Society has progressed past the need for Of Montreal, just as we have with Michel Gondry films and ironic flat-billed caps.

How fast have you walked away from Animal Collective over the last decade?

Fireworks still slaps but other than that

On the other hand, Person Pitch has aged well for me.

AL

What's your issue with Of Montreal?

There's a good chance it'll drop, to be honest. I've only listened to it twice. But it really hit the spot upon first listen. I've always dug their whole schick.

I agree. This one is pure 80s. I was pleasantly surprised.

Connecting Of Montreal with Michel Gondry was simultaneously equally wrong and right

yeah this was great

I would've gone with ironic knee-high socks rather than flat-brim hats

Top 5:

Bonny Light Horseman - s/t
Gigaton
Dead Tongues - Transmigration Blues
Kathleen Edwards - Total Freedom
Logan Ledger - s/t

H/M to the 2 Hiss Golden Messenger live albums. Both essential.

Fuck the new Kylie Minogue is a good time. I was sitting here slogging through some tedious After Effects animation work, but five songs later it's a fucking dance party

Like I said, Joey, I haven't listened to nearly the range/volume as you, but I put LDM ahead of MMJ this year.

I need to listen to both records again.

The thing with taking in so much new music this year (something I've maybe never done? and certainly won't do again) is that a lot of my feelings/rankings are based on first impressions. I haven't been able to totally digest most of this stuff, obviously. The top 15 or so I've listened to multiple times and have a better grasp on. All of it will continue to shift over time. Hell, I've changed my top 10 like 20 times already!

Both the MMJ and LDM records are really good. And I know they'll both become albums that I revisit a lot even after this experiment of over this year. Those records are keepers.

I've always been mildly curious about this (not in regards to you specifically, but in regards to long year-end lists in general, either by critics or by posters on sites like RM): How does one listen to 100 or more albums in a year and feel familiar enough with them to order them in this way? Not that it would be impossible to become familiar (if not intimately, than at least deeper than first-impression-level) with 100 or more new albums in a year, but -- at least based on the way I feel like I need to listen in order to really know a piece of music -- it would be a hell of a commitment. I always wonder, when looking at these kinds of rankings, whether it's more like you describe above (i.e. "These are my 10-15 or so favorite albums this year, along with a comprehensive list of everything else I've listened to at least once, with some vague directional analysis of my first impressions of them"), or if the person making the list is really passionate that #67 is a better album than #68 or whatever.

Just to be clear, I'm not trying to accuse you (or anyone else, necessarily) of posturing -- I think you've been making a deliberate effort to expose yourself to as much new music this year as possible, which is awesome, and your list has felt more like a travelogue of sorts rather than an attempt to sincerely "rank" all of these albums. And I'm sure there are people who have the capacity to give thoughtful consideration to way more new music in a year than I do. The way you stated the above just jumped out at me because I think it confirmed in a really honest way something I've always wondered about when reading long lists.

I remember being blown away a few years ago by how, seemingly all at once, the stuff I listened to in the early 2000's began sounding like "early 2000's music." All of a sudden the Shins, the Decemberists, Sufjan Stevens, etc., sounded as date-stamped as the Carpenters or Steely Dan. I've experienced this multiple times in my life, but for some reason I am continually surprised by it.

I'm not sure if other people experience this but throughout my entire life I have listened to music that is current and been utterly oblivious to the things that are "dating" it. I'm guessing it's, at least in part, because the things happening around it to form that context are happening in real time as well, all while your brain draws connections you don't realize it's drawing, but still -- it's a phenomenon I've always found interesting.

Oh totally. No offense taken or anything. I mostly agree with everything you said above.

I'm been out of work since March. One of the "goals" I had for this time off was to expose myself to new music. I never had any illusions that I'd be able to properly consume and fully digest 200 hundred new (or new to me) albums. This was more of an exercise in sanity and openness than anything else.

Like you, I've always wondered how critics, etc., are able to to make long (more than 30) end of year lists. I'm finding, as I suspected, as you figured, that it's really difficult. Maybe if I was getting paid to listen and digest it would be different. But I'm doing this for fun and to expand my horizons. At the end of this year I'll feel pretty confident that I've fully experienced 30 new albums, and that those albums will continue to appear in my rotation from time to time moving forward.

I also fully expect that like five years from now I'll listen to one of the records on the bottom half of my list and it'll blow my mind and I'll wonder why I ever had it ranked so low. But the first impression left me cold or colder than another. I'm sure I'm moving on from some of these too quickly. But, again, this is really more about consuming than digesting, honestly. I understand why that wouldn't appeal to or bother some. But it's just something I want to do to maintain some level of sanity during Covid-19, while I'm still jobless.


Thank you for this. It's exactly right. This is totally in line with where my head has been at during all of this.

During a normal year I would only seek out artist I already knew and liked. In a normal year my top 10 would look something like:

Fetch The Bolt Cutters - Fiona Apple
Gigaton - Pearl Jam
Such Pretty Forks in the Road - Alanis Morissette
That's How Rumors Get Started - Margo Price
Gaslighter - The Chicks
Cuttin' Grass Vol. 1 (Butcher Shoppe Sessions) - Sturgill Simpson
Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was - Bright Eyes
Reunions - Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
Ascension - Sufjan Stevens
Whole New Mess - Angel Olsen

And those would likely be the most of the entirety of "new" music I listened to. Outside of the couple of one-off listens to artist like Bruce or Eminem or Neil Young that I always manage to fit in.

I love Kylie.

I've been enjoying following along, Joe