Matteo Maioli Awards 2020

TOP 75 ALBUM
Ispirandomi alla review di Uncut ho scelto settantacinque titoli. Questo perchè, in assenza di concerti e festival, nel 2020 si è ascoltata (ed è stata prodotta) molta più musica in supporto fisico: esemplari le tre pubblicazioni di Malcolm Catto degli Heliocentrics e i due album dei Sault usciti nel giro di pochi mesi. A dominare la classifica i portabandiera dell’alternative rock odierno Protomartyr, Metz e Fontaines DC e le eccellenze del cantautorato quali Ben Watt e The Apartments; poi voglio sottolineare il ritorno alla forma di The Strokes, Flaming Lips e Doves e last but not least l’immensa Merge Records fucina di grandi lavori.

1) PROTOMARTYR – Ultimate Success Today (Domino)
2) FONTAINES DC – A Hero’s Death (Partisan)
3) SAULT – Untitled (Black Is) (Forever Living Originals)
4) METZ – Atlas Vending (Sub Pop)
5) YVES TUMOR – Heaven To A Tortured Mind (Warp)
6) BOB MOULD – Blue Hearts (Merge)
7) PORRIDGE RADIO – Every Bad (Secretly Canadian)
8) WAXAHATCHEE – Saint Cloud (Merge)
9) DOVES – The Universal Want (Heavenly)
10) THE FLAMING LIPS – American Head (Bella Union)
11) RVG – Feral (Fire)
12) THE COOL GREENHOUSE – The Cool Greenhouse (Melodic)
13) BEN WATT – Storm Damage (Caroline)
14) MOURNING [A] BLKSTAR – The Cycle (Don Giovanni)
15) THE APARTMENTS – In And Out Of The Light (Talitres)
16) NADA SURF – Never Not Together (City Slang)
17) RYAN ADAMS – Wednesdays (Pax Am)
18) KING OF THE OPERA – Nowhere Blues (A Buzz Supreme)
19) CORNERSHOP – England Is A Garden (Ample Play)
20) PINEGROVE – Marigold (Rough Trade)

21) FIONA APPLE – Fetch The Bolt Cutters (Columbia)
22) SPORTS TEAM – Deep Down Happy (Island)
23) DEEPER – AutoPain (Fire Talk)
24) BASEBALL GREGG – Calendar (Z Tapes)
25) CLOUD NOTHINGS – The Black Hole Understands (autoprodotto)
26) THE STROKES – The New Abnormal (RCA)
27) RUN THE JEWELS – IV (BMG)
28) CALIBRO 35 – Momentum (Record Kicks)
29) BRIGHT EYES – Down In The Weeds where the World once was (Dead Oceans)
30) PERFUME GENIUS – Set My Heart On Fire Immediately (Matador)
31) PAUL WELLER – On Sunset (Polydor)
32) HC McENTIRE – Eno Axis (Merge)
33) JETSTREAM PONY – Jetstream Pony (Shelflife)
34) CALIFONE – Echo Mine (Jealous Butcher)
35) LUCINDA WILLIAMS – Good Souls Better Angels (Thirty Tigers)
36) BEE BEE SEA – Day Ripper (Wild Honey Records)
37) SPINNING COIN – Hyacinth (Geographic)
38) PAUL Mc CARTNEY – Mc Cartney III (Capitol)
39) LUCIO CORSI – Cosa Faremo da Grandi? (Sugar)
40) THIAGO NASSIF – Mente (Gearbox)
41) SONIC BOOM – All Things Being Equal (Carpark)
42) THE PSYCHEDELIC FURS – Made Of Rain (Cooking Vinyl)
43) MARK LANEGAN – Straight Songs of Sorrow (Heavenly)
44) BILLY NOMATES – Billy Nomates (Invada)
45) SHABAKA AND THE ANCESTORS – We are here sent by history (Impulse)
46) LAURA MARLING – Song For Our Daughter (Chrysalis)
47) THURSTON MOORE – “By The Fire”
48) THE DEVONNS – The Devonns (Record Kicks)
49) MOSES SUMNEY – Grae (Jagjaguwar)
50) BOB DYLAN – Rough And Rowdy Ways (Columbia)
51) PHILIP PARFITT – Mental Home Recordings (A Turntable Friend Records)
52) STEPHEN MALKMUS – “Traditional Techniques” (Domino)
53) KELLY LEE OWENS – Inner Song (Smalltown Supersound)
54) IDLES – Ultra Mono (Partisan)
55) EELS – Earth To Dora (PIAS)
56) THE MAGNETIC FIELDS – Quickies (Nonesuch)
57) BDRMM – Bedroom (Sonic Cathedral)
58) LITTLE BARRIE & MALCOLM CATTO – Quartermass Seven (Madlib Invazion)
59) CAR SEAT HEADREST – Making A Door Less Open (Matador)
60) REAL ESTATE – The Main Thing (Domino)
61) BEACH SLANG – The Deadbeat Bang of Heart (Bridge 9)
62) CABLE TIES – Far Enough (Merge)
63) JARV IS – Beyond The Pale (Rough Trade)
64) JEHNNY BETH – To Love is To Live (Caroline)
65) ROISIN MURHY – Roisin Machine (Skint)
66) CARIBOU – “Suddenly” (Merge)
67) MOSES BOYD – Dark Matter (Exodus)
68) SAMANTHA CRAIN – A Small Death (Real Kind)
69) DOGLEG – Melee (Triple Crown Records)
70) SOLARIS – Un Paese di Musichette mentre Fuori c’è la Morte (Bronson Recordings)
71) DRIVE BY TRUCKERS – The Unraveling (ATO)
72) BRIGID MAE POWER – Head Above The Water (Fire)
73) DAMIEN JURADO – What’s New Tomboy (Mama Bird)
74) JADE HAIRPINS – Harmony Avenue (Merge)
75) TRAVIS – Ten Songs (BMG)

DIECI CANZONI DI DISCHI/EP FUORI DALLA LISTA
E al figlio di Ian Dury la palma di video dell’anno.

THE RADIO DEPT., “The Absence of Birds”

BILL FAY, “How Long How Long”

THE REDS, PINKS AND PURPLES, “Desperate Parties”

DUMMY, “Pool Dizzy”

CALEXICO feat. BOMBINO, “Heart of Downtown”

SONGDOG, “G Flat Gumbo”

DISQ, “Daily Routine”

BAXTER DURY, “Slumlord”

OSEES, “If I Had My Way”

LUCA MAZZIERI, “Nico”

LE TRE COPERTINE DELL’ANNO

PHILIP PARFITT, “Mental Home Recordings”
DOVES, “The Universal Want”
WAXAHATCHEE, “Saint Cloud”

GLI UNICI QUATTRO CONCERTI VISTI QUEST’ANNO

MONDO GENERATOR, Bronson Ravenna 13 Febbraio
BIG THIEF, Locomotiv Bologna 22 Febbraio
WOW, Hana-Bi Marina di Ravenna 21 Luglio
CALIBRO 35, Rocca Malatestiana Cesena 1 Agosto

LE CINQUE REISSUES DELL’ANNO

NEIL YOUNG, “Homegrown”
THE GO-BETWEENS, “G Stands For Go-Betweens Vol.2 1985-1989”
PRINCE, “Sign O’ The Times Deluxe Edition”
HEAVENLY, “A Bout De Heavenly: The Singles”
THE ROLLING STONES, “Goats Head Soup”

I TRE LIBRI DELL’ANNO

Maurizio Blatto, “Sto Ascoltando dei Dischi”
Ferruccio Quercetti/Oderso Rubini, “Bologna 1980”
Holly George-Warren, “Alex Chilton: Un uomo chiamato distruzione”

Foto di Trevor Naud autorizzata da ufficio stampa Spin-Go!

(Matteo Maioli)