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Dan Oberbruner writesCHIRP Radio Best of 2020: Dan O.
Throughout December, CHIRP Radio presents its volunteers’ top albums of 2020. Our next list is from volunteer Dan O.
Hannah by Lomelda (Double Double Whammy)
Hannah Read is an angel. Formulaic, lean, and undeniable homespun songs that just sock you right in the gut. Smartly performed and produced. My favorite album of the year.
Species by Bing & Ruth (4AD)
Organ drones. That's it. Go for a walk. Take a nap. Whatever. Nobody cares. Practically screams, "Stop letting some idiot yell dumb ideas at you all the time. Get off the internet and get on with your life."
Hit to Hit by 2nd Grade (Double Double Whammy)
Please give me more of the GBV ambition/production. Please give me more of the AM radio genre sprawl and melodies. So thankful for this hard working, positive, and wildly cohesive album.
Ultimate Success Today by Protomartyr (Domino)
Bludgeoning, repetitive, and hopeless, Protomartyr's latest strips everything to the bone, forsaking the melody and hooks of their previous albums for relentless philosophizing and drone. It's a grower if you're willing, but as they say, "If I was you, I would not."
Have We Met by Destroyer (Merge)
Bejar has been chipping away at an outline of this damaged lounge-singer-from-the-future-with-a-1980s-aesthetic character on and off for a while now with songs that read like postmodern epistolaries from the fringes of some civilization that's already ended but doesn't realize it. And this is the most cohesive document of that vision yet. It's so deeply weird. There's nothing else remotely like it.
St. Cloud by Waxahatchee (Merge)
My 2020 guilty pleasure. Everything about the songs is just so sugary sweet and the production's slick as ice even with the lo-fi earmarks. Still, it was an unexpected ray of light at the start of the lockdown and continues to impress with repeated listens.
Suite for Max Brown by Jeff Parker (International Anthem/Nonesuch)
Swirling, meditative, and optimistic jazz-inspired post-rock. This album fell in and out of my rotation all year, but every time I listened I found something new to love. A deceptively rich and rewarding collection of songs dedicated to the composer's mother.
RTJ4 by Run the Jewels (BMG)
Undeniable maximalism. Part 4. It's just so much of everything all at once. Like the sonic equivalent of a big-budget superhero movie. There's CGI, there's explosions, the set pieces are insane, the bass rattles you to the core, and the actors stopped having something to prove years ago. They're just here to be the best at what they do.
Snapshot of a Beginner by Nap Eyes (Royal Mountain Records)
Who is our mopey, introspective, philosophical jangle-rock beacon at the start of a new decade? Nap Eyes. That's who. Is Mark Zuckerberg a ghost? How would you feel if you were in prison? Are video game story arcs substantial song material? These Nova Scotians have the answers.
Companion Rises by Six Organs of Admittance (Drag City)
As much as I wish that this album had been produced in a proper studio, there are still so many things I love about it. The best moments sound like being anywhere in California at the crack of dawn, which is that much more endearing when you've been mostly stuck inside a Chicago apartment for months on end.
Next entry: CHIRP Radio Best of 2020: Mike Nikolich
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