10. Tkay Maidza – Last Year Was Weird Vol. 2
Now we’re in the big leagues, the top ten. And what better way to start than with one of the best EPs I’ve heard in years, where every track is absolutely essential? Australia’s Tkay Maidza delivers on her sequel to 2018’s Last Year Was Weird, Vol. 1, a project that was spottier in places but no less enjoyable. On Vol. 2, though, there’s an incredibly obvious level of development in both her sound and confidence, with eight tracks of pure fire spanning across at least half a dozen different genres and subgenres of pop music. Each song is produced to such a high level that it’d be nearly impossible to find a single flaw in the record’s sound, with lush instrumentation — both live and sampled, extremely dynamic tonal range, and a variety of masterfully executed sounds throughout.
From the opening track ‘My Flowers’ Tkay sets the stage with beautiful and soulful singing over fluttery guitars, before opening into an incredibly smooth and calming rap verse that persists between engaging hooks for an airtight three and a half minutes, before switching to the deep house banger ‘24k,’ with bassy production and buttery vocal flow that makes for an incredibly easy listening experience. From here we move into one of the best three-song runs I’ve heard this year, starting with ‘Shook.’ Tkay’s rapping takes center stage here with entrancing flow over a bassy beat that pulls out often to emphasize some of the funniest and most poignant bars on the project. From here we transition smoothly into what I consider to be the best track on the record, the massive industrial hip hop banger ‘Awake’ with JPEGMAFIA. With a swooping and distorted beat and cheeky bars from Tkay, not to mention a stellar Peggy feature, the three minutes almost feels like too little, and by the time it’s over I’m almost completely wiped out. This is when ‘Grasshopper’s devastatingly sour and harsh horns come in over a noisy beat for yet another untouchable banger, where Tkay once again shows her massive talent for clever lyrics, crushing flow, and the confidence to grab even the biggest skeptic’s attention.
The remaining tracks range from the incredibly funny and sarcastic ‘You Sad’ to the almost mournful soul on ‘Don’t Call Again,’ and every second of each track is likable from front to back. Were this fleshed out to a full album’s length I have little doubt that it’d be one of the best of the year, but either way it stands as easily my favorite EP in years, and a fun time you’d be remiss to ignore.
Favorite Tracks: Awake | Shook | Grasshopper
9. Rina Sawayama – SAWAYAMA
Combining nostalgic 2000s aesthetics and songwriting with futuristic and intricate production from Clarence Clarity, Rina Sawayama’s debut album echoes her previous EP in both its musical stylings and sheer quality. Taking the best elements of power pop idols like Britney Spears and mixing them with things like chiptune, arena rock, and even Nu Metal a la Evanescence, the duo manage to pull off an incredibly diverse and meaty batch of creative pop tunes that flows seamlessly from front to back. Nearly every track here is an electropop hit, and even the ones that aren’t still serve a vital purpose in the narrative and progression of the project.
Tracks like the opening ‘Dynasty,’ the live-sounding ‘Who’s Gonna Save U Now?’ and the closing ‘Snakeskin’ are fantastic examples of the sheer epic heights that this project’s songwriting and production can reach, with monumental instrumentation backing Rina’s powerful vocal performances. ‘XS’ and ‘STFU!’ are another example of a modern pop act reappropriating the tired jumpthafuckup radio metal of the late 90s and early 00s for a more appealing and diverse set of sounds. While not as in-your-face as others, tracks like the somber and introspective ‘Bad Friend’ and ‘Chosen Family’ are both fantastic tracks in their own right, as well as essential moments of calm that help this record flow as seamlessly as it does. Rina’s vocal delivery takes center stage on the record, with a personality and passion wholly unique to her. It all comes off incredibly genuine while still being some of the most fun pop music to come out this year, and considering how early in her career she is I can’t wait to see where she’ll go as she continues to develop her sound and musicianship.
Favorite Tracks: Akasaka Sad | XS | Snakeskin
8. Ichoko Aoba – Windswept Adan
There’s something about the ocean that I can’t help but gravitate towards when it comes to art, something so serene and beautiful and almost completely untouched by humans, despite living alongside us for millions of years. On Windswept Adan, Japanese singer/songwriter Ichiko Aoba manages to almost flawlessly replicate exactly what makes the ocean such a powerful force in art, with a spacious and lush sound that is simultaneously vast and epic while also being heartbreakingly intimate.
Taking something of a departure from the more stripped-back sound of her previous projects, Aoba supplements her regular combination of intricate acoustic guitar and soft vocals with a far more nuanced and wide sound that incorporates orchestral strings, woodwinds, pianos, and ambient soundscapes to build an emotionally gratifying moment-to-moment experience. The album manages to effortlessly avoid stagnation by both simplifying the individual instruments’ parts and adding more instrumentals that will enter and then fall out of the sound as necessary, making the 50-minute runtime feel like a breeze, putting you into a practically trance-like state and washing over you like the waves that close the record. Windswept Adan, whilst remaining a cold and oceanic piece of chamber folk, also managed to act as a moment of solace. Like a warm hug at the end of a long day, the record came as a final comfort in a year so desperately lacking in such moments, quickly becoming one of the most important records of the year for me.
Favorite Tracks: Pilgrimage | Parfum d’étoiles | Sagu Palm’s Song
7. clipping. – Visions of Bodies Being Burned
After last year’s Clipping album ended its terrifying venture into horror movie aesthetics with the figurative and literal destruction of the instrument, it was hard to imagine how they’d revisit and expand on the concept a year later in a way that didn’t feel tacked-on or pointless. In hindsight I should’ve known better than to doubt the trio, as 2020’s Visions of Bodies Being Burned takes every element that worked from There Existed an Addiction to Blood, cuts out all the fat, and refines the core meat of the project down to the bones before fleshing it out with the experimental noise that made the band so prolific to begin with. The instrumentations and beatwork is as intricate as ever, leaning hard into the noise and off-kilter rhythms, with an incredibly dynamic range of sounds that vary from track to track. Daveed Diggs, on the other hand, has perfectly realized what made his previous performances so captivating, acting as not only a rapper but a narrator as well, painting these unsettling and often gruesome pictures with the expertise you’d expect from an acclaimed horror novelist.
Much like 2019’s record, Visions balances accessible hip hop and horrorcore tracks with genuinely groundbreaking and unnerving pieces of music that are seriously unlike anything I’ve ever heard in popular music. After setting expectations with the hellish and noisy ‘Intro’ the album truly opens up with one of the band’s smoothest tracks in ‘Say the Name,’ getting a lot of mileage out of one Geto Boys sample that they build into one of the catchiest hooks of the year. Clipping then continues their tradition of featuring sexy and absolutely lethal verses from female rappers on ‘96 Neve Campbell,’ with Cam & China’s delivery contrasting nicely with Daveed’s more clinical stylings. From here we start to get into some of the most creative and abrasive beats on both the record, and Clipping’s entire career. ‘Make Them Dead’ and ‘Body for the Pile’ are both made up largely of harsh noise, ‘Eaten Alive’ is full of live musique concrète instrumentation, and ‘Looking Like Meat’ has some of the craziest uses of an 808 I’ve ever heard, completely blowing out the mix. After the gorgeous track ‘Enlacing’ the band ends another with a reinterpretation of a piece of performance art, this time Secret Piece by Yoko Ono. It’s a far brighter outlook than the one left at the end of Addiction to Blood, and it has me clamoring for a third installment to what’s shaping up to be one of the best musical trilogies in recent memory.
Favorite Tracks: Check the Lock | Enlacing | Looking Like Meat
6. Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher
I’ve always had a soft spot for this brand of sad girl indie pop. Even back in my gross metal elitist days I can’t remember a time where I couldn’t enjoy the kind of music that Phoebe Bridgers and this 2010s wave of indie singer/songwriters have been putting out. With Punisher, though, I think Phoebe’s finally mastered the style and given it the flagship icon it’s been missing. By stepping away from more crisp and clean instrumentals of her debut and towards a more loose and ill-defined style of production, Punisher takes Phoebe’s sound in a more heartbreaking direction, acting as a recollection of past trauma through the lens of a dream.
Like memories and dreams tend to, the instrumentation on Punisher often fails to be memorable from start to finish, instead largely being mood pieces with some incredibly distinct moments that stick with you for ages to come. These formless bits of reverb-laden lo-fi instrumental that make up much of the album work perfectly as backdrop for Phoebe’s lyrics, but also tie together beautifully with each other to weave this seamless flow of emotion that can be surprisingly devastating for what seems so undefined at first. What’s not so easy to ignore, however, is Phoebe herself. The lyrics and the nearly unaffected way that they are delivered makes what otherwise would have been simply fine songwriting into some of the best music of the year, with lightly obtuse lyrics that strike me as a mix of Jeff Magnum and Elliott Smith, and a delivery to match the latter. Everything is delivered with such a soft confidence that it’s hard not to be sucked into the stories they tell. Wrapped in slightly obtuse lyricism and wordplay is the core of this record’s soul, and the broken heart behind it that seems to cry out for some form of peace. This dream of an album strikes me constantly as one of the most genuine pieces of indie pop in recent memory, and the way Phoebe ties it up in the end leaves me simultaneously satisfied and anxious for more. It’s a one-of-a-kind experience, one that I expect Phoebe will top as she continues to grow and expand as an artist.
Favorite Tracks: Graceland Too | Halloween | Savior Complex
5. Charli XCX – how i’m feeling now
In a year so dominated and utterly consumed by the ongoing pandemic and the quarantining that entails, there’s been a surprisingly small amount of music directly tackling the topic and exploring the feelings that surround it. Of the few there are, it’s interesting to me that perhaps the best example is also one of the earliest. Despite not having the hindsight of a further eight months of quarantine (and counting) that we have now, Charli’s project remains one of the most raw and honest expressions of the feelings of depression and desperation the following months would only serve to exasperate. how i’m feeling now was written and recorded over the course of six weeks between April and May of the year, heavily documented through Instagram Live sessions she’d leave running throughout. In watching those videos it’s fairly clear that this album’s production was one of the only things keeping Charli going through isolation, and once the record released it became a very similar thing for me, practically consuming my music listening habits for weeks on end. At multiple points this year I opened a document or notebook to start writing a review but it never felt right, it felt like closing a chapter that I wasn’t ready to finish.
Despite all of the context around this record being relatively bleak and emotionally charged, how i’m feeling now’s music is some of the most fun stuff she’s put out in her career, rivalling much of her Pop 2 mixtape and outdoing a large portion of 2019’s Charli in sheer energy and raw enjoyability. While understandably sacrificing some of the gloss and polish of that record, this one builds upon the fantastic hook writing that Charli’s been developing to this point and pairs it with some incredibly tight and cohesive songwriting that perfectly encapsulates various ideas one at a time with laser focus. The album’s opener, ‘pink diamond,’ is gripping and impatient, with Charli almost taking up the role of a predator in a cage, pacing back and forth just waiting to be let loose. The synths are harsh and remind me of early SOPHIE tracks (RIP.) ‘Claws’ and ‘anthems’ both occupy a similar role in the tracklist as fun boosts of energy, with the former being a super glitchy and fun hyperpop banger and the latter acting as a venting of isolation frustration. For every banger, though, there’s an equally melancholic track that works to contrast the irritable and anxious moods with more somber and heartfelt moments. Tracks like ‘forever’ and ‘7 years’ have incredibly fun and energetic production but are lyrically far more intimate, while the tracks ‘enemy’ and ‘party 4 u’ go all the way in with their sadder elements, building this beautiful and personal connection with the listener and the nearly universal experience we’ve all been going through this past year. It all pays off as one of the best musical moments of the past year, an absolutely essential documentation of this point in history that just so happens to be one of the most fun listens as well.
Favorite Tracks: claws | anthems | forever
4. Backxwash – God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It
As a music enthusiast who lives in Quebec I’d been aware of Montreal rapper Backxwash for a little over a year, essentially since hearing about the release of her 2019 album DEVIANCY. For as promising as that project was, it felt reserved in a way I didn’t quite click with, and it was clear to me that Ashanti was still finding her voice as both a producer and a lyricist. By the time I finally got around to listening to this project my expectations were essentially blank, and needless to say I was floored. The sound of this record is so much fuller, darker, and above all heavier. With nearly every song featuring a prominent heavy metal sample in the beat, a far more developed and noisy production style, and a bigger emphasis on heavy and dark lyrical topics, Backxwash has reached an astronomically higher level than her last projects in the same short amount of time.
From the opening seconds of the title track, this album lays its mission statement out in full. A sample from the song Black Sabbath by the band of the same name (commonly cited as the first metal song) is backed by heavy bass, thumping and raw drums, and sets the stage for Ashanti’s delivery. The sheer desperation in her voice as she delivers these harrowing and suicidal bars is palpable, and the cadence with which she delivers them is jagged and gritty to further accentuate the darkness of the track. On ‘Black Magic’ an already ominous Patti Smith sample is made into the backdrop for a dark ambient buildup to one of the heaviest and catchiest tracks on the record, with an irresistible hook over massive 808 bass and rattling noise. The guitar, credited to Ada Rook of Black Dresses (we’ll get to them, don’t worry) adds this huge sense of weight to the track, and combined with one of the hardest beats on the record it winds up leading to one of my favorite songs of the year. The remaining songs on here, discounting the two interludes, are essentially single verses over hard metal-infused beats that never outstay their welcome. The exception to that rule is the stomach-churning and terrifying ‘Into The Void,’ a manic and paranoid expression of fear tied to Ashanti’s experience as a black trans woman, historically one of the demographics most devalued and discriminated against in society. The fear in her voice as she recounts the feelings of imminent doom and anticipating her own death is hard to take in, and it’s only slightly alleviated by one of the most enjoyable beats on the record.
As a whole, Backxwash’s sophomore release paints herself as one of the most exciting voices coming out of Canada right now, and someone to look out for as both a rapper and a producer. At a tight 22 minutes it’s hard to have any complaints with such an airtight package, I only hope that she can continue to flesh her sound out into longer and more powerful music going forward.
Favorite Tracks: Black Magic | Into The Void | Black Sheep
3. Fiona Apple – Fetch the Bolt Cutters
It’s a new Fiona Apple album, of course it’s on here are you kidding me? At this point I’m convinced that she could drop the worst album of her career and it’d still land in my top list, there’s just so much unbridled talent there and she’s never afraid to express it in new and fascinating ways. Luckily, Fetch the Bolt Cutters is anything but Fiona Apple’s weakest album, in fact it goes toe to toe with some of her best in nearly every regard. With heavy and out-there songwriting and structures, masterfully performed and jazzy instrumentation, and of course the eccentric vocals of Ms. Apple herself, this attack on misogyny and abuse is the rawest and most unrelenting expression of pure emotion she’s released to date.
With the opening tracks ‘I Want You To Love Me’ and ‘Shameika’ the record immediately marks itself as a sonic followup to 2012’s The Idler Wheel, with the latter being reminiscent of the somewhat raucous pianos of ‘Periphery.’ Even in these more standard opening tracks, though, there’s a very obvious difference, that being the much wilder and rawer vocals than usual. From the throaty nattering at the end of track 1, to the shrieking and straining on track 2, it’s immediately clear that the lyrics and their subject matter have been eating away at Apple for a long time, and there’s a sense of cathartic release that only she could produce. As the tracklist goes on it becomes abundantly clear what the album is truly about. As she quietly says the lines “Fetch the bolt cutters, I’ve been in here too long” on the title track, or “Kick me under the table all you want, I won’t shut up” on the following ‘Under The Table’ the theme of self-liberation from your abusers and oppressors becomes impossible to ignore, and going forward she takes these issue head-on with no hesitation or shame. On ‘Newspaper’ she laments seeing the same tendencies she faced in a past relationship being levied against her abuser’s new partner, and her inability to step in and do anything about it. ‘Heavy Balloon’ is a tale of resilience, the line “I spread like strawberries, I climb like peas and beans” in reference to recovering and dealing with trauma and mental health, which is bolstered by the triumphant instrumentals backing it. The emotional climax of the record comes on ‘For Her,’ a track that starts almost joyful before collapsing in on itself with the single line “You raped me in the sink that your daughter was born in” giving emotional context to the whole project, and riding the final two tracks off that confrontational energy.
As I said before, Fiona Apple could have released literally anything and made my list, but I think that’s what makes it all the more impressive that so long into her career hosting multiple masterpieces she’s still putting out some of her best work to date. Fetch the Bolt Cutters is a bold statement, an impressive feat, and above all a fantastic album from one of the most essential voices in modern music.
Favorite Tracks: Shameika | Newspaper | Under The Table
2. Run The Jewels – RTJ4
There are two main things I think 2020 was defined by for most people: the Coronavirus pandemic and the historic civil rights protests that followed the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in late May. We’ve already talked about the former, unfortunately it’s time to talk about the latter. I’ve dreaded writing this segment since RTJ4 dropped in early June. That’s in no way indicative of the record’s quality, the placement on the list should be evidence of that. The music here is fantastic, possibly the best the duo have ever produced. The problem is that by writing about this project I’m not just talking about Killer Mike and El-P, I’m not just talking about a rap album. RTJ4 has been placed in the position where talking about it necessitates a deep and confrontational discussion about the society we live in, about capitalism, and especially about race relations in North America.
So here I am, about to attempt just that in my self-imposed three-paragraph limit.
It’s important to understand this album’s timeline to properly grasp the importance of its release. It was recorded in late 2019, and released on June 3rd 2020, barely a week after George Floyd’s death. In my initial writeup I beat around the bush about why I feel the need to clarify this, but the reality is that it’s too frustrating for that. On the track ‘walking in the snow,’ after El-P’s incredible teardown of capitalism and the oppression inherent therein, there’s a verse from Killer Mike that contains the following line:
“And you so numb, you watch the cops choke out a man like me
Until my voice goes from a shriek to whisper ‘I can’t breathe’”
This was released 8 days after video started circulated of George Floyd uttering those same words as his last, and initially I was left in awe of the fact that they managed to write and produce a response so quickly, but the reality is far darker than that: it’s that this shit keeps happening. ‘Walking in the snow’ was of course written in relation to the death of Eric Garner in 2014, a disgustingly similar case of police brutality that ended in the same result. I shouldn’t have to explain why this is frustrating, I shouldn’t have to justify the assertion that law enforcement is a system that propagates situations like these, but it’s been made abundantly clear over the past 8 months that I do.
And that’s just one track, nearly every song on RTJ4 has an equally important message to dig into. ‘JU$T’ is musically one of the smoothest songs the duo has put out, with a Pharrell Williams feature on the hook and the best thing Zack De La Rocha has done since Rage Against the Machine in his verse. The choruses grow increasingly more blatant with their message, culminating in the line “The 13th amendment says that slavery’s abolished, look at all these slave masters posing on your dollar.” As jagged as El-P’s chorus on ‘goonies vs. ET’ is it leads to the incredible social commentary that comes out on the verses, first with El-P tackling the environmental apathy of the upper class, and then with Mike on the influence that social media can have on us. El-P’s production is loud, bassy, and full of driving samples that push the verses to the front seamlessly. With everything I’ve said about the record’s impact, as well as its sheer quality, there’s no hesitation when I say that this is the most important hip hop album since To Pimp a Butterfly. I only wish it didn’t have to be.
Favorite Tracks: walking in the snow | JU$T | out of sight
1. Black Dresses – Peaceful as Hell
So here I am sitting in my room at three in the morning, almost halfway through February 2021, nearing the one-year anniversary of this godforsaken quarantine. I haven’t been to a friend’s house in a year, I could probably count every time I’ve left my house if I tried, and for what? A 9/11’s worth of deaths are still happening daily in America alone, millions are facing eviction as the government refuses to provide the necessary funding to protect people put out of work by the pandemic, and the world’s politicians are refusing to take the necessary steps to stop the entire planet from burning up in the extremely imminent future. It’s hard not to feel an impending sense of doom as our fates are decided by the greediest people on the planet, and the mask that hides the systems keeping them in power starts to slip further and further. And yet here I am in my room, with nothing but the company of the friends I’ve made online to distract me from the burning world outside.
This is the sound of Peaceful as Hell. It’s the fourth studio album from Black Dresses, a Toronto-based noise pop and electro-industrial duo who have been making waves in both the hyperpop and queer music scenes for quite some time now with their bricked-out production, saccharine melodies, and their abundance of personality. Devi McCallion and Ada Rook both play an equal part in the sound of the group’s projects, with super distinct vocals and a clear, undeniable chemistry that makes every moment feel like an expression of love, understanding, and mutual frustration. It feels like no matter what happens, at least they’ve got each other, and that even though the world is ending they’ll be able to get through it together. This emotional intimacy leaves them able to fully express themselves, flaws and all, in their music without shame. At multiple points on the record the phrasings are blunt, colorless, and sharp in a way that you just aren’t with someone who’s an acquaintance or a regular friend. McCaillion and Rook feel closer to that on Peaceful as Hell, and that intimacy is at the core of what makes it endearing.
However, despite that emotional intimacy there’s a feeling of physical distance. It’s possible that this is amplified by my own feelings of physical disconnect from other people after this hellish year but the way that the beats sound wonky and off-kilter with slightly blown-up 808s and harsh walls of distortion occasionally masking the melody almost feels like trying to break through the barrier of online contact to make real connections – it’s difficult. Sometimes it turns out beautiful, like on the opening ‘LEFT ARM OF LIFE,’ the aching ‘PLEASE BE NICE,’ and the absolutely heartbreaking ‘MAYBE THIS WORLD IS ANOTHER PLANET’S HELL.’ Other times it’s hellish and painful, like on the nuclear blast of ‘BEAUTIFUL FRIENDSHIP,’ or the emotionally ruined ‘MiRRORGiRL.’ If there’s one thing you can count on, though, it’s that it will be fun, thanks in large part to Ada Rook’s fantastic guitar playing and tone, and the masterful hook writing that peppers the whole record and ties up some of the harsher and more out-there elements of the tracklist.
In 2020 I essentially lost all of my real-life friends, having them relegated instead to icons on a screen and compressed audio through my headphones. I talk to them every day, and yet I miss them more than when I couldn’t talk to them at all. On some days I find it hard to even respond to my messages because I can’t bear that innate loneliness I’ve felt for months. Peaceful as Hell is my album of the year, but I think it could only have been my album of the year in 2020. The events of these past 12 months have permanently changed me, the way I view relationships with others, and my relationship with the world I live in, and I think this album came at such a perfect time and touched on the perfect elements for me to graft all of my own personal developments onto it. I think that’s the real beauty of this record, despite being so harsh and abrasive it really leaves you to decide the takeaway, and mine just happened to be a nearly life-changing one.
Favorite Tracks: IMPOSSIBLE DREAM | EXPRESS YOURSELF | MAYBE THIS WORLD IS ANOTHER PLANET’S HELL?
Writing About Music and Games Sometimes 