There's this band Darling West from Oslo that has randomly played a pizza place in my small, midwestern town once a year for the last few years. There's always like 5 people there but they keep coming. And they're great! Super charming, good songs, great musicianship. They're probably too Norwegian to cross over here, but I hope they keep coming back.

I am quite the fan of The Avalanches classic album from 2000 Since I Left You. It was recently voted as best ever Australian debut album and I can't really argue too much with that.

I was looking forward to checking out their 2020 release We Will Always Love You but had fairly base expectations. Well, colour me very happily surprised - this is a very good album that really does work best as a full album listen. An album's album if you will.

Here's 'Born to Lose':


And there's a nice sprinkling of Mick Jones across the album too!

1 folklore
2 evermore
3 stp - perdida
4 gigaton
5 goldfinger - never look back
6 local h- lifers

More late discoveries...

Brent Cobb is a pretty straightforward country gent whose 4th album Keep 'Em on They Toes is an acoustic set, beautifully produced with lots of space by Brad Cook (Waxahatchee).

Nothing earth shattering but some really pretty stuff here that kind of breathes y'know?

Here's "Little Stuff", apparently written coming down from 'shrooms:

Just wanted to throw my name on the Jeff Parker petition before the year ran out -- got this for Christmas and have finally taken the time to really sit down and give it some dedicated listening, and it's indeed a very good record. Parker blends a lot of different styles very satisfyingly and coherently, and manages to do so without sacrificing his voice or compositional focus. His style as a soloist is pretty compelling on its own, too (I'm not super familiar with his work but I always loved the opening track on Tortoise's It's All Around You, just because I enjoy Parker's playing so much), so even beyond the overall concept and "feel" of the record, there is a lot of pure pleasure in those passages where you just get to listen to him play -- perhaps more so because they are relatively sparing in the context of the full album.

My only wish is that some of those interlude-length tracks didn't end after 45-60 seconds or whatever -- some of these feel like they're just settling into something cool when they fade out! (the fade-out of course being the most unsatisfying of all song endings, as we've duly established)

I need to spend more time with that one myself. I remember giving that and Saint Cloud a first listen on the same day. Saint Cloud had the immediate staying power and the rest was history. I listened to the Jeff Parker one again recently and got really into it, but I haven't gotten to the point where I can say I've really digested it yet.

The vocals on the opening track sort of reminds me of a Dirty Projectors song, but then the album just gets jazzier and jazzier as it goes on. It's probably going to end up being one of my favorite albums of the decade after it finishes marinating in my head for a few years.

I've still not listened to Saint Cloud. Can't Do Much was getting heavy play on Sirius XMU over the summer and I was tempted to check out the album, but even though I liked that song, there was something about her voice that raised a red flag to me. Reminded me a lot of that 2010-ish aesthetic of indie bands trying really hard to sound down home americana. But I liked the song, and then I heard some RMers give the album some good reviews so I downloaded it. But before I could listen I finally heard another song from it on Sirius XMU and was like "lol nope".

Lilacs is probably my song of 2020.

Craig Dunsmuir put out another collection of 10 demos for his Dun-Dun Man/Dun-Dun Band project, S​-​-​>o​-​-​>m​-​-​>e​-​-​>N​-​-​>a​-​-​>p (P​-​-​>a​-​-​>n​-​-​>d​-​-​>e​-​-​>m​-​-​>o​-​-​>s 11​-​-​>20). There are loads of interesting ideas in both his demo collections, so I really hope he pushes through and makes something full-fledged and properly produced out of all this.

Bandcamp:


Something I picked up recently, but has been out for a while is Rain Shadow a collaboration by pedal steel guitarist Chuck Johnson and the synth and bass clarinet duo Golden Retriever. Together the three musicians make some lovely naturalist ambient music that evokes things like a wide open desert landscape or the infinite sweep of the sky at midday.

Bandcamp:

Listened to Phoebe Bridgers' Punisher last night. Mostly was playing it for the wife, cause she loves that walkin on a string song, while we played Tetris. We were both very impressed. Listened to it again. Got chills and teared up several times. Great stuff.

I really liked this, btw. Thanks for the rec. That closing track is....

Happy days. All good.

I would like to add Haim and Future Islands to my list

I will post my final end of year list soon. I know you're all very excited to have something to not read and deride well into the new year. It will be my 2020 parting gift to ask of you.

You're welcome RM.

I need to listen to Future Islands. Haim is great though.

Yeah that Future Islands record is really good.

Haim is also great, probably their best release yet.

For sure.

My 10 fave albums from 2020. No 1 is so far in front though:

01. Bdrmm - Bedroom
02. PJ - Gigaton
03. Rose City Band - Summerlong
04. The Avalanches - We Will Always Love You
05. Nation of Language - Introduction, Presence
06. Mildlife - Automatic
07. L. A. Takedown - Our Feeling of a Natural High
08. Roisin Murphy - Roisin Machine
09. This is the Kit - Off Off On
10. Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher

This record is so good!