ALBUM of the YEAR

ALBUM of the YEAR • 2020

Civic Jams by Darkstar. I've listened to this album nearly every day since I purchased it. It's really a collection of current-day fairy tales disguised as music. We arrive ("Forest") and depart ("Blurred") the world of the album on tracks that are gauzy, ephemeral, otherworldly. The songs found between them inhabit various levels of corporeality and manifestation of modern life. Lyrics are fleeting, cut up, repetitious, ambiguous, and always anchored within the instrumentation. Beautiful, haunting, and exactly what was needed in 2020.

OTHER CONTENDERS

• In the Middle of the Night by Khidja. It's like falling into a slightly sinister yet seductive rabbit hole of dance music.
  
• Getting into Knives by The Mountain Goats. This is a joy-filled and sorrow-filled set of short stories, and the best album since The Sunset Tree.
  
• Made of Rain by The Psychedelic Furs. Seriously the best album of their career and that is saying something. "Ash Wednesday" is now my all-time favorite Furs track.
  
• RTJ4 by Run the Jewels. Intelligent, challenging, sometimes coarse and/or vulgar, but always-on-point hip hop with off-the-charts production. My favorite tracks: "Walking in the Snow" and "Out of Sight."
  
• Mind Hive by Wire. One of Wire's most mature albums, reflecting the foibles and dangers of our age within the lyrics of the songs but wrapping it within absolutely spectacular music.
  

GREAT ALBUMS, but NOT QUITE ALBUM of the YEAR

• Desire by Bob Moses. Six interrelated tracks that are continually mixed into a fulfilling and cohesive whole. I could seriously listen to "Hold Me Up" on repeat for hours upon end.
  
• Alles in Allem by Einstürzende Neubauten. Wildly restrained and wildly surreal songs centered on the city of Berlin. Many of them played on instruments built by the band themselves.
  
• 10:20 by Wire. The second Wire release for 2020, originally intended as a Record Store Day special, but offered as a general release once the global pandemic challenged the music industry.
  

AND SOME NEAR MISSES from 2019

• Creation Is Perfect by Minimal Compact. Re-recorded songs spanning their entire career, which are the best and definitive versions of these songs. Plus one new track, which is worth the price of admission alone.
  
• Purple Mountains by Purple Mountains. David Berman's swan song, filled with melancholy and self-effacement and unflinching self-awareness.
  

THE MAGIC CROCK-POT

I arrived home after work to an empty house. I could smell something cooking, but no one was around. The wife and the child were away at a cooking class.

I walked into the kitchen and saw a loaf of bread sitting on the cutting board. A handwritten note upon it read "Please bake me!" Being (1) good at following directions and (2) hungry, I preheated the oven and placed the bread therein.


Glancing over at the opposite counter, I spied the origin of the wonderful smell. It was a Crock-Pot® filled with Guinness Beef Stew. I opened the lid and stirred the contents of the pot around.

When the bread was done, I ladled up a bowl of potatoes, carrots, eggplant, beef, and broth and sat down to eat. I was just finishing my stew, my hunk of bread, and my Alaskan Winter Ale when the child and the wife returned home. They filled up their own bowls and we spent ten minutes together before I was off to my writing group, to share some new pieces and dream about the Magic Crock-Pot® at home.