Best Music of 2020

TenderLovingKiller® said:
You might wanna try a different browser. It is a bit persnickety with some.
Click to expand...
Definitely a bit rudimentary. Firefox and Safari don’t show it as a slider. And when I drag and drop in a cover it can’t identify, I haven’t figured out how to make its text show up on the list. Just a white box appears that I can type text into but when I export to a graphic it vanishes.
 
 
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A 28-minute ripper of jet-fueled garage punk from West London, Chubby and the Gang’s Speed Kills is my AOTY, a gleeful, hook-laden, anti-authority combat-boot-kick to the balls. Assembled as a supergroup side project of London DIY hardcore vets, the songs have a life-lived maturity that echo classic pop-punk working class angst and lefty politics without becoming preachy. While the lyrics can be on the darker side, the music never loses its fun and is a blast with refreshingly informal punk rock conventions. Check out “All Along the Uxbridge” with its surfy reverb opener, irony-free handclaps, and harmonica(!) solo. The speed-up-slow-down tribal drumming on this album is particularly infectious.

I first heard Speed Kills on London indie hardcore label Static Shock’s Bandcamp page in February. SS’s blue and red vinyl limited pressings were long sold-out, and secondary market copies were nowhere to be found in the US. So I bought the digital download and have been blasting the hell out of it all year.

Fast forward to November. I was randomly streaming BBC 6 one Saturday morning and, to my amazement, a Chubby song come on! I couldn’t believe they had reached the mainstream. It turned out that Partisan Records — home to IDLES and Fountaines D.C. — scooped them up from SS, goosed their publicity, and re-released Speed Kills with much wider distribution on yellow vinyl at the end of November. I bought a copy as fast as I could (although if any of our UK friends come across a reasonably priced SS copy while digging, please DM me)!

SS’s Speed Kills Bandcamp page has since been scrubbed. I kind of feel it for an indie label losing a hot, upcoming band to a larger label, but good for Chubby and the Gang for the boost from the Partisan signing. And it sounds like they’ve already got a second record in the can so can’t wait to hear it in 2021.

“I WON’T BE TOLD TO DO
ESPECIALLY FROM THE LIKES OF YOU
NOW, FUCK OFF!”


25 Albums I loved in 2020

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  1. Chubby and the Gang - Speed Kills
  2. Krononaut - Krononaut
  3. Deftones - Ohms
  4. Sam Gendel - Satin Doll
  5. Hum - Inlet
  6. Hedvig Mollestad - Ekhidna
  7. Wire - Hive Mind
  8. Yves Tumor - Heaven to a Tortured Mind
  9. Rafael Anton Irisarri - Peripeteia
  10. Jeff Parker - Suite for Max Brown
  11. Matthew Halsall - Salute to the Sun
  12. Brian Eno - Rams: Original Soundtrack Album
  13. Jeff Rosenstock - NO DREAM
  14. Fuzz - III
  15. Keleketla! - Keleketla!
  16. Anna von Hausswolff - All Thoughts Fly
  17. Jacaszek - Music for Film
  18. Wolfgang Muthspiel, Scott Colley & Brian Blade - Angular Blues
  19. Avishai Cohen & Big Vicious - Big Vicious
  20. Ambrose Akinmusire - On The Tender Spot of Every Calloused Moment
  21. Lea Bertucci - Acoustic Shadows
  22. Phi-Psonics - The Cradle
  23. Big Scenic Nowhere - Vision Beyond Horizon
  24. Tongues Of Light - The Myth Of Separation And Selfhood
  25. Ben Salisbury, The Insects & Geoff Barrow ‎– Devs (Original Series Soundtrack)
Best wishes to all for peace, prosperity and good health in 2021.
 
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My top 25 list...narrowing it down was HARD. 2020 sucked, but it sure wasn't because of the music! I totally wasn't expecting to ultimately leave Tre Burt, Car Seat Headrest, Jason Isbell and Bonny Light Horseman all off this list, but that's showbiz baby.

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1. Laura Marling - Song For My Daughter
2. Haim - Women In Music, Part III
3. Sault - Untitled (Rise)
4. Moses Sumney - Grae
5. Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher
6. Gorillaz - Song Machine Season One
7. Bob Dylan - Rough & Rowdy Ways
8. Sault - Untitled (Black Is)
9. Jehnny Beth - To Love Is To Live
10. Bruce Springsteen - A Letter To You
11. James Dean Bradfield - Even In Exile
12. Fontaines D.C. - A Hero’s Death
13. Bonny Light Horseman
14. Liam Gallagher - MTV Unplugged
15. Doves - The Universal Want
16. The Electric Soft Parade - Stages
17. Taylor Swift - Folklore
18. Matt Berninger - Serpentine Prison
19. Idles - Ultra Mono
20. Taylor Swift - Evermore

I had posted this list elsewhere but these collages seemed fun! I thought I’d type the list because the generated text on other peoples was illegible to me! I’ve really enjoyed this year musically and the top 5, in particular, are really special!

Happy New Year friends!
 
My 2020 looked something like this:
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Jennah Barry - Holiday
Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud
Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters
Taylor Swift - folklore & evermore
Jeff Parker & the New Breed - Suite for Max Brown
Sarah Harmer - Are You Gone
HAIM - Women in Music Pt. III
Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher
Quiet Parade - The Will to Weather the Storm
Matt Berninger - Serpentine Prison
Soccer Mommy - Color Theory
Andrew Sisk - Mr. Miracle
Bahamas - Sad Hunk
Joel Plaskett - 44
Adrianne Lenker - songs + instrumentals
Fontaines D.C. - A Hero's Death
Kim Harris - Heirloom
Kathleen Edwards - Total Freedom
Basia Bulat - Are You in Love?
Jeff Gay - Stargazer
Owen Meany's Batting Stance - Featherweights
Andy Shauf - The Neon Skyline
Laura Marling - Song for our Daughter
Kevin Morby - Sundowner
Dog Day - Present
Laura Merrimen - Station Isolation
Daniel Romano's Outfit - How Ill Thy World is Ordered
Damien Jurado - What's New, Tomboy?
Gil Scott-Heron + Makaya McCraven - We're New Again
 
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