Neither snow nor rain nor gloom of night nor frickin’ COVID shall stay the couriers of POmposity and OPinionation from the swift completion of their appointed ruminations. Although, admittedly, last year’s turnout was a wee thinner than usual, the POOP goes on. Please feel free to share this invitation with anyone who might make a contribution to the POOP effort
Behold the 34th Annual POOPlist . . . or How I Spent My Pandemic. This year’s POOP documents what might be called the very best records of the very worst year. But for a year steeped in such sheer and utter shititude, there somehow managed to be a surprisingly ample amount of inspired music (as noted by a few people). So, if you would, allow POOP34 to provide a tincture of balm during this long slog toward whatever the next normal turns out to look like. At least there is comfort to be found that Trump is mostly gone and vaccines are mostly here, so there are those flags to mostly rally around. In the words of Nostratownshend, let us hope that ’21 is gonna be a good year. This year 19 POOPsters decided that making lists was as a good a way to kill quarantine time as anything else.
I’m just going to skip this part. All things must pass. — — — — Pernice Brothers, The Beths, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit-Reunions, Fiona Apple, Pup, Dogleg, Fontaines DC, Districts, Jeff Rosenstock, Brian Fallon
twentytwenty was super weird, amiright?!?! music was cool though. i’ve spent my time relearning how to do my job–thanks to the pandemic–so there was little time to be witty or thoughtful with describing why I loved my top five, or ten. i’ll simply say that my number 1 is perfect; every song is absolutely perfect. and my number 2 was my most played record of the year. everything else on the list is also wonderful, but i’m certain i forgot a few things. oh, well. cheers for the vaccine. yay, Science. hoping we can see live music some time before the end of the year. be easy!
You would think that I’d have more time to listen to music, ya know, since my store sank after hitting the covid iceberg. At the store I tended to play one record a few times in a row, and it would work itself into my brain.
At home I tend to listen to the radio more, or watch a movie. So most of my list are records that I really like but have only listened to a few times/ Plus, my cd player and turntable both started to fail about the same time. I rectified that, but it was kinda late in the game, so most of my listening tended to be last minute.
I figure everyone else is gonna do the political rearview, so I’m just gonna plunge ahead. Also, not having the store made getting music a bit harder. I have gotten some entire albums via Youtube. I have ordered a few things directly from labels and I’ve supported Bandcamp Fridays.
What a year. First the Chump virus sent the country to the hospital, then Chump’s insurrection tried to send the country to the funeral home. — With the pandemic and lockdown essentially gutting the concert industry, and even record stores shuttered because they were ‘non-essential’, my sources for new music / inspiration were muzzled. What to do? Well, I decided to immerse myself in my collection, to revisit and investigate things that had kinda fallen into disuse for one reason or another. I would think that this audience wouldn’t be interested in me writing about revisiting my collection (or, you can go back and read my past PoOp posts thanks to Zip’s website). But, wouldn’t ya know, I couldn’t absolutely avoid listening to new stuff. Even if it was just new releases from my old favorites, or maybe even their sons and daughters. And eventually, there have been some gigs that started opening up, as well as getting back to the record shops (those that survived – RIP Jack’s Rhythms).
My POOP DISC-CLAIMER (disc-lamer?): To only slightly-misquote Homer Simpson, that was the suckiest sucky year that ever sucked. While music will never be the first, second or hundredth thing I think of when I look back with, er, 2020 hindsight, this actually was a pretty good year for inspired music, most (but not all) recorded before March. The lion’s share of my selections are in some way steeped in older music, updated or re-examined for the present, but I’ve listed far fewer re-issues or expanded editions than usual. Pandemics work in mysterious ways.
2020 was a shitshow, but at least it ended with Florida Man being removed from office. Though he was going to have to be dragged kicking and screaming out of the White House. Well I am not going to spend my time gloating because that’s what the supporters of the Cheeto-Faced Ferret Wearing Shitgibbon did for the past few years. I am more concerned about cleaning up the mess we have and getting things right again.
On to my top 10. But in a crazy world? It was comforting to know there was a new Borat movie and an AC/DC album which sounded like an AC/DC album. Still I hope that COVID – 19 doesn’t kill live music and rock music. We will be stuck with shut-ins who mumble to beats recorded an iPad. I’m just as appalled by that as the prospect of a Trump presidency.
Albums That Helped Me Get Through 2020 or Thank God For Music — Allman Betts Band, Bob Dylan, Bonny Light Horseman, Bruce Springsteen, Caleb Caudle, Dion, Gordon Lightfoot, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Lucinda Williams, Mammals,
16 Albums for 2020 – Lady GaGa, Waxahatchee, Bob Dylan, Hinds, Margo Price, Rose City Band, X, Songhoy Blues, The Chats, Christine & the Queens,
Bob Dylan, Butch Walker, Steve Earle & the Dukes, Peat & Diesel, Songhoy Blues, Drive by Truckers, Bruce Springsteen, Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, Neil Young, Rolling Blackouts C. F.
Hello world. Anything new happen recently? I will leave pandemic/political discussion for another time, as I am sure we are all sick of talking about it. What I will say is the drugs must be working because I am encouraged that we are headed in the right direction and contrary to just about every other year I have been “POOPing”, I actually found a bunch of solid releases this year. With that, here goes.
Jeff Rosenstock, Dehd, Waxahatcheee, John Moreland, HAIM, Disq, The Strokes, The Dead Tongues, Silverbacks, Kevin Morby,
Coriky, Sault, Frazey Ford, Bananagun, Spanish Love Songs, A. Swayze and the Ghosts, Fontaines D.C., Wolf Parade, John Moreland, Muzz,
Inventions, Botany, Max Richter, KASHIWA Daisuke, The Hamrahlíð Choir, VeldHans, Joris Voorn, Martina Testen and Simon Šerc, Rone, Olivia Louvel,
Róisín Murphy, Nick Cave, Fabric presents Chase & Status, Yello, Tara Clerkin Trio.HAIM, Run the Jewels, Four Tet, Fontaines D.C., Phoebe Bridgers, Cabaret Voltaire, Soccer Mommy, Grimes, Disclosure, The Orielles, Ninja Tune on Repeat playlist, The Avalanches,
Any ST: Voyager fans out there? Remember that episode where Eric Foreman’s dad kept trying to rewrite history so he wouldn’t lose his Kitty from another planet, but kept making things worse? …“Year of Hell”… No magic Janeway reset for us tho’ – besides, then there would be the possibility of these releases not even existing…
(Again, my critera – It came out and I bought a physical copy in 2020.)
Christian Kjellvander, Jason Molina, David Berkeley, The Apartments, Ray Lamontagne, Brothertiger, Nick Cave, Tom Petty, Z Berg,
X,
Real Estate, Bill Callahan, Stephen Malkmus, Fleet Foxes, Bob Mould, Nada Surf, Garcia Peoples, Shape of the Rain, Silver Synthetic, Lou Reed, Kurt Vile,
Well. I don’t think anybody will be waxing nostalgic about 2020 any time soon, so I certainly won’t start here. Let it suffice to say that I did listen to a LOT of new music this year and that is always a good thing. Also, I can’t wait for January 20 … a new beginning!