The experiments lack hypotheses, let alone urgency; still, lots of melody, lots of honoring of the indie rock tradition, the right amount of complaining about dumbfucks (“Feeler”, “War Dance”, “Head Sport Full Face”)
Aminé: Limbo
Singy rapper or rappy singer for whom Kobe Bryant’s death might still be the defining event of 2020 provides thoughtfulness about race and family amidst a well-curated multiregional guest list, melting into his big-mood beats in a manner that should appeal to Chance or LOL Drake fans (“Roots”, “Easy”, “Becky”)
Sandrine Piau: Si J'ai Aimé
19th century art-chanson collection that starts with a Saint-Saëns setting of Victor Hugo looking at the fiery stars and foamy waves and continues with delicate readings of non-hackneyed material, though it never gets quite that horny again (“Le Pòete et la Fantome”, “Extase”, “Au cimetière”)
Yukika: Soul Lady
Japanese actress turned Seoul lady recreates the city pop that filled ’80s Walkmen with major sevenths in the Eighties, its weightlessness unaffected by anachronistic post-trapdubhouse clatters and wubs (“Pit-a-Pet”, “I Feel Love”, “Shade”)
Thomas Adès: Adès Conducts Adès
The Concerto for Piano and Orchestra is shit-goes-boom fireworks straight outta Tsarist Russia; Totentanz, a vocal work about death-comes-for-us-all, is seriouser, and despite this, probably deeper (“Der Tod zum Kaufmann”, “Concerto for Piano and Orchestra: 2”)
Gulch: Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress
Fifteen whole minutes from this NorCal buzzband with a big and natural-sounding snare nailing them to punk foundations, and if “Fucking Towards Salvation” doesn’t prove their familiarity with either of those two things, hey, it’s a good title (“All Fall Down the Well”, “Sin in My Heart”)
Ka: Descendants of Cain
Old man rap with mysterious production and an air of the esoteric, hinting that if you listen righteously, secrets of the universe will be revealed; if you work out what they are, give me an executive summary (“I Love (Mimi, Moms, Kev)”, “Pray”)
Motorpsycho: The All Is One
Norwegian psych-prog vets return with a double that doesn’t really earn its 84 minutes, but the fake-news-denouncing title track earns its nine, and you can admire their arranged strings and keyboard collection once they start going on about tarot or whatever (“The All Is One”, “N.O.X. I: Circles Around the Sun Pt. 1”)
Jealous of the Birds: Peninsula
Plenty of tune sense and the bon mots mostly land, though she’s a little too in debt to her tasteful singer-songwriter models—there’s one called “Kodachrome" ffs (“Pulaski Skyway”, “Epistle”)
Peter Eötvös: Halleluja/Alle Vittime Senza Nome
A pisstake on Handel &c. with a libretto by the late Péter Esterházy that’s probably mostly of interest to those into Eastern European literature, which is supposed to be me so I need a better excuse; plus a tribute to refugees who perished on the way to Europe, which despite its lack of specificity is fitting and moving (“Alle vittime senza nome: II”, “Erster Teil”)