Chorus.fm Members EOTY Lists 2020 • Page 8

1. Caro - Burrows
2. Slotface - Sorry for the late reply
3. Deep Sea Diver - Impossible Weight
4. Joywave - Possession
5. Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher
6. Beach Bunny - Honeymoon
7. Rina Sawayama - SAWAYAMA
8. TORRES - Silver Tongue
9. The Front Bottoms - In Sickness & In Flames
10. Poppy - I Disagree

 

1. Spanish Love Songs - Brave Faces, Everyone // RIYL The Wonder Years or The Menzingers
2. of montreal - UR FUN // Indie/psychedilic
3. Charli XCX - how i’m feeling now // I play this all the time. I love the production and her voice.
4. I’m Glad It’s You - Every Sun, Every Moon // One of the best in the "emo" genre I've heard in a long time.
5. Mandancing - The Good Sweat // Emo RIYL Moneen
6. Rina Sawayama - SAWAYAMA // She is hard to define. I would say RIYL Lady Gaga.
7. Dorian Electra - My Agenda // This album makes a statement and is super gay. RIYL 100gecs.
8. Polo G - THE GOAT // Rap with honest lyrics, hooks, and bars.
9. Juice WRLD - Legends Never Die // His posthumous album. The melodies are excellent and the lyrics are brutally honest about his addiction and depression. I get the goosebumps listening.
10. Taylor Swift - folklore // Different for her, RIYL indie/folk
11. Sara and the Safe Word - Good Gracious! Bad People. // Theatrical. It could be a musical. RIYL Panic at the Disco!
12. Yves Tumor - Heaven to a Tortured Mind // A person of color that makes a genre of his own.
13. Freddie Gibbs - Alfredo // Hip hop with fantastic production by The Alchemist
14. Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher // Excellent songwriting, lyrics, and vocals.
15. Lil Uzi Vert - Eternal Atake (Deluxe) - LUV vs. the World 2 // The deluxe version has twice as many tracks. Some go hard and some are bops.
16. Rod Wave - Pray For Love // Melodic rap with singing too
17. Oceanator - Things I Never Said // Emo I guess
18. Poppy - I Disagree// Pop metal, RIYL Babymetal
19. Beach Bunny - Honeymoon// Female fronted emo pop
20. Goalies Anxiety At The Penalty Kick - Ways of Hearing // RIYL empire! empire! i was a lonely state

 

Absolute Faves
Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher
Fiona Apple – Fetch the Bolt Cutters
Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud

Big Big Faves
Christian Lee Hutson – Beginners
Hayley Williams – Petals for Armour
The 1975 – Notes on a Conditional Form
Nat Vazer – Is This Offensive and Loud?
HAIM – Women in Music, Part III
Kevin Morby – Sundowner
Glass Animals – Dreamland
Bartees Strange – Live Forever
Tennis – Swimmer
Beach Bunny – Honeymoon
MAITA – Best Wishes
Mac Miller – Circles
Frances Quinlan – Likewise
Soccer Mommy – Color Theory
Katie Malco – Failures
Laura Marling – Song for our Daughter
Perfume Genius – Set My Heart on Fire Immediately
Bright Eyes – Down In The Weeds, Where The World Once Was
Dog Day – Present
Carly Rae Jepsen – Dedicated Side B
Adrienne Lenker - Songs
The Front Bottoms – In Sickness & In Flames
Samia – The Baby
Sufjan Stevens – The Ascension
Pillow Queens – In Waiting
Fenne Lily – Breach
Braids – Shadow Offering
ManDancing – The Good Sweat
Porridge Radio – Every Bad
Haley Blais – Below the Salt
Sylvan Esso – Free Love

Big Faves
Novo Amor – Cannot Be, Whatsoever
Matt Berninger – Serpentine Prison
Half Gringa – Force to Reckon
Momma – Two of Me
The Strokes – The New Abnormal
Fleet Foxes – Shore
Snarls – Burst
Death Valley Girls – Under The Spell of Joy
Tenci – My Heart is an Open Field
Nnamdi – BRAT
Lianne La Havas – Lianne La Havas
Anjimile – Giver Taker
Mansions – Big Bad
Kicksie – All My Friends
Oceanator – Things I Never Said
Liza Anne – Bad Vacation
Anna Burch – If You’re Dreaming
Margaret Glaspy – Devotion
Bombay Bicycle Club – Everything Else Has Gone Wrong
Caveboy – Night in the Park, Kiss in the Dark
Orlando Weeks – A Quickening
Kehlani – It Was Good Until It Wasn’t
Long Neck – World’s Strongest Dog
Sir Chloe – Party Favors
Soft Blue Shimmer – Heaven Inches Away
Becca Mancari – The Greatest Part
Run The Jewels – RTJ4
Purity Ring – Womb
Oklou – Galore
Ben Seretan – Youth Pastoral
Dirty Projectors – 5EPS
Chloe x Halle – Ungodly Hour
Helena Deland – Someone New

All Other Faves
Retirement Party – Runaway Dog
Ratboys – Printer’s Devil
Gordi – Our Two Skins
Tame Impala – The Slow Rush
Allie X – Cape God
Illuminati Hotties – FREE IH: This is Not the One You’ve Been Waiting For
Thank You, I’m Sorry – I’m Glad We’re Friends
Half Waif – The Caretaker
Land of Talk – Indistinct Conversations
Girl Friday – Androgynous Mary
Phantogram – Ceremony
Naeem – Startisha
Gladie – Safe Sins
Caroline Rose – Superstar
Jealous of the Birds – Peninsula
Basia Bulat – Are You In Love?
Lomelda – Hannah
Aquakulture – Legacy
Kid Cudi – Man on the Moon III
Cassino – Yellowhammer
Childish Gambino – 3.15.20

EPs and Covers
Tomberlin – Projections EP
KennyHoopla – how will I rest in peace if I’m buried by a highway?
James Blake – Before EP
James Blake – Covers EP
6lack – 6pc Hot EP
Skullcrusher – Skullcrusher EP
Local Natives – Sour Lemon EP
Orla Gartland – Freckle Season EP
The Japanese House – Chewing Cotton Wool EP
Pip Millett – Lost in June EP
Phoebe Bridgers – Copycat Killer EP
Cecile Believe – Plucking A Cherry From the Void EP
Routine – And Other Things EP
Christine and the Queens – La Vita Nuova EP
Cajsa Siik – Ninjo – Part 1
Kevin Devine – No One’s Waiting Up For Me Tonight EP
PUP – This Place Sucks Ass EP
Markika Hackman – Covers
Rosie Carney – The Bends

 

hell yeah I'm Glad It's You!

 

Albums:
Protomartyr - Ultimate Success Today (the dark underbelly of The National)
Silo’s Choice - Twilight on the Trail (good, prolific songwriter - this album is a little more straightforward, songs about death and being broke)
Cordoba - Specter (necessary jazz punk, baby!)
Lomelda - Hannah (fuckin catharsis)
Frances Quinlan - Likewise (best singer out there)
Lunch Money Life - Immersion Chamber (flashes between chaotic and gorgeous)
Slow Pulp - Moveys (reminds me of Jay Som, or what everyone else seems to have seen in the Soccer Mommy record but me)
Freddie Gibbs & the Alchemist - Alfredo (Freddie is just the best)
Madeline Kenney - Sucker’s Lunch (makes me feel like i am riding a bike in space)
Retirement Party - Runaway Dog (big step up from their other releases, can’t wait to see this live in a sweaty Chicago bar)
Jeff Rosenstock - No Dream (America’s anti-capitalist sweetheart is back)
Mountain Goats - Songs for Pierre Chuvin (god i missed this sound)
Kassa Overall - I Think I’m Good (when i think of 2020, this is the music i will be thinking of)
Jeremy Cunningham - The Weather Up There (drum choiiiiirrr)
Fred Thomas - Another Song About Riding the Bus (little compilation of songs from the past two decades on bandcamp only; no one sounds like Fred Thomas, and Fred Thomas sounds like everyone)
Craig Finn - All These Perfect Crosses (the new songs are heartbreaking, and the demos of old ones fascinating)
Westerman - Your Hero is Not Dead (makes me feel like I’m British but in a cool way)
Thundercat - It Is What It Is (thunder cat)
Yeaji- What We Drew (good to sit down in the shower stoned to)
Ratboys - Devil’s Printer (why does this remind me of Rilo Kiley? It doesn’t sound like Rilo Kiley)
Freedom Nicole Moore & the Electric Moon - Green Grass Grows (r&b that is warm and cares about you, specifically)
Jeff Parker - Suite for Max Brown (ever stay up til 2am in a rocking chair and the lights are dim and you’ve been drinking? Love this JAZZ for that vibe)
Bully - SUGAREGG (punched the roof of my car when i heard Every Tradition the first time)
Yutaka Hirasaka - Anecdotes Tape 2 (everything i want out of lo-fi beats hegemony but it’s made by an actual artist and i have no concerns it’s a robot)
Teenage Halloween - S/T (sing their ass off the whole way through)
Omar S - You Want (You Want *the best*)
RAP Ferreira - Purple Moonlight Pages (we all know Milo and his million aliases by now)
Landowner - Consultant (good jangly paranoid Chicago music)
Miserable chillers - Audience of Summer (somehow sounds like the Killers and Prefab Sprout all in one)
Melkbelly - Pith (favorite snare sound of the year)

EPs:
Bumper - Pop Songs 2020 (perfect blend of J Brekkie subject matter and CRJ-type pop perfection)
Wavelette - Good and Fine EP (if you asked me to show an alien what indie rock sounded like? I’d send them this on bandcamp)
Chad Matheny - United Earth League of Quarantine Aerobics (this is good until there is a proper Emperor X record, hopefully next year)
Phoebe - Copycat Killer (the record was great and all, but i was sure these songs going to be schlock because i don’t trust the concept but that’s what you get when you don’t trust in Phoebe)
all the Yo La Tengo releases (mom and dad? mom and dad’s friend, James McNew?)

song i listened to most this year:
Wonder by Lomelda (the best song of the year)

 

Jeremy Cunningham! I'm not the only one with him on my list haha

Jeff Parker too. Nice.

 

hell yeah! great record, very cool artist.

 

Definitely. Even if the subject matter is so sad.

I'm a sucker for jazz albums made by drummers!

 

truly heavy album, and agreed - the “drum choir” sound rules

 

There are always a handful of albums I get SUPER into the following year which would have been high in my AOTY list if I discovered them sooner. Last year it was Origami Angel & Small Talks.

Very excited to dive through tons of these lists!

 

Thanks for the Gleemer rec, they remind me of Turnover when they were good. ; )

 

Need to give Gleemer a shot. I keep mixing them up with Glitterer, which I love Ned, but I cannot get into.

 

Hahaha. Very different artists. Glitterer isn’t for me either. The Gleemer record is great though. Perfect if you want some PV era Turnover sounds.

 

yeah I don't know how I mixed them up. I think I just see the same people talk about both acts and the names are slightly similar, idk...

 

It took me years to figure out Turnover vs Turnstile so I definitely hear ya, haha

 

Two VERY different but great bands.

 

Bands You Always Confuse with Other Bands • forum.chorus.fm

 

My list as it stands right now.

1. Spanish Love Songs - Brave Faces Everyone
2. Maxwell Stern - Impossible Sum
3. Nana Grizol - South Somewhere Else
4. Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud
5. Bruce Springsteen - Letter To You
6. Taylor Swift - Folklore / Evermore
7. The Mountain Goats - Songs For Pierre Chuvin
8. Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher
9. Caspian - On Circles
10. Dogleg - Melee
11. The Chicks - Gaslighter
12. Ruston Kelly - Shape and Destroy
13. City Mouth - Coping Machine
14. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - Reunions
15. Touché Amore - Lament
16. Jeff Parker - Suite For Max Brown
17. The Killers - Imploding the Mirage
18. Frances Quinlan - Likewise
19. Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy Ways
20. Jeff Rosenstock - No Dream
21. Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters
22. Beach Bunny - Honeymoon
23. Bright Eyes - Down In the Weeds Where the World Once Was
24. Bartees Strange - Live Forever
25. Cinema Stare - Hum and the Glow

 

@Importer/Exporter so weird seeing Omar-S on this site, big up

also first time I’ve seen Landowner mentioned anywhere, hell yeah

 

yeah i found out about Landowner because Emperor X tweeted about that record, then realized they’re here in Chicago. Real excited to see them play sometime when that is a safe thing to do again.

And Omar-S

 

Stoked to see City Mouth on some lists.

 

This might change, but for now:

1) The Microphones - Microphones in 2020
2) Atrementus - Stygian
3) Clipping - Visions of Bodies Being Burned
4) Carly Rae Jepsen - Dedicated Side B
5) Fluisteraas - Bloem
6) Cloud Nothings - Life Is Only One Event
7) The Lawrence Arms - Skeleton Coast
8) Protest The Hero - Palimpsest
9) Run The Jewels - RTJ4
10) Protomartyr - Ultimate Success Today

 

Man, this Snarls album should be higher on my list. This is the kind of album that makes me miss writing about music.

 

post-rock/math-rock

caspian - on circles
holy fawn - black moon
vasudeva - generator
hakanai - foundation/woman, bird star
floral - floral lp
standards - fruit island

emo/pop punk

hot mulligan - you’ll be fine
charmer - ivy
i love your lifestyle - no driver
miss new buddha - the situation is excellent
kicksie - all my friends

heavy

portrayal of guilt/slow fire pistol split
viva belgrado - bellavista
nuvolascura - as we suffer from memory and imagination
if i die first - my poison arms
sprain - as lost through collision
svalbard - when i die, will i get better?
exhalants - atonement
naedr - past is prologue
envy - the fallen crimson
soul glo - songs to yeet at the sun
ett dödens maskineri - det svenska hatet
odoacer - there the vultures will gather
system of a down - protect the land/genocidal homonoidz
army wives - armywives
edit: + respire & NØMAN

electronic

rockwell - isolation ritual
minor science - second language
walton - debris
interplanetary criminal - nobody
sparkle division - to feel embraced
skee mask - iss005
de grandi - 11-100-jaille
bop + subwave - dream on
need for mirrors - flames
halogenix - dragonforce
hollow comet - exhibition
v/a - microfunk lost dubs vol. 3
ize - this is not a drill
leall - baile
etch - polarity
mark kloud - moonquake
on1 - ryobi
on1 ft. rame - on sight
donato dozzy - the tao
fracture + sam binga - on right now/chessington
epsom - yerba mate
kiyoko - a room of you/barrows/inside number nine

indie rock

trace mountains - lost in the country
little kid - transfiguration highway
hovvdy - runner/im sorry
lomelda - hannah
teethe - teethe
crisman - crisman
tomberlin - projections
bendrix littleton - deep dark south
another michael - new music/boring for the times
joe vann - assorted singles
lunarette - austin st.
options - window’s open
gleemer - down through
strange ranger - needing you

 

Something I’d be interested in is a little exchange project or something. I get bummed out because all year end lists of big publications are the same 50 records shuffled around, and i like to use this time to try and figure out music i may have missed. So yeah, we all love Phoebe and Waxahatchee. But what are albums that you really wish more people caught but didn’t make such a splash? Specifically from smaller/independent/local artists, or genres not so represented in most EOTY lists.

If anyone would be interested in an exchange, LMK. I’d be down to recommend 2 or 3 records for 2 or 3 other records.