Indie Basement: Top 40 Albums of 2020
It s a given that 2020 has been a year unlike any that most of us have ever experienced. Time seemed to fold in on itself (for me at least), and March to December seemed to go by in an instant but also in slow motion. If felt this way for music, too. Albums I thought were last year were this year and vice versa. Looking through the months, though, it was a bit shocking how many records I really liked were released and how many of these groups I wish I had gotten to see live this year.
Head below for this week s reviews.
ALBUM OF THE WEEK #1: Guided by Voices - The Styles We Paid For (Guided by Voices Inc)
The unstoppable Bob Pollard lets fly the third GBV record of 2020 made in quarantine, rocks the same Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. That s the old motto of the United States Postal Service, but it works for
Guided by Voices, too. Bob Pollard has records to make and release, and nothing is going to stop him. Certainly not a global pandemic. The original idea for Guided by Voices third album of 2020 when Pollard wrote the songs back in February, was that it would be recorded live to analogue tape and would be called
Panther Rotate Is Out December 11 On Castle Face Dec 10, 2020 By Caleb Campbell Osees
It’s not like Osees to take a break. After releasing September’s excellent
Metamorphosed, another album’s worth of songs from the
Face Stabber sessions, John Dwyer’s inventive garage psych band has returned with a full album of remixes entitled
Panther Rotate. The band’s newest record reinvents,
Protean Threat, one of their most straightforward punk releases to date, as a beguiling hypnotic set of completely new songs. Stream the full album a day early below.
Though
Protean Threat was weird and wild in all the best ways, it also was one of Osees’ most direct releases in recent memory.