Over the course of a year, our Über team listens to literally hundreds of albums, and once again we set them the onerous task of selecting what they feel to have been the best new releases of the past 12 months. In total, our crack team submitted more than albums for consideration, with their lists then fed into our state-of-the-art musical abacus to calculate our final top ten albums of 2020.
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To paraphrase a certain much over-played song by Led Zeppelin, “does anyone remember live shows?” Yes, we do… those occasions when we would travel the length and breadth of the Uber Kingdom, worshipping at the altar of rock ‘n’ roll and experiencing the best bands around in the environment in which they were best enjoyed – down the front in a hot and sweaty moshpit (or from the safety of the VIP area at the back of the room!)…
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We’re not normally fans of cover versions here at ÜRHQ, but it has to be admitted that 2020 has seem a plethora of them – perhaps a hefty percentage more than in any “normal” rock ‘n’ roll year – as artists have adapted to the various global lockdowns and used modern technology to either present their takes on favourite songs or collaborate (virtually) with like-minded fellow artists to put new twists on perennial favourites.
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For many years, the EP – or ‘Extended Player’, to give it its full title – was a criminally overlooked format. But, in recent years, it has made something of a deserved comeback, as bands face the challenge of continually producing new material but often not being able to commit to the cost of, or time to, recording full-length albums. During the course of the global pandemic, it has become an even more important tool for artists to get new music out there, with bands often availing of limited time between lockdowns to lay down a handful of songs, or individual members taking the opportunity either to strip things right back to their basics, or indulge in online collaborations with like-minded fellow troubadours.
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There is no doubt it, but 2020 has been a truly traumatic year for the rock ‘n’ roll Überverse, with live shows all but non-existent in the vast majority of places, and income streams completely decimated for many of those involved in the music business. The latter is a feeling we know all too well here at ÜRHQ, as we ourselves have not earned a penny since the Northern Ireland entertainments industry went into lockdown on 14 March. However, one thing that has shown through is the enormous creativity of many, many hundreds of artists, and equal numbers of those working behind the scenes, in adapting to the changed global landscape – one which, in many cases, may indeed be changed forever: streamed shows, whether live or pre-recorded, have virtually (sic) become the norm, and no doubt will remain so, especially here in the Über Kingdom, for quite some time to come…
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