I didn’t listen to a lot of new music this year, so the list is filled with stuff I couldn’t avoid hearing about and listening to and/or that reflects a generally backward-looking orientation to music. It was a year of 90s-2000s rap, Puccini and old red dirt country.
Roughly in order of hours listened:
DIME TRAP — TI
It’s not the 90s again, but TI did some decent work, and “Wraith” is on repeat a lot.
Be The Cowboy — Mitski
Apparently, this was everyone’s favorite album. And yeah, I agree.
Freak Yourself Out — Lake Street Dive
The only flaw is that there aren’t enough songs.
Golden Hour — Kacey Musgraves
Again, everyone loved this, and so did I.
Dancehall Dreamin’: A Tribute to Pat Green – Various
Hard to argue with a bunch of today’s Texas country stars playing covers of Pat Green songs.
Things Change – American Aquarium
The only thing that dings this album is the bandmembers keep changing and you can kind of tell.
Freak Yourself Out — Lake Street Dive
LSD is in fine form on this EP.
boygenius – boygenius (Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus)
Lady supergroup that includes Julien Baker, sign me up.
Hyperchromatica – Kyle Gann
Kyle’s trying to bring “microtonality into the mainstream”…not sure that is gonna happen, but this is palatable.