75-51
75 KELLYLEEOWENS
Inner Song SMALLTOWN SUPERSOUND
74 JEFF PARKER Suite For Max Brown INTERNATIONALANTHEM
73 DOVES The Universal Want HEAVENLY/VIRGIN/EMI
72 TAMIKREST Tamotait GLITTERBEAT
71 ANDY BELL The View From Halfway Down SONICCATHEDRAL
70 BILLFAY CountlessBranches DEADOCEANS
69 HONEY HARPER Starmaker ATO
68 STEVE EARLE & THE DUKES Ghosts Of West Virginia NEW WEST
67 MATT BERRY PhantomBirds ACID JAZZ
66 SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE Companion Rises DRAG CITY
65 GARCIA PEOPLES Nightcap At Wit’s End BEYOND BEYOND IS BEYOND
64 NADINE SHAH KitchenSink BMG
63 HC McENTIRE Eno Axis MERGE
62 AOIFE NESSA FRANCES Land Of No Junction BASIN ROCK
61 ELVIS COSTELLO HeyClockface CONCORD
60 LIANNE LA HAVAS Lianne La Havas WARNER
59 JULIANNA BARWICK Healing Is A Miracle NINJATUNE
58 BC CAMPLIGHT ShortlyAfterTakeoff BELLAUNION
57 TONY ALLEN & HUGH MASEKELA Rejoice WORLDCIRCUIT
56 THE LEMON TWIGS Songs For The General Public4AD
55 KHRUANGBIN Mordechai DEADOCEANS
54 PERFUMEGENIUS Set My Heart On Fire Immediately MATADOR
53 SUFJAN STEVENS TheAscension ASTHMATICKITTY
52 HEN OGLEDD FreeHumans DOMINO
51 HAIM Women In Music Pt III UNIVERSAL
50 MARGO PRICE That’s How Rumors Get Started LOMAVISTA
Recording in Hollywood with Sturgill Simpson in the producer’s chair, the Midwest farmer’s daughter tried her hand at a West Coast pop album for her third LP. Rather than country confessionals, then, here were 10 songs taking in Heartbreakers-esque new wave, gospel and prime Fleetwood Mac. Complete with a more oblique, lyrical voice from Price, the result was another step forward for a musician who respects tradition but has never been shackled by it.
49 GWENIFER RAYMOND Strange Lights Over GarthMountain TOMPKINSSQUARE
A fearsome live performer, foregoing chat for instrumental acoustic guitar intensity, Gwenifer Raymond in 2020 made the album that gave recorded shape to her uncompromising approach. Grown in ambition, if not noticeably in length from her 2018 debut, Garth Mountain drew both on the rabbit skulls and damp moss of British folk horror, and also a compositional wisdom that broadened the horizon of her American Primitive twang.
48 THE NECKS Three ReRMEGACORP
Normally, The Necks appear to simply roll up to the studio, record an hour’s music, and roll out. For this entertaining and accessible album, the Australian acoustic improvising trio (“jazz” doesn’t get it somehow) split their work into three 20-minute compositions. “Bloom”, a rattling yet spacious noise, threw back to the mesmeric charms of their classic Drive By. “Lovelock” explored creepier post-industrial ambience, while “Further” again returned to a groovy, percussive chatter.
47 WORKING MEN’S CLUB Working Men’s Club HEAVENLY
Like LCD Soundsystem or Fat White Family before them, this Todmorden collective combine dance rhythms and post-punk awkwardness to fine effect. They were signed as a guitar band, but swiftly
