Best electronic albums of 2020: fourteen

14 – Against All Logic – 2017–2019 (Other People)

Nicolas Jaar, who has previously had two albums mentioned in this countdown, is already known for warping 1970s soul and disco into something thoroughly techno under this Against All Logic guise. 2017-2019, however, takes it to a new level.

He's taken all that lovely dance music you love, then shoved it through a waste disposal, attacked it with a sander, and bashed any remaining bits with a hammer. It distorts, it belches, it scrapes, it thrills. It's the red-peaking bit of early Daft Punk but, y'know, forever.

It's way rougher than you'd expect from a Jaar album. It's like your smooth Uncle Thackery, the one with the Lambo and the winning smile, turning up at your door in a half-open dressing gown, sweet wrappers stuck in his lockdown hair. Not the Thackery you expect, but certainly a Thackery you'll come to like.

2017-2019 also contains... and I'm going to whisper this because we don't want everyone knowing ... it also contains, in opening track Fantasy, the best Beyoncé song you'll hear in 2020. There, I said it. Uncle Thackery, can you please put on some pants? Jeez.

 

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