2020 has been a weird one no doubt, no doubt, no doubt – if this had of happened before the “streaming” age I don’t know how I would have survived, so I am very appreciative of that.
For the first time in a long time I actually revisited a bunch of old favourites this year from the likes of The Rapture, Junior Boys, Kisses, TV on the Radio and Rhye, but then the rest of my listening time was spent on the very talented artists that I work with every day.
For those who don’t know, I also manage a few artists (Golden Vessel, cln, Midnight Pool Party, Benji Lewis & daste.), I have a record label and I also do publicity for a few other artists, all via Mammal Sounds. Over the last 12 months there has been quite a few albums that I’ve either been a part of all the way through or helped release, and those albums have basically dominated my listening time throughout 2020.
Golden Vessel released his second album “colt” just recently, which I think is one of the best albums that has ever been created (big call I know but truth!), daste. released their second ep (and started working on their debut album by the way) and Benji Lewis released his fourth ep, both of which I think are exceptional releases.
My record label released two eps this year by upcoming Australian artists, JVLY and LOVER, which you really should check out if you haven’t already, and a few other artists that I do publicity for, Akurei & Emerson Leif, also released some very impressive eps.
Also in my list there are new albums from BAYNK, Tycho Jones and Caribou which I didn’t work on at all but they each got some pretty high rotation from me this year.
There has been a lot of other great releases this year but if I started listing names I’d never stop. I hope you can take some time out to enjoy these 10 albums at least, and here’s hoping for a much brighter 2021.
The emoji that best sums up my year: ?