My Year in Music

It’s Decem­ber 30th, I’ve sub­mit­ted my for­mal fake P&J bal­lot and I’m lis­ten­ing to the new Emma Swift album and hav­ing regrets. A music crit­ic’s work is nev­er done!

It’s been a hard year but I was per­son­al­ly soothed by all the great music that came out this year. For the first time in my expe­ri­ence as a music enthu­si­ast, I had a list of 100+ albums that I enjoyed so much I might have includ­ed them in a top ten. I had top tens of scuzzy rock, jam, folk, coun­try, jazz, ambient/new age and more. I have a defen­si­ble top five albums by guys named Jeff! As much as we suf­fered in quar­an­tine, through a dif­fi­cult move to a famil­iar place that isn’t yet home again, music was a balm.

My favorites this year fall com­fort­ably into what you might call “head music.” I found myself return­ing time and again to psych, ambi­ent and jazz ver­sus try­ing to focus on lyrics and hooks. That said, my album of the year was Destroy­er’s “Have We Met.” It fit the year too per­fect­ly and coin­ci­den­tal­ly was the last show I saw this year and my last in Detroit. It was per­fect and bit­ter­sweet. Eleanor Fried­berg­er opened. I prob­a­bly saw her play Detroit in the last 6 years more than any oth­er artist. I get emo­tion­al think­ing about it.

Even in 2020’s dark­est moments, there was always a record to lis­ten to. These were my favorites, in alpha­bet­i­cal order:

1. Arbor Labor Union — New Petal Instants
2. Arboure­tum — Let It All In
3. Autechre — SIGN
4. Bar­ry Walk­er Jr. — Shoul­da Zenith
5. Beau­ty Pill — Please Advise
6. Ben Sere­tan — Youth Pastoral
7. Bill Fay — Count­less Branches
8. Bill Nace — Both
9. Blitzen Trap­per — Holy Smokes Future Jokes
10. Bob Dylan — Rough and Row­dy Ways
11. Bon­ny Light Horse­man — s/t
12. Brigid Daw­son and the Moth­ers Net­work — Bal­let of Apes
13. Bruce Horns­by — Non-Secure Connection
14. Bruce Spring­steen — Let­ter to You
15. Buck Cur­ran — No Love Is Sorrow
16. Bul­ly — SUGAREGG
17. Carl Stone — Stolen Car
18. Char­lie Kaplan — Sunday
19. Chris Forsyth with Gar­cia Peo­ples — Peo­ples Motel Band (Live)
20. Chro­mat­ics — Fad­ed Now
21. Chronophage — Th’pig’kiss’d Album
22. Cir­cles Around the Sun — s/t
23. Con­stant Smiles — Control
24. Con­tain­er — Scramblers
25. Coun­try West­erns — s/t
26. David Grubbs & Taku Una­mi — Comet Meta
27. David Nance — Staunch Honey
28. The Dead C — Unknowns
29. Death Val­ley Girls — Under the Spell of Joy
30. Deep Sea Div­er — Impos­si­ble Weight
31. Deep Space Duo — Spacetones
32. Deer­hoof — Future Teenage Cave Artists
33. Destroy­er — Have We Met
34. Dezron Dou­glas & Brandee Younger — Force Majeure
35. Dog­wood Tales — Clos­est Thing to Heaven
36. The Dream Syn­di­cate — The Uni­verse Inside
37. Earth­e­ater — Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin
38. Eli Win­ter — Unbecoming
39. Elkhorn — The Storm Sessions
40. Emma Swift — Blonde on the Tracks
41. Ezra Fein­berg — Recum­bent Speech
42. FACS — Void Moments
43. Fire-Toolz — Rain­bow Bridge
44. Flat Worms — Antarctica
45. Fuzz — III
46. Gar­cia Peo­ples — Night­cap at Wits’ End
47. Greg Dul­li — Ran­dom Desire
48. Guardian Sin­gles — s/t
49. Guid­ed By Voic­es — Mir­rored Aztec/Surrender Your Pop­py Field/Styles We Paid For
50. Gunn-Truscin­s­ki Duo — Soundkeeper
51. Gwenifer Ray­mond — Strange Lights over Garth Mountain
52. Hailu Mer­gia — Yene Mircha
53. HAIM — Women in Music Pt III
54. Heather Trost — Petrichor
55. Heathered Pearls — Cast
56. House­hold Gods — Palace Intrigue
57. The Howl­ing Hex — Knuck­le­ball Express
58. Imag­i­nary Soft­woods — Annu­al Flow­ers in Color
59. Irre­versible Entan­gle­ments — Who Sent You?
60. Jack­ie Lynn — Jacqueline
61. James Elk­ing­ton — Ever-Rov­ing Eye
62. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit — Reunions
63. Jeff Park­er — Suite for Max Brown
64. Jeff Rosen­stock — NO DREAM
65. Jeff Swan­son — Fathoms
66. Jeff Tweedy — Love Is The King
67. Jef­frey Sil­ver­stein — You Become the Mountain
68. Jen­nifer Cas­tle — Monarch Season
69. Jere­my Cun­ning­ham — The Weath­er Up There
70. Jess Williamson — Sorceress
71. Jessie Ware — What’s Your Pleasure?
72. Joe West­er­lund — Rever­ies in the Rift
73. Joe Wong — Nite Creatures
74. Jor­dan Reyes — Sand Like Stardust
75. Josh John­son — Free­dom Exercise
76. Khru­ang­bin — Mordechai
77. Kneel­ing in Piss — Tour De Force
78. Lam­b­chop — Trip
79. Laraa­ji — Moon Piano/Sun Piano
80. Lews­berg — In This House
81. Lithics — Tow­er of Age
82. Litur­gy — Ori­gin of the Alimonies
83. Loma — Don’t Shy Away
84. Loose Koozies — Feel a Bit Free
85. Mapache — From Lib­er­ty Street
86. Mary Halvor­son­’s Code Girl — Art­less­ly Falling
87. Mary Lat­ti­more — Sil­ver Ladders
88. Masa­ki Batoh — Smile Jesus Loves You
89. Mele­nas — Dias Raros
90. Mike Polizze — Long Lost Solace Find
91. Moor Moth­er — Cir­cuit City
92. Moss­es — T.V. Sun
93. The Moun­tain Goats — Songs for Pierre Chuvin
94. Mute Duo — Lapse in Passage
95. Muzz — s/t
96. Myth­ic Sun­ship — Chang­ing Shapes
97. Nap Eyes — Snap­shot of a Beginner
98. Nar­row Head — 12th House Rock
99. Nathan Sals­burg — Landwerk
100. The Necks — Three
101. Noth­ing — The Great Dismal
102. Obnox — Sav­age Raygun
103. Oh Sees — Metamorphosed/Panther Rotate/Protean Threat
104. Oliv­er Coates — skins n slime
105. Olivia Awbrey — Dis­hon­or­able Harvest
106. Oneo­htrix Point Nev­er — Mag­ic Oneo­htrix Point Never
107. Optic Sink — s/t
108. Pacif­ic Range — High Upon the Mountain
109. Pall­bear­er — For­got­ten Days
110. Phish — Sig­ma Oasis
111. Phoebe Bridgers — Punisher
112. Pro­tomar­tyr — Ulti­mate Suc­cess Today
113. Psy­chic Tem­ple — Hous­es of the Holy
114. Quin Kirch­n­er — The Shad­ows and the Light
115. Rat­boys — Print­er’s Devil
116. Rob Dob­son — New Dystopia
117. Robert Haigh — Black Sarabande
118. Roger Eno & Bri­an Eno — Mix­ing Colours
119. Ron Miles — Rain­bow Sign
120. Root­less — Docile Cobras
121. Rose City Band — Summerlong
122. Sal­ly Anne Mor­gan — Thread
123. Sam Gen­del — Satin Doll
124. Sam Prekop — Comma
125. Shaba­ka and the Ances­tors — We Are Sent Here By History
126. Sil­ver Scrolls — Music for Walks
127. Sir Richard Bish­op — Oneir­ic Formulary
128. Six Organs of Admit­tance — Com­pan­ion Rises
129. Soc­cer Mom­my — col­or theory
130. The Soft Pink Truth — Shall We Go On Sin­ning So That Grace May Increase?
131. Stephen Malk­mus — Tra­di­tion­al Techniques
132. The Strokes — The New Abnormal
133. Sun Ra Arkestra — Swirling
134. Sun­watch­ers — Oh Yeah?
135. SUSS — Promise
136. Teng­ger — Nomad
137. Ter­ry Allen & The Pan­han­dle Mys­tery Band — Just Like Moby Dick
138. These New Puri­tans — Hid­den [MMXX]
139. Tid­i­ane Thi­am — Siftorde
140. Trees Speak — Ohms/Shadow Forms
141. Trum­mors — Dropout City
142. U.S. Girls — Heavy Light
143. Wast­ed Shirt — Fun­gus II
144. William Tyler — Music from First Cow
145. Windy & Carl — Alle­giance and Conviction
146. Xetas — The Cypher
147. Zachary Cale — False Spring