List season....The Most Wonderful (?!?) Time of the Year
Randomish thoughts on 2020....
Ah, the list-making rituals of December. They stop for no pandemic. Tallies must be made, and even if you resist the numerical ranking of art (I do!), just winnowing the gazillions of records down to a tidy ten or 20 or 50 “essential” releases can be a fairly intense process.
Still, along with its extra large helpings of pain and misery, 2020 did bring a ton of noteworthy music. And unlike in the old days, most of the year’s commercial and creative highlights are easily accessible via streaming services (insert rant about them here). Many best-of lists are already up; I participated in the NPR Music of 2020 coverage (here). This week I’m knee-deep in a roundup of archival discoveries and notable reissues that will post on the NPR site next week.
I’ll link to that when it’s up. Until then, in the spirit of avoiding redundancies, here are a few random thoughts from the notebook, about songs and albums and artists that didn’t neatly fit into any of the existing categories….
Prescient single: The Rolling Stones: “Living In a Ghost Town.”
Most creative namedropping on wax (ever): Bob Dylan: “Murder Most Foul.”
Most interesting appropriation of an old groove: Bob Dylan: “False Prophet.”
Art direction, Boxed Set: Prince: Sign ‘O the Times (Super Deluxe Edition).
Art direction, Archival Discovery: Thelonious Monk: Palo Alto.
Most inventive orchestration: Maria Schneider: Data Lords. Runner-up: Pat Metheny: From This Place.
Perhaps too deep a dive: Bob Mould: Distortion: 1989-2019 (24 CDs).
Welcome and somewhat unexpected return: The Pretenders.
Completely unexpected return: Sun Ra Arkestra (new release Swirling is the first new music since 1999.)
Reissue that illustrates the magic an arranger and producer can bring: Thom Bell: Ready Or Not. (UK release, desperately needed in US).
Most imaginative cover: Kurt Rosenwinkel: “Passarim” from Angels Around.
Abrupt stylistic left turn that worked: Taylor Swift, Folklore.
Solo home-studio quarantine record: Chris Potter: There Is A Tide.
Cool dive into an exotic sound world: Priscilla Ermel: Origins Da Luz.
From the “Who Knew?” file: Rustem Quilyev: Azerbaijani Gitara.
Best compare/contrast reissues with artists returning to the same stages in different years: Charles Mingus: Mingus at Bremen 1964 & 1975; John Lee Hooker: Live at Montreux 1983 & 1990.
Reputation-enhancing vault discovery: George Coleman Quintet: In Baltimore.
Previously unreleased live recording that’s part of a reissue: Prince: Live in Utrecht 6.20.87 from Sign O’ the Times (Super Deluxe Edition). Runner up: Fleetwood Mac: Live from the Record Plant, 12.15.74, from Fleetwood Mac: 1969-1974.
Surely you have some thoughts on 2020 music. Share here: echolocator@gmail.com
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