___________________________
2020, man. What a year. What a shitty, dour, mournful, hateful, do-nothing year. Here's to hoping 2020 was nothing more than a hurdle for humanity to overcome. Life seemed to turn into an uphill battle, with light just now reaching the tunnel's end. Even art, the main form of escapism that could abate the tremors of reality, struggled to thrive in a world where creation was stifled to bedrooms and privately-owned studios. Lest it be the artists who provided when times weren't kind to them, or anyone. Though it didn't stand out against its recent predecessors, music in 2020 had one thing going for it: determination. The will to create when society crawls to a halt. The alms-giving charity when profit on-stage wasn't attainable. The desire to define culture even in the wake of an insurmountable zeitgeist.
Old favorites reclaimed thrones lost to fresh-faced up-and-comers, stalwart artisans doubled-down on neoteric atmospherics, irate revolutionists sought essential rallying cries, adept starlets used technology to ride out quarantine, and a slew of indomitable musicians purveyed through tumultuous uncertainty. Unlike the majority of us, music persevered, as it has shown for countless centuries beforehand.
As we enter list week, let's look forward by looking back and appreciating all the greatness 2020 offered, in spite of the wretchedness that prevailed. Hopeful discoveries and eager affirmations lie below. Chosen from a collection of 200 albums and 2,000 songs, I present Dozens Of Donuts' Top 50 Albums and Top 100 Songs of 2020. Enjoy.
___________________________
10
Childish Gambino | 3.15.20
Neo-Soul | Listen
Beneath the mire of wrongful rollout decisions, the most prominent of which is 3.15.20's indefinite lack of identity thanks to trifling titles, Childish Gambino's latest held the type of consistent, dynamic quality the multi-faceted artist has never seen before. Whereas previous works like Because The Internet and "Awaken, My Love!" dove headfirst into new styles with aberrant results, 3.15.20 lowered expectation in order to achieve singular coherency. Stringing interludes, bitter Neo-Soul, and a sound dyad of summer fun ('35.31') and conscious unspooling ('47.48') positioned Gambino as an eccentric capable of appeasing all crowds. Now if only the decision-making in regards to branding wasn't so lackadaisical. It's my sincere opinion 3.15.20's appearance, much like Bon Iver's 22, A Million, soured public perception despite enticing quality hiding beneath the veil.
___________________________
9
Big Blood | Deep Maine
Avant-Folk | Listen
It took some convincing, given my staunch nostalgia, but Big Blood has overtaken Outkast as my favorite artist of all-time. Deep Maine was the tipping point. Not because it transcends their past works, but because it reaffirms a discography so rich, dense, and eternal that one can't look away from the sheer talent. Whether it's the fantastical spirit of 'Hail The Happy Hourlings' where Colleen Kinsella tip-toes lightly across fairy villages, the consequential Western phantasm of 'Time Is Coming,' or the prodigious, ten-minute campfire drone 'Serpent Skies,' Deep Maine never slouches when rectifying Big Blood's incontestable idiosyncrasies. To conclude it with a retreated Singer/Songwriter performance for the ages, in 'James Bay,' was the cherry on top of Big Blood's best project in a decade.
___________________________
8
Run The Jewels | Run The Jewels 4
Hardcore Hip-Hop | Listen
It's Run The Jewels, what else did you expect? Truthfully, RTJ3 waned my interest on the tag-team duo of Killer Mike and El-P. Not for reasons of quality, but rather redundancy on a formula long-since implemented. RTJ4 doesn't reinvent their wheel, though it does reinforce their savvy command of Hip-Hop and indispensability during a political year gone rogue. Tracks like 'Walking In The Snow' and 'A Few Words For The Firing Squad' confront America's racial tension on a razor's edge, attacking antagonizers who refuse to accept reality. Meanwhile, offerings like 'Yankee & The Brave' and 'Holy Calamafuck' play with such fervent tenacity, that a soundtrack to a retaliatory riot seems apt. Like two confidants, never doubt Run The Jewels to arrive when you need them the most.
___________________________
7
Carl Stone | Stolen Car
Plunderphonics | Listen
You know, age discrimination is a thing in music. Why else would Carl Stone's late era reinvention - one that infiltrates Futurepop with striking poignancy - be ignored amongst progressive music circles? Over a delirious 69 minutes, Stolen Car elucidates upon modern society's ultra-absorption of content, by mirroring such madness. 'Auburn,' 'Au Jus,' 'The Jagged Hare,' 'Rinka,' 'Figli;' these songs have no intent but to overwhelm the senses with a myriad of minutiae. Every nook, crevice, or hole is gorged with stuff, for the sake of satisfying the masses. Like a Tilt-A-Whirl endurance run, Stolen Car never falters in that desire to endure consenting nausea. It's a style wholly original to Stone, one that uses the techniques of Plunderphonics to morph Glitch away from its mechanical foundation and into something distinctly more human. If there were ever a symbol of globalization, Stolen Car would be it.
___________________________
6
Charli XCX | how i'm feeling now
Bubblegum Bass | Listen
Many were quick to call Charli XCX's How I'm Feeling Now an accurate reflection of 2020. As someone who hadn't yet dove into one of her albums, the mere thought of a Pop artist indulging in such delicate artistry seemed impractical. In this case though, it's entirely true. While not applicable to everyone (mostly myself, an introvert who thrives in self-imposed quarantine), the concept of a superstar who feeds off idolization, and the myriad of followers desperate to engage communally, was stimulating enough during a time when clambake stimulants were at an all-time low. How I'm Feeling Now sounds like the suppressed frustration of a frequent raver, with quick stab synthesizers, stampeding rush to hooks, and delirious derailments due to loneliness. It's a flurry of fun, moxie, and desperation.
___________________________
5
King Krule | Man Alive!
Art Rock | Listen
6 Feet Beneath The Moon, The OOZ, Man Alive!. In every instance King Krule is getting closer to perfecting his style, an aesthetic rich in gloom, suspicion, and instability. Man Alive! plays out like an insomniac contemplating the pockets of darkness surrounding his drunken missteps down back alleyways. At times, like 'Stoned Again' and 'Slinky,' Krule lashes out at intermittent internal demons, others, see 'Alone, Omen 3' or the sublime trilogy that closes the album out, his lucidity offers glimpses of solace and dystopian kismet. His sound, forever entrenched in the murk of Jazz Rock a la Twin Peaks, glissades like a snake hunting its prey through grass, burrows, and debris. The pacing of Man Alive! is a monument to the night, a time where societal norms descend into the uncanny.
___________________________
4
Blu & Exile | Miles
Conscious Hip-Hop | Listen
To some, Blu & Exile's 2007 debut Below The Heavens is considered in the pantheon of essential underground Hip-Hop. I am one of them. To know, 13 years later, the two would reunite for a 95-minute magnum opus had me both excited and concerned. Yet, against the odds, the two aging West Coast legends - through grit, passion, and their everlasting Soul - produced a follow-up worthy of acclaim. Told like a lecture to his son about the perils and beauty of life, Miles weaves tales of upbringing ('Bright As Stars,' 'Troubled Waters') with treasured history lessons ('Roots Of Blue,' 'African Dream'), musical homages ('Music Is My Everything,' 'To The Fall'), and Blu's good old-fashioned conscious wordsmithing ('True & Livin,' 'Requiem Of Blue'). Meanwhile, Exile's crate-digging Soul unearths a sense of hope and optimism that's sorely lacking in 2020.
___________________________
3
Karrots | Karrots I
Chamber Folk | Listen
Like a fairy tale novel come to life, Karrots' still-hidden gem soars through picturesque skies over lavender fields, cascading streams, and packs of wild animals grazing their last grasp of nature as suburbia encroaches. Karrots I wearily grapples with that fading serenity, a nostalgic album for the ages, using the wayward pulchritude of Folk to define America's last bastion ('Chalk,' 'Butano') as rigorous, factorial elements usurp the harmony with unrelenting steam ('Peace,' 'Since Brooklyn'). At a mere 26 minutes, Karrots runs the gamut of treasured Indie artists like Fleet Foxes and Real Estate, incorporating sample-based insertions akin to Panda Bear's Person Pitch to electrify a dying flower with a downpour long overdo. It is a magnificent debut, gorgeous in all aspects, unyielding in all it succeeds.
___________________________
2
clipping. | Visions Of Bodies Being Burned
Horrorcore | Listen
If There Existed An Addiction To Blood was your prototypical Slasher film, set deep in the heart of the city, Visions Of Bodies Being Burned was your Psychological Horror masterpiece that left you paralyzed. Well, momentarily paralyzed until the toe-tapping and head-nodding of 'Say The Name, '96 Neve Campbell,' 'Pain Everyday,' 'Looking Like Meat,' and 'Enlacing' consumed a body not yet rotted by maggots. clipping.'s latest achievement tore through Hip-Hop customs by incorporating Harsh Noise ('Make Them Dead'), Musique concrète ('Eaten Alive'), and various solitary Field Recording interludes for Daveed Diggs to elucidate his graphic mind over, under, and through. It's a record that sticks with you, like a leech festering on a wound or lobotomized mind not eager to release its hold on the victim.
___________________________
1
Fiona Apple | Fetch The Bolt Cutters
Progressive Pop | Listen
Pots and pans. Barking dogs. Frazzled hair. Romantic recollections. This defines not just Fetch The Bolt Cutters, but quarantine amidst a pandemic for the majority of impeded idealists. That feeling of stagnation, as the world around you grinds to a halt, the clanging of kitchenware, affinity towards one's pets, dubious handling of hygiene, it all manifests itself in the personal sequestration of Fiona Apple and 2020's AOTY. Left to her own devices, to a mind already proven capable of internalized scrutiny, the DIY mannerisms of Fetch The Bolt Cutters only aimed to heighten Apple's acute senses previously set forth on acclaimed records like When The Pawn and The Idler Wheel. All this, to further pontificate relational woes and the strife women face when repudiated by society. On 'Under The Table,' Apple quite literally assumes the role of shunned mutt, being shooed away against a bite with intent to bark back. On 'Ladies,' she rallies a quarrelsome flock to unite, not bicker, over past and future engagements. With 'For Her,' she expels enmity over men allowed their freedom after binding rape accusations. Fetch The Bolt Cutters is a defiant masterpiece, not just for women oppressed by societal injustices, but men capable of empathy too.
It doesn't hurt that, above all these lingering astringencies, lie a baker's dozen of endlessly-enjoyable Progressive Pop. Apple's building quiver on 'I Want You To Love Me,' the rowdy hallway fight of 'Shameika,' the harmonizing pitter-patter of 'Relay' or 'Drumset.' From every angle, Fetch The Bolt Cutters thrives. Note the paradoxical approaches to self-reflection on the title track versus 'Newspaper,' or how Apple bears the complexities of love through the ignoble 'Rack Of His' versus the inspirited 'Cosmonauts.' There's so much to appreciate, at times her prowess becomes overwhelming. Though it was years in the making, the homely feel and resentful diaspora should, at the very least, empower those couch potatoes taking advantage of solitude with a go-getter mindset only actualized by women who know not to pass up a good opportunity. Fiona Apple sure as hell didn't.
___________________________
50-21 | 20-11 | Top 100 Tracks
No comments:
Post a Comment