NOW Magazine
The best Toronto albums of 2020
We weren t able to see many of them live, but local artists still gave us a lot to listen to this year By Richard Trapunski
Dec 15, 2020
From hip-hop beatscapes to celestial R&B gong punk, local artists didn’t let their creativity dip despite all the challenges they faced during this pandemic year. It’s a shame we couldn’t support the music live and in person, but here are the Toronto albums that were filling our ears while we stayed home this year.
1.
U.S. Girls: Heavy Light
Heavy Light came out just weeks before the COVID-19 shutdown, and now it feels like a time capsule. It’s simultaneously Meg Remy’s most personal album and her most collective. Her first-person form gets unusually high usage as she sings about her teen years. The music is lush and joyful as ever, and she’s still a clear-eyed critic of American exceptionalism. She leans on a hugely talented group of musicians crammed into a studio together,
The Quietus
, December 14th, 2020 11:58
These are our favourite tracks of the last 12 months as voted for by Jennifer Lucy Allan, Bobby Barry, Aaron Bishop, Patrick Clarke, John Doran, Christian Eede, Noel Gardner, Ella Kemp, Fergal Kinney, Sean Kitching, Anthea Leyland, Peter Margasak, David McKenna, JR Moores, Luke Turner, Kez Whelan and Daryl Worthington. Illustration by Lisa Cradduck
There s not much more I can add to what has already been said about our relationship to music in this pandemic-hit year by my colleagues Luke Turner and Patrick Clarke in their respective introductions to our lists of the year s best albums and best reissues, compilations, mixes etc.
CREDIT: Bandcamp/Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah
In 1969, folk trio Crosby, Stills & Nash recorded and released a cryptic chestnut entitled “Guinnevere.” The next year, two jazz masters tried their hands at the tune: flautist Herbie Mann emerging with a faithful instrumental cover, and trumpeter Miles Davis reinterpreting it as an intergalactic, unrecognizable epic that neared the 20-minute mark. For the live version appearing on
Axiom, New Orleans bandleader Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah is most interested in Davis’ vision of the song. Electric piano, sitar and a hepcat languor are out in favor of djembe, congas and a hothouse zest. Here, Adjuah who plays trumpet and reverse flugelhorn, among other instruments and his band condense “Guinnevere,” investing it with a pointed verve. The horns veer from woozy to celestial to frenetic, with Corey Fonville’s drums, in particular, elevating this music to new, daring heights. –
Posted: Dec 10, 2020 6:00 AM ET | Last Updated: December 10, 2020
Albums from Carly Rae Jepsen, Lido Pimienta, Backxwash, Tobi, the Weeknd, Tenille Townes and others stood out in 2020.(Supplied by the artists; design by Myles Chiu/CBC Music)
It s no secret that this year challenged the music industry in many ways. The COVID-19 pandemic forced musicians to hit pause on world tours; ongoing discussions around racism and underrepresentation made record labels and award shows rethink their use of language and categorization (to varying levels of success); and social media apps like TikTok continued to break down and rebuild the ways in which the industry operates.
Since her first album, 2016’s
Midwest Farmer’s Daughter, Margo Price has often been positioned in outlaw country, flanked by comparisons to Bobbie Gentry and Loretta Lynn. But on her third LP,
That’s How Rumors Get Started, Price veers closer to classic rock and away from the honky-tonk that once echoed through the Nashville songwriter’s music. While her debut was charged with drinking tropes and her sophomore effort (2017’s
All American Made)
steeped in political consciousness,
Rumors focuses on the more vulnerable stories of touring life: being away from home, surviving relationships and the anxiety of stillness. Price is at her most stunning on the gospel-tinged confessional “Prisoner of the Highway,” in which she reflects on the cost of being an artist on the road while in love and starting a family. The same goes for power ballad “I’d Die For You,” where she parallels a soaring Stevie Nicks. A little bit of Nashville and Southern rock seems to ha