Backstory aside, the singing contributes more than the titular axes, but it’s nice that somewhere in the 21st century people still use guitars for self-expression (“Slavery Time Blues”, “Black Man’s Dream”, “Turning Point”)
The former Spank Rock makes his love-and-metafiction vision corporeal through off-kilter rapping, off singing, Swamp Dogg, and Justin Vernon (“Let Us Rave”, “Tiger Song”, “Simulation”)
Unusually well-connected Arkansans construct unusually well-formed tales of rock-and-roll moderation that are only occasionally overshadowed by their guest list (“The Day Marc Bolan Went to Nashville”, “Cloud No. 9”, “Every Single One”)
Clever lines and rhymes, clever structures with like key changes, effective singing: those without a prejudice against college rock should love this (“Hysterical”, “WTD?”, “Ghost (of a Good Time)”)
Rincon Sapiência: Mundo Manicongo: Dramas, Danças E Afroreps
São Paulo rapper gives the world two options: to dance or to dance to worldbeats with Afro-Brazilian and African characteristics that sound more like grime than anything else (“Mundo Manicongo”, “Amor e Calor”, “Meu Ritmo”)
Camilla Tilling, Christian Gerhaher, Gerold Huber: Schumann: Myrthen
Tilling is good, and Huber is good, and together they’re good, and when Gerhaher shows up with a meaty lied it’s a reminder that magic or at least chemistry exists (“Aus den hebräischen Gesängen”, “Talismane”)
Ariana Grande: Positions
But my gosh don’t you know it (“Positions”, “Motive”)
Caylee Hammack: If It Wasn’t for You
So redheaded she gets Reba in for a duet, she declines to dominate her material vocally, which is for the best when many of her songs are rather easy-to-please, although the strongest one isn’t at all (“Small Town Hypocrtite”, “New Level of Life”)
He channels all his rage and contempt for neofascism into… an acoustic guitar album, with rapper OGI making things more explicit and Ava Rocha and Juçara Marçal to making noises that I don’t think are words (“Gaba”, “Vida Mansa”)
Loudon Wainwright III: I’d Rather Lead a Band
If most of the ones you don’t know on this raid of the pre-war songbook aren’t up to much, at least he brought the best title of the 1930s to our attention, with love (“Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea”, “I’m Going to Give It to Mary with Love”)
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The 9th or 10th Annual Expert Witnesses Poll is open! Vote for your top 10 albums of 2020* and up to 10 singles by emailing your ballot to bradluen@yahoo.co.nz (put “EW Pazz & Jop” in the subject line) by 11:59 pm on Tuesday.
For albums: Split 100 points among your top 10 (no less than 5 and no more than 30 for each album)
For singles: Name your top ten singles. Rule of thumb is if you listened to it out of the context of an album, it’s a single. ASTERISK RULE: You may put an asterisk by one single to give it an extra half-point. If you don’t put an asterisk by any single, the half-point will go to the first single you name unless you state your list is unranked. The asterisk doesn’t have to be by your number one single (e.g. you might want to vote tactically if you don't think anyone else will vote for your top pick.)
*The year-of-impact rule applies at your discretion. If you want reissues etc. to show up on the list, vote for them.
Previous winners:
2011: Frank Ocean: Nostalgia, Ultra/Frank Ocean: “American Wedding”
2012: Loudon Wainwright III: Older Than My Old Man Now/Carly Rae Jepsen, “Call Me Maybe”
2013: Vampire Weekend, Modern Vampires of the City/Vampire Weekend, “Ya Hey”
2014: Wussy: Attica!/Wussy, “Teenage Wasteland”
2015: Courtney Barnett: Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit/Donnie Trumpet & the Social Experiment, “Sunday Candy”
2016: A Tribe Called Quest: We Got It from Here… Thank You 4 Your Service/Beyoncé, “Formation”
2017: Jens Lekman: Life Will See You Know/Paramore, “Hard Times"
2018: Parquet Courts: Wide Awake!/Ariana Grande, “thank u, next”
2019: Billie Eilish: When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?/Lizzo, “Juice”
Next week: Movies! Poll results!