THE 2020 EXPERIENCE

What. A. Year. And it still feels like it’s happening. Touring, the chief way most full-time musicians make their money, was simply not a possibility in the past year, and it’ll be a long time before we fully understand the effects of the entire live-music economy grinding to a sudden halt. But the music never stopped – it barely slowed down! The constant flood of new music remained as strong as ever. It’s enough to make you teary-eyed. The people who made these albums weren’t all necessarily responding to a radically reshaped world, but they all made it a whole lot more pleasurable to be stuck at home. We owe them big-time for that.

As always, much virtual love and respect for all of the queers and nonbinary folks who released music this year, especially 100 gecs, Arca, Austra, Julian Baker, Mykki Blanco, Blood Orange, Phoebe Bridgers, Cakes Da Killa, Christine and the Queens, Cindy Lee, Cupcakke, Katie Dey, Elysia Crampton, Eartheater, Ian Isiah, India Jordan, Jonsi, JPEGMafia, Kaytranada, Kehlani, Lomelda, Lotic, Kelsey Lu, Matmos, Nappy Nina, Octo Octa, Orville Peck, Perfume Genius, Lyra Pramuk, Romy, Rina Sawayama, serpentwithfeet, Shamir, SHYGIRL, Troye Sivane, Soccer Mommy, SOPHIE, Sufjan Stevens, Moses Sumney, Yves Tumor, etc. A shout out to all the queerness and gender-fluidity in music that’s often invisible and unspoken too.

Here’s to staying safe and as healthy as possible in 2021 :

FAV LPs of 2020

30

Four Tet : Sixteen Oceans (Text)

RIYL : Burial, Floating Points, Caribou, Jon Hopkins, ambient, house,

Select gems : “Teenage Birdsong” / “Romantics” / “Baby (ft. Ellie Goulding)”

Companion LP: Four Tet : Parallel / 871

29

Marie Davidson and L’OEil Nu : Renegade Breakdown (Ninja Tune)

RIYL : Angelo Badalemnti, Twin Peaks, Essaie Pas, Daft Punk, Laurel Halo, The Carpenters, anti-club music, chanson

Select gems : “Worst Comes to Worst” / “Just in My Head” / “Back to Rock”

28

U.S. Girls : Heavy Light (4AD)

RIYL : art-pop, psych-pop, Lower Dens, Fever Ray, Destroyer, Jenny Hval, Julia Holter, David Bowie

Select gems : “IOU” / “Quiver to the Bomb” / “4 American Dollars”

Companion LP: Basia Bulat : Are you in love?

27

Sufjan Stevens : The Ascension (Asthmatic Kitty)

RIYL : art-pop, Perfume Genius, Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Joanna Newsom, folk, singer-songwriter

Select gems : “The Ascension” / “Sugar” / “Video Game”

Companion LP: Fleet Foxes : Shore

26

25

Destroyer : Have We Met (Merge)

RIYL : The New Pornographers, Wolf Parade, Silver Jews, Bob Dylan, art-pop, pop romanticism, nostalgia for the unremembered 80’s

Select gems : “Cue Synthesizer” / “It Just Doesn’t Happen” / “The Raven”

Companion LP: Bill Callahan : Gold Record

24

Autechre : SIGN / PLUS (Warp)

RIYL : Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Oval, Fennesz, IDM, ambient, new musical languages

Select gems : “X4” / “M4 Lema” / “DekDre Scap B”

Companion: Matmos : The Consuming Flame

23

King Krule : Man Alive! (True Panther / Matador)

RIYL : Zoo Kid, DJ Screw, Andy Stott, Madlib, J Dilla, early 90’s Wu-Tang production, cloud rap, flickering street lights, grey skies, sensual synth pop, stoned loner trip hop, post-punk hip hop

Select gems : “Cellular” / “Stoned Again” / “Perfecto Miserable”

22

Dua Lipa : Future Nostalgia (Warner)

RIYL : Jessy Ware, Ariana Grande, Ellie Goulding, pure-pop, disco perfection,

Select gems : “Levitating” / “Cool” / “Love Again”

Companion LP: Lady Gaga : Chromatica

21

Westerman : Your Hero Is Not Dead (Partisan)

RIYL : Arthur Russell, Talk Talk, Bullion, Blake Mills, Tops, Sade, sophisti-pop, art-pop

Select gems : “Blue Comanche” / “Big Nothing Glow” / “The Line”

Companion EP: Bullion : We Had a Good Time

20

Julianna Barwick : Healing Is a Miracle (Ninja Tune)

RIYL : Sigur Ros, Grouper, Nosaj Thing, Mary Lattimore, Julia Holter, ambient, choral, ambient pop, zen, spells

Select gems : “In Light (ft. Jonsi)” / “Inspirit” / “Nod”

Companion LP: Ana Roxanne : Because of a Flower

19

Lyra Pramuk : Fountain (Bedroom Community)

RIYL : Holly Herndon, Bjork, Colin Self, Ben Frost, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, LEYA, devotional music, choral, transformation

Select gems : “Tendril” / “Mirror” / “Witness”

Companion LP: Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith : The Mosaic of Transformation

18

17

Eartheater : Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin (PAN)

RIYL : Bjork, Leonard Cohen, Leya, Arca, Lyra Pramuk, Yves Tumor, Elysia Crampton, art folk, psychoactive fairy dust, radical softness

Select gems : “Volcano” / “Below the Clavicle” / “How to Fight”

Companion LP: Actress : Karma and Desire

16

Kate NV : Room for the Moon (Rving Intl.)

RIYL : Kelly Lee Owens, Jessy Lanza, Jenny Hval, Kedr Livanskiy, Katie Gately, Empress Of, art pop, Japanese, Russian, beautiful kitsch

Select gems : “Sayonara” / “Telefon” / “Plans”

Companion LP: Katie Gately : Loom

15

Charli XCX : how i’m feeling now (Atlantic)

RIYL : SOPHIE, PC Music, Caroline Polachek, Ariana Grande, Kim Petras, electropop, bubblegum bass, dance-pop, synthpop, pop rap, the future

Select gems : “forever” / “enemy” / “claws”

Companion LP : OKLOU : Galore

Perhaps the only quarantine pure-pop album you need this year. Last year, the phrase “quarantine album” meant absolutely nothing. Now its meaning is obvious. In the next couple of years, we’re going to get a deluge of quarantine albums from musicians that are trying to express what it feels like to be isolated at the end of the world. Charli XCX was, of course, one of the first ones to the party. To my ears how I’m feeling now is second only to her 2017 masterwork mixtape Pop 2 – the songs are all here and they are phenomenal.

14

Lianne La Havas : Lianne La Havas (Nonesuch)

RIYL : Solange, Sade, Jessie Ware, Moses Sumney, Haim, Michael Kiwanuka, Radiohead, rnb, soul, folk

Select gems : “Bittersweet” / “Weird Fishes” / “Paper Thin”

Companion LP : Moses Sumney : grae

Lianne La Havas’ lush blends of pop-R&B, rock, and folk music, steeped in her acoustic guitar and warm, lilting voice is a balm for these fucked-up times. Her earthy self-titled third album allows her skillful guitar-playing and deep, husky voice to shine. Free of expectations and radiating self-assurance, she lets each moment stand on its own – light but powerful.

13

Cindy Lee : What’s Tonight to Eternity? (W.25th, 2020)

RIYL : Women, Deerhunter, the Shangri-Las, David Lynch, Yves Tumor, Suicide, Glenn Branca, Patsy Cline

Select gems : “I Pay the Price for Loving You” / “Heavy Metal” / “One Second to Toe the Line”

Companion EP : Women : Rarities (2007-2010)

I’ve been smitten with all of Toronto-based band Cindy Lee’s albums but I feel like former post-punk band Women member Pat Flegel has finally perfected their aesthetic on their third LP. Pat plays up their 60’s girl-group influences and finds the perfect marriage between formless, noisy no-wave guitar feedback and sweet, spectral melodies. “Ugh, I’m so bored of being a boy in a fuckin’ guitar band,” Pat has said; “Last couple years it’s been just me, traditional drag-style.” Pat’s also spoken about the way that performing in drag allows them to adopt a “diva fantasy,” and perhaps this is the skeleton key to weathering the haunted storm this album conjurs, where the sacred and sinister combine into a magical, eerie whole.

12

A.A.L. / Nicolás Jaar : Against All Logic 2017-2019 / Cenizas (Other People)

RIYL : deep-house, micro-house, sampledelic, Darkside, Four Tet

Select gems : “Fantasy” / “Faith Made of Silk” / “Sunder”

Companion LP : Nicolás Jaar : Telas

Chilean producer Nicolás Jaar has been a busy boy in 2020, woof. He started off the year with a fantastic new album from his Against All Logic project called 2017 – 2019 and back in March he put out a new full-length, Cenizas, under his own name, and then another called Telas that I still need to track down. Cenizas goes further down that rabbit hole of sound exploration than any of Jaar’s previous full-lengths, while But 2017-2019 bursts forward with pace and frenetic energy, 45 minutes (plus a bonus vinyl only edit!) of start-and-stop magic. This is the music we need in 2020: ambitious, fearless and provocative.

11

Jessie Ware : What’s Your Pleasure? (PMR / virgin)

RIYL : Kylie Minogue, Sade, Haim, Robyn, Roisin Murphy, disco, dance-pop, synth-pop

Select gems : “Adore You” / “Remember Where You Are” / “Save a Kiss”

Companion LP : Roisin Murphy : Roisin Machine

The fact this didn’t make my top 10 is an indication of how insane this year was for excellent music. Beginning with “Adore You” way back in February of 2019 and continuing with a series of singles that would become the rollout for her fourth album, What’s Your Pleasure?, it was clear she was revitalized, echoing her luxurious voice out over the dancefloor. The closer “Remember Where You Are” in particular will both crush and elevate you the first time you hear it. It was inspired by a specific moment in Jessie’s native UK, the defeat and disappointment of Boris Johnson retaining power, and there’s been no shortage of such moments in recent years – anytime you look out the window, it feels like the world is on fire. To me this album basically plays like a greatest hits; a collection of next-level luxury items.

10

Yaeji : What We Drew (XL)

RIYL : Park Hye Jin, Peggy Gou, Galcher Lustwerk, Against All Logic, India Jordan, Robyn, ambient house, deep house, synthpop, the future, Korean, outsider house

Select gems : “Never Settling Down” / “In the Mirror” / “Money Can’t Buy (ft. Nappy Nina)

Companion LP : Park Hye Jin : How Can I

Yaeji, a bilingual Korean American producer living in Brooklyn, could not have known that her first full-length mixtape What We Drew would be released into explosive social frictions, a spate of violence against Asian Americans due to post-Covid racism back in April. And yet she comes through with her first full-length project when we needed it the most, and it was so worth the wait.

It’s playful, emotional, and entirely irresistible music that’s an openhearted counterpoint, making space for both anxiety and love. It’s great to hear Yaeji sound so proud and connected to the heritage that gives her singing even more eloquence, insistent on sharing her complicated truth – it makes the party all the better when it arrives.

09

Jessy Lanza : All the Time (Hyperdub)

RIYL : Junior Boys, Kelly Lee Owens, Tirzah, Kelela, Annie, Night Jewel, electro-pop, dance-pop, footwork, synthpop, crisp 808s, make-out jams

Select gems : “Anyone Around” / “Lick In Heaven” / “Badly”

Companion LP : #ElaMinus : acts of rebellion

Most underrated pop singer of the last decade? To me it’s Jessy Lanza. Her songs don’t stop moving, rendered in breezy twitches, hypnotic little loops that operate like spinning tops. These kinds of songs were fully realized on her dementedly fun 2016 album Oh No, and four years later she’s refined them even more on her latest, All the Time. She once again worked with her frequent collaborator Jeremy Greenspan of Junior Boys and they traded tracks back and forth across the country border after she moved from Hamilton, ON to NYC, teasing out effervescent pop songs in little chirps for an absolutely glorious, endlessly replayable pop album. I’ve said it many times, but Lanza is a freaking national treasure.

08

Arca : KiCk I (XL)

RIYL : SOPHIE, Oneohtrix Point Never, Bjork, Shygirl, Rosalia, reggaeton, mutants, transformation, playful sex, deconstructed club, latin electronic, art pop, IDM, glitch

Select gems : “Time” / “Mequetrefe” / “Machote”

Companion LP : Elysia Crampton : ORCORARA 2010

Venezuela via Barcelona producer Alejandra Ghersi aka Arca’s seventh full-length release KiCk i certainly asks all the right questions; “French tips wrapped around a dick/ Do you want a taste?”

It’s the first in a series of records, and one of the most celebratory and fun things she’s ever released. Arca’s revolutionary vision for pop begins with intensely buzzing and glitching bass music that’s unafraid to fuck with preconceived notions of gender, with songs like “Mequetrefe” full of Spanish slang used within them and lyrical twists on anti-machismo. Confidence runs throughout the four-song stretch from “Watch” to “KLK” to “La Chiqui” (featuring famous friends like Rosalía and SOPHIE) as well as “Riquiqui,” with a sexiness in Arca’s antagonism akin to Hellraiser’s Pinhead or Star Trek’s Borg Queen: “Regenerated girl degenerate to generate heat in the light/Love in the face of fear/Fear in the face of God.” She’s clearly here to action a queer liberation party; whether solo or with friends, and she clearly gives no fucks if you’re uncomfortable with her methods. Icon.

07

KELLY LEE OWENS : Inner Song (Smalltown Supersound)

RIYL : Jon Hopkins, Jessy Lanza, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Julia Holter, Jenny Hval, tech-house, art pop, ambient pop, ambient techno

Select gems : “On” / “Corner of the Sky (ft. John Cale)” / “Wake-Up”

Companion LP : Sevdaliza : Shabrang

Brag warning; I think Kelly Lee Owen’s spectacular sophomore album is the first record I own that includes a vinyl-only secret track. And the untitled track here is actually fantastic, with the Welsh producer singing “Here I go, on my own/ Except this time I don’t give a fuck”; a great synopsis of her new record. After Kieran of #FourTet asked her why the fuck she buried her voice under reverb on her self-titled debut (I named it my fav album of 2017) – this time she kept her vocals pristine and clear and it makes all the difference. “Wake Up,” “On” and “Night” are clear pop standouts, and her duet with fellow #Welsh singer John Cale of The Velvet Underground “Corner of the Sky” is just jaw dropping; “As the weather weeps/ Weeps into the winter” indeed.

06

Adrianne Lenker : songs + instrumentals (4AD)

RIYL : Big Thief, Julie Byrne, Tomberlin, Aldous Harding, indie folk, dream pop, folk rock, slowcore, psych folk,

Select gems : “anything” / “not a lot, just forever” / “zombie girl”

A “quarantine album” from Adrianne Lenker turned out to be as immensely cathartic as I hoped it would be. The Big Thief singer-songwriter has emerged as one of the most talented and magnetic queer figures in underground music in recent years. Her all-analog recording is spacious, and you can hear every detail. “anything” in particular is one of the most heartbreaking yet calming songs of the year – actually you could say that about the entire songs album. The reasons for her alienation apparently runs deeper than what’s kept so many in this world separated from their friends and family this year, but the intense feelings she conveys here align with our pervasive desire to go back to some kind of normalcy that can never truly be reattained. In that sense, these two records capture the mournful spirit of 2020 far better than any cutesy pop songs could. Essential stuff here.

05

Perfume Genius : Set My Heart On Fire Immediately (Merge)

RIYL : Moses Sumney, Sufjan Stevens, Julia Holter, art pop, chamber pop, ambient pop, neo-psychedelia, chamber pop, grunge

Select gems : “Describe” / “Jason” / “On the Floor”

LP: Phoebe Bridgers : Punisher

The album title is overly dramatic, a little funny, and also deeply serious. It’s everything that Mike Hadreas has built up Perfume Genius to be over the last decade. He started out making fragile piano ballads, but now he’s an expert world-builder, and this is his biggest canvas yet. “Half of my whole life is gone,” he sings in the album’s opening lines. “Let it drift and wash away/ It was just a dream I had.” Relatable af. This gem of a record allowed me to find some much needed solace in a reflection of my own personal struggles this year.

04

Oneohtrix Point Never : Magic Oneohtrix Point Never (Warp)

RIYL : Autechre, A.G. Cook, Actress, Laurel Halo, Aphex Twin, Emeralds, electro prog, art pop, Japanese ambient, movement in a static space, romantic synth wizardry, glitch

Select gems : “Long Way Home” (ft. Caroline Polachek) / “I Don’t Love Me Anymore” / “Lost But Never Alone”

Companion LP : The Weeknd : After Hours

Daniel Lopatin’s newest masterpiece, Magic Oneohtrix Point Never takes its name from Boston-based station Magic 106.7, whose slogan “Today’s Hits, Yesterday’s Favorites” is emblematic of American FM radio, where, much like Lopatin’s sound, the past meets the present in unsettling but beautiful fashions. Lopatin named Oneohtrix Point Never after mishearing the station’s name; and fittingly, Magic Oneohtrix Point Never is his ode to the format. “I Don’t Love Me Anymore” combines the snap of shoegaze with yacht rock’s schmaltz. “No Nightmares” featuring The Weeknd is Lopatin at his most self-serious, a love song driven by cascading melodies. But there’s plenty of static: pitch-shifted DJs, wooden marimbas. Magic Oneohtrix Point Never is a receiver traveling through different frequencies, picking up calling cards of OPN’s discography along its route. One of my fav producers of all-time.

03

Yves Tumor : Heaven to a Tortured Mind (Warp)

RIYL : David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, Massive Attack, Marilyn Manson, Deerhunter, glam rock, neo-psych, post industrial, trip-hop, art pop

Select gems : “Kerosene!” / “Gospel For a New Century” / “Dream Palette”

Companion LP : Duval Timothy : Help

The artist born Sean Bowie has released chillwave / ambient / experimental music, and worked on queer icon Mykki Blanco’s avant-rap. But Yves Tumor, their most prominent identity, has spanned all those touchpoints and more. But even Safe In The Hands Of Love, their excellent 2018 crossover move with pop-rock singles like “Noid” and “Lifetime,” was a relatively bleary, amorphous listen. By comparison, Heaven To A Tortured Mind is jarring and immediate – rock history refracted through the imagination of an androgynous, genderfluid American expat with a background in Europe’s avant-garde club scene, known to take the form of a badass demon in fishnets. They are effortlessly iconic. Easily the most euphoric and unique rock album I’ve heard in years.

02

Fiona Apple : Fetch the Bolt Cutters (Sony)

RIYL : Joanna Newsom, Aimee Mann, Blake Mills, Tori Amos, Cat Power, pop, memoir, talking cure, art pop, jazz pop, rhythmic cabaret, anger outlets, mindfulness, exposing men for who they are

Select gems : “I Want You To Love Me” / “Heavy Balloon” / “Ladies”

Companion LP: no other album sounded remotely like this

Fetch The Bolt Cutters has been the gift that’s kept on giving since it was released back in April, when humanity needed it most. “Blast the music! Bang it, bite it, bruise it!” This is Fiona Apple near the end of first track “I Want You To Love Me.” She stretches out the word “you” until it becomes almost a Buddhist chant. Then her voice speeds up into an almost-rap cadence. On the outro, even as the song is fading out, she does quavering Yoko Ono yip-whoops. By the time its four minutes are up, you might want to go lie down, to process what you’ve just heard. Too bad. You’re just getting started, fucker.

01

Grimes : Miss Anthropocene (4AD)

RIYL : art pop, ethereal wave, PC Music, i_o, 潘PAN (fka Aristophanes), Caroline Polachek, FKA twigs, Chromatics, Glass Candy, Charli XCX

Select gems : “IDORU” / “You’ll Miss Me When I’m Not Around” / “So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth (Art Mix)”

Companion LP: Cecile Believe : Plucking a Cherry From the Void / Made in Heaven

In my mind there was no other album that saved me this year quite like Grimes fifth album, her first project as a bona fide pop star. Predictive lyrical snippets rang true throughout the year; “You’re gonna get sick/ You don’t know when” from “4aem”.. “Unrest is in the soul/ We don’t move our bodies anymore” from “Darkseid.” And then there’s “Delete Forever”, her tribute to her many artist friends (like Lil Peep, and i_o who co-produced “Violence”) who died scary, fucked-up, drug-related deaths; “Cannot comprehend, lost so many men/ Lately, all their ghosts turn into reasons and excuses” and perhaps my favorite lyric: “More lines on a mirror than a sonnet.”

Miss Anthropocene was never going to be another Art Angels, but for me this is everything I wanted from a follow-up. There’s def some misogyny involved in people dismissing Grimes based solely on her creative flights of fancy in the last five years – she just doesn’t deserve all the hate she gets and personally I like my pop stars to be super pretentious. Yes she may live a life of blind privilege outside any normal REALiTi (sorry), but who else is putting out pop songs as unique as ”So Heavy..” or as straight- up gorgeous as “IDORU”? Honestly, if she keeps releasing fantastical and futuristic pop gems like this, she can techno-babble with billionaires for the rest of her life as far as I’m concerned. These 10 exquisite pop songs are among her very best.

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The 2020 Experience: Best Albums