My answers:

2020: Open Mike Eagle - Anime, Trauma and Divorce

Bought this one on vinyl after only a couple listens on Spotify. Fun, funny, profound, depressing, and hopeful. If you’re an alt hip-hop fan, especially one approaching their 40s or above, especially especially if you’re also as much a comic and anime nerd as a hip-hop nerd, then I cannot recommend this album enough.

Honorable mentions: Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher / Thundercat - It Is What It Is

2021: (tie) Genesis Owusu - Smiling With No Teeth / Horse Bitch - RIP Pistachio

Already cheating with two entries, both of albums kick ass in very different ways. Australian Genesis Owusu’s album SWNT is a multi-genre delight with equal parts ferocity and polish, defying classification but hitting-hard start start to finish. The red & gold limited edition vinyl of SWNT is the most expensive vinyl I own.

Horse Bitch (I dare you to tell me you’ve heard of them), on the other hand, is a small indie band from Colorado with an earlier album that doesn’t do it for me, but whose 2021 album RIP Pistachio is pure, but not blissful, fun. RIP Pistachio sounds like the day after drinking yourself numb but now your friends are over and the beer tastes good again and you start to remember that yes things are awfully stupid in the world, but maybe stupid ain’t that bad.

Honorable mentions: Remi Wolf - Juno / Silk Sonic - An Evening With Silk Sonic / Tyler, the Creator - Call Me If You Get Lost

2022: (tie) Orville Peck - Bronco / Bartees Strange - Farm to Table

I’m not a country or Western guy, but Orville Peck is a phenom of a singer and Bronco is his best effort to date. Riveting, emotional, and strong, even if it’s not something inside your normal boundaries.

A lot of what I wrote about Genesis Owusu’s Smiling With No Teeth can be applied to Bartees Strange’s Farm to Table, as it’s also a genre-defying masterpiece of dynamic and diverse musical inspirations. Tremendous guitar riffs and solos, deep lyrics, and interesting production choices round out the appeal here, adding to the sum of an excellent album.

Honorable mentions: Wet Leg - Wet Leg / The Mars Volta - The Mars Volta

2023: Codefendants - This is Crime Wave

I don’t know what to say about this one other than that it’s fucking sick. The songs are fun and rebellious but without feeling childish. It makes me remember the hopeful days of my youth while feeling very grounded in today and like we’re all adults in the room. And at a mere 33 minutes, it’s just long enough to kick the door in, blow your mind a bit, but then get out before it overstays its welcome. Easy recommendation.

Honorable mentions: Genesis Owusu - Struggler / The National - Laugh Track

I’m not gonna expand more, but as for what’s caught my attention so far this year, I’d say Black Pumas - Chronicles of a Diamond and Future Islands - People Who Aren’t There Anymore are probably top contenders so far for me.

edit: typos

2024: album that has my attention is Prelude to Ecstasy by The Last Dinner Party. Glorious, dramatic chamber pop with many lyrical nods for the History majors in your life.

2023: Javelin by Sufjan Stevens + Expert In A Dying Field by The Beths. Suf is the easy choice but man is it good and, in typical fashion, heart-breaking. I don’t know how The Beths continue to make their style sound fresh, but they do. The songwriting, harmonies, guitar work, all so excellent.

2022: The Festival by Tim Baker + Revealer by Madison Cunningham. Tim Baker just doesn’t miss. Leaning heavily into the horns and soul influence, but still grounded in composed, mature folk-pop. Madison Cunningham on the other hand varies style a good deal but it works every time. Great guitar, interesting compositions, lyrically strong.

2021: Peace Or Love by Kings of Convenience + Stunning & Atrocious by Fleece. Kings of Convenience, your modern-day Norwegian Simon & Garfunkel, return in perfect form. Feist returns for a few tracks, every song is strong. Fleece level up from complex guitar-heavy indie-rock to delicious funky indie-pop. The most fun I’ve ever seen a band have together on stage was seeing them play this album.

2020: Half-Empty by The Little Hands of Asphalt + Every Bad by Porridge Radio. Missed Half-Empty until a year ago but wow, it’s such a stellar singer-songwriter album - string arrangements are mouthwateringly good. Begs to be listened to as an album. Every Bad is, to me, pure catharsis in musical form. Vocal performances on tracks like Circling and Sweet are gut wrenching.

Favorite songs not in any of these: Oh How We Drift Away by Tim Heidecker & Weyes Blood (this is what I’d put as my Song of the Decade so far), Feelings Meeting by Living Hour ft. Jay Som, Jackie Down The Line by Fontaines D.C., Your Light by The Big Moon, Hounds of Hell by The Phoenix Foundation ft. Nadia Reid.

Alvvays Blue Rev is the best album of 2023

Super excited for the rerelease vinyl of Tacocat NVM. Such a great debut album. If you haven’t ever heard them, think of the Go Go’s and Ramones style punk from Seattle.

Got a copy of the reissue of Fugazi’s *End Hits * and it sounds so good on vinyl. Can’t wait for the Steady Diet of Nothing release. I believe it’s the last to get the special vinyl reissue treatment. Best for last! So excited!

This is a good thread

2020: The Pilgrim - Walking Into The Forest

Acoustic Psychedelia that is infectiously uplifting. I can’t listen to this album and not have feelings of gratitude just being alive and able to experience the world (including listening to this band).

Honorable Mentions: Thundercat - It Is What It Is, The Budos Band - Long In The Tooth

2021: Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert

The beats, the samples, the fucking raw lyrics. Not really digging the sound on her latest release, but Sometimes I Might Be Introvert and 2022’s NO THANK YOU are amazing accomplishments in artistry.

Honorable Mentions: Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee, Adia Victoria - A Southern Gothic

2022: Elder - Innate Passages

One of my favorite bands that is the pinnacle of Stoner/Doom Metal. Innate Passages felt like a return to form for Elder after a couple of albums that were good but felt middling compared to their earlier albums.

Honorable Mentions: Little Simz - NO THANK YOU, Daníel Hjálmtýsson - LABYRINTHIA, Weyes Blood - And In Darkness, Hearts Aglow, Ezra Collective - Where I’m Meant to Be, Cassandra Lewis - Always, All Ways, Mt. Fog - Spells of Silence

2023: Whatitdo Archive Group - Palace Of A Thousand Sounds

Soul/Funk that sounds like it’s cut from a bygone era of cinema, only better. It’s easy to visualize some grainy B movie filled with action and intrigue while listening to this album. The grooves just keep rolling it’s hard not to move to.

Honorable Mentions: Lamassu - Made of Dust, Altın Gün - Aşk