Rolling Stone made a list of 15 best country music songs about drugs, including drug-odes by Willie Nelson, Kasey Musgraves, Waylon Jennings, John and Prine, and Johnny Cash's 'Cocaine Blues' about a man who kills his wife while high on cocaine and tries to escape from the police.
PopMatters made a good and versatile list of the 10 best global music albums of the year (PM still calls it "world music", which is increasingly becoming a politically un-correct term). The chosen ones are Keleketla project with an album that "goes in a number of different and utterly revolutionary directions", ONIPA with "an entire continent's worth of styles" on 'We No Be Machine', Evritiki Zygia playing mountain folk music from Eastern Europe on 'Ormenion', and others.
Some of the bands picked up by Stereogum for their best of new bands of the year list:
Dogleg - cathartic high-octane emo-punk
Anjimile - like Tracy Chapman attempting Sufjan Stevens songs and ending up with something startlingly unique
Porridge Radio - wistful melodies, raw self-reflections
Backxwash - a refreshingly new texture in the rap landscape
Sault - a tapestry of Black art and Black experience across time and borders
Bartees Strange - nobody sounds like him, and nobody could...
UK music magazine Uncut has released its list of best albums of 2020, with a variety of albums on the expansive list, including Laura Marling, Tamikrest, Fiona Apple, Moses Boyd, Phoebe Bridgers, Jason Isbell, JARV IS..., Haim, etc. The top 20 spots: 20. Bruce Springsteen - 'Letter To You'
19. Brigid Mae Power - 'Head Above The Water'
18. Frazey Ford - 'U kin B the Sun'
17. SAULT - 'UNTITLED (Black Is)'
16. Stephen Malkmus - 'Traditional Techniques'
15. Fontaines D.C. - 'A Hero's Death'
14. Courtney Marie Andrews - 'Old Flowers'
13. Tame Impala - 'The Slow Rush'
12. Moses Boyd - 'Dark Matter'
11. Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit - 'Reunions'
10. Laura Marling - 'Song For Our Daughter'
9. Shirley Collins - 'Heart's Ease''
8. JARV... IS - 'Beyond the Pale'
7. Bill Callahan - 'Gold Record'
6. Waxahatchee - 'Saint Cloud'
5. Thundercat - 'It Is What It Is'
4. Drive-By Truckers - 'The New OK'
3. Phoebe Bridgers - 'Punisher'
2. Fleet Foxes - 'Shore'
1. Bob Dylan - 'Rough and Rowdy Ways'
Brooklyn Vegan is recommending 45 music documentaries, including films on the history of hip hop, the '90s ska scene, Nina Simone, Frank Sinatra, legendary punk/alternative superfans Dennis & Lois, Anti-Flag, the UK's Rock Against Racism movement of the late-'70s, and more.
Metal magazine Decibel has published its list of the 40 best albums of 2020. It goes from Dark Fortress on No 40 to Napalm Death at the top. The ful list:
40. Dark Fortress, 'Spectres from the Old World'
39. Fawn Limbs, 'Sleeper Vessels'
38. Exgenesis, 'Solve et Coagula'
37. Megaton Sword, 'Blood Hails Steel – Steel Hails Fire'
36. Oranssi Pazuzu, 'Mestarin Kynsi'
35. Svalbard, 'When I Die, Will I Get Better'
34. Enslaved, 'Utgard'
33. In the Company of Serpents, 'Lux'
32. Xibalba, 'Años En Infierno'
31. Wake, 'Devouring Ruin'
30. Cirith Ungol, 'Forever Black'
29. Proscription, 'Conduit'
28. Celestial Season, 'The Secret Teachings'
27. Midnight, 'Rebirth by Blasphemy'
26. Krallice, 'Mass Cathexis'
25. ACxDC, 'Satan is King'
24. Temple of Void, 'The World That Was'
23. Atramentus, 'Stygian'
22. Tombs, 'Under Sullen Skies'
21. Haunt, 'Flashback'
20. Kirk Windstein, 'Dream in Motion'
19. Pallbearer, 'Forgotten Days'
18. Lamp of Murmuur, 'Heir of Ecliptical Romanticism'
17. Godthrymm, 'Reflections'
16. Dropdead, 'Dropdead'
15. Ripped to Shreds '亂 (Luan)'
14. Vile Creature, 'Glory, Glory! Apathy Took Helm!'
13. Of Feather & Bone, 'Sulfuric Disintegration'
12. Armored Saint, 'Punching the Sky'
11. Incantation, 'Sect of Vile Divinities'
10. Goden, 'Beyond Darkness'
9. Paradise Lost, 'Obsidian'
8. Uada, 'Djinn'
7. Sweven, 'The Eternal Resonance'
6. Necrot, 'Mortal'
5. Spirit Adrift, 'Enlightened in Eternity'
4. Paysage d’Hiver, 'Im Wald'
3. Imperial Triumphant, 'Alphaville'
2. Eternal Champion, 'Ravening Iron'
1. Napalm Death, 'Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism'
A wee bit early in the year, Rough Trade has announced their 2020 Albums of the Year list, with Hazel English on spot No. 20, and Sault at the top. This year's best album is 'Untitled (Black Is)' because it "delivers equal parts grace and charge, manoeuvring through disparate sub-genres to create a magnificent medley of exaltation. Rarely has there been an artistic statement this stirring, this staggering, this powerful".
Full list:
20. Hazel English - 'Wake Up!'
19. Working Men’s Club - 'Working Men’s Club'
18. Oklou - 'Glamour'
17. Thurston Moore - 'By The Fire'
16. Tom Misch + Yussef Dayes - 'What Kinda Music'
15. Caribou - 'Suddenly'
14. Idles - 'Ultra Mono'
13. Osees - 'Protean Threat'
12. Waxahatchee - 'Saint Cloud'
11. Cornershop - 'England Is A Garden'
10. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - 'Sideways to New Italy'
9. Porridge Radio - 'Every Bad'
8. bdrmm - 'Bedroom'
7. Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - 'Viscerals'
6. Dream Wife - 'So When You Gonna'
5. Jarv Is - 'Beyond The Pale'
4. Laura Marling - 'Song For Our Daughter'
3. Rina Sawayama - 'Sawayama'
2. Phoebe Bridgers - 'Punisher'
1. SAULT - 'Untitled (Black Is)'
DJ Mag presents six African MCs representing a new, experimental wave in African hip-hop:
O'Kenneth - Ghanian rapper fusing the grit of UK drill and the grandiosity of its Brooklyn counterpart with local influences
Natty - sub-zero chilly Nairobi drill
Moonchild Sanelly - "Future Ghetto Funk"
Sho Madjozi - Pan-African rap
MC Yallah - dark, industrial dance
Prettyboy D-O - at a hectic crossroads between contemporary Afrobeats, dancehall, hip-hop and R&B
"Japan has produced some of the world’s greatest musical acts and it’s high time their accomplishments were recognized" - Japan Times' Jonathan McNamara writes in an article reacting to Rolling Stone’s 'The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time' list. He lists the 10 best Japanese ones:
Yellow Magic Orchestra 'Solid State Survivor' (1979)
Shonen Knife 'Brand New Knife' (1997)
The Pillows 'Little Busters' (1998)
X Japan 'The Last Live' (2001)
Polysics 'For Young Electric Pop' (2002)
Asian Kung-Fu Generation 'Sol-Fa' (2004)
Listeners to BBC Radio 2's Sounds of the 80s have chosen U2's 'The Joshua Tree' as the best album of the 1980s. Released in 1987, it made U2 one of the world's biggest bands, thanks to anthems like 'With Or Without You' and 'Where The Streets Have No Name', BBC reflects. Dire Straits' 'Brothers In Arms' came second in BBC's survey, followed by The Stone Roses' eponymous debut, Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' on fourth and Guns N' Roses' 'Appetite for Destruction' on the fifth spot.
