My 20 favorite albums of 2020 - In Alphabetical Order #16-20

Old 97 s – Twelfth (ATO)-  The Old 97s were an underrated (and my favorite) band of the 90s Americana scene. They seemingly too a post-2001 break but I don’t think they ever completely broke up.

In any case, it’s getting harder to separate the two and if it continues much longer, it will be confusing to say which is ‘classic’ 97s.

In any case, bands usually run out of steam. One would think the creative burst of the Grand Theater records (25 songs in 2 years) would lead to a long break. It didn’t.

2014s Most Messed Up felt like a look back (indeed opening with “Longer than You’ve been Alive” was pretty self explanatory) a kind of end-of-career statement- not that the band was going away, but certainly a landmark.

Which made 2017’s Graveyard Whistling more notable. To me, this album felt different. A new producer and guests like Brandi Carlile and Caitlin Rose. In many ways, this album felt like a bid for more airplay, with the caveat that few radio stations would play this in the first place.

‘Which of those two albums is better?’ seems an impossible ask and comes down to preferences. In any case, two late career masterpieces seem improbable but there they are.

Any conversation about initial listening to Twelfth surely must include If an inevitable letdown has occurred. Though retaining producer Vance Powell (Raconteurs, Chris Stapleton, Jars of Clay, Buddy Guy) the album feels akin to the ‘looking back’ vibes from Most Messed Up- a feeling confirmed by the nostalgic photo of Roger Staubach used on the cover.

That said, while Most Messed Up felt like a Replacements style rollick (complete with Tommy Stinson cameo), Twelfth feels like Sunday Morning to MMU’s Saturday Night. There’s the latter day Westerberg-ian lyrical genius that comes with age and experience and yet has been there at least since 2001’s Satellite Rides.

None of these are bad things. These albums only go to cement a legacy that might have been otherwise missed. I would mark Twelfth down a slight notch from the two predecessors on initial listens, but not enough that it’s going to be that noticeable to someone who had never heard those albums. In any case, maybe I should assume that the band is going to continue to crank out one great album after another until I find evidence to the otherwise.

The Pretenders – Hate for Sale (BMG) - Like the X album from earlier this year, it feels good to say The Pretenders are back. Hate For Sale checks off all of those marks we were waiting for from a Band as iconic as the Pretenders.

I don’t quite buy the CW though. That Dan Auerbach didn’t get the band, and that Martin Chambers was a necessary part of having a good album. Yes, I do think the band benefits from Stephen Street’s (and Chambers) involvement.

But I don’t think this album came from thin air. Yes, I do consider the bands wilderness years in the 90s disappointing, the band has found their way back. While I don’t think 08’s Break Up the Concrete or 17s Alone to be better than the new disc, it’s a pretty slim margin. If you haven’t heard ‘Concrete’ in awhile, go back and listen. Also, Hydne’s Jazz- informer solo album from last year was a pretty solid platter as well.

That said, Hate For Sale does what you hope it would. There’s no killer single but songs like The Buzz come close enough to the feeling that it’s a minor complaint. Ballads served the band well in the 90s but are my least favorite part of the record. You Can’t Hurt a Fool has potential but is clunky and Crying in Public sounds like it was pulled from a Desmond Child reject list.

But those are exceptions, Maybe Love is in in New York City has the slow burn that only Chrissie can pull off. Overall, it’s a pretty solid beginning to end listen that should cement what we already know about the legendary Pretenders.

Bruce Springsteen- Letter to You (Columbia) - I go to Springsteen as my first ever musical purchase. Born in the USA (which was that purchase- on cassette) has suffered over the years as overplayed and slickly produced, though in the past few years, I have really been enjoying it again.

For me, Springsteen is someone who revisit a lot and can drop the needle anywhere between 75 and 93 and be happy (and often do). Even as I have heard them over and over, I often go back in particular to The River and some of the early 90s singles. Like Elvis Costello (who also has a new record), I have followed his every move but have been largely disappointed for the past 25 years.

For me, I can’t say Springsteen has made a record I love during that time (except We Shall Overcome, which I think is fantastic). There have been moments (Magic has some solid singles), but looking back, here is what I realized. As a deluge of live Springsteen performances has been released, I have come to rediscover some of these songs.

Bruce is made to be played loud. Bruce and producer Ron Aniello have an ear here for the anthem a la the previous collaboration Wrecking Ball. Recording it live in the studio with the E Street Band takes it to the needed next level. Letter to You feels like an important album. It seemed to me Bruce has always been close to that late era classic and was getting close on Western Stars, but he finally clinched it here.

It’s not perfect but Springsteen pulls it off by force of ego. “House of 1000 Guitars” is on the short list of my favorite songs of the year. But I will be honest, the lyrics are lost on me. Death? Politics? Probably both. What sells the song to me is a world weariness that is every bit as heavy as “Atlantic City”.

I would say that’s indicative of the whole album. While Bruce tends to stick to big,sweeping ideas - he has put together a string of anthemic singles. A record then, that only works when played loud.

(I don’t intend to say the lyrics are bad. They are good, just not Nebraska get-you-in-the-chest good)

Which is where I land with a lot of this album, but Springsteen plays to his strengths. Interestingly, after the Grunge musicians ignored Bruce, the next generation of indie rockers embraced him. Those early 21st Cent bands like The Hold Steady, Titus Andronicus and Arcade Fire dug deep into their inner Bruce.

This puts Bruce in the category of legends like Bowie and Prince. I imagine listening to Letter to You without context, one might compare and contrast to Brian Fallon’s 2020 disc Local Honey. At this point, is Springsteen inspiring Fallon or is Fallon (and similarly minded indie rockers) inspiring Bruce.

Of course, the question is does it matter. Springsteen loomed over the early careers of some great musicians like Steve Earle and Melissa Ethridge (not to mention Joe Ely, Steve Forbert, Iron City Houserockers and others), but it’s clearly been a two way street.

Letter to You is likely better for all of this- including Springsteen on Broadway and digging into the archives for three early songs as he does here. Though he has never left and his reputation has never been in jeopardy, it’s good to have a disc like this.

Whyte Horses – Hard Times (CRC) -Whyte Horses is a "band" and Hard Times is their third album.

But Whyte Horses is really a project by Dom Thomas, who produces Whyte Horses, and is most well known for being the guy behind the Finders Keepers record label.

Allmusic and others name some of the influences in Thomas's work as French pop. folk, psychedelia, tropicalia, lounge and space rock.

It reminds me a bit of what Mark Ronson has done by bringing in vocalists and making mix tapes of a certain sound.

Hard Times is a mix of well known, more obscure and barely known. Ca Plane Pour Moi and Bang Bang (My Baby Shot me down) are here, as well as covers of Todd Rundgren's "I Saw The Light", the Bee Gees "Mr Natural", and songs by Baby Huey, British 60's Psych pop multi-instrumentalist Phil Cordell, Welsh glam band Bran and 70s soft rockers The Alessi Brothers).

Thomas has assembled a top notch group of vocalists- Damon Gough (Badly Drawn Boy), Elly Jackson (La Roux) Tracyanne Campbell (Camera Obscura), Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals), Melanie Pain (Nouvelle Vague), John Grant (the Czars) and Chrysta Bell (frequent David Lynch collaborator)- as well as a couple of his own in-house vocalists Lucy Styles and Natalie McCool.

It's the kind of album that gets bad reviews, but I don't care. I can put this on over and over again. best track? I'm partial to Traceyanne of course. La Roux may be unrecognizable as a soul singer, but is powerful. "Seabird" lacks the big name star on vocals, but is beautiful.

I will put in a good word for Badly Drawn Boy's "Satellite of Love". It's a song that doesn't really need to be covered (Sorry U2, Morrissey, Perry Farrell and the Eurythmics). He takes it back to its Loaded-era Velvet Underground roots, and I dig it.

Heck, I didn't even know it was a VU song before it was a solo Reed song (BDB does the original lyrics too) but it works as a Velvets-style rocker. Lou would of course re-invent it as a live concert mainstay. It is an epic almost gospel powerhouse on one of its best versions on Take No Prisoners. On Live in Italy- it's a guitar heavy affair with Quine and Reed.

As Thomas probably sees his Whyte Horses as a modern day version of the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, it feels just right.

X – Alphabetland (Fat Possum) What a great and underrated band X is. We tend to marginalize punk bands, but they were something special- like every American influence blended together- Chuck Berry, Elvis, Gene and Eddie, Hank, Loretta, the Doors, the Ramones.

No doubt, that energetic band who did “Los Angeles” is loved dearly. Which is better, the debut or the follow-up “Wild Gift”. Impossible to decide (and they had been packaged together in the CD age). Some might make the case, the third “Under the Big Black Sun” is then, even better- a valid enough argument. ( I guess I am a “Wild Gift” guy depending on the day).

The latter days of X don't get fond treatment these days, but for a time, they were considered among the greatest rock recordings ever. For a time, “See How We Are” was considered a classic, and now, it and “Ain't Love Grand” are casualties of ambition and 80s production.

Then, somewhere between fiery punk and reflective acclaim is “More Fun in the New World” The mid-point, and damn near perfect album.

I got into X in the 90s, when they tried a comeback. They had only been gone for 6 years, but it seemed like an eternity. “Hey Zeus!” is not a great album. We can probably stop there. Nothing could replicate X. John Doe's work is fairly acclaimed, but nothing really stands out. “Meet John Doe”, the 1990 debut is good enough, and 2016's The Westerner finds a sympathetic ear in producer Howe Gelb.

So Alphabetland is a bit of a revelation in that is as it as good as it is. This isn't “Wild Gift”, but it at least feels like the same band who gave us “Wild Gift”. That makes it well worth it. Come to read on it, many of these songs are from the early days, which may explain why it succeeds.

“Cyrano De Berger's Back” is a perfect example of what we love about X. From the “Los Angeles” days, it's done well in a mature “New World” style, and is easy to append to the band's best songs.

“Delta 88 Nightmare” is 97 seconds of the band replicating their “Decline of Western Civilization” days. “Water and Wine” is a bit more thought out, but recalls those glory days with Exene taking lead and John chiming in.

Those are the highest points, but it does hang well. I am tempted to compare it to the recent Damned reunion and question if this will be a disc that will get revisited. Still, there's plenty of depth -check out “I Gotta Fever” and “Good bye year Goodbye”, and really no filler. Exene does go spoken word at the final two minutes with “All the Time in the World”, but it's the kind of a song X might have added as a coda in the good old days.

A quick reaction would be this won't hang will all those great X albums, but it is a great listen and will be one of the better records of this year, so perhaps I am being hasty. I also feel compelled to mention that some people are less enamored of Exene's worldview these days. She is the rare musician who defends, even embraced Donald Trump. I have talked about this in the past, but a friend made the point that there was a certain 'don't trust anyone' logos in the punk scene, and perhaps she is not too far removed from that; and I will leave that there.