I know that we're all looking forward to closing the book on this awful year, and I can't wait for the day that we can finally see each other again. The thought of sharing a drink with you in a dive bar as we hijack the jukebox, or standing shoulder-to-shoulder at the back of the pit with all of the other adults, is intoxicating after nine months of masked-up solidarity.

While there are no silver linings to this collective trauma, there was some new music. During the first month of lockdown I started a playlist that I intended to share. Hours of specifically curated songs that—as I wrote at the time—"make me happy. Songs that make me sad (my favorite kind). New 2020 stuff, and old favorites. Songs that inadvertently speak to our shared experience. Songs that don’t mean anything at all but make me feel like breaking something, or hugging someone." Alex and I have listened to that unfinished "Quarantine Playlist" so many times this year that Spotify just used it for my "Wrapped 2020."

So, inspired by all of the "Best of" lists going around, I decided to put together my own personal selection of new music. This isn't all-encompassing, or intended to be definitive of anything. They're just the year's new records that made me happiest when I put them on, and are permanently staying in the rotation. A few are pretty obvious, "cool" consensus picks, but even a broken clock is right twice a day.

If you want to skip the editorializing, here's a Spotify playlist* with the highlight tracks from my Top 10 Albums of the Year.

One final thing...We lost two artists this year whose work I've leaned on often and occupies almost an entire cube in my vinyl collection, John Prine and Justin Townes Earle. I miss you terribly. Thank you for the music.

Top 10 Albums of the Year
*Sequenced for maximum pleasure.

Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud
One of those consensus "Best Records," and deservedly so. On it Katie Crutchfield composes stunning oil portraits wrapped up in four-minute, Americana-tinged pop songs. This record arrived just in time to ease those early quarantine blues.

Spanish Love Songs - Brave Faces Everyone
Every line of this record is delivered like one last, exasperated breath. The most relatable feeling of 2020.

The Beths - Jump Rope Gazers
By the time Jump Rope Gazers came out in July, New Zealand had effectively eradicated the coronavirus. Watching the band satellite into "Live on KEXP" from their home island—playing live in each others' mixed-company—felt like watching something from an alternate universe. Despite that jealousy, this upbeat, charming pop record is all kinds of aural bliss.

Gia Margaret - Mia Gargaret
One of the most unexpected revelations of the year for me. A quietly textured, mostly instrumental, synth-heavy ambiance. An antidote for everything anxious and manic.

Bad Moves - Untenable
The sophomore effort from a D.C. band that's one part fistful-of-Skittles sugar rush, slathered in power pop, and laced with some Howard Zinn.

Jeff Rosenstock - NO DREAM
I'm biased. I've seen Jeff perform live in some iteration—solo, with Bomb the Music Industry, or backing other musicians—more than any other musician. NO DREAM checks every box for me—loud, melodic, original, anthemic, fuzzy feel-goods. I can't wait to shout along to "Scram!" next year(?) in the pit.

Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher
Fuck me. Even the Grammy's got its brilliance.

The Mountain Goats - Songs for Pierre Chuvin
Weeks into the initial lockdown, John Darnielle got back to his roots and recorded an album on his Panasonic boombox, a first since 2002's All Hail West Texas. He conjures that same black magick on Songs for Pierre Chuvin.

Frances Quinlan - Likewise
Hop Along's Frances Quinlan continually impresses with her jaunty, angular, deceptively-catchy compositions that reward the listener for time spent. When this stripped down solo-effort lacks Quinlan's usual guitar shreddery, it more than makes up for with lilting declarations urging you to shout along.

AJJ - Good Luck Everybody
Cathartically dark, AJJ puts words to all the anger I've been channeling into the ether for the last four years. Despite that, it ends on a hopeful note in "A Big Day for Grimley" with a rousing chorus of echoing pleas, ending with static uncertainty.

"Solitude for the stoic / Mirth for the merry
A quiet room for the overwhelmed / Arcades for the ADHD
Health for the sickly / A big day for Grimley
Good luck everybody."

***

I've also started a collaborative playlist on Spotify with songs from other records that I loved this year, as well fun singles and summer jams, songs I almost forgot about, and ones I went to spend more time with in 2021. **I hope you'll add some of your favorites from the year too** What did you love? What got you through?

I hope this unsolicited missive finds you and yours healthy and sane. I miss you all and can't wait to see you again.

Big hugs,
justin