Q's Compilations
Vol #135 – December
2020 to January 2021
Where
to start? As usual, the first mix of the year is a round-up of my favourite
releases from the last 12 months. It obviously wasn’t a normal year on any
metric, but there was still a lot of excellent music to absorb, though aside
from a select few records, I found that while I enjoyed a lot, I didn’t listen
to many albums repeatedly and I think the main reason for that is there were no
concerts to go to for almost 80% of the year. Gigs not only give me a lot of
exposure to new music but ultimately an extra connection to the band/artist
themselves, if I’ve enjoyed a live set, I’m much more likely to keep going back.
Since these are most of my favourites from the year, I may have used my #1
songs from these artists on mixes throughout the year.
01) Beach Bunny – Ms California: I’m kicking things off with the one 2020 record I could not stop playing, Honeymoon was released in February and I’m aghast that it didn’t register on more end-of-year lists. It’s a fairly short and sweet album with 9 songs in 25 minutes, but if you want pop hooks and huge choruses, then this Chicago band is for you. I want to be clear here, I have barely stopped playing this record since I first heard it.
02) Supercrush – On the Telephone: I used Get It Right on Q#134 which also appears on their debut album, SODO Pop that came out in October; it’s about as classic a power-pop record as you could find in 2020. The whole record is a joy so if you like this tune you’ll dig all the ten tracks.
03) Bloody Your Hands – Weird Winter: I opened Q#133 with Checked Out and this is another anthemic pop-punk tune from their album Sunday Scaries that came out in August. What a great fist-pumping chorus this has.
04) Latitude – Thursday is the New Sunday: I honestly don’t remember how I cam across this quintet from San Francisco, but Mystic Hotline was released in October and this song in particular immediately took my fancy and made me buy the record. Effortlessly breezy. “Thursday’s the new Sunday, Cuz all I wanna do, Is lay around with you, Call me up honey, This dirty old city, It’ll grind us to the bone, And all I seem to wanna do, Is lay around”
05) Pure X – Middle America: If Beach Bunny released my favourite album of the year, the Pure X probably take the runner up spot with their self-titled release back in May, their first record in six years. I even ended up buying it more than once (first I got a promo copy, liked it enough to buy it digitally, then I realised I really wanted it on vinyl). I used Fantasy back on Q#131, and I just love that desert guitar, I’m not sure fuzz has ever sounded so easy going.
06) METZ – The Mirror: Contenders for best live act over the last decade, METZ aren’t the most prolific studio artists, Atlas Vending came out in October and is their fourth studio album. Their last couple of records have tweaked their tried and tested formula just enough to make for albums that are distinct but undeniably them, it’s hard not to love everything they touch. I started running this year and always had a hard time slowing down while listening to this record (managed a 23-minute lap around Prospect Park once which is about 5.5k, which I was happy with but my knees were not).
07) Moor Jewelry – Eugenics: It’s hard to categorise True Opera by Moor Jewelery, which is a collaboration between Moor Mother and Mental Jewelry, but the reference point I tend to give people is if the Beastie Boys did a record where every song was like Sabotage. Obviously that does a disservice to this frankly outstanding record which you should all listen to if you’re in something of a post-hardcore mood. I also used Look Alive on Q#132.
08) Shell of a Shell – Knock: Records that get released at the start of the year tend to get a raw deal on end-of-year lists and that certainly seemed to be the case for Shell of a Shell’s album Away Team (I closed Q#130 with Don’t Expect), listening to this song as I write the notes is maybe the most profound pang of sadness I’ve had of not being able to see concerts in a while.
09) Flower – Annihilation Time: No big deal but cult NYC band Flower released their first album in thirty years, None Is (But Once Was) came out in July and is a bit of a departure from their original sound, most songs have a lovely jangle to them, though this is one of the more aggressive tunes on the album.
10) Nation of Language – Tournament: There’s usually a rush of records I find at the very end of the year through recommendations, and I have to thank Robert for turning me onto this band recently. Indie-darlings Future Islands released a new record this year, and I have to admit despite loving their other work, it didn’t grab me, so this synth-pop record from a Brooklyn band was just what I needed to hear. The record is called Introduction, Presence.
11) Sweeping Promises – Falling Forward: I used the title track of this Boston act’s record, Hunger For a Way Out on Q#133, and you’d be forgiven for thinking the album was released in Northern England in 1979 with that wirey-punk-twang and punchy bass.
12) Deeper – This Heat: Chicago-act Deeper released their second album (Auto Pain) in March and were one of the last bands I got to see live this year (on the 3rd of March, I went to my final concert of 2020 the day after). I used Lake Song on Q#130 and I have to say, this record is another sleeper hit that did not get enough love from critics.
13) DEHD – Nobody: Speaking of Chicago bands, I used Loner on Q#132 and Flower of Devotion is another one of those records I did keep coming back to this year. I think words like sexy and erotic are often overused in music journalism but there is something undeniably raunchy about their last couple of albums, they truly stand out.
14) Nada Surf – Come Get Me: Another band I actually got to see this year (for the 20th and 21st time)! Any year with a Nada Surf album can’t be bad. Never Not Together was released in February and was dedicated to Ric Ocasek (who produced their first album) and there is more than a hint of The Cars throughout the record. I’ve loved this band for 25 years now. “I don't feel grown up, Maybe nobody did, I was always on my guard, Since I was a kid, But I'm so, so ready, Come get me, come get me"
15) The Beths – Jump Rope Gazers: The one album I got obsessed with in 2018 (and still am) was Future Me Hates Me, so it was always going to be a tough act to follow, but Jump Rope Gazers is another triumph, I used I’m Not Getting Excited on Q#132. I deliberated over a few tracks to use but kept coming back to this one.
16) Eyelids – The Minutes: Another early release, The Accidental Falls was released back in February (and I used the title track on Q#130). I ended up using this track mostly for time constraints but it’s still a cracker. The record was produced by Peter Buck.
17) Mint Field – Nadie Te Esta Persiguiendo: Mexico’s Mint Field released their second album, Sentimiento Mundial in September, it’s a little less lush than debut Pasar de las Luces (which was maybe the prettiest sounding album of 2018) but there’s no second album slump here at all.
18) bdrmm – Happy: I hadn’t heard of this band until they ranked pretty highly on Rough Trade’s best of 2020 list (one of the first to come out, I think), but I was instantly drawn to it. This song sounds a lot like The Cure (or more recently, Diiv), and the record as a whole runs the gamut of post-punk, it knows when to be minimal and when to turn the volume up. Regular listeners should remember Is That What You Wanted to Hear? from Q#134.
19) Clearbody – Scratch the Color: A late release of the year, One More Day came out in December and nails that heavy shoegaze sound, I had a hard time picking which track to use for this.
20) Sprain – Slant: I’ve got to thank Pete for turning me on to As Lost Through Collision, he knows I’m a sucker for some good slowcore and it’s a wonder this LA quartet weren’t on my radar sooner. This is probably the most “normal” track on the record and there wasn’t time to fit any of the longer tunes on, I’d love to hear this live.
21) Fake Eyes – Illuminate: I used Demonstrations on Q#132 so I’ll have used half of the band’s EP A Drip Is All We Know, I tend to ignore EPs and singles when it comes to year-end-lists but I liked this one too much. It’s perhaps a little rich of me to use this instead of a track on the Hum record from this year (which I also did like a lot) since it’s clearly a huge influence, but here we are.
22) Jonathan Fitoussi – Total Eclipse: I opened Q#134 with Oceans from this album, Plein Soleil so it seems fitting to end this mix with a song from it. By far my favourite ambient album I heard in 2020, it’s about as classic-sounding as you can get in the genre.
Keep being safe!
As
always, Peace and Love - Q
