22. "starting with favorites - top 25 popular-ish" In response to In response to 0 Fri Dec-04-20 10:00 AM by thebigfunk
Still winding around to developing a top 10 but this is my shortlist, top 25 popular-ish records this year (not in any real order):
1. Moses Sumney - Grae 2. R.A.P. Ferreira - Purple's Moonlight Pages 3. Cleo Sol - Rose in the Dark 4. Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy Ways 5. Jessie Ware - What's Your Pleasure? 6. Khruangbin - Mordechai 7. Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher 8. Gillian Welch - Boots Vol. 2 - The Lost Songs 9. Courtney Marie Andrews - Old Flowers 10. Lianne La Havas - self-titled 11. Oscar Jerome - Breathe Deep 12. Sault - Untitled(s) 13. Fleet Foxes - Shore 14. Sylvan Esso - Free Love 15. Tim Heidecker - Fear of Death 16. Gabriel Garzon-Montano - Aguita 17. Kevin Morby - Sundowner 18. Sam Amidon - self-titled 19. Rufus Wainwright - Alone Time/Peaceful Afternoon EP 20. Perfume Genius - Set my heart on fire immediately 21. Natalia Lafourcade - Un Canto por Mexico, vol. 1 22. Fiona Apple - Fetch the Boltcutters 23. Raw Poetic/Damu/Archie Shepp - Ocean Bridges 24. Blu & Exile - Miles 25. Nick Hakim - WILL THIS MAKE ME GOOD
This actually aligns pretty well with my most listened to, as well. I'm actually surprised at how little hip hop wound up on the shortlist even though I listened to a lot of releases this year. A lot of it was good, very little was great. Past my top 25 a lot more shows up but it's still pretty spotty.
It was a strange year musically with just an enormous number of top-notch releases in the first four or five months, then a dryspell for a good chunk of summer, and then another great month or two as we headed into fall. Music was definitely a lifesaver this year and that vast majority of my listening was dedicated to new stuff ... sort of a reminder that good stuff was still happening despite how dark this year has been.
Going to circle back and run through some favorite jazz-ish releases later.