Fav 40 Albums of 2020: The Top 10
A list defined by soothing pandemic balms
My favorite music discovery of 2020 was released two years before I was born.
While experiencing “Stars and Stripes Fatigue™” this year, I’d go digging for albums from other countries that aren’t built on western pop structures. Reading about Japanese ambient music lead me down a rabbit hole to Yasuaki Shimizu, a composer and saxophonist who’s been releasing music since the late 70s.
His 1982 album, Kakashi, is what has stuck with me the most. It’s impossible to categorize this album as it bounces from jazz to ska to dub, always with a whimsical jaunt. My favorite track is “Umi No Ue Kara,” also the album’s longest. It builds off a sample of what sounds like Shimizu talking into a phone sinking into the ocean. The melody is a marimba part that works as the backbone while various horns and vocal synth samples layer over it. The drums stay steady and never stray from their purpose.
If you’re ever stuck in a music rut, maybe Kakashi can lift you up as well.
Thank you, Dear Reader.
As we close out the year, I want to give thanks to all who have supported the launch of CHECK THIS OUT! Whether you are a subscriber or just looking at a post you came across (please subscribe, though), your readership means so much to me.
Live music has always been the best form of healing for me, and without it, CHECK THIS OUT! was born. I’ve been stewing on writing about music for years but the need to find another outlet created this newsletter. It’s been enjoyable to revisit everything that was released this year, and I hope you have found something you cannot stop listening to.
CHECK THIS OUT! is just getting started, and I am so excited to share the plans I have for next year. Next week, I’ll be closing out 2020 with a forgotten classic album celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Look for that in your inbox before New Years’. January will see the newsletter resuming its regular Friday schedule.
Happy Holidays and best wishes to all of you, and hopefully, I’ll see you at a show next year. Now to the Top 10 Albums of 2020!
Kiley ✌️ 🕶
10. Hamilton Leithauser - The Loves of Your Life
One of the biggest surprises for me in compiling this list has been the number of musicians from the early-00s New York indie scene reappearing.
Earlier in the list was The Strokes’ new album. Although I liked 2013’s Comedown Machine, I’d found The Voidz project to be more interesting. I didn’t have any expectations going into The New Abnormal, but it ranked as one of my favorite albums of the year. Down the page, you’ll find Paul Banks, singer and guitarist for Interpol.
The Walkmen was one of my favorite bands from this scene, with their 2004 breakthrough Bows + Arrows, released my freshman year of college (the band included members of Jonathan Fire*Eater, one of the scene’s earliest bands, and The Recoys). They were everywhere from The OC to David Letterman but never hit the level of The Strokes or Yeah Yeah Yeahs. They continued to release albums with You & Me, Lisbon, and Heaven being my favorites, before going on on hiatus in 2014.
Since their dissolve, singer Hamilton Leithauser has released a few solo albums and improves on each one. In 2016, Leithauser teamed up with Rostam Batmanglij, formerly of Vampire Weekend, to release I Had a Dream That You Were Mine. This record was a breakthrough for him and what I thought was the most vital work of Leithauser’s career.
The Loves of Your Life finds Leithauser leaving the city for the woods of the Hudson Valley. This album's sound reflects this change, with Leithauser often joined by his wife, daughters, and their former preschool teacher on backup vocals. Each song is about a character, some real, some fictional, all embellished, but all shuffling through the city.
The Loves of Your Life is the actual quarantine album. Leithauser is surrounded by family and the occasional guest, writing about the small moments we used to take for granted.
The Loves of Your Life is available via Glassnote.
9. Laura Marling - Song for Our Daughter
Laura Marling has had a prolific start to her career, with the singer-songwriter recording six albums before trying something different with 2018’s LUMP, her first collaboration. This year’s seventh album, Song for Our Daughter, is her most intimate album, stripping back the instrumentation with songs often consisting of acoustic guitar and her golden voice.
Marling sings to an imaginary daughter throughout the album, imploring wisdom while pondering the unforeseen pains and challenges of growing up. It’s a confessional record, full of sharp feminist jabs and advice for navigating life.
Although the English singer-songwriter has returned home, this is her most Joni Mitchell sounding record. Combining her impressive chord structures with Ethan Johns’ crisp but home-y production, Marling has created an album right out of Laurel Canyon.
Song for Our Daughter is available via Partisan Records.
8. Open Mike Eagle - Anime, Trauma and Divorce
“It’s October, and I’m tired,” laments Open Mike Eagle on his phenomenal new album, Anime, Trauma and Divorce.
The record finds Eagle fresh from a divorce and approaching middle age. His life is a mess, but in his signature fashion, Eagle fills his songs with humor. Like most this year, he explores the new need for self-care “it’s like getting a message / in a real place, not a garage… it’s like seeing what my body needs, maybe that’s a lot of weed / yeah, get a cup massage, that shit works bro” and his past mistakes and behavior through the self roast on “Headass (Idiot Shinji).” Even when addressing his divorce, the humor still shines, like when Eagle shouts the chorus of “the Black Mirror episode ruined my marriage.”
(Don’t ask him which episode, he’ll never tell.)
Open Mike Eagle has made the year’s best hip hop album because of his willingness to bring the listener along on his journey of self-discovery while trying to get his life “back together,”… a notion that can feel unattainable this year.
Anime, Trauma and Divorce is available via Auto Reverse.
7. Muzz - Muzz
Though I don’t listen to it often anymore, Turn on the Bright Lights is one of my favorite albums. Released 18 years ago, Interpol defined indie cool with their suits and love of all things Joy Division. I was on board for their next few albums, but there’s a clear dropoff when bassist Carlos D. left the band. I’ll always give a new Interpol album a listen, but I don’t find myself returning to them after a spin.
When I read about the new Paul Banks project, Muzz, I was interested to see what the singer would do outside of Interpol. Formed with Josh Kaufman ( a previous list appearance with Bonny Light Horseman) and Matt Barrick (drummer for the aforementioned The Walkmen), it’s easy to think of Muzz as a post punk revival supergroup, but the collaboration of the three breaks past this comparison.
Banks’ voice has changed over the years, and with Muzz, he drops the Ian Curtis brood and allows his voice to float over the Panavision western atmosphere created by Kaufman and Barrick. Many of the tracks build around a few bars of a melody, as the three vets layer in orchestrations full of everything from piano to horn sections.
Not only is this my favorite Paul Banks piece since Turn on the Bright Lights, but sometimes I find myself loving it more. I’m not sure what the intentions are for the future of Muzz (they also recently released a covers EP), but I hope we get to hear another record from these guys.
Muzz is available via Matador.
6. Rose City Band - Summerlong
Ripley Johnson has been a significant part of the modern psychedelic scene for over a decade now, most notably with Wooden Shjips and Moon Duo, his project with partner Sanae Yamada. Moon Duo’s album, Stars Are the Light, was one of my favorites from last year.
Summerlong is the second album by his country project, Rose City Band. Named after his hometown of Portland, Oregon, Rose City Band was initially intended to be a recording project to balance Johnson’s touring lifestyle and lean into classic country sounds.
Summerlong is so pertinently named as it provides the perfect soundtrack to a hot sunny afternoon. It’s music for a cool off in a watering hole or drinking a fresh mountain beer.
It’s impossible to listen to this album without hearing the influence of the Grateful Dead. Most of the tracks would work in a set alongside Bob Weir’s “cowboy songs,” and the crisp guitar leads are “very Jerry” to say the least. The highlight for me is the closing segue of “Wee Hours > Wildflowers,” songs that sound as if they are here to bring you back to earth after a 25-minute “Dark Star.”
Summerlong is available via Thrill Jockey.”
5. Fleet Foxes - Shore
Like many people, I first came across Fleet Foxes back in the Pitchfork days, when they released their second EP, Sun Giant. While New York was doing its post punk revival thing, Robin Pecknold and Fleet Foxes brought their harmonies from Seattle, sounding more akin to CSN (and sometimes “Y”). I fell head over heels for this new branch in the industry.
The next year they released their self-titled debut to similar critical acclaim. While I initially loved it, I worked at an unnamed corporate coffee cult who insisted on playing the album five times a shift. I hated Fleet Foxes.
It took me until 2017’s Crack-Up to listen to the band again, and I liked that album. But Shore is on another level from anything Pecknold has done. Much of this album was written and recorded during the pandemic, but this is the brightest and most hopeful Fleet Foxes album. The vocal harmonies and flow of tracks provide a much-needed cleansing.
Though sonically different, Shore reminds me of Tom Petty’s Full Moon Fever. Everyone knows and loves Heartbreakers sound, but Jeff Lynne produced Petty’s first solo album to be crisp, with a glossy sheen. The production choices by Pecknold reflect the same change for Fleet Foxes.
Shore is available via ANTI-.
4. Tom Misch & Yussef Dayes - What Kinda Music
When South East London jazz musicians Tom Misch and Yussef Dayes signed to Blue Note, the legendary jazz label, for their first collaboration, expectations were high.
Misch, a Soundcloud multi-instrumentalist phenom, met Dayes, a jazz drumming wunderkind, at a release party for Misch’s 2018 debut album, Geography. While working on London rapper Loyle Carner’s album, Misch invited Dayes into the studio, and an after-hours session created the opening title track of What Kinda Music.
The magic this collaboration creates doesn’t let down the looming Blue Note label. While Misch knows how to write a heckuva hook, the addition of Deyes takes a project that could come off too poppy and turns everything on its head. The drum production on What Kinda Music is fantastic and cranked up in the mix to allow Dayes to guide the songs just as much as guitar and bass melodies.
While the first half of the album is catchy as it explores jazz, electronica, and hip hop (including a feature from Freddie Gibbs), it’s the back half of the record that shines. On the aptly named “Lift Off,” the duo is joined by bassist Rocco Palladino that sets the tone for the jazzier cosmic explorations Misch and Dayes have perfected.
A can’t miss experience, What Kinda Music is an imaginative debut, and I’ll be listening to any project that has Yussef Dayes drums.
What Kinda Music is available via Blue Note.
3. Nick Hexum & George Clanton - George Clanton & Nick Hexum
If you are my age and didn’t love 311 when you were in middle school and high school… well, you’re lying.
They continue to release albums that understandably don’t compare to their early work, but 311 is still a tremendous touring band (I saw them a few years ago at the Hollywood Palladium, and they crushed it). I don’t track their releases, but when I saw that singer Nick Hexum would be releasing an album with George Clanton, it piqued my interest.
George Clanton, vaporwave extraordinaire, is at the top of my list for electronic musicians. Releasing material for over a decade now, he also established 100% Electronica, a great label if you’re into the vaporwave/chillwave/electropop genre. The pairing of Hexum and Clanton seemed too random to work.
This album reveals how interesting Hexum’s work can be outside of 311, with Clanton providing fresh air for him to explore his chiller, more abstract side. This bong rip of a record sets the tone for “good weather vibes” with the opener “Aurora Summer” and doesn’t let down for 30 minutes. Almost every track on here could be released as a single, with “Under Your Window,” “Topanga State of Mind,” and “Crash Pad” being some other highlights.
Like Tom Misch & Yussef Deyes, this collaboration brings out the best in both Hexum and Clanton. Hexum sounds confident and relaxed, while Clanton’s beats and cough syrup synths set the atmosphere.
This album helped avoid the “summer bummer,” and I’m stoked to dig it out again next year.
George Clanton & Nick Hexum is available via 100% Electronica.
2. Choir Boy - Gathering Swans
Choir Boy’s aesthetics are steeped in camp, but Gathering Swans, the band’s second album, is one of the year's most sincere releases.
Based in Salt Lake City, the band’s name comes from the insult hurled at singer Adam Klopp while growing up in Ohio. Luckily for the jerks at school, Klopp has stayed committed to his voice, creating the most unique and ethereal performance of the year.
Under Klopp’s voice lies an incredibly talented band with Chaz Costello’s basslines and tone being a standout. Michael Pauls and Jeff Kleinman, on guitar and synth and sax, respectively, fill in the layers to create a lush sound that is hard to place. Sometimes new wave, sometimes goth, and sometimes punk, Choir Boy have created a sound all of their own, separating themselves from other 80s revival acts.
This album is evidence that it’s the weird kids who grow up to do the interesting stuff and a complete inspiration to carve your path. Try not to turn this album up and sing in your kitchen. It’s impossible.
Gathering Swans is available via Dais Records.
1. Circles Around the Sun - Circles Around the Sun
There’s a moment in the song “Landline Memories" from Circles Around the Sun’s self-titled debut that will always remind me of the initial lockdown in March.
The track starts with a murky Clavinet that is accented with a theremin-like keyboard part, while the guitar strums single chords underneath. It sounds like something out of the X-Files, with its paranoia so deep, the listener feels like they could be in Fox Mulder’s head. But this gives way to a chorus so uplifting and jaunty; it could have come out of the Disney Afternoon block from the 90s. The fog lifts as CATS captain you around a psychedelic marina for the rest of the track, with a hi-hat part impossible not to clap your hands to.
I gave this album one of its first spins while driving to the grocery store for the first time during the lockdown in March. Uneasiness and paranoia were everywhere on that grey day, and while our current Covid situation has become much worse, CATS showed me that there’s a little light under everything.
Circles Around the Sun came together as a project for the Dead’s (kinda) 50th Anniversary “Fare Thee Well” shows in 2015. Filmmaker Justin Kreutzmann, son of Bill Kreutzmann, asked guitarist Neal Casal to develop some music pieces to accompany Kreautzmann’s visuals between sets. Casal, a jam scene staple (The Cardinals, Beachwood Sparks, Chris Robinson Brotherhood, GospelbeacH, among many others), brought together Adam MacDougall (Black Crowes, CRB) on keys, Dan Horn (Beachwood Sparks) on bass, and drummer Mark Levy to produce five hours of improvisational material.
After the shows, Circles Around the Sun released “Interludes for the Dead,” a double album of highlights from the sessions. While the material was based around the Grateful Dead’s legendary jams and themes, “Interludes for the Dead” is a fantastic piece on its own, and CATS took its act on the road to continue the project. The album was one of my favorites of 2015, and I have many great memories of a wonderful year soundtracked by it. In 2018, they released Let It Wander, all original tunes but still based on the improv jam scene.
In the summer of 2019, tragedy struck when Casal committed suicide, having just completed his parts for a new album. He left a note that the band should finish the album and continue to write and tour without him.
The record was released this year, a posthumous journey that is unlike anything CATS had previously explored. Using a drum machine from 1983 to drive the groove, CATS finds the band exploring more disco and dance-based grooves. The improv spirit is there, but each song is more focused, full of energy.
In an extremely challenging year, CATS has been there to lift me every time I’ve needed it. I’ve worked to this album. I’ve cooked to this album. My neighborhood walks are to this album. I’ve drunk plenty of backyard beers to this album. In what has been a fantastic year for music, I always come back to Circles Around the Sun.
CATS are a reminder of the good times - concerts, festivals, dinners, and drinks with our friends and loved ones. There is a constant feeling of joy running throughout the album, and it serves as a reminder that the good times have to return.
The band is continuing with Scott Metzger of Joe Russo’s Almost Dead on guitar, and I can’t wait to see what they produce next as this album was such a transformation.
For 2020, thank you, Adam, Dan, and Mark, for providing sparkle to a year that has been dark more often than not.
And to Neal, still my favorite guitarist, it’s a damn shame you’re gone, but Circles Around the Sun is one of helluva goodbye. It’ll be treasured in my collection forever.
Circles Around the Sun is available via Royal Potato Family.
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