Not Unloved's favourites of 2020

With no gigs to eat up the evenings and 9 months of working from home, in theory, 2020 afforded plenty of time to really get to grips with all the new records as they appeared. Only, that didn't happen to the extent I'd hoped. Instead, I became embroiled in The Great Lockdownload of 2020 (thanks to J for naming it thus!) in which I belatedly tried to make use of the all the wee download coupons I hadn't got round to using over the last, er, decade. Having hundreds of new lps on my laptop meant that I rediscovered (and in some cases discovered - oops!) loads of records that I should have played much more when they were current. Also, unexpectedly, I found myself becoming fixated on a succession of individual songs. Some of them were singles *, a bunch of them were album tracks (such as this and this) but most of them were 60s garage and soul tunes (and the odd tune that combined both) that I happened upon via sales lists, mixes, streamed DJ sets, radio shows etc. etc.. Having said all that, it was still very difficult to whittle down 2020's releases into 15 albums and singles but here goes:

LPs:

Sault "UNTITLED (Black Is)" / "UNTITLED (Rise)" (Forever Living Originals)
Cindy "Free Advice" (Mt St Mtn)
The Reds, Pinks and Purples "You Might Be Happy Someday" (Tough Love)
David Boulter "Yarmouth" (Clay Pipe)
Sweeping Promises "Hunger For A Way Out" (Feel It)
Jetstream Pony "s/t" (Shelflife/Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten)
Tara Clerkin Trio "s/t" (Laura Lies In)
Phew "Vertigo KO" (Disciples)
Loopsel "The Spiral" (Förlag För Fri Musik)
Naked Roommate "Do The Duvet" (Upset The Rhythm)
Robin Saville "Build A Diorama" (Morr Music)
Cleo Sol "Rose In The Dark" (Forever Living Originals)
Bill Callahan "Gold Record" (Drag City)

Smokescreens "A Strange Dream" (Slumberland)

Singles:

The Go! Team "Cookie Scene" (Memphis Industries)

Typical Girls "Typical Girls EP" (Happiest Place)

The Cool Greenhouse "Alexa!" (Melodic)

Dojo Cuts "Rome" (Colemine)

The William Loveday Intention "My Love For You" (Damaged Goods)

The Tubs "I Don't Know How It Works" (Prefect)

Love, Burns "Gate and the Ghost" (Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten)

Romero "Honey" (Cool Death)

Stirling "5 Song e.p." (Chunklet)

Neutrals"Personal Computing"  * (Slumberland)

The Tibbs "Damaged Heart" (Record Kicks)

The Reds, Pinks and Purples "I Should Have Helped You" (Il Dischi del Barone)

The Notwist feat. Saya from Tenniscoats "Ship" (Morr Music)

Lewsberg "Through The Garden" (self-released)

Ribbon Stage "My Favorite Shrine" (K)

Reissue:

Jonathan Richman "I, Jonathan" (Craft)

Compilation:

"Strum & Thrum: The American Jangle Underground 1983-1987" (Captured Tracks)

Archival 7":

The Pastels "Advice To The Graduate" (Domino)

* The song I missed in 2019 that I became obsessed with in 2020 (thanks to a Levanna Maclean dance video):

** "Personal Computing" wins a special award for having my fave opening lines of the year:

"I sniff the pages of computer magazines

I get excited by the obsolete machines"