Waxahatchee –
‘Saint Cloud’. Katie Crutchfield just gets better and better, changing themes, transforming, shining brighter, becoming brilliant. While far from country, it is an album in the grip of the genre, produced with warmth, texture and subtlety.
‘Lilacs’ uses a guitar sound reminiscent of Reggie Young on
‘Suspicious Minds’. ‘Can’t Do Much’, possibly the standout track, sounds like The Cranberries one moment and gentle Creedence in presence the next. Great voice, great tunes and the record
Waxahatchee will always have to try to beat.
S.G. Goodman – ‘Old Time Feeling’. The warmest reverb guitar opens
‘Space in Time’ before Goodman’s bold voice bursts out introducing this debut album. Three songs in and we’ve heard doo wop, rock n roll and country. It’s alt country at its core, but explores so much more. Learning to sing in church, she turned to Jim James to produce and proclaims – from a left wing, gay perspective – the social i
The Best Albums Of 2020 Dec. 29, 2020 8:49 a.m.
Before we get to the best albums of 2020, I want to highlight the most unexpectedly delightful song of the year, “I Wonder What’s Inside Your Butthole.” Lisa Rieffel dropped her daughter Jolee s inspired, inquisitive song about the mysteries of the human digestive system in May 2020, at a time when many people had just started to process the fact that the pandemic was going to disrupt life for much more than a few months. It was a welcome bit of surreal levity, and a spark of connection for many, spawning a seriesofcovers (I m partial to this one). Jolee ended up recording her own rock version, as well as a hip-hop remix which almost sounds like a long-lost M.I.A. demo. There s a lot of 2020 ephemera and memes which have already been lost to the miasma of this strange year, but this was one of the few that continues to bring a smile to my face.