As usual, more detailed thoughts on these will come – along with other songs that stuck in my chest – on the playlist posts later in the month. And while I no longer rank – though there’s a top 10 and an additional 10 – the record I came back to the most often, I turned over in my head repeatedly, and I kept finding new things to delight in was this year’s Hurray for the Riff Raff. Until Joy Oladokun’s new one came out, there wasn’t even a question about my “Record of the Year”. And while I’ve only lived with the Oladokun for a minute, it gives me that same blood-pumping feeling, and I can’t wait to see her come through the Newport in June.
- Hurray for the Riff Raff, The Past Is Still Alive
- Joy Oladokun, Observations from a Crowded Room
- Various Artists, Silver Patron Saints: The Songs of Jesse Malin
- Mary Halvorson, Cloudward
- Meshell Ndegeocello, No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin
- DEHD, Poetry
- Wadada Leo Smith and Amina Claudine Myers, Central Park’s Mosaic of Reservoir, Lake, Paths, and Gardens
- Lucky Daye, Algorithm
- Tim Easton, Find Your Way
- Arooj Aftab, Night Reign
- Kris Davis Trio, Run the Gauntlet
- Amy Rigby, Hang in There With Me
- David Murray Quartet, Francesca
- Kaitlin Butts, Roadrunner!
- Sarah Davachi, The Head as Form’d in the Crier’s Choir
- Chuck Prophet featuring ¿Qiensave?, Wake The Dead
- Kyshona, Legacy
- Davóne Tines and The Truth, ROBESOИ
- Dalia Stasevska, Dalia’s Mixtape
- Nubya Garcia, Odyssey
Screen of Distance 