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Nicole Oppenheim: Ear Candy writesCHIRP Radio Best of 2020: Nicole Oppenheim
Throughout December, CHIRP Radio presents its volunteers’ top albums of 2020. Our next list is from DJ Nicole Oppenheim.
Good god. 2020, amirite?
While there are few things about this year that I'd like to repeat, I would listen to the following records over and over with glee. I won't wax intellectual on my feelings about the past year because we've all read enough end-of-the-year opinion pieces for a lifetime. Instead, I'll address why you're really here: the music. Without further ado, I give you my Top Ten of 2020:
#1 Violence Against STAR by STAR (Half A Cow Records)
While no record is perfect, this one comes damn close. Violence Against STAR checks all the boxes for me. It's a gorgeous noise pop/dream pop take on shoegaze complete with buzzy guitars, ethereal vocals, bottom-dropped-out bass riffs, and a drum machine pulsing in time. If you even just sort of like Lush, Ride, My Bloody Valentine or Cocteau Twins, you *need* to hear this record. The fact that they're a local band is just icing on the cake. It hits that spot inside that makes me beam pleasure from my core like an indie rock Care Bear. Full. Points.
#2 The Power of The One by Bootsy Collins (Bootzilla)
We all know this year has roundly sucked. And while I do enjoy a good old fashioned gloom 'n' doom record, my soul needed this enchanting, frenetic, delightful, funktastic jammy jam of a record. Bootsy's been in this game for longer than I've been alive and it takes a pro to make an album of this caliber. There are guests a-plenty, more deep bass grooves than a plumber's got pliers, and above it all, Bootsy's one of a kind voice leading this technicolor fun parade. Put this album on, forget your troubles, and shake what your mama gave you because even though this is one of the worst years on record, it's still not too late to have a good (socially distanced) time.
#3 Dias Raros by Melenas (Trouble In Mind)
Hailing from Pamplona, Spain, this quartet of women create guitar-driven music that is pure joy to listen to. The record simultaneously feels like a cherished favorite and a new prize. The sound features jangle pop's energy, shoegaze's buzzy delay, and classic girl group harmonies. It's fun. It's light. It's the perfect soundtrack for early summer evenings on the patio (alone, because pandemic). But that's okay! When you close your eyes and listen to this record, you can conjure up images of happy, carefree days spent with friends or your favorite memories of summer fests gone by. This record can help you grasp that feeling and hold it tight with the promise of sunshine. We'll get there, kids. (FYI: songs are all sung in Spanish, which I don't speak well, but what a fun way to learn some phrases!)
#4 SAWAYAMA by Rina Sawayama (Dirty Hit)
Do you sense a theme yet? I'm grouchy because of the pandemic (and all that entails) and I'm looking for new things that are comfortable and reminiscent of old things. Enter Rina Sawayama, the Japanese-born, U.K-raised singer who gifted us with this pop gem. Again, it's new, but it sounds like it came from the Billboard Hot 100 of 2000 ...with a catch. Yes, the tracks have 'NSYNC-level production values, but there are metal riffs in there, too, for some reason? And there's yelling, kind of, but also sultry, I'm-wearing-my-best-Savage-X-Fenty crooning? So the tracks could pack a dance floor *and* and mosh pit, somehow? This is not dance punk--which is also a lot of fun--this is well-crafted pop music with some spice thrown in. Not spice like Mel B. Spice like O-ren Ishii. She knows she rules the underground and she's collecting haters' heads.
#5 100% Yes by Melt Yourself Down (Decca)
How to best describe this record? It's 10 songs in just under 40 minutes and every single one is an absolute barn burner. If The Prodigy re-released their entire discography, but recorded each track using jazz instruments instead of electronic ones, you'd almost be there. It's just wild. There are clear North African influences and punk stylings which supercharge the album with kinetic energy the likes of which I've not heard since Gogol Bordello's 'Trans-Continental Hustle'. Like most of my other choices, this is a great party record that also works for when you need to do a deep clean of your house. It's an instant shot of adrenaline to both get you through thankless tasks like cleaning the bathroom and hosting a legendary rager with music people will be talking about for years to come. Put it on. Rock out.
#6 Reprise Tonight by FSQ (Funk Style Quality) (Soul Clap Records)
Yes, kids. It's more funk because the world needs it. This record isn't the heavy hitting, in your face, stanky funk you hear on the Bootsy record above. This is Sunday morning funk. A kinder, gentler funk, if you will, perhaps because it's a concept record that incorporates disco, house, R&B, and northern soul into otherwise straight up funky tracks. On 'Reprise Tonight' the band sets out to capture the experience of having one last blowout party. Imagine the party you'd throw if it was your last night on earth. That's this record. It's a 24-hour groovefest concentrated into 54 minutes of sound. Imagine the partygoers from the 'Love Shack' video (yes, even RuPaul) and think of what they'd like to hear other than the B-52's, of course, and you'd get this delightful album.
#7 Untitled (Rise) by Sault (Forever Living Originals)
This record is the fourth one released by Sault in the span of only 16 months. It's hard to wrap your mind around that level of output from any artist, but when you also consider the quality of each Sault record, the feat seems superhuman. This record follows Untitled (Black Is) and is much more built for the dance floor. (What can I say? I'm consistent.) It's one of those records that gets you moving but also packs a lyrical punch. Frankly, it's on par with the best work of dynamos like Prince and Nile Rodgers. Widely praised by critics with words like "transcendent", "thrilling", "spiritual", and "seductive", Untitled (Rise) gives us songs about Black lives and why they don't always matter to everyone in tempos both mellow and driving. These are protest songs set to a toe-tapping beat. Listen and learn.
#8 Heaven to a Tortured Mind by Yves Tumor (Warp)
Ok. I'll be honest. This record can be trying at times. I guess that's because, like many of my other choices for this list, it's not an example of just one genre. It's for sure an R&B record but it's also a rock record. There are lots of beats, but they don't always fit together the way we think they should. That is, until they do. It's a hard to describe bit of magic on our very prosaic planet. It's something that needs to be experienced, not merely told about. I imagine it's like the first time Jimi Hendrix played The Star-Spangled Banner. People were expecting something familiar and were given something entirely different that was also somehow better. On this record, Tumor takes rock conventions and perfunctory electronic/EDM tropes, mixes them up, and creates something greater. These tracks won't be played in da club, but profound music is never best experienced there, anyway.
#9 Orígenes by Sotomayor (Wonderwheel Recordings)
Brother and sister duo Paulina and Raul Sotomayor (no relation to the SCOTUS Justice) make some excellent music. Hailing from Mexico, they have put together a record that marries cumbia & Peruvian chicha with house beats and comes out sounding like the best street party you've ever attended. Every track is worthy of a listen and easily accessible to anyone. The lyrics are in Spanish, so I don't understand much, but the beats are to die for and we can all speak that language. In a year where I needed to dance my personal mess around, Sotomayor created some top shelf grooves to help me do just that.
#10 Can't Have It All by Neptune's Core (Self-Released)
Like most people at CHIRP, my obsession with music started at a young age. I was a teen during the Riot Grrrl movement of the 1990s, so of course I imagined myself as a kick-ass Girl With A Guitar 95% of the time I should have been focusing on school. Fond memories and a headspace I can reenter by playing my favorite Riot Grrrl records. Enter Neptune's Core. They are living my high school dreams and then some. Two sets of teenaged sisters, guitars, drums, heartfelt lyrics ...what's not to love? I was content to imagine, they use their not insubstantial talent to give the world 8 accomplished tracks on this, their debut record. They don't play punk, but they do play powerful indie rock that transcends their youth. Support your local girl gang and give this one a spin!
Honorable Mentions in no particular order:
The Beths - Jumprope Gazers - Carpark Records, Death Valley Girls - Under the Spell of Joy - Suicide Squeeze Records, Las Kellies - Suck This Tangerine - Fire Records, Jehnny Beth - To Love is To Live - 20L07 Music, The Reds, Pinks, and Purples - You Might Be Happy Someday - Tough Love Records, Butcher Brown - #kingbutch - Concord Jazz, Bartee's Strange - Live Forever - Memory Music, Run The Jewels - RTJ4 - BMG, Blackstarkids - Whatever, Man - Dirty Hit Records, Cold Beaches - Drifter - Stay Hungry Records.
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