As last year all I can say is that I look at the 50 Best in magazines and have heard five or six of them at most. This is my choice for 2020 and it’s been weird. no concerts to buy CDs at (I often buy the support act’s CD), very little time in record stores, seeing or hearing stuff. Plus lockdown has done something to concentration. i’ve found it hard to simply listen through things, in spite of enforced time at home. Also in getting the Around & Around site launched much of my listening time has been related to articles there … so old stuff.
So, a shorter selection.
BEST ALBUMS
1 England Is A Garden: Cornershop
A runaway winner, and a very late entry, but it’s been played daily since I got it. All but one song written and produced by Tjinder Singh. It has topped several lists this year. The range of styles is what knocked me out. I had heard Highly Amplified on a magazine covermount disc, it references 60s psych with flute and sitar, and I couldn’t stop playing it, and ordered the album. Then There’s No Rock Save in Roll, which swaggers like a 70s metal band or The Stones or The Faces. I’m A Wooden Soldier conjures up T. Rex. . The one that plays most in my head is Everywhere The Wog Army Roam. This guy has absorbed just so many influences, and things happen all the time… sitar, violins, flute, clarinet, cheesy organ. St Marie Under Canon opens with 60s organ and pounding drums, incredible and makes me think of Ray Davies. This is appropriate … the themes are very much England under the approaching dark shadow of Brexit. A counterpoint to The Village Green Preservation Society in its scope? There is no greater praise for me.
Trust me. You need this album. I think in 2021 I’ll be exploring Cornershop’s back catalogue.
2 Norman Fucking Rockwell – Lana del Rey
YES. I know it was released in Autumn 2019. But I didn’t get it until a friend pointed it out as the screamingly obvious missing album from my Best of 2019 List. That was in January. I played it so much early in 2020 that it has to go in. I also started examining her back catalogue. If you like Rickie Lee Jones, you’ll love this. The Greatest is probably “earworm of 2020” for me.
Sample: The Greatest, Norman Fucking Rockwell.
3 Nashville Tears – Rumer
I’ve got everything Rumer ever did. Now she’s done The Nashville Album. The melody of Oklahoma Stray is James Taylor meets Carole King. Then Deep Summer In The Deep South is like having J.J. Cale’s band backing Bobbie Gentry. Also try Ghost In The House. Rumer does Atmosphere with a capital A. All the songs were written by Hugh Prestwood.
4 Heart’s Ease – Shirley Collins
Like Judy Collins and Joan Baez, age has mellowed her voice and taken that piercing soprano edge off, which to me is beneficial. Like Judy Collins, Glen Campbell, Neil Diamond she has entered the Leonard Cohen area of producing a great album by an elderly person. Yes, there are slightly shaky bits, but it all adds to the interpretation of these “Traditional. Arranged by …” folk songs. The Lodestar Band provide subtle and supportive accompaniment. There’s gorgeous guitar work, and it stands along with another favourite this year, Folk Roots, New Routes, reissued for Record Store Day(s.) That 1965 folk classic album has her with just Davy Graham accompanying. These guys can keep up with that company. Try Sweet Greens and Blues and Canadee-i-o.
5 Song For Our Daughter – Laura Marling
British women with a folky side are doing well this year, maybe because they can actually play in their living rooms without a band and still get across. Laura Marling did a concert to an empty Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms this year, socially distanced from a string orchestra. It may still be online. Anyway, this is her latest album, written as an address to an imaginary child.
The Guardian:
One of the album’s musical touchstones was apparently Paul McCartney’s 70s albums, and whatever else you think about post-Beatles Macca, you’d have a hard time arguing he was stingy with the tunes. And so it is here. The piano-led Blow By Blow, the gentle strum of For You, and the feedback-flecked Held Down are all lavished with gorgeous, effortless-seeming melodies.
Sample Alexandra, Held Down and Only The Strong Survive.
6 That’s How Rumors Get Started – Margo Price
Apparently Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors was her inspiration for both music and title. I don’t like every track, such as Twinkle Twinkle which is the raucous overloud bar room rock she was playing when I saw her live. It’s best when she tries to channel the Mac, as in Stone Me. I do notice the bass guitar is nice, but just fails to hit that magic bouncability of John McVie on Rumors. Letting Me Down sounds pure Lindsey Buckingham. Heartless Mind has great early 60s organ over a Fleetwood-McVie style rhythm section. Gone To Stay she goes for Stevie Nicks. All good models. I’m just a tad disappointed that it lacks the lyrical bite of her debut.
Sample: Prisoner of The Highway and the title track.
7 Just Dropped In (To see what condition my rendition was in) – Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings
A beacon of soul in such a folky year. Not sure whether it was that third Record Store Day or Black Friday vinyl release. The main release is February 2021 and that will bring a CD. It’s a posthumous compilation of covers, some of which she did for tribute albums. Downside: the download code inside the vinyl sleeve does not work. Maybe it will once the CD is released. The thing is, I’m not sure that the covers beat the originals so much as reveal Sharon Jones doing them. So it’s a bit like Pinups by David Bowie or Moondog Matinee by The Band. Some are a bit too faithful … Rescue Me for example sent me to the Fontella Bass and the original wins.
Try: Signed Sealed Delivered I’m Yours.
8 Wrackline – Fay Hield
British female folk again. I’ve really missed live folk this year. It’s actually quite a small scene, and it’s good to see the usual suspects … Sam Sweeney, Rob Harbron, Ben Nicholls and Ewan Macpherson accompanying her. Not sure about the banjo on the sleeve as banjo plus folk signals Pete Seeger to me, and my dislike of Pete Seeger is legendary. But you notice guitar and fiddle more! None of it sounds remotely like Pete Seeger. Thematically it’s all faeries and underworld. All good stuff, and this is authentic folk song too. Beautifully packaged too.
Sample: Cruel Mother, Night Journey
9 American Head – The Flaming Lips
Highly acclaimed psych album. A pastiche psych album when it comes to Mother I’ve Taken LSD, At The Movies on Quaaludes and You ‘n’ Me Sellin’ Weed. It reminds me of XTC and the Dukes of Stratosphear. It’s hard to know how far this strays into We’re Only In It For The Money by The Mothers of Invention territory in taking the piss out of psych. This sounds more serious, but maybe it’s just more subtle. Reminds me in ways of Sufjan Stevens or Magnetic Fields too. On the other hand I’ve seen them live and they weren’t subtle. Incredible light show. Lush stuff.
Sample: Flowers of Neptune 6
10 Rough and Rowdy Ways – Bob Dylan
I know at least three regular readers who won’t speak to me again if I omit it. OK, it’s the best Dylan album in many many years. I agree. I’ve never missed one either. BUT the “Best Dylan album in two decades” isn’t the same as ‘a fantastic album’ or even a ‘good album’. Horrible packaging that ends up tearing the CD case. It was a toss up between this and Homegrown by Neil Young. In most ways Homegrown is a better album, but then most of it was recorded over forty years ago so it’s not a fair playing field. I greatly admire the band, but then I admired them on the dire Sinatra album. Its strongest point is that the lyrics are interesting again (at last). The feel is consistent which I like in an album. It’s also hard to tell the difference between tracks if you focus on the backing. I actively dislike Crossing The Rubicon. Then Black Rider and Mother of Muses pull him to the very edge of his range (beyond his range?) like those standards did. In the end, I found I’d play it, then take it off and get Blonde on Blonde, Highway 61 Revisited, Desire or Street Legal as a respite
Sample: My Own Version of You (the lyrics are very Street Legal), Murder Most Foul … “The Beatles are comin’ they’re gonna hold your hand” indeed.
CLASSICAL
Respighi: Roman Trilogy – John Wilson, Sinfonia of London
Chandos SACD. On dark and cold lockdown afternoons, I decided to take a twenty minute classical break with my eyes closed and the music LOUD and I chose either The Pines of Rome or The Fountains of Rome. I have multiple versions, three on SACD alone … and I play them on SACD. This one is a 2020 release. I might just prefer the 2010 release by the Sao Paulo Orchestra on the BIS label … BUT this is this year.
THE OTHER LIST – Yes, I got them. No, they didn’t make the Top Ten, but they are worthy of attention:
Trip– Lambchop
Homegrown– Neil Young
Good Luck Seeker – The Waterboys
Invitation – Ward Thomas
American Standard – James Taylor
McCartney III – Paul McCartney
Letter To You – Bruce Springsteen
BEST ARCHIVE RELEASES
1 Gimmee Some Truth – John Lennon box set
Forty years ago. The booklet has something on each song, often from interviews or contemporary sources. The sound astonishes because John always liked to bury his voice in the mix, and they remastered and brought it forward. I’ve stuck to the surround sound blu-ray.
2 The Delta Sweete – Bobbie Gentry 2 CD set
I did the Bobbie Gentry Toppermost article. This is a strongly remastered version of Delta Sweete a too often ignored album. It genuinely throws new light through old windows as those early CD ads used to say. You get the remixed version from the multi track together with a mono version of the original and a few bonus tracks. It’s interest is heightened by the release of Mercury Rev’s The Delta Sweete Revisited last year..
3 Archives – Joni Mitchell box set
Beautifully packaged.
Tonight we have for your entertainment Joni Anderson. Joni’s been appearing here for the last two weeks and will be for the next three weeks, starting next Monday … we have her under contract. We hope she won’t, er … we know she will stay here.
21 October 1964, The Half Beet.
The first disc especially sees her going through the same repertoire of my local folk club the same year … Copper Kettle, Deportees, John Hardy, Pastures of Plenty, House of The Rising Sun, Nancy Whisky. I have to note that Scotland and its Canadian offspring spell it WHISKY, not WHISKEY as on the sleeve (Ireland and USA).
4 Lola versus The Moneygoround: Part 1 box set – The Kinks
The third Kinks mega box set. they’re getting good at these.
5 A Night To Remember- Johnny Cash 2 LP + DVD set
Part of the Third Man Records “club” reissues. It’s worth being a member. Most of your price is membership for that issue, which stops us UK residents getting hammered for import duty.
6 Folk Roots, New Routes – Shirley Collins & Davy Graham Record store Day LP
The image is inaccurate. The LP is a facsimile of the 1965 release including a DECCA logo top right. Try Pretty Saro where Davy Graham is trying to make his acoustic guitar sound like a sitar. Extraordinary playing.
BEST TV CONCERT
Anoushka Shankar
Royal Albert Hall
BBC Proms, and guess what? It’s available on BBC iPlayer for seven months from September 2020.
Gold Panda is an electronics wizard. Elsewhere she plays with Jules Buckley and The Britten Sinfonia, and with Manu Delago. Transcendent. One of my greatest musical experiences was seeing Ravi Shankar and Anoushka Shankar playing in Salisbury Cathedral as the sun slowly set through the stained glass windows.
BEST TRACKS
1 Everywhere That Wog Army Roam – Cornershop
See above.
2 The Greatest- Lana del Rey
See above
3 River – Judy Collins & Jonas Fjeld, from Winter Stories
Judy Collins was one of my only two concerts this year. This was released at the end of 2019 and has been going all this year. OK, Joni Mitchell’s original was brilliant but so is this and just slightly different.
4 The Soul Singer – The Waterboys
Great song directed at Van Morrison with a strong touch of Dexys Midnight Runners. The story is based on the old line. There are two kinds of reactions to Van Morrison. First those who like him. Second those who’ve met him. The album dropped out because a spoken side ceases to entertain quite quickly.
5 Song For Sam Cooke (Here in America) – Dion with Paul Simon
From Blues With Friends. Some tracks are wonderful but this is easily the best. I also like I Got Nothin;’ with Van Morrison though it is entirely predictable. I actually don’t like Hymn to Him which he does with Bruce Springsteen, probably because the lyrics are nearly as banal as Bob Dylan’s Saved. This sort of thing was best written in the 18th century by Charles Wesley.
6 Find My Way – Paul McCartney
The first single from McCartney III. This most impressive album arrived too late to get in though that was because I couldn’t stop playing Cornershop long enough.
7 Bees – The Unthanks
From Diversions Vol. 5 Live and Unaccompanied. A nice surprise when the album turned up. We saw the “unaccompanied” concert last year and you could write your address, leave a tenner, and they promised to send a CD of songs recorded from the tour when it was finished. Months later it landed on the doormat.
8 White Line – Neil Young with Robbie Robertson
From Homegrown. Just the two of them, recorded in a studio on the morning of the 1974 Wembley Concert with CSNY, Joni Mitchell and The Band.
9 Born to Be Free – Van Morrison
Download single, and it got a lot of stick because of its curmudgeonly anti-lockdown message, and yes the lyrics are the words of a dickhead refusing to wear a mask and coughing over one and all. Total bollocks. But the sound and backing are such classic Van …
10 Living In A Ghost Town – The Rolling Stones
Another download that got heavily slagged off. Me? It sounded like The Stones. It was about lockdown. Thank you, Mick & Keef.
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