Albums That Prove 2020 Wasn’t a Total Flaming Hellscape
Global pandemic, wildfires, murder hornets, impeached presidents running for re-election…2020 was chaos. But despite our impending doom, incredible albums were released this year to help us escape for an hour or so.
Below, Pilot’s music writers talk some of their favorite releases of this year.
Women In Music Pt. III – HAIM
Women In Music Pt. III was singlehandedly a blessing to 2020, coming as the experimental indie group’s third full album. This album, whilst staying true to the authentic, dreamy style that HAIM have perfected, explores new and exciting changes to their musicality. “Summer Girl” encompasses the evolution of HAIM for me – the combination of their iconic groovy bass lines with soulful, holiday-in-Paris style saxophone. The track transports you to the atmosphere of a beautiful European summer, walking down cobblestone streets and living out your mysterious Lana Del Ray fantasy. It’s wildly specific, but that’s essentially the song’s vibe summarised. Another stand out song from the album is “Man From The Magazine,” an incredibly raw exploration of misogyny in the music industry. For me, the lyrics were the core element of what made the song so impactful – detailing HAIM’s encounters with sexist journalists, implying that women in music are nothing more than sexual objects. The song expertly intertwines truthful lyrics and uniquely timed melodies to become one of HAIM’s greatest songs (and they have a lot of them). “FUBT” is the final song from the album that just has to be talked about. There’s something about the repetitive guitar riffs that let you slip into this almost hypnotic and mesmerised state, adding to the dreamy sound that defines HAIM. It’s the kind of song that has the energy of driving in the middle of the night after a terrible day. This atmosphere combined with Danielle’s enchanting and warped guitar solo (which I definitely tried to learn after they released a tutorial) makes a great conclusion to WIMPIII. Over the decade of their music career, Haim has never disappointed, and WIMPIII makes no exception. It’s just one of those albums where you can’t even skip one song. – Isadora Spencer
Heavy Light – U.S. Girls
Listening to Heavy Light is a whole experience. Meg Remy, a.k.a. U.S. Girls, has always written decidedly political albums. Her 2015 album Half Free included nine songs all from the perspective of different women. Her 2018 album In a Poem Unlimited is an expertly crafted political pop album. But Heavy Light sees Remy turn inward. Three of the songs on the album, “Overtime,” “State House (It’s A Man’s World),” and “Red Ford Radio” are actually recreations of older U.S. Girls songs, which perfectly fit the album’s introspective tendencies. Her signature brand of political commentary is still there, but she analyzes how those policies impact her. In her review of Heavy Light for Pitchfork, Sophie Kemp writes: “For much of her career, U.S. Girls has been an exploration of female violence and rage. But Heavy Light, Remy’s seventh album, lives in that period of emptiness that comes after.”
Meg Remy has the ability to take wholly devastating topics and create something wonderful out of them. She can make a groovy pop song about the difficult complexities of capitalism (“4 American Dollars”), create a gorgeous choral arrangement in a song about suicide (“Born To Lose”), and a sweeping, intricate song on the environmental terrors humans have inflicted on the earth (“Quiver To The Bomb”). One of the albums most gorgeous and tragic songs, “IOU,” builds on the idea that no one asks to be born, but then analyzes the things we do to keep ourselves alive, from speeding to burying shame. One of the most impactful lyrics on the album as a whole lives on “IOU,” as Remy sings, “I know full well what makes the shadows on my walls / Because I cast them there all by myself.”
I don’t know if Heavy Light is about reinventing or redefining yourself so much as reminding yourself who you are. It’s about facing the things that have happened to you, not to move on, but to accept them as a part of who you are now. Heavy Light actually feels a lot like the album cover, where Meg Remy sits with what I assume is supposed to be a younger version of herself. There’s a storm or something happening behind them, but they’re sat on the ground facing the light. That is one of the best things about Heavy Light, that even in its darkest moments it feels like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. – Erin Pattie
Good News – Megan Thee Stallion
As a woman navigating the world, especially in 2020 where everything seemed to crumble into chaos out of my control, Good News is the one thing reminding me of my autonomy and power. Megan Thee Stallion’s first studio album includes her viral TikTok song and number one hit single “Savage,” body-positivity anthem “Body” and banger “Girls in the Hood,” which gave us the iconic line, “I’ma make him eat me out while I’m watchin anime” (Meg loves My Hero Academia, Naruto and Attack on Titan, by the way).
Megan is one of the most important voices in music right now. She’s using her platform to bring attention to violence against Black Women in her live performances, writing and songs. “Shots Fired,” the diss track for Tory Lanez, who shot Megan this summer, opens the album with ferocity, sampling Notorious B.I.G’s “Who Shot Ya?” She uses her first-hand experience of violence and injustice to draw parallels to other events this year that exemplified the way the U.S. justice system fails to protect Black Women: “Here we are, 2020, 8 months later / and we still ain’t got no fuckin’ justice for Breonna Taylor.”
In her op-ed for the New York Times, Megan writes:
I was recently the victim of an act of violence by a man. After a party, I was shot twice as I walked away from him. We were not in a relationship. Truthfully, I was shocked that I ended up in that place. . . . I’ve realized that violence against women . . . happens because too many men treat all women as objects, which helps them to justify inflicting abuse against us when we choose to exercise our own free will.
And Megan is an artist most vocal about exercising her own free will in her art, career and sex life. A woman in a male dominated music world, Meg is subverting decades of sexually explicit and objectifying lyrics by men across genres. Meg is proud of her sexuality (“Moaning like a bitch when he hit this pussy / Damn, he probably wanna wear my hoodie” in “Cry Baby”) and confident in herself (“I'm the baddest bitch, who wanna fight about it? / Put 'em in the booth, I bet I'll take the title” in “What’s New”) and is providing a much needed reminder that you should be, too. – Sarah Holt
Disco Volador – The Orielles
Indie band The Orielles from West Yorkshire released their sophomore album Disco Volador this year, making 2020 slightly better for me (and hopefully you too, after you’ve read this). The Orielles specialise in space rock, a genre where you can often find songs with loose structures – you know, the ones with 5-minute-long instrumentals. It’s otherworldly, transforming you to another dimension of your mind and taking you on a non-drug-induced trip (it’s essentially a branch of psychedelic music). Disco Volador’s opening track “Come Down On Jupiter” is the definition of escapism – the combination of Esme’s dreamy vocals and ever-changing rhythms takes you on a mental journey through the solar system. One minute you’re listening to quintessential guitar pop, the next you’re taken on a trip through disco space rock and alien-like sound effects. My personal favourite song, “Bobbi’s Second World,” is an explosion of vibrancy through music. It’s quirky and eccentric, summing up The Orielles’ strengths in under four minutes. It’s 21st-century indie kids bringing the 80s vibe with a modern psychedelic twist. The music industry needs more individuality and colourful tracks to reach people – The Orielles do just that. Finally, “7th Dynamic Goo” – if there’s a song title that could encompass the entire concept of this album, this is the one. Where do I start? When listening to this, I feel as if I’m at an alien disco on a spaceship, partying with aliens all night. The rhythms are constantly changing, the disco synth is cosmological and the mesmerizing guitar makes you want to put on some flares and start to boogie. If there is any word to summarise Disco Volador (and there are so many), stellar would be it. The Orielles approach their return to music with out-of-this-world energy and bursts of bright colours – exactly the vibe of this astronomical album. – Isadora Spencer
The Archer - Alexandra Savior
Alexandra Savior wrote her debut album, Belladonna of Sadness, entirely with Alex Turner, her then-writing-partner. Alternatively, The Archer was written completely solo, and though I love Belladonna dearly, this is the album where Savior has come into her own. The Archer was written after being dropped from her prior label and post-breakup, but Savior expertly takes any pain and crafts it into songs that are confessional and relatable without being draining. Savior shows a mastery of a wide range of sound, from gorgeous piano ballads to psychedelic alt pop, singing about love, depression, obsession, and jealousy with her undeniably beautiful voice and biting wit.
The Archer was a pre-pandemic album (though one of the songs on the album entitled “Bad Disease” did find some pandemic fame), but Savior writes about loneliness in a way that’s quite foretelling. Savior is an expert at analyzing and recontextualizing relationships in songs like “Crying All The Time,” which liken a breakup to a death, and “Howl,” about the psychological manipulation between an older man and a younger woman. My favorite song on the album is the closer and title track, “The Archer,” which sonically sounds like a love song but lyrically includes lines like “You ate me right up, you spit me back out / You bit my head right off with you’re tiny little mouth / And I licked the blood from your lips.” The song only sounds more fucked up against the sweet instrumentals, but it ends up being a genius track about the predatory aspects of love and the relationships where you’re being hurt before you even realize it.
The Archer is a perfectly crafted album about all the darker parts of love. The times it doesn’t work out, the times you get used, the times you get left alone, and feeling of being trapped in all those relationships. But Savior tackles these topics with high regard for listenability. The swirling synths and playful instrumentals keep the heavier moments on the album from taking it out of you. It’s more like Savior wants you to hear her story, maybe get a dance or a smile out of it, and take it with you wherever you go next. Heavy or not, whether you’ve gone through a terrible breakup or are just falling in love for the first time, The Archer is an album you can return to time and time again, however easy or hard it gets. – Erin Patti
FREE I.H: This Is Not The One You’ve Been Waiting For – Illuminati Hotties
On July 1st, a mass of indie artists including Sadie Dupuis, Lucy Dracus and PUP tweeted a link to the mysterious SoundCloud page of an outfit called Occult Classic. The account had no information on it; no description and no further website links, only a blacked-out profile picture and twelve songs, each one better than the last. On July 2nd, the page was gone. My new favorite album had disappeared forever.
A week later, Illuminati Hotties’ Sarah Tudzin shared one of the Occult Classic album’s most unforgettable tracks, titled “will i get cancelled if i write a song called, ‘if you were a man you’d be so cancelled,’” announcing it as the latest single off of her upcoming record. The album I fell in love with upon first listen was back in my grasp.
FREE I.H. came out a week later. The band’s sophomore album was released independently by Tudzin after plans deteriorated with her label Tiny Engines, who were facing public criticism from artists, including complaints of delayed payments and breached contracts. To exit a deal where IH was expected to produce one more record for the label, Tudzin agreed to buy out her Tiny Engines contract with a cash settlement and a payment of royalties on a future project. This mixtape is a final clapback to the label. Engineered and produced by Tudzin, the album is a tight 23 minutes, perfect from beginning to end. The album offers an eclectic style of songs with a little bit of something for everybody. The single and opening track rips open with a fuzzy descending riff and the best opening line to any album ever: “Let’s smash to a podcast.” The track “melatonezone” is danceable Afropop reimagined as crunchy, fuzzed out indie rock. You can find hardcore punk thrashers in songs like “free ppls” and “superiority complex (big noise).” Reverb-heavy shoegaze inspiration is seeped into “free dumb,” where Tudzin and bandmate Zach Bilson ask their old label, “While the world burns, how could you care about a fucking record?” You’ll be singing along halfway into the first listen of the poppy ear worm “frequent letdown,” and the playful sing-alongs in “content//bedtime.” – Sarah Holt
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Thumbnail Image by Neve Tullberg