Music

The albums of 2020 – so far

1. Fiona Apple – Fetch the Bottle Cutters

Fetch the Bolt Cutters, Fiona Apple’s fifth album arrived in April to near universal acclaim, with music site Pitchfork among those dishing out full-mark reviews. From its opener, I Want You to Love Me, which builds, stalls and builds again over a looping piano before descending into a cacophony of chopped vocals, the album is both immediate and esoteric. Its greatness is obvious, yet it grows with each listen, the full extent of its genius revealing itself more and more over time. Apple’s distinctive vocals and lyrics – in parts tender, funny and angry – are layered above theatrical, bold and complex song structures, but Fetch the Bolt Cutters, for all its experimentation, is that rare, beautiful thing: a brilliant and significant pop album. We’ll be talking about it for years.

2. Gil Scott-Heron – We’re New Again: A Reimagining by Makaya McCraven

I’m New Here, the final album by the late poet, author and activist Gil Scott-Heron, has already been subject to one “reimagining”, courtesy of his XL label mate Jamie xx, the driving musical force behind English band The xx, whose acclaimed 2011 remix album We’re New Here combined Scott’s vocals with elements of UK rave and club culture. Given it uses the same source material, We’re New Again, a reworking by American jazz drummer and bandleader Makaya McCraven, couldn’t be more different. By incorporating elements of gospel, spiritual jazz and soul, the album feels closer to Scott’s own back catalogue than both Jamie xx’s effort and the original Richard Russel-produced album, which was created through a fragmented recording process. The soulful New York is Killing Me, an album highlight, samples the Harlem Gospel Choir to superb effect, recalling elements of Scott’s 1971 classic Pieces of a Man.

3. Yves Tumor – Heaven to a Tortured Mind

Yves Tumor is signed to the UK’s Warp Records, best known for producing the electronic experimentalism of Aphex Twin and Autechre, but their sound – between a sort of soulful psychedelia and, most recently, art-rock – is difficult to define, and unlike anything else on the label. On Heaven to a Tortured Mind, Florida musician Sean Bowie is at their most maximalist, immediate and enjoyable yet. Prince’s influence looms large on the likes of Super Stars; throughout, swirling guitars and thudding synths mix with the gentle dreampop of Bowie’s previous releases.

4. Perfume Genius – Set My Heart on Fire Immediately

“Half of my whole life is gone / Let it drift and wash away / It was just a dream I had,” croons Mike Hadreas on Whole Life, the opener of Set My Heart on Fire Immediately , his fifth album. The ballad, which recalls Roy Orbison and Hadreas’s own earlier piano-led work, unexpectedly gives way to Describe, a sort of distorted country-rock number, which sets the tone for this beguiling, brilliant and mercurial album – his best yet. Set My Heart on Fire… was written after Hedreas took part in a series of high-intensity modern dance performances and it is the human body that informs the music, which is various parts delicate, intricate, muscular, powerful and vulnerable.