My 20 favorite albums of 2020 - In Alphabetical Order #11-15

Let It Come Down – Songs We Sang In Our Dreams (Joyful Noise / Shimmy Disc) -  Let it Come Down's Songs We Sang In Our Dreams is the first major album from Producer/Shimmy Disc honcho Mark Kramer in some time. Kramer is known for a wide list of often-offbeat artists that he worked with such as Galaxie 500,Gwar, Ween, White Zombie, Daniel Johnston, Urge Overkill, King Missile, the Boredoms, Royal Trux, Pussy Galore and Naked City to name some of the many.

As a musical artist, Kramer's biggest contribution was as part of a duo with performance artist Ann Magnuson known as Bongwater. Being active in a few social media communities, people are still discovering this band from the late 80s and early 90s.

The four albums are weird mixes of psychedelia, samples, spoken word, sex, satire, FM Rock, and various other ingredients. Although the provocatively titled Power of Pussy is their most known piece of work, the slightly more accessible The Big Sell Out is my favorite piece of work of theirs. An album that I would at times past, rave about.

In many ways, Bongwater seems a product of their time, and yet, they were such an unusual group, I often think their music perhaps aged well, since it was not beholden to usual standards.

When Magnuson and Kramer broke up romantically and musically, the latter released an ambitious triple record called The Guilt Trip which referenced George Harrison's All Things Must Pass. It was incredibly self-indulgent, but it blew us indie-heads away. It is also the type of album I expected not to hold up nearly 30 years later, but it actually is still quite good in its quirky way.

I was a big enough fan that I picked up the next two Kramer albums, though they were a bit obscure. However, they didn't stick for me. Kramer remained prolific for a time. and I do enjoy the album he did with Penn Jillete as The Captain Howdy which is at least half-brilliant.

From there, I have tried to keep an eye on Kramer, though his releases seemed to dip even obscurer in the new century, with his focus largely on the Brill Building catalog or classical music.

So Let It Come Down is a welcome return with the most conventional and advertised Kramer album in years. The band is also a duo, this time with UK Singer/Songwriter Xan Tyler, though it won't be confused with Bongwater.

Yet in many ways, it does bear a certain resemblance sonically. Closer Three Wishes with its sample would not be noticed appended to a Bongwater release.

The song Forget chosen to be a 'single' to introduce the album to the masses would fit well on The Guilt Trip and has the Beatlesque sound we associate with the Producer.

The Pitchfork review compares the band to another of Kramer's 'discoveries', the band Low; and although Let it Come Down blazes a path beyond Bongwater, "The Guilt Trip" and Low, the are probably the three closest touchpoints for this band. Each song certainly could fit into one of those three sounds.

Songs We Sang In Our Dreams doesn't quite hit the highest highs of Kramer's career, but what is surprising is how close it gets. So an instant cult classic? Sounds about right.

Lydia Loveless – Daughter (Honey, You're Gonna Be Late) -  There is a seemingly endless string of talented Americana or alt-country artists. So many in the last twenty years, I don’t get too excited, except for the ones that really move me.

I suppose it’s a genre that begs the question of authenticity, which is probably unfair, but is the artist real or are they just playing at being George and Tammy.

There are some artists in the genre who I really like and one is Lydia Loveless. She has already had a decent career at an early age, but like many, 2016s Real provided my introduction.

Her name sounds like a mix between Lydia Lunch and Patty Loveless (Apparently her first name is Lydia, so it’s probably coincidental). This otherwise seems apt- drawing from punk poetry and traditional country.

The new album Daughter feels like the result of a constant sharpening of her skills. To me, it is not only a good album, but I think it is one we will look back at fondly in a few years.

Although I alluded to it earlier, I don’t think you necessarily have to live like Steve Earle to write like him. Now, Loveless has definitely had some experience to draw upon.

The trick of course is to make the confessional into the listenable. Loveless really nails it here. You are probably not going to put much thought into songs like Love is Not Enough if you’re not in a downbeat mood, but the content is certainly there.

That is the kind of reaction that you will get when you listen to Dead Writer or Daughter. It’s a bummer, but the song is so good, the listener won’t mind. Daughter feels like an open window to a doomed relationship but it’s also an ear worm.

As producer, Loveless with Tom Schlick (Wilco, Ryan Adams) nail a sound that would absolutely fit radio if anyone was daring these days. Schlick has worked extensively with the Thompson family and the Wainwright/McGarrigle family and there certainly is an element of that folk and intimate storytelling here too. Though musically more in tune with the alt country scene circa 1999-2005. There’s a bit of Stevie Nicks too (Wringer in particular, pulls out that influence, but it’s always there in the background). Plus there are inevitable compare and contrast thoughts always present with the likes of Lucinda Williams and Neko Case.

This one is pretty solid though. I think she could have pared it from 10 songs to 8 and really created a masterpiece, but that’s just trivial. Worth a listen

Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets – Walkabout (Yep Roc) - Nick Lowe has certainly had more twists and turns in his career than most artists. In the mid to late 90s, he pivoted into a bit of a country soul performer. His most recent change is a weird one (an alliance with Los Straitjackets) maybe not musically (we find out that they do complement each other quite well) but at least visually (the 71 year old singer fronting a band known for playing surf rock and wearing Mexican pro wrestling masks).

As I consider the Best Albums of the Year, I am thinking about giving a spot to Walkabout, the 2020 offering from these collaborators. It is a bit of a patchwork featuring songs from Lowe’s last three years worth of EPs backed by the Straitjackets and then padded to full album length by a selection of songs throughout Lowe’s career that have been turned into surf rock instrumentals.

If they not immediately grab you, give the original Lowe songs some time. They are very enjoyable short pop tunes - mostly fitting the current mold of Lowe with a definite nod to his power pop roots on Tokyo Bay and Crying Inside.

The Bee Gees “Heartbreaker” is an unusual cover selection, but would have fit well on Lowe's albbum 2001’s The Convincer and Lowe makes it work.

Los Straitjackets rip through a cover of The Easybeats 60s classic “Friday on my mind” furthering the Aussie/Pacific theme of the record, and the last track is a live version of “Heart of the City” from Lowe’s classic 1978 solo debut.

Overall, Walkabout is an enjoyable beginning to end listen. The new songs continue a winning streak for Lowe. While the output has slowed, Lowe continues to produce good week and stands firmly as one of my favorite artists continuing to record worthwhile material.

The Magnetic Fields -Quickies (Nonesuch) - This spring, David Sedaris released a Kindle-only essay called Themes and Variations. Having released the acclaimed Calypso in 2018 and doing it all and seeing it all, and proving he's the funniest guy in the room, it seemed an obvious transition.

So, in many ways does Quickies by The Magnetic Fields feels like a novella. Why not? Sedaris is probably the artist that is closest to Merritt in terms of what he is trying to accomplish. Think about it? Who were you going to say? Morrissey? Lou Barlow?

Quickies is a logical step after 2017's 50 Song Memoir, but most importantly, the listener won't think of such things, as Merritt just picks up business as usual. Yes, there is a song as short as 17 seconds, but again that's for the reviewers. Most songs are around the two minute mark. Enough to hit its punchline and move on to the next.

In fact, a fan might not think twice about the concept since it isn't that far away from Merritt's modus operandi. This being Merritt (like Sedaris) thing take turns for the dark, provocative and adult. Even the name itself is clearly a nod to something adult. Which of course means, titles like "The Biggest T*ts in History", "I wish I were a Prostitute Again" and "The Day the Politicians Died".

While not as good as "50 song" (nor pretending to be as ambitious), this makes a fine next entry in the Merritt discography.

Marilyn Manson -We Are Chaos (Loma Vista) - You might not picture me as a Manson fan but I am.

I saw him as a live opening act early on and I am still not a huge fan of his early work. He started out as a pretty generic shock rocker with n-th generation Iggy Pop influences.

Yet something happened. While Manson was play-acting being ‘America’s Enemy #1’, he actually became America’s villain. Because of that, he ended up with a wealth of experience to draw from.

His late 90s albums show a Bowie influence, at least assuredly on the album cover.

To me, his masterpiece is 2000’s Holy Wood- a culmination of everything before, surely not hurt anyway at all by collaborating with Dave Sardy. Bowie never made a heavy metal album but it isn’t a stretch to think it would have sounded like this.

I think many who knew Manson in the 90s assumed he had a sell by date, either through trends or possible Axl Rose-style self-indulgence. That isn’t what happened though. Although I don’t rate that many of his recent albums highly, it certainly isn’t anything to scoff at. He has released a new album every 2-3 years and they have consistently kept him in the limelight.

For me, my favorite of these is 2009’s The High End of Low. Manson considers it his most personal albums and armchair critics would probably see it as a chronicle of his divorce with Dita Von Teese and subsequent romance/break up with Evan Rachel Wood. The album also reunited him with some of those earlier collaborators- bassist Twiggy Ramirez, NIN keyboardist Chris Vrenna and producer Sean Beaven that has been responsible for his late 90s hits.

So WE ARE CHAOS would seem to be business as usual, but it’s not.

Manson’s most recent collaborator is Shooter Jennings. Jennings didn’t need to do anything more than being born to have rock star bonafides. He is the son of outlaw country legends Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter. Of course, he has done more than that- having a respected music career of his own and as a major tastemaker as a DJ for SiriusXM.

The collaboration is as inspired as it seems unusual. Easily his best work in years. It feels like a classic ‘dark wave’ record, not entirely different from the new Clan of Xymox album or any recent KMFDM recording.

We are still talking Manson so it’s doubtful that it will win any new converts, but if as a listener, you at any time were drawn to him, this album is likely to draw you back in.