FEATURE:
The Lockdown Playlist
IN THIS IMAGE: The cover for SAULT’s phenomenal album, UNTITLED (Black Is) - which BBC Radio 6 Music declared their favourite album of 2020
BBC Radio 6 Music’s Top-Ten Albums of 2020
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ON Tuesday…
IMAGE CREDIT: @BBC6Music
BBC Radio 6 Music announced their favourite ten albums of this year. Lauren Laverne read out the list on her breakfast show; the winning album was UNTITLED (Black Is) by SAULT. The top-ten was quite interesting and, whilst there weren’t not too many female artists in the ten – two in total -, there was ample variation and solid music! You can see the nominated ten here - but this is what was said about SAULT’s 2020 masterpiece (one of two albums they put out this year!):
“There are few concrete details that we truly know about SAULT, the mysterious UK-based collective that span genre lines and keep their true identities firmly under wraps. What we do know, however, is that the music they’ve been steadily releasing since emerging seemingly out of nowhere in 2019 has been so breathtakingly singular that - unlike many similarly enigmatic acts - the autobiographical question marks that still surround those behind the project almost feels like an afterthought.
After a prolific 2019, which saw the release of two studio albums (‘5’ and ‘7’), SAULT upped the ante in 2020 with a dual offering of double albums: 'UNTITLED (Black Is)’ in July, followed by ‘UNTITLED (Rise)’ in September. Of the intent-signalling former of these releases (which features Michael Kiwanuka on a track), the band issued a statement that read: “We present our first ‘UNTITLED’ album to mark a moment in time where we as Black People, and of Black Origin are fighting for our lives… Change is happening… We are focused.”
Aptly described by one critic as “a robust collection of funk, soul, meditative spoken-word and protest chants meant to score the full spectrum of Blackness”, it’s a record that delves into the past by reshaping inherited genres and sounds into something entirely modern and self-contained. Whoever SAULT may be, you’ll find few other artists this year creating music quite as urgent and revolutionary.
Gilles Peterson: “I’ve been following SAULT for a while now, and loved their two records in 2019. So when I heard that there was a new album coming this summer, amidst such a tumultuous year, I just had a feeling that would do something special, and they absolutely came through.
They sent it to me on the morning of my show, and I listened to it from beginning to end. And I was like, “I’m playing the whole thing!”. It’s that strong. It’s undoubtedly going to be my record of the year, I can’t imagine anyone is going to come close to it.
It was basically that sense that you got when you listened to a record like The Specials – ‘Ghost Town’, or Gil Scott-Heron, The Clash - those classic records that have just lasted forever, that have political energy, and are of the moment, which is so important in music. That’s what it’s all about - forget the decadence and the escapism - this was a real record; this was about how we can all make a difference through music”.
Because BBC Radio 6 Music have declared their chosen ten albums of 2020, this Lockdown Playlist (Run the Jewels’ RTJ4 tracks might not be available for some, so you will need to navigate from there; you can also search in Spotify under ‘The Lockdown Playlist BBC Radio 6 Music’s Top-Ten Albums of 2020’) takes two songs from each of the ten albums. You can see that this year has been…
IMAGE CREDIT: @BBC6Music
AN incredibly strong one.