Friday, 25 December 2020

Best music of 2020

I don’t know whether lockdown and continuous working from home is the cause of me devouring as much new music as I did, but for whatever reason I have listened to more than I ever have. Circa 200 albums, comprising more than 190 hours and 2,535 tracks (some of these are reissues or live albums). Here’s a link to a Spotify playlist of these, which excludes The Microphones’ Microphones in 2020 and Sumac’s May You be Held, available on bandcamp instead.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0NqqIOdZ45eYVlJvprpmNE?si=lXNIrCvjTB2a3V-sv5Lfcw

If Spotify Wrapped is to be believed, some stats (only for the first 11 months of the year, mildly annoyingly) are:

  • 454 new artists “discovered” and 1,172 in total.
  • My top 2 genres are rock and jazz. (Then electronica, alternative metal, and post-rock. No surprises here).
  • My top 5 songs include 3 from Piano Become the Teeth’s 2018 record Wait for Love, 1 from last year’s Cult of Luna album, and Iron Maiden’s Infinite Dreams (from 1988’s Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. For some reason the twin guitar soloing is fun to bath my daughter to).
  • My top decade was the 2000s and eDIT’s track Ants within that.
  • My top artist was Deftones (within top 0.5% of their listeners apparently), then AFI, Sick of It All, Tiger Army, and Metallica. Deftones had a new record that I listened to umpteen times in a failed attempt to fall in love with it (more on that later), AFI I listen to all the time anyway (more on this another time), Sick of It All had a book out that needed an appropriate soundtrack, Tiger Army and Metallica I think I had back catalogue binges at some points.
  • Minutes listened = 104,274 = 1,738 hours = 72.4 days. Spread over 11 months that’s 5.2 hours a day which I actually think sounds too low a figure. My long-suffering wife would certainly suggest it feels more like 24-8 (sleep) = 16 hours a day. In terms of the “new stuff” I made sure I listened to everything at least twice, so that’s 189 x 2 = 378 hours, leaving 1,738 hours – 378 = 1,360 hours for nostalgia, back catalogues, nursery rhymes, Mariah Carey, and Christmas music. Of course, the true figure is hopefully a fair bit more than 378 given several of these new records I will have figuratively spun more than just twice, but still, you get the idea.

Playlists and spreadsheets notwithstanding, it is difficult to hold on to ideas and themes across 200 records, so I’m going to try some subgroupings by “genre” (I will have got some of these horrendously wrong, please forgive me). Some brief comments on certain cuts (generally the best/nearly/disappointing) are buried within those sub-lists that follow below. Let’s see how this goes.

* indicates my favourites within the selections

Collected favourites

Here are my top selections:

  1. Fiona Apple – Fetch the Bolt Cutters
  2. Taylor Swift – folklore
  3. Against All Logic – 2017-2019
  4. Mary Lattimore – Silver Ladders
  5. Teen Daze – Reality Refresh (EPs 1-4)
  6. The Dream Syndicate – The Universe Inside
  7. Protomartyr – Ultimate Success Today
  8. Caspian – On Circles
  9. Ro – Athalase
  10. ARTEMIS – ARTEMIS
  11. Nubya Garcia – Source
  12. END – Splinters from an Ever-Changing Face
  13. envy – The Fallen Crimson
  14. Napalm Death – Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism
  15. Umbra Vitae – Shadow of Life

A “best of 2020” playlist of songs

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/73eRqBlfhM1jEMM25hvyUK?si=iQSTZbwsSGmF5iqAceuT1w

 Singer-songwriter

  1. Alone Zone – Builder’s Ballet
  2. Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways. Folk will tell you, not without merit, that it’s his best work since 2006’s Modern Times, or even earlier.
  3. Corey Taylor (Slipknot) – CMFT. Nothing like Slipknot or Stone Sour, but still kinda fun.
  4. Destroyer (you might argue it’s a band, but it’s dominated by leader Dan Bejar) – Have we Met
  5. EOB – Earth. Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien.
  6. Grimes – Miss Anthropocene
  7. Fiona Apple – Fetch the Bolt Cutters*. All I ever knew about her was that if you weren’t her, South Park’s Office Barbrady couldn’t give a rat’s ass. Then I bothered to listen. Clever, striking, and very enjoyable to listen to in spite of often dark subject matter. I’m going to be saying this a lot throughout, not to justify my own taste rather merely to inform, but this features heavily in critics’ year-end best-of lists.
  8. Hamilton Leithauser (ex The Walkmen) – The Loves of Your Life. A surprise vinyl present from a friend who is all too aware that any “The” indie rock band or member thereof is not going to come on my radar without a bit of help. Thanks mate.
  9. Laura Marling – Song for Our Daughter. Seventh studio album from Brit singer-songwriter Marling. I recall enjoying this more than any album of hers in some time.
  10. Lianne La Havas – s/t. Came here via her cover of Radiohead’s Weird Fishes.
  11. Keaton Henson – Monument. A return to form after 2019’s slightly odd classical experiment Six Lethargies, IMO.
  12. King Buzzo (Melvins)* – Gift of Sacrifice
  13. Maria McKee – La Vita Nuova
  14. Moses Sumney – Grae. Critically beloved. I previously enjoyed his feature on a Cinematic Orchestra track. A lot of falsetto.
  15. Orlando Weeks (ex The Maccabees) – A Quickening
  16. Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher* (features frequently in critics’ best-of lists but I haven’t listened enough to be sure myself).
  17. Pluralone (Josh Kinghoffer of now ex-RHCP fame) – I Don’t Feel Well
  18. Rufus Wainwright – Unfollow the Rules. Previously known to me mostly for his collaboration with Antony & The Johnsons, I am overdue a proper introduction.
  19. Sufjan Stevens – The Ascension
  20. Taylor Swift - folklore*, evermore. In the past I have deliberately not listened to her music, taken pleasure in Tool keeping her off the number 1 spot for a week, and, largely without justification, considered her the enemy of musical integrity and authenticity. Until now. Perhaps the quintessential lockdown record, folklore blew me away. I love the visual and aural cabin-in-the-woods aesthetic and the collaborations with Bon Iver, The National’s Aaron Dessner, and Jack Antonoff (I wouldn’t normally mention someone like him but given how much I love Lana Del Rey – he co-wrote and produced much of last year’s Norman Fucking Rockwell, I’m beginning to see a pattern).
  21. Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud*. Alabaman Katie Crutchfield’s fifth album under this moniker. Features frequently in critics’ year-end best-of lists.

(There were also solo albums from The National’s Matt Berninger and Manic Street Preachers’ James Dean Bradfield but I haven’t managed to check out either. I couldn’t get on with Dua Lipa’s or Lady Gaga’s albums. Not my thing.)

 Electronic / Experimental / Producer

  1. Against All Logic – 2017-2019*. The fourth studio album released under this moniker by producer Nicolas Jaar (he also released two albums under his own name this year). I must have come across this via an achingly too-cool-for-school review in something like Pitchfork (which if you haven’t worked it out by now I have a love/hate relationship with). But it has a great depth to it. For me the best music not made directly by humans in real time manages to convey its emotion in other ways, whether that’s through melody, timbre, layering, arrangement, collaboration (poet Lydia Lunch features here), or simple musical choice. And I think Jaar really achieves that here.
  2. Agnes Obel – Myopia
  3. Arca – KiCk i. I liked 2017’s s/t so much I picked it up on vinyl. This one not so much.
  4. Aukai – Game Trails
  5. Autechre – SIGN, PLUS (2 albums)
  6. Beatrice Dillon – Workaround. Good to see some women in what is a sausage fest of either a scene or my subset of it (see e.g: Gia Margaret, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith)
  7. Bibio – Sleep on the Wing*. ‘Folktronica’ is a fun name for a genre
  8. Blanck Mass (Fuck Buttons member) – Calm with Horses (soundtrack)
  9. Blaqk Audio (AFI’s Davey Havok and Jade Puget) - Beneath the Black Palms
  10. Caribou – Suddenly
  11. Gia Margaret – Mia Gargaret
  12. Erland Cooper – Hether Blether. Another record, Landform, has been released since but I haven’t listened to it.
  13. Faithless – All Blessed. The first album in 10 years, and not at all bad!
  14. The Flashbulb – Our Simulacra. Decent but not on the level of 2017’s Piety of Ashes.
  15. Four Tet – Sixteen Oceans. Decent but not on the level of 2017’s New Energy. (What was it about 2017!!??). He has also released some new music on Christmas day.
  16. Hidden Orchestra – Creaks (soundtrack)
  17. Holy Fuck – Deleter
  18. Jonsi (Sigur Ros) – Shiver
  19. Little Dragon – New Me, Same Us. I got into this band following a feature on DJ Shadow’s 2011 track Scale it Back. I’ve listened to an album or two and even saw them live at Brixton. Underwhelmed.
  20. Loscil – Faults, Coasts, Lines. Mostly ambient. Not quite as gorgeous as 2019’s Equivalents, but again that’s probably mostly to do with the element of surprise.
  21. John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist) – Maya. Named after his cat, who died, I believe (so similar to Tool’s Eon Blue Apocalypse, named after guitarist Adam Jones’ Great Dane dog, in that sense).
  22. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – The Mosaic of Transformation
  23. Machinedrum – A View of U
  24. Mary Lattimore – Silver Ladders*. Harp and electronics. Simple but I absolutely love it. Only just discovered it last week.
  25. MJ Cole – Presents Madrugada. Mostly known for producing or remixing tracks for such big names as Mariah Carey and Mary J. Blige, this was his first solo album since 2003. Quite a good record to chill out to, I imagine.
  26. Moby – All Visible Objects. 17 albums in, and he’s still here. The 18th came out today (24th December), in fact.
  27. Nils Frahm – Empty. Piano led.
  28. Olafur Arnalds – Some Kind of Peace. Features Bonobo on the track Loom
  29. The Orb – Abolition of the Royal Familia
  30. Pet Shop Boys – Hotspot. I enjoyed this a lot more than I’d’ve expected from a late career artist of any genre. The wedding march sample on Wedding in Berlin is fun the first time you hear it.
  31. RJD2 – The Fun Ones
  32. The Soft Pink Truth – Shall we go on Sinning so that Grace may Increase? Somewhat leftfield but pretty great.
  33. Squarepusher – Be Up a Hello. There was also an EP, Lamental
  34. Steve Jordan, Mix Master Mike – Beat Odyssey 2020
  35. Teen Daze – Reality Refresh (Eps 1-4)* I don’t know for sure (or at all, really) whether lockdown was the motivator behind these 4 EPs which together make up about 70 minutes of music. But along with Taylor Swift’s albums, I like to think so. The artist has collected them in a single playlist on his Spotify. The nearly 12-minute Meditation, with its major Steve Reich vibes, is a particular highlight.
  36. TENGGER – Nomad
  37. Trickfinger (John Frusciante) – She Smiles Because She Presses the Button (EP)
  38. Yves Tumour – Heaven to a Tortured Mind

 Indie/soft/punk rock

I wouldn’t normally listen to much in this genre, but there are certainly some gems among this lot:

  1. AWOLNATION – Angel Miners & the Lightning Riders
  2. Creeper – Sex, Death, and the Infinite Void. Despite the AFI love, I just can’t get into this British horror punk band.
  3. The Dream Syndicate – The Universe Inside*. My genre classification is more in tune with what this band normally sounds like. But The Universe Inside is a jam. An improvisatory experiment in the studio resulting in cuts like 20-minute opener The Regulator. Reminds me of David Bowie’s Blackstar, Nine Inch Nails’ Bad Witch, and Frances the Mute era The Mars Volta. So you can see why I’d go for it in a big way.
  4. The Flaming Lips – American Head. Fans’ favourite for some time. I’m not invested in the band enough to know whether I agree, particularly as I’ve enjoyed the last couple of records too.
  5. Fleet Foxes – Shore. Not the sort of thing I’d normally give the time of day to, but it’s not half bad.
  6. Fontaines D.C. – A Hero’s Death*. Along with others here, I would describe this is as minimal British punk / rock, which is again something I’d normally pass over without a moment’s thought, but I liked this very much.
  7. IDLES – Ultra Mono. Tries to do the same thing as 2018’s Joy as an Act of Resistance. On paper it ticks all the boxes but in reality, it sounds like an unnecessary and unsuccessful parody of themselves. The lightning of simplicity and negating/subverting clichés hasn’t struck twice (or three times, given I have never listened to the first record). Some decent riffage though.
  8. Khruangbin – Mordechai. Also responsible for a Late Night Tales compilation this year (given there was one from Hot Chip too, this makes 2020 the first year since 2016 for there to be more than one).
  9. The Mountain Goats – Getting Into Knives
  10. No Joy – Motherhood. (Also count as Shoegaze, so I might have miscategorised this).
  11. Protomartyr – Ultimate Success Today*. I might have considered this too minimalist and the vocals too drone-y, but I’d’ve been dead wrong. There’s a lot more going on in this, the fifth album from the Detroit post-punk fourpiece. There are elements of art and noise rock too, which is probably what does it for me. I think the theme of a lot of my favourites this year are where I’ve been surprised and been very pleased to be so.
  12. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Sideways to New Italy*. Second album from Australian indie rock band. Jangly guitars, decent vocals, pounding beats, and well-crafted songs.
  13. The Wants – Container
  14. Young Knives – Barbarians

 Hip Hop

  1. Run the Jewels – RTJ4. I never really got into this duo, but this album features frequently in critics’ year-end best of lists.
  2. NAS – King’s Disease
  3. Megan Thee Stallion – Good News. Not my cup of tea at all, but that’s just me.
  4. Oddisee – Odd Cure. Far too many skits for my liking. Not his best work.
  5. Shabazz Palaces – The Don of Diamond Dreams

 Prog rock

  1. Caligula’s Horse – Rise Radiant
  2. Crippled Black Phoenix – Ellengaest.* Mastermind Justin Greaves and friends + a plethora of vocalists, my favourite being Jonathan Hulten for his mesmerising performance on The Invisible Past.
  3. Intronaut – Fluid Existential Inversions
  4. Long Distance Calling – How do we Want to Live?
  5. The Ocean – Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic
  6. The Pineapple Thief – Versions of the Truth

 Post / instrumental rock / metal

There was a time when I thought 2020 wouldn’t match 2019’s richness in terms of new discoveries and high quality of post-rock, but then it did.

  1. An Autumn for Crippled Children – All fell silent, everything went quiet. Not bad but not as grand as the title (which says the same thing twice for some reason) suggests
  2. Caspian – On Circles*. Their best album all the way through, possibly ever, and their greatest individual tracks after 2012’s Fire Made Flesh. Wonderful vocals on Nostalgist from Piano Become the Teeth’s Kyle Durfey.
  3. Coastlands – Death*
  4. Collapse Under the Empire – Everything we will Leave Beyond Us
  5. Dragunov – Arkhipov. There’s a picture of a submarine on the over and submarine noises on the album.
  6. El Ten Eleven – Tautology. A triple record comprising a whopping 21 tracks.
  7. Hope the Flowers – Sonorous Faith, Pt.1
  8. hubris. - Metempsychosis*
  9. I Hear Sirens – Stella Mori
  10. If Anything Happens to the Cat – Kingdom of Roots. Rewards repeated listens.
  11. Inventions – Continuous Portrait. A supergroup featuring members of Eluvium and Explosions in the Sky.
  12. Mogwai – ZeroZeroZero (soundtrack)
  13. Panda Rosa – The Kinspiral. 2.5 hours long but worth checking out over the course of an afternoon
  14. pg.lost – Oscillate*
  15. Ro – Athalase*. The hardest band name to search for, a band from Spain, and, after Caspian, my most favourite post-rock record of the year.
  16. Sens Dep (members of the band Laura) – Lush Desolation
  17. sleepmakeswaves – these are not your dreams
  18. Spotlights – We are all Atomic*. “Heavy, dreamy, seeping and atmospheric, Spotlights blend shoegaze and doom metal on their new post-nuclear EP.” Yes, that. Thanks bandcamp description.
  19. Still Motions - Mirrors*
  20. This Will Destroy You – Vespertine
  21. Whale Fall – It will Become Itself

 Jazz / Blues

I listened to very little new jazz in 2019. Thankfully 2020 reversed that.

  1. Allegra Levy – Lose my Number.* Hardly ground-breaking, but very well done nonetheless.
  2. Ambrose Akinmusire – On the Tender Spot of Every Calloused Moment. 2011’s When the Heart Emerges Glistening was a lovely album. Everything since has been borderline unlistenable, including this latest piece of nonsense.
  3. ARTEMIS – ARTEMIS*. An all-female group (mostly instrumental but with extraordinary singer Cecile McLorin Salvant popping up here and there), made one of the best jazz records of the year. Together with Allegra Levy, Jyoti, Lakecia Benjamin, Nubya Garcia, and Regina Carter, 2020 has been a fantastic year for women in jazz. Long may that continue.
  4. Ben Wendel - High
  5. Brad Mehldau – Suite: April 2020. Another obvious product of quarantine.
  6. Dinner Party (Robert Glasper, Kamasi Washington, Terrace Martin, 9th Wonder) – s/t
  7. Dinosaur – To the Earth. Led by trumpeter Laura Jurd, whose music I find consistently underwhelming.
  8. Gil Scott-Heron, as reimagined by Makaya McCraven – We’re New Again
  9. GoGo Penguin – s/t*. Like hip-hop played on a piano
  10. Gregory Porter – All Rise
  11. Jaga Jazzist – Pyramid
  12. Jose James – No Beginning No End 2 (technically a neo-soul rather than jazz effort, if you want to get picky)
  13. Joshua Redman – RoundAgain
  14. Jyoti (Georgia Anne Muldrow) – Mama, You Can Bet!
  15. Kamasi Washington – Becoming (soundtrack)
  16. Lakecia Benjamin – Pursuance*. A John and Alice Coltrane tribute album. Could perhaps be shorter and more focused, but otherwise great.
  17. Lionel Loueke – HH (as in Herbie Hancock, not neo-nazism)
  18. Mammal Hands – Captured Spirits*. Incredibly melodic jazz that I’d gladly listen to on repeat. Lovely line-up and arrangements to rival Portico Quartet.
  19. Marius Neset – Tributes
  20. Matthew Halsall – Salute to the Sun
  21. Micah Thomas – Tide
  22. Moses Boyd – Dark Matter*. This young drummer has been around for a while but this is his debut solo album. As discussed with someone on Facebook comments, the British / London jazz scene is pretty amazing at the moment.
  23. Norah Jones – Pick Me Up Off the Floor
  24. Nubya Garcia – Source*. Her first full length as leader I think, following some excellent singles and EPs and contributions to the Maisha group.
  25. Portico Quartet – We Welcome Tomorrow (EP)
  26. Regina Carter Freedom Band – Swing States: Harmony in the Battleground
  27. SAULT – Untitled (Black Is) and Untitled (Rise) (2 albums). Publicity shy, political, and critically loved. More rhythm and blues than jazz though.
  28. Shabaka and the Ancestors – We Are Sent Here by History. This man can, and does, do everything. A free-jazz gig at the Vortex in London, at which he featured, was one of the, if not the, last shows I went to before lockdown. I didn’t previously like …and the Ancestors as much as the Comet is Coming or Sons of Kemet, but with this sophomore cut that’s started to change.
  29. Songhoy Blues – Optimisme
  30. Thundercat – It is what it is
  31. Zara McFarlane – Songs of an Unknown Tongue. Eschews sidemen playing things for her to sing over. Mostly disappointing.

Alternative rock / metal

  1. …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead – X: The Godless Void and Other Stories
  2. The Acacia Strain – Slow Decay
  3. All Them Witches – Nothing As the Ideal
  4. August Burns Red – Guardians
  5. Biffy Clyro – A Celebration of Endings. Solid as ever. Contains plenty of good tracks.
  6. The Black Dahlia Murder – Verminous. After 2017’s Nightbringers introduced me to the band and genre of melodic death metal in general, and was really exciting as a consequence, this kinda pales in comparison.
  7. Blackfield (Steven Wilson) – For the Music. Wilson has taken a back seat to Aviv Geffen ever since Blackfield II, mind.
  8. Blood from the Soul (including Converge’s Jacob Bannon) – DSM-5. Features Bannon on vocals , and others in the band, but is the brainchild of Napalm Death’s Shane Embury.
  9. Code Orange – Underneath. Programming features too heavily, IMO.
  10. Dance Gavin Dance – Afterburner
  11. Deftones – Ohms. Incredible guitar work, solid drumming and bass playing, and inspired contributions from sampler/keyboardist Frank Delgado, all come together to help make the most consistent Deftones album since 2010’s Diamond Eyes. The vocals are all over the place, incoherently and awkwardly jumping from quiet to loud, sounding a little too low in the mix, and bringing few of the hooks that make songs like Prayers/Triangles, Hearts/Wires and Phantom Thread (I’m picking songs from Gore because unlike seemingly every other fan on the internet, I don’t hate that album, although tbf it has its share of duds) so memorable. Not Chino’s finest hour, then.
  12. Elder – Omens
  13. Emma Ruth Rundle, Thou – May Our Chambers be Full.* A rather successful collaboration, I’d say.
  14. En Minor – (Phil Anselmo ‘acoustic’ project) – When the Cold Truth has Worn its Miserable Welcome Out*. Reads like it could be awful. Isn’t. Does everything Anselmo touches (except white wine) turn to gold? Apparently. 2020 also saw the release of the latest Scour EP and a remixed/remastered deluxe edition of underrated Pantera swansong Reinventing the Steel.
  15. END – Splinters from an Ever-Changing Face*. Now this I did like. It’s heavy AF.
  16. Enslaved – Utgard
  17. envy – The Fallen Crimson*. Extremely accomplished and with impressive variation. Also one of the most beautiful vinyl packages I own.
  18. Gone is Gone (supergroup featuring Troy from Mastodon and Troy from QOTSA and Tony from ATDI) – If Everything Happens for a Reason, Then Nothing Really Matters At All. In terms of supergroups featuring Troy from Mastodon who released an album in 2020, I prefer the other one.
  19. Good Tiger – Raised in a Doomsday Cult. (Math-rocky!)
  20. Greg Puciato (The Dillinger Escape Plan) – Child Soldier: Creator of God
  21. Hatebreed – Weight of the False Self. I wasn’t into Hatebreed back in the day. Still aren’t.
  22. Hundredth – Somewhere Nowhere
  23. Hum – Inlet. A surprise release, the band’s first album in some 22 years.
  24. Imperial Triumphant – Alphaville. Fairly original, as these things go.
  25. Incubus – Trust Fall Side B (EP)*. I haven’t enjoyed new Incubus this much in a long time.
  26. Irist – Order of the Mind. Given I insist on disliking 90% of the vocals of indie bands and about 10% of the vocals of screamy hardcore bands, I open myself up to accusations of lack of discernment. Certainly there are generic growly vocals, but these are certainly not they.
  27. Jason Isbell – and the 400 Unit
  28. Lamb of God – s/t. There are a couple of interesting things here (particularly the start of opening track Memento Mori, the overall concept of time, and frontman Randy Blythe’s underrated and unexpected intelligence – I read his autobiography this year) but otherwise it’s LoG by numbers and fairly unmemorable. That might be why it’s self-titled, but I doubt it.
  29. Liturgy – Origin of the Alimonies
  30. Killer Be Killed (supergroup featuring Max Cavalera, Troy Sanders (here he is again), Greg Puciato, and Ben Koller) – Reluctant Hero. I really liked 2014’s s/t debut. This one not so much, but I’m prepared to spin it a few more times.
  31. Katatonia – City Burials. A similar story to TBDM. Blown away by the last album which brought me in as a fan; left cold by the new one.
  32. Loathe – I Let it in and it Took Everything. Yes you can hear the Deftones influence. Not a bad thing.
  33. Marilyn Manson – We are Chaos. He’s gone a bit country. Good for him. No seriously, good for him, still being around after all this time.
  34. Misery Signals – Ultraviolet
  35. My Morning Jacket – The Waterfall II
  36. Napalm Death – Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism*. Their 16th studio album and the first I’ve listened to. What happened with Katatonia and TBDM 3-4 years ago has now happened with British Grindcore legends Napalm Death.
  37. Nels Cline – Share the Wealth. Could arguably be jazz but since he plays guitar for Wilco I’ve classified him here. A bit long and meandering perhaps, but otherwise right up my street in a manner similar to the Dream Syndicate’s latest.
  38. Nine Inch Nails – Ghosts V: Together and VI: Locusts*. A welcome surprise release and worthy companions to Ghosts I-IV. I continue to be impressed at how prolific Trent Reznor (with partner in crime Atticus Ross) is these days.
  39. Ohhms – Close
  40. Old Man Gloom – Seminars IX: Darkness of Being and VIII: Light of Meaning (yes in that order)
  41. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez – The Clouds Hill Tapes I-III. Re-recorded selections from his recent albums. Decent but not really special.
  42. Pallbearer – Forgotten Days
  43. Palm Reader – Sleepless
  44. Pearl Jam – Gigaton. Meh, whatever. This reminds me, I fancy listening to Vitalogy sometime soon.
  45. Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Viscerals
  46. Pure Reason Revolution – Eupnea
  47. Puscifer – Existential Reckoning. A real slow-burner this one (unlike the last two). Worth a few listens to expose its riches
  48. Sepultura – Quadra. This is the Brazilian metal band’s 15th studio album, the 9th without Max (Cavalera), and the 1st without Max that I have ever listened to. And I really liked it!
  49. SLIFT – UMMON.
  50. The Smashing Pumpkins – Cyr. Not as bad as the reviews make out, I thought.
  51. Sparta – Trust the River. Unlike their parent band, At the Drive-In, and sibling The Mars Volta, I’ve never really shook the feeling that Sparta sounds like kids in a garage recording the first thing they think of. Bah humbug.
  52. Svalbard – When I Die, will I get Better? (Probably not, no.)
  53. Sylosis – Cycle of Suffering
  54. Testament – Titans of Creation. Not quite a Napalm Death situation again, but I do like a couple of songs on this.
  55. Touche Amore – Lament. There is something very charming about the fact that at just under 36 minutes, this fifth album from the LA post-hardcore band is their longest. No less good though. Produced by Ross Robinson, no less.
  56. Umbra Vitae (Jacob Bannon again) – Shadow of Life.* Unlike Blood from the Soul, I think here Bannon is the most famous member. For a record this brutal, it’s almost a little surprising how infectious and replayable it is!

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