Publication End of the Year Lists 2020 • Page 13

That's fair, but The Blueprint came out on 9/11

 

True. Not gonna argue Eternal Atake will be as influential as that one lol

 

I think New Ways of Living got them a lot more press outside of Ireland last year actually. They got quite a favourable review in one of Germanys biggest music magazines too. Definitely deserved.

 

That’s awesome. Which magazine was that?

 

It was in Visions, was even named record of the week:

Platte der Woche: The Winter Passing - New Ways Of Living

Has been around for over 30 years as a magazine, surprisingly still in print too.

 

Any interest in throwing out some recs for a casual hip hop/r&b fan? You seem to know a lot of about those genres so I just figured I'd ask. Anything in the vein of Frank Ocean, Kendrick, Doomtree, Cautious Clay, some Mac Miller & Chidlish Gambino. Think you mentioned Blue & Exile somewhere on here recently and that was great.

 

Let me get back to you tomorrow. If I don’t, please remind me lol

 

I'm just going to list some Hip Hop albums from the last few years that made my lists that I think you might like:

Blu & Exile - Miles
R.A.P. Ferreira - Purple Moonlight Pages
Common - Let Love
Little Brother - May The Lord Watch
Blu & Damu The Fudgemunk - Ground & Water
Gavlyn - Headspace
Evidence - Weather Or Not
Black Milk - Fever
August Greene - August Greene
Ruby Ibarra - Circa91
Oddisee - The Iceberg
Wiki - No Mountains In Manhattan
Jay Z - 4:44
A Tribe Called Quest - We Got It From Here... Thank You 4 Your Service
J. Cole - 4 Your Eyez Only
Rapsdoy - Crown
De La Soul - and the Anonymous Nobody...

Also, because you mentioned Blu & Exile, I'm going to recommend Fashawn's Boy Meets World, which was produced by Exile and is one of my favorite albums of all time.

When it comes to R&B, I'm not exactly sure what to recommend to you because I'm not really into the kind of R&B Frank Ocean makes, so you might not like what I like. However, here are three albums that I liked in the last few years that maybe sound a little more "organic" than the other albums I liked (my favourite R&B album of the 2010s is probably SweetSexySavage by Kehlani, by the way):

Tweet - Charlene
Mahalia - Love And Compromise
Teyana Taylor - K.T.S.E

My favourite Hip Hop and R&B albums of this year for good measure:

1. Headie One - Gang
2. Blu & Exile - Miles
3. JoJo - Good To Know
4. Statik Selektah - The Balancing Act
5. Benny The Butcher - Burden Of Proof
6. Brandy - B7
7. J Hus - Big Conspiracy
8. Kehlani - It Was Good Until It Wasn’t
9. Skyzoo - Milestones
10. Maino - Die A Legend

If the albums I listed aren't your thing, I recommend visiting the Hip Hop Thread to ask for more recommendations (there is also an R&B thread, but it's pretty dead these days). We collectively listen to a lot of different stuff. This is our 2020 aggregate AOTY list by the way:

 

Best pure R&B album of 2020 for me is probably Victoria Monet. "Dive" is the best sex jam I've heard in a few years.

 

I haven't heard that one. I will check it out.

 

Yeah the Victoria Monet album is pretty great, though it's basically an EP because it' so short

 

I love short albums. 20-30 minutes is my sweet spot these days.

 

THANK YOU. Can't wait to dig in. Will share any positive thoughts as they come in. Gave that Blue & Exile album Miles another listen over the weekend and furthered my appreciation of it.

 

You’re welcome. I purposely (almost) only picked more recent ones to start with. Once you’re done and can tell me which albums you liked you can ask me for more if you want.

Regarding Blu & Exile, you should definitely listen to Below The Heavens and Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Snell them if you haven’t. They’re even better than Miles.

 

My thresholds for being an album is usually 8 or more full length songs or 30 minutes (with some discretion), so she just sneaks over. But it feels so fully developed and has great flow, so I'd probably have given it the benefit of the doubt anyway.

I cannot get over how masterful the whole second half of "Dive" is. The way they play with dynamics, the way they deploy the orgasm sample, and probably my favorite horn chart in the last few years. It's just high quality work.

 

Listened to the album after seeing this. Knew I could trust you.

 

These days I try my best to go with what the artist themselves call it. Album, EP, project, mixtape.... it all just kinda mushed together anyway.

I guess in this case, it's actually neither album nor EP, but "part of a three part project" haha....

 

They're entitled to call their records whatever they want, but my OCD demands some rules. Haha

 

Glad you liked it, my friend.

 

Have you posted your personal end of the year list anywhere yet?

 

No I'm still working on it. Honestly, these days, my goal is to have it by the end of January. Haha

Adulthood Blues

 

I feel you on the blues. You better @ me when you post it!

 

Also worth recommending Tayla Parx, I always think of her and Victoria Monet in the same thought because they're friends and both are constant co-writers on Ariana Grande's albums, they are two of the "seven rings" she refers to in the song of the same name. Anyway, this leans more poppy than Victoria, but it's also great.

her album from 2019 is even better

 

I'm bouncing around all over the place, and have more work to do, but can safely say that the albums below are standouts & fantastic:

• August Greene - August Greene
• Fashawn - Boy Meets World
  
• Jay Z - 4:44

 

If you like August Greene I think you’ll like several Common albums, like “Be” and “Like Water For Chocolate”. “Be” specifically is one of the best albums ever made if you ask me. If you haven’t heard it yet, I also recommend Jay Z’s “The Black Album” and “The Blueprint”.