This year may have been ravaged with Covid19 but instead of defeating musicians, they found ways to cope and indeed thrive. More inspiringly, these ten records really are works of deconstruction of humanity and the layers being examined by different styles and ideas.
Here are the best albums of the year:
1. Yves Tumor HEAVEN TO A TORTURED MIND:
Tumor has spent quite a lot of time working on not just themself but the notion of what it means to be a modern-day rock star. I use the phrase "rock" loosely of course because it really means a larger-than-live personality that is woke to the point of not even using stereotypical pronouns. And that is exactly what Heaven To A Tortured Mind captures so greatly---the immense acceptance of one's weird self and rocking the fuck out just because the music is great and the spot that you have laboured so hard to get to is finally here.
2. Perfume Genius SET MY HEART ON FIRE IMMEDIATELY:
Hadreas has been piecing his albums together to create a reimagining of body pop and Set My Heart On Fire Immediately is his best work yet of revenging himself of years where he couldn’t get others to see his fabled work. I liken this opus to fashion’s iconic LBD: every strand carefully stitched to allow the listener to pull back and marvel at its fastidiousness.
3. Fiona Apple FETCH THE BOLT CUTTERS:
inspired by a line uttered by Gillian Anderson, Fetch The Bolt Cutters is Apple arriving to the contemporary struggle faced by women that has been very public in this #MeToo era . Tracks like Newspaper and Ladies are a call to arms to unite vis-à-vis tearing each other apart to get a man’s approval. The irony of Apple being the one to evoke this most musically this year isn’t lost on anyone who has been following her career since its inception ad the controversial video for “Criminal” some twenty-three years ago. Time…it does eventually grant you leeway to get all your points in and it’s just a matter of when your listener shows up nd not if.
4. JPEGMafia EP!:
if it feels as if JPEGMafia is trolling us then you’d feel justified on the opening track “Bald” which lays into NBA Hall Of Famer Ray Allen but it’s still stunning focus. The album sprawls into a hodgepodge of styles thereafter and it is new territory for the hybrid of styles that he has been highlighting for a few years now. Songs begin then dissipate then mutate into different directions before well, mutating again. And I’m very much here for it!
5. Moses Sumney GRAE:
Grae, released over a two part arc this year, feels like Sumney painting an ornate yet decidedly complicated look at what his concept of boyhood into manhood looks and feels like. He isn’t afraid to add side spins like doubt, duality and uncertainty into the mix either and this allows us to focus on the personal battles below the headlines and gloss.
6. Denzel Curry & Kenny Beats UNLOCKED:
Curry streaks into whatever Beats sends his way and that makes Unlocked chaotic and, frankly, messy but that’s the point. If Curry wasn’t an effective rap ringmaster then the album would have failed or at least not be as prominent as it is but everything leading up to standout “Diet” can hold its own so much so that he’s just cruising and showing off thereafter.
7. Thundercat IT IS WHAT IT IS:
for the uninitiated, it seems as if what Thundercat does can seem overcooked but hemming a homogenous batch of songs, which pipping the production at the right levels, is no easy feat.
8. Jean Dawson PIXEL BATH:
there are some artists who take a while to reveal the talent hidden with but then there are others that you spot the potential right away. Jean Dawson is in the latter camp. I bet by the time you read this you have no idea who he is but I also bet by the time you start to listen to him that you get it right away. Dawson is in that class of upcoming artists that listens to everything and is at comfort with every genre and it shows. I expect great things from him as this is just the starting point.
9. Shamir CATACLYSM/ SHAMIR:
Shamir’s yin and yang albums of his young career succeeds primarily because he has taken time to craft them as personal tools. If Cataclysm is the slow-burning alternative rock seed that he can carefully germinated within himself then his self-titled effort incorporates his level of fabulousness in a way too many young black artists just can’t seem to get right.
10. Marlowe MARLOWE 2:
proving that old school hip/hop can be run through contemporary lenses.
