2020 Albums of the Year

2020 was awful in a number of ways. With any luck, we will collectively look back on the year in the decades to come as turning point. A turning point that caused significant and meaningful change on issues we have let fester for far too long. Whether I believe that is the result of 2020 is a discussion for another time. In the meantime, I wanted to look back at some of the best music that came out over the course the year. Music was one of the bright spots in a dark year. It truly did shine bright too, there was some great music across all genres that came out last year. Let’s get to it.

I wanted to briefly start with a handful of albums that were near the top of my list that I just didn’t get a chance to listen to before putting this together. I am especially bummed about missing out on KeiyaA, Nubya Garcia, Róisín Murphy, and Chloe x Halle, but I look forward to giving them a spin in the next few weeks.

Albums on My List That I Just Didn’t Get To

Special Interest – The Passion Of

Dogleg – Melee

Beatrice Dillon – Workaround

Chloe x Halle – Ungodly Hour

Nubya Garcia – Source

KeiyaA – Forever, Ya Girl

Róisín Marie Murphy – Róisín Machine

The Microphones – Microphones in 2020

Bad Bunny – YHLQMDLG

Before I jump into the actual ratings, I wanted to spotlight some other great work that just didn’t make my list. The best of the rest is not in any particular order but definitely worth your time.

The Best of the Rest

Grimes – Miss Anthropocene

Burna Boy – Twice As Tall

Crack Cloud – Pain Olympics

Pink Siifu – NEGRO

Tame Impala – The Slow Rush

Arca – KiCk i

Ben Watt – Storm Damage

HMLTD – West of Eden

Kylie Minogue – Disco

Lilly Hiatt – Walking Proof

Drive-By Truckers – The New OK

Shirley Collins – Heart’s Ease

Boniface – Boniface

070 Shake – Modus Vivendi

Beach Bunny – Honeymoon

Deftones – Ohms

Sløtface – Sorry for the Late Reply

I would love to spend time breaking out just what I loved about all these records because there was so much to love. Instead, I will spare you some of my pontificating. At least until I get to the top 10, then your suffering begins.

The Top 50

50. Bill Fay – Countless Branches

49. Bruce Springsteen – Letter to You

48. Tennis – Swimmer

47. Andy Shauf – The Neon Skyline

46. Yaeji – WHAT WE DREW

45. The Beths – Jump Rope Gazers

44. U.S. Girls – Heavy Light

43. Fontaines D.C. – A Hero’s Death

42. H.C. McEntire – Eno Axis

41. Rina Sawayama – SAWAYAMA

40. Kate NV – Room for the Moon

39. Baxter Dury – The Night Chancers

38. The Soft Pink Truth – Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase?

37. Mac Miller – Circles

36. Half Waif – The Caretaker

35. The Chats – High Risk Behavior

34. Fleet Foxes – Shore

33. Kelly Lee Owens – Inner Song

32. Lyra Pramuk – Fountain

31. Taylor Swift – evermore

30. Marika Hackman – Covers

29. Neil Young – Homegrown

28. Amaarae – THE ANGEL YOU DON’T KNOW

27. Porridge Radio – Every Bad

26. Destroyer – Have We Met

25. Caribou – Suddenly

24. Charli XCX – how I’m feeling now

23. Thundercat – It Is What It Is

22. Gil Scott-Heron & Makaya McCraven – We’re New Again

21. Protomartyr – Ultimate Success Today

20. Jyoti – Mama, You Can Bet!

19. Dehd – Flower of Devotion

18. Jessie Ware – What’s Your Pleasure?

17. Mary Lattimore – Silver Ladders

16. Lomelda – Hannah

15. Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia

14. Adrienne Lenker – Songs

13. SAULT – Untitled (Rise)

12. Taylor Swift – folklore

11. Laura Marling – Song for Our Daughter

The Top 10

10. HAIM – Women in Music Pt. III

Typically, when someone describes an album with the phrase “there’s a lot going on,” it’s not in a complimentary way. HAIM’s Women in Music Pt. III flies in the faces of that notion as a bad thing. From the opening notes of the lead track “Los Angeles” you know you’re going to be in for a fun ride. Over the past 7 or 8 years dating back to their woefully underrated Days Are Gone record, HAIM has expanded and deepened the breadth of instrumental they work from. It culminated in this record that largely defies genre. It’s got indie rock, blues, hip hop, R&B, country, funk, and some electronic genre conventions thrown in there for good measure. One of the highest compliments a record can be given is the expression of a desire to listen to it again. HAIM’s Women in Music Pt. III satisfies that not only from an album standpoint but individual songs. Over the course of the record, it’s hard to get to some songs because the repeat button gets in the way. “3 AM” is an earworm that simultaneously sounds like it’s on the tail of a song that The Internet could’ve released on their previous record and one that could’ve come out during the explosion of mid-aughts R&B. I have no idea if HAIM will be honored at The Grammys come March, but I know that I am not going to stop listening to Women in Music, Pt. III anytime soon.

9. Yves Tumor – Heaven to a Tortured Mind

There is tremendous power in being able to reinvent yourself from album to album. To display a flexibility that doesn’t confine you to genre or sound. To do it from track to track? That’s not just power, that’s boldness displayed by few and even fewer that can do it successfully. Enter Yves Tumor. They displayed such a capability with the sheer amount of force contained in their 2018 record, Safe In The Hands Of Love, that masterfully demonstrated how to both challenge and reward your audience with experimental sounds. Heaven To A Tortured Mind (a strong contender for the best album title of 2020) turns the speakers up to 11, explodes from the outset, and doesn’t look back. “Gospel For A New Century” has an absolutely filthy instrumental. It has that boom-bap hip hop sensibility which quickly settles into a funky rhythm not dissimilar to some of rhythms crafted by Childish Gambino on “Awaken, My Love!” Then the chorus approaches and guitars create this wild cacophony on top of that same rhythm. That’s what you’re in for when you let Yves Tumor take the reins. You don’t know where you’re headed, because as soon as you assume something, Yves will flip that expectation on its head. One piece of advice for listening to this record: let Yves Tumor do just that. Check what you think you know about musical progressions and let each moment speak for itself. You won’t be disappointed.

8. Soccer Mommy – color theory

I’m older than Soccer Mommy. I say that for a few reasons. I hoped that such a sobering realization would cause me to step my game up. More importantly, it is meant to be a compliment regarding just how self-assured she sounds on this record. I’m 4-5 years older than her and my voice isn’t nearly so sturdy. She’s right where she needs to be. color theory elevates the sound she honed on her debut album in 2018, Clean, while taking its instrumentals to a new place. Her guitar work all over this, especially on tracks like “circle the drain,” is bouncy and light in the best ways. It so often feels like a daydream. It is easy to just drift from chord and chord while an entire song passes you by before you notice. There are no weak links on color theory resulting in one of the most consistent and tightest albums of 2020.

7. Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways

Bob Dylan’s first album came out in 1962. I would love to say that you know what to expect from Bob Dylan. Except I don’t know if that’s true and I’m quite sure it’s never been true. Such was the expectation going into Rough And Rowdy Ways, especially given its status as Dylan’s first original work in years. What we got was gentle, bluesy storytelling that sees Bob indulging in the very best of his songwriting and singing tendencies. So many long albums are that way due to a glut of songs and typically feature a lot of filler. Every so often you find an album that clocks in comfortably over an hour (70 minutes) that just asks you to sit with its storytelling. I complain (probably more than I should) about album length. But it is so essential to crafting a great album. If you are going to ask a listener for 70 minutes, this is how to do it. Dylan leaves you hanging on every word from the artistic explorations of “I Contain Multitudes” to the enchanting slow-dance of “I’ve Made Up My Mind To Give Myself to You” to the drawn-out orchestral soliloquy of “Murder Most Foul.” I don’t know where Bob Dylan is headed next. He will probably continue his never-ending tour. He will probably release even more work, even if it's just covers. If he doesn’t though, if this is the last we hear from Bob Dylan, my god, what an absolutely stunning way to exit one of the most storied and influential careers in all of music. Take a bow.

6. Perfume Genius – Set My Heart On Fire Immediately

You know that moment when you’re about to cry? I know you know what I am talking about. It’s the swelling of emotion. You feel it in your chest first as it involuntarily moves to your throat and you try to choke it down. Suddenly, you know you can’t stop it and the ill-fated tears escape the corners of your eyes. From the vibrato-filled and tender opening moments of Perfume Genius’ Set My Heart On Fire Immediately, that is what it feels like. A constant swelling of potent emotion punctuated by moments of weightlessness buoyed only by the beautiful sparseness of the instrumentals. The baroque elements (on tracks like “Jason”) give this album a sound unlike anything I listened to in 2020. While Perfume Genius is not exploring uncharted territory, it is hard not to feel like you’re listening to something you have not quite heard before. It simultaneously feels like breaking new ground and reading his personal diary. To so effectively straddle the personal and impersonal and in many cases fuse the two where the instrumental feels like a voice in an of itself is not just a feat, it elevates music from merely being good to being transformational.

5. Moses Sumney - grae

The very best records of this year and certainly the best experiences in listening to music were borne out of giving into the world created by each album. On its face, this notion seems obvious, but it manifested itself in an entirely new way over the course of a year plagued by staring at the same four walls day and night and day and night and day and night. Escapism is not the word I am looking for though it would certainly fit the bill. No, this is a different kind of feeling. There’s a certain element of control with escapism. You turn the pages of your book, you press pause, skip track, click ‘yes’ when Netflix bothers to ask if you are still watching. There is a certain active element to all that escapism. What about turning up the dial on the passivity of escapism? Letting the artist, the musician, the band take control. There are few albums that came out in 2020 that reward such a passivity like Moses Sumney’s grae. It’s runtime of just over an hour is tethered by its track count of 20. Lush production colors the sonic landscape from the horns on tracks like “Colouour” to the groovy basslines on tracks like “Cut Me.” Moses Sumney is not satisfied just staying in one place though and that’s the beauty of approaching grae with a level of passivity. Wherever he takes you, you will be experiencing for the first time.

4. Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud

Waxahatchee’s Saint Cloud is mesmerizing. The entire album takes you to exactly where Katie Crutchfield wants you to go. That journey is one of trying to come to grips with your demons and the importance of place in the healing process. No song on the entire record expresses such a sentiment like “Ruby Falls.” The yarns that spin out of the simplest moments of this track are done with a magician’s touch. The drum beat is remarkably simple throughout the track. Every once in a while, though, a drum break happens, and where those are placed makes all the difference. Just as Crutchfield croons “I sing a song at your funeral” you’ll hear this short drum break and it’s so simple and stirring. Crutchfield has talked about how the record was borne out of her dealing with addiction and codependency. This is a struggle that more and more people are coming to know. But there is a universality to even the most specific moments that Crutchfield describes in her songwriting. It transplants you to place, specifically in this instance from Waxahatchee Creek, Alabama in tracks like “Ruby Falls” to St. Cloud, Florida on tracks like “St. Cloud.” Saint Cloud is a vulnerable and personal record. It is one that lays bare a struggle with addiction. More than any of that, it does what any great album does. It transports you. Saint Cloud tells a story that you won’t experience because it isn’t your story but makes you feel a part of that story at each and every turn.

3. SAULT – Untitled (Black Is)

SAULT’s refusal to look away from the pain of Black people both confronts its listeners and enriches both its instrumentals and rawness. Just two songs into Untitled (Black is), “Stop Dem” takes over your speakers. The drum beat is as infectious as it driving the emotion of the track. “We are the original people and we don’t believe in evil” is simultaneously a rallying call and a statement of existence. The repetition of “don’t shoot us” over the crooning “stop” creates the foundation for a exquisitely powerful moment. The hand claps that overlay those driving drums add yet another percussive element to a song that already seems to translate remarkably well to chanting along. Instrumentally what this album does with drums from track to track is nothing short of spectacular. It creates the atmosphere of protest music simply through its driving percussive movements. When you aren’t overtaken by that element, you’re left with repeated lyrics (from “It’s a hard life, fighting to be seen” to “don’t shoot, guns down” to “You should be ashamed/the bloodshed on your hands/another man”) that not only exult the righteous indignation and rage of black people but reaffirm a resiliency in the face of oppression necessary to survive. The simplicity of Untitled (Black Is) lies in repeated lyrics that feel like chants the more you listen. But the beauty that seeps through that simplicity is stirring. Sometimes it’s hard to look brazen and systemic injustice so clearly in its face without blinking, but there are people for whom it is not possible to look away; it is a lived reality. In some ways, SAULT’s Untitled (Black Is) is a balm for the process of rectifying an unjust system and reckoning with hundreds of years of codified subjugation. At other times, it confronts the listener with “how the fuck did it take you so long to see this? To see us?” And that’s a question for which I still don’t have a satisfying answer.

2. Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher

From the opening moments of the ethereal instrumental of “Garden Song” on Phoebe Bridgers’ Punisher, I was sold. The beautiful layered vocals with Jeroen Vrijhoef over the choruses further cement the dreamy quality to the record. The sheer awestruck melancholy that Bridgers recites “I don’t know how, but I’m taller/it must be something in the water” is remarkably palpable songwriting. You soon find out you are in for an entire album’s worth of those moments from Bridgers on Punisher. Even on the more up-tempo tracks like the following “Kyoto.” An infectiously bouncy guitar and drum beat are layered by Nathaniel Walcott’s soaring horns and Ethan Gruska’s blissful synths. It’s true of many albums on the list and certainly of this top 10, but there is no weak track on Punisher. It is loaded with so many delightful and exploratory instrumentals and dense songwriting that it immediately begs to be listened to again just to unpack more of it. I have not been able to stop listening to Punisher since the very first time I laid ears on it and I am constantly discovering new aspects to love with each listen.

1. Fiona Apple – Fetch the Bolt Cutters

I truly cannot say what hasn’t already been said about Fiona Apple’s storied career from her debut Tidal to her oft referenced and highly praised Extraordinary Machine, but from the opening moments of Fetch the Bolt Cutters, you know you are listening to something special. The first time I listened to the record, I could hardly get the past the first track I loved it so much. Those light percussive notes giving way to swaying, dreamy piano rhythm is enchanting. Fiona Apple’s vibrato on “I Want You To Love Me” is enough to make me quit listening to anyone else sing a vibrato. The vibrato then gives way to this guttural punching through each lyric which then cedes to this lighter melodic tone where she softens a bit just to jump into a soaring “I know that you do.” This is just the first track of the album. “Shameika” takes that piano from the opening track and turns it around and makes it bouncier and the whole track just explodes in the speakers. Without just doing a track by track analysis, (which this album practically begs you to do as it displays a remarkably consistent quality through 13 tracks) I will move on. When a bar is about to close up or stop serving, it’s typically referred to as last call. Without saying as much, the bartender is telling you to wrap it up. Writing about this album, thinking about this album, listening to the same track over and over, it feels like my brain is that bartender. I could keep listening and keep writing. At some point my brain has to keep me in check and yell “last call.” Not just yet though. Go listen to the title track, “Fetch the Bolt Cutters,” and listen to that vocal layering. The way it starts with harmonization then gives way to disjointed layering that almost sounds like a conversation repeating itself. Capturing that chaotic energy and harnessing it into a beautifully entrancing song isn't limited to just the title track, it increasingly seems like it has come to define the artistry of Fiona Apple.

Now you can imagine just how long this would have been had I written about the rest of those albums. For all the things that 2020 was, it certainly brought a lot of great music. I can always hope you’ll find your next great musical obsession here. If not, I hope this reminded you of a great album you haven’t visited in a while. More than anything, take some time to give yourself to some music while making your way through this list. Till next time.