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It wasn't all Covid-19 and American decline: The Year in Music - 2020!

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(Steven J Wilson)
• My favorite records of 2020. In arbitrary clusters of 10.

• 1-10
• Bonny Light Horseman – s/t 
• Bruce Springsteen – Letter to You
• BLACKSTARKIDS – Whatever, Man
• A Swayze and the Ghosts – Paid Salvation
• Laura Marling – Song for our Daughter
• Luke Haines and Peter Buck – Beat Poetry for Survivalists
• RVG – Feral
• Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher
• Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways
• X – Alphabetland


• 11-20
• Stephen Malkmus – Traditional Techniques
• Run the Jewels – RTJ4
• Sports Team – Deep Down Happy
• Fantastic Negrito – Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?
• Chuck Prophet – The Land That Time Forgot
• Fontaines D.C. – a Hero’s Death
• Bobby Lees – Skin Suit
• Fiona Apple – Fetch the Bolt Cutters
• Guided by Voices – Styles We Paid For
• 21 Savage and Metro Boomin – Savage Mode II


• 21-30
• Maria McKee – La Vita Nuova
• Wire – Hive Mind
• Morlocks – Bring on the Mesmeric Condition
• Polly Scattergood – In This Moment
• Songhoy Blues – Optimisme
• Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud
• Laura Veirs – My Echo
• Tidiane Thiam – Siftorde
• Taylor Swift – Folklore
• Billy Joe Armstrong – No Fun Mondays / Longshot – Love is for Losers


• 31-40
• GA-20 – Lonely Soul
• Puss n Boots – Sister
• A Girl Called Eddy – Been Around
• Dramarama – Color TV
• Jeff Rosenstock – No Dream
• Fenne Lily -Breach
• Strokes – the New Abnormal
• Kathleen Edwards – Total Freedom
• Harrisonics – Love Songs for all Occasions
• CCR Headcleaner – Street Riffs

• 41-50
• Drive-by Truckers – The New OK
• Dehd – Flower of Devotion
• OBGMs – The Ends
• Bright Eyes – Down in the Weeds/Where the World Once Was
• Nadia Reid – Out of my Province
• Tamikrest – Tamotait
• Soccer Mommy – Color Theory
• Pretenders – Hate for Sale
• Howling Hex – Knuckleball Express
• Denzel Curry – Unlocked

• 51-60
• Kiwi Jr. – Football Money
• Low Cut Connie – Private Lives
• Adrienne Lenker – Songs
• Thurston Moore – By the Fire
• Mystery Jets - A Billion Heartbeats 88
• Reverend John Wilkins – Trouble
• Illuminati Hotties – This is not the One You’ve Been Waiting For
• Oumou Sangare – Acoustic – 85
• Paul McCartney – III
• Kid Cudi – Man on the Moon, Part II

• 61-70
• Drive-by Truckers – Unraveling
• Emily Barker – A Dark Murmuration of Words
• Throwing Muses – Sun Racket
• Bob Mould – Blue Hearts
• Chats – High Risk Behaviour
• Basia Bulat – Are You in Love?
• Shabaka and the Ancestors – We Are Sent Here by History
• Songdog – A Happy Ending
• John Anderson – Years
• Childish Gambino – 3.15.20

• 71-80
• Mary Lattimore – Silver Ladders
• Angel Olsen – A Whole New Mess
• Berries – Playland Plus
• Gwenifer Raymond – Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain
• Outrageous Cherry – Meet You in the Shadows
• Psychedelic Furs – Made of Rain
• Courtney Marie Andrews – Old Flowers
• Do Nothing – Zero Dollar Bill
• James Dean Bradfield – Even in Exile
• Dream Syndicate – The Universe Inside

• 81-90
• Joel Ross – Who Are You?
• Laraaji – Through Luminous Eyes
• Jack Cades – Perfect View
• Lunchbox – After School Special
• Joanna Sternberg – Then I Try Some More
• Dead Tongues – Transmigration Blues
• Common – Beautiful Revolution
• Frazy Ford – u Kin B the Sun
• U.S. Girls – Heavy Light
• Orlafur Arnulds – Some Kind of Peace

• 91-100
• Lydia Loveless – Daughter
• Guided by Voices – Mirrored Aztec
• Sturgill Simpson – Cutting Grass I
• Sturgill Simpson - Cutting Grass II
• Shopping – All or Nothing
• This is the Kit – Off Off On
• Max Richter – Voices
• Sam Gendel – Satin Doll
• Dream Wife – So When you Gonna
• Magnetic Fields – Quickies



• Honorable Mentions and Deserving More Listening:

• Kesha – High Road
• Taylor Swift - Evermore
• Algiers – There is no Year
• Ezra Furman – Sex Education, strk.
• Black Lips – Sing in a World That’s Falling Apart
• Earl Sweatshirt – Feet of Clay
• Black Thought – Streams of Thought/Cain & Abel
• Elvis Costello – Hey, Clockface
• Health – Disco 4:1
• Laura Jane Grace – Stay Alive

• Black Mekon – The Lumpiness of Demand
• Nude Party – Midnight Manor
• Anna von Hausswolf – All Thoughts Fly
• Idles – Ultra Mono
• She Drew the Gun – Revolution of the Mind
• Bully – Sugaregg
• 2 Chainz – So Help Me God!
• Gillian Welch and David Rawlings – All the Good Times
• Jarvis Cocker – Beyond the Pale
• Joan Shelley – Live at Bomhard

• Son Little – Aloha
• No Ones – The Great Lost
• Ratboys – Printer’s Devils
• Dana Gavanski – Yesterday is Gone
• William Elliott Whitmore – I’m with You
• The Bats – Foot Hills
• Cornershop – England is a Garden
• Hayley Williams – Petals for Armor 
• Gregg August – Dialogues on Race, V. 1
• Future Entanglements – Who Sent You?

• Shitkid – 20/20
• Margo Price – That’s How Rumors Get Started
• Nyura Garcia – Source
• Steve Earle – Ghosts of West Virginia
• Alex Maas - Luca
• Shirley Collins – Heart’s Ease
• James Hunter Six – The Nick of Time
• Garcia Peoples – Nightcap at Wits’ End
• Lil Uzi Vert – Eternal Avate
• Bill Fay – Countless Branches

• Kelly Lee Owens – Inner Song 
• Fleet Foxes – Shore
• Nick Cave - Live
• Brigid Mae Power – Head Above the Water
• Creeper – Sex, Death, and the Infinite Void
• Moses Sumney – Grae
• Freddie Gibbs – Alberto
• RVRIS – Use Me
• Roisin Murphy – Roisin Machine
• Nadine Shah – Kitchen Sink

• Owen Pallett – the Island
• Katie Gately – Loom
• Lily Hiatt – Walking Proof
• Biffy Clyro – A Celebration of Endings
• Blake Mills – Mutable Set
• Thundercat – It is What it Is
• Sonic Boom – All Things Being Equal
• Code Orange – Underneath
• Jesse Ware – What’s Your Pleasure
• Charley Crockett – Welcome to Hard Times

• Moses Boyd – Dark Matter
• Lucinda Williams – Good Souls Better Angels
• Cribs – Night Network
• Open Mike Eagle – Anime, Trauma and Divorce
• Paul Weller – On Sunset
• The Chicks – Gaslighter
• Rufus Wainwright – Unfollow the Rules
• Empress of – I’m Your Empress of
• Mark Lanegan – Straight Songs of Sorrow
• Jeff Tweedy – Love is the King

• Woods – Strange to Explain
• Fuzz – III
• Hamilton Leithauser – The Loves of Your Life
• Flaming Lips – American Head
• Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Sideways to New Italy
• Sam Amidon - s/t
• Swamp Dogg – Sorry You Couldn’t Make It
• Juliana Barwick – Healing is a Miracle
• The Beths – Jump Rope Gazers
• Bettye Lavette – Blackbirds

• Hinds – The Prettiest Curse
• Mourn – Self Worth
• Emma Swift – Blonde on the Tracks
• Brian Fallon – Local Honey 
• Car Seat Headrest – Making a Door Less Open































 

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The people have spoken.

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(Steven J Wilson)
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