It is just my opinion. I thought this was about the very best albums of 2020. I didn't think it was simply about I heard this today or this will be released in two months etc. In past years it was the solid recommendations from each persons experience after spending time with an album that brought the album forth as "the best" that made it a valuable recommendation not just because it has a shiny new cover and I heard a song. I am not interested in every single album you have heard.
Fair enough. Sometimes one just has a strong sense an album is going to be amazing based on the singles released - album instinct if you will, I.e. The Innocence Mission. I think we'd all say our recommendations are solid. In my case, 80% of what I posted last year were albums I bought and lived with as you say. Personally, I'll try to tighten up that posted ones number. Imho, I think we're all about finding the cream of the crop. Cheers.
The Electric Soft Parade - Stages Released earlier in the week this is a great album which is getting good reviews in good ol' blighty put a link to their bandcamp and posted this recent review as a wee taster for anyone interested...no spotify I'm afraid as the band don't believe these songs will be best suited to the platform, so indulge in the bandcamp offerings as it's well worth a listen... Stages, by The Electric Soft Parade ***** 18 years ago, Electric Soft Parade, centred around brothers Alex and Thomas White, were the latest hyped hope of indie kids and NME-type media. However, their might-have-been moment imploded when they moved too fast for their fans, rocketing off in wildly creative flourishes rather than sticking to a predictable formula. They – and associated break-away bands – have since produced a fascinating array of musical activity, often boasting an inventive yet old-fashioned feel for orchestration. Their latest album, their fifth, is a change of direction. Written and sung by Alex, recorded and produced by Thomas, it’s a seven song concept piece, inspired very directly by the death of their mother. It is, then, a meditation on grief, and could have been a morose nose-dive. It is far from that. The music, while often melancholic and minor key, is given to almost symphonic explosions and lengthy instrumental codas. It’s certainly heart-wrenching, with Alex displaying a richly poetic ability to nail the nature of bereavement, his voice hauntingly sad as he enunciates lines that skewer the way such loss places one at odds with the mundane details of everyday life. On “Roles Reversed”, he sings “A sunny day, start the car, didn’t look so great/Couldn’t feeling anything past a certain point”, while opener “Saturday” evokes driving “hours and miles through every sleeping town, knowing any day all this will change, not knowing how”. Such snippets only hint vaguely at the emotionally literate craft of Stages’ lyrics. The accompanying music is varied but always lush. “The Bargain” comes on somewhere between Pulp and burlesque Seventies glam pop, while the 12 minute “On Your Own” is an epic that churns its way from a steady piano-accompanied strum to a euphoric, brass-underpinned odyssey. A number of the songs are very long but they’re never dull, The Whites successfully pull the listener into their world, tempering the strife and mental pain with persuasive musical counterpoints. Stages is not an album anyone will be playing to friends while sucking beers before a night out. This isn’t to say it’s relentlessly downtempo, far from it, the music often takes flight, but at its core it’s a personal exposition of catharsis, set in the real world. As such, it’s one of the few fully conceived albums on its subject. Almost everyone goes through the loss of their parents, a seismic life event of the psyche, yet there’s little focused music dealing with it. Electric Soft Parade have made a stunning foray into seldom-explored territory. Album: Electric Soft Parade - Stages review - seven beautiful bereavement songs
Impressive, usually it’s well into the year before this comes up. The running threads are best thought of a place where people post albums they like and then sort out “best of” when warranted. And the idea that someone needs to spend weeks pondering whether an album is liked sufficiently, that’s exactly the kind of thread I don’t want. Give me all the music and let me decide whether or not it’s worth my time. There might be more posts to wade through but I’m going to find a lot more music that I might otherwise have missed if people aren’t afraid to post.
That is really not my experience from several years of these threads. This "sorting out" was done privately and then information posted when the impressions were confirmed. First impressions and all... Anyways I said enough, or too much since this is no less off topic than the posts I dislike so I won't make any further comments or replies on this issue and simply hope to be able to decipher which albums are really the best in other listener's opinions and which are just stuff that is new they have heard.
I think what some are suggesting (and have come to expect and look forward to in these threads) is something in between the two poles you are presenting--not just anything they've heard, but also not necessarily something they can know in January is absolutely the best (in which case we'd have to wait until at least October or so for it to be meaningful). What I expect is to hear recommendations of albums people have heard, and think are great, and could at least potentially make their year-end list. And I think most posters are doing that, most of the time--I haven't seen people posting albums they found disappointing, for example. Some posters listen to hundreds of albums per year, so it's OK if they tend to make dozens of recommendations throughout the year, as long as they qualify them in some way as being particularly worthwhile. Which gets to my strong preference, which is for folks to say a few words about what kind of music it is and why they like it, rather than just post a title or link with no description or commentary.
You’ve said pretty much what I wanted to say but have been trying to figure out how to express all day! I definitely want a thread where people are telling me about new albums which have come out, that they think other people might like, with a bit of description and maybe a YouTube video I can check out. And I want those when the album comes out, not a few months later - by the time someone’s sat on their recommendation for 3 months I might have missed the chance to see that act live supporting the album. And I’m equally happy for people to tell me about albums they know to be coming up, post “pre-release” tracks from those and let me check those out to get myself hyped for the upcoming album. If this thread isn’t the place for that, then let’s start another thread, because that’s absolutely a useful thread to have. (I also find some of the posts here to be unhelpful; but if I consistently find that someone only posts about music in a genre I’m not interested in, or without any comment or description, then I put them on ignore. So far I only have one of those )
Very well said! I guess what I love about these threads is that they are a place to get recommendations for new music that would almost certainly never come to my attention otherwise.
Just listened to the whole album now on Spotify. I liked it a lot, though it sometimes felt so similar to Lana del Rey that I could have mistaken it for one of her albums. It does dive even a little bit more fully into the retro, cinematic David Lynchian cinematic thing than Lana usually does, which I enjoyed.
You may find more of what you're looking for on thread I'd created in November '19 in which I also specified hopes for it's ongoing continuance once in 2020, as I am always on lookout for new-to-me music & new releases, utilizing all means available & new ones discovered. I also included on pg. 2 of that thread a link to stereogum's list & have also posted it here. (Can't force it on people.) On any of these type threads, though, you are going to encounter those who will just post their "dreams"; not what actually, in reality, is being released. Thing is, this thread was created New Year's Day, so how are there going to be many posts of "Best" new albums of 2020 just 2 weeks in? What New Releases Are You Looking Forward To In 2020?
Jason Isbell posted on FB yesterday - "Start to finish, I believe we’ve made our best album yet. Can’t wait for y’all to hear it. Details soon."
I don’t really listen to LDR but that’s a pretty good RIYL for a fair chunk of the album. I like when she’s hitting more of those “retro” notes which is where the Tess Parks comparo came in, e.g. Tess Parks & Anton Newcombe - Come Together.
After several listens over the course of the past few days, I'll be surprised if the new Dragged Into Sunlight isn't one of my 2020 favorites at the end of the year: Terminal Aggressor II, by Dragged Into Sunlight For those unfamiliar, I'd describe this 28+ minute track as heavy, misanthropic, and very dark. If you're feeling too cheerful and need something to balance the scales, or if you want to really dig deep into the darkness, try this one on for size. It's a slow burn, so try to stick around for the whole thing if you're going to listen to it at all.
Didn't make it all the way to the end in one go, but kind of like ambient music if your version of ambience is having your skull and soul devotionally ground away. I actually really enjoyed the slow arc. Bit dark.
I don't know if you made it far enough, but it does get to more "proper" song structure after a while. Some really solid riffs in there (IMO of course).
I think 2020 may be my first year with no new music, unless and until I get a new job. I think I can count last years new purchases on my fingers.
Angel Olsen, not sure if there’s a date yet other than 2020. Supposedly a much more spare album that she’s already recorded in Anacortes, WA (home of Phil E of Mt Eerie), sounds right up my alley.
Well, after nearly 40 years of collecting, it's not like I don't have an overabundance of recordings that I've seldom played. But I don't have any mechanism for streaming or playing files beyond my computer or phone.
Those that can be purchased from little or nothing on Bandcamp can be downloaded to your computer/phone.
