Favorite Albums of 2020: Honorable Mentions

Here is another short list of albums I listened to this year that I enjoyed quite a bit, but didn't end up making my top 10 list that I will post next week. I've listened to a countless number of albums this year, so it's easy to say there are things that I love about every album on this list and I recommend that everyone check them out if my descriptions sound like it might be interesting to you!

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Mary Lattimore - Silver Ladders

The first album on my mentions list comes from none other than ambient music legend, Mary Lattimore. Lattimore has released some of the best ambient music this decade, and continued the tradition with this, the seventh solo release of her discography.

The harp is Lattimore’s main instrument on all of her records, and that continues to take place on this album -- in fact, there isn’t much else on here than her harp buried in heavy reverb. It creates a haunting, yet beautiful scenery that I find myself traveling to every time I play this album. This is definitely chill and relaxing ambient music, something that you can put on in the background if you’re studying or trying to fall asleep.

Vivid imagery is vital to me being able to listen to ambient music on repeat, and this album takes me to a snow-covered mountaintop every time it comes on. The plucks of the strings feel like little gusts of wind all around me, and the somber but propitious sound of the music makes me feel like I’ve accomplished a great task and am taking it all in. All and all, I really love this record and encourage anyone who wants something sweet and relaxing to put on in the background to check this one out.

Favorite Songs: Pine Trees, Silver Ladders, Thirty Tulips

MK.gee - A Museum Of Contradiction

Michael Gordon, better known as, MK.gee, might be my favorite new artist that I discovered this year. It all started when I heard his first single, “cz” which is one of the songs I’ve listened to most throughout the year. He started out more as an electronic artist, with minimal use of lyrics and real instrumentation on his stuff, and while this project has shades of that throughout, there are full-fledged, structured songs on this thing that feature catchy hooks and infectious instrumentation, especially eclectic guitar.

If I could describe this album in one word, it would be ~vibe~ for sure. This is music made for chill car rides throughout the city at night and Gordon pulls off that aesthetic so well. I like his mix of structured songs and instrumentals, with the intro and outro tracks introducing the listener to this laid back vibe and letting them off the vibe train at the end -- from front to back, you know what you are getting with this thing.

Honestly, the biggest issue I had with this album, is I wanted more at the end. This thing comes in with 9-tracks but a runtime of just 25 minutes, it really just flies by. I would have liked to have seen a couple more structured songs to help the ratio them with the instrumentals on here but all together, I think this is a very good album that has left me extremely excited to see what type of music he releases in the future.

Favorite Songs: cz, Isn’t It So Convenient, >;0 (feat. Vegyn)

Maggie Rogers - Notes From The Archive: Recordings 2011-2016

Maggie Rogers regained control of the early backlog of her music earlier this year -- so in turn, she decided to officially re-release a lot of it with this record. Technically, this isn’t a “new” album (although it does contain some songs that have never been released before), and I have heard most of the material well before this thing came out, but I think it deserves recognition here because it is very well put together.

What listens more like a documentary or a podcast than a regular album. Rogers is all over this thing not only singing but talking. The album is broken up by a couple of songs that Maggie released at different points of her life -- some when she was 18, and all the way up to just a couple of months before the viral video, which began her rise to stardom, of Pharell reacting to her debut single “Alaska” blew up. But in between each of these new segments of songs, we get a track of Rogers talking directly to the listener (in very high-quality recordings), being totally transparent about how the song was recorded and what she was thinking about when she was making these projects. I thought this was an awesome way to engage listeners with your music. Some people think that artists shouldn’t talk much about the music they release in the world and let the listener think for themselves and create their own meanings for songs. I personally, really love when artists tell me exactly what they mean when they write lyrics -- it really allows me to connect with the material and somehow makes me feel closer to it.

Not only is the format of the album intriguing, but there are also some really good songs on this thing too! We see Rogers go with a more straight forward rock sound that we haven’t seen officially, and we see some stripped-down folk tunes that I think is where Maggie is at her best musically. I really appreciate Maggie putting this record out and letting her listeners in on her history -- it takes a lot of courage to let people in on your 18-year-old self’s music, but Maggie did it in such a transparent way with this album that it was very endearing.

Favorite Songs: Symmetry, Blood Ballet, New Song, Steady Now

Childish Gambino - 3.15.20

This album came as a bit of a surprise this year. We knew Donald Glover had been working on music off and on throughout all of the creative endeavors he’s been apart of these last couple of years -- but when I saw him tweet a link to the album streaming on a continuous 24-hour loop, it was a great surprise to have. Glover continued with his soulful R&B style that he nailed so well with his 2016 album, Awaken My Love, but added in some experimental hip-hop style tracks in here as well.

I think the performance on this thing is pretty good too. I’ve always been a fan of Glover’s singing and he continued to wow me with his vocal range on this album. It opens strong with some very catchy songs featuring Ariana Grande, 21 Savage, and others, but I think the album gets a little bland in the middle with a couple of songs that I haven’t fully gotten behind. Glover bounces back to close the album with three fantastic songs including his single from last year, “Feels Like Summer” (titled here as 42.26, the time mark of the song on the album) and the song “47.48” which finishes with a very heartwarming interaction between Glover and his daughter which makes me smile every time I hear it.

This album flew under the radar this year despite Glover being one of the biggest stars in the world -- one, because of Covid, and two, he basically released this thing out of nowhere without and media promotion. I do think there are really good things that showed up here and while I don’t listen to this album quite as much as some of Glover’s previous works, there are times where I’ll be in the mood to listen to some songs from this here and there -- that’s enough for me to mention it.

Favorite Tracks: Time, 12.38, 42.26, 47.48

Bruno Major - To Let A Good Thing Die

Have you ever wanted to listen to traditional swing style lyrics over lo-fi hip-hop production? No? Yeah, neither have I. But that was before I got recommended this album by my old college roommate. Bruno Major is a British singer-songwriter who has an affinity for old, Ratpack style swing music -- and to his credit, his voice and lyrics do a very good job of making the listener feel the same feelings of chillness that come with that style of music. It's the production on this thing that makes it feel new and different -- we aren’t getting any jazzy big band horns or loud upbeat instrumentation -- instead, we get quiet, distorted electric guitar and slow and steady 808 drum beats behind Major’s smooth vocals.

This was something that at first, felt a little forced to me, but as I kept listening, it was clear that Major loves both of these genres and wanted to merge them to the best of his ability. This album is carried by Major’s smooth voice and cute, yet funny lyricism. For example, there are songs about Major falling in love with someone he’s never met and getting laughed at by a waiter at a restaurant for saving that person a seat, even though he knows they won’t actually show up. There’s also a song about him literally doing nothing with someone he loves, but that’s it’s okay because there’s no one else he’d rather be doing nothing with. There is a kind of transparency and self-awareness in his lyrics that I find really endearing. It’s like he knows what he’s doing is a little cheesy and old fashioned (there’s also a song about that on here) but he doesn’t care because it’s what he likes to sing about.

That combination of authenticity and mixture of musical styles really makes this album fresh and fun to listen to. It also has me excited to see what Major plans on doing with his future projects because I know he’s said that he plans on doing something entirely different with his next album so hopefully he continues to keep up the creativity.

Favorite Songs: Old Soul, The Most Beautiful Thing, Nothing, Old Fashioned