At the end of each year it is customary to summarize the musical results. And we sum up at the beginning of the year next. In the 2020th, many excellent albums came out, so choose only ten of them was a very difficult task. We decided to make this top in such a way as to show you the genre variety of modern music. Here you will find both the triumphal album Fiona EPLL, and an excellent record of little-known Metalists IRESS, and an incredibly beautiful Norwegian Big Bend, and a lot more. A special bonus for this ten attached playlist from the best songs last year.
Fiona Apple Fetch The Bolt Cutters
For 24 years in his career and life, the EPL fiodions have happened so much that is enough for a solid autobiography. In the interruptions between all these fiona cases continued to record excellent albums. By the time of the release of the fifth full-length (the past was released eight years ago), the epple had accumulated a solid background and a talented reputation was formed, but absolutely unmanaged artist.
Fetch The Bolt Cutters album recorded in an instant classic: even if you try to try well, you will not find the assessment record below 80. And a number of leading editions and put a maximum of 100 out of 100. So, most likely, we are dealing with you With the album of the year - the nervous, emotional and very original plate, which should be listened to. Fiona uses a sufficiently miser toolkit (except for the piano and percussion, there are not so many sounds), but at the same time it manages to give a very inventive, multifaceted work with the texts that have already disassembled quotes. At the end of the year, Fetch The Bolt Cutters was predictable on the tops of the absolute majority of ratings and was disassembled in a variety of reviews, so be sure to listen to this masterpiece. You will not regret!
Perfume Genius Set My Heart On Fire Immediately
Perfume Genius has long been listed among talented and promising musicians, whose praise, but praise moderately. Before delight, it came in 2020 when the American musician Mike Andreas released his fifth studio album Set My Heart On Fire Immediately. Its name is very clear and accurately reflects the content of the recording - at the same time flame, emotional, bright and very intimate. Flame - Because here the musician splashes such a gamut of emotions and shades, which seems to be enough for the provision of electricity to the Cherry or Karlet. Intimate - because the artist speaks of his personal: about his sores, about his worldship, about his demons. All this is intertwined into a very beautiful product with excellent melodies, rich arrangements and perfectly shadowing songs with effects and halftons. This is not just a collection of songs - this is a whole indie symphony of a person who finally stayed alone with him and was able to spend a large-scale internal dialogue.
Yves Tumor Heaven to a Tortured Mind
Two years ago, the American experimentator IV Lesor recorded the third full-length album Safe In The Hands of Love. The collection received sufficiently high marks, but the turbidity remained in the category of promising musicians, which they know and followed by people who are only deeply interested in the subject.
Heaven to a Tortured Mind jumped up much higher than his predecessor. Here, the American multi-instrumentalist is revealed not only as a person who is scrupulously working on the sound and methodically building his own author's style, but also as a phenomenal writer capable of creating beautiful melodies. Retrofuturism, which plays the painor in this album, does not succeed as much as the numerous fans of eighties who are experiencing their peak now, and is appropriate and thoroughly folded into a bright, distinctive picture. It has a place and aggressive experiments, and a light song genre, and a funk groove. Heaven to a Tortured Mind is one of the strongest albums of this year and a strong competitor collection of epples in all sorts of ratings.
RUN THE JEWELS RTJ4
The main album of June and the perfect soundtrack for events in the United States. Now Run The Jewels is just a hip-hop group language will not turn: the duo juggles in many styles and makes powerful and timeless energy-charged music. No new school and fashionable filhes - here anger and aggression are combined with bright and daemetical hooks, and a strong social and political subtext - with practically dance rhythms. RTJ4 is the most timely and powerful work in Duet discography: Oldskul Ooh La La, street screaming goonies vs. E.T. In the spirit of the most energetic militants Prodigy, Psychedelic Pulling The Pin with an incredible Josh Homm on the trips - every track from this album can be proclaimed with a small masterpiece. Run The Jewels return hip-hop to the origins, fill it with life and energy, purify from rhinestones, cheap ponts and decorative clownades. If you have been scored with OKOMIN GLEM, turn on RTJ4 and enjoy the original energy.
Destroyer Have We Met
Dan Bezhar seems to be more famous for the wide audience according to the New Pornographers group, although its main project was and remains Destroyer - weird, ironic and very musical. Under this sign, Bejar released 12 full-format albums, but the most important of them became Kaputt, captured by world critics. The subsequent Poison Season and Ken only strengthened Destroyer in high positions. This is a mockery, caricature, which one finely turned into something serious, and the 12th studio album of Canadian as if Cherry on this cake: a thinly played, beautiful collection that you still have to be listened. Start with a wonderful single Cue SyntheSizers and move on - you will not regret.
Gard Nilssen's SuperSonic Orchestra If You Listen Carefully The Music Is Yours
The Norwegian drummer Gard Nilssen is a very fruitful musician even on jazz standards: in thirteen years he recorded about seventy albums with different compositions! But we propose to listen to this particular - recorded visible at the Molde International Jazz Festival festival in 2019 by sixteen musicians. Here are three drummers, three double bassists and a brass section of ten tools, most of which are saxophones. If you love big bends and orchestral jazz, familiar with the discography of Kamai Washington, then this entry will hit your heart. Tradition here is tightly intertwined with a bold experiment, a juicy sound brings a solid pleasure, so that the hour of recording flies imperceptibly and immediately wants additives. Norwegians are able to make a otnaya jazz - you have a great opportunity to make sure about it once again.
Fontaines D.C. A HERO'S DEATH
Young Irish Group Fontaines D.C. Powerfully declared himself a debut album Dogrel, which came out in 2019 and was at high positions in British charts. The musicians did not wait a long time and a year later released the second full-length album A Hero's Death - Sluckful, melancholic postpank, as if for a rather compressed time interval, the band made a confident step into the abyss. The musicians themselves say that the SUICIDE group, The Beach Boys, Beach House, These Immortal Souls and Broadcast, was influenced by this entry, so you can approximately imagine what to expect from A Hero's Death album. But the most important thing is that it is very beautiful, although very dark, typically British music, thanks to which Fontaines D.C. Released a new level.
Idles Ultra Mono.
British IDLES punks from a pure subcultural phenomenon somehow unnoticed in the chadliners of large festivals (even before a pandemic) and a group that all concert promoters want to get (of course, except Belarusian). Charismatic, artistic musicians write poster, clinging songs that fall into the widest possible audience. Of course, in orthodox circles such a movement towards the mainstream could not help but cause a wave of discontent, but all this is more like a bore. Right now Idles - the most touring and popular punk group: Albums Brutalism and Joy AS An Act of Resistance - energetic and hits - heard to holes, and the new Ultra Mono is not so hit, but no less successful - is a worthy continuation of the band's slaughter discography . Yes, on this record there are no 100% hits like Danny Nedelko or Mother, but it is very whole, inventive and vigorous work that is capable of hooking even a person extremely far from punk culture.
MOSES SUMNEY GRæ.
The American musician Moses Moses Self released his first album in 2017. What was it for the collection! Generous arrangements, amazing, heartfelt melodies, rich artist vocals, who himself wrote the majority of compositions for this album, and Thundercat as a bass guitarist on one of the songs - this is already as a sign quality mark. It was a lot of praised, almost on all profile resources of the Self, was in the tops of the ratings. The guy who was born in the United States, lived in Ghana, and then returned to California, no one showed his songs to 20 years. And when she showed, it turned out that they were beautiful. Three years later, the Moses of the Songs ripened for the second album and released it immediately in two parts - twenty songs, a little more matte, with an emphasis on an amazing artist vocal. His prases no less than debut work of the Self: there is a soul in this album, big talent and sincerity. And there is also freedom from templates and conventions: Moses of the Samui is a very distinctive self-taught musician, his vocals equally magically sounds and within the framework of electronic music, and framed by a string ensemble, and in general without musical accompaniment. True, a lot says that one masterpiece could turn out from these good two parts. But these are nuances.
Iress Flaw
About the Iress group from Los Angeles is known very little. Since the release of the previous one, the debut album has passed a long five years. During this time, the musicians obviously gained experience and fresh ideas and recorded the monolithic Flaw - definitely the best heavy album of September. Stylistically this entry can be noted by the tags "postmetal", "Shugayaz", "Duma", but in general, it is much more diverse and does not fit into some clear framework. This is a measured gloomy music without sharp and too loud segments, and in the foreground there is a vocalist Michel Malley, who makes an incredible thing with his voice: there are so many emotions and convincing artistry that every song becomes a small theater representation in the midst of the twilight foggy road. Very beautiful record, and we recommend paying special attention to the SHALLOW monolithic composition - the real decoration of this album.
But the playlist out of ten excellent songs last year:
And the same playlist on Yandex.Music:
Our channel in Telegram. Join now!
Is there something to tell? Write to our Telegram Bot. It is anonymously and fast
Reprinting text and photos Onliner without resolving the editors is prohibited. [email protected].