Vinyl Records that Got Me Through 2020
If you’re anything like me, you need music in your life everyday, and you prefer the sound vinyl records offer. The economic hardships brought about by the Coronavirus pandemic made 2020 a great year to buy vinyl records. I took advantage, adding first pressings of some of my favorite vinyl records to my collection. But the record I played the most in 2020 was actually released in 2020, and it was given to me by a lifelong friend.
The Strokes – The New Abnormal (2020)
The Strokes’ The New Abnormal was the best record of 2020. It’s incredibly uplifting, making for a most pleasant spin on the turntable in the disaster that’s been 2020. The New Abnormal is so much better than the rest of the music released in 2020 that it’s the only vinyl record released in 2020 to appear on this list.
The smooth voice of Julian Casablancas has never been put to better use. The vocals on the “Selfless,” “At the Door,” and “Eternal Summer” will make you binge listen to them while in the bath. The lyrics on “Eternal Summer” are somewhat befitting a summer marred by a global pandemic that seemed would never end.
“They got the remedy,
But they won’t let it happen.
Everybody’s on the take.
Tell me, are you on the take, too?”
The New Abnormal is absolutely the best evolution of The Strokes, and that’s coming from a lifelong fan of the band. I was actually wondering what the fuck they were trying to do with the release of Comedown Machine in 2013. Well, what they were trying to do was find the sound they found on The New Abnormal. The Strokes nearly discovered it with Comedown songs like “One Way Trigger” and “Happy Ending.” I always thought their sound was plenty evolved, but I’m glad The Strokes didn’t rest on their laurels.
Of the 12 terrible months in 2020, I’d say The New Abnormal got me through at least four of them.
The Vines – Wicked Nature (2014)
The best purchase I made in 2020 was The Vines’ double album Wicked Nature on vinyl. Like The New Abnormal, Wicked Nature is the absolute best evolution of another favorite band from my youth. I loved The Vines even more than The Strokes prior to the release of The New Abnormal, and Wicked Nature reminded me why that remains the case.
Craig Nicholls is The Vines. He’s the only perennial of The Vines, and he happens to have Asperger syndrome. I didn’t care to know that until I heard Wicked Nature. His harmonic vocals has always been what’s drawn me to The Vines, but Wicked Nature made me more aware of Nicholls’ greatness as a vocalist.
I wouldn’t even have discovered Wicked Nature had I not gotten an iMac and uploaded all my CDs to iTunes for the first time. The act of doing so resulted in a re-crush on The Vines’ Highly Evolved (2002) and Winning Days (2004). In fact, I discovered two albums by The Vines of which I was previously unaware.
Wicked Nature got me through at least two months of 2020, with one song, “Funny Thing,” consuming all of my attention for more than 30 consecutive minutes. In Miracle Land (2018) got me through a few days despite being unavailable on vinyl.
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Tiny Moving Parts – Breathe (2019) and Swell (2018)
Tiny Moving Parts is an emo revival, family band out of Minnesota I discovered when they opened for one of my favorite punk bands, The Menzingers, in St. Paul. I didn’t even know emo revival was a genre before I heard Tiny Moving Parts, but I knew their frontman, Dylan Mattheisen, was an innovative guitarist the moment I first saw him play. Jazz musician and Go Gonzo Journal writer Henry Peterson has confirmed this. Mattheisen plays electric guitar like a banjo and performs as if the electricity is flowing through his body, not the instrument.
Tiny Moving Parts might be the band whose sound best represents America’s collective mood in 2020: angry and whiny. But I love it. Both Breathe and Swell start with songs that force your body into uncontrollable convulsions, with “Midwest Sky” and “Applause,” respectively, serving as overwhelming overtures. Breathe offers more opportunities to do just that, while Swell simply lets the sound and energy swell. Together, the vinyl records got me through two months of 2020, with each making equal contributions.
Hillstomp – Portland, Ore (2014)
Hillstomp was one of my favorite live acts while I was living in Bozeman, Montana. I saw them live at least three times, all at The Filling Station in Bozeman, providing some of the most surprising acoustics I’ve ever experienced at a live concert venue. Hillstomp is a punk blues duo inspired by R.L. Burnside hailing from Portland, Oregon, obviously. The drummer plays percussion on buckets, children’s toys, and household tools. The guitarist can pluck a guitar or banjo and play harmonica simultaneously. I’ve never seen so much energy produced by such a small band.
Hillstomp’s Portland, Ore got me through at least a month of 2020, and since I didn’t get a digital version, the vinyl record stayed on my turntable for about a month.
Honorable mentions:
Queens of the Stone Age’s Songs for the Deaf (2002) has gotten me through at least one month every year since it got me through nearly an entire year, and a really bad one, personally, back in 2002. I finally bought a first pressing of the vinyl record for $155, which is almost $100 cheaper than what I had budgeted back in 2019.
Another first pressing of a vinyl record I’ve long wanted was added to my collection this 2020. Andrew WK’s I Get Wet (2001) was also found at a steep discount on the Discogs marketplace. It was the most pleasant spin the turntable provided throughout 2020, and I only spun it once as to preserve future spins. But I Get Wet got me through about a month of 2020 and usually does in any given year since its release.
I also bought a first pressing of Megadeth’s Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying? (1986). I never had an interest in the album until recently, but 2020 made me so mad I got into metal. Speaking of metal…
The only live concert I saw in 2020 was the best concert I could have seen in 2020. Just before the pandemic erupted at the end of March, Refused played the tiny Fine Line Music Cafe in Minneapolis, and my attorney and I had VIP tickets. That performance was so good I didn’t mind missing live music for the rest of the year. I had already seen the best concert I would see in 2020, and maybe ever. Refused’s vinyl records got me through another month of 2020, but quantifying the value of that live concert is impossible.
