Zer0

Musically it's definitely a progression from their debut and in the right direction as well. Some people don't seem to like the more polished production but don't let that put you off, there's some great songs on the album.

__________________

Rainard Jalen

The most acclaimed. And therefore the most important. To be important necessitates being known. If something is so obscure as to not be somewhat widely recognized as great then it can have no importance in wider circles. Simple as that.

Ska Lagos Jew Sun Ra

Unexpect should be releasing an album at the end of the month. They're a tremendous band, so I don't know why they don't get much excitement/coverage.

Fables of the Sleepless Empire - Unexpect

__________________
Al Pacino = God

starrynight

But you don't know what people in the future will consider to be important, why limit myself to what gets hyped now? There's loads of stuff out there. I do listen to some hyped albums because that is what people discuss, but that doesn't mean I agree about their importance.

Rainard Jalen

Do you hear anybody now talking about the greatness of some album that came out in 2001 that very few people recognized at the time? Do you see any such albums in the end of decade best of 2000s lists? Fact is that it doesn't really happen. The music press is too big in the modern era.

There were times in the past, say the late 60s to at the most the mid-90s where wonderful releases were really confined to very small circles of the music-listening community and never got recognition at the time, only to be looked back on in awe by much larger crowds many years on. The reason for this was the lack of the world wide web and its webzines, discussion boards and whatnot. These days, on the other hand, anything that has any particular merit to it gets attention fairly quickly an the word spreads like wildfire.

Anteater

Personally, I think Kaputt is more interesting than the majority of this year's Indie-oriented releases. The 80's jazz/sophisti-pop aesthetic sounds rather colorful compared to much of what's been hyped this year, and I'm not the only one who has realized that.

That being said, Iron & Wine have also delivered spectacularly this year, and I also feel Fleet Foxes' Helplessness Blues will most likely grow on people as time goes by.

__________________
Anteater's 21 Fav Albums Of 2020

Anteater's Daily Tune Roulette

Rainard Jalen

Iron & Wine. Ya know, I have heard absolutely nothing in their entire catalogue though have known who they are for years. Probs about time to put that right.

Kaputt - guess I've commented on that one already. It has its excellence but also its limited durability.

starrynight

I don't agree. First of all there is only room for so many records to be hyped every year. Also there is much more music available to people now than before, very hard to get a grasp on all of it. Consensus music lists are pretty useless as they just like the most famous things, individual lists can be much more interesting.

Rainard Jalen

You are quite right, but I don't think what we are saying necessarily conflicts. I guess it depends on how we define importance. To me, something is important if it is influential and relevant. Something cannot be influential if it is not well known, and cannot be relevant if it is not well regarded by the big voices.

Further, you can go to any individual list on these boards and virtually all the releases spoken of were either very highly acclaimed or achieved some sort of popularity, whether cult or mainstream popularity.

starrynight

There's a big difference though between what you call 'cult' and being one of the most famous records of the year. And really what does 'relevant' mean? Hip? I don't care if something is hip or not, fashion changes every few years anyway. Same with influence. It's importance is something which is ephemeral and so not that important to me.