HA! I fell asleep for a while. I still feel like slacking off...
This is my Best Of The Year list for the crapload that was 2020. It's nowhere near complete and never will be, nor is this in any order of importance! Few descriptions, just the list and some links. 2020 was a year where music just kept coming out. People were super bored and frustrated.
I, myself, was one of those people...
Best Of 2020 list:
(Well... all it took was two-and-a-half songs to seal the deal on
this one. Easily going to be a contender for the Best Of The Year List.
Not one single bit of nonsense going here. This WILL rock you. Little
chunks of Soundgarden, Kyuss, some peppered-in Foo-ness. HIGHLY
blast-worthy stoner rock, spicy little melodic interludes, caustic
axe-wielding, incendiary vocals, a dibble dabble of tasty keys, yes,
brothers and sisters, this WILL surely rock you all.
) (
If you liked the first EP as much as I did, then this one will
blow your mind. Dark alt-psych with a touch of something that smells
like the '80s. New singer = new sound = best stuff yet.)
(Everything Cloudkicker is an insta-buy. Ben's back in full
force. This is easily some of the best Cloudkicker stuff yet. Busy and
heavy, just the way we've come to expect it. This album will plow you
into the soil and offer no apologies.)
(Insta-buy. Anything Botanist releases goes right into my record
collection. I doubt I have as much of a connection with a band's concept
as I do with Botanist. Avant garde black metal-ish with a totally
unique sound, and lyrical content I can get behind. Dark elemental
metal, showing signs of growth. This sprout is becoming a massive tree.)
(Almost embarrassingly good. Laughably good? Southern-tinged rock, light
years better than their previous album, and that's saying a lot. Heavier
on the instrumentals this time around, jazzier, yacht-rockier,
groovier, smoother, tighter, & more vivid. THIS album is a modern
classic of mixed soundscapes and brilliant soulful rock with Southern
feelies, made just for you. And me.)
(Gave this a good run-through a number of times. It gets better
with each listen. Djent-y stoner doom with some true grunge influences.
Rare with the aggressive vocals, the Staley-esque delivery makes itself
the most apparent in this mish-mash of brilliance. I have a strange
feeling these guys will make a few fans. Up and running for the Best Of
The Year list.
You'd best grab onto something before you hit play.)
(Everything I had hoped for. The last album made it into my All
Time Best list. This album comes back full force with some of the
niftiest power pop you're likely to hear. Everything these guys touch
turns into pure, unadulterated gems. If you miss this album, you're just
weird.)
(Holy ballsnuts! A nice little slap in the face for me. I LOVE THIS!
Tunes that rarely dare to break the 3-minute mark, hitting you square in
the jaw with slaughtering bass tone, thrashy alt-stoner riffage,
sneering punk/noise rock attitude, and a genre-defying sound. I checked
this out with the Mohs Hardness Scale, and nothing could scratch this
rock.)
(Smoothed out Yacht-y Sunday Jazz Vapor-Rock. A sensitive, juicy
little EP, dangling in the cool Summer air, ripe & just waiting to
be plucked. Really worth a listen if you want to hear some fine
songwriting and a few oddball twists and turns to keep you silky until
the end.)
(Quite easily the
MOST destroyed LP I own. Arrived in such bad shape, I've never really gotten over it. I get LPs from all over the world, they show up pristine... this one comes from one state away, and it's total
garbage, remnants of a tattered and beaten cover spreading cardboard dust and shavings everywhere...
great album, though.)
- Andy
