3rd Quarter Favorites!
All Them Witches-Nothing As The Ideal(New West)
Why It's Good: This is all around a kick ass Rock record that recalls the best of Masters Of Reality and Queens Of The Stone Age but with a bit of a more stretched out Psychedelic aspect to it. So far this is my favorite of their albums and one of this years most cohesive and interesting Rock records.
Amine-Limbo(Republic)
Why It's Good: Great modern Hip Hop with a great old school twist to the sound. His use of Soul samples is near perfect. This one is equal parts a head trip and a dance party. Highly recommended for driving down the street on a sunny weekend day.
Blu & Exile-Miles: From An Interlude Called Life(Dirty Science/Fat Beats)
Why It's Good: Not too much to say other than it's a great solid Hip Hop album influenced by the music of old. It has a great retro vibe going throughout, the production is stellar. Blu's raps are some of the strongest he's ever dropped.
The Bobby Lees-Skin Suit(Alive)
Why It's Good: A rip roaring kick ass Garage Punk record. This one blasts by with some of the best written fast paced nasty rock n roll. None other than Jon Spencer produced this kick ass album.
Boris-No(Fangs Anal Satan)
Why It's Good: Boris made a kick ass punk album. They didn't make a pop influenced album. That pretty much speaks for itself.
Armani Caesar-The Liz(Griselda)
Why It's Good: By far the best female MC of this year. This was the first woman released by Griselda and it's a damn good one. The woozy beats give it a very RZA/Wu Tang feel and usher in a great debut for Griselda. This has a lot in common soundwise to what Earl Sweatshirt is doing as well. The whole thing has a dusty and sort of creepy vibe to the whole proceedings. All of this adds up to one of the best Hip Hop albums of the year. She is one to watch for sure.
Bill Callahan-Gold Record(Drag City)
Why It's Good: Yet another excellent set of laid back country/folk from this modern legend. This period of his songwriting is proving to be his best by both emphasizing a laid back style and by dabbling in other genres while also standing firmly within the lines of country and folk. Also opening an album by saying "I'm Johnny Cash" is a stroke of pure genius.
Chill Parents-At The Barracades(Self Released)
Why It's Good: What can I say about this? It's an excellent hardcore album that is political, funny and adventurous. It takes the basic framwork of Hardcore Punk and adds a bunch of interesting elements(piano interludes, sampling and electronic effects). All of these add up to blast a breath of fresh air to an otherwise mostly formulaic genre. I commend you Chill Parents for making anything but "chill" music.
George Clanton & Nick Hexum-Self Titled(100% Electronica)
Why It's Good: Honestly could have never predicted this team up in a million years. Also couldn't predict something like this would be as great as it is. Nick Hexum's(of 311 lead singer fame) voice butting up against Clanton's woozy tripped out summery pop is an excellent combination and though this does scream of a one off I really hope they consider making more of this stuff...it's just too damn good.
Crack Cloud-Pain Olympics(Meat Machine)
Why It's Good: Post Punk revival can be very boring, redundant and just over bloated. I feel like the bands a lot of modern bands are mining for their sound are the most popular and the most generically sounding Post Punk, akin to stuff like Echo and The Bunnymen, Siouxsie and The Banshees, Bauhaus, etc. Those bands on their own are classic and should be respected but when you mine the same shit for years as Post Punk revival a music journalist who likes forward thinking music is going to get pissed off. I've been pissed off for years about Post Punk revival bands(outside of a few choice ones each year). These guys are different. It's like they only took the interesting and adventurous parts of those aforementioned bands and then took some more elements from the really fun and interesting Post Punk bands(think This Heat type stuff) and formed a wacky ass band to translate all they had digested. This is Post Punk revival at it's best and should be respected as such.
Eric Copeland-Dumb It Down(Post Present Medium)
Why It's Good: Black Dice member takes his experimental psychedelic dub influenced madness and "dumbs it down" to make his version of a pop album and ends up making what would be a great album for The Residents and Ween and we are all better for it.
Lucrecia Dalt-No Era Solida(Rvng Intl.)
Why It's Good: She takes the lame ass New Age aesthetic and flips it on it's head til it's good, creepy and unrecognizable. I feel like she makes the music I wish Holly Herndon and Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith would make. She has made consistently great albums of awesome experimentation and creepy atmospherics her entire career and this is no exception.
Fox Academy-Rabbit(Self Released)
Why It's Good: I like this because it harkens back to a simpler time. I time where LO-FI and sonic experimentation went hand in hand. A time where indie folk albums felt honest and true and were somewhat of a revelation. This music recalls the best of the best of early 2000s indie rock/folk/pop scene. I can't wait to see what they do next!
Asher Gamdze-Dialetic Soul(On The Corner)
Why It's Good: A perfect mix between traditional Jazz and Free Jazz. Not a single moment on this album is boring. It always keeps you on your toes. I would almost call this accessible Free Jazz, maybe Free Jazz you can get your friends who hate Jazz into. Something like that, something that bridges the gap between chilling out and losing your mind. Throw a little spiritual Jazz influence on top and there you go, one of the best Jazz albums of the year.
Gulch-Impenetrable Cerebral Forces(Closed Casket Activities)
Why It's Good: Along with Chill Parents, these guys are making some of the most adventurous Hardcore Punk/Metal these ears have ever heard. Not a single dull moment with these guys stop and start energy. It shoots by like a breeze but not before kicking your ass all around the room.
Bruce Hornsby-Non Secure Connection(Zappo)
Why It's Good: Yet another genre bending great late period album from the guy who brought you "The Way It Is" one of the quintessential 80s songs that people look toward as an example to show someone what "80s Production" in music was all about. This is very far from that. In his later years he has rebranded himself as a crafter or odd Prog inspired oddness. This has traces of Robert Wyatt and the Canterbury scene of Prog from the early 70s. It's goofy, it's confrontational, it's exciting and it's adventurous. I hope he keeps making albums like this.
Illuminati Hotties-Free I.H.: This Is Not The One You've Been Waiting For(Self Released)
Why It's Good: The about face she performs on the first few tracks on this album knocked my socks off. Her debut was solid for sure but it still easily fit in with most Indie Rock/Pop of the moment. This though, wow! It's filled with vitriol and jittery rhythms and just an overall what I'm sensing anger or just a feeling of wanting to burn it all down and start again. This music harkens back to the best of Riot Grrl and Punk and a nice dose of Noise Rock. I feel a strong early Marnie Stern influence as well and that's a damn good thing!
Matmos-The Consuming Flame: Open Exercises In Group Form(Thrill Jockey)
Why It's Good: It's super long, it's all collabs. It's also full of ideas and sounds that up until now were completely alien upon first listen and in this day and age that's an impressive feat for sure and why it's on this list. This also might be their most playful release in years.
Dent May-Late Checkout(Carpark)
Why It's Good: At this point we are so into his songwriting here that I'm pretty sure all of his future albums will be recommended to some extent. He has a masterful grasp on how to write an interesting and relatable pop song. He has a very Beach Boys sound but he also injects it with something very modern in the production. His lyrics are very relatable, almost like a friend sitting down to talk about everything after you've been separated for a while. It's a nice reprise from the craziness of this burning world.
Makaya McCraven-Universal Beings E&F Sides(International Anthem Recording Company)
Why It's Good: While this is for sure a Jazz album, the playing really invokes more of that of an instrumental Hip Hop album. Fans of instrumental Hip Hop and Hip Hop production in general would like this album. It has a very modern feel of Hip Hop minus the Trap and it also feels like a really good 90s MC would absolutely destroy people by rapping over it. If you like your Jazz unconventional and your instrumental Hip Hop jazzy I highly recommend this.
Nnamdi-Black Plight EP(Self Released)
Why It's Good: All I can say about this is it's a really good skronky Punk influenced Indie Rock album. Also looking back at the early 2000s as the music wellspring of awesomeness it was. It also uses humor to highlight pretty unforgiving political messages.
Old 97s-Twelfth(ATO)
Why It's Good: This is just Old 97s doing their perfect mix of Alt Country and Power Pop like they always do. If you know them you know what I'm talking about and if you don't you should just take a listen.
Angel Olsen-Whole New Mess(Jagjaguwar)
Why It's Good: Let me start this off by saying while I don't think it's horrible I do feel when Angel goes slick and uses synths and electronics to make an album I'm definitely not that down. I much prefer the sound of her first few releases. A nice stripped down and sometimes not stripped down folk/country sound. This album is her doing a stripped down version of the album before it that was a synth heavy very produced album. Her stripping away the excess just leaves the core goodness that lay in the center of all those songs. Now that artistry can shine. This is great because she's at her best when she lays it all bare and lets that voice and her lyrics shine. I would be more than down for her to release to versions of each album every time. I know which version I would buy already.
Osees-Protean Threat(Castle Face)
Why It's Good: I can't really say too much more about Osees/Thee Oh Sees/Oh Sees etc....that hasn't been said before. Mr Dwyer is just that consistent. This one has a little bit more of a Noise Rock Lightning Bolt thing going on then the last one's Metal and Prog leanings, but then again this thing is wholly indebted to Prog. Well what can I say? It's just another kick ass release from this band that doesn't seem capable of delivering crap.
Sylvie Simmons-Blue On Blue(Compass)
Why It's Good: A total throwback to 70s Singer/Songwriter and Folk stuff right when we need it most. Not enough people are mining this sound right now. This truly sounds out of time.
Slauson Malone-Vergangenheitsbewaltigung(Grand Closing)
Why It's Good: The son of Wynton Marsalis does it again! This guy is masterful at making awesome sample based woozy dream like music. I could listen to this for hours and hours and not get bored. Every nook and cranny is filled with awesome ideas and new sounds. Plunderphonics artist would be doing themselves a favor by looking toward this guy for some good ideas.
Terminal Nation-Holocene Extinction(20 Buck Spin)
Why It's Good: Great Doom and D Beat influenced Black Metal. Not much else to say except this one shifts on a dime between slow plodding Doom influenced Metal to speedy almost Thrash Metal territory. This is thrilling stuff.
Year Of The Knife-Internal Incarceration(Pure Noise)
Why It's Good: Every year there seems to be a Metalcore album that just comes out and kicks my ass. This is 2020's version. Absolutely punishing mechanical rhythms bump up against a punk attitude and destructive pummeling drumming that absolutely slays.
Z Berg-Get Z To A Nunnary(Metropolitan Indian)
Why It's Good: The lead singer of The Like delivers one of the prettiest and glacial sounding singer/songwriter orchestral Folk albums I have heard in recent memory. This is striking stuff and somehow manages to sound both huge and intimate at the same time. This is late night, drink in hand, fireplace on type music. Perfect for the cold and perfect for warming the soul.
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