We’ve got COVID! The camping trip’s been cancelled, so I’ve found a free day to add to this blog. Here’s a few albums I’ve dug from the year so far.
PUP – THE UNRAVELING OF PUPTHEBAND
A shoe-in for my top 10 favorite albums of the year comes from this toronto-based pop-punk team. Their previous two albums have also made it into my favorites lists, but this one is different in ethos. The mixing is ballistic, letting guitars shriek and whine on top of each other and letting the vocals fight its way through the thick reeds of noise. Sometimes the music switches into catchy tunes (“Waiting”), and sometimes the chaos just piles on top of itself in an avalanche of cacophony (“PUPTHEBAND Inc. Is Filing for Bankruptcy”). The sarcasm is just as thick as the guitars, and it simply loads the PUPiest qualities up front and center, in your face, and without apology.
Standout Track: “Matilda”
Pedro The Lion – Havasu
In his continuing series of albums themed around his places of residency, David Bazan pens more personal tracks about his childhood in this second entry. The music serves as a backdrop to Bazan’s storytelling, which is often in service to his voice: a sorrow-filled baritone, like a thrift store trumpet getting sun-bleached, unwanted.
Standout Track: “First Drum Set”
The Wombats – Fit Yourself, Not the World
This trio has travelled a long way from their dance-punk roots back when they were debuted among a sea of rock bands in the UK in the mid-late 2000s. I was a huge fan of Arctic Monkeys, The Hive, The Bravery, The Vines, and all the rest, but The Wombats went by unnoticed for me. I dug their dance album from 2015, Glitterbug, but this year’s collection of songs has some real killer arena rock tunes, radio-smooth hits, and head-scratching lyrics for ya.
Standout Track: “This Car Drives All by Itself”
Prince Daddy & The Hyena – S/T
Only the coolest bands wait for their third album to make it a self-titled.
Standout Track: “In just One Piece”
Kendrick Lamar – Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers
Lamar’s Pulitzer Prize win for DAMN seems appropriate. One, it helps define how his work stands out from traditional album releases. They’re more than just albums; they’re full experiences seeking to do much more than entertain. Two, it seems obvious that a prestigious body of acolytes would award a talent like Lamar with his weakest record since his debut. Clearly, the narrative weight given to writers outside of the music field are more closely represented in works like To Pimp a Butterfly and now Mr. Morale. It’s a work that paints a full worldview in all of its chaos and poetry.
Standout Track: “We Cry Together”
Plenty more albums rolling around in my headphones: Grumpter Fever Dream; Arlen Gun Club S/T; The Range Mercury; Dashboard Confessional All The Truth That I Can Tell; Wallows Tell Me That It’s Over; Bloc Party Alpha Games; Bartees Strange Farm to Table; New Vision With Love; Billy Talent Crisis of Faith; Punch Brothers Hell on Church Street; The Weeknd Dawn FM; Harry Styles Harry’s House.
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