Albums | Gareth Music 2020

Favorite Albums

My favorite albums of 2020. Four of these are intimate songs and one is a simple rocker (DEHD). This was a year where my favorite music did not need complex layers of orchestration or frills.

- Fiona Apple: Fetch the Bolt Cutters

Intimate, jagged, emotionally gripping, with something to say.

- DEHD: Flowers of Devotion

This album rocks. Emily Kempf's voice stands out but I especially enjoy the duets with Jason Balla.

- Bob Dylan: Rough and Rowdy Ways

Sparse Dylan ballads or rowdy threadbare blues. Some of his simplest instrumentation. And then the epic Murder Most Foul - from Kennedy's death to a journey through the last 60 years of music.

- Adrianne Lenker: songs

Is there a better song writer (besides maybe Jason Isbell)? A searching soul directly captured in sound.

- Waxahatchee: Saint Cloud

Songs that capture the living of a life coming into focus.

Instrumental & Ambient

- Galya Bisengalieva: Aralkum

The best kind of ambient, it functions as either a background soundscape or rewards attentive listening with a story of redemption in this case about the life, death and potential rebirth of the Aral Sea.

- Holy Fuck: Deleter

From dance to dreamy. Even when it’s heavy it’s not down for long.

- Josh Johnson: Freedom Exercise

Traditional saxophone jazz. Warm, a little funky. No annoying brushes on the snare.

- Gia Margaret: Mia Gargaret

My favorite (mostly) instrumental album of the year. Music from a singer who lost her ability to sing for six months due to an illness. The album covers a range of styles.

- Pretty Lightning: Jangle Bowls

Reminiscent of the Dandy Warhols. It swaggers and stomps and quite frequently jangles. Good for driving through the night or dancing on your own. There are vocals but they are not the point. Best song title: “There is ooze on our shooze”