I had vague thoughts about creating this topic, but I knew I'd have to get around to looking through the music I listened to. I'd better get to it then.
2020 was a pretty underwhelming year for me musically, at least for new music. Maybe I just didn't listen to enough albums The stand-out though was 'Songs for Pierre Chuvin' by The Mountain Goats, which is an acoustic folk album about the end of paganism in ancient Europe. It was recorded on singer John Darnielle's old boombox that he used for his albums in the 90s (back when they weren't a band but just a single man).
Another highlight is 'Spirit World Field Guide' by Aesop Rock, which is my favourite album from him since 2007's None Shall Pass. It's a rap album inspired by his trips to places such as Peru, Cambodia and Thailand.
Falconer's 'From a Dying Ember' was a solid addition too. Apparently it's the power metal band's final album and it's my favourite of theirs in a long while. It's a bit of a relief that the final album wasn't disappointing.
Монеточка‘s 'Декоративно-прикладное искусство' (or Monetochka's Dekorativno-prikladnoe iskusstvo') makes huge changes from her previous album. It's lost the particular charm of that album but it's much more diverse. It's much less electronic too. (Also, Монеточка is who's in my avatar.)
I also listened to the EP 'Telemark' by Ihsahn, 'folklore' by Taylor Swift, and 'Flowers of Evil' by Ulver. The Ihsahn EP was solid, the Taylor Swift album has a few excellent songs by my reckoning but overall is too dull to be on the level of the previous albums. I haven't got around to the other Taylor Swift album yet. The Ulver album is pretty good but not quite on the level of 'The Assassination of Julius Caesar', I think.
My favourite song from each 2020 album:
The Mountain Goats - Until Olympius Returns (a video recording of the album take that's at a higher quality than the album version, amusingly)
Falconer - Thrust the Dagger Deep
Taylor Swift - invisible string (or 'august'? Hard choice...)
But the best thing I listened to all year? Kero Kero Bonito. Forget the rest. Trampoline, Time Today, Lipslap.
By Miu Watanabe.
Run the Jewels 4 was predictably my favourite album last year.
The Jay Electronica albums were a pleasant surprise.
The New Gorillaz album has made a graet first impression, but I need to listen to it more.
I really got into JPEG Mafia and Tierra Whack.
Lupe Fiasco's shoe-themed EP was great, as were Sadistik's multiple EPs.
But the best thing about the year were all the online concerts due to coronavirus.
The BTS and RTJ4 concerts were the highlights, but Sadistik's concert was dope too, the MSO concerts were great depending on the material they were performing, some local concerts organised by a fruit and vegetable shop were good, too, as was Chance the Rapper's Christmas concert lol.
Foolz said:some local concerts organised by a fruit and vegetable shop were good, too
As one would expect.
By Miu Watanabe.
Foolz said:But the best thing about the year were all the online concerts due to coronavirus.
I agree I saw a few concerts online.
Metallica had a drive in concert. Because my nephew is a big fan of Metallica my sister bought tickets, where you go to a drive-in-theater and watch the concert. I got to go because she said she paid over a hundred dollars for the ticket and she said she wanted to get as many people that could fit in the car to go. Since the ticket wasn't per person but per car.
SUPER MARIO MAKER LEVELS:
- SMB Mix-Up! (1AB2-0000-0047-5A7D)
- Storm the Castle (77BD-0000-00E0-A9C0)
Nintyfan17 said:
I agree I saw a few concerts online.
Metallica had a drive in concert. Because my nephew is a big fan of Metallica my sister bought tickets, where you go to a drive-in-theater and watch the concert. I got to go because she said she paid over a hundred dollars for the ticket and she said she wanted to get as many people that could fit in the car to go. Since the ticket wasn't per person but per car.
Drive-in concert, very cool idea! Nice.
2020 was a pretty good year in terms of music for me. Probably since bands weren't able to go on tour they decided to record new music.
Starting in January when Apocalytica and Sabaton released a re-recordong of Sabaton's song "Angel's Calling" and Amaranthe covered Sabaton's "82nd All the Way".
Then in the end of January, LOVEBITES released my album of the year, 'Electric Pentagram' but outside of Japan we had to wait until April.
In April Alestorm released the first video from their album, 'Curse of the Crystal Coconut'. They would release three more videos until the album released at the end of May.
In June Eskimo Callboy released the video for their song, "Hypa Hypa" in July they released the video for "Hate/Love" on September 11, 2020 they released their EP 'MMXX'.
In July Unleash the Archers released the continuation of the 2017 album, 'Apex' with 'Abyss'.
In December both Majestica and Jinjer released albums. Majestica released a Christmas album, 'A Christmas Carol' and Jinjer released their live album, 'Alive in Melbourne'.
Some songs that I loved listening to in 2020 were:
Holy War (Live at Zepp Diver City in Tokyo) by Lovebites
Zombies Ate My Pirate Ship from Alestorm
Kalte Winde by Patty Gurdy's Circle
Hypa Hypa by Eskimo Callboy
Dreh Auf by We Butter the Bread with Butter
Domination (Live at Line Cube Shibuya) by Band-Maid
Unending Sorceress by Unlucky Morpheus
I will edit to add links later.
SUPER MARIO MAKER LEVELS: