I haven’t heard that much new music this year. Maybe I’m old. Or I don’t have Spotify or Sirius. Or that I just listen to records. Perhaps that’s redundant.
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1. Wet Leg – Wet Leg
Punky, punchy, exuberant, smart guitar excellence that is just so damn much fun.
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2. Fontaines DC – Skinty Fia
Irish post – punk heroes grow up, hone their craft, and expand lyrically. Coping with living in a London both familiar yet foreign, yearning for the comfort of Dublin while embracing new and frightening adventures. A triumph.
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3. The Beths – Expert In a Dying Field
Flawless power pop that examines relationships with scalpel – like precision and shout to the rafters fist pumping choruses. This is their third brilliant record is a row.
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4. Pup – The Unravelling of Puptheband
Smart and sarcastic, confident and confused. Just like all the best punk rock really. Ponders the profound desire and utter futility of keeping it real while wanting the big time they know they’ll likely never achieve.
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5. Frightened Rabbit – State Hospital and The Midnight Organ Fight 10th Anniverary Editions
My favorite band of the last fifteen years. When we were in Scotland this summer we saw the bridge that leader Scott Hutchinson leapt from for his last tragic swim. This begins the posthumous reissue series. State Hospital for the first time on vinyl in the US and Midnight an expanded version. Essential.
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6. Horsegirl – Versions of Modern Peformance
Sounds like I’m still working at Rhino in the 90’s. And it sounds amazing. Original enough but with echoes of Yo La Tengo, Dino Jr, MBV, and Bettie Serveert. Sonic Youth’s Lee Renaldo and Steve Shelley are even along for the ride.
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7. The 1975 – Being Funny In a Foreign Language
Never sure whether or not to take this band seriously. Pretty certain I still don’t. Sometimes that’s the point?
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8. Destroyer – Labyrinthitis
I literally got this two days ago or else it would rank much higher. Intriguing and dense. Can’t wait to delve deeper.
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9. Wilco – Cruel Country
Their roots album? Breaks no new ground and that’s more than fine with me.
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10. Alvvays – BlueRev
They sure know their way around a key change, which is sometimes all I need.
Song of the Year –
Bakar – Hell N Back
Neo – Soul in all the best ways. Clever, smooth, and catchy as COVID.
Reissue –
Blue Note Tone Poem Series
Perfect, stunning, beautiful glossy gatefold 180 gram vinyl from the original analog Rudy Van Gelder sessions. Probably my most listened to music of the year.