1. Ana Roxanne - Because of a Flower (Kranky)

An absolute wonder of a record that goes in so many different directions across its ~40 min runtime yet remains tonally coherent and completely enthralling. "Suite pour l'invisible" and "Camille" were instantly two of my favourite singles of this year and the rest of the record more than lives up to them by fleshing out the imaginative world that exists between them.

2. Cindy Lee - What's Tonight to Eternity (W.25TH/Superior Viaduct) / Cat O'Nine Tails (CCQSK Records (self-released))

Pat Flegel is the most talented working musician in the country and this project needs far greater recognition. The amazing thing is Pat works at such a quick clip that I'm already psyched for their next release (Diamond Jubilee tentatively coming February 2021!). (NB: Cat O'Nine Tails is only available for purchase through Pat's incredible GeoCities website!)

3. Speaker Music - Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry (Planet Mu)

This was flash released in June amidst the pain and righteous outrage of this summer. A harrowing but necessary listen. DeForrest Brown, Jr. also has a book coming out in May 2021 (Assembling a Black Counter Culture from Primary Information) that I'm anticipating a lot.

4. A. G. Cook - 7G (PC Music)

This record has a total of four reviews across albumoftheyear.org/Wikipedia and it isn't even listed on Metacritic! I honestly don't think people have even come close to reckoning with how insanely ambitious this release was, not to mention that Cook followed it all up by announcing his eighth record(!) of the year (Apple) that came out a little over a month after this set. Just an obscene flex! Disc two ("A. G. Guitar") is worth the price of admission alone, though every disc has at least two or three ridiculously enjoyable moments. It's funny to think back on the years when this dude had like a handful of singles to his name on Soundcloud and all of this material must have just been building up across like two-hundred different hard drives lol.

5. Oneohtrix Point Never - Magic Oneohtrix Point Never (Warp)

A finely crafted, deeply, DEEPLY sad - especially its final third - quarantine-birthed album. Retrospective in ways that I wasn't expecting Dan to go in. Feels more handmade and small-scale than the conceptual overload and collaborative play of Age Of. Some moments feel like Replica, some feel like Chuck Person, some feel like they could've only been arrived at by Dan having traced the unique path that he has over the past decade in electronic music.

6. Andy Shauf - The Neon Skyline (Arts & Crafts/ANTI) / Christian Lee Hutson - Beginners (ANTI)

I'm cheating a bit and doubling up with these two, but I've listened to and thought about them together a tonne this year. Both released on ANTI, both incredibly economical at ~35 mins. An Elliott Smith influence to both that manifests in different ways. Long live The Songwriter's Songwriter! Also, maybe The Songwriter's Songwriter is the only songwriter we should permit anymore, just sayin'...

7. The Phantasy - Ibiza / Ibiza Pt. II (The Phantasy (self-released))

Prince of Denmark/DJ Metatron/Traumprinz/Dr. Sun/Golden Baby/Prime Minister of Doom/DJ Healer returns under (yet another?) new moniker with two platters of absolutely gorgeous chunes. It sucks majorly that he couldn't put the edit of "My Weekend" with The Weeknd's actual vocals on the official Ibiza Pt. II LP, so make sure you grab a version of it with those because it slays! (NB: These records were technically only available from Traumprinz's All Possible Worlds site, but rips of each record are on YouTube).

🎶 This is the way we dance, dance, dance ... This is the way we feel inside, inside, inside ... This is the way we groove, we groove, we feel our soul ... Only you can feel where I'm coming from, from, from ... This is the way we are, we are, we feel our music ... This is the way we love to get down, get down, get down, get down ... It doesn't matter who you are, who you be, what you do, who are you ... You dance, you dance, you dance, you dance ... Dance, dance, dance, dance ... It's all I want to be ... Dance, dance, dance, dance ... Dance ... Dance ... Just dance ... Just dance ... Just dance ... Just dance ... Dance ... Just dance 🎶

8. Sarah Davachi - Cantus, Descant (Late Music) / Ulla - Tumbling Towards a Wall (Experiences Ltd)

I'm cheating again by doubling these up, but I do often play them together, so that is my brittle justification for doing so!

Sarah Davachi: Another unbelievable release to get lost in from Davachi in what is now a long string of them. I really enjoy her forays into singing on this record ("Play the Ghost," "Canyon Walls") and the way that she treats her voice on those tracks in particular. Also the way that "The Pelican" turns from major to minor breaks my heart every single time.

Ulla: This record came out on 16 January 2020, which now feels like half of a lifetime ago. I have returned to it often throughout the year, though, while reading, writing, cooking, walking around the city, etc. In retrospect, this album feels like a prescient gift that somehow knew what I didn't foresee - which was that 2020's remaining months were going to be unimaginably challenging and painful in ways both personal and global - and anticipated that by offering a sonic cocoon to retreat into whenever needed.

9. The 1975 - Notes on a Conditional Form (Dirty Hit/Polydor)

Sprawling, unwieldy, genre-agnostic, pretentious, confessional, nostalgic, maddening, sexy, funny. The most vital working "band" that confusingly rarely, if ever, wants to be one. While spinning NoaCF, I've often wished that I could inhabit the consciousness of a 15-year-old listener tracing all the wildly divergent genre lineages that come together in this beautiful mess of an album for the first time. Also, it's 80:29 in length as a throwback to Peak CD, which, knowing Matty, has to be intentional lol. (NB: Not available on Bandcamp, so here's the YouTube playlist for it). 

10. SALEM - Fires in Heaven (SALEM (self-released))

🎶 It's not much of a life you’re living 🎶

Free Johnboy <3.

2020 Music Year End Favs Addendum (Honourable Mention) here!