Sometimes life gives you lemons. Life gave us orchards worth in 2020, but as I detailed earlier this week, we also got lots of great music. Inevitably, we also got a few musical lemons.

I’m here to talk about the most disappointing albums of 2020. That does not mean the worst. There were surely countless duds in all genres this year, full of insipid, confused, uninspired music. However most of that music probably came from people who I would not listen to anyway, or went unnoticed for good reason. No, the 5 releases touched on here are from artists that I generally enjoy, and a couple of them are personal favorites of mine. I looked forward to all of these with differing levels of excitement. Yet for some reason or other, all of them let me down. That’s what makes them so disappointing – I want to like them but I just can’t. 

That’s not to say that all music contained therein is outright terrible. There are several good songs on each of these releases, or at least intriguing ideas scattered throughout. Yet there’s also missed opportunities, blown experiments, or subpar songwriting. In other words, these artists can and have put out work of much higher quality. It’s okay to make a misstep, and I’m not damning these creators to oblivion; musicians are people too, and we all make mistakes. Here’s to turning them around in 2021.

 Circles Around the Sun

Circles Around the Sun (March 13)

This third and final Circles Around the Sun album was birthed amidst tragedy. Guitarist Neal Casal killed himself during the post-production, while leaving explicit instructions in his suicide note to go ahead with its release as planned. The band complied, as they were proud of the music and wanted to pay tribute to their comrade. It’s a heartbreaking situation, and in that light I feel bad saying anything negative about the final release. As it stands, however, their self-titled album is objectively weaker than their prior projects. The instrumental band was originally formed as a side project by Casal, who was well-known in jam band circles for playing with acts such as Ryan Adams & The Cardinals and The Chris Robinson Brotherhood. He also had a low key solo career. He put together the group to record music to be played before and after the Grateful Dead’s 2015 Fare Thee Well 50th anniversary/goodbye celebration. Fans had such a positive response that they stuck together and recorded their own material. Their first album is very Dead-inspired, often nicking basic rhythms or riffs from the latter band’s music and interpolating it into their own unique direction. Rather than come off as pandering, it was adventurous and cool, a way to expand upon existing music and keep it moving forward. Their second album was more original but just as good, with wide open jams and deep explorations of mood and texture. Circles Around the Sun, however, is much more constrained. Each song feels like the instrumental backing track to a song missing its lyrics, and there’s a weird corny feel to the production that makes it sound like waiting room music. The musicians are all stellar and the playing is tight, but I feel like it’s straying from their original intent. By abandoning the vibes that made them so interesting in the first place, Circles Around the Sun edge a little closer to being another faceless band. In any case, Casal will be missed, and hopefully his bandmates will find a way to continue playing. Let’s just hope they rediscover the spirit of adventure.

3.15.20

Childish Gambino (March 22)

Rapper/singer Childish Gambino (aka actor/comedian Donald Glover) was the surprise star of 2010s hip-hop. No one expected an already famous person mostly known for comedic roles and a “soft” suburban perspective to churn out gripping rap songs. But he did, imbuing his songs with complex wordplay, humorous rhymes, and a striking emotional depth. With 2016’s Awaken, My Love! he added a heaping dose of funk and soul to his sound. Gambino surprise released 3.15.20 on its namesake date to little fanfare. I love the cover art, but struggled to get through it; I even struggled to fully pay attention as it was playing. The production is very spaced out, but not in a good way. I kept waiting for the beat to hit and the songs to take off, but they never did. It all just kind of floats around in a cloud, with Glover sing-talking through it all. There’s some light acoustic guitar strumming, some found-sound effects, but it doesn’t really congeal into anything. The only stand out song was already release a couple years ago as a single. I’m not really sure what he was going for here – I don’t hold it against him, it was an experiment, and the aimlessness does compliment the rest of 2020. But like much of 2020 the vibe was not good. It’s not the first time that Childish Gambino overtly experimented, and it will be interesting to see what he does from here. I should probably give it another listen, but that’s the problem – I don’t really don’t care to.

American Head

The Flaming Lips (September 11)

The Flaming Lips have over time become an institution unto themselves. Since the mid-Eighties they’ve defined what it means to be a truly “alternative” band, and ended up becoming massively successful almost in spite of themselves. Really, they are one of my favorite bands, with an insanely deep catalogue and plenty of stylistic shifts over the decades. The past 10 years have kind of been a lost decade for them after immense critical and commercial success in the ‘90s and 2000s. They doubled down on the weirdness, blew out their sound, and spent most of the time turning out collaborative EPs and covers that you couldn’t tell were serious or jokes. There was still some good stuff in there and it was always interesting to see what they were going to do next, but I couldn’t help but pine for a more focused approach. I knew that they still had it in them, and was confident that sooner or later they’d get around to it. Then last year they dropped American Head, which was received by the press with massive hype. “THE LIPS ARE BACK” everyone seemed to yell, so I was totally into it. Then I heard the record, and was let down. As told by frontman Wayne Coyne, the premise behind American Head was the band exploring its identity as an “American band” (as opposed to, say, one from Mars or the 6th Dimension). To do that, they go back to the sound of their 1999 masterpiece The Soft Bulletin. That one was very ornate and grand with a searching, emotionally heavy sound. The band celebrated The Soft Bulletin’s 20th anniversary in 2019 with a live orchestral performance, and it seems that revisiting it got them back into the same mood. The problem with American Head, however, is that they forgot to write actual songs. While the overall production sounds good, none of the melodies hold up and there are almost no hooks. It’s the sound of Coyne singing out into space, but his voice gets lost in the echo. Drummer Steve Drozd is as strong as ever, but his beats don’t captivate like they did on Bulletin, and the rest of the instruments are lost without a consistent song structure to hang on. While the public at large seemed to embrace American Head due to its sonic similarity to their best work, I sincerely hope that they don’t settle into this. I’d much preferThe Flaming Lips look ahead than backwards; the band won mainstream success by trading in their one career constant: being interesting.

Panther Rotate

Osees (December 11)

Yep. The very same band that I included on my Best Of list also shows up on my Most Disappointing list. The Osees released three albums this year – the first two were typically amazing, bombastic odes to energetic rock. With the cover art as a clue, the third, Panther Rotate, did not sustain such energy. It’s a weird, murky, mostly instrumental album (although John Dwyer does have vocals buried throughout) that is clearly a result of the band experimenting. In fact, many of the songs are labeled as some sort of experiment in their title. I can’t outright criticize a prolific band for tinkering around in the studio, but that doesn’t change the fact that the record as a whole is often a chore to stick with. Sometimes they settle upon some interesting soundscapes or lock into a cool groove, but it’s all pretty aimless. I had hopes that the Osees would bring it all home with a third knock-out release, but instead they proved that they are only mortal. Two out of three ain’t bad.

McCartney III

Paul McCartney (December 18)

Yes. You all know that I’m one of the biggest Beatles stans in the world, but I have to call a spade a spade. Sad to say it – Sir Paul miffed this one. There was a lot of hype building through the fall about McCartney III, written and recorded by Paul in his home studio during quarantine. He plays every instrument, similar to his 1970 McCartney and 1980 McCartney II. The former was his first release outside of the Beatles, a homespun classic. The latter is an experiment with synthesizers that was panned on release but over the years has been revealed to be extremely ahead of its time. McCartney III doesn’t go anywhere new; and as a matter of fact is rather lackluster. It’s a wintery record, and not just because both the first and last tracks are titled “Winter Bird.” There is lots of acoustic guitar, and the drums all sound brittle. Frankly, it all sounds a little cold and melancholic, which fits the time period but is a tad off-putting nonetheless. On a different note, Paul’s voice shows its age. He sounds old, and isn’t able to give the powerhouse vocal performances he is known for. That’s unavoidable for a 78 year old man, and no one holds that against him. In fact, it’s admirable that he didn’t try to autotune or otherwise smooth over the rough edges. He has nothing to hide. AND YET… the state of his voice doesn’t help the songs either. Oftentimes I wished that I could hear the younger version perform these songs with more energy and gusto. That goes for the instruments as well. I want to be clear that none of the songs are outright bad, just sort of “there.” While it’s all clearly Paul, much of the album is subdued. It makes the more rocking tracks hit more by consequence, but I had a hard time finding purchase. The long instrumental outro on “Deep Deep Feeling” doesn’t go anywhere, and the lyrics to “Lavatory Lil” are cringe. There are a couple good songs throughout, and I certainly have to listen more. Paul is still the single greatest musician of the 20th Century; he’s had several ups and downs and one random home release isn’t going to tarnish anything. Still, Ram this is not, and is disappointing.