Album Previews for 2021 Part 1: Set the Stage

 The first of several previews of music new to 2021, including:

 

Sault – Untitled (Rise) (2020)

XTC – English Settlement (1982)

Jose Aponte – From Here; From There (2020)

Zara McFarlane – Songs of an Unknown Tongue (2020)

Machine Listener- Metonym (2020)

The Brendan Eder Ensemble – To Mix With Time (2020)

Relevant Links:

The Chomsky review mentioned above

An link to 2021 Radio, and ever-expanding list.

My Log Does Not Judge: The Process Behind My Top 20

 A brief look at the process I used to curate my Top 20 of 2020 list.

My Top 20 albums for 2020 are:

1	Kate Davis - Trophy
2	Aiming for Enrike - Music for Working Out
3	Venetian Snares - Rosz Skilalg Altutt Szultett
4	Flaming Lips - American Head
5	Floating Points - Crush
6	MonoNeon - Living the Best Life....
7	Brittany Howard - Jaime
8	Cynic - Focus
9	Moor Mother - Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes
10	George Clanton & Nick Hexum
11	Lunatic Soul - Walking on a Flashlight Beam
12	Avery R. Young - Tubman
13	Kankyo Ongako -Japanese Ambient
14	The Sorcerers - In Search Of....
15	Fountains of Wayne - Welcome Interstate Managers
16	Animals as Leaders - The Joy of Motion
17	Run the Jewels - RTJ4
18	FZ v. 3
19	Man Man - Dream Hunting in the Valley of the In Between
20	We are the City - RIP

And the "Earth-2" alternate Top 20 curated with the assistance of my longtime friend Snoopy looks like:

1	The Koreatown Oddity - Little Dominique's Nosebleed
2	Angel Olson - All Mirrors
3	Hildur Guðnadóttir - The Joker OST
4	Johann Johannson - IBM 1404: A User's Manual
5	The Aristocrats - You Know What....?
6	Afrikan Sciences - Centered
7	Mdou Moctar - Ilana, the Creator
8	Fountains of Wayne - Welcome Interstate Managers
9	Lunatic Soul - Walking on a Flashlight Beam
10	Tears for Fears-Seeds of Love
11	Master Boot Record - Virtuaverse.OST
12	Floating Points - Crush
13	Brutus - Nest
14	DIIV - Deceiver
15	Sault - Untitled (Black Is)
16	Other Lives - For Their Love
17	The Black Monument Ensemble - Where Future Unfolds
18	Everything Everything - Fever Dream
19	Tiger Moth Tales - Storytellers pt. 1 & 2
20	Moor Mother - Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes

Top 20 of 2020 Part 2: #10-1

The Top 10 from my Top 20 of 2020 list.

Relevant Links:

Post on Floating Points Crush

Post on Venetian Snares Rossz Csillag Alatt Született 

Post on Kate Davis’ Trophy

Here's a Spotify playlist with representative tracks from the Top 20 of 2020

Top 20 of 2020 Part 1: #11-20

 The lower half of my annual Top 20 list!

Van Halen's Diamond Days Part 2: Van Halen II

Review and discussion on Van Halen’s 1979 sophomore album, Van Halen II

Relevant links

Previous post in this series on Van Halen I

A freestanding post on 5150 from last year