Best of 2020

This list is a year late. I actually wrote it last year, but never got around to posting it. Oh well, you didn't miss much.

2020 was a terrible year, but one silver lining was that there were some fairly decent records released, including some actual rock & roll. Not that anyone actually listened to most of these records. Because people are stupid in the face. Have you seen what happened the past four years? It didn’t help that promotion for anything that did come out was limited due to COVID and the lack of live music. I don’t think 2020 will signal a return of rock music. It’s mostly just a pleasant blip, a whiff of nostalgic memory like madeleines and tea. Hey, these days, I’ll take it. Here is the music I liked best in 2020, in rough order.

1. Lemon Twigs - Songs for the General Public: When this album came out I knew I probably wouldn’t hear anything as good for the rest of the year. I didn’t. These brothers have always been clever, talented students of rock & roll. And while they’ve had their occasional moments, they’ve never really transcended their influences. At least, until now. This is a minor masterpiece of teenage trash. It’s better than any Red Kross record and I’ll fight you over that. Big brother, Brian, sings the more polished pop symphonies; younger brother, Michael, does the sleazy, snotty numbers. I’m not sure who writes what, but I like Michael’s songs better. The opener, “Hell on Wheels,” is grand, expansive sarcasm. “Fight” has the best lyrics of any song on this list and that’s counting Dylan. It’s a song about a middle-aged person mourning the death of their vanity, trying to find a way to love and respect themselves because their partner no longer does. I think people are treating this group and this album as an arty tribute-rock send-up, but what are you going to do? People are morons.

2. Bonny Light Horseman - Bonny Light Horseman: Apparently this three-piece is some kind of indie folk supergroup. I don’t really follow their other work, but this is really nice. It has a Veedon Fleece feel to it*, albeit with multiple singers providing mellow, caramel harmonies. This is a homey, comfortable music. The kind you put on at twilight in the winter on a Sunday evening looking at old pictures by the fireplace. People generally don’t do that kind of thing anymore. Instead they watch reaction videos of genre movie trailers on YouTube and forget how beautiful a pink sunset can be. This album reminds you to go for a walk before the sunlight fades and breathe some actual fresh air. (*No, it’s not really that good, but just a point of comparison.)

3. Nation of Language - Introduction, Presence: This a great synthpop record in the vein of OMD. Like, very OMD. It’s self-released because record labels can’t recognize good music when they hear it. The singer, Ian Richard Devaney, also sings in a Fab Moretti (Strokes drummer) side-project named, Machinegum, who put out a decent record last year. “Rush & Fever,” “On Division St.,” and “The Wall & I” have that frosty, reverb-drenched vocals and arpeggiated keyboard riffs from 1981 that are the aural equivalent of high school yearbook photos blowing away in rain-slick streets. Very romantic stuff, and I guess I’m a sap for it.

4. Austra - HiRUDiN: This is Austra’s fourth album in the past decade. Like the others, it features quirky art-synthpop with singer Katie Stelmanis’ siren croon over the top. HiRUDiN is more consistent than 2017’s Future Politics, though that album’s “Utopia” remains my favorite song of theirs. Whereas the prior album had a cold, emotionlessness to it, this new one has a real sadness about it despite the chirpy melodies and propulsive low-end. Stelmanis sounds like a songbird ensnared and resigned to death. I wouldn’t be surprised if this were their last.

5. Wire - (two albums) Mind Hive; 10:20: Wire put out two new records this year. Mind Hive was the planned album, a tight collection of top notch new songs. I think it’s their strongest record since Object 47 from 2008. The fact that I’m still talking about Wire in 2020 as a relevant band is remarkable. 10:20 was originally planned as a special Record Store Day release featuring three great new songs and re-recorded versions of older songs from Document & Eyewitness, Ideal Copy, Bell is a Cup, and Manscape. These new versions are as good or better than the originals.

6. Burzum - Thulian Mysteries: Reportedly, this is Varg Vikernes' last album under the Burzum. It's a double-album intended as a soundtrack to his role-playing game. This is some of the best work he's ever done in any genre. It is dark, organic, ambient music with a strong, ritualistic feel to it. Really beautiful.

7. Jessie Ware - What’s Your Pleasure?: This is expertly produced pop music. Ware is too smart and sophisticated for the greater public, however, who would prefer to listen to something like Charli XCX instead. Admittedly, Ware’s music doesn’t produce strong emotional reactions in me, but I admire the hell out of it and it has immediate surface pleasures. If they put her on SNL, she might be a star.

8. Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy Ways: Really good. “I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You” is a superb love song. “Black Rider” is dark humor like L. Cohen. The long songs are good and stretch out suitably. As good as Time Out of Mind, better than Modern Times or Love and Theft. The bluesy stuff (“False Prophets,” “Goodbye Jimmy Reed,” and “Crossing the Rubicon”) interests me the least, but I’d say the same about his 60s stuff. The band is good on those ones though. If you took those three tracks off, the album would be a seven-song, 53 minute record and I’d listen to it more. The extra track, “Murder Most Foul,” is stuffed with pop culture references, but it doesn’t sound silly. Instead, he turns these famous people into just another one of his characters. I don’t know if anyone else could do it.

9. Pere Ubu - By Order of Mayor Pawlicki: This 2017 live album from Poland features excellent, cracking performances of their pre-87 reunion classics. Just released this past year, it wipes the floor with everyone else. The only reason this isn’t higher on the list is because it is, after all, a live album of old material. Somebody really annoyed the band that day because they dig in with a vengeance and absolutely destroy everyone in their path without mercy. It begins with “Heart of Darkness” and ends with “Final Solution,” which pretty much tells the story.

10. Pretenders - Hate for Sale: 31 minutes. Harmonica first track, false start. Second track, “The Buzz,” is excellent (the only track that’s longer than 3:30 at 3:50). Third track is a dubby reggae. Fourth track rocker. Is the Strokes record this good? Last song is the only slight stinker.

11. Strokes - The New Abnormal: S’pretty good. Fab Morretti is the only drummer who sounds more artificial than a drum machine. Only 9 songs, 45 minutes. Very pretty. Julian Casablancas has a better control of his voice, particularly his falsetto. Bad Decisions sounds like “Dancing With Myself.”

Honorable Mentions: X - Alphabetland; Dua Saleh - ROSETTA; Archers of Loaf - “Raleigh Days” - Song of the year.