2020: The main COVID year. It started with some push-pull that left me befuddled and confused. It got a bit tricky, but then COVID struck. One last match at Arsenal (vs West Ham) and then on March 17 (in France), the first ‘confinement’ (lockdown) started. Drastic rules, etc. Stayed at home a lot until May, and the early days were marked by gorgeous sunshine and mild temperatures. It was a weird time. I managed to keep a solid discipline on eating so started to lose weight (I needed to as I was gaining again). No more going out, so a lot of listening to a lot of music while drinking on the balcony certain evenings. Got offered a wonderful Bluetooth headset for my Birthday, which changed my life especially later when starting to do regular walks; at times, music was the main motivation for the walks. In a weird way , these were happy times. Lots of twitter interactions, I was comfortable with that then, but that was before all the shit that happened particularly in 2021. It’s easy (for me) to be safely ‘happy’ on my own when still socialising online. Well, it was. But going back to the office regularly, I started to realise that I truly enjoyed the company of people and could thrive a lot more in a ‘real’ environment. In fact, my view on social media has been so warped by some much later realisations, understanding the scope of possible manipulations, that I feel mostly uncomfortable with ‘messaging’ conversations these days. Too many calculations not enough spontaneity, and I’m not the most naturally spontaneous person when in full introverted mode or not confident while sober but…. I digress anyway, stuff that may partly be written in later blog pages on this site. So yeah, the end was a different story but an eye-opener. I have always had that tendency to feel guilty of things I wasn’t actually guilty of, just because I felt they could be levied against me as this or that could be interpreted wrongly but legitimately if people didn’t know me. But in December, it became completely absurd when I basically got ‘attacked’ for being someone I definitely wasn’t, and even at my self-blaming worst could never identify with. And so I began to find myself again a lot more and in 2021 slowly started to regain mental independence, but that was another year. Some memories may come back with the music, let’s get started with 2020 in music.
Best Coast: Graceless Kids. The year started slowly musicwise, pre-COVID, but this album while not top top, was the first that caught my attention and this is the first track that made my ‘best of’ Playlist.
Soccer Mommy: stain. Funny how I thought this was later in the year, but no, this was still pre-COVID, maybe didn’t fully register at the time, but I think that was one of the haunting tracks of that year’s album that I could still remember.
Mint Julep: Just For Today. This album was actually from a month earlier or so, but think I might have listened to it more at the start of the lockdown. Always some good dreamy sounds with Mint Julep, this was a decent album, check also Iteration.
The Radio Dept.: You Fear The Wrong Thing Baby. A little single from one band I’ve always loved though their input has been uneven since that first album. But this is one great song (or maybe it’s just that guitar riff somewhere), that started the lockdown really, and played many times.
Circa Waves: Call Your Name. Now that album was I think the first one that really made me go: ‘at last a top album’. Very very much the true musical kick-off of the lockdown, that particular song gave me energy, first song I truly loved in that ‘cheers me up’ kind of way immediately, an instant hit. Sad Happy, much more downbeat also was a favourite, and Battered & Bruised another strong one.
The Wants: Ape Trap. Released at the same time, and bought at the same time as Circa Waves a few weeks later, that album had a couple of songs that were also the sountrack to early lockdowns evenings on the balcony. Music started to pick up and get me going. Check also Fear My Society. 2020 was another significant year in music, I remember at the end of it I started to post my favourite tracks from it around NYE (spent at home, due to Covid), as the 5 albums linked to end of years only happened in 2021 and 2022. In fact, for now I’m revisiting just the track but 5albums2020 will only happen in a few weeks presumably, so it will be a different story, but I wanted to finish the main pages from this website already, so will only append the 5 albums tweet at a later date (and hope I don’t feel like revising the words written on this page today).
Sorry: 925. They got good review, I wasn’t entirely sold on that first album then (the second album is the one that bowled me over), but Perfect certainly was also a track I associate with the two above as a staple of early lockdown. It’s still great.
Dua Lipa: Love Again. I obviously didn’t know she was an Arsenal supporter then. I’d heard of her, but never listened to her stuff, I knew she was popular and doing pop music. I hadn’t dipped back into pop proper by then I think. But I read good reviews, sampled a bit, and thought, yeah, I might like that. And I loved the whole album. That song in particular was one hit of high on sunny afternoons, cheerful times on the balcony, music that just made me happy and made me feel ‘love again’ despite not being ‘in love’, just being in love with life and music. And it’s still one of my favourite songs of the last few years, it’s still on my upbeat playlist, on my dance list and a general happy listen whether it is 2020, 2021, 2022 or 2023. Check also Don’t Start Now and Let’s Get Physical for my other favourites off that album. Oh and yes, samples can work, so having ‘Your Woman’ from White Town sampled in that (a song I always liked without realising what it was) was a good point. And I fell in love with more pop music forever after that.
Purity Ring: peacefall. Something utterly different, back to dreaming away with atmospheric sounds, this song was stuck inside of me so many times. Hauntingly beautiful, sweet, the great songs kept coming that year, more one for later in the evening when you start to look at the stars. stardew that closes the album is another must hear. Shame their gig in 2021 was cancelled and never rescheduled since, it’s one I was highly looking forward to.
Brand New: Degausser. I have decided to stray off the formula I had adapted for other years which was to put all the ‘released in the year’ tracks before other ones I listened to a lot that year, as it was a different kind of year with COVID. So this track was off an album recommended to me during a twitter discussion about perfect albums. It’s not perfect of course, but I can see the attraction. Some excellent emo music from 2006.
Liela Moss: Here Comes The Rain Again. The first things I had heard from Liela Moss after The Duke Spirit (some other collaboration, can’t remember the name) had not really caught my ear. I was one day clicking on a link that had ‘best Cure covers’ and came across her cover of Prayers for Rain. Which is very good. I got the EP this was from, and this cover from The Eurythmics blew my mind. It pisses all over the original if you ask me, just a truly beautiful song, perfectly sung, and, as ever with me, it’s the piano bit that takes it to the next level, piano with echo, simple motif, it more often that not makes a great song. I have listened to that a lot, rain or shine in fact (though rain is the actual theme of the EP). I was going to add something from her debut My Name is Safe In Your Mouth from 2018, but I posted it in the 2018 page. See, I could have made everything coherent, reconstituted it, but I like the organic form this takes, as I said somewhere else, I will have shared the same music, with the same emotions, I’m not writing a consistent directory, so……….yeah you could call it lazy, but it’s a choice, a deliberate choice. Anyway, just enjoy this particular gem, and go back to the 2018 page for more Liela if you haven’t checked it yet.
The Duke Spirit: Blue and Yellow Light. BUT. …as this prompted me (again following someone pointing it out to me after posting the above on twitter) to get the only Duke Spirit album I was missing, here’s more from Liela Moss. While this wasn’t the last Duke Spirit but the penultimate one, from 2016, this is the one that has most in common with Liela Moss’ early releases. Check also Anola and Here Comes The Vapour. So yes, there was quite some floating in space, dreaming away with ethereal music during COVID too. Again, this has just a light piano motif at some point that makes the song reach higher.
mxmtoon: lessons. Pretty sedate, maybe less dreamy, but sounds that still nicely make you drift away from ‘reality’.
James: Dear John. I think this came from a 5 albums 2016? Though this song had been pointed to me before. I only bought it then, not sure I truly associate it with this time, just with someone, and it’s a very lovely song with a nice video. Maybe a bit sad, but memorable for sure.
ALMA: Loser. Some more good pop now, very good album, check also the more aerial LA Money, which I might as well have selected.
Porridge Radio: Long. Something different, very indie, very promising, their second album but my first contact with them. A different voice, good lyrics, good music. Check also the opener Born Confused.
Phoebe Bridgers: Chinese Satellite. Selecting one of the tracks that stayed with me wasn’t easy here. Probably in the spirit of ‘instantly memorable’, the more upbeat Kyoto was easier to remember, but this song and Graceland Too were gems I was always eager to revisit, and as I have selected more dreamy stuff for this year, I’ll keep with that vibe with a superb song.
Woman’s Hour: From Eden To Exile Then Into Dust. The album is actually from 2019 but I was catching up with a few bands I’d liked releases from many years earlier. And as unfortunately I’m not doing every year back, there’s nothing from their excellent 2014 album, Conversations, but this track from a rather odd and patchy album, despite its odd start turns into something that made it a memorable song of the year in its middle. Granted, it’s not at the level of all that’s above and probably will be below, but it was part of the year’s soundtrack.
MARINA: No More Suckers. Similarly catching up with another 2019 album there, her first after ‘The Diamonds’ have been ditched. She’s still got a great voice.
brdmm: Push/Pull. Back to more intense mostly musical rock music. This atmospheric number feels very introspective, and was one to remember.
Dream Wife: Validation. There were a few low-key albums/songs I enjoyed, short-lived soundtracks not living up to the music before or after, but just about passing the filter for inclusion here. This is such a song.
DMA’s: The Glow. This, on the other hand, didn’t even merit an inner debate to be posted on this page, it was with me for longer. Don’t remember much else about the album, but this little song is totally fitting my criteria. Funny how by then the early lockdown was a distant memory and music is differently associated, with nothing in particular, just a taste of occasional bittersweetness as far as this one is concerned.
The Aces: Kelly. The second al bum from The Aces didn’t leave the same impression on me as the first, but then see the 2018 page for how important Stuck was for me then. Still a couple of tunes made the grade, bearing repeated listens. Check also Not Enough.
Gracie Abrams: I miss you, I’m sorry. A new voice for me with that EP and that song was one of my favourites of the year and lingered for a long time in my head a few times. Not the upbeat sort of times, just the sweet emotional kind. Beautiful and touching.
Fontaines D.C.: Televised Mind. On first listen, I liked this album more than the first one. Not so obvious but there was one drunk listen on the balcony when I was very impressed by it. This and Living in America could have been included. To be honest, I nearly went the way of the first album on these pages, keep for ‘great album but didn’t completely register at the time’, yet remembering this first listen, even if there wasn’t really a single song I associated it with at the time, it was a significant ‘I like this band a lot’ moment. This song also sounded great live a couple of years later.
Creeper: Four Years Ago. From one of my favourite albums of the year, a true revelation. Be My End and Napalm Girls in a more immediately dynamic way are also favourites, but this duet (possibly the only one in these pages?) just has everything. A fantastic song with fantastic music and decent lyrics too. The intertwined vocals really make it though, one of the best songs of 2020.
Sea Girls: Ready For More. The album is not worth writing home about, just generic indie, but that song was one that stayed with me a lot, definitely the kind of one-off that makes my ‘best of the year’ list. It has something about it.
Kiesza: Love Never Dies. Back to pop, 2020 really was the year I (re-?) awoke to it. You could argue for Run Renegade, the opener, to be included in my list and somehow this one is more associated to early 2022 (I think, or was it Christmas 2021) when I went to put out flowers on my parents’ grave, and while I don’t know why I see this song as some sort of Bond sountrack, it’s actually the lyrics ‘Love never dies, it relies on the ones we’ve lost to keep us reminded’ that resonated that day. Beautiful song anyway, and it’s another one with a little piano bit in the middle.
Bloxx: Give Me The Keys. Another already existing band I just stumbled upon mid-ish year. Couple of songs in there that qualify as anthemic, It Won’t Work Out being the other one, so these two were kept on regular listen for a bit.
PVRIS: January Rain. Another discovery of a band that had been around for a bit (not a long time but enough). Death Of Me was more punchy, but this one just got me more, just those floating vibes. Really 2020 was the year when I truly realised that I loved ethereal stuff and pop probably a lot more than just straight indie rock. Maybe just slowly getting more ‘feeling’ and connecting more with my inner self? God knows, that’s the point of view of more than two years later when I think I’m finding myself a lot more after all these years. Anyway, yes, this is the best song of the album for me.
Suzanne Vega: In Liverpool. Something completely different and from a lot earlier, but sometimes I get a song off someone and I like it a lot and listen to it a fair bit. I only really knew of Luka, but this one I liked immediately so in the middle of a lot of other things, this got a few spins. (heh, artistic licene, I only have this in digital form, but you know….for style). Another beautiful song by a much more classic artist. I hear it today in nostalgia of a time and of someone who I still think is amazing….but is so ill despite themselves, I think. It’s…I’ve truly moved on, 2023 rammed that home one last time for me, but I’m not throwing things or people away. We’re all humans and there’s always hope somewhere even for incurable illnesses of the mind, just to manage better.
Shamir: Other Side. One of those tracks that just make me snap my fingrers in rhythm and maybe dance (you will have noticed if you’ve read everything –in small installments I hope, it takes me hours to write those music pages and I relisten to all of the tracks, but if you even get curious enough to listen to a few or just a few seconds of each, I’ll be happy — that there are a few such songs). There is truly a great rhythm to this one.
Liela Moss: Atoms At Me. You thought you were done with her for the year? Well I was lucky to catch a review on SOV otherwise I wouldn’t have known a new album was out. While I find it inferior to her first (it’s just less dreamy), this particular song was a particular favourite of the year. Rhythmically inspired.
Lucia & The Best Boys: Perfectly Untrue. Only a 4-tracks EP. And yet two of it could have made it as Forever Forget was also memorable. Not checked if they’ve had anything out before or since, but I should, because this was very good.
Keep Dancing Inc.: Old Child. Some French dance music. And one of my favourite tracks to dance to. Played it especially at the end of the year and made me decide to play music all over twitter on NYE on my own (last one on my own ? There’s only been two since), and while I’m slightly unsure of the middle bit (frustrating I think an edit without it would be perfect), definitely a ‘soundtrack of the year’ tune. Tapping my foot rather than snapping my fingers to that. Also typing the keys in rhythm…I like doing that. It’s just music making the body move….
Baby Queen: Internet Religion. Pretty Girl Lie is also…pretty good, but for once I’m truly selecting that because of the lyrics. Think I was starting to open my eyes about how shit and dangerous the internet could be, the lies, deceits and manipulations coming from all corners, sometimes defensive, but still, all the time I thought I was too introverted and shy to express myself in real life (well to some extent I am, and no doubt all these pages are a work only an ‘introvert’ would do, even an extroverted one as I’m beginning to accept) and at last I’m starting to wake up again to the fact that I am in fact a better person in real life (not always, but there’s an untapped potential I never realised) and slowly getting less and less interested in online interactions. Anyway…
Mogwai: Hexon Bogon. Travelling back in time as I was catching up with a few Mogwai releases I’d missed out, like Rave Tapes from 2014. And this instrumental, short and to the point, is just a perfect condensé of a Mogwai song. Quiet/Loud and conveying enough emotions. Proof that it’s possible even in modern music to not use words. God knows I’m using too many words in these pages…and I miss just feeling sometimes, to express and share emotions with people without words.
I LIKE TRAINS: Now spelt like that, rather than iLiKETRAiNS? . This is one hell of an album (as the delayed gig two years later emphatically proved), and very very hard to select just one song from. A Man Of Conviction possibly just edges it as the one I think of immediately, but New Geography or The Truth are at least equally worthy. As 5 albums hasn’t happened yet, could this be my number one? There will be tough choices…only superficially revisiting the year now, this will be difficult and again bring on an overload of memory emotions. Check the whole KOMPROMAT album anyway.
CamelPhat: Keep Movin’. The end of the year brought some uncertainties, doubts, and a little more abstract dance music. This tune and Phantoms somehow when I listen to them feels like music to listen to while waiting for something to happen (but nothing ever happens). I haven’t really been in a club where they played proper dance music for a bit, but this feels like the chilled out zone, before dawn. But you know….it could be the middle of the night.
Miley Cyrus: Midnight Sky. Nearly at the end of the year now. My first encounter with her despite her being well established by then. Again, I often base myself on reviews (mostly NME, yeah I know, though I ignore their strange fascination with K-Pop), see if I’m tempted, sample without prejudice (but my mood might be a factor), and that enticed me enough to buy it. Plastic Hearts is another favourite off that year’s album. I don’t even know which genre this qualifies at, but I like it.
Gorillaz: Strange Timez feat. Robert Smith. The Cure still didn’t release anything but Robert Smith was not completely idle. This song was very present near the end of the year. A slightly odd one with a strange video (a Smith-faced moon), but 2020 were indeed Strange Times.
Taylor Swift: no body, no crime. Finishing the year with the last release I got then. She released two albums that year, but I only got the widely acclaimed folklore a little later (it didn’t appeal to me first, and to be fair, it’s still not near my favourite of hers), this one tempted me enough, and while it’s still maybe too low-key for me, this particular track was one I liked a lot.
And for the now usual extra recommended listens of a few albums that are not posted above for a reason or another (there are fewer this year because most good albums are already sampled above).
Empress Of: I’m Your Empress Of. (Recommended track: Love Is A Drug)
Jehnny Beth: TO LOVE IS TO LIVE. (Recommended: We Will Sin Together)
Jadu Heart: Hyper Romance. (Recommended : Metal Violets). Gutted their gig (only a couple of days ago as I write) was sold out early and the waiting list didn’t yield a ticket.
Oklou: Galore. (Recommended: god’s chariots)
beabadobee: Fake It Flowers. (Recommended: Sorry)
Ela Minus: acts of rebellion. (Recommended: dominique).
The 5 albums tweet, at the end of April 2023. A lot more albums listened to, and definitely brought home the difference between great albums and great tracks out of not so great albums.