As much as I clearly see the problems with year-end lists, they're one of the things I look forward to in the waning days of the year. Whatever negative feelings you have about them, mine is meant as a celebration: These are the sounds that kept me going this year.
To be honest, I listened to Elder's Omens (Armageddon Label), which I missed last year, more than anything else this year, but the ten records below came close. There are a lot of favorites, old and new. And, as they have been for the past several years, all of the links below lead to the album's Bandcamp page where available. Today is also the last Bandcamp Friday of the year, during which the site waves all of its fees, so these artists will get all of the funds you send their way. No one has been able to tour properly for quite some time, so... Please spend recklessly.
Deafheaven Infinite Granite (Sargent House): This one might not surprise you, but it ended up surprising me. It took me a while to like it. The first thing I ever wrote about Deafheaven was after the release of Sunbather (Deathwish, Inc.) in 2013:
Some of my favorite records are the ones where a band leaps outside the bounds of their past and tries something their fans might not dig. I’m thinking of post-Until Your Heart Stops Cave In (Jupiter polarized their existing fans, while Antenna proved they were onto something new), Corrosion of Conformity’s definitively metal years (starting with Blind, but culminating in the Pepper Keenan-led Deliverance and Wiseblood), and even Kill Holiday’s last record (Somewhere Between the Wrong is Right, on which they abandoned aggressive hardcore for an energized gothic-pop sound, by turns reminiscent of The Smiths, The Cure, and Ride).
I was writing about expectations and how they plague a band's progress. Now that Deafheaven themselves have utterly transformed their sound on Infinite Granite, I thought I was going to immediately lose my mind with glee, but it took a while. I should've known that, given how long it took me to get what they were doing on Sunbather, but I couldn't reconcile my expectations with my initial reaction. They've been headed this way since their demo tape. From Roads to Judah (Deathwish, Inc., 2011) through Sunbather to New Bermuda (Anti-, 2015) and Ordinary Corrupt Human Love (Anti-, 2018), each subsequent record an exploratory arm, a hand reaching past the black-metal and shoe-gaze roots of the one before.
Somewhere around the 100th listen, I finally broke through that and heard Infinite Granite for what it is: The next step in the progression of one of the most dynamic and exciting bands of the 21st century so far. There are no duds here, but "Lament for Wasps" is my favorite right now.
As Jack Dangers used to say, "play twice before listening." And don't make the mistake I made by not playing it loud enough.
Danny Elfman Big Mess (Anti-): If you know me well, you know that Oingo Boingo was my favorite band during my most formative years. They were my Beatles. As the leader that band, Danny Elfman has always been one of my heroes. He'd long since gone on to scoring films when Oingo Boingo quietly disbanded in 1995, so when he started releasing singles on the 11th of every month last October, the world knew something was up. After the monthly teases, the aptly titled Big Mess finally came out in June. Big Mess is as dark and weird as anything he ever did with Oingo Boingo, but tinged and tainted with the times. Imagine the rambunctious new wave of that band of misfits, combined with Elfman’s orchestral knowledge of decades of film scores, then compressed by recent politics and a year-long lockdown, and you’re almost there. He even redid the Oingo Boingo song, “Insects.” Elfman was the guy who taught me that music could be about something and introduced me to the music that would shape my mind as a teen. Now, music “about something” is typically the last thing I want to hear, but Big Mess has been on repeat in my house and in my head since it came out. The anger, the angst, the energy: decades on, he’s still got it.
Mogwai As the Love Continues (Rock Action): Mogwai is my most listened-to band. Something about their sound fits into my life more places than any other. They are another act that took me a while to get into, but I loved As the Love Continues as soon as I heard the lead singles, "Dry Fantasy" and "Ritchie Sacramento." If you don't get "Ceiling Granny" stuck in your head after the first listen, you might be a robot. There are parts of Mogwai's past scattered throughout As the Love Continues. It feels as comprehensive as it does fresh, as good an entry point to their 30-year career as any other.
Wolves in the Throne Room Primordial Arcana (Relapse): To see a band grow and expand their sound the way that Wolves in the Throne Room has is nothing less than inspiring. Their brand of Cascadian Black Metal has always been unique, but Primordial Arcana finds them working with a bigger, broader palette to great effect. The ambient aside of 2014's Celestite is seamlessly incorporated here, not only enriching this work but also recontextualizing that one.
Kristen Gallerneaux Strung Figures (Shadow World): It's easy to describe this as haunted, but as I wrote about her elsewhere, "In another time, Kristen Gallerneaux would’ve been considered a sorcerer, a witch, a medium. She coaxes the ghosts from black boxes of all kinds. In our time, Gallerneaux is an artist, a writer, a researcher, and the Curator of Communication and Information Technology at The Henry Ford Museum in Detroit." Strung Figures is haunted, haunting, and handled by an artist who knows the deepest meanings of those words.
Monolord Your Time to Shine (Relapse): The cornerstone of Monolord's church is The All-Mighty Riff. The leads on "I'll Be Damed," which harken back to the opening groove of "Where Death Meets the Sea" off of 2017's Rust, are undeniably head-nodding. If you enjoy the chug and churn of down-tuned guitars, then it's Your Time to Shine.
Liars The Apple Drop (Mute): Though I've loved a couple of Liars records in the past (2014's Mess and 2012's WIXIW), The Apple Drop took me back to a time when indie rock was exciting and so weird it was a little scary, before Radiohead codified and normalized so much of what was previously considered experimental, a time when a band like Enon could emerge from the wreckage of a band like Brainiac. As sophisticated as they are strange, Liars continue to push the skewed rock on The Apple Drop.
Low HEY WHAT (Sub Pop): After 2015's beautiful departure Ones and Sixes (Sub Pop) and 2018's further afield Double Negative (Sub Pop), I wasn't sure what to expect from Low this time around, but that uncertainty is just one of the reasons they're one of the most enduring bands of the past three decades. HEY WHAT continues the dual vocals of Mimi Parker and Alan Spearhawk over minimalist sound structures. The electronic turn they've taken on recent records continues as well, and it's all equal parts as soothing and unsettling as it's ever been -- heavier than the heaviest metal. Play loud.
Cannibal Corpse Violence Unimaginable (Metal Blade): I don't know what to tell you except that Cannibal Corpse put a new record out this year and that it's really, really good.
Aaron Boudreaux The Wanting Mare (YouTube link; This one's not available on Bandcamp): From last year's most hauntingly beautiful film comes this year's best score: The Wanting Mare by Aaron Boudreaux. The music is as perfect as the film, written and directed by Nicholas Ashe Bateman. Aside from the Elder record mentioned above, I probably listened to this soundtrack more than anything else this year. The only thing I want from it is more.
NOTE: I put the hip-hop stuff on its own list because there's just so much of it, but here's a quick preview: Fatboi Sharif and Roper Williams Ghandi Loves Children (POW Recordings), Curly Castro Little Robert Hutton (Backwoodz Studioz), Jason Griff and Alaska Human Zoo (Insubordinate), Zilla Rocca Vegas Vic (Chong Wizard), PremRock Load Bearing Crows Feet (Backwoodz Studioz), Career Crooks Never at Peace (Wrecking Crew), Rob Sonic Latrinalia (Sky Pimps), DJ Chong Wizard Blessing Season (Chong Wizard), Tyler, The Creator Call Me If You Get Lost (Columbia), Aesop Rock and Blockhead Garbology (Rhymesayers), and Mars Kumari Mars Kumari Type Beat (deadverse).
You can also double-check last year's list.
Thanks for reading and for supporting artists.
Hope you're well,
-royc.
http://roychristopher.com