Tuesday, January 19, 2021

Best Of 2020...

 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

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