This is by no means an exhaustive list. I can’t imagine who would want to read an exhaustive list, anyway. The albums featured here are ones I listened to non-stop and records I felt didn’t get the undivided attention they deserved.
20 Favorite Albums
The Innocence Mission – See You Tomorrow (Therese Records)
No one is asking me to pick, but this is my favorite band. See You Tomorrow is a quiet triumph, sticking out as a distinct masterpiece over thirty years into the group’s career.
Carman Moore – Personal Problems (Reading Group)
A soundtrack as dynamic as the films it scores. I happened to see Personal Problems at a screening in Philly last year, so the timing of this reissue was a blessing. Smart, playful compositions and improvisations.
Lou Turner – Songs for John Venn (Spinster Sounds)
Lou Turner is the best new artist of the year and I will shout that from high on the mountains. Wit and poeticism meet a chameleon band that shapeshifts across a range of styles. ‘Will the Circle Be Unbroken’ would top my list of favorite songs of the year.
Carlo Giustini – Colla (roh records)
My introduction to roh record’s Lontano series, I have listened to this record endlessly since my friend Lucas Knapp first texted it to me. Impossibly lush and spare at the same time.
Yves Jarvis – Sundry Rock Song Stock (ANTI)
Yves Jarvis (fka Un Blonde) has no peers. His music is tirelessly searching, and the result forces us to redefine what constitutes songcraft.
Wendy Eisenberg – Dehiscence (self-released)
I am honored to call Wendy a friend, so I’ll let my bias show unabashedly: Wendy Eisenberg is holding a torch out ahead of the pack, lighting the way for anyone interested in marrying diaristic confessions to an endlessly blossoming harmonic landscape. ‘Dehiscence’ means a lot to me because I heard a lot of the demoing process. I also believe Wendy needs nothing more than their voice, a guitar, and a microphone. Still, this wasn’t even the only the masterpiece Wendy released this year. With the full band release of ‘Auto’ on Badabing, it feels like people are finally waking up to their brilliance!
Bad History Month – Old Blues (Exploding in Sound)
I’ve been formulating this take for a while, but I think Sean of Bad History Month is the closest we have in DIY to another Joanna Newsom. These songs are suites, their movements swirling and unfolding like the mental quicksand Sean is so deft at writing about.
Ironomi – Kotonoha (KITCHEN.)
Another Lucas recommendation, and made me aware of the Kitchen Label, who I have turned to for the most exciting practitioners of that sweet spot between neo-classical and new age/ambient.
Sarah Kirkland Snider – Mass for the Endangered (New Amsterdam Records)
I’ve felt plenty of doom and gloom this year, and nothing soundtracks these emotions for me more than a huge choir, voices interwoven, singing with portentous fury. If you like that sort of thing, Kirkland Snider has gifted us with this work of monumental proportions.
Karl Blau – Children for All Ages (self-released)
Karl Blau has undoubtedly cemented his place in the legacy of DIY artistry, but this “children’s” record is some of my favorite music of his. Whimsy abounds, along with some genuinely hilarious jokes and characters. By the time August came, and I was feeling pretty uncertain about what the rest of the year was going to look like, I needed this record more than I knew.
Talons’ – Make America Again (self-released)
No one could write about the pandemic during the pandemic better than Mike Tolan. What he does shouldn’t work, but his expiration-date brand of ambient folk feels so vital to our perpetually disposable days.
Lisa/Liza – Shelter of a Song (Orindal)
Liza Victoria has the steadiest hand in folk music right now. I’ve felt very fortunate to hear her songs grow over the years, never losing sight of that deep, internal wellspring from which they’re conceived.
Ryan Power – Mind the Neighbors (Feeding Tube)
This record has everything I want! Not sure why Ryan Power isn’t more ubiquitously championed, but I am grateful for this most release collection of intelli-pop/left of cool gems. Smarty pants music that makes my whole body move.
Clarissa Connelly – The Voyager (self-released)
I’ve been really drawn to music that sounds like it is someone picking at the bones of a pop song, leaving us just scraps and entrails. This is one of the most convincing versions of this phenomenon I’ve heard, full of sonic richness and a reverence for both old and new.
Lung Cycles – The Other One (Lily Tapes and Discs)
Ben Lovell has quietly become a shining light in the world of experimental folk, a brilliant guitarist and sound manipulator, who also put his strong songwriting abilities on full display with this new outing. ‘Your Bridge’ would be my second favorite song of the year, were I to make that list.
Anne Malin – Waiting Song (self-released)
Anne Malin was put on my radar via Lou Turner, both being Nashville-based artists and writers. Anne’s newest release covers so much ground, but feels incredibly focused. Music for when alone in an old, creaky wooden house just before sunset.
James Rushford – Música Callada/See the Welter (Unseen Worlds)
This was my favorite solo piano record of the year. Rushford breathes life into the work of Federico Mompou, whose compositions were already full to bursting. Music that gives a voice to our waking dreams.
Winston C.W. – Good Guess (Whatever’s Clever/Ruination Record Co.)
A hidden gem late in the year, Office Culture’s Winston C.W. steps forward with a bold, kaleidoscopic record only made more special by its understated instrumentation. Cook Wilson’s emotive voice floats above the trio of piano, electric guitar, and upright bass, his words weaving a rich tapestry over the band’s restraint and fluidity. We need more records like this, completely exposed and searching!
Josephine Foster – No Harm Done (Fire Records)
An emissary of modern folk music, Josephine Foster’s ‘No Harm Done’ was put on once a day in our house for at least two weeks straight. It’s such generous music, making space for us within a time we’ve never known and never fully will.
Ethan T. Parcell – Plays from the Operas Alone (self-released)
Thanks to Jon and Liam at Various Small Flames, I was introduced to the enigmatic Ethan T. Parcell and my imagination was completely captured. A brilliant composer and educator, this record showcases the polyglot deconstructing larger works from his many “operas” for voice and guitar. It’s haunting music that summons up sepia-tone images of people and places without blind-nostalgia. ‘Tornado of ‘67’ is my third favorite song of the year.
5 Favorite Songs
Lou Turner – Will the Circle Be Unbroken?
Lung Cycles – Your Bridge
Ethan T. Parcell – Tornado of ‘67
Mary Chapin Carpenter – Farther Along and Further In
Bob Dylan – Key West (Philosopher Pirate)