty, replete with a slick guitar solo, and "Assassins of Youth" is dressed up in bleeps and weird effects, but ultimately crushes you when Coyne's voice cracks as he sings, "I was young yesterday / But now everything has changed after today / And I don't know what to do / Oh, my younger self / I miss you." 😕 Don't give up on the Lips yet; check this album out.

Fleet Foxes - Shore (9/22) 🦊

Beautiful. Just beautiful. The surprise release of the year (sorry, T-Swift), it arrived at the onset of fall, when it was still warm but the leaves were starting to turn. I, in fact, had just visited the Catskills not three weeks before this came out, and it turned out that this was written and recorded around long drives that fantastic Fox Robin Pecknold was taking to the very same area! Three things are noticeably different about this FF effort right off the bat: 1) Other voices, particularly a woman's to start off the first track. 2) It's virtually the same length as its predecessor (54 vs. 55 minutes), but it's four songs longer (15 to 11). 3) Most crucially, it's so unburdened and free-flowing in comparison to 2017's Crack-Up.

Just three years after Crack-Up, it felt like no time had passed after the interminable six-year wait for what came after Helplessness Blues. The aforementioned first track, "Wading in Waist-High Water," begins with airy guitar and Uwade Akhere's serene voice before the horns accumulate at the end and lead right into the pure summery bliss of "Sunblind," which leads excellently into "Can I Believe You," one of the most effortlessly harmonious and easygoing songs in Fleet Foxes' entire oeuvre. "Jara" shows shades of "Ragged Wood," "I'm Not My Season" is bare-bones beauty while "Thymia" uses similarly basic infrastructure to achieve tender elegance. In between there are more up-tempo cuts like "A Long Way Past the Past," "Young Man's Game" and "Cradling Mother, Cradling Woman" that successfully split the difference between Helplessness Blues-like experimentation and Crack-Up ornateness before we reach the "Shore."

Four albums in, Fleet Foxes have solidified their position as one of the most reliable and consistent American rock (or rock-adjacent or indie rock, whatever) acts of our time. They're four for four now in LPs, and I could definitely see this being fans of theirs' favorite album. It's definitely not perfect, but it has so much to offer and is endlessly giving and just feels happier and more hopeful than basically anything they've ever done. Robin Pecknold has clearly been able to clean out his head a little bit, and that shiny clarity resonates in what he's created. He also says more is coming soon; can't wait.

Sufjan Stevens - The Ascension (9/25) 🆗

This album is up there with one of the bigger disappointments of the year, but it's mostly because of unmatched lofty expectations. Stevens has come out with a fairly large amount of music in the five years since Carrie & Lowell, including a couple of great songs for Call Me By Your Name, a solid B-side/demo mixtape, and two really good versions of the same song about Tonya Harding, but this was his first real full-length successor since that intimate, pretty and sad 2015 record. A five-year wait + 15 track album + song called "America" in the year 2020 had people pretty pumped ... but, ultimately, The Ascension is a bloated distant cousin to its 2010 relative, the vastly superior The Age of Adz.

The Ascension is only kin to The Age of Adz because of its predilection for electronic instrumentation, but whereas he threw everything at a wall to see what would stick on Adz (and most of it did), this feels more calculated and formulaic. The hooks just aren't there and, though I'm not a big electronic music fan to begin with, I'm assuming you could get more bang for your buck in this genre elsewhere. I did like how the first two tracks started the album off, and the title track all the way an hour-plus into this is really nice, but "Video Game," "Goodbye to All That," "Ursa Major" and so on and so forth are all mid-tempo beat-first tracks with simplistic lyrics and just not much to hang your hat on. Count me firmly not in the camp of people who want to listen to him meditatively sing "I wanna die happy" for five minutes straight. "Sugar" - again basic in its wordplay - is a nice enough sentiment, but then goes on for seven minutes too long. Even the aforementioned showstopper "America" doesn't quite hit as hard as some of his more adventurous Adz cuts or even "America"'s B-side, "My Rajneesh," better than most of the songs on this album, did.

So, yeah. There's too much riding on this one to be considered successful and I essentially haven't returned to it since it came out. Stevens basically said he made this album because all of his acoustic instruments were in storage as he was moving upstate. But he's given us so much quality work, I give him a pass for following the trail he wants to go down, and while he may never return to his 50 states project, I'm sure he'll follow this up with something even tinier and more gut-wrenching than Carrie & Lowell in the near future.

Jónsi - Shiver (10/2) 🤮

Vaunted Sigur Rós frontman, emotional cooer and bowed guitar aficionado Jónsi's debut solo album, 2010's Go, was absolutely beautiful, a more pop-oriented version of his main band's sound that still retained its grandiose nature and sheer vulnerability. It was truly excellent, like a successful spinoff of the main thing. Ten years later, its successor arrives, and it's sadly awful. I have essentially nothing to recommend from it. Lead single "Exhale" was (too) calm and pretty enough, but already with the title track you hear Jónsi tinkering with more electronic beats and really rough, jarring soundscapes that don't seem to mesh. The instrumentals on "Wildeye" and "Kórall," for instance, are incredibly grating to listen to and don't sound EQ'ed, while his duet with Robyn ("Salt Licorice") is another unlistenable mess without a good chorus to sink your teeth into. It's all a bad attempt at art-dance music or unmemorable versions of better Jónsi/Sigur Rós songs; only final track "Beautiful Boy" is somewhat thrilling in its liquid-like mysterious beauty... It sounds like the album cover of Von or what Kid B might sound like if it existed. Overall, though, highly disappointed with this one.

Future Islands - As Long As You Are (10/9) 🧡

Good album. I became a fan of this band in 2017-2018 as I was preparing to see them at Cincinnati's Homecoming Festival, so now I was finally a Future Islands devotee awaiting a new record in the year 2020. At times, this feels like the most tranquil and level-headed batch of songs they've made, with lead singer Sam Herring's vocals as passionate and clear as they've ever been. I'm not sure this, as a whole, is better than Singles, On the Water or In Evening Air, but it reliably gives us some good tracks. "For Sure," the lead single, is basically more of the same from them, a bass-and-beat-bouncing uptempo groove that Herring muses about relationships on. "Waking"'s in that vein, too, and I wish we could see them in concert to get a feel for what "Plastic Beach" would be like. Elsewhere, I love "I Knew You," a bit more patient but with gorgeous vocal delivery, and "Thrill" is the showstopper: slow, defeated and Herring giving you nothing less than 100%.

Matt Berninger - Serpentine Prison (10/16) 🐍

Didn't know we'd be getting some of The National in not one, but two Taylor Swift (!) albums this year, but those of us in the The Nationalatti had been anticipating this since 2019, when it was announced. I was very curious to hear what a solo album from their frontman would sound like, and ultimately it sounds similar in mood (can't get away from that voice) if slightly different in execution. There are no big, rousing anthems or guitar freak-outs, but while Berninger classically delivers his fair share of witty and despairing turns of phrase, it sounds like the corniness of some of the edges weren't sawed off as they would have been for a The National record.

"Distant Axis" was one of the singles, and it sounds fine, but it's just three chords for for 4:25 while completely ripping off "The Crane Wife 3." "One More Second" and "Loved So Little" are more ruminations on married life and they are also mid-tempo downers. "Oh Dearie," a song about depression, is similarly downcast and features twinkling instrumentation. "Take Me Out of Town" is the most The National-type track on here, kind of a less drunk version of "Pink Rabbits" that doesn't try to get to that next level, but ultimately succeeds in being what it is. And I like the final, title track, Berninger rhyming like he's Dr. Seuss over another basic chord pattern that's fleshed out by a pretty arrangement.

It's a drowsy record that plays in one vein, and that's fine. A low-stakes, pretty The National offshoot that's perfect for a rainy day or to glean an insight or two about being married from, but nothing more than that. Musically, he's not inventing anything new, but these songs are unmistakably his because of his voice. I can't say I'm super excited about his forthcoming covers album (which was what this album was initially going to be), but you could do way worse as a palette-cleanser while you wait for a proper follow-up to I Am Easy to Find.

Adrianne Lenker - songs (10/23) 🌺

Sheer, unadulterated beauty. This is the album, penned and recorded in quarantine, that made sense this year. It's truly unadorned and unencumbered, Lenker dealing with the dissolution of a relationship and the pausing of her main band, Big Thief, as the pandemic took hold of the world and touring was canceled. Released concurrently with the equally-as-gorgeous instrumentals, here you have Lenker pouring her soul out using paintbrushes as instruments and incorporating the rain and birds in the background of the Massachusetts cabin where she recorded this. After four albums, I'm still not crazy in love with Big Thief, though I admire a lot of their songs individually, but this quiet solo affair might be the best, most cohesive thing to come out of their universe so far.

"anything" is definitely one of the songs of the year. Sad to hear knowing it's coming after a breakup, but the lovesick lyrics ("I don't wanna talk about anything / I wanna kiss, kiss your eyes again / Wanna witness your eyes looking") and hushed, acoustic fingerpicking are absolutely delicate and will either make you more heartbroken or happier that you have someone to do that with during this tumultuous time. "two reverse" plunges you into the mood of the album immediately, while "forwards beckon rebound" sounds like it could be an Elliott Smith track in another life. Meant as a compliment, each song is similarly arresting with spare instrumentation and Lenker's subtle but effective harmonies. "dragon eyes" maybe most sounds like it could have been a Big Thief song with a little fleshing out, but all 40 minutes of this work really well together as one piece of a quietly confident creative statement in a time of great unknown and unrest.

Nothing - The Great Dismal (10/30) ☠️

Philadelphia shoegaze/indie rock/post-hardcore outfit Nothing has had an interesting run to start their career, to say the least. Musically, they started out unpolished but thrilling on 2014's Guilty of Everything, came back in high fidelity with the glossy Tired of Tomorrow - my personal favorite of theirs - and then released the more upbeat if still tonally downtrodden Dance on the Blacktop in 2018. They switched producers for that last one, and I think it was for the worse. True, they never make it a point to make Domenic Palermo's vocals too intelligible, but the mixing sounded off overall and only a few of the songs stood out as successes. Now they're back with producer Will Yip (from Tired of Tomorrow), and the results are a bit better, definitely sonically if still not quite musically back to their previous heights.

I do like how the first track, "A Fabricated Life," feels completely menacing - like it could go off at any moment - but never does, opting instead to drift along without percussion, kind of like the guitar equivalent of Tired of Tomorrow's piano-laden closer "Tired of Tomorrow." "Say Less" sounds a bit like turn-of-the-century Nine Inch Nails, though its hook isn't quite sticky enough. My favorite song on here would be the guitar-pop bop of "Catch a Fade." "Famine Asylum" isn't bad, and "In Blueberry Memories" and "Blue Mecca" are pretty straightforward shoegaze. The rest goes a bit harder and all sounds good, but these songs feel somewhat anonymous in comparison to their past work. After Dance on the Blacktop, though, the band sounds back to being a vital part of the indie/underground conversation, and will continue to be pivotal with future releases.

The War on Drugs - Live Drugs (11/20) 💊

Just a quick shoutout here to say that while we're patiently awaiting their next full-length, hopefully out next year, this new live album shows how great and muscular they are in person. I've come to be a fan since their last two albums, and I'd honestly never considered seeing them live before this, but they sound great. Part of me can't help but wonder whether we're somewhat overrating a Bruce Springsteen/heartland rock caricature and are going to look back and feel slightly embarrassed in a decade or so, but the music is usually hard to argue with. "An Ocean Between the Waves (Live)" (curiously missing the "in" from its definitive version) gets your feet in the water before you get to the elongated jam of "Strangest Thing (Live)," a Warren Zevon cover and the mine train that is "Under the Pressure (Live)" before rolling in to the station on "In Reverse (Live)." Hoping we get back to concerts in the year ahead...

Taylor Swift - evermore (12/11) 🌲

And, finally, another Taylor Swift album. Man, what has this year become? Another surprise album, another album worked on closely with The National's Aaron Dessner - this time with a song "featuring the National" - how could I not listen?? Well, to me evermore sounds like the uncool sister to folklore. The songs just aren't quite as memorable or necessary, though it's again supremely gorgeous and musically pristine throughout. I haven't mentioned this yet, but she does have a really good voice. And I know I'm not her demo, but I personally don't care for the fiction she weaves or trying to connect the dots between songs or most of her lyrics, so when they are clumsy - as they often get with the amount of words she packs into songs - it becomes more noticeable and detracts from the listening experience.

I love the acoustic instrumentation on the first track, "willow." After that, nothing really grabbed me until "dorothea," mostly because of how it sounds like classic The National piano music but also because of Swift's vocal performance. Strangely, as surreal as it was to hear her duet with Matt Berninger on "coney island," it's honestly not one of the best songs here. Her track with HAIM is kind of awkward as well. I like "ivy" and "cowboy like me," "long story short" is a different producer away from being a hit on pop radio, and "marjorie" - an ode to her late grandmother - is pretty memorable as well. Finally, the Bon Iver duet on this album, closer "evermore," is overall weaker in comparison to folklore's "exile," but halfway through turns into an actual Bon Iver song and for a moment transports me to feeling like an uncertain college kid. I'm not sure how I feel about that. And, yeah, this thing is obviously too long, too, especially considering she just released another really long album with really similar songs not five months earlier.

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That's all I can muster right now. I know it was a ton, but I didn't even touch upon Gorillaz, Run the Jewels, Kevin Morby and so many more. Real-world issues aside, I think it was a fairly good year for music. There are records here I will definitely return to, and some records I will return to just for particular songs. The circumstances under which we consumed music this year were stranger and more different than ever, but at least we had all of this to push us through. Can't take that for granted.