Category: Uncategorized

Here are links to other people’s of the best albums of 2020.

I’ll probably have pages for more specialised genre-specific selections.

Rolling Stone – Best Albums of 2020

50 albums are listed in order and the top 5 are:

5 Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia
4 Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways
3 Bad Bunny – YHLQMDLG
2 Fiona Apple – Fetch the Bolt Cutters
1 Taylor Swift – Folklore

I was surprised to see Springsteen’s “Letter To You” as high as #12. It’s good but it’s nowhere near his classics from the 1970s.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-albums-2020-1096814/taylor-swift-folklore-1096815/

Paste Magazine – The 50 Best Albums of 2020

This has excellent descriptions of the albums nominated

The top 5 are:

5. Perfume Genius – Set My Heart on Fire Immediately
4. Sault – Untitled (Rise)
3. Run the Jewels – RTJ4
2. Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud
1. Fiona Apple – Fetch the Bolt Cutters

Others I thought sounded interesting are:

47. Lianne La Havas: Lianne La Havas
42. HAIM: Women in Music Pt. III
34. Bonny Light Horseman: Bonny Light Horseman
12. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit: Reunions
9. Adrianne Lenker: songs

https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/best-albums/best-albums-of-2020/

The Guardian – 50 Best Albums Of 2020

They are publishing their top 50 in groups of 10 albums

50-41 at https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/dec/01/the-50-best-albums-of-2020

Glide Magazine –  The 20 Best Albums

These aren’t in order of best but you get short descriptions of 20 albums plus 20 more as honourable mentions.

Another mention for Haim. Fleet Foxes, Run The Jewels, Sault, and probably others.

I’m also interested in

Laura Marling – Song For Our Daughter
Pokey LaFarge – Rock Bottom Rhapsody

https://glidemagazine.com/251096/the-glide-20-glides-20-best-albums-of-2020/

BBC

They’ve only highlighted a few albums:

Fiona Apple – Fetch the Bolt Cutters
Chloe x Halle – Ungodly Hour
Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways
Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia
Róisín Murphy – Róisín Machine
Perfume Genius – Set My Heart on Fire Immediately
Run the Jewels – RTJ4
Rina Sawayama – Sawayama
Nadine Shah – Kitchen Sink
Taylor Swift – Folklore

Plus a few tracks of the year.

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20201119-the-best-albums-and-songs-of-2020

The Peak

They’ve only picked a few and there is no order.

https://the-peak.ca/2020/11/at-least-we-had-good-music-best-albums-of-2020/

Loudwire 70 Best Rock & Metal Albums

No order again, so I can’t show the top 5. Even the album covers are scary.

https://loudwire.com/best-rock-metal-albums-2020/

The Quietus Top 100 Albums Of The Year

Their top 5 albums are:

5: UKAEA – Energy Is Forever
4: Lyra Pramuk – Fountain
3: Special Interest – The Passion Of
2: The Soft Pink Truth – Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase?
1: Hey Colossus – Dances/Curses

https://thequietus.com/articles/29302-the-quietus-top-100-albums-of-2020-norman-records

Time 10 Best Albums of The Year

Here are the top 5

5. Eternal Atake, Lil Uzi Vert
4. Gaslighter, The Chicks
3. Fetch the Bolt Cutters, Fiona Apple
2. Ungodly Hour, Chloe x Halle
1. Folklore, Taylor Swift

https://time.com/5915313/best-albums-2020/

 

 

If you have visited the blog before, you will have noticed two things:

1. The change in title from Best Live Albums to Best Live & Studio Albums.
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2. I haven’t been posting and updating. That’s partly because of time and also because the floodgates have opened with these radio broadcast based releases that squeeze through the copyright laws. Some are fantastic in performance and sound quality but too many are shabby. I hate wasting my time listening and writing about something that isn’t good enough.

I’ve come to realise that I’ve painted myself into a bit of a corner by purely focusing on live albums.

It was never my intention to listen to live albums 95% of the time but that’s what happened. For a long time, I was updating you on the live albums I was listening to each month, partly so you could see my favourites in action and partly to help my website maintain links to pages.

I still love live albums and they will often be my “go to album” for an artist when I’m in the mood.

But there are other artists who refuse to release a great live album, even when I’m sure they are capable or who release fine live albums but at the wrong time.

I’ve long recognised the vital link between great studio albums and great live albums. Take The Rolling Stones for an example, it’s no coincidence that the fantastic Brussels Affair 1973 comes after the terrific set of studio albums in Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main Street. Goats Head Soup isn’t too shabby either and is widely underrated.

When an artist or group is hot, they are usually hot in the studio and live in concert as confidence flows from one to the other.

In my reconfiguration of the website, I’m planning to provide some comprehensive guides to major artists backed up with the readers polls and resources from other music enthusiasts. I still want to help you to maximise your listening pleasure by guiding you to the “best” and that has to go beyond my own favourites.

If you look at Amazon or iTunes, you’ll see a lot of live recordings by bands and it’s now hard to distinguish between:

1. Official live albums approved and released by the artist and their record company.
2. Third party recordings where royalties are paid to the artists for performance and songwriting. (I’m thinking of the BBC and Rockpalast recordings here).
3. Grey market live recordings which are legal in Europe because of the copyright laws only protect music for 25 years unless it’s been officially released. (I’m not a legal expert but this is my understanding).

With category 1, you should expect excellent recordings, both in performance and sound quality. Of course, this doesn’t always apply as live recordings have been abused as a way to fulfil contractual obligations. Continue reading Live Recordings: How To Protect Yourself In The “Grey” Market

Collector’s Item From The San Francisco Scene is a live album by Grace Slick And The Great Society. It brings together two earlier released albums and has also been released as Live At The Matrix.

It has the original versions of White Rabbit and Somebody To Love before Grace Slick left to join Jefferson Airplane.

Average Amazon Customer Rating – %%AVERAGERATING%% Stars From %%REVIEWCOUNT%% Reviews Continue reading Grace Slick And The Great Society Collector’s Item 1966

We Lost The Skyline is a short live album by Porcupine Tree.

It was recorded at Park Avenue CDs in Orlando, Florida on 4 October 2007 with only Steven Wilson and John Wesley performing.

It is available for sale via the band’s website but a few copies have crept onto Amazon.

Average Amazon Customer Rating – %%AVERAGERATING%% Stars Continue reading Porcupine Tree We Lost The Skyline 2007

Atlanta is a live album by Porcupine Tree.

It was recorded on the Fear of a Blank Planet tour in October 2007.

It is only available from https://www.burningshed.com/store/porcupinetree/product/169/2213/ as a download. Proceeds go to the Mick Karn Appeal.

Continue reading Porcupine Tree Atlanta 2007