COVER STORY
The songs play on Our favorite New England albums of 2020 ARTICLE BY VICTOR D. INFANTE • PHOTOS BY CHRISTINE PETERSON
It seems almost unthinkable how little live music there’s been locally since March, how the pandemic has squelched the idea of gathering together with a crowd of strangers, joined only by the love of song. There have been a few outdoors shows, a few valiant attempts to make live music happen, but really, they’ve been more the exception than the rule: In many ways, 2020 has been painfully silent, so quiet all we could here was each other’s anger, fear and suffering.
But New England’s musicians have not been idle, and even if they haven’t been able to play much live, they’ve created a steady torrent of music, often taking advantage of technology to collaborate at a distance, or taking advantage of the quiet to create new work when they otherwise might have been touring or performing. In a year that’s taken so much from all of us, the region’s musicians have stepped up and given us song after song, album after album of work, much of
it brilliant. The pandemic emptied the clubs, but the internet kept music alive, and that indeed has been a saving grace in a ridiculously hard year. These, then, in no particular order, are my favorite albums of 2020 by New England artists. These are the ones that have stayed with me long after the reviews were written, the ones I find myself singing to myself unbidden, the ones which have carried me through these trying times:
D E C E M B E R 3 - 9, 2020 WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM
From left, musicians Peter Zarkadas, Sarah Levecque, Brandie Blaze, Sapling members Jonathan Cordaro and Amber Tortorelli, Milo of Eye Witness and Rainy Logan of both Sapling and Eye Witness.
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