2020 Albums • Page 5

update

23. Beach Bunny - Honeymoon +++
24. Church Girls - The Haunt +
25. Wednesday - I Was Trying To Describe You To Someone +
26. Penny Diving - Big Inhale +
27. theartofdrowning - Self Mutilation Playlist +
28. The Wonder Years - Burst & Decay Volume II +
29. baseball dad - January +
30. Thank You, I'm Sorry - The Malta House +

 

31. Kamaiyah - Got It Made +++
32. Alexander - Wonderland +
33. Seed of Pain - Flesh, Steel, Victory... ++
34. Bugsy - Teratoma +
35. Crossed - Barely Buried Love +
36. One Step Closer - Promo 2020 +
37. The Professionals - The Professionals *
38. Bib - Delux +
39. American Beauty - American Beauty +
40. Allie X - Cape God +
Update

 

February report. Still working on a backlog of stuff but what a month for music so early in the year.

Albums:
Spanish Love Songs - Brave Faces Everyone
Loathe - I Let It in and It Took Everything
Wednesday - I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone
Tame Impala - The Slow Rush
Beach Bunny - Honeymoon
The Wonder Years - Burst & Decay (Volume II)
Lanterns on the Lake - Spook The Herd
Grimes - Miss Anthropocene
COIN - Dreamland
The Amity Affliction - Everyone Loves You...Once You Leave Them
Princess Nokia - Everything Sucks
Allie X - Cape God
Soccer Mommy - color theory
Ratboys - Printer's Devil

Singles/Ep's:
Hayley Williams - Petals For Armor I (EP)
Carly Rae Jepsen - Let's Be Friends (single)
The Bombpops - Double Arrows Down (single)
King Princess - Ohio (single)
Stand Atlantic - Shh! (single)
Lanterns on the Lake - When It All Comes True (single)
The 1975 - The Birthday Party (single)
Hot Mulligan - *Equip Sunglasses* (single)
Knuckle Puck - Tune You Out (single)
Brian Fallon - I Don't Mind (If I'm With You) (single)
Phoebe Bridgers - Garden Song (single)
Car Seat Headrest - Can't Cool Me Down (single)
Christine and the Queens - La vita nuova (EP)

 

41. Princess Nokia - Everything Sucks ++
42. Princess Nokia - Everything is Beautiful ++
43. Soccer Mommy - Color Theory ++
44. Gladie - Safe Sins +++
45. Scratchy Blanket - Something for Everyone ++
46. Ratboys - Printer's Devil +
47. Lilac Queen - If Only +
48. Drakeo the Ruler - Free Drakeo +
49. Shootergang Kony - Red Paint Reverend +

Update

 

March update:

I'll list albums I had never listened to before or barely given attention to.

++ = Fantastic, I'm hooked!
+ = Good album, might go back sometimes.
* = Enjoyable, but probably won't go back.
- = Didn't enjoy much.
-- = Couldn't stand, probably didn't finish.

2020 releases are in bold font.

JANUARY

1. Hawthorne Heights - Fragile Future (2008) ++
2. Hawthorne Heights - Zero (2013) +
3. Paramore - All We Know Is Falling (2005) *
4. Paramore - Riot! (2007) +
5. Dayseeker- Sleeptalk (2019) ++
6. Paramore - Brand New Eyes (2009) +
7. Paramore - Paramore (2013) ++
8. Conditions- Fluorescent Youth (2010) ++
9. Jimmy Eat World - Static Prevails (1996) *
10. Jimmy Eat World - Clarity (1999) *
11. Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American (2001) +
12. Jimmy Eat World - Futures (2004) ++
13. Jimmy Eat World - Chase This Light (2007) +
14. Jimmy Eat World - Invented (2010) +
15. Jimmy Eat World - Damage (2013) ++
16. Anti-Flag - 20/20 Vision (2020) ++
17. Jimmy Eat World - Integrity Blues (2016) ++
18. Beach Slang - The Deadbeat Bang of Heartbreak City (2020) +
19. Circa Waves - Happy (2020) ++
20. Echosmith- Lonely Generation (2020) *
21. Georgia - Seeking Thrills (2020) -
22. The Big Moon - Walking Like We Do (2020) +
23. Emarosa- Relativity (2008) +
24. Selena Gomez - Rare (2020) *
25. AJJ- Good Luck Everybody (2020) *
26. Pinegrove- Marigold (2020) +
27. Halsey- Manic (2020) +
28. Of Montreal - UR FUN (2020) ++
29. Funeral For a Friend - Casually Dressed and Deep in Conversation (2003) +
30. Emarosa- Emarosa (2010) +
31. Emarosa- Versus (2014) +
32. Emarosa- 131 (2016) ++
33. Meet Me @ The Altar - Bigger Than Me EP (2019) ++
34. Bayside- Sirens and Condolences (2004) *
35. Bayside- Bayside (2005) +
36. Dashboard Confessional- The Best Ones of The Best Ones (2020) +
37. Holy Fuck - Deleter (2020) +

FEBRUARY

38. Cassino- Bottlenecker EP (2016) +
39. Caspian- On Circles (2020) *
40. Bayside- The Walking Wounded (2007) +
41. Green Day - Father of All Motherfuckers (2020) +
42. Hayley Williams - Petals For Armor I EP (2020) ++
43. Bayside- Shudder (2008) ++
44. Bayside- Killing Time (2011) ++
45. Bombay Bicycle Club- Everything Else Has Gone Wrong (2020) *
46. Little Big Town - Nightfall (2020) ++
47. Chase Tremaine- Unfall (2020) +
48. Foxing- Nearer My God (2018) +
49. Andy Shauf - The Neon Skyline (2020) *
50. Spanish Love Songs - Brave Faces Everyone (2020) +
51. Linelions- II (2020) +
52. Bayside - Cult (2014) +
53. Bayside- Vacancy (2016) ++
54. Bayside- Interrobang (2019) ++
55. Frances Quinlan - Likewise (2020) *
56. John Moreland - LP5 (2020) +
57. Loathe - I Let It In And It Took Everything (2020) +
58. Nada Surf- Never Not Together (2020) ++
59. The Lone Bellow - Half Moon Light (2020) +
60. Beach Bunny- Honeymoon (2020) ++
61. Nathaniel Rateliff - And It's Still Alright (2020) +
62. Tame Impala- The Slow Rush (2020) *
63. Four Year Strong - Brain Pain (2020) ++

MARCH

64. Katie Pruitt - Expectations (2020) +
65. Hidden In Plain View - Life In Dreaming (2005) +
66. Silverstein - A Beautiful Place to Drown (2020) +++
67. The Amity Affliction - Everyone Loves You... Once You Leave Them (2020) *
68. King Krule - Man Alive (2020) *
69. Tennis - Swimmer (2020) +
70. Soccer Mommy - color theory (2020) +
71. Cassino- Yellowhammer (2020) +
72. Circa Waves - Sad Happy (2020) ++
73. Grouplove- Healer (2020) +
74. Dogleg- Melee (2020) *
75. Code Orange - Underneath (2020) -
76. All Time Low - Wake Up, Sunshine (2020) ++
77. Out of Service - Staying In (B Sides) (2020) +

 

listened to 112 albums in February, bringing my total for 2020 releases to 192. listened to 174 new artists YTD. i expect my pace to drop off significantly in March as my promotion starts and i get flooded with meetings which means less time for music.

 

February in Review:
February has been a crazy time for my music listening habits the last few years because I participate in #MWE, a month-long music writing exercise where I write at least a tweet per album. I tend to focus on older music, with a ~50% focus on albums created by women and POC. You can follow my journey by clicking on the below thread:

My favorite project from this year's exercise was Pale Saints' 1990 opus The Comforts of Madness, a blend of shoegaze and post punk that's stacked with these incredibly punchy songs. There's a moment in "Sight of You" when the vocals kick in and it feels like the best song in the world just got beamed in from an alternate universe. I'll be listening to it for quite a long time.

Beyond finding new wrinkles from artists I already idolize like D'Angelo and U2 (Achtung Baby... what?!?), I also fell in love albums by artists I'd never really listened to before, like Swamp Dogg, Labi Siffre, Everything But The Girl, and The City. It's an invigorating and taxing project to give this much of my headspace to such varied music, hopscotching across decades and genres like a plane touching down haphazardly in a storm. But in the end, I find it's worth taking on the challenge, expanding my horizons with rewarding new places for a music lover like me to land.

Beyond all of those daily archival records, the year in music also kicked into gear with a host of new albums that all deserve extra time in rotation. Chief among these releases is Katie Pruitt's Expectations, which was my most anticipated debut of the year and did not disappoint. Simply put, Pruitt is one of the best-sung songwriters I've ever heard: young and tuneful and brash in equal measure. Her voice has a timbre that seems able to pull romance from out of thin air, adept at both heartful soaring (listen to the last minute of closer "It's Always Been You"... she's showing off) and casting personal asides. The instrumentation is lush and warm to match her tone, setting the foundation for a wonderful song cycle of self-discovery and acceptance that's made me tear up quite a few times. I've been listening to a lot of these songs in unfinished forms for years, since watching her open for Ruston Kelly at the Mercury Lounge in 2018 and immediately thinking I need to remember this woman. It's such a testament to Pruitt and her producers that these feel like the best possible versions of the songs I already love -- it feels like the natural manifestation the classic songwriting adage "you get your whole life to make your first record." There is a LOT of awesome music still to come in 2020, but I already can't foresee many albums surpassing Expectations.

Outside of my listening project, plenty of other things happened this month in music that was super fun to think about. Chuck Klosterman and Chris Ryan started an existential music podcast called Music Exists that I've been treating like a priceless reward each week. It takes questions like “why do we like the things we like” and dissects them in a conversational and personal way, digging in like a 2am bar conversation between two music nerds. It’s still in its infancy as a podcast and a bit raw, but has the ability to be something special.

Other 2020 albums I enjoyed in February include Soccer Mommy and Jeff Parker, who both put out dense and heady projects that deserve way more time than I was able to give them. I hope to have a lot more thoughts about each as I find more time in March. I think I'm grouping them here because they both push into similar emotional abscesses, but do it in completely different ways musically.

In hip hop, 645AR's "4 Da Trap" and RMR's "RASCAL" are carving new lanes for melodic trap music in a way that's incredibly provocative. I can't wait to show them to people and argue about them for the next month. All in all, I'm excited to get back to a more traditional flow of music to slow down and revisit what I've already enjoyed this year.

Top 2020 Albums of the Month:
Katie Pruitt, Soccer Mommy, Jeff Parker

Top #MWE Albums:
Pale Saints (The Comforts of Madness), Buckingham Nicks (Buckingham Nicks), Swamp Dogg (Total Destruction For Your Mind)

5 Recommended Songs:
Katie Pruitt - "Wishful Thinking"
Nation of Language - "Indignities"
Christine and the Queens - "Mountains (we met)"
Pale Saints - "Sight of You"
Bonny Light Horseman - "Deep In Love"

 

Been waiting for this Jhené album for so long and I’m not disappointed

 

I think I've only listened to 4 albums from this year so far. Since I've started cycling to work, it really cut into my daily listen to a new album on my commute. I don't really listen to much at work.

 

This is a whole new album in the rock-funk domain.

 

I've always have a doubt: are we suppose to post albums of 2020, or just albums that we listen to in 2020 regardless of when we've heard it.

 

Whatever you wanna do!

 

I think it’s just personal preference. I personally only list 2020 albums.

 

Sounds anarchic . I think I'd rather 2020 albums... Sounds more logical I guess.

 

Understandable. I personally track them both, but as separate lists. I just think it's interesting to see what all I've listened to in a year

 

Update

50. Worriers - You And Someone You Know +++
51. Bacchae - Pleasure Vision +++
52. Erica Freas - Young ++
53. Power Alone - Rather Be Alone ++
54. Fixation - Promo 2020 ++
55. Big Cheese - Punishment Park +
56. Blueface - Find The Beat +
57. thanks for coming - adding up +
58. Going Off - Going Off +
59. Big Contest - Monkey's Paw +
60. Subliminal Excess - 2020 +
61. Get a Grip - 2020 - Promo +
62. Lower Depths - Purification Through Self-Sacrifice +
63. Oolong - About Your Imaginary Friend +
64. Field Agent - Relection +
65. Wall Breaker - Resurrect +
66. Apsara - Karma's Pull +
67. Pummel - Our Power +
68. Method -Constant Weight +
69 - End It - One Way Track +
70. Fortunes Fool V -K ++
71. T.S Warspite - Demo +
72. Boosegumps - 5 Demos +
73. C4 - Goes To War - Demo +
74. Same Son - Manifest +

 

2020 releases listened to in March (numbers fell off a cliff due to basically working 3 jobs and no longer being at my desk but in the front of our office - until we started working from home last week):

193 Forever - Close to the Flame (meh)
194 Hollywood Undead - New Empire, Vol. 1 (dislike)
195 Jack River - Stranger Heart (liked it)
196 Mondo Generator - Fuck It (dislike)
197 Real Estate - The Main Thing (ok)
198 Gladie - Safe Sins (really enjoyed it)
199 Five Finger Death Punch - F8 (ok)
200 Wasted Shirt - Fungus II (liked it)
201 Silverstein - A Beautiful Place to Drown (liked it)
202 Mandy Moore - Silver Landings (ok)
203 Anna Calvi - Hunted (ok)
204 Overcoats - The Fights (ok)
205 Buggin' Out - Buggin' Out EP (ok)
206 Body Count - Carnivore (dislike)
207 Daniel Davies - Signals (liked it)
208 Carly Pearce - Carly Pearce (meh)
209 The Weeknd - After Hours (liked it)
210 Morrissey - I am Not a Dog on a Chain (liked it)
211 Moaning - Uneasy Laughter (really liked it)
212 Hot Mulligan - You'll Be Fine (liked it)
213 Gordon Lightfoot - SOLO (liked it)
214 Brian Fallon - Local Honey (liked it)
215 Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud (liked it)
216 Baxter Dury - The Night Chancers (liked it)
217 Swamp Dogg - Sorry You Couldn't Make It (ok)
218 Dogleg - Melee (liked it)
219 Code Orange - Underneath (dislike)
220 The Bombpops - Death in Venice Beach (liked it)
221 The Districts - You Know I'm Not Going Anywhere (liked it)
222 Sleep Dance - Still (liked it)
223 Pantha du Prince - Conference of Trees (ok)
224 Caitlyn Smith - Supernova (ok)

 

75. Brian Fallon - Local Honey ++
76. Three Knee Deep - Three Knee Deep ++
77. Orchards - Lovecore +
78. Ill Communication - Demo +
79. Bazookatooth - Assimilate ++
80. The Fight - Endless Noise +
81. Choice to Make - Vicious Existence +
82. No Other Way - Slow Violence +
83. FYSICAL - Demo 2020 +
84. World Demise - Demo 2020 +
85. Soul Provider - Demo +
86. Carbonite - Demo +
87. Existence - LP Promo 2020 +
88. Nef The Pharaoh - CHANGSZN +
89. Sweet Dog Violet - Sweet Dog Violet +
90. Bottom Bracket - I Don't Care Enough to Stay +
91. Marigolds - Hot Springs ++
92. KRUELTY - A DYING TRUTH ++
93. Code Orange - Underneath --

Update

 

March update. Some really good stuff so far but I’m not sure I have any clear AOTY contenders yet.

 

April 2020 Listened to List (WIP):

225 Tyson Motsenbocker - Some Day I'll Make It All Up to You (really liked it)
226 Circa Waves - Sad Happy (really liked it)
227 Wajatta - Don't Let It Get You Down (meh)
228 Krosis - A Memoir of Free Will (meh)
229 Necrowretch - The Ones from Hell (ok)
230 Grouplove - Healer (liked it)
231 Cassino - Yellowhammer (liked it)
232 Snarls - Burst (liked it)
233 Chief State - Tough Love EP (ok)
234 All Time Low - Wake Up, Sunshine (liked it)
235 Purity Ring - WOMB (ok)
236 August Burns Red - Guardians (meh)
237 Empress Of - I'm Your Empress Of (ok)
238 U.S. Girls - Heavy Light (liked it)
239 Against All Logic - 2017-2019 (disliked)
240 The Boomtown Rats - Citizens of Boomtown (meh)
241 Pearl Jam - Gigaton (ok)
242 Thundercat - It Is What It Is (ok)
243 Addy - Eclipse (liked it)
244 The Orb - Abolition of the Royal Familia (disliked)
245 Joywave - Possessions (really liked it)
246 Delain - Apocalypse & Chill (liked it)
247 Violent Soho - Everything is A-OK (liked it)
248 Phantogram - Ceremony (liked it)
249 The Strokes - The New Abnormal (really liked it)
250 Sparta - Trust the River (ok)
251 Trace Mountains - Lost in the Country (liked it)
252 M. Ward - Migration Stories (ok)
253 Adult. - Perception /is/as/of Deception (disliked)
254 The Wildfires Projekt - From Which We Came (ok)
255 Local H - Lifers (liked it)
256 Azusa - Loop of Yesterdays (ok)
257 Peach Pit - You and Your Friends (liked it)
258 Cornershop - England is a Garden (ok)
259 Long Neck - World's Strongest Dog (liked it)
260 Say Hi - Diamonds & Donuts (ok)
261 Enter Shikari - Nothing is True & Everything is Possible (liked it)
262 Big Loser - Love You, Barely Living (really liked it)
263 Four Tet - Sixteen Oceans (ok)
264 Deap Lips - Deap Lips (ok)
265 The Dream Syndicate - The Universe Inside (liked it)
266 Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters (liked it)
267 Tycho - Simulcast (meh)
268 Bell Plaines - Through Fog (meh)
269 The Black Dahlia Murder - Verminous (meh)
270 Midwife - Forever (liked it)
271 Coldbones - The Cataclysm (liked it)
272 Dance Gavin Dance - Afterburner (really liked it)
273 The Used - Heartwork (liked it)
274 Other Lives - For Their Love (liked it)
275 Trivium - What the Dead Men Say (ok)
276 Rufus Wainwright - Unfollow the Rules (liked it)
277 Lucinda Williams - Good Souls Better Angels (meh)
278 CocoRosie - Put the Shine On (ok)
279 Born Ruffians - JUICE (ok)
280 D.O.A. - Treason (ok)
281 The Sleep Eazys - Easy to Buy, Hard to Sell (ok)
282 The Pack A.D. - It Was Fun While it Lasted (ok)
283 - The Smith Street Band - Don't Waste Your Anger (liked it)
284 Yves Tumor - Heaven to a Tortured Mind (ok)
285 AWOLNATION - Angel Miners & the Lightning Riders (liked it)
286 Brendan Benson - Dear Life (liked it)
287 Diners - Leisure World (ok)
288 Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Traditional Techniques (ok)
289 Hazel English - Wake UP! (really liked it)

 

I will post only my favorite ones:

Eminem - "Music To Be Murdered By"
Lil Uzi Vert - "Eternal Atake"
Lil Wayne - "Funeral"
The Weeknd - "After Hours"
Joyner Lucas - "ADHD"

 

April update:

I'll list albums I had never listened to before or barely given attention to.

++ = Fantastic, I'm hooked!
+ = Good album, might go back sometimes.
* = Enjoyable, but probably won't go back.
- = Didn't enjoy much.
-- = Couldn't stand, probably didn't finish.

2020 releases are in bold font.

JANUARY

1. Hawthorne Heights - Fragile Future (2008) ++
2. Hawthorne Heights - Zero (2013) +
3. Paramore - All We Know Is Falling (2005) *
4. Paramore - Riot! (2007) +
5. Dayseeker- Sleeptalk (2019) ++
6. Paramore - Brand New Eyes (2009) +
7. Paramore - Paramore (2013) ++
8. Conditions- Fluorescent Youth (2010) ++
9. Jimmy Eat World - Static Prevails (1996) *
10. Jimmy Eat World - Clarity (1999) *
11. Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American (2001) +
12. Jimmy Eat World - Futures (2004) ++
13. Jimmy Eat World - Chase This Light (2007) +
14. Jimmy Eat World - Invented (2010) +
15. Jimmy Eat World - Damage (2013) ++
16. Anti-Flag - 20/20 Vision (2020) ++
17. Jimmy Eat World - Integrity Blues (2016) ++
18. Beach Slang - The Deadbeat Bang of Heartbreak City (2020) +
19. Circa Waves - Happy (2020) ++
20. Echosmith- Lonely Generation (2020) *
21. Georgia - Seeking Thrills (2020) -
22. The Big Moon - Walking Like We Do (2020) +
23. Emarosa- Relativity (2008) +
24. Selena Gomez - Rare (2020) *
25. AJJ- Good Luck Everybody (2020) *
26. Pinegrove- Marigold (2020) +
27. Halsey- Manic (2020) +
28. Of Montreal - UR FUN (2020) ++
29. Funeral For a Friend - Casually Dressed and Deep in Conversation (2003) +
30. Emarosa- Emarosa (2010) +
31. Emarosa- Versus (2014) +
32. Emarosa- 131 (2016) ++
33. Meet Me @ The Altar - Bigger Than Me EP (2019) ++
34. Bayside- Sirens and Condolences (2004) *
35. Bayside- Bayside (2005) +
36. Dashboard Confessional- The Best Ones of The Best Ones (2020) +
37. Holy Fuck - Deleter (2020) +

FEBRUARY

38. Cassino- Bottlenecker EP (2016) +
39. Caspian- On Circles (2020) *
40. Bayside- The Walking Wounded (2007) +
41. Green Day - Father of All Motherfuckers (2020) +
42. Hayley Williams - Petals For Armor I EP (2020) ++
43. Bayside- Shudder (2008) ++
44. Bayside- Killing Time (2011) ++
45. Bombay Bicycle Club- Everything Else Has Gone Wrong (2020) *
46. Little Big Town - Nightfall (2020) ++
47. Chase Tremaine- Unfall (2020) +
48. Foxing- Nearer My God (2018) +
49. Andy Shauf - The Neon Skyline (2020) *
50. Spanish Love Songs - Brave Faces Everyone (2020) +
51. Linelions- II (2020) +
52. Bayside - Cult (2014) +
53. Bayside- Vacancy (2016) ++
54. Bayside- Interrobang (2019) ++
55. Frances Quinlan - Likewise (2020) *
56. John Moreland - LP5 (2020) +
57. Loathe - I Let It In And It Took Everything (2020) +
58. Nada Surf- Never Not Together (2020) ++
59. The Lone Bellow - Half Moon Light (2020) +
60. Beach Bunny- Honeymoon (2020) ++
61. Nathaniel Rateliff - And It's Still Alright (2020) +
62. Tame Impala- The Slow Rush (2020) *
63. Four Year Strong - Brain Pain (2020) ++

MARCH

64. Katie Pruitt - Expectations (2020) +
65. Hidden In Plain View - Life In Dreaming (2005) +
66. Silverstein - A Beautiful Place to Drown (2020) +++
67. The Amity Affliction - Everyone Loves You... Once You Leave Them (2020) *
68. King Krule - Man Alive (2020) *
69. Tennis - Swimmer (2020) +
70. Soccer Mommy - color theory (2020) +
71. Cassino- Yellowhammer (2020) +
72. Circa Waves - Sad Happy (2020) ++
73. Grouplove- Healer (2020) +
74. Dogleg- Melee (2020) *
75. Code Orange - Underneath (2020) -
76. All Time Low - Wake Up, Sunshine (2020) ++
77. Out of Service - Staying In (B Sides) (2020) +

APRIL

78. The Weeknd - After Hours (2020) +
79. Kelsea Ballerini- kelsea (2020) +
80. Hot Mulligan - You'll Be Fine (2020) +
81. Alexisonfire- Crisis (2006) ++
82. Circa Survive - Blue Sky Noise (2010) *
83. Pinegrove- Cardinal (2016) +
84. 5 Seconds of Summer - CALM (2020) +
85. Jack's Mannequin - Everything in Transit (2005) ++
86. The Hotelier - Home, Like Noplace is There (2014) +
87. Dboy- New Records in Human Power (2020) -
88. Pinegrove- Skylight (2018) +
89. The National- Trouble Will Find Me (2013) +
90. Underoath- Lost in the Sound of Separation (2008) ++
91. Emery- The Question (2006) ++
92. Wolves at the Gate - Eclipse (2019) +
93. Phoebe Bridgers- Stranger in the Alps (2017)+
94. Brian Fallon - Local Honey (2020) +
95. Emery- Palmetto EP (2020) ++
96. Emery- White Line Fever (2020) ++
97. Dua Lipa- Future Nostalgia (2020) ++
98. Orville Peck - Pony (2019) +
99. Enter Shikari - Nothing Is True And Everything Is Possible (2020) ++
100. Fiona Apple - Fetch The Bolt Cutters (2020) +
101. The Used - Heartwork (2020) ++

 

now I am obsessed with this song
Billie Eilish - ilomilo (MBNN Remix)

 

March In Review:
Well, the world has certainly changed since the last time I wrote one of these.

I'm writing this from my parents' house in the Philadelphia suburbs, where we're currently entering our fourth week of self-quarantine. I'm not really sure how to process the experience. I haven't been in this house for more than a few days at a time in over a decade, and now my fiancé, her sister, and I are living this weird circumstances where I'm in a hyper-familiar place at a very different time in my life. It feels very circular to wake up here, to work from home in the computer area upstairs where I first learned what dial-up was, to run trails in the state park where I spent so much of my teenage years and so very little of it since then. It's like someone hit a pause button on my life.

Honestly, I'm just praying that my parents stay safe. We convinced them to hunker down in their lake house in Northeast PA, which is hopefully isolated enough that they don't encounter a strain of the virus for a while. They both are in their mid 60s with respiratory/heart conditions, so everyone is acutely aware that they're a prime target for this horror show. I'm so fucking mad at the president, so despondent by how powerless I am, and frightened for how terrible the next six months are going to be. It's entirely possible that we could be doing some version of this for the rest of the year.

Listening to music feels so different in this environment. I don't have my own space anymore, so most of what I'm putting on has to be enjoyable to a room full of people. When I'm in the car I find myself drawn to familiar pop punk artists from when I was younger, like The Ataris and The Get Up Kids. Maybe it's comforting to shout along to stupid songs where the worst thing in the world is some girl breaking your heart.

Anyway. One album came out this month that immediately stood out as a contender for my top spot at the end of the year. Waxahatchee's Saint Cloud is exactly as perfect as I imagined it would be -- eleven country folk missives that frame Katie Crutchfield's confessional songwriting in the tradition of an artist like Lucinda Williams.

I've only had a few weeks with the whole Waxahatchee album at this point, which means I'm at that sweet spot where I'm finding new things to love about the songs that didn't immediately catch my ear. Lately my favorite tune is "Hell", a straightforward dust-up about learning to live with someone that isn't easy to be around. It's a beautiful marriage of her subtle poetics ("I illuminate the ramble of your sigh" is such a great way to describe the wear and tear of a rough relationship) and Crutchfield's ear for a catchy melody. It's also a really great sign that I've worn out the singles for months and they still lift me up in exactly the same way that they did when I first heard them. Both "Fire" and "Lilacs" are song of the year contenders, filled with this scrappy passion that I want to embody SO MUCH these days. Honestly, I could also write about the other 8 songs on this record at length... it's basically all I want to listen to these days.

The other heavily anticipated album that I've spent a lot of time with this month is Brian Fallon's Local Honey, which is a perfect care package from one of my favorite songwriters. This project has a mournful country folk tone that harkens back in some ways to The Horrible Crowes' album Elsie, which is one of the best projects that Fallon has released in his prolific 15 year career. The longing acoustic bedding feels wholly appropriate for my recent moods, and there's also a sense of hope that is so needed to balance out the wistfulness. I held off on listening to the singles because I didn't want to wear out half of the 8-song record, which was a good choice; "21 Days" and "Horses" strike me as some of his best work ever and it's a treat to hear them for the first time along with the rest of the record. I'm also a big fan of the storytelling that Fallon dips into on "Vincent", and I wonder how it would come off if he tried to do a whole project that felt more overtly like a series of short stories.

There was so much other great music from this month that I can't wait to blast when we're out of this mess. Silver Torches is an indie rock band from Seattle who put out a stunning record, Bermuda Dunes, that feels tailor-made for summer. It's filled with hooky, emotional songs like "My Own Road", whose balance of singable choruses and hazy instrumental flourishes sound like the War On Drugs decided to make a pop record. Dua Lipa leveled up hard on her stunning second album Future Nostalgia, which incorporates touches of 70s disco into a modern pop framework with concise power and swagger. I never particularly cared for her music before this cycle, but the jams are undeniable. Hopefully the coronavirus-truncated promo run around the release date doesn’t chip away at her chance to introduce more people to a great pop album.

The first quarter of 2020 has been very kind on the singles side, with more top-shelf songs than I can remember in a long time. Special shoutout to The Killers' "Caution", which has become one of my very favorite songs from this year, an irresistible slice of world-conquering rock that soars like the very best music can. I just need to be able to roll the windows down on my car and race down the highway to it. I'm also mystified and thankful for Bob Dylan's release of "Murder Most Foul". I have listened to his 17-minute refrainless poem about the Kennedy assassination at least six times in the last week. It is the perfect time for music that's somehow able to separate the listener from time itself. Dylan continues to have a connection to the fabric of the universe that feels truly mystical.

In just the next three months, there are some incredible albums to look forward to by The Killers, Westerman, and reigning best band on the planet The 1975 to name a few. And holy shit, I didn't even mention that Bright Eyes is back! If you're into any of the stuff I talk about in these write-ups, I'd recommend checking out my Songs from 2020 Spotify playlist for some other finds. I try to add about a song a day.

Finally, at the bottom of this post I took a stab at summarizing my favorite 10 albums so far in 2020. (I've listened to 100 or so albums for the first time this year, which is a breakneck pace for me after three months. Man, I'm doing a bad job at my resolution to listen to less albums.) Katie Pruitt feels locked into that top spot in a way that feels particularly special; it's a record that I just want to show people, which is rare as hell. Destroyer's Have We Met is a stunning, otherworldly piece that can't be compared to almost anything else. I will regret not going to his Brooklyn show earlier this month for a long time, especially since in retrospect it would have been the last concert that I could've gone to before quarantine hit. Ethan Gruska's En Garde snuck up on me after we just... kept... reaching for it. It's got this tactile mood that feels like a low-key version of the Now Now album from last year, and it's the first time I ever revised a rating on my initial albums list from + to ++ because I couldn't bear seeing it be wrong. The other folks could still move up if I give them more time, but the theme I'm seeing throughout is that I'm feeling slow and sad. Here's hoping by the time I write about April, I'll have cause to be bit more lively.

Stay safe, everyone.

Top 2020 Albums of the Month:
Waxahatchee, Brian Fallon, Dua Lipa, Silver Torches

Recommended Songs I Discovered this Month:
The Killers - "Caution"
The Aces - "Daydream"
Westerman - "Think I'll Stay"
Brian Fallon - "21 Days"
Silver Torches - "My Own Road"

My Top 10 Albums of Q1 2020:
1. Katie Pruitt - Expectations
2. Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud
3. Destroyer - Have We Met
4. Brian Fallon - Local Honey
5. Ethan Gruska - En Garde
6. Mac Miller - Circles
7. Soccer Mommy - color theory
8. Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia
9. Jay Electronica - A Written Testamony
10. Bonny Light Horseman - Bonny Light Horseman

 

I really enjoy reading your monthly writeups! I hope you and your family stay safe and healthy during this time.