YEAR END MEGALIST 2020!!!

trying to piece this list together I am realizing that I have not actively committed myself to the deep dives into albums, especially unknown artists, I usually do...it's been an extremely difficult year for me (and everyone, I know) and I have sought comfort in favorites and/or particular "mood" music more than throwing energy into new. looking at end-of-year lists, I don't know 90% of what is being lauded this year...and probably won't really delve into most of the unknown any time soon. it'll probably leave my list looking basic and unadventurous...it's largely just a collection of the releases from a lot of my existing favorite artists...but there has also been comfort I've taken from a lot of these.

20 Albums for 2020

20. Muzz - Muzz (1pt)
19. Bill Callahan - Gold Record (1pt)
18. Woods - Strange to Explain (1pt)
17. Tycho - Simulcast (1pt)
16. Plants & Animals - The Jungle (1pt)
15. Thundercat - It Is What It Is (1pt)
14. Fleet Foxes - Shore (1pt)
13. Khruangbin - Mordecai (1pt)
12. Four Tet - Sixteen Oceans (1pt)
11. Emancipator - Mountain of Memory (4pts)
10. Olafur Arnalds - some kind of peace (4pts)
9. Sea Wolf - Through a Dark Wood (5pts)
8. Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher (8pts)
7. GoGo Penguin - GoGo Penguin (8pts)
6. Gorillaz - Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez (8pts)
5. Protomartyr - Ultimate Success Today (9pts)
4. Sufjan Stevens - Ascension (9pts)
3. Matt Berninger - Serpentine Prison (12pts)
2. The Microphones - Microphones in 2020 (12pts)
1. Run The Jewels - RTJ4 (12pts)
Whatever gets you through the night, man. It's a great thing about these lists that they are personal and somewhat idiosyncratic, but an even better thing about music that it can serve the purpose you've described. Here's to a 2021 that will get you back to that deep diving! 🍻 (I need to check out that Microphones album!)
 
Whatever gets you through the night, man. It's a great thing about these lists that they are personal and somewhat idiosyncratic, but an even better thing about music that it can serve the purpose you've described. Here's to a 2021 that will get you back to that deep diving! 🍻 (I need to check out that Microphones album!)
oh for sure...it just hit home as the publications started releasing best of lists how little new stuff I efforted into. my shit's tight, though...I don't care about outside judgement.

The Microphones album is incredible...it's more just one 45 minute continuous song (and yet somehow more approachable than anything he's done as Mount Eerie)...would've been top billing had RTJ4 not felt like such the anthem for 2020.
 
Point distribution very subject to change. Heck, also album selections as well.

Tier I:
[15] Jessie Ware - What's Your Pleasure?
[15] Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia
[10] HAIM - Women in Music Pt. III
[10] Deserta - Black Aura my Sun
[10] Kelly Lee Owens - Inner Song

Tier II (5pt each):
Caribou - Suddenly
Jeff Parker & the New Breed - Suite for Max Brown
Sevdaliza - Shabrang
Lianne La Havas - Lianne La Havas
Laura Marling - Song for our Daughter

Tier III (3pt each):
Boldy James and the Alchemist - The Price of Tea in China
Alabaster DePlume - To Cy and Lee: Instrumentals Vol. I
Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters
Run the Jewels - IV
Deftones - Ohms
 
Jessie Ware - What’s Your Pleasure? (20 points)
Gorillaz - Song Machine (20 points)
Lianne La Havas - Lianne La Havas (20 points)
Yves Tumor - Heaven To A Tortured Mind (20 points)
Freddie Gibbs x The Alchemist - Alfredo (20 points)

Big special shout-out to Kali Uchis’ “Sin Miedo”, an album I very much loved but didn’t include it because I feel like no one else will include this Spanish album in their list, and I want my points to go towards albums that will at least get points from other people’s list!
Wait what!? No Lido Pimienta??? I'm hugely disappointed 😞
 
Wait what!? No Lido Pimienta??? I'm hugely disappointed 😞
I love Miss Colombia so much and obviously Lido Pimienta herself, but I thought to myself that not many people or anyone would even list that album in their year-end list! So like Kali Uchis and to an extent King Krule, I just didn’t want to list it! 🤷‍♂️

The Freddie Gibbs x The Alchemist pick was the hard one. I didn’t know whether to put Against All Logic, Laura Marling or Fiona Apple in there. I think I’m gonna alter my list and award 5 points to Freddie Gibbs and 5 points to those three other albums! ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Again, I love Lido Pimienta but I’m being strategic! I didn’t even put The Weeknd’s After Hours because I felt like the points I’d give to that album would go nowhere! 😶🛑🔓

I know not many people have listed Lianne La Havas, Gorillaz and Yves Tumor, but just wait, more people will place those artists in their list!!!

Lido Pimienta though.......I guess it looks like you will list her which makes me want to list her too, but who else is going to list her!?!? Maybe @alspriet if he decides to participate in this, but apart from that...🤷‍♂️🙈
 
I love Miss Colombia so much and obviously Lido Pimienta herself, but I thought to myself that not many people or anyone would even list that album in their year-end list! So like Kali Uchis and to an extent King Krule, I just didn’t want to list it! 🤷‍♂️

The Freddie Gibbs x The Alchemist pick was the hard one. I didn’t know whether to put Against All Logic, Laura Marling or Fiona Apple in there. I think I’m gonna alter my list and award 5 points to Freddie Gibbs and 5 points to those three other albums! ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Again, I love Lido Pimienta but I’m being strategic! I didn’t even put The Weeknd’s After Hours because I felt like the points I’d give to that album would go nowhere! 😶🛑🔓

I know not many people have listed Lianne La Havas, Gorillaz and Yves Tumor, but just wait, more people will place those artists in their list!!!

Lido Pimienta though.......I guess it looks like you will list her which makes me want to list her too, but who else is going to list her!?!? Maybe @alspriet if he decides to participate in this, but apart from that...🤷‍♂️🙈
She most definitely made my list and I have you to thank for it!
 
I love Miss Colombia so much and obviously Lido Pimienta herself, but I thought to myself that not many people or anyone would even list that album in their year-end list! So like Kali Uchis and to an extent King Krule, I just didn’t want to list it! 🤷‍♂️

The Freddie Gibbs x The Alchemist pick was the hard one. I didn’t know whether to put Against All Logic, Laura Marling or Fiona Apple in there. I think I’m gonna alter my list and award 5 points to Freddie Gibbs and 5 points to those three other albums! ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Again, I love Lido Pimienta but I’m being strategic! I didn’t even put The Weeknd’s After Hours because I felt like the points I’d give to that album would go nowhere! 😶🛑🔓

I know not many people have listed Lianne La Havas, Gorillaz and Yves Tumor, but just wait, more people will place those artists in their list!!!

Lido Pimienta though.......I guess it looks like you will list her which makes me want to list her too, but who else is going to list her!?!? Maybe @alspriet if he decides to participate in this, but apart from that...🤷‍♂️🙈

That’s kinda weird logic to me! I kinda look to put up a top 10-15 of my own and highlight what I’ve loved this year. I like seeing what others have enjoyed too. Where they finish in the overall list is kinda slightly irrelevant to me.
 
That’s kinda weird logic to me! I kinda look to put up a top 10-15 of my own and highlight what I’ve loved this year. I like seeing what others have enjoyed too. Where they finish in the overall list is kinda slightly irrelevant to me.
Yeah, I agree with you and I also like seeing what else I’ve missed that ends up highly ranked on other people’s list!

I think because there’s points involved in this ‘megalist’, it makes me be strategic because in a sense we are voting as well. It’s like how you wouldn’t vote for a political party who you knew had no chance for running for government. Instead you just vote between the two main politics parties as you know realistically it will be between those two parties. I guess I see it in that sense when it comes to where I want to allocate my points.

If this thread was just a “Your favourite 10 albums of 2020”, then my list would be very different and Lido Pimienta and Kali Uchis would’ve made the list and Freddie Gibbs x The Alchemist wouldn’t have made the list!

In this megalist, you can list 5 albums or 75 albums. So I just want 5 albums I really like that I know will get mentioned a bit but not maybe too much, to get some Spotlight! ⭐
 
Yeah, I agree with you and I also like seeing what else I’ve missed that ends up highly ranked on other people’s list!

I think because there’s points involved in this ‘megalist’, it makes me be strategic because in a sense we are voting as well. It’s like how you wouldn’t vote for a political party who you knew had no chance for running for government. Instead you just vote between the two main politics parties as you know realistically it will be between those two parties. I guess I see it in that sense when it comes to where I want to allocate my points.

If this thread was just a “Your favourite 10 albums of 2020”, then my list would be very different and Lido Pimienta and Kali Uchis would’ve made the list and Freddie Gibbs x The Alchemist wouldn’t have made the list!

In this megalist, you can list 5 albums or 75 albums. So I just want 5 albums I really like that I know will get mentioned a bit but not maybe too much, to get some Spotlight! ⭐

Hahaha yeah I suppose I just don’t play politics with two things: my job and my passions. I’d love for my number 1 (I’m currently between two albums for that) was high up but I’d rather put out a full list that put as much of my taste into the list in the first place in case anyone cares what I like and/or has missed anything and they might like and gives it a check out because.
 
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Yeah, I agree with you and I also like seeing what else I’ve missed that ends up highly ranked on other people’s list!

I think because there’s points involved in this ‘megalist’, it makes me be strategic because in a sense we are voting as well. It’s like how you wouldn’t vote for a political party who you knew had no chance for running for government. Instead you just vote between the two main politics parties as you know realistically it will be between those two parties. I guess I see it in that sense when it comes to where I want to allocate my points.

If this thread was just a “Your favourite 10 albums of 2020”, then my list would be very different and Lido Pimienta and Kali Uchis would’ve made the list and Freddie Gibbs x The Alchemist wouldn’t have made the list!

In this megalist, you can list 5 albums or 75 albums. So I just want 5 albums I really like that I know will get mentioned a bit but not maybe too much, to get some Spotlight! ⭐

BTW did you put in a top 50 for the all time 500 list? You have until the end of Sunday in the US to PM it to woob!
 
My favorite musical “discoveries” this year:
Hail Caesar! - Caesar Frazier
Wildflowers and All the Rest - Tom Petty (I knew “the hits” but wasn’t familiar with the rest of the album)
Catching A Wave - Steve & Teresa
Electric Warrior- T. Rex
Jazz - my Jazz collection doubled if not tripled in size this year thanks to fantastic Tone Port, Verve/Acoustic Sounds, BN80, and Analogue Productions releases.
 
BTW did you put in a top 50 for the all time 500 list? You have until the end of Sunday in the US to PM it to woob!
Yep!!! I haven’t done so yet but I’m well aware that I need to submit it by the end of this week. I’ve been planning my list and have been kinda keeping an eye on what’s on other people’s list! 🤓🧐

I actually have quite a bit of albums in your top 50 that’s in my top 50 of all-time! I cannot wait to see the results of the Needles&Grooves top 50 albums of all-time list! 😍
 
My favorite musical “discoveries” this year:
Hail Caesar! - Caesar Frazier
Wildflowers and All the Rest - Tom Petty (I knew “the hits” but wasn’t familiar with the rest of the album)
Catching A Wave - Steve & Teresa
Electric Warrior- T. Rex
Jazz - my Jazz collection doubled if not tripled in size this year thanks to fantastic Tone Port, Verve/Acoustic Sounds, BN80, and Analogue Productions releases.
😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

My favourite musical discovery this year would’ve had to of been Steve & Teresa’s “Catching A Wave”! 🌊🌴

I also am so happy to have discovered T. Rex’s “Electric Warrior”, thanks to the hype surrounding the MoFi 2LP 45RPM pressing that came out early this year! 🔥
 
😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

My favourite musical discovery this year would’ve had to of been Steve & Teresa’s “Catching A Wave”! 🌊🌴

I also am so happy to have discovered T. Rex’s “Electric Warrior”, thanks to the hype surrounding the MoFi 2LP 45RPM pressing that came out early this year! 🔥
Yeah, I saw their introduction into the rock and roll hall of fame and immediately ordered the Rhino version of Electric Warrior and kicked myself for sleeping on them for so long.
 
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