1. Lankum, False Lankum

This Dublin band channels old Irish folk music through drones and other alien elements, giving it an unusual power and intensity. I was so enchanted by this album that I haven’t had much time to familiarize myself with Lankum’s three earlier records, so I have some catching up to do. But in a strong year with many noteworthy records, this was the one that cast a spell on me more than any other. https://lankum.bandcamp.com/album/false-lankum

2. Brennen Leigh, Ain’t Through Honky Tonkin’ Yet

There’s a sparkling wit and spirit in Leigh’s old-fashioned country songs, which are all pretty darn catchy. https://brennenleigh.bandcamp.com/album/aint-through-honky-tonkin-yet

3. PJ Harvey, I Inside the Old Year Dying

Quiet, atmospheric songs with beautiful but sometimes inscrutable lyrics (sometimes using the Dorset dialect). No one else but PJ Harvey could make this music. https://pjharvey.bandcamp.com/album/i-inside-the-old-year-dying

4. Robbie Fulks, Bluegrass Vacation

As the title indicates, Fulks leans toward the bluegrass end of the folk-country spectrum on this album, but really, it’s just another sterling collection of his terrific songwriting. https://robbiefulks.bandcamp.com/album/bluegrass-vacation

5. Asher Gamedze, Turbulence and Pulse

Like most of the jazz I’ve enjoyed lately, this album is strongly rooted in African culture, opening with a fascinating little lecture on time signatures and then vividly demonstrating the power of those rhythms. https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/turbulence-and-pulse

6. Wednesday, Rat Saw God

This record is bracing, with explosive energy, but more than anything, it’s the lyrics by singer Karly Hartzman that stick in my mind. She’s one of the great rock poets of this moment. https://wednesdayband.bandcamp.com/album/rat-saw-god

7. Sparklehorse, Bird Machine

It’s something of a miracle that this album exists. Mark Linkous left behind these recordings when he died in 2010, but it took meticulous effort to piece them together and complete them; the result sounds like an honest-to-goodness true Sparklehorse album, which is a wonderful thing to have in the world. https://sparklehorse.bandcamp.com/album/bird-machine

8. Natural Information Society Community Ensemble,
Since Time Is Gravity

Joshua Abrams’ group has been one of my favorite Chicago musical outfits for the past decade, and this record ranks among its best work. The addition of tenor saxophone Ari Brown steers the music slightly closer to traditional jazz, but it remains focused on endlessly circling patterns and meditative drones. https://eremiterecords.bandcamp.com/album/since-time-is-gravity

9. Arvo Pärt, Tractus

The Estonian composer announced he was retiring in 2021, so this album doesn’t feature new compositions, but it does have new arrangements of some old pieces. It’s a beautiful collection of his serene and soulful music, performed by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, and Tõnu Kaljuste. https://ecmrecords.com/product/arvo-part-tractus-estonian-philharmonic-chamber-choir-tallinn-chamber-orchestra-tonu-kaljuste/

10. Mike Reed, The Separatist Party

This drummer (and jazz club owner) is a driving force in the Chicago music scene, so it isn’t surprising that his album feels like a collaborative sample of the city’s creativity, stirring together elements like Marvin Tate’s spoken word and Bitchin Bajas’ groovy grooves. It all feels so alive. https://astralseparatistparty.bandcamp.com/album/the-separatist-party

The Next 10

11. The Bad Ends, The Power and the Glory

12. The Necks, Travel

13. Bonnie Prince Billy, Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You

14. Wilco, Cousin

15. Yo La Tengo, This Stupid World

16. The Clientele, I Am Not There Anymore

17. The Handsome Family, Hollow

18. John Luther Adams / Robert Black, Darkness and Scattered Light

19. En Attendant Ana, Principia

20. Melenas, Ahora

More runners-up, in alphabetical order:

Algiers, Shook

Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer and Shahzad Ismaily, Love in Exile

Bar Italia, The Twits

The Baseball Project, Grand Salami Time!

Belle and Sebastian, Late Developers

Blur, The Ballad of Darren

Bonny Doon, Let There Be Music

Jaimie Branch, Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die (World War)

Bully, Lucky for You

Cat Power, Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert

Connections, Cool Change

Cut Worms, Cut Worms

Iris DeMent, Workin’ on a World

Alabaster DePlume, Come With Fierce Grace

The Exbats, Song Machine

The Feelies, Some Kinda Love: Performing the Music of the Velvet Underground

Robert Forster, The Candle and the Flame

Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru, Jerusalem

Glyders, Maria’s Hunt

Guided by Voices, La La Land

Guided by Voices, Welshpool Frillies

Guided by Voices, Nowhere to Go But Up

Hotline TNT, Cartwheel

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Weathervanes

Will Johnson, No Ordinary Crown

Damon Locks and Rob Mazurek, New Future City Radio

Jack Logan, Endless Demos, Vol. 1, Vol. 2, and Vol. 3

Lydia Loveless, Nothing’s Gonna Stand in My Way Again

Rob Mazurek and Exploding Star Orchestra, Lightning Dreamers

The National, First Two Pages of Frankenstein

The New Pornographers, Continue as a Guest

Algote Oho & His Sounds of Joy, O Yinne!

Osees, Intercepted Message

Polobi & the Gwo Ka Masters, Abri Cyclonique

Margo Price, Strays

The Rain Parade, Last Rays of a Dying Sun

Andy Shauf, Norm

The Small Square, Ours & Others

Sunwatchers, Music Is Victory Over Time

The Tallest Man on Earth, Henry St.

Dudu Tassa and Jonny Greenwood, Jarak Qaribak

Teenage Fanclub, Nothing Lasts Forever

Tele Novella, Poet’s Tooth

Tinariwen, Amatssou

Titanic, Vidrio

The Tubs, Dead Meat

Waco Brothers, The Men That God Forgot

Rufus Wainwright, Folkocracy

M. Ward, Supernatural Thing

Bella White, Among Other Things

Lucinda Williams, Stories from a Rock n Roll Heart

1.
S.G. Goodman
Teeth Marks

This Kentucky singer-songwriter’s debut, Old Time Feeling, was my favorite album of 2020, and she captured my heart once again with her second record. This one is more of a rock album, as Goodman plays with a terrific group, often sounding like a talented bar band playing in a backwoods roadhouse. (At least, that’s how I picture it.) Another critic mentioned “shoegaze” when describing Goodman’s music, which struck me as a peculiar choice of musical terms. But I understand where that idea came from: There are times when Goodman and her backing band get into a groove, repeating a riff as if hypnotized or reveling in the waves of sound. A similar intensity and focus come through in Goodman’s voice, evoking the mountain music of her home state as well as its deeper roots in British folk. Goodman’s lyrics are poetic and passionate. I enjoyed hearing her conversation with Marc Maron on his WTF podcast, and then when she performed a top-notch show at Schubas, her strong personality was on display during her delightful storytelling in between the songs. The centerpiece of this album is a pair of haunting tracks, “If You Were Someone I Loved” and “You Were Someone I Loved.” Or is it one song divided into two parts? Together, they form a moving plea for empathy—and a demand to help neighbors and friends who are in crisis and despair.
http://www.sggoodman.net/releases/teeth-marks/

2.
Horsegirl
Versions of Modern Performance

I find it thrilling to hear young people here in Chicago (in this case, a trio of young women) making vital new music with instruments that might seem almost old-fashioned and out of style: guitars and drums. Horsegirl’s music sounds a bit like old post-punk, but there’s a fresh quality to this combination of catchy vocal melodies, absurdist lyrics, and surging, swelling guitars—as well as the record’s moody interludes, featuring simple piano and ambient touches of art rock. As the album title suggests, these are versions of how rock music can be performed today. It doesn’t all have to sound like slick pop music. Horsegirl offers further evidence that the kids really are all right.
https://thisishorsegirl.bandcamp.com/album/versions-of-modern-performance

3.
Makaya McCraven
In These Times

This is the best new jazz music I’ve heard in ages. Now, I must confess that I don’t listen to nearly as much new jazz as I should, so take that proclamation with a grain of salt. But this album confirms that Makaya McCraven, a Chicago drummer and producer who has dabbled in hip-hop and other styles of music, is an outstanding composer and arranger. The textures and moods shift from track to track, but every song is evocative and memorable. While working on other projects over the past seven years, McCraven saved up some of his best original compositions for this album, and it shows. I love it from beginning to end.
https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/in-these-times

4.
The Boys With the Perpetual Nervousness
The Third Wave of…

This Scottish-Spanish duo makes perfectly executed power pop, very reminiscent of bands like Teenage Fanclub, with chiming guitars and lovely harmony vocals. This isn’t groundbreaking stuff, but it’s really catchy.
https://theboyswiththeperpetualnervousness.bandcamp.com/album/the-third-wave-of

5.
Angel Olsen
Big Time

Angel Olsen hasn’t abandoned her roots as a folk singer, but she continues evolving and exploring. On this album, she sounds more soulful than ever, channeling grief and personal discovery into emotionally powerful songs.
https://angelolsen.bandcamp.com/album/big-time

6.
The Sadies
Colder Streams

Before he died in February, Dallas Good wrote a description of his band’s latest album, commenting: “The Sadies don’t really fit tidily into any genre, or even sub-genre. We aren’t really ‘pre or post’ anything and we don’t have the right hair-cuts or hats for any particular scene. Can’t really call us modern or retro either. We certainly don’t claim to have re-invented the wheel. We just are. And have been for a very long time. So, all that matters is the music itself.” On Colder Streams, the Sadies stuck with their tried-and-true formula. And they succeeded once again, crafting yet another collection of great songs. Although his vocals were as understated as ever, Dallas had a gift for delivering a memorable melody with seemingly no effort. And as always, it was a joy to hear his guitar riffs intertwined with those of his brother, Travis. I mourned Dallas Good’s death while listening to Colder Streams, struck by lyrics such as: “When I search for answers, questions are all I find.” But think of this album is a celebration of great music, not an epitaph.
https://thesadies.bandcamp.com/album/colder-streams

7.
Nora O’Connor
My Heart

Ever since Nora O’Connor’s wonderful album Til the Dawn was released in 2004, I’d been hoping she would record another one. In the meantime, I saw her perform many times with the Flat Five or as a solo artist or as a guest with other musicians. My hopes finally came true this year, and her new record lived up to my expectations: a beautiful set of alt-country, Americana, and pop music with a bit of a 1970s West Coast vibe (via Chicago, of course).
https://noraoconnormusic.bandcamp.com/album/my-heart

8.
Joan Shelley
The Spur

That beautiful voice, singing another set of beautiful songs. Louisville singer-songwriter Joan Shelley has expanded her sound, moving beyond acoustic guitar and fleshing out her arrangements with a full band, sometimes substituting piano for guitar. But the tunes still sound like Joan Shelley, with a soothing stillness at their core.
https://joanshelley.bandcamp.com/album/the-spur

9.
Oneida
Success

Oneida sometimes makes experimental and almost abstract music, but the band is as direct as ever on this album, which is filled with punchy rock songs, guitar riffs, propulsive drumming, and catchy melodies. It’s one of the long-running cult band’s most accessible records.
https://oneida.bandcamp.com/album/success

10.
Wilco
Cruel Country

In recent years, Jeff Tweedy released some solo albums, as well as records by a band he called Tweedy. His latest album with Wilco feels like a hybrid of his solo work and the full band: The songs are mostly rooted in acoustic guitar, but Wilco’s masterful musicians add many grace notes as they flesh out the arrangements on live takes in the Loft studio. Wilco has been making good albums all along, but this is the best in a while, with
Tweedy returning to his alt-country roots for a big batch of 21 memorable songs.
https://wilcohq.bandcamp.com/album/cruel-country

Runners-up, in alphabetical order:

Arcade Fire, We
Big Thief, Dragon Warm New Mountain I Believe in You
Andrew Bird, Inside Problems
Bitchin Bajas, Bajascillators
Björk, Fossora
Naima Bock, Giant Palm
Nora Brown, Long Time to Be Gone
Bill Callahan, YTILAER
Ceramic Animal, Sweet Unknown
Cola, Deep in View
Crystal Eyes, The Sweetness Restored
Dehd, Blue Skies
Drive-By Truckers, Welcome 2 Club XIII
Guided By Voices, Tremblers and Goggles by Rank
I Was a King, Follow Me Home
Julia Jacklin, Pre Pleasure
Damien Jurado, Reggae Film Star
Cate Le Bon, Pompeii
MJ Lenderman, Boat Songs
Cass McCombs, Heartmind
Mdou Moctar, Niger EP Vol. 2
Kevin Morby, This Is a Photograph
Nina Nastasia, Riderless Horse
Onyon, Onyon
Partner Look, By the Book
Plains, I Walked With You a Ways
Porridge Radio, Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky
Ty Segall, “Hello, Hi”
The Smile, A Light for Attracting Attention
Kelley Stoltz, The Stylist
Kelley Stoltz, Transnational Series Volume 1 (EP)
Superchunk, Wild Loneliness
Sharon Van Etten, We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong
Spiritualized, Everything Was Beautiful
Spoon, Lucifer on the Sofa
Laura Veirs, Found Light
Wet Leg, Wet Leg
Weyes Blood, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow

The story behind this album was dispiriting for those of us who love the Wrens’ 2003 masterpiece The Meadowlands. We’ve been waiting 18 years for the Wrens to release a long-promised follow-up record. But now, one of the Wrens has gone his own way: Kevin Whelan says he was tired of waiting for bandmate Charles Bissell to put out the music they’d been working on for all of those years. So he released this album under the Aeon Station name, including five songs that had been intended for the next Wrens album. It’s sad to see the Wrens dissolving in a “bitter feud,” as the Guardian called it. And we might never hear that Wrens album that was supposedly coming out, though some version of it will surely surface in one way or another. Bissell tweeted: “my songs have also been done for a couple years & will come out now…as a solo album, I guess.”

It’s hard not to listen to Aeon Station’s album without wondering what might have been. Is this half of a never-to-be-heard Wrens masterpiece? Is it just a shadow of that phantom album? Perhaps. The image on the album cover, a half-built office block, symbolizes how “projects sometimes just don’t get finished,” Whelan told the Guardian.

But this is also outstanding music in its own right. Whelan demonstrates his skill at making songs with catchy chord progressions that cycle around and around with tones that almost sound like chimes—patterns that morph as they repeat, sneakily building in power until they feel like anthems. His melodies and vocals also seem simple and understated at first glance, but their depth becomes more apparent the more you listen.

In the song “Alpine Drive,” Whalen seems to be describing the long process of trying to make the Wrens’ new album when he sings: “Why should I feel like I still have more time? / Year after year paid in more than my crime / One thousand night shifts all end with a song / Still breaking rocks into songs we never get taught”

https://aeonstation.bandcamp.com/

2.
Matt Sweeney & Bonnie “Prince” Billy
Superwolves

The guitarist Matt Sweeney’s name is listed first on the album cover, but Bonnie “Prince” Billy (a.k.a. Will Oldham) is the singer and the more famous one. Oldham wrote the lyrics and gave them to Sweeney, who wrote the music on this record, a follow-up to their 2005 album, Superwolf. One reason why Oldham is such a fascinating artist is his eagerness to collaborate with so many different musicians. This partnership yields a beguiling set of songs, most of them spare and sinister.

https://mattsweeneybonnieprincebilly.bandcamp.com/album/superwolves

3.
Quivers
Golden Doubt

This Australian band says its album is about “what comes after grief, and how we throw ourselves back into love.” While that sounds like a heavy concept, the record is light in spirit: bittersweet pop that evokes 1980s and ‘90s indie rock (as well as the 1960s classics evoked by that music). Quivers delivers its memorable lyrics and melodies with beautiful male-female vocal harmonies and a few orchestral flourishes.

https://quiversss.bandcamp.com/album/golden-doubt

4.
Eleventh Dream Day
Since Grazed

As I see it, Chicago’s Eleventh Dream Day is a role model for how an independent band can endure, continuing to make vital music — by working at its own unhurried pace, releasing new records every few years, playing a handful of gigs now and then, but never giving up the ship. “The time between records is what has allowed us to continue,” drummer-vocalist Janet Beveridge Bean told the Concrete Islands site.

This new double album came out six years after EDD’s last record, the stellar Works for Tomorrow. Although Since Grazed has a few passages of the loud and propulsive rock Eleventh Dream Day is known for, the predominant mood is stately and almost meditative. That reflects how these songs began, as Rick Rizzo’s demos for a planned solo record, but the rest of the musicians added layers that enrich the sound. In the end, it became another shining example of what this band can do.

https://eleventh-dream-day.bandcamp.com/album/since-grazed

5.
Sons of Kemet
Black to the Future

This British group, led by saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings, gets categorized as jazz. But this album transcends genre definitions. With guest vocals by various singers and rappers, there’s a sense of call and response between the voices and the instruments. “I wanted to get a better sense of how African traditional cosmologies can inform my life in a modern-day context,” Hutchings said. The resulting album feels like a passionate performance of a holy ritual.

https://sonsofkemetmusic.bandcamp.com/album/black-to-the-future

6.
Dummy
Mandatory Enjoyment

The first musical reference point that comes to mind is Stereolab. But this Los Angeles band doesn’t slavishly imitate those forerunners. Instead, it uses droning organ chords as a jumping-off point for sounds both loud and soft. Dummy is actually a very smart band. (And, as always, the fine folks at one of my favorite labels, Chicago’s Trouble in Mind, were smart to pick up this band.)

https://notdummy.bandcamp.com/

7.
Jonny Greenwood
The Power of the Dog (Music From the Netflix Film)

Ever since he wrote music for 2007’s There Will Be Blood, Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood has been one of my favorite film composers. With this score, he underlines the building tension and mystery in Jane Campion’s terrific movie (one of the year’s best). As Greenwood explained to The New Yorker’s Alex Ross, his approach included “using traditional instruments but having them sound like there’s something slightly wrong with them. Make it evident that it’s a human being making the sounds—that it’s being made with effort and sweat and breath.” The sense of the world being slightly off-kilter is part of what makes Greenwood’s smart experiments in chamber music so compelling.

https://invada.bandcamp.com/album/the-power-of-the-dog-music-from-the-netflix-film

8.
Nightshift
Zöe

This Glasgow post-punk band lists No Wave and early Sonic Youth as its early influences, but at times, the clean, minimalist arrangements on this record remind me of chamber music. Maybe that’s due to the occasional clarinet in the instrumentation. The members of Nightshift wrote these songs like a game of exquisite corpse while separated during the pandemic lockdown, and the results are slinky, surreal, and spooky. (This is another release from the Trouble in Mind label. Listening to everything on Trouble in Mind is a good way to start hunting for a year’s best music.)

https://nightshiftgroup.bandcamp.com/album/z-e

9.
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
B-Sides & Rarities Part II

I’m not sure if a collection of B-sides and rarities really belongs on a top 10 list of new albums. Is it truly new? Does it count as an album? Those questions are why I have this sitting at No. 9 on my list. If I ranked these records based sheerly on how much I’ve enjoyed listening to him — and how strong they are from beginning to end — this would be higher on my list, maybe even No. 1. This compilation pulls together 27 recordings from 2006 through 2019, which has been a fruitful and creative period for Nick Cave, marked by tragedy in his personal life. The records he’s made in recent years are among his best, and this collection offers outtakes and demos from his probing musical explorations. It helps to illuminate what he’s been doing on those other records, and it’s also a wonderful set of music on its own.

https://www.nickcave.com/b-sides-rarities/

10.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END!

I think of GYBE as a rock orchestra — not an orchestra playing concertos that sound quite like Beethoven and Bach, but one making music more in the tradition of 20th and 21st century composers. When this Canadian band’s strings (the ones on its guitars and violins) are at full roar, they have all the Sturm und Drang of a symphony orchestra: sweeping, ominous, frightening, and sometimes even stirring with flashes of sonic glory, like some sort of postmodern national anthem for an underground society. All of those elements are present on this latest record — along with found sounds, like voices from radio transmission. Even without lyrics, G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END! is a timely overture for the troubled times on our planet.

https://godspeedyoublackemperor.bandcamp.com/album/g-d-s-pee-at-state-s-end

Runners-up

Bill Callahan & Bonnie Prince Billy: Blind Date Party

I Was a King: Grand Hotel

Nick Cave & Warren Ellis: Carnage

Courtney Barnett: Things Take Time, Take Time

Guided By Voices: It’s Not Them. It Couldn’t Be Them. It Is Them.

The Mountain Movers: What What World

Steve Dawson: At the Bottom of a Canyon in the Branches of a Tree

Makaya McCraven: Deciphering the Message

Natural Information Society with Evan Parker: descension (Out of Our Constrictions)

Fake Fruit: Fake Fruit

Low: Hey What

Dry Cleaning: New Long Leg

Tele Novella: Merlynn Belle

Mdou Moctar: Afrique Victime

PJ Harvey: Is This Desire?—Demos

PJ Harvey: Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea—Demos

PJ Harvey: White Chalk—Demos

PJ Harvey: Uh Huh Her—Demos

1. S.G. Goodman, Old Time Feeling (Verve Forecast)

I heard this album only because someone put one of S.G. Goodman’s songs on a Spotify playlist that I happened to check out. I liked it and listened to the whole album. And then I just kept on listening, again and again. What a solid record, filled with one terrific song after another. This singer-songwriter from rural Kentucky probably fits best into the Americana genre, but she pulls together elements from other styles of rock, pop and folk on this gorgeous collection (produced by My Morning Jacket’s Jim James). Like her voice, the sonic aura of the recordings is entrancing.

Goodman laces her music with poetic turns of phrase. I’m particularly taken with the lyrics of the title song, which comment on the rural-urban political divide in America. “The south has a very complex history of social and economic injustice,” Goodman said in a Consequence of Sound article. “It was important for me as a proud southerner to vocalize that many of us are working hard to undo those generational cycles that have long held us back. Many of us are not living in that old time feeling.”

In the song’s second verse, she sings:

Oh, and I hear people saying how they want a change
And then the most of them do something strange
They move where everybody feels the same
About the southern state behind
The southern state is a condition, it’s true
I’ve got a little proposition for you
Stick around and work your way through
Be the change you hope to find

sggoodman.net

2. Gillian Welch, Boots No. 2: The Lost Songs, Vols. 1, 2 and 3 (Acony)

I’m amazed that Welch, one of the best songwriters of recent decades, sat on this trove of 48 wonderful songs for 18 years before releasing them. Pitchfork explains the unusual circumstances of how she made these recordings with her longtime partner David Rawlings: “Welch resolved she could finally break from the publishing contract she’d signed nine years earlier—she was a successful singer-songwriter now, not merely a writer for hire. During one productive weekend at home in December 2002, six months before releasing the aching Soul Journey, she and Rawlings pored through more than 100 notebooks. They turned scraps of discarded songs into enough quick recordings to fulfill her contract before it renewed January 1.”

In other words, this was a hastily produced batch of tapes recorded as a sort of contractual obligation. That sounds unpromising, and yet, there’s something to be said for working fast and not worrying about production. For Welch and Rawlings, it resulted in a few hours of beautiful folk music telling evocative stories — rivaling anything else they’ve released. gillianwelch.com

3. Gil Scott-Heron and Makaya McCraven, We’re New Again: A Reimagining by Makaya McCraven (XL Recordings)

This is not an entirely new piece of music, but this version of it is fresh and exciting — and the lyrics are as moving and relevant as they were when Scott-Heron wrote and recited them near the end of his life. They originally appeared on his final record, 2010’s I’m New Here, which didn’t feel like a fully realized Gil Scott-Heron album. More like a rough first draft. Here, the Chicago jazz drummer and producer Makaya McCraven fleshes out those old recordings of Scott-Heron’s voice with a colorful and funky tapestry. I found it mesmerizing. XL Recordings

4. Sault, Untitled (Black Is) (Forever Living Originals)

This is the one record where my top 10 overlaps with the major critical consensus for 2020. It ranks at No. 10 on the spreadsheet compiled by writer Rob Mitchum, ranking albums based on the lists posted by various publications. Delivered by a mysterious British musical collective, this is such a powerful record about the Black experience — with a compelling mix of musical styles and perfect pacing. Bandcamp

5. Close Lobsters, Post Neo Anti: Arte Povera in the Forest of Symbols (Shelflife)

For me, this was the year’s most unlikely comeback. I was a fan of Close Lobsters back in 1987, when the this Scottish indie rock band released an outstanding album called Foxheads Stalk This Land, replete with that 1980s “jangly guitars” sound. I saw Close Lobsters perform in concert at Chicago’s Cabaret Metro in 1989, but then they seemed to disappear. Out of nowhere, Close Lobsters reunited in 2014 and released two new songs — including “New York City in Space,” which includes lyrics about traveling to New York and Chicago during that tour back in the 1980s. (“It was originally entitled ‘Chicago’ because that’s where we were headed at the time. In a bus,” the band told The Big Takeover.)

Those 2014 tracks are now part of this album, which sounds like a throwback to that 1980s era, but with contemporary-sounding production. Sure, it’s all very retro … but I love it. There’s something thrilling about hearing Close Lobsters declare, “This is the London of the Clash,” in their song “Under London Skies.” Explaining that song, the band calls it an ode to London, “the capital of punk rock insurrection and its renewed shambolic expression in 1986. As we in the North would seek to bid adieu, we salute and stand in solidarity with that London. That England. The England of The Clash, The Mob, The June Brides, Swell Maps and John A. Rivers.” Bandcamp

6. Melenas, Dias Raros (Trouble in Mind)

The next two records on my list were released by Chicago’s reliably great label Trouble in Mind, and they’re both rock bands from overseas led by women. Melenas are from Pamplona, Spain, making catchy tunes with oft layers of harmony vocals floating above organ and guitar riffs anchored in the garage rock tradition. Bandcamp

7. En Attendant Ana, Juillet (Trouble in Mind)

This coed quintet from Paris has a bit of that elegant French vibe associated with artists like Stereolab, but its music is rooted more in fuzzy guitar riffs. Margaux Bouchaudon’s lovely vocals carry her band through a variety of musical settings, including some pretty orchestral flourishes, all on a quest for perfect pop earworms. Bandcamp

8. The Necks, Three (Northern Spy)

I had a ticket to see this Australian instrumental trio this spring, but of course, that concert was canceled, like so many others. In place of that experience, I was left with this album of the group’s latest improvised pieces. With intricate music that moves from driving momentum to serene contemplation, it was my soundtrack for much of 2020. Bandcamp

9. Jeff Parker, Suite for Max Brown (International Anthem)

Parker is best known as a guitarist — most famously, as a member of Tortoise — but his stellar guitar playing is just one facet of this jazz album (dedicated to his mother, whose maiden name was Maxine Brown). Parker plays multiple instruments and draws on eclectic influences as he creates the sense of a story shifting scenery with each chapter. Bandcamp

10. Three Queens in Mourning & Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Hello Sorrow / Hello Joy (Textile)

Will Oldham, the Louisville singer-songwriter known as Bonnie “Prince” Billy, continues to play by his own rules, releasing many records that wouldn’t fit into a traditional discography, including collaborations and multiple interpretations of his songs. That makes it challenging to keep track of Oldham’s musical output, but it’s always worth paying attention, even to his more obscure releases. Most of this album is the Scottish trio Three Queens in Mourning performing covers of songs by Oldham, making them sound more than ever like folk songs from the British Isles. But the record also includes Oldham singing a few songs by Three Queens in Mourning and contributing one new song. So this is something of a grab-bag — but quite an enjoyable one. Bandcamp

Runners-up:

Waxahatchee, Saint Cloud
Lucinda Williams, Good Souls Better Angels
Nathan Salsburg, Landwerk
Kevin Morby, Sundowner
Bill Callahan, Gold Record
Tré Burt, Caught It From the Rye
Laura Marling, Song for Our Daughter
Smokescreens, A Strange Dream
Irreversible Entanglements, Who Sent You?
Makaya McCraven, Universal Beings E&F Sides
Bob Dylan, Rough and Rowdy Ways
Jason Isbell, Reunions
Drive-By Truckers, The Unraveling
Mekons, Exquisite
Bonny Light Horseman, Bonny Light Horseman
Jeff Tweedy, Love Is the King
The Flat Five, Another World
John Luther Adams/JACK Quartet, Lines Made by Walking
William Basinski, Lamentations
Jeff Lescher, All Is Grace
The Jayhawks, Xoxo
Joan Shelley, Live at the Bomhard
M. Ward, Migration Stories
William Tyler, Music From First Cow
Rose City Band, Summerlong
X, Alphabetland
Laura Veirs, My Echo
Steve Dawson & Funeral Bonsai Wedding, Last Flight Out
Woods, Strange to Explain
Steve Earle and the Dukes, Ghosts of West Virginia
Yo La Tengo, We Have Amnesia Sometimes
Yo La Tengo, Sleepless Night

1. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings: Soul of a Woman (Daptone)
In the year before she died of pancreatic cancer in 2016, this astounding soul singer recorded one last album, and it’s flat-out terrific — a testament to Jones’ indomitable spirit and the enduring power of the soul music genre when it’s in the hands of such talented artists. daptonerecords.com

2. Joan Shelley: Joan Shelley (No Quarter)
This Louisville singer-songwriter made my favorite record of 2015, Over and Even, and came very close to winning that title again with her self-titled. Simply beautiful acoustic folk music, with a sense of yearning that pulls me in every time. joanshelley.net

3. Godspeed You! Black Emperor: Luciferian Towers (Constellation)
This Montreal ensemble may be categorized as rock music, but to me, it’s one of the great orchestras of our time. *Luciferian Towers* is not quite as foreboding or dark as GYBE’s other recent albums, but it’s just as rich and powerful, leaning more toward the light. cstrecords.com

4. The Feelies: In Between (Bar None)
The iconic New Jersey band took six years in between albums this time, finally releasing another excellent collection of groovy rock songs. As the title In Between suggests, this album falls somewhere in the middle of the Feelies’ most pastoral folk rock and its Velvet Underground-style rave-ups. It finds a cool balance. bar-none.com

5. Kacy & Clayton: The Siren’s Song (New West)
This duo from Saskatchewan makes harks back to that part of the 1960s when country, rock and pop seemed to be on the verge of melding into some new genre. And with production help from Jeff Tweedy on this album, the songs sound marvelous. kacyandclayton.com

6. Laura Marling: Semper Femina (More Alarming)
The songs on Marling’s latest record are subtle and complex studies of female protagonists, performed as memorable folk rock in multiple forms. lauramarling.com

7. LCD Soundsystem: American Dream (DFA Records/Columbia)
After calling it quits, James Murphy and his group got back together and made one of their best records filled — the same expertly arranged dance music, but with more wistfulness this time. lcdsoundsystem.com

8. Robyn Hitchcock: Robyn Hitchcock (Yep Roc)
Robyn Hitchcock has been one of my favorite singer-songwriters (and raconteurs of absurdism) since the mid-1980s, but I may have begun taking him for granted. While I have enjoyed many of his other albums in recent years, none of them stuck with me as much as this self-titled one, which finds Hitchcock playing study psychedelic rock songs reminiscent of the work he used to do with his backup group, the Egyptians. robynhitchcock.com

9. Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society: Simultonality (Eremite)
One of Chicago’s most outstanding groups, Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society makes hypnotic records, and this one even climaxes with an ecstatic and beautiful passage with a radiance that evokes John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme. eremite.com

10.The Necks: Unfold (Ideologic Organ)
This Australian trio’s meditative improvisations delicately explore how pieces of music can fit together. Over the course of this long album, the Necks continually reinvent how those parts work. thenecks.com

Runners-up:

Jon Langford: Four Lost Souls (Bloodshot)
Mavis Staples: If All I Was Was Black (Anti-)
Algiers: The Underside of Power (Matador)
The National: Sleep Well Beast (4AD)
The Stevens: Good (Chapter Music)
Aimee Mann: Mental Illness (SuperEgo)
Mazes: The Violent Tapes (Sanzimat International)
Margo Price: All American Made (Third Man)
The Cairo Gang: Untouchable (God?)
Tinariwen: Elwan (Wedge/Anti)
Chad VanGaalen: Light Information (SubPop)
The Sadies: Northern Passages (Yep Roc)
Mdou Moctar: Sousoume Tamachek (Sahel Sounds)
Bonnie Prince Billy: Best Troubadour (Drag City)
Björk: Utopia (One Little Indian)
St. Vincent: Masseduction (Loma Vista)
Jeff Tweedy: Together At Last (dBpm)
Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile: Lotta Sea Lice (Matador)
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit: The Nashville Sound (Southeastern)
Kevin Morby: City Music (Dead Oceans)
Mark Eitzel: Hey Mr. Ferryman (Merge)
Orchestra Baobab: Tribute to Ndiouga Dieng (World Circuit)
Angelo Badalamenti and various artists: Twin Peaks Limited Event Series Soundtrack (Rhino)
The Replacements: For Sale: Live at Maxwell’s 1986 (Rhino/Sire)

How does this translate during a live performance? As VanGaalen demonstrated during his Dec. 2 gig at the Empty Bottle, his songs also sound great when they’re played in a pretty straightforward style by a rock band. The tunes were less ornate and more direct — like an alternate but equally compelling version of the brilliant audio art VanGaalen creates in his home studio.

Un Blonde

Opening act Un Blonde — the solo project of Montreal-based musician Jean-Sebastian Audet — played a very loose set, with some awkward pauses as Audet seemed to be deciding on the spot which song to play next, signaling that information to his backing musicians right as a song began. I sensed a bit of restlessness in the audience, and yet, I found it fascinating to watch, somewhat like witnessing an impromptu rehearsal. This was my first exposure to Un Blonde’s music, and I could tell that Audet’s a talent to watch.

Oct. 11 was Jon Langford’s 60th birthday, and it was also the date of a release party at the Hideout for his latest record. Of course, this prolific Chicago musician who never seems to stop creating would spend his birthday on a stage.

His latest project is a great one: The album is called Four Lost Souls, which is also the name of the group he assembled for some recording sessions in the fabled area around Muscle Shoals, Alabama. In addition to Langford, the Four Lost Souls include vocalists Tawny Newsome and Bethany Thomas and guitarist-singer John Szymanski.

As the Chicago Reader noted in a feature story, Langford ditched his usual process of writing songs on guitar, opting to create them on piano instead. He did sit down at the Hideout’s piano during another recent gig (with the Freakons), but despite the piano origins of his Four Lost Souls tunes, he played them all on guitar. They’re recognizable as the sturdy sort of rock and country songs Langford is known for, but his collaborators add different flavors to the sound. It’s great to hear Newsome and Thomas singing, whether it’s adding the heft of their harmonies or stepping to the forefront with occasional lead vocals. That’s true of the record, and the strength of that singing was loud and clear during the Hideout show.

Ever since Langford moved from Britain to Chicago, this Welsh punk rocker has championed American roots music in its many forms. With this project, he carries on that tradition, sounding as devoted as he ever has to making great music and having a good time while he does it. Happy 60th, Mr. Langford.

(Here’s a lovely Instagram photo by misterjayem of Langford with his birthday cake in the bar following his band’s performance.)

Danielson Famile

Electrical Audio’s birthday

Nina Nastasia

Man or Astroman?

Screaming Females

Cropped Out, an underground music festival in Louisville, Kentucky, lined up a blockbuster band for the top of its lineup this summer: The Fall. I was already eager to attend Cropped Out again after having a fun time there last year, and this sealed the deal. Alas, The Fall later announced it was canceling this show along with a few others, due to frontman Mark E. Smith’s health. As a replacement, Cropped Out added a new headliner, and it was not a surprising one: Louisville’s own Bonnie “Prince” Billy, who also played at this rather DIY festival last year.

And so, on Saturday, Sept. 24, when Will Oldham (aka Bonnie “Prince” Billy) stepped up to the microphone, he told the crowd: “Hello, class. Sorry, Mr. Smith is sick, but I’m the sub.” And then Oldham and his band, the Bonafide United Musicians, proceeded to play a set consisting entirely of songs from his most recent album, Best Troubadour, a tribute to the late country music icon Merle Haggard. This was a cool treat for me — it’s an outstanding record that has deepened my appreciation for Haggard’s artistry as well as Oldham’s, and it was great to hear these cover versions in their full live glory.

That was the high point of Cropped Out for me, but it was an interesting couple of days overall — including noisy punk and garage bands. I was especially impressed with the tuneful songs of Athens, Georgia, band Deep State. The Australian punk band feedtime, originally formed in the late 1970s, raged along with the younger groups, and Connecticut’s Magik Markers closed out the weekend with a powerful set.

There was also some jazz, most notably a strenuous, intense solo performance by Peter Brötzmann on the deck next to the Ohio River, Cropped Out’s most delightful stage. And on the quieter end of the spectrum, a lovely acoustic set by The Other Years, a Louisville duo. Other favorite moments for me include Omaha singer-guitarist David Nance’s set, and the hilariously rambling stoner monologues that Frank Hurricane told to introduce his songs. And speaking of funny, Cropped Out included comedy by Neil Hamburger and Chicago-based Sarah Squirm. Two very different comics, and yet in similar ways, they pushed boundaries beyond joke-telling into psychology and performance art.

75 Dollar Bill

John Bender

The Stranger

The Cowboys

Dan Melchior

Crazy Doberman

Tommy Jay

Circle X

Neil Hamburger

Axis: Sova

Royal Trux

Pile

Deep State

The Other Years

Rays

Fried Egg

Matt Jencik

Tyvek

Le fruit vert

Sarah Squirm

David Nance

Tara Jane O’Neill
(with Catherine Irwin and Thalia Zedek)

Billington/Shippy/Wyche

Sadat X

Frank Hurricane

Tyler Damon/Tashi Dorji

Shit & Shine

Peter Brötzmann

feedtime

Bonnie “Prince” Billy
& the Bonafide United Musicians

Magik Markers