Best Music of 2020

Pottery is rad, and they put on a great live show. Saw them open for Fontaines D.C. back in the day....you know, when musicians used to play to live crowds (sigh).

Not surprised.The album has a very live-vibe.

I agree Art Angels is a masterpiece and her best album to date. As a matter of fact, I think it's better than LP1.

I honestly think all 3 of her major studio releases are masterpieces. Extremely subjectively obviously. All I know is that she's done more to change my taste in music than any other artist of the past 10 years.

Also, I forgot this one (atmospheric rock meets singer / songwriter) when mentioning the stuff The Line Of Best Fit has given strong reviews to:



(For those that don't know, The Line of Best Fit is basically the UK version of Pitchfork in that its tastes overlap heavily. BUT they cover a lot of smaller, non-American bands that Pitchfork overlooks.
 
I honestly think all 3 of her major studio releases are masterpieces. Extremely subjectively obviously. All I know is that she's done more to change my taste in music than any other artist of the past 10 years.
I agree 💯, I love all 3 of her major studio albums but somehow Art Angels is a cut above for me. That said, Grimes is my favourite artist of the last decade (2010s), and Visions, which was my gateway to EDM, still sounds as fresh today as it did when I first heard it.
 
I was a classic and alt rock kid as a teen who became a full on indie rock (the process started with The Moon and Antarctica junior year of HS) and hip-hop junkie in college who has a deep appreciation of (non-EDM) electronica throughout the years. The only genres that have been historically off limits are country (i.e. anything too twangy) and pop.

Point being, my close friend from HS and the 2 years I spent in CO post-College (before moving back to LA) recently moved to San Luis Obispo as a travel nurse. She's a jam band girl at heart and basically a sister and who knows me better than maybe even my own brother....

When I put Dua Lipa on in front of her she had two reactions A) "I fucking hate this" B) I'm re-accessing everything I thought I knew about your taste in music.

Which led me to a) tracing the evolution of my music over the past decade- how Grimes led to Sky Ferreria led to FKA Twigs led to Jai Paul led to Tei Shi led to Let's Eat Grandma... (and that's without mentioning Brockhampton who some would call pop) and b) pointing out that I've realized what I'm actually averse to is anything that sounds like it was designed in a top-40 lab (regardless of genre).

To which she said-- "but this sounds like top 40 pop" and I replied "maybe so. But if so, that just cements it's brilliance to me".
OMG, I really, really, really would like to meet you one day now!!! I feel like you are my vinyl best friend I am yet to meet! I relate so much to you!

I used to only like Hip-Hop & R&B. I was a massive hip-hop head but then my music taste started opening up, my friends started to be like "This is so not you Nathan" and started thinking I was trying too hard! When I started liking and playing indie music, they all laughed and some of them were a bit sad because they were kinda like "I want the old Nathan back". When I started showed them artists like Clarence Clarity, King Krule, SOPHIE, Kero Kero Bonito, Grimes, Kirin J Callihan etc, they were like 'What the'. Kaytranda, Kali Uchis, Anderson Paak, Xenia Rubinos, Sampha, Disclosure etc was cool. But the more left-field my music taste got and the more experimental it became in terms of opening up, my friends started to freak out!!! Like when I started playing indie artists like Stella Donnelly, Armand Hammer, Perfume Genius, Julia Holter, Father John Misty etc, my friends were like "STOP TRYING TO BE INDIE! STOP THINKING YOU'RE HIPSTER BECAUSE YOU'RE NOT". Took them a while for it to sink into their heads that I did genuinely like Indie, electronic, experimental, bit of rock etc.

Whenever I play Ciara, Trey Songz, Lloyd, Omarion, Teedra Moses, Ne-Yo, Alicia Keys, R. Kelly, Usher, Bobby Valentino, Faith Evans, Justin Timberlake etc, my best friend is always like "This is the Nathan I know and love" 😂 🤦‍♂️

Same thing with my friends who love hip-hop! As soon as I started listen to that more abstract/left-field hip-hop, like Shabazz Palaces, Milo, Earl Sweatshirt, Open Mike Eagle, JPEGMAFIA, Clipping etc, they were all like "what the fuck is this shit man". They only accepted, Vince Staples, Playboi Carti, Travis Scott, Kendrick Lamar, Young Thug, Joey Bada$$, YG, Noname, Freddie Gibbs etc haha 🤷‍♂️
 
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I agree 💯, I love all 3 of her major studio albums but somehow Art Angels is a cut above for me. That said, Grimes is my favourite artist of the last decade (2010s), and Visions, which was my gateway to EDM, still sounds as fresh today as it did when I first heard it.
Visions and Art Angels are definitely better than her most her recent album "Miss Anthropocene"! That album is just "good" for me. Like 'just' a 7/10. Whereas the other two are around 9/10 for me! Both are innovative, still sound fresh and totally unique!
 
Visions and Art Angels are definitely better than her most her recent album "Miss Anthropocene"! That album is just "good" for me. Like 'just' a 7/10. Whereas the other two are around 9/10 for me! Both are innovative, still sound fresh and totally unique!

This is my last comment today because this thread has historically served as a tool for people to communicate and find new music (and so I'm suddenly feeling an obligation to minimize the side chatter in a way that I don't in other threads), but I just have to say. I LOVE nearly every single song on Miss Anthropocene. It's the perfect merging of Art Angels and Visions imo. My Name is Dark, Delete Forever, Darkseid and 4AM rank among my favorite songs she has ever written. The only song that took me awhile was IDORU but it's clicked at this point.

I might call it the 3rd best of the 3 albums simply because of how ground breaking the other two were. But it might also be my personal favorite of the bunch. Time will tell.
 
c2.0 is good but you can’t help think about how much better “Click” is. Party 4 U overstays it’s welcome and her vocals are really thin in some spots and “visions” is cool, but is a tiring listen as the last song as I dunno - it sounds a bit like 100 gecs and I feel just sounds really different to everything. “Anthems” is the only truly great track on those last 5 tracks to me, just like “Tokyo Love Hotel” is for SAWAYAMA.
But...those last 4 tracks...are...the best..? 😦🥺
 
But...those last 4 tracks...are...the best..? 😦🥺
I like Visions and Anthems a lot, but I’m not a fan of Click 2.0 and Party 4 U. I do like Click 2.0, it’s cute but I find the track a little annoying too in a way.

The first three songs - Pink Diamond, Forever & Claws are the best tracks in my opinion! They are all just 🔥🔥🔥

Detonate and Enemy are also spectacular! Visions is such an amazing song too! It’s an epic closer! Just wish it was it was in the middle of the tracklist and not at the end! Would’ve liked “I finally understand” to be the closer, even though it kind of sounds like the sequel lyrically to “Enemy”!
 
But...those last 4 tracks...are...the best..? 😦🥺
PS - Still haven’t got any of my Lido Pimienta orders! I contacted customer service and they don’t have any tracking unfortunately. They told me to be patient as there have been heavy delays with COVID-19. Totally understandable, and I’m cool with that. I just wish I had a tracking number for the orders as it has been over 2 months since all the orders were shipped! 😶😶😶
 
PS - Still haven’t got any of my Lido Pimienta orders! I contacted customer service and they don’t have any tracking unfortunately. They told me to be patient as there have been heavy delays with COVID-19. Totally understandable, and I’m cool with that. I just wish I had a tracking number for the orders as it has been over 2 months since all the orders were shipped! 😶😶😶
I recently received the last of the US orders I placed in May, so I'm kind of losing hope of ever receiving the Lido Pimienta record :(
 
PS - Still haven’t got any of my Lido Pimienta orders! I contacted customer service and they don’t have any tracking unfortunately. They told me to be patient as there have been heavy delays with COVID-19. Totally understandable, and I’m cool with that. I just wish I had a tracking number for the orders as it has been over 2 months since all the orders were shipped! 😶😶😶
That makes me sad. Lido Pimienta is a fantastic 👏 👌 🙌 😍 artist and Miss Columbia is 🔥🔥🔥
 
Did you get the limited edition? Bundles?? Or just the standard 12" vinyl???
I got the limited edition hand painted gatefold vinyl, the standard vinyl too, and also some ceramic art stuff! I spent quite a lot in the store, so I’m really hoping I actually receive everything, especially as Lido Pimienta made the art/ceramics and painted/hand-screened that gatefold herself! 🎨💎
 
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