The Top 50 Albums of 2020

Hey there!

Before you start scrolling to satiate your insecurities (“If he doesn’t like the music I like, I’m not going to like that.”), let’s get to know each other first.

You’re reading this because you like music to some degree. Cool, me too; that’s why I made this list for you, not for me (I’m well aware of what music is out there and what I like). This is a list for you to find something new.

I wake up each morning and listen to a new record while making and eating breakfast. Cool story, huh? I did that two-hundred-and-nine times this year, which is well below my average. I used to do anywhere from three-hundred-something to nine-hundred-something albums a year and write a review for each of them. I did that for sixteen years, can you believe it? I stopped because I ran out of both patience and ways to write, “Another boring, four-on-the-floor indie rock album that means everything to everyone today and will be instantly forgotten next week.”

So, this is a list of only the best albums of the year; readers may have enjoyed my vitriolic ‘take-downs’ of most records but I really didn’t enjoy being so sour and negative in my writing. And I don’t think it’d do much good to give you a list of a couple hundred albums that you shouldn’t listen to, as you’d technically already be doing that by not knowing of their existence in the first place. Convenient, huh?

This is not a list of my ‘favorite’ albums of the year. No, I think I genuinely like only about sixteen albums that came out this year (and they’re not all in the top fifty). This, like all of my lists have been, is an attempt at the ‘objectivity’ that can exist in music. You and I might have different preferences but my goal is that the average listener can listen to all of these records and enjoy most of them; that requires a sense of (and goal of) objectivity. It’s not a general list, quite the opposite in fact, so rest assured that an album’s inclusion or exclusion is influenced by my personal enjoyment as little as possible (that’s the intention, at least).

Tip: Anything underlined in this entire article is actually a link; you can follow them for more context, free samples, and secrets to a better body!

But, as a disclaimer, we should go over-

My Biases:

1. A friend once joked, “(Jesse’s) heard everything, twice, and didn’t like it the first time.” It’s a good joke, and truer than false. I’m an ardent disciple of Sturgeon’s Law and will indeed re-listen to music that I don’t like in order to find out why I don’t like it.
2. ‘Indie’ is not a genre. But if it were, it would be the second-worst genre (after modern folk). I think it’s great that you enjoy that album from the singer/songwriter with a six-string guitar and six-trillion empty platitudes, but I’ve had my fill. Just because it’s the only music released during your lifetime doesn’t mean it’s the only music that exists, and just because you see it all over this list doesn’t mean I endorse its existence as a whole.
3. My favorite instrument is the french horn, followed by the harp and the pan flute. My entire music identity is essentially just the Eyewitness Theme on a loop for thirty years (specifically and especially the strings at 0:42).
4. My least-favorite instrument in the history of the world is the Roland TR-808 cowbell. My most fortunate blessing is having been born after the eighties.

5. I made this playlist for my casual home listening; there are probably about seventy-five different countries/territories represented. I probably listen to more music from more places than you do, so I don’t want to hear any guff that this list is ‘so America-centric.’ Not only is it not, but I’m busy and don’t always have time for every different scale on planet Earth, excuuuuuse me.

6. If asked, “Who is your favorite artist?” the accurate answer would be Radiohead, the real answer is Boards of Canada, the true answer is Ralph Vaughn Williams, but the only actual answer is Ryuichi Sakamoto (“Sorry, honey: the Jinggang Mountain intro stays on during sex.”). I’m a basic boy, I know, but at least I’m honest.

7. These may be pedestrian but the best album of; the 1950s is Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, the 1960s is Moondog’s Moondog, the 1970s is Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures, the 1980s is probably Peter Gabriel’s Passion (the 1980s sucked as a whole so it’s either that, Thriller, or The Joshua Tree; but Passion was compositionally-unmatched that decade), the 1990s is Björk’s Homogenic, the 2000s is probably PJ Harvey’s Stories From the City, Stories from the Sea (again, the 2000s sucked overall and SFtCSftS is basically the only truly-ambitious-yet-understated album to not be up its own butt with pretension), and the 2010s is Death Grips’ Exmilitary. I value albums that step up to the plate to take simple but big swings; do something truly new or do something truly well, don’t reach for both.

8. There’s no such thing as a ‘Best Album of All Time’ because the concept of an album is well under a century old and (pretentious opinion alert:) I’d contend that most music composed before the 1930s holds more artistic merit than anything released in the last century, as the music’s communal role in every culture has been significantly devalued since WWII.

9. The eras of music rank as follows: Modernist > Romantic > Classical > Early Romantic > Renaissance > Ancient > Medieval > dog turds> Baroque > cow turds> whale turds> Postmodernist. (Some of the best compositions in history and most of my musical influences are postmodern but it doesn’t change the fact that the era inherently has no quality control whatsoever).

10. Go make fun of my Last.fm profile, which has recorded everything I’ve listened to through iTunes or Spotify for the last ten years (note: it says I didn’t listen to ‘anything’ from 2016–2019 when I lived in China, but I was busy exploring ‘‘‘‘Eastern’’’’ music on QQ Music).

11. Most important: just because I like something doesn’t mean I think it’s good, as outlined in this big article I wrote about the building blocks of music theory. The top fifty albums of this year are the TOP fifty albums, not my ‘favorite’ or ‘most-listened-to.’

Quick Rules: No compilation, remix, live, or cover albums are eligible for this list. Compilation albums are not concentrated efforts, remix albums are not organic enough, live albums are technically derivative, and if I allowed cover albums then most ‘classical music’ records would curb-stomp every other entry.

Notable Albums that Didn’t Make the List

Remember when I said I wasn’t going to write negative reviews? I lied (don’t say I never did anything for you).

These are albums that I either 1.) enjoyed but didn’t think were good enough to endorse or 2.) albums that garnered enough general attention to be known but not good enough to include on a list of albums that I’d endorse.

Tip: Listen to the Spotify previews included for every entry in the article and make up your own mind.

209

Glass Animals — Dreamland

Indietronica, Indie Pop, Alternative R&B

Out of all the things you can be in life, nostalgic is the worst. And of all the things you can be in life, nostalgic for the worst sounds of 2011 is probably the absolute dumbest waste of time imaginable.

There are few albums I’ve ever heard that cut into me like this one. Imagine if your dentist literally used a hacksaw and power-drill on your most sensitive molar. Even that would be a more pleasant experience than listening to these abysmal lyrics, insanely-trite compositions, and dreadful vocals. And it marks the beginning of a trend: now that we’re in the 2020s, music will start looking back on the 2010s as a period that should be emulated in all the worst ways. I swear to god, I hear absolutely no difference between this nonsense and power-pop secretion like “We Are Young”.

207

Horse Lords — The Common Time

Experimental Rock, Totalism, Krautrock

As much as I may respect Horse Lords, I find their work to be absolutely unlistenable. I enjoy atonal experimentation but The Common Time is maddening. In trying to recommend albums to the general global population, I could never in good conscience recommend an entire record of just intonation. I would suggest this album to those that really enjoy avant garde music but only a narrow few, because this thing is just grating.

181

Jarv is… — Beyond the Pale

Art pop, Art rock, Electronic

Albums by aging Britpop artists are typically extremely dull and self-effacing to the point of pretension (and this record is no different) but I will admit that “House Music All Night Long” is a decent little song. The lyrics can be trite and ridiculous but they’re halfway charming. I think if you’re a Pulp fan then you’ll likely enjoy this, but I’m certainly no Pulp fan and certainly wouldn’t recommend them to anyone under the age of forty.

180

Bad Bunny — YHLQMDLG

Reggaeton, Trap, Pop Rap

Literally every aspect of this album is so abysmal that it made me want to die. I can overlook my anti-raggae bias but there is no album that should be this shallow for over an hour. I don’t mind a party record, ‘depth’ isn’t a requirement in music, but oh my absolute god…an hour and five minutes! Why?! Terrible album cover, terrible composition, terrible production; literally everything about this is bad. Avoid at all costs. Tacky tacky tacky.

173

Ariana Grande — Positions

Contemporary R&B, Pop, Pop Rap

Ariana Grande’s current existence blows my mind. She’s nothing more than a personification of the continued infantilization of sexuality, in that she’s depicted as a perpetual teenager; even the studio executives that controlled Brittney Spears eventually let that woman age into an actual person. But this is exacerbated by the fact that almost every song she’s ever put out (with the exception of the decent “God is a Woman” and absolutely wonderful “Needy”) are so unimaginably shallow in their composition and lyrical content that they sound like the most obvious and unfunny parody songs in a film satirizing the music industry.

This album is insane. There’s an album in the top fifty that is completely and entirely about sex, but done in a creative-and-interesting-enough way. But this album is just…

“So Ariana Grande is having sex, I guess? And she likes it? I mean…okay? Cool, good for her, I guess? Is it about sexuality or romance or…no? Just literally the mechanics of sex? So she’s some vague female narrator having sex with some vague male figure, and I’m supposed to get what out of this exactly? What’s that — the album still has thirty minutes left?”

I don’t even understand how it exists. It’s so unbelievably brazen and obvious in its lack of ambition and respect for the listener that even Grande’s own fans seem to understand the jig is up. Again, “Needy” is my jam, but this is music for a cartoon you’d listen to in health class about the dangerous of not being abstinence; it literally sounds like the gym teacher breathing into a keyboard microphone. It’s just a weird joke, and not even a funny one at that.

This is the superb cover rendition I show to those that role their eyes when I say that Grande is going to be wonderful when she’s a washed-up forty-something with a chip on her shoulder and is more willing to take interesting risks. But Positions’ release indicates it might take a while to get there.

171

Mac Miller — Circles

Neo-soul, Pop rap, Psychedelic Soul

Calling this ‘neo-soul’ is such a ridiculous stretch. Subjectively, I don’t like Mac Miller’s music at all. This is an unpopular opinion, but I contend that he was a talented artist that made trite records full of forced melodies, and Circles is no different. Even as a Jon Brion effort I find it to be bloated and hollow, much like the shape it’s named for. It is the best Miller record but that’s such a low bar to clear.

157

Austra — HiRUDiN

Art Pop, Synthpop, Indietronica

Austra are completely hellbent on reducing anything even remotely interesting about their songs to the point where their melodies resemble brain-dead nursery rhymes to no one, rather than actually evolve the sound they found on the superb Feel it Break. It’s been a decade and Austra, for whatever reason, seem obsessed with making their songs so insanely simple and annoying, like some sort of inside joke that isn’t even smug but banal and boring.

156

Haley Williams — Petals for Armor

Art Pop, Alternative Dance, Synthpop

Oof. Very, very, very bad. I can’t imagine what it’d be like to enjoy the music of Paramore and then see one of the members branch out and make a record this scattered, thin, and aimless. Well, actually, I can:

153

EOB — Earth

Art Rock, Contemporary Folk, Alternative Dance

There are five members of Radiohead and now all but one (Colin Greenwood) have made solo records and nearly all of them are just awful. Jonny Greenwood pulls the average up with his sublime film scores and Thom Yorke at least has Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes, but everything else is insanely embarrassing to listen to. Imagine being dumb little Jesse and watching one of your all-time most-inspiring groups dissolve into cranking out mindlessly-self-indulgent records; the horror.

This is Ed O’Brien’s solo album. I had absolutely no expectations and am massively disappointed. Ed is known to really enrich the melodies that Greenwood and Yorke write and has provided some incredibly touching and poetic moments in the compositions over the years, very human touches. But this? Boring. Maybe not as bland as Phil Selway’s efforts but oof. Not good. Aimless and pointless. From the guy that does the solo in Climbing Up The Walls and the “Aaaahhhh” in Weird Fishes, can you believe it? After those last two Radiohead records, I can. Kill me.

152

Yung Lean — Starz

Cloud rap, Trap, Ambient Pop

I don’t know who encouraged Scandinavians to rap but they need to be tracked down and tried in The Hague. This is an abysmal record that proves that we are in a dark age in regards to melodic composition…however, “Acid at 7/11” (which isn’t even how you spell 7-Eleven) is an absolute jam and one of my favorite melodic non-melodies of the year.

150

Kid Cudi — Man on the Moon III: The Chosen

Pop Rap, Trap, Neo-Psychedelia

I cannot conceive of what would have happened (or not happened) in someone’s life for them to find this album enjoyable.

I joke, but the sounds of this record are just baffling. If I had never heard a melody before in my entire life, I would probably still react to this with a, “…it’s a bit forced, innit?”

I find this to be ‘music’, sure, but an incredibly poor example of every aspect of it. The rhythms on Cudi projects are really strange and off-putting, this is something I’ve noticed since the first Man on the Moon album. I remember being in high school when “Day ‘n’ Nite” came out and could not understand what everyone was so excited about, “This guy doesn’t even sound like he’s on-beat, and with beats this awful I guess I don’t blame him?”

This album is just…it’s a slog. The mixing alone is really hard to listen to for its hour long duration. It’s not that it’s abrasive it’s all just ‘there’, all the time, as if you were forced to read a book that was an inch from your eyes. Combined with the somewhat shallow lyrical content and absolutely pointless film-dialogue samples makes this a slog.

If you’re the kind of person who likes lo-fi and doesn’t actually know what lo-fi means, it’s just a playlist you listen to on Youtube/Spotify, then this is for you. Otherwise, steer clear.

147

Natalia Lafourcade — Un Canto por México, Vol. 1

Ranchera, Mariachi, Bolero

This album is actually fantastic but it’s pretty niche. For example, I happen to enjoy reading about the history of China between 1900 and 1950, but I wouldn’t find it acceptable to declare a really great book on the subject to be one of the ‘Best of the Year’ because so many people likely wouldn’t have the foundational knowledge/context to find value in it.

Lafourcade has a stellar collection of Mexican history in this album, but it isn’t really built for wide-enough appeal. That is not a bad thing, but it reduces the record’s relevance on this list.

142

Ghostpoet — I Grow Tired But Dare Not Fall Asleep

Art Pop, Trip Hop, Post-Punk

If I could go the rest of my life without hearing another record from a ‘dark’ ‘brooding’ ‘British’ ‘poet’ I would be the luckiest man alive. I swear to god, that one little island cranks out at least ten of these a week, each more derivative and disposable than the last. Ghostpoet’s latest effort is one of the better ones but absolutely nothing to write home about.

133

Taylor Swift — evermore

Folk Pop, Chamber Pop, Indie Folk

When I was twenty-two, we were in production on my thesis film for film school. It was a large effort, with many unknown variables, the most uncertain being the attitude of our lead performer. We were flying an actress out from Los Angeles and everyone was a bit nervous about her disposition; the entire film revolved around her character, if she wasn’t pleased then her performance might suffer.

I sought to make everything as comfortable and enjoyable as possible for her, so I reached out to the woman that she was traveling with and asked about the actress’ likes and dislikes: what she liked to eat, her interests, and (especially) what music she liked. It would be me, not some random production assistant, that was going to pick her up from the airport, so I wanted the long car ride into the Rocky Mountains to be accompanied by her favorite music.

“She just likes Taylor Swift.“

So, among the ten thousand other duties and tasks that I was responsible for as the director, I downloaded the Taylor Swift discography and made a playlist for my actress. I didn’t enjoy Swift and wasn’t really looking forward to listening to nothing but her music for a few hours, but I wanted the actress to be happy.

We met at the airport, hugged, and climbed into the car for our long journey. As we pulled onto the highway I started the playlist and looked into the rearview mirror. The woman the actress was traveling with gave me a knowing look. The actress was a bit nervous, so she simply looked out the window as we began to snake through the mountains.

It was a long drive and, between brief chats with the passengers, I listened to Swift’s music closer than I had in quite some time. After we driving over a mountain and into a valley, looking into the rearview mirror and seeing our actress watch at the setting sun with a peaceful look on her face, it all finally clicked and I thought, “Oh, I get it.“

Now this is the part of the story where you expect me to explain how all it took for me to understand and appreciate Taylor Swift’s music is being put in a situation where I approached it with an open mind and gave it the time it deserved.

No, this is the part of the story where I reveal that the woman traveling with the actress was her mother, because our lead performer was eight-years-old. “Oh, I get it. This is music for people like her.”

Imagine being an eight year old in Los Angeles; the amount of media that you’re exposed to is probably pretty limited, being controlled by your parents in the interest of what’s age-appropriate and relevant to your interests. You’re likely not finding new music on your own all that often, an experience that doesn’t usually occur until your teenage years.

This is the kind of person who would listen to a Taylor Swift album and think, “Yeah, I like this, this is great. I don’t know if I’ve heard anything this good in a while. This is what I want to spend my time listening to.” A passive listener, unexposed to the true miracles and calamities of the world, would listen to a Taylor Swift album with reverence in the same way a small child from feudal England might vibrate with joy if you fed them McDonald’s fries.

This isn’t a matter of singling the listener out based on superficial aspects (‘young’/’girl’). You’re not naïve, stupid, or childish for listening to Taylor Swift. If you like her music on a subjective level, that’s great, I applaud you for finding something in a rough world that you feel a bit warmer. However, contending that Swift’s music is ‘good’, relative to not only all the music ever released but even just the music released this year, is ridiculous. As in: worthy of ridicule.

Year-end lists, like this one, exist to inform you of music that you’ve probably never heard of and should grant some attention. The authority that these lectures stem from can be based on compositional competence, writing proficiency, sheer volume of entries, or any number of qualifiers.

I started listening to so much music, reviewing it, and publishing it long before Swift was putting out albums…but she and figures like her are the reason I continue to scavenge for as many new records as possible.

If you think that Taylor Swift put out two of the best albums of the year, I have fantastic news in the form of every other album on this list that I’ve ranked higher than her work. And just look at the number of data points here: even if I’m ‘correct’ only five-percent of the time in stating that certain records are better than Swift’s, that’s about twelve albums where you’ll agree. Think of how much fun we’re going to have!

As for a review of Evermore specifically: unlike Swift, I don’t enjoy repeating myself so anything that needs to be said will be stated in the Folklore review.

132

Covet — Technicolor

Math rock, Post-rock, Dream pop

Yvette Young is an unbelievably talented musician, but her abilities haven’t translated into a good album yet. The individual compositions here are impeccable but they do not add up to more than the sum of their parts. I’m just highlighting this record so you know to pay attention to Young in the future; she’ll get it right soon enough.

131

Tyler Childers — Long Violent History

Bluegrass, Appalachian Folk

This album is so good. I think it’s the duty of every American specifically to listen to the title track of Childers’ record, an absolute scorcher of an anthem dedicated to the racial turmoil the United States sits in. It’s hard to recommend the album as a whole because, well, it’s about twenty-five minutes of extremely competent bluegrass music. ‘Competent’ as in ‘sounds like it’s a hundred years old,’ which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But seriously, check out the title track; absolutely superb.

129

Julianna Barwick — Healing is a Miracle

Ambient Pop, Choral, New Age

Free singing tip: I use Barwick’s music for vocal warmups and there is nothing better on a cold day than thawing your lungs by singing along or harmonizing with her. It’s very easy and anyone of any experience level can do it.

Barwick is up to her usual tricks on this record. It’s quite good. I prefer her more orchestral compositions but this is special enough to earn repeated rotations.

128

Sparks — A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip

Art Pop, Art Rock, Progressive Pop

Sparks are a great duo, and I think this record should be adored for just how varied and cohesive it is, but A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip contains so many annoying melodies that I really couldn’t rank it any higher than this. Converse to an afformentioned album, this record is more than the sum of its parts but its individual parts are so squishy, soppy, and gross.

127

Nicolas Jaar — Cenizas

Ambient, Electronic, Electroacoustic

There doesn’t exist a human being on the planet that has, does, or ever will love “Space is Only Noise If You Can See” more than I do, but just about everything else that Jaar attempts seems to be empty and completely uninteresting. His debut album and its title track were fantastic but everything else feels like wasted talent.

126

Ringo Deathstarr — Ringo Deathstarr

Shoegaze, Noise Pop, Dream Pop

Imagine being Ringo Deathstarr and putting out a self-titled album ten years into your career.

Imagine being Ringo Deathstarr and putting out an album that is just a shameless Loveless pastiche about thirty years after it came out.

Now imagine this: the album is actually pretty decent. Who’da thunk it?

121

Empress Of — I’m Your Empress Of

Synthpop, Electropop, House

She’s getting there, I’ll give her that. It’s taking a while, but she’ll get there eventually.

“Bit of Rain” is a bopper though.

119

Taylor Swift — folklore

Indie folk, Folk-pop, Chamber Pop

(Note: this review pertains to both folklore and evermore)

Taylor Swift isn’t an artist, she’s a brand; not only does she lack any form of an artistic personality but her work is insanely opportunistic and inauthentic. She’s a gray canvas, a stiff mannequin wheeled out every few years to introduce young girls to the stalest sounds of five years ago and to sell their emotional insecurity back to them in the form of ‘empowering’ songs that say, “Independent women don’t need no man…but they definitely buy flannel at Target®”

I first heard Folklore fifteen years ago, and every single week since; another indie darling releasing their ‘raw’ collection of acoustic drivel, pandering to an aesthetic that was cliche and uninspired decades before they were even born. Cottagecore is a movement of untalented-yet-affluent musicians taking out their class guilt on the very ‘quaint’ masses they belittle, with compositions that are little more than desaturated Instagram filters over primitive chords.

It is insanely unintelligent and unfair to compare any artist’s career directly to another…but in this case I think it’ll grant you some perspective.

Think about The Beatles for a moment. That group technically/formally existed for fifteen years, with most of their work produced in the span of eleven years. The eldest member of the group at the time of their breakup was twenty-nine-years old.

Taylor Swift has been putting out albums for fourteen years now. She is now thirty-one years old. She’s not such a little girl anymore, is she? So why is she still treated as if she’s made of glass, can’t be held to any standard, and any condemnation will simply shatter her?

The eras these two artists exist(ed) in cannot be compared, therefore the quantity of their output cannot be compared. However, the quality of their artistic resonance can. Has Taylor Swift ever put out anything as good as the worst Beatles album? This is not an unfair challenge; plenty of artists in the half-century since the dissolution have done just fine in finding their own identity and putting out records that were better than the inferior Beatles works.

I ask you again: she is not of a dissimilar age and has her career is not of a dissimilar length, but has Taylor Swift ever put out anything that could be agreed upon by supporters and detractors of both artists as better than the Beatles worst work?

No, she hasn’t. And it’s not a matter of opinion either, because even when John, Paul, George, and Ringo were struggling to become what they would later be, they objectively 1.) did not take themselves too seriously, 2.) understood that limiting one’s sense of humor to snarky sarcasm would therefore exclude self-deprecation, puns, word-play, wit, etc. and 3.) showed at least the faintest interest in maturing their music inherently rather than superficially (note: don’t feel singled-out, Taylor fans: all of this criticism applies to figures like Beyoncé as well).

The immaturity displayed in Taylor Swift’s songwriting is outrageous when noting her popularity among anyone older than their late teens, relative to the aspects of her songs that she actually does write. Her lyrics are very shallow (bland/overly-direct/concrete), attached to almost no melodic range whatsoever (she doesn’t ‘rap,’ but she essentially just talks in tune), and her albums are bloated with material that doesn’t just stall engagement but causes it to plummet. The simile is a wonderful poetic device, but it seems to be the only one that Swift is aware of; I have never been exposed to an artist that exasperated me more, “I get it: ‘like’ and ‘as’! Can we please throw in any type of allusion beyond fifth grade English class?”

This idea that she’s a talented ‘narrative’ writer is absolutely true if you haven’t read a book since middle school and instead fill your time with Marvel movie marathons. As I said earlier, the concept that Taylor Swift’s stories might have appeal to eight year olds is easy to understand, in the sense that those listeners have no idea what it’s like to be a teenager or young adult yet. But the idea that a world full of reductionists (hellbent on belittling hip-hop, country, and experimental music as ‘novelty’, ‘simplistic’, or ‘pretentious’) are trying to assert that Swift’s musical chronicles have any narrative worth whatsoever is catastrophically-foolish.

And I love this argument that collaborations with figures from The National, Haim, and Bon Iver grant these records some kind of credibility and weight. My biggest concern is: if they were all working on these albums, then who was playing at Urban Outfitters!? All three of those artists have made some wonderful music but the facts remain: The National is for divorcees in their thirties, Haim is for San Diego aunts, and if I hear about Justin Vernon’s godforsaken cabin one more time…Recruiting some of the most sterile indie acts of the fifteen years do not pull these albums from their vapid-and-self-interested muds, let me assure you.

Ad hominems are gross, but I think Taylor Swift is an immature artist creating immature songs that play best among immature listeners. Maturity is not measured in age, subject matter, or approach, but discretion, reflection, and control. I don’t find any of that in her work, nor her renditions of it or her admirers’ appreciation and defense of it.

Swift is only partly responsible for two good works: as half of the creative team that put out “Style” and as half of the samples for David Rees’ brilliant AphexSwift EP. The great tragedy is not that Kanye rudely took Taylor’s microphone, but that anyone ever gave it back.

(I suppose I could have said all of this in a much shorter review)

118

Andy Shauf— The Neon Skyline

Chamber Pop, Indie Folk, Soft Rock

There is one reason that this album isn’t absolutely locked into the top fifty albums of the year and it drives me insane.

It is very disrespectful and idiotic to make fun of or belittle someone for their singing voice, I am a huge proponent of everyone singing regardless of their natural ability…

…but the sounds that come out of Andy Shauf’s mouth are genocidal. The way he curls his vowels is so inauthentic and that cursive inflection he puts into his sustained notes makes me break out in hives.

I can say this because if you listen to the way he speaks in interviews it’s quite apparent that this affectation he applies to his voice is a put-on. This is extremely unfortunate as I actually think he’s a brilliant songwriter.

Spare yourself the migraine and seek out someone like Jens Lekman, easily the best songwriter you’ve never heard of. I know this is a review for a Shauf album, not another artist’s EP from a lifetime ago, but I have not stopped singing “So This Guy At My Office” since it came out almost a decade ago.

If Shauf dropped the act, it’d better reflect the fact that he’s a songwriting force to be reckoned with.

116

Creeper — Sex, Death & the Infinite Void

Pop Punk, Pop Rock, Alternative Rock

First off: that’s a grammatical error in your title there, bub.

This is the album that will make you think, “Really? Are we seriously nostalgic for emo rock? That was only…

…wait…oh my god…that was almost twenty years ago now?!”

If you miss 2004, this does a pretty good job at adapting it to 2009.

113

Luster — Turbulence

Shoegaze, Experimental, Indie

Here’s the deal: there are only two shoegaze bands.

The aforementioned My Bloody Valentine is fast and loud, whereas Slowdive is slow and soft. Every other artist that tries to shake shoegaze into something else just ends up either completely ripping off these two artists or making something that isn’t even ‘noise’.

This Luster record is definitely a My Bloody Valentine clone but it wears the influence on its sleeve, so it can’t be called derivative. Personally, I like this album, it’s definitely better than the average attempt at capturing that rosy-noisy melancholia.

108

Bob Dylan — Rough and Rowdy Ways

Americana, Blues Rock, Chamber Folk

It’s been awhile, but this is a good Bob Dylan record.

It’s albums like this that are a casualty of seeking an ‘objective’ merit to recommend music. It’s impossible to please everyone but there’s no harm in trying to throw albums that I can endorse as having a ‘universally-good’ appeal. This particular album is a hard sell for teenagers or people who have a problem with folk or people who only listen to formally ‘good’ singing voices. I personally endorse this album as an absolute hell of a way for Dylan to close out his career if he so chooses, it’s a superb collection of very well-written songs, but I write for children and teenagers just as much as I do college-kids, thirty-somethings, and those ‘over-the-hill’. So you’ll have to be content with this minor nudging: it really is a good record, you really should listen to it.

101

The Secret Sisters — Saturn Return

Americana, Close Harmony, Folk

Very good album, with very good songwriting. Any record with good harmonies normally gets an instant endorsement, and while the compositions here are pretty tight and memorable, the album is a bit repetitive. It does one thing exceptionally well, which is perfect for an EP but wears a teeny bit too thin to survive a forty minute duration.

96

Perfume Genius — Set My Heart on Fire Immediately

Art Pop, Chamber Pop, Neo-Psychedelia

I could very easily recommend this album to you, or I could recommend just about any other iiiiinnnnndddddiiiiieeeee album of the last fifteen years, which is exactly what it sounds like.

This might seem like a bit of a pedantic point to make, but I simply don’t hear anything in this that hasn’t been beaten to death for the last couple decades. This album, more than any in quite some time, is such a subjective experience; I find it painfully unoriginal and possessing a very un-extraordinary perspective.

92

Squarepusher — Be Up a Hello

Acid Techno, Glitch, Breakcore

Thomas Jenkinson has been a leader his field for about three decades now and he certainly hasn’t gotten any worse. There’s a section where he quotes Vivaldi and it’s quite clever; you have to dig a bit to find the chord progressions but they’re there.

85

Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist — Alfredo

Gangsta Rap, Jazz Rap, Cloud Rap

Yes, I’m aware that this is where I ‘lose all credibility, mannnnnn’ but I simply don’t think there’s an argument for this album being seen as a leader in the genre in the exact same way I didn’t just accept Piñata as being ‘so much better’ than all other rap and hip-hop coming out at the time.

I find Gibbs and the Alchemist’s efforts to be a bit pretentious. I definitely enjoy their individual works, but this collaboration has produced yet another, “Yeah, I get it, but so what?” albums. It’s fine. That’s all.

84

Ozzy Osbourne — Ordinary Man

Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Pop Rock

Listen, I know. But this is actually a much better album than you’d expect. The songwriting is actually very poignant, the compositions are pretty tight, and the general cohesiveness and ‘experience’ of the record actually manages to express some interesting little themes.

It’s very likely that this is the last album that Osbourne will put out in his life and it’d be an absolutely a wonderful note to end his career on, which is insanely rare in the music industry, so I will award credit where it’s due.

82

The Weeknd — After Hours

Alternative R&B, Synthpop, Synthwave

Let me put this as simply as possible, for the kids in the back:

The Weeknd’s old mixtapes were efforts of beauty that you’d throw on before you peeled off a pair of Victoria’s Secrets and had a truly stimulating evening.

The Weekend’s albums play on a loop at the Victoria’s Secret store at the mall, right next to the Jamba Juice and Uniqlo.

Abel revealed his face and his musical mind turned to mush. He has not released anything that even remotely compares to his mixtape trilogy and the only words for that are stagnation or devolution.

79

The James Hunter Six — Nick of Time

Rhythm & Blues, Blue-Eyed Soul, Motown Sound

Are you looking for an album to listen to with your grandmother?

I’ve been reviewing James Hunter for probably fifteen years now and it’s safe to say that every other album he puts out is pretty great. Lucky for you, his last effort was rather dull, making this one the record where he won me over again.

They’re just fun little songs, insanely derivative and cliche, but very well written and pleasant to listen to. Drop the needle and ring up your mee-maw.

77

Shabaka and the Ancestors — We Are Sent Here By History

Afro-Jazz, Spiritual Jazz, Jazz Poetry

Great album, but not one I’d recommend on a broad scale. It can get a bit repetitive and esoteric, but there’s absolutely a lot of value in it. Get yourself into a ‘jazz mood’ and throw it on sometime.

73

Run the Jewels — RTJ4

Hardcore Hip Hop, Political Hip Hop, Experimental Hip Hop

Killer Mike and El-P are fantastic, but every single Run the Jewels album is exactly the same in such a dull way. There is nothing here that they weren’t doing almost a decade ago. It’s all so well-produced, but it would help if the production weren’t exactly the same as it always is.

Hiding behind ‘hip-hop’ and ‘politics’ is not a defense for stagnation. I have nothing but complete faith in every release both men are responsible for, but together they’ve shown to be nothing but a one-trick pony, posturing as a unique effort when it’s really just an attempt that has grown stale.

71

Hex Cassette — Get Out

Electronic, Coldwave, Darksynth

Full disclosure: I went to high school with this guy.

Full disclosure: I’m a huge Depeche Mode, Echo & the Bunnymen, and The Haxan Cloak fan (and you should be too).

Full disclosure: the synth arrangements on this EP are so effective. I can assure you that I’ve heard so much bedroom/indie synthwave to be extremely tired of it (and you should be too) but the compositions here don’t have even an ounce of fat or self-indulgence to them.

Oh, and full disclosure: “Get Out” is easily one of the best songs of 2020.

68

Lido Pimienta — Miss Colombia

Art Pop, Digital Cumbia, Bullerengue

This album is great, but it’s a hard sell. It’s definitely one of my favorites of the year, but would I actually recommend it? If you’ve heard a lot of records in your life: maybe.

It’s not that it’s difficult to get into or hard to understand, not at all; but I’d say the average listener should gravitate toward Björk first and eventually get around to this one. It’s also, unfortunately, a lesser version of an album in the top fifty anyway.

60

Dua Lipa — Future Nostalgia

Dance-Pop, Nu-Disco, Funktronica

Though it was ineloquent and overly simplistic, my favorite review of the year was a RateYourMusic user who could only review this with a:

“Are you guys really this desperate for another early Katy Perry album?”

Since reading that, it’s impossible for me to hear this as anything other than plastic pop nothingness. You can call this ‘dancey’ or ‘disco-y’ but at the end of the day it just sounds exactly like a bland and featureless cash-grab from ten years ago.

The weird bravado it has while being so uninteresting makes it a bit frustrating to listen to.

58

Kelly Lee Owens — Inner Song

Tech House, Art Pop, Ambient Pop

This is one of my favorite albums of the year. It’s not as consistent as it needs to be, but I think Owens is going to nail it on her third record and give us something really special.

56

Sufjan Stevens —The Ascension

Art Pop, Indietronica, Ambient Pop

Pretty good, but also pretty long.

The last song is the best, and oddly the longest, but too much of this record sounds meandering and nowhere near as tight and focused as the better tracks.

It’s fine, but not good enough to endorse as one of the better albums of the year.

53

Riz Ahmed — The Long Goodbye

Conscious Hip Hop, Spoken Word, Pop Rap

Here’s the reality: any concept album/EP that pursues its theme consistently is going to be objectively better than most assortments of songs. Having a binding narrative or ‘point’ requires more attention to the cohesion of a record, which is the most important aspect (a consistent album of good songs is better than an inconsistent one with a handful of perfect songs).

Ahmed’s perspective on race relations is presented in an interesting and engaging manner; the explorations of his heritage and critique of his home country’s history/behavior is compelling. It’s a well-spent half-hour and the ‘relationship/break-up’ angle is actually effective for the most part.

52

Tame Impala — The Slow Rush

Psychedelic Pop, Indietronica, Nu-Disco

This is probably the ‘best’ Tame Impala album, which isn’t saying anything at all. Similar to Alt-J, I simply do not understand why anyone would listen to Tame Impala with an active interest. They’re nothing more than mall-rock and I would argue that this album is their best if only for the simple fact that the keys sound like some city-pop Gran Turismo 2 menu music.

One of the aspects of this list that you might take note of is the lack of rock/indie-rock entries. Is this because I’m mellowing and relaxing in my late-twenties, shying away from the aggression and passion that I used to indulge in? That’d be an interesting theory, if it weren’t for the fact that it’s almost becoming a rule that every guitar-centric artist sucks eggs.

Modern rock/indie prioritizes the ‘vibes’ or the ‘mood’ of the music, rather that loading it with any substance or innovation whatsoever. Hip-hop fully captured the flag of global consciousness in the 1990s and ‘rock’ chose to respond by completely retreating into navel-gazing, masturbatory nostalgia, and laurel-resting. I’ve got news: Is This It wasn’t a shot across the bow, reintroducing the world to the vibrancy of rock music, it was the first gurgle in a death-rattle that continues to this day.

I’ve got more news for you: there hasn’t been an objectively-good rock/indie album in ten years (since The Suburbs or High Violet) and there hasn’t been an objectively-great album (meaning one that is almost universally respected and understood to have been widely-culturally-resonant, even amongst those that don’t personally enjoy the album itself) since In Rainbows,which was thirteen years ago.

Repeat after me: “Rock music sucks. Rock musicians are clinging to the most superficial aspects of a genre and strangling it. The best rock/indie artist of the twenty-first century is technically Death Grips.”

You can cash me outside with any and all talk of “Dude, there’s almost no guitars on this list.” There are so many guitar-artists on this list, just not in the top-fifty. Four of the top ten albums manage to do something good with the six-string whereas most of the other attempts this year were exactly what this Tame Impala album is: the continued paltry result of style over substance and form over function. Spare me.

(finally)

50

Alva Noto — Xerrox Vol. 4

Ambient, Glitch, Drone

You might know Alva Noto from his stellar discography that spans the last quarter-century, or you might know him from his spectacular collaborations with Ryuichi Sakamoto. Or, perhaps, maybe you don’t know of Alva Noto at all, in which case I would recommend this album, the Best Ambient Album of the Year, as a nice little introduction.

It’s simple music you can throw on in the background of your life to make it just that little bit more melancholic, sweet, sad, eerie, and ultimately that much more meaningful (or at least seemingly-meaningful).

49

BC Camplight — Shortly After Takeoff

Art Rock, Art Pop, Chamber Pop

Many artists try to be humorous and clever, BC Camplight is one of the very few to not just walk the tightrope successfully but have such a good sense of balance that he can light his unicycle on fire and go across the gorge again, only to elicit a loving sigh from the audience, “It do be like that sometimes…”

This is just a fantastic little record. He’s so witty and the weird first-person tangents that the songs devolve into are actually really sweet and endearing. None of it feels like a ‘schtick’ or gimmick, there’s legitimate songwriting prowess on display here.

If you’re annoyed by someone like Father John Misty for maybe being ‘too ironic,’ you might find BC Camplight’s latest album a bit more agreeable.

48

Better Person— Something to Lose

Sophisti-Pop, New Romantic, Synthpop

Not only do I despise nostalgia, there is nothing worse than a longing for the sounds of the 1980s. However, Better Person manages to mine all of the best little affectations and atmospheres from the often-overlooked deep tracks or B-sides of the era.

On the surface, every one of these tracks sounds like a rejected demo for a Tears for Fears or The Cure but in the best way. They’re slow and sustained, not really fit for radio play, and it’s delightful. They all sound like a hot drink on a cool autumn day.

Leave it up to a Polish guy to do American 80s pop better than anyone else.

And big bonus points: the instrumentation and arrangements are insanely cohesive. Better Person clearly gave themselves a sandbox to play in with clearly defined borders. I really respect the restraint, not only does it establish a lucid atmosphere but makes those little moments of deviation actually mean something. That saxophone solo in “True Love” wouldn’t mean nearly as much if it were any more or less present than it is.

A very weird album in the sense that it’s entirely passive yet effectively commands your attention entirely. It’d be way higher on my entirely-subjective list but the sound is possibly a bit too unaggressive to broadly recommend to everyone. I really do think it’s absolutely solid though, there’s no fat and it’s all very engaging: do me a favor and check it out. I won’t push it on you but consider this a friendly nudge.

47

Allie X — Cape God

Synthpop, Electropop, Dance-Pop

Very disjointed and not cohesive enough, but when this album hits…it hits.

“Susie Save Your Love” is one of the best songs of the year, no question, and represents the highs that the record is capable of. It’s not that there’s a ‘bad’ track here, but there are some efforts that massively overshadow others, to the point where it’d be one of the better EPs to ever exist if just culled to the best tracks.

46

Orion Sun — Hold Space for Me

Alternative R&B, Neo-Soul

‘Neo-soul’ has suffered the exact same fate as ‘nu-metal’:

“Hey, what if we take an effective genre and, instead of pushing the boundaries, simply muddy absolutely everything that people love about it?”

Most ‘neo-soul’ albums are absolute trash, serving as vehicles for American-Idol-level over-singing and moody musings about paint drying.

However, this Orion Sun record is actually really good. The vocals are restrained and controlled but the overall atmosphere is just as hazy and comfortable as you’d want it to be. Subjectively, I think it’s great. It’s a Bandcamp album that all of thirty people have listened to and that’s simply not acceptable for an album this well-thought-out.

45

Denzel Curry x Kenny Beats — Unlocked

Hardcore Hip Hop, Southern Hip Hop, Boom Bap

The name of the game isn’t quantity but quality.

Unlocked is a featherweight, clocking in at just under eighteen minutes. But each minute of the EP is absolutely rock solid.

The story around this record’s quick production schedule isn’t something that other artists should emulate, but it certainly does add a certain sense of romanticism to the overall experience. Misters Curry and Beats didn’t have enough time to get into trouble and the result is a bare-bones effort that absolutely draws blood.

44

Triángulo de Amor Bizarro — Triángulo de Amor Bizarro

Noise Pop, Shoegaze, Post-Punk

So who had their money on an Iberian shoegaze band blatantly named after a popular New Order track (one of the most beautiful songs ever written, but only the extended dance version) releasing their second eponymous album and having it be one of the best records of the year?

Shoegaze and post-punk are almost objectively terrible in the sense that every single release is somehow both shamelessly derivative and insanely masturbatory. This album is, somehow, escapes these black holes and manages to find itself going to some interesting places. The vocal melodies are beautiful, in a Cocteau-Twins-and-Faye-Wong sort of way.

It actually provides an excellent little entryway into the ‘sound’ for those that don’t really listen to shoegaze-y music.

43

Bill Fay — Countless Branches

Contemporary Folk, Chamber Folk

Oof. Oof.

My big contention with modern folk is that nearly all of it is a just a bunch of bearded-and/or-braided cosplayers singing about an abstract depiction of rural hardship that not only didn’t happen to them but isn’t even historically accurate. Bill Fay, on the other hand, definitely plays and sings with such a delicate touch that it doesn’t come across as desperate but cathartic.

This is a very simple album and the bare-bones approach to the instrumentation really does a lot to compliment the thematic point of the lyrics. I know some people prefer the bonus tracks, where Fay plays with a fuller band, but the grain-by-grain approach to the piano in the actual tracks is the key to these song’s resonance.

Bill Fay is one of those rare figures that should continue to make music in their winter years, as his later career works have actually provided his discography with so much more depth and weight.

42

Haim — Women in Music Pt. III

Indie Pop, Soft Rock, Alt-Country

I do not enjoy Haim, I find their music to be very genuine but incredibly one-note.

But what I do enjoy is an unaware contradiction. Here’s a fun game to play: ask a self-expressed Haim fan what their favorite country-western album is. There’s an insanely-high likelihood that they’ll express some repulsion to the genre despite the fact that every Haim album sounds like literally every woman-led country album from the late eighties to early two-thousands.

Every guitar tone and drum beat in every Haim song sounds like it was straight-up sampled from an Eagles track; this is an obvious example but whenever I hear Haim I have the same reaction that I did when I was an eight-year-old kid walking into a bar in Leadville, Colorado and hearing the same exact songs playing that I heard not just yesterday but last year, “Oh this again, huh? You guys just really like one thing up here, huh?” Haim is Shania Twain for kids in Led Zeppelin shirts.

This is a nice little album, better than most indie efforts. Just like both of their previous records, it’s a little too ‘Souythernnn Calyforrrrrnia’ for my liking but hey, maybe it’s time that little Los Angeles was more represented in music. I know we all forget that it exists, such a hidden gem of a town.

If you take instagram photos of a bottle of whisky against the trunk of a dusty palm tree with the hashtag “#WishICouldGoBack”: here’s your album of the year.

42

The Avalanches — We Will Always Love You

Neo-Psychedelia, Electronic, Neo-Soul

The Avalanches will never be able to recapture the lightening-in-a-bottle that was Since I Left You, but it’s very good that they’re not even trying to emulate that sound as We Will Always Love You shows very clear growth and experimentation of its own.

I debated for a bit whether to include the ‘neo-soul’ genre on this entry, but it is one of the more accurate descriptors of exactly what shade of psychedelic-electronic that the atmosphere is filtered through. It’s a smooth sound, and that’s not exactly how I would describe the Avalanches’ previous work.

The collaborations and featured artists on this album are pretty good as well; sometimes they push the tone into places that aren’t relevant to the overall theme of the album, but each individual song is thoroughly competent and adds something of value to the experience.

As for the theme itself, I think this is a mostly-successful rumination on love and loss in the digital age. I think it mostly works. If this was the first attempt at that theme that I’d ever heard, I’d probably throw this in the top ten of the year. But this is a somewhat common subject matter to explore by now, no matter how well The Avalanches approach it.

If you’re in the mood for thinking about how your ex-lovers or family members occupy your brain emotionally but also how their digital presence is both permanent and impossibly-fragile, definitely check this record out, it’ll give you a lot to think about.

40

Brandy Clark — Your Life is a Record

Country Pop, Contemporary Country, Americana

This album is outrageously competent, oh my god.

Clark is a ridiculously-good songwriter, it’s insane. Every single song is right on the edge of cliche, both lyrically and compositionally, but the combination of every element is something so sincere and resonant.

Take “Bad Car” for example. It’s another country song with the incredibly dumb concept of describing an emotional attachment to a vehicle. But…her arrangement is actually rather adept at punctuating the emotional arc of the narrator, in a way that might make you realize, “Oh yeah, people are capable of writing songs that aren’t abstract at all but still universal.”

It’s a bit too ‘basic’ to throw any higher onto the list, but it really is a nice little cracker of an album. I wouldn’t go as far as naming anyone as being the best songwriter of the year, but if I were then Brandy Clark would be somewhere on the podium for sure.

39

Rina Sawayama — Sawayama

Dance-Pop, Contemporary R&B, Electropop

There are two types of good debut albums.

The first is a ‘great’ first album, which is absolutely incredible and gives the artist a blank check for their followup record, which almost always results in an awful sophomore attempt.

Or there’s the second type: a pretty decent first record, one that has some issues but shows promise, and perfectly positions the artist for a truly great second album.

Rina Sawayama is very likely going to follow the latter path, as her debut album is too scattered and sporadic to live up to its own promises, but shows such an indisputable presence of great songwriting ability.

“Tokyo Love Hotel”; are you kidding me? So much of this album finds itself mired in some of the less-appealing nostalgia for 2000s pop, but “Tokyo Love Hotel” is an absolute banger that is almost inherently ‘perfect.’ You could write that song at any time from the 1950s to now and it’d be effective; it’s poppy to such a degree that it almost breaks free of the gravity of genre.

Sawayama stands a great chance at blowing the doors off of the 2020s if she can focus her artistic voice a bit more on that next record, which you should absolutely be cautiously optimistic for.

38

Charli XCX — how i’m feeling now

Electropop, Bubblegum Bass, Glitch Pop

‘Deconstructed club’ is not a real genre, and anyone who tells you otherwise is a delusional ‘intellectual’ who is insanely insecure about liking pop music.

I do not like the current direction that pop music is headed; I think 100 Gecs have really poisoned the cultural songwriting reservoir with compressed vocals, liminal song structure, and irreverent-but-self-aware-but-also-saccharine-yet-still-pessimistic lyrics. Most of this record, a lot of it produced by 100 Gec’s Dylan Brady, is just really abrasive and acerbic in a way that isn’t all that interesting or engaging (but more -much more- on that later).

…However, “Party 4 U” is the Best Song of the Year. Oh my god, inject that right into my veins. I’ve listened to it at least three or four times a day since the moment I heard it. When the chords splay in the third chorus I go cross-eyed; that melody scratches something in the wrinkles of my brain and my neurons start beating like Thumper.

There’s a dedicated corner of my room that I walk to and half-dance to “Party 4 U” at least twice a week, like some kind of major-key Blair Witch Project reenactment. I’ve adopted this song as a member of my family; I’ll probably go get life insurance so that it can be taken care of after I pass.

Those simple synth notes at the end; are you kidding me?!

I did not expect a hyper-pop song released in 2020 to make its way so far into my heart and onto my personal list of the best songs ever written. And it’s so resonant of the time it was released! It’s an actually interesting take on the quarantine and lock-downs! Oh my god, don’t even get me started on this godforsaken song. When I die, forget the twenty-one-gun salute; just play “Party 4 U” two dozen times in a row and burry me face down so that the mourners can slap my butt to the beat and dance the night away.

37

Klô Pelgag— Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs

Art Pop, Baroque Pop, Nouvelle chanson française

An incredible album, but one with a barrier of entry: you’ll need to understand French. I haven’t had much experience since 2010 or 2011 (CLIGNER CLIGNER) so I had to look up the lyrics and follow along.

Fortunately, the instrumentation and compositions are fantastic, with a wonderfully orchestral atmosphere throughout. So it’s likely you’ll find tremendous value in listening regardless of your fluency or knowledge of obscure Quebec geography.

36

Caribou — Suddenly

Indietronica, Deep House, UK Funky

Caribou has been putting out albums for fifteen years now; I had to sit down for a second when I realized that. The guy was in his late twenties when I first heard The Milk of Human Kindness and now I’m in my late twenties, but I’d argue that we’re both fifteen years better.

As far as I’m concerned, this is pretty average and connect-the-dots electronic music. The unfortunate reality is that there really hasn’t been much truly good electronic music since…I don’t know, I want to say the first half of the 2010s, which means that albums like that are now spearheading the genre. It’s going to be a problem if they don’t get this spiral sorted soon.

35

Grimes — Miss Anthropocene

Art Pop, Electronic, Ethereal Wave

Ah, the problem child.

I miss Grimes.

I am 1000% the person who turns against an artist once they achieve mainstream popularity, not because I’m a ‘‘‘hipster’’’ but because widespread attention seems to poison artists in such a way that it robs them of shame.

For a brief moment in time, Grimes was the coolest musician in the world. For about two years she was known only to weirdos on music message boards as this idiosyncratic Canadian girl in her weird apartment who made kooky industrial-electro-synth music with pun-based song titles. Grimes was a shinning example that one could even use Garageband to create some of the best music being pumped into the internet (as for me and my house, we worship Halfaxa).

Grimes is now somewhat of an ‘it’ girl; she’s still ‘weird’ and ‘crazy’ but now the spotlight on her is infinitely brighter due to her marriage to an eccentric billionaire. I’m not a communist or Marxist (or Republican or Libertarian or right-wing nutjob, don’t put words in my mouth), but there are so few instances of a wealthy twenty-first-century artist making anything even remotely listenable that I wouldn’t even need a second hand to count the occurrences on. One of the realities of wealth is that it prevents the acerbicy inherent to the artistic process, some artists can overcome this but a great majority do not and any positive attention thrown their way amounts to little more than hero worship.

Grimes has nothing to say because her feet no longer touch the ground; she’s no longer living in that odd little apartment that influenced the sound of her first two albums. Do artists need to suffer in order to make great art? Absolutely not, and that is its own poisonous and pretentious ideology. But go ahead, point me toward a wealthy or wealth-adjacent musician whose artistic statements are worth a damn to a fanbase that will have to save money their entire lives for a brief retirement that the artist enjoys now.

This is a better album than Art Angels but her discography is plummeting. She’s a more interesting musician than most, so it’s easy for her to qualify for the top fifty albums of the year, but I’d imagine her next entry places in the late 40s, if at all.

34

Tom Misch & Yussef Dayes — What Kinda Music

Neo-Soul, Jazz-Funk, Jazz Fusion

Yussef Dayes is such a good drummer. I don’t think that Tom Misch is doing as well on this album as Dayes, but the collaboration is at least an interesting one.

I’ll admit that, as an American, I definitely side-eye musicians from any other country attempting the kind of jazz that’s not native to New York or New Orleans but the stretch between the two. I can’t say that What Kinda Music is some kind of brilliant work that dispels my deep-seeded apprehensions, but it doesn’t embarrass itself, and that’s an accomplishment for what it’s attempting.

33

Kettel — Dwingeoo Life Extension

Ambient, Field Recordings, Modern Classical

This is going to be a hard sell.

You’re going to listen to this album and it’s not going to sound like anything to you. Fans of artists like The Caretaker might see this as so unbelievably bland and average compared to the ambient music they enjoy. The average person will probably listen to thirty seconds of this and conclude, “This isn’t even music.”

Here’s the fact of the matter: field recording is a very important genre, one which is doing all of the heavy lifting in twenty-first century music. No one is listening to traditional or modern classical music and post-modernism remains as the bedrock of compositional influence; there is no more important type of music to post-modernism than field recording.

What I’m saying is that when that rock band, pop star, or hip-hop artist pulls off some ‘weird and wacky’ sound that is just so catchy and cool and ‘groundbreaking’, just know that it came from the experimentation done by avant garde artists in genres such as field recordings. Take this insanely-stupid song that did the rounds on social media for example: the only part of it that anyone likes (the breakdown) owes 100% of its existence to Steve Reich’s work in the 1960s. Fifteen years from now, when a popular figure appropriates some ‘radical’ and ‘unprecedented’ technique in a song, just understand it’s because of the primordial toiling that artists like Kettel struggled with on Dwingeoo Life Extension.

32

Gorillaz — Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez

Synthpop, Art Pop, Alternative R&B

The opening track of this almost made me jump out of my seat, “Oh my god! Is that a Robert Smith sample or does he still actually sound that good? No way!”

It’s 2020 and Robert Smith sounds as great as he did forty-four years ago; it absolutely blows my mind. The man needs to get on another Cure album right meow.

The same can be said about this entire record; literally every featured artist and collaboration doesn’t distract from the experience, it actually improves it significantly. “Dude, this Elton John song is great: what the hell is going on?!”

This record is weird in the sense that it really shouldn’t even be listenable, let alone one of the better releases of the year. It’s a collection of songs that were released one week at a time and are now smushed into an ‘album.’ That’s nonsense, there should be no cohesion to this at all. It is, by definition, not an album but a collection of songs…but it’s good, and it actually has thematic resonance. It’s an actual artistic statement, albeit fragmented into many pieces, but it actually works.

I did not think that a 2020 Go-ri-llaz album was going to be pretty good, let alone that a billion featured artists would actually benefit the record, but here we are.

31

Soccer Mommy — Color Theory

Bedroom Pop, Dream Pop, Indie Folk

Every song on this album sounds like the music that would play at the end of a Sunday-afternoon movie on Comedy Central in 2004; something so outrageously sweet and sincere and cheesy and just the best pallet-cleanser. Trust me, it’s not an inaccurate comparison.

There is no better example than the sublime “Circle the Drain,” possessing the Best Chorus of the Year by far. A huge problem in pop and indie music is the pervasive snark and passive insecurity that absolutely destroy the atmosphere of any clever instrumentation and composition that they might have. Sophie Allison leans so unbelievably far into candor and unapologetic emotionality that the whole experience feels like the butterflies from your stomach are doing an Isle of Man sidecar race around the atriums of your heart.

It’s a bit scattered; but when it’s good, it’s dizzying.

30

Thundercat — It Is What It Is

Psychedelic Soul, Jazz-Funk, Alternative R&B

I was fuming as I sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic recently. The thing about living in Colorado is that there are a lot of people who move here despite the fact that they don’t know how to drive in snow. I own a Subaru Impreza because I like driving in the snow. So if I can’t go seventy-five in a blizzard and get a bit slide-y, I get a bit pissy.

However, “Dragonball Durag” popped up next on my playlist and all the frustrations that stem from this mortal coil simply dissipated. That song is just hysterical and so weirdly-heartfelt that it just hits like honey hits Pooh Bear’s tummy.

We are so lucky to be alive while Thundercat is making music. The man is objectively one of the best bassists to ever live, and he spends his time making super sad, poignant, ridiculous, jovial, and rich albums. I spent most of my time in a small Chinese village back in 2016 listening to Apocalypse on repeat and it just felt so appropriate despite the fact that it was such an outlandish combination.

It Is What It Is proves to be another great entry in his discography, staying true to his unique style but also pushing the boundaries just enough to make it all feel threatening enough. Like a Colorado blizzard in all-wheel-drive: Thundercat gets you sideways but never out of control.

29

Lanterns on the Lake — Spook the Herd

Dream Pop, Indie Pop, Chamber Pop

Very very very decent.

This is the best example of how bad of a year 2020 was in music. This album is sitting so much higher on the list than it would on any other year. If I heard this album ten years ago it wouldn’t be any higher than #150. It’s very average, typical, and unadventurous.

However, it is competent as hell. Lanterns on the Lake don’t put a single foot forward in ego or arrogance. The best chorus on this album only happens once. They get in, do exactly what they tell you they’re going to do, and then get out. That is indeed admirable in 2020, where every artist feels that need to flail around your headphones with a sad desperation that reeks of uncertainty and vanity.

If you’re looking for some simple bedroom indie nonsense that sounds like it came from the spring of 2008, look no further. Take your comfort food and go.

28

Dreamweaver — Cloud9

Atmospheric Drum and Bass, Ambient, New Age

This record should be infinitely worse than it is. I don’t understand it, this album defies essentially all logic pertaining to originality and cliches.

On paper, these are some of the most unremarkable songs you could ever listen to. It sounds, in theory, like all of the worst electronic music aspects of 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and now even 2010s nostalgia…but somehow it actually works.

There’s a very weird sincerity to it all that really sells the whole thing. It’s all so reverent of its influences but there’s this odd calmness and confidence stretched over it all. If you like 1990–2005 electronic music you’ll probably listen to this and recognize everything it’s trying to do, yet for some reason it’ll probably hook you as well. My theory is that Dreamweaver legitimately adores this kind of music and approached it with absolutely no irony or nostalgia, like he lives in some world where these sounds are all still super avant garde and unexplored. It really boggles the mind, but it’s an easy record to recommend to ‘IDM’ fans as some lighter listening (but more on that later).

27

Nahre Sol — Alice in Wonderland

Modern Classical, Minimalism

There are only two types of people in the world:

“Nahre Sol? Huh, never heard of them.”

or

“Well of course the debut album of one of the most talented musicians alive is in the top fifty, duh.”

Nahre Sol isn’t my subjective-favorite pianist alive at the moment, but she might as well be. I watch/listen to her Youtube videos while I cook dinner (need to stay sharp); she has a very listenable and approachable technique to a layperson but her technical ability is just undeniable. Most of what she does could be accomplished by another in the form of a party trick, but Sol has a weird ability to compose melodies in a way that sound organic.

Piano music is typically very showy and very annoying, not dissimilar to solo guitar compositions. Sol has an innate sense of when to let a piece breathe and, most importantly, knows how to let it simply drift by. It’s not grabby or bombastic, just delicate, well-executed, and soft.

There will be a point where she collaborates with more artists in a quartet form or, joy of joys, a small ensemble, and that record will likely land itself at the top of that year’s list.

It’s an outlandish statement to make, as the common interpretation will be that it’s entirely subjective, but: she’s making music that needs to be made. Melody is very important and figures like Sol are leading a charge that must be supported.

26

Kjellvandertonbruket — Doom Country

Americana, Gothic Country, Dark Jazz, Post-Rock

Normally I try to limit the genres listed for each record to two or three descriptors, but this album is just…unconventional, let’s go with that.

This sounds like a Cormac McCarthy novel that was left out in the rain. It just sounds like a looming thunder cloud over a yellow Texas prairie.

Again, it’s another one of these 2020 releases born from a super-quick recording cycle and this one somehow really works well. It’s lofty and heavy and airy and breezy and muddy and just…oof, this thing is so weird. Add it’s not even trying to be weird: that’s why it works. There’s this aspect to it that’ll have you shaking your head, “Is this supposed to be funny? Is this like a satire or something? But if that was the case, why is it actually emotionally effective?”

It’s definitely not sincere, but it’s absolutely not false or pretentious. Imagine if a black hole opened in the Grand Canyon and began tearing apart the Southwest…but as slowly as possible, as if an apocalypse took the time to find the light and make sure it was photogenic.

It’s just bonkers. It’ll pop up on my playlists every once in a while as I drive and I just shake my head and put down the sun-visor, “Whatever cosmological pun this thing is trying to make is fine with me, I just hope it doesn’t start raining.”

25

Kehlani — It Was Good Until It Wasn’t

Contemporary R&B, Trap, Neo-Soul

Anyone complaining that this album is cliche or diluting the artist’s voice by resorting to such obvious trap-music conventions is missing the point: this is The Only Good R&B Album of the Year (and I mean a strict definition of R&B, not ‘R&B-infused’).

Remember when I slighted Ariana Grande for releasing an album entirely and exclusively about sex? Kehlani’s record makes Positions look downright prudish.

Oh my god, this album is just relentless. It’s the musical equivalent of being a thirteen-year-old boy who literally has nothing else on the brain. I’m not the most chaste human being that ever lived, but oh my god, you cannot listen to any of this in public. Lyrically speaking, it is somewhat poetic with its insatiability, which is why it gets high marks.

Forget quality, this thing is quantifiably one of the most ‘thirsty’ collections of the last few years. It’s never graphic or extremely explicit, but that Parental Advisory sticker is for the sheer volume of references to sex. I’m no spring chicken but there were a few instances where I had to pause, “Hold on, girl; I’ve never even heard of that.”

I’m not really sure what context you’d listen to this in other than sex. Pornography exists and romantic R&B exists, so this is absolutely nothing more than a bedroom record. So if you find yourself sleeping with someone new and want to flex your musical preferences and remove all the innuendo from the exchange, here’s your album.

(Note: I will always force an R&B album into one of the higher spots of the list. Subjectively: the genre has been a staple of my listening preferences since I was a child (one of the top ten most influential songs of my life). Objectively: you people need to learn that there’s more to life than Drake.)

24

The Strokes — The New Abnormal

Indie Rock, Post-Punk Revival, New Wave

Imagine the premonition needed to name an album The New Abnormal before the COVID-19 crisis hit. How annoyingly coincidental.

This is a very contradictory record to review. Cool album cover? Well, it’s literally just a Basquiat, no alternations whatsoever. Cool sound though, right? Sure, but it’s literally the exact same style as Is This It. Well, at least The Strokes are spearheading the movement to restore original melodies to indie music, right? Sure, but a couple of these songs are direct samples.

It’s tricky.

Here’s the deal, we’ll make this quick: this is the second-best thing The Strokes have ever done, and I’m no detractor. This sounds how you’d hope a ‘reunion’ record would. This is a very atypical experience, I can’t think of the last time an artist released an album that sounded exactly like their debut album, twenty years later, and managed to have lightening strike twice in regards to the production, reaction, and artistic merit.

It’s fun. It’s a Newwww Yowwwwrrrk album that isn’t even remotely irritating. Even all the little recording studio interstitials aren’t annoying, which is super rare. It’s fun, try it out.

23

Empty Country — Empty Country

Indie Rock, Heartland Rock

I pumped my fist in triumph on the first song.

“Oh don’t mind me, just taking the biggest victory lap in the history of the world because IIIIIIII CALLLLLED ITTTTTT.”

I knew this would happen, I knew it. I called it and I will toot my horn in regard to this particular hunch.

You see, I was one of seven people in the entire universe that had heard of Cymbals Eat Guitars and predicted, based on the strength of “Definite Darkness” alone, that the band (or at least lead singer/guitarist Joseph D’Agostino) would go on to do something undeniable. The song structure, lyrical content, and overall energy was unique and engaging in such a special way.

But then Cymbals Eat Guitars broke up.

But then Joseph D’Agostino put out a little album in 2020 under a new moniker: Empty Country. And put the absolutely sensational indie anthem “Marian” AS ITS OPENING TRACK.

I didn’t even know this was D’Agostino when sat down to listen. I threw it on and shook, “Oh my god, is that the Cymbals Eat Guitars guy?!” A totally blind listen, and he just completely knocks it out of the park.

I have absolutely no interest in New Jersey indie rock, but this is a distinctly American record in the best way. It just has that certain je ne se quoi (we really should come up for an English equivalent) that feels native to the United States. This weird optimism that doesn’t always come true, but does often enough if the wisher is genuine in their desires. Pay attention to that ‘Heartland Rock’ genre label, it’s so accurate and so tricky to pull off, but this record just nails it.

Subjectively: oh my god, this album is so good. I don’t even know what the best song on the record is.

Objectively: you’re either going to like his unprofessional singing voice or you won’t (it’s not a hard sell but I can see why some would be turned off by it), but the songwriting on display here is phenomenal. The only reasons that the record isn’t sitting well within the top ten is that D’Agostino doesn’t have an objectively-fantastic voice and indie rock can only be pushed so far.

But oh my god is it good. It is such a well-meaning record. Don’t misunderstand: I’m not some kind of Cymbals Eat Guitars fan that wants or needs this album to be good. I’m just absolutely stoked that someone made it out of the absolute hell-hole that was 2010s indie rock.

Great lyrics, great melodies: sign me up.

22

Matt Stewart-Evans— Colours / Shades

Modern Classical, Ambient

Solo piano records are always bad. They’re never recorded correctly, the compositions are always either insanely ostentatious or extremely lazy, and the performances are draped in self-grandeur.

Enter: Matt Stewart-Evans.

There are only two ways to mix a piano record. The first is to make the piano sound omnipotent, as if it’s not tied to any physical realities (ambience, reverb, build quality, etc.) The second is to embrace the absolute reality of the recording conditions, allowing the recording to reflect the exact piano’s sound in a very specific environment. Stewart-Evans has elected for the former, which is a bit more difficult, but is so much more beneficial to his compositions.

“Maze” is a piece that I revisit often. I think it’s ‘perfect’ in a very abstract way. It’s not too fast or too slow, not too advanced or elementary, and not too showy or too subtle. It’s like if you performed a vivisection of a clock: it all just works. Most of the pieces on the album are similar in this regard: they serve a very specific function, do it well, and get you where you need to be.

Stewart-Evans’ actual playing is the make-or-break point and it’s safe to say that he succeeds in living up to the needs of the pieces. I write a lot, so I listen to a lot of ‘instrumental’ music. I chew up and spit out piano records like moldy breakfast cereal. “Nope, better luck next time.” “Nuh-uh: next.” “Nice try, no way.” Relative to other instrumentalists, I do like pianists, but they’re usually prone to acting as if they simply ‘levitate’ above the rest of us. Stewart-Evans, however, has a deft touch when the piece needs to be delicate and saves the force for moments where the membrane needs to be broken. Discipline and discretion are the two best qualities of a pianist and they’re present all over this record.

My favorite pianist in the world, not counting those I know personally, is probably my future wife Tiffany Poon, for the simple reason that she combines and unbelievable talent with a candid attitude. Her style is a very refreshing splash of warm water in the cold, sterile, and snobbish world of ‘classical music.’ I only just discovered Stewart-Evans this year, but he is of the same ilk: not up his own butt, lets his music breathe, and records in a way that isn’t tacky or tasteless.

21

Honey Harper— Starmaker

Alt-Country, Chamber Pop

This is a pretty decent record. It’s slow but eccentric and constantly interesting. It’s a cool send-up of the genre, a bit iconoclastic without being irreverent.

But…there’s a reason this is The Best Country Album of the Year…

The woodwinds.

The instrumentation on this is fantastic but every single time the woodwinds enter, it’s absolutely perfect.

Subjectively: my father listened to a lot of The Marshall Tucker Band when I was growing up (I don’t actually listen to country recreationally, but my lenses received a new prescription after spending quarantine watching Ken Burns’ Country Music (which is great)).

Objectively: woodwind instruments are criminally under-utilized in modern music.

This definitely has that 1970s “quiet and calming” Nashville sound, which is very hard to accomplish as most artists are really masturbatory and nostalgic when it comes to chasing older production techniques and aesthetics. But…the electronic elements feel very fresh and ‘new’, which creates a fascinating little whirlpool on every song. The new-and-old dichotomy has been explored a million times before, but Honey Harper’s depiction is simply divine.

20

Fiona Apple — Fetch the Bolt Cutters

Progressive Pop, Piano Rock, Jazz Pop

The queen returns.

I was, am, and will always be a missionary for the gospel of Fiona Apple, with her previous album especially serving as a wonderful little holy text that justifies my ‘impossibly-high’ standards:

“If “Periphery” is possible, I’m never giving anyone full credit for ‘simply trying’ ever again.”

But don’t mistake this for a subjective placement: if I like an artist, their work is critiqued sevenfold; I look even closer for cracks and shoddy workmanship.

However…the queen don’t miss.

Production? Immaculate. Song structure? Superb. Instrumentation. Literally perfect, again, in a way that drives me insane.

I could go on for a full chapter about this record but let me distill it into a very simple comparison:

The best part of David Bowie’s “Heroes” is the moment where he goes ‘off-note’, because it reminds the listener that both he and they are human. Fiona Apple goes ‘off-rhythm’ one-minute-and-fifty-three-seconds in “Heavy Balloon” and it reminds you that there are no rules in life so long as one breaks them for the benefit of another.

19

R.A.P. Ferreira — Purple Moonlight Pages

Jazz Rap, Abstract Hip Hop, Jazz Poetry

This is the nerdiest and it’s just wonderful.

Ferreira’s cadence is just ridiculous. It’s like Urkel meets Sesame Street meets Digable Planets or something. When he raps, “As always, the question remains: can you dig it?” in the absolute dorkiest way possible, I’m like, “Dude, for some reason, I totally can.”

The instrumentation is just great. I like jazz and you should too, and projects like this serve as a good gateway for new listeners. It’s all super rhythmic and clear, because it’s hip-hop, but little flourishes are sprinkled throughout every measure that really make it snap, crackle, and pop in all the best ways.

I think the pointed cadence and tendency to strictly adhere to meter (rather than create a ‘smooth’ sound) might detour some listeners, but it’s not even debatable: this album isn’t ‘fire’, it’s cool as ice.

18

clipping. — Visions of Bodies Being Burned

Industrial Hip Hop, Horrorcore, Experimental Hip Hop

Let me tell you about one of the most embarrassing mornings of my life, which took place back in October.

Six years ago, I listened to CLPPNG, the debut album from the new ‘edgy’ and ‘experimental’ hip-hop trio clipping. I thought it was way too abrasive in its production, to the point where it was unlistenable. I dismissed them as a pale and failed attempt at trying to sail the same seas that Death Grips were.

Fast forward to July of 2020. I, like many others, spent the Fourth of July weekend watching a filmed performance of the smash-hit musical Hamilton. Despite the fact that Lin-Manuel Cynthia Nixon is a huge dork and limousine liberal fans of his work represent everything wrong with American politics, I thought the musical was one of the most important and necessary works of art in the twenty-first century. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment and every performance.

And so we arrive at October 2020, when clipping. released their new album and I thought, “You know what? Sure.” I’d heard some of their more recent work and thought they made great improvements in regards to production, composition, and even lyrical content.

So I ate my dumb little cereal and listened to the first minute or two of Visions of Bodies Being Burned…before it hit me:

“Huh, the guy from clipping. sounds a lot like Thomas Jefferson…

…wait…wait…

…I forgot…didn’t Thomas Jefferson sound just like the guy from clipping.?”

A thought raced from one hemisphere of my mind to the other: Hamilton debuted in 2015; there is no chance in hell that the dorky Lin-Manuel would have cast a guy from an outrageously-acerbic rap group who just released their first album only six months earlier.

I raced to Google and submitted my query: “There is no chance in hell that the dorky Lin-Manuel would have cast a guy from an outrageously acerbic rap group who just released their first album only six months earlier, right?”

“Did you mean Daveed Diggs?”

I was so embarrassed. It’s not like they were inherently unpopular, but back in 2014 if you and I were to go to a party, I was one of the three people there that would know of clipping. whereas every person in the western world (and most of the eastern world too) have heard of Hamilton. I watched that almost-three-hour musical and didn’t put the two together until my “Come to think of it, I’ve never seen them in the same room” moment. I accepted this stupid realization, “Huh, I guess it must have been a conscious decision to make Thomas Jefferson an infinitely better rapper than Alexander Hamilton.”

My universe was shattered and I’m still putting it back together. I just could not fathom a Hamilton fan thinking, “Oh that Thomas Jefferson is handsome, I wonder if he has music of his own” and finding CLPPNG. It’s delightful casting but it definitely shook my worldview for a second.

Anyway, this one doesn’t need a long review, as it’s rather obvious:

Visions of Bodies Being Burned is The Best Hip-Hop Album of 2020 and it’s not even close, as it’s basically the only good one. They’ve filtered their acerbicism through minimalism and the result is a fantastic sound. The lyrics are sublime, again, and are perfectly complimented by the sharp instrumentation. Sure, every track has a simple structure, but it’s effective. A great mood piece, with great atmosphere and rich resonance; clipping. have finally arrived, and now theirs is the room where it’s happeningdnvkjbiuqwetriluseR4T3Bjdgks.

17

Choir Boy — Gathering Swans

New Romantic, Synthpop, Jangle Pop

There are a thousand other albums exactly like this one and they don’t work at all, whereas this one definitely hits the spot.

There’s some sort of weird The-Cure-meets-Tears-for-Fears-meets-Echo-and-the-Bunnymen sentimentality dripping from every single note of this album but I actually wouldn’t classify it as a nostalgic record. The crooning is typical of a 1980s effort as well, but without ever reaching a moment that feels like outright hero-worship (the vocals reming me of Morrissey, but without the literacy and pushed up into eternal tenor).

One of the trends of the 2010s that I truly enjoy is when an artist uses the absolute worst album cover they can in relation to what their music actually sounds like, and Choir Boy executes this better than most. Gathering Swans is a wonderful record; the dulcimer-ish flourishes on “Complainer” are to die for, and I can’t guarantee that a track like “Sweet Candy” won’t be stuck in your head for at least a month but I’m sure it’ll be lodged in your heart for at least a day.

16

dj poolboi — It’s Good to Hear Your Voice

Outsider House, Progressive House, Downtempo

As I’ve said thirteen thousand times: nostalgia is the absolute worst…but…that is only because most artists do attempt it with selfishness and ignorance. If you can actually make it work, nostalgia is an inherent human emotion and can be used to great effect.

Some of my longtime readers might be thinking, “Of course Jesse would endorse something that sounds like tenth-rate Boards of Canada” but that’s a bit too superficial. Boards of Canada are great because they take the concept of nostalgia and almost satirize it, pining for a nuclear winter that never happened. This isn’t an ‘easy’ thing to do, but it’s sure as hell much easier than making postmodern nostalgia into a logical, acceptable, and embraceable sound.

dj poolboi (I swear to god, these artists that spell their names in lowercase will be the death of me) is able to take the concept of pining for the past and attach it to some chords that I would not associate with nostalgia, creating a sensation that is a ‘new’ take on the ‘old.’

It’s a very simple album. Super simple. ‘Basic’, even. But it works. There’s nothing here but a synthesizer and drum machine, both aiming for the most annoying corner of Youtube yet somehow managing to actually capture something special in a rather unremarkable bottle. This is definitely ‘study’ music, but there’s something about the tones of the synth that just curve in the best way. They’re rounded notes, all of them, rather than some kind of drawn-out and indulgent harmonies. I don’t know if I’d go as far as calling it clever, but it’s definitely representative of some conscious intent.

It is very inoffensive music. I’m not sure if it’ll downright delight anyone, but it’s unlikely to disappoint or waste your time. I do think that it’s sparse enough that you can attach meaning and memories to the compositions without this being a pretentious and self-affirming exercise.

Simple little album, sure, but it accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do, a common task that most others utterly fail in attempting.

15

Poppy— I Disagree

Alternative Metal, Electro-Industrial, Dream Pop

I need you to take careful note of the three genres listed: they’re not listed by prominence but proportion. This album can be labeled in those three ways simultaneously and consistently.

In another universe, this record would be unimaginably annoying, an insanely-pathetic attempt at thirty-five minutes of ‘lol so random xD’. But in this universe, it’s not just inventive and inspired but delightful and fantastic.

The shortest way I can articulate Poppy’s sound is by asking you to imagine a television (playing Saturday morning cartoon commercials) being slowly pushed into an industrial-grade metal grinder, one used to scrap Soviet tanks, with some giggling ten-year-old girl hitting it with a broom to clear the jams.

It’s such creative album and the fact that it never fully devolves into gimmick is astounding.

Not only is it downright hilarious but incredibly competent. I wouldn’t ever encourage you to do a first-listen via a music video, but I think the only way you’ll be able to understand just how technically-proficient and endlessly amusing this album can be is to watch the video for “Concrete.”

The whole album is like this, and it actually works. She has such an approachable-yet-interesting take on everything from religion to depression to general media consumption. Again, all of this could sound like the most annoying album you could possibly imagine, but not only is it good: it’s better than almost everything that came out this year.

It is simultaneously the best satirical record of the year and one of the most genuine. The song structures are great, but the actual album structure is very well done.

There’s a reprise in this; no one put as much effort into their album cohesion as someone who puts a reprise into their work. Scream and cry all you want, purists out there: this is The Best ‘‘‘‘‘Metal/Hard-Rock’’’’’ Album of the Year.

15

青葉市子 — アダンの風

Chamber Folk, Ambient, New Age

There’s a moment on this album that I can only equate to what it must be like watching a sports team win a championship by a single, unlikely point.

The first chorus on the second song, “Pilgrimage”, has an unbearably-beautiful and slow melody. But on my first listen I noticed something in the instrumentation of the first few measures, “Ah, dang: she didn’t resolve that little chromatic percussion thingy.”

But then my ‘eyes’ drifted to the curve around the bend, to the last few measures of the chorus and what they could contain. And, like a fan on their feet, watching the ball sail through the air in slow-motion, “Wait…no…no…there’s no way she’s going to wait that long to resolve the phrase…the confidence required would be-”

The ball flew in the net: Aoba did resolve the melody. I stood up and walked around my room for a moment, hands on my head like I just witnessed an incomprehensible miracle. She opened a little Pandora’s box, waited a while, and then somehow managed to close it. It’s incredible, an artist not just having the gall to attempt it, but to actually pull it off.

Ichiko Aoba’s album has The Best Melodies of the Year, full stop. The instrumentation on this album is to die for, and it grants her so many avenues for simple-simple-simple flourishes that combine to form such a fully-realized sound. It all sounds so ‘basic’ and almost ‘easy’ but just try to imagine the sheet music as you listen; it’s as if she distilled an orchestra into as few parts as possible and managed to write something very appropriate for such an ensemble to play.

The only reason this isn’t in the top ten or even healthily in the top five is because this list is for everyone, and a slower, softer, and distinctly Japanese record wouldn’t play well with everyone, though everyone should listen to this record.

(But don’t get complacent, we’re definitely not getting any less international.)

14

Kate NV — Room for the Moon

Progressive Pop, New Wave, Sophisti-Pop

Let this be an incredibly clear example of my efforts to make this list as close to ‘objective’ as possible…

…because subjectively: this is so ‘my jam’ that it’s not even funny.

Kate NV’s latest album is essentially what would happen if you smashed together all the best b-sides and deep album cuts of Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush and David Bowie. If you like any of the weird, quasi-experimental curveballs that art-pop acts were trying to get away with in the 1980s, this is the record for you.

Kate NV takes an energy that would be a bit cliche or trite and spins it with a very unique perspective. The result is something that sounds familiar-enough that you’ll get déjà vu, but is so fresh and rejuvenating that you’ll swear you haven’t actually heard anything like it.

It really doesn’t do anything new, and the compositions themselves are super simple, but the care put between the notes and between the tracks is where the artistry exists. It’s not that every brick in this wall is new and exciting, but all of the mortar is.

(this album isn’t available on Spotify)

13

The Microphones — The Microphones in 2020

Indie Folk, Avant-Folk, Drone

‘Taste’ and preferences are subjective, but I don’t think I could ever respect any individual’s/organization’s ‘Best of 2020’ list that didn’t include The Microphones latest effort. Because it’s an actual effort, and it’s incredibly easy to take seriously as a legitimate work of art.

This isn’t an ‘album’ in the conventional sense, as it’s actually just one song played for the entire duration. That single song is forty-four-minutes-and-forty-four-seconds long, but it has shifts nested inside of it, which create movements that are about as long as the average song.

To your boy (that’s me, in this context I am ‘your boy’), who prefers to listen to not just classical music but classical music that doesn’t ‘stop’ between movements, this is how all modern music should be played. I don’t hold anyone to that standard, but it is quite a nice experience to actually experience it. Quite nice indeed.

The main rhythm never stops, so if you don’t like it…well, it doesn’t stop. That’s the brutal reality of making an album of one song. But the lyrical journey presented to you is pretty great. It’s super autobiographical and very effective.

I don’t care about The Microphones at all, I have no good or ill will toward their music whatsoever, but Phil Elverum’s narrative about the band’s history and his life story up to this point is pretty captivating and resonant. It’s really human. That’s an incredibly-annoying thing to say; the kind of statement you’d hear from an idiot about a stupid film, “It’s a perfect portrayal of ‘today’ and the human spirit and exactly what we need right now and celebration of the human condition and such an ‘‘‘‘‘‘important’’’’’ film and blah blah blah blah.”

…But in this case, it really just is a ‘human’ record.

I usually upset some when I drag modern indie and folk music through the mud, but the only credibility I have in doing so is the fact that albums like this come out and no one listens to them. ‘No one’ is a relative term. Everyone who actively listens to music is well aware of the fact that this album is a critical juggernaut that’s already widely-respected, but that’s a small demographic. Most people are listening to Taylor Swift at worst and Phoebe Bridgers at best (no disrespect to Bridgers, obviously, as you still haven’t seen her album on this list, wink wink), and listen to songs with the mistaken belief that accessibility can only be achieved through a lack of depth.

I’m going to toot my own horn here for a second, but you’ll know why. Back in the day, I was one of a microscopically-small number of people lifting a certain double-album into the air and screaming, “OH MY GOD, have you people heard this thing?!” The album was Lift to Experience’s The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads. I was a very little boy at the time, and my appreciation of the album was somewhat superficial, but even in that extreme youth I heard something that I wasn’t hearing elsewhere and I wanted everyone to at least give it a listen.

But no one did. You’ve never heard of Lift to Experience. They put out a double-album, a concept album, about Jesus Christ’s second-coming occurring in the state of Texas of all places, with the weird spirituality and culture-clashing that would come from such a supernatural oddity. The lyrics are astounding, the narrative is perfect, the instrumentation is inventive, the compositions are phenomenal. Everything about it was objectively better than 99% of all music being released at the time. And no one listened to it.

Fast-forward to 2011. Josh T. Pearson, the lead singer of Lift to Experience, puts out an album. Everyone loves it, but again: ‘everyone’ is an incredibly-small number. Seven songs, most of them long; Last of the Country Gentlemen is a slow and meandering voyage down the rivers of love, life, and loss, with better lyrical content than anything that came out last decade…and no one listened to it.

I could do this all day (you morons didn’t listen to Apparatjik either; a pop album about quantum entanglement and you morons didn’t listen to it, but I still love you), but I won’t. Though I will probably, possibly, maybe continue to do it each year. The ‘point’ of this list is not to say “Hey, I’m a smart boy and these are the best albums of the year, with the evidence being that I’m so smart.”

No, the list exists simply as an avenue for average listeners, people who have a passive interest in music, to possibly find a new ‘favorite album of all time’ that would otherwise be too obscure for them to discover on their own.

The Microphones in 2020 is one of those albums. Not everyone is going to absolutely love it, but there are more than a few of you out there listening to very average and boring indie-folk albums that wouldn’t think to trust the year-end ‘best-of’ lists when they say that a new record from an artist that hasn’t put anything out in almost two decades is indeed one of the best of the year. Let me add my voice to that choir:

This album is better than most what of what you’re listening to. Unlike every album you’ll read about from this point forward, it’s definitely not very hooky or engaging in the conventional sense, and I don’t gravitate toward it often, but its artistic merit is through the roof. It is a singular experience, or at least the best/only attempt at one in 2020, and for that it deserves an undeniable respect as the Best Solo Album of the Year.

11

Tei Shi — Die 4 Ur Love

Synthpop, Dance-Pop, Alternative R&B

Valerie Barbosa is a multi-national national treasure. Die 4 Ur Love is an EP of some of the cheesiest songs of the year, efforts that would look so soulless, cliche, and annoying on paper…but the execution is to die for. This thing is so perfect in its imperfection it’ll remind you what it’s like to have a heart. I don’t know how others coped with the failures of 2020, but I had Tei Shi blasting every step of the way.

Fifteen-minute record. Five songs. The whole thing is like an oddly-pronged fork, stuck into an outlet that you swore was broken. Absolutely electric, every minute of it. “Die 4 Ur Love” and especially “OK crazy” are ‘bangers’ to such a degree that most other ‘bangers’ should have their licenses to bang revoked. The way that chorus drops off on “OK crazy”, are you kidding me? Absolutely jagged.

Let me talk to the kids in the room: there are five songs on this record, three of them slap and two are bangers. And now, for you adults: there are five songs on this record; three of them slap and two are bangers.

Best EP of the Year, without question.

10

Jessie Ware — What’s Your Pleasure?

Disco, Synth Funk, Smooth Soul

I remember reviewing Ware’s first record, Devotion, and…well, let’s just say that she’s improved astronomically.

There are moments on this album that are so good it almost makes me cry just thinking about them. There are less than ten good disco albums ever released (forget songs, we’re talking about full records) and it is downright insane to realize that this is one of the absolute best in the genre, ever, and the first in decades.

Ware opens the album with “Spotlight”, immediately throwing down the gauntlet. Like I said, I’m familiar with her previous work, and never in my wildest dreams did I expect to start the record with one of the best disco songs ever written. She opens the Best Disco Album of 2020 with an undeniable masterclass in how to write a sad song that boogies, and winks, “Keep the change; we got eleven more of these bad boys to go through.”

This album, I’m tellin’ you. The audacity to attempt a disco record without a gimmick or sarcastic perspective. This album, oh my god.

8

Buscabulla — Regresa

Latin Electronic, Synthpop, Chillwave

I cooked the best scrambled eggs of my life listening to this album, because I was listening to this album. I start each day listening to a new album while I cook and eat breakfast, and there was a notable bounce and pep in my step in the kitchen the morning that Regresa danced its way into my heart. I only use language this subjective because I find it almost inconceivable that a person could resist the seduction of even just “Vámono.” The album never overstays its welcome and adds such a luster and shine to each little element it attempts, none of the electric components feel inauthentic or even inorganic. An absolutely delightful effort that will give one optimism for the next few bites, if not the next few years.

8

Food House — Food House

Bubblegum Bass, Electro House, Pop Rap

I’ve listened to this album, cover to cover, probably seventeen thousand times, out of sheer frustration.

Imagine a grown man, covered in baby oil, trying to catch a buttery catfish, in a river of vaseline. That is what I’ve felt like since this album came out, as it is an incredible and slippery struggle to figure out why what should be one of the most irritating albums to ever exist is actually extraordinarily good.

‘PC Music’ is short-form for the polarizing style of pop-music that we’ve already discussed with its relevance to Charli XCX and 100 Gecs, a genre that essentially takes the worst aspects of pop (on purpose) and distorts, stretches, and alters them into a commentary on advertising in the art world.

Most PC music is very very very very bad. The artists are usually Generation Z ironists, metaphorically peeing on the bricks of a corporate bank as an act of rebellion; a very childish reaction to a real problem, one which solves nothing other than introducing your ego to the world. There are exceptions like Sophie and QT (I’m partial to the latter because she makes it so obvious how ridiculous it all is (how she leaves the stage kills me every time)).

However, the big big big big big big big problem with PC Music’s influence is that it has completely poisoned an entire generation’s perspective and sense of self-awareness. Everyone is always ‘in’ on the ‘joke’, but that premise was once, “Get it mannnnnnn? It’s about the record companies and the commercialization of music mannnnnnn,” whereas now the premise, setup, and punchlines is, “No no no, this is actually good music.”

I listen to a lot of Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Squarepusher, and Autechre, artists that contributed to the Golden Age of Electronic Music in the early 1990s. And do you know why this golden age ended?

Because people ruin everything.

Artists in this golden age were placed in a genre called ‘IDM’, which stood for ‘intelligent dance music.’ This wasn’t techno, or ambient, or house, or your dad’s Kraftwerk, noOoOoOoooo; this was ‘intelligent’ music for ‘intelligent’ people to listen to because they’re too ‘intelligent’ to listen to ‘un-intelligent’ music.

This was a very pretentious thing to do, and it was music critics who did it on behalf of listeners, because listeners (for some reason) need to feel a sense of superiority and validation in their choices.

There is nothing on this planet worse than a braindead mother and father playing Mozart for their newborn, completely convinced that it will make their child more intelligent. It is the most asinine line of thinking ever, but barely any worse than a grown man/woman actually uttering the phrase ‘guilty pleasure’ with earnestness.

I do not have guilty pleasures. I listen to Britney Spears’ “Lucky” and cry in the same way I listen to Iannis Xenakis’ “Metastasis” and wiggle my wittle butt, “This is like a neat jigsaw puzzle!” But people will listen to an artist like Radiohead and think, “There we go, I’ve done it: I’m cultured now” or listen to Coldplay and think, “Oh my gawd, can you actually imagine listening to this unironically? It’s a good thing Viva La Vida doesn’t have more artistic merit than almost indie record every made or I might look like an insecure idiot.”

PC Music isn’t ‘ruining’ music, but it’s absolutely a virus that is rendering entire genres completely unlistenable. People love to look back on the past with some sense of superiority, as if those in history were so much less intelligent or enlightened than we are today, because their media appears to be so simplistic and gimmick-based. There will be no shelf-life for the production styles and recording techniques that ‘hyper-pop’ is infecting us with.

PC Music takes any depiction of the human voice and completely compresses and elongates all of the earnestness from it. Percussion can’t be anything other than the most rudimentary drum machine sounds. Melodies are basically hunted down and shot, until only one remains and it can be paraded around on a stick every five seconds until the song is over. There is nothing ‘real’ about PC Music, to the point where irony isn’t even possible because the sound they’re striving for is a satire of a satire of a satire of a satire.

Take a duo like 100 Gecs. I really like the novelty of 100 Gecs, the ‘idea’ of it is somewhat fun. However, the execution and repercussions of their music are catastrophic in how they influence or detour listeners. It’s the musical equivalent to that ‘prank’ trend a few years ago where some restless teen would smash gallons of milk on the floor of a grocery store; it achieves absolutely nothing, yet those that enjoy it could never admit that and will therefore label it a ‘social experiment’.

Defenders of PC Music or groups like 100 Gecs might argue that the music is ‘just for fun’ at best or, at worst, ‘reflective of the nihilistic state of the world right now.’ Nihilism is a bit of an immature philosophy that really only exists in people who may be rightfully depressed but are unaware of how affluent/privileged they have to be in order to have the time and laziness to assume existentialism can only possess an inherent negativity.

The sarcasm, irony, and malaise that post-modernism dragged in the door have only been a detriment to the art of music. PC Music takes this belief and tries to make it ‘fun’ rather than actually move the needle and advance the medium in any regard other than maybe new production styles. Charli XCX did a great job at brining some kind of emotional resonance to the sound with her album this year, but it wasn’t quite enough. At literally no point has anyone in the PC Music movement ever truly tried to be courageous-enough or even emotionally-intelligent-enough to surrender their ego in the form of actual songwriting that alludes to a self-deprecation not directed toward ‘unwashed masses’ but the artist themselves.

…until Food House (that’s my argument and I’m sticking to it).

This album is very funny. I wouldn’t call it clever, but it has a very engaging sense of humor that can be ‘random’ but is actually somewhat submissive and humble. I’m going to give you a sample of some lyrics, some absolutely ludicrous lyrics, that display the ‘happy’ or ‘joke-y’ side of the record:

I go to Target CVS at night
It is the only time I feel alive
We used to go together, now we don’t
We’re on our own together, how we do it will not leave me
Parking lot, parking lot
Party in the parking lot

I used to fantasize about being or kissing Skrillex
I need to delete Twitter ’cause it gives me fucking mental illness (Mental illness!)
Foaming at the mouth like I put a fucking Mento in it
Get your ass off Twitter ’cause it gives you fucking mental illness (Mental illness!)

Somewhere really really really messed up like a 24-hour IHOP
Run away, turn the corner, lose the wig
Put the cat ears on and I say “Bye, cops”
Shit, I’m at a 24-hour Barnes & Noble
No, no
I heard you’re fucked in the crib eatin’ Gerbers, that could not be me
(Frax, what the fuck are you talking about?)
I heard you’re fucked up in the crib eating burgers
(Jesus fuck, dude! Just sing real lyrics!)

25 minutes till I go on stage
Warm the crowd up, tell ’em play nightcore Beyonce
Smoke in a dark green room like a séance, ayy
But someone here gives me a rude vibe
Vineyard Vines on, I bet you listen to Maroon 5

Just ridiculous, but there is a very vague ‘literary’ value to the lyrics. The references are clever and the punchlines actually make sense, usually coming at the expense of the narrator.

But there’s a lot of pain in this album. It’s really stupid and goofy and fun on the surface and in some of the more relaxed songs, but there is an interesting perspective on the difficulties of being a young (born after 1995) member of the LGBTQ+ community that are put on full display. There’s heartbreak, confusion, lack of acceptance, in-fighting with the community, etc. and the record doesn’t hide behind a blind nihilism in addressing these topics and it doesn’t adopt a pointless ironic slant when describing the hardships of life.

It’s all very dumb and silly, it really is and I’m sure the artists would agree, but they don’t let that bubbly superficial energy exclude actual emotional honesty from the artistic expression.

The reason this is The Best ‘Pop’ Album of the Year is that Food House aren’t afraid to write anthems toward insecurity that don’t devolve into masturbatory pleas for pity.

If there’s one aspect that is an absolute cancer in pop music right now it’s the unending sense of bravado; every single song has to be some huge battle-cry of self-affirmation based on literally nothing. Every single song says, “You are inherently some version of perfect, don’t ever seek self-improvement, and if anyone ever says otherwise then they’re a ‘hater’, which is a very mature word that people over the age of seven definitely should be saying.” And then indie music has the opposite problem, where artists simply fall over themselves with excitement to tell you just how pathetic and self-loathing they are, the dumb ‘tortured souls’ of our lifetime.

Food House, of all the groups in the world, somehow manage to put out an album that is PC Music-adjacent, but retains the attention span required to spit out the quite-needed and noble thematic statement, “Life is a uniquely difficult sensation that offers some happiness and mostly sadness, none of this being helped by our financial and cultural institutions, but there is a small chance that I can make myself happy through self-discovery, so I’m going to pursue that.”

This is best epitomized in the dance-y and encouraging “51129”, which is a satire of just how empty and vapid a sparkly song is ‘supposed’ to be:

“Ooh, would you be happy in your purest form?
I’d rather see you there than not yourself

I know the silence and the time limits and small cerebral riots are the perfect storm
No, I’d rather know you’re gone and gettin’ help
One day I really hope that you learn how to be yourself”

“The silence and the time limits and small cerebral riots are the perfect storm” is a very articulate and eloquent way to describe anxiety-based depression, something that Generation Z and many others suffer from (not to mention those in communities that fear ‘coming out’ and retaining acceptance), so I don’t want to hear a word of guff about placing Food House (of all groups, I know) this high on the list.

It’s a trojan horse, a vehicle for you to connect with communities that you’re probably not part of: listen to it and you’ll understand Gen Z a little more. If you are a member of Gen Z: this is the kind of honesty and sincerity that artists of your generation can achieve and they do not need to sacrifice humor and cleverness to get there. Hold them to the standard set by this frustratingly-stupid album.

Food House, of all the albums, at number eight. I know. Trust me, I’ve gone as far as trying to kick it out of the top fifty all-together, but it’s good.

7

Owen Pallett — Island

Chamber Folk, Art Pop, Chamber Pop

The nice thing about disparaging entire genres (folk and indie) is that it’s only really possible if you have counter-evidence to back up your claims.

In 2020, regarding the music that independent-sounding/folky artists ‘could’ or ‘should’ be making, one need not look any further than Owen Pallet, hallowed be his name.

When I say that musicians of the two genres in question are mostly lazy, redundant, self-indulgent, and undisciplined…this extreme view is only validated by Owen Pallet existence as evidence that the standard I hold these genres to can be met (and surpassed).

There are two significant areas in which the album of an average indie singer/songwriter lacks what an Owen Pallett record possesses: compelling song structure and undeniable album cohesion. Pallett has, many times over, proven himself to be a very engaging composer with a profound understanding of the relationship between mysterious lyrics in an individual song and conveying an overall thematic message on a record.

Island was released without much announcement or fanfare, but it quietly finds itself as perhaps his best work to date. Playful, mature, morose, and magical, this album encompasses a full spectrum of sensations. Breaking apart the theory of his tricks reveal dense compositions of a simplicity that can only be acquired by whittling a medium to its purest elements.

Pallett is basically the sole artist on this record. He plays lead on every song, (which is nice little feat seeing as how the sound is quite orchestral), is the only writer and composer, and produced the album as well. You’d need a microscope to measure the sympathy I have for other artists who might balk at the idea of creating such an intricate, sensitive, and irreverent collection without the help of ‘collaborators’ interested in nothing but a vague sense of collective ‘self-expression’, an contradiction which is only deepening each year.

I wouldn’t even call myself an Owen Pallett fan, but the man has been serving as a noble benchmark since his Final Fantasy days, showing no sign of losing any credibility or artistic merit any time soon.

6

Fleet Foxes —Shore

Indie Folk, Chamber Pop, Folk Rock

Melodies matter. They’re being neglected in favor of dumb rhythmic babbling (I like rhythm but we’ve gone way too far in the last fifteen years). Melody is the voice and vocabulary of music, it is very important. A good melody, even when paired with terrible harmony and abysmal rhythm, still makes for a great song.

Robin Pecknold doesn’t really know how to write anything without a strong melody. Therefore, there is not a chance in hell that a good Fleet Foxes album wouldn’t be one of the best records of the year. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel, I don’t think Fleet Foxes have ever released a record that wasn’t one of the top twenty of the year (and you’re well aware of my gripes with indie and folk, so I can assure you there’s no bias to spare).

This is could be the best Fleet Foxes album. It’s between this and Helplessness Blues, which is my subjective favorite because of the daring brass moments. But Shore is super cohesive and complete, in a way that their debut album wasn’t, and there is no better measure to initially measure an album’s strength than its cohesion.

It’s a beautiful album, and that’s a tricky task to accomplish for something that’s almost an hour long. It really doesn’t overstay its welcome or fade into the background; there’s a presentness and immediacy to all of it, but it definitely doesn’t refrain from passiveness either.

Obviously it’s the Best Folk Album of the Year, but what would even come close? If we’re somewhat strict with the genre parameters (which we don’t need to be, but will indulge in for the sake of argument), then the closest entry is Bill Fay down at number forty-two? But that’s a sparse, singer-songwriter affair. The closest thing to a good, conventional folk effort is probably Bob Dylan at one-hundred-and-five or Laura Marling at one-hundred-and-seven? This thing just punches so far above its weight its embarrassing. Marling’s record is fine but too repetitive, Dylan can still write lyrics better than basically anyone, but Pecknold melodies just make this such a massacre. Music isn’t a competition, but Fleet Foxes (even as conventional as they can be) are on a completely different level.

It’s just a good record. I was surprised they released something this year, and definitely didn’t give it any kind of bias or head-start, but it’s not even the least bit surprising that it’s a good record. Yeah yeah yeah, politics are a mess, the world is on fire to some degree, and this year’s Fleet Foxes album outpaces basically everything around it; what else is new?

5

DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ — Charmed

Outsider House, Plunderphonics, Future Funk

“DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ’s new record can’t be best record of the year…right? I’m not the only one going crazy over this thing, right?”

This album was has, without exaggeration or hyperbole, absolutely dominated the music criticism conversation literally every day since its release.

Any peer I’ve spoken with, each of varying musical preferences but with a similar commitment to listen to/review a ton of records each year, has had the same conclusion: this album isn’t an ‘impossibility’ but it is an outlier in a way that hasn’t been in a very long time and to a somewhat unprecedented degree (given how music is composed, produced, released, and received these days).

There are no hard and set ‘rules’ in art, but there are definitive trends and consistencies. One of them is that albums released in the fourth quarter of the year usually aren’t seriously included on ‘Best of the Year’ lists because they’re far too ‘fresh’ and therefore it’d be a bit too biased of an individual/organization to include it in their rankings.

Another very important ‘rule’ is the relationship between quantity and quality. As I discussed way back at the start: a very short ‘great’ record is infinitely better than a medium or long ‘good’ one. Artistic resonance is about the density of the experience; a high-quality release is one that doesn’t spread itself too thin.

There are three ‘problems’ with DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ’s newest record, Charmed: 1.) It was released in late November and is therefore prone to recency bias, 2.) it has a duration of just over three hours, and 3.) it is far-and-away better than almost everything released this year.

I’ve listened to this album almost non-stop since my first encounter. I was revisiting it one afternoon and saw three other people on my Spotify friends list listening to it as well. I messaged each, “What are we going to do about Sabrina?” and received some variation of, “Dude, I know. Everyone’s lists are fucked.”

First, let’s talk about the realities of 2020’s musical landscape: this was a terrible year for music. Very, very, very bad. Most people make it an annual December tradition to cheer, “Oh this was such a good year for music!” without any sense of self-awareness, not realizing that they do this every single year regardless of the quality or quantity of serious releases.

The overall quality of albums has been trending downward since 2017, I’d contend we’ve been in a tailspin since late-summer 2016. I am open to all arguments, but I don’t think you can point me toward any records in the last four years that notably moved the artistic/cultural/etc. needle or even tried to. I know that there may be albums released during this time that will be sifted from obscurity and find a place in posterity…but I’ve been doing this a long time and I ain’t heard NOTHING in four years that would hold a candle to the work released in almost any other year.

I think 2020 has been the worst year for music since 2009. We had a good run in the early and mid 2010s, but this is a rough stretch and I think it’s ignorant to claim otherwise.

This abysmal state makes it a bit easy for any ‘good’ record to make a legitimate splash. Ignoring the fact that it was released less than a month from this list’s publishing, Charmed accomplishes what it sets out to do so much more effectively than its peers, and has much higher and less self-indulgent ambitions as well.

This brings us to the second point: this thing is over three godforsaken hours long. I don’t care how much you ‘love’ music, go find that friend who you know is more passionate about it than even you. Ask them about how long and album should be. The common answer among anyone with a brain is that, within reason, there is no work of music that should be over fifty minutes. You will not find anyone who takes music seriously who won’t respond with some variation of “I have listened to far too many dumb, stupid, and self-indulgent trash in my life and the one common denominator was that each of them was over forty-five minutes.”

My parents played a lot of ‘classic rock’ records when I was growing up, but I listened to classical music (like the hoity-toity person you’ve come to expect from the acerbity of these reviews, I’m sure). I watched Fantasia about fifty-thousand times before elementary school, so my inner barometer has three ‘sweet-spots’:

1. Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is about thirty-five or forty minutes: this the duration that most records should fall into.
2. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, a work completed through a combination of unrivaled talent, discipline, and dedication, is about sixty-five or seventy minutes: this is the length than any ‘ambitious’ or ‘conceptual’ work should fall into.
3. Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring (aka ‘the last piece of music even remotely worth a damn’) is forty minutes and spends every minute of that time inventing or revolutionizing every form of music that the twentieth century would go on to bastardize and squander.

So every minute that a record stretches over forty minutes reminds me, “Oh yeah, the average lifespan is about seventy-five years: why should I be listening to this?”

DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ’s Charmed is three hours long. Do you have any idea how good an album that’s twice the length of most films and six times longer than the average record would have to be in order to be classified as ‘good’, let alone ‘listenable’?

Yet here we are, at number five on the list. Music can be so subjective and so objective (more than people give it credit for), but here’s the brutal reality.

This album is the Best Electronic Album of the Year. No question. There is too much thought put into it; it is far too good for far too long. I wouldn’t call it ground-breaking but it is ruthless in seeking success from its goals.

But here’s the uncomfortable reality: this album, generally speaking, is the best album of the year. It is absolutely impossible for any other record to compete. When you’re dealing with three hours of good melodies, there is no situation in which another release could posses more good melodies and it would take a record of incredible quality to have melodies monumentally better than this album’s average artistic merit.

There was nothing released in 2020 that even remotely compares to this. So why isn’t it sitting at the top spot, as the album I would endorse to every living human being?

…Because it is three hours of house music, and I wouldn’t be so daft as to assume that I could hand this record to school children, oil field workers, South-Asian fishers, stock brokers, and swaths of people who just might not have the patience to find the artistic and intellectual value in goofy-yet- saccharine electronic music.

This isn’t ‘rave music’, but it’s foolish to assume that the average person exists in a state where they listen to music like this with a degree of seriousness and sobriety, so Charmed isn’t going to sit on the podium of this year’s list.

Objectively speaking, this thing is an atomic bomb, and I have absolutely no interest in debating its artistic merits in comparison to the wasteland that was music in 2020. In terms of an amalgamation and general average: this is the best album of the year. Full stop. But I respect the fact that some people just legitimately think the guitar is the end-all-be-all of musical composition and don’t want to hear anything without its presence (note: I don’t respect the people themselves, don’t mischaracterize me, I just respect the fact that they exist because to behave otherwise would be delusional and arrogant).

This is an album with a loose narrative, it’s three hours long, and it manages to accomplish all of its objectives, so it gets full marks from me. I don’t have a bad thing to say about it. It is completely and utterly successful, fulfilling every promise it makes to the listener in spades.

Go look at any other ‘Best of the Year’ list: any article that doesn’t list Charmed is oblivious or ignorant, and any records they list above it are indicative of the agenda they’re trying to push.

‘Agenda’, in this sense, isn’t a bad word. I’ve already told you mine: to push the needle forward for the most people possible, to advance their personal musical preferences to a deeper and more authentic place than it was the year before. Charmed is the best album of the year, but it’s only the fifth-best muscle I can use to help push you listen toward better music and/or enjoying the music you already love even more.

It’s not that the remaining entries on this list are more ‘general’ or ‘watered-down’; the following records are simply more ‘undeniable’ to a greater number of potential first-time listeners. I have no interest in validating the ‘tastes’ of music connoisseurs and hoping the results ‘trickle down’ to the layperson; I’m trying to build a stronger base of musical comprehension among general audiences (and I’m twying weally hawd).

4

Phoebe Bridgers — Punisher

Indie Folk, Indie Rock, Chamber Folk

You knew this was coming. I can assure you that I am not ‘too cool for school’ and neglecting to grant this album the praise it deserves doesn’t make you any better than the rest of us.

Punisher is an astounding record that can go pound-for-pound with any indie singer/songwriter effort released in the last decade. As far as I’m concerned, the album is already on its way to being known as a classic and only needs to dissolve into the public consciousness a little more each year; watch for it to appear on everyone’s “Best Albums of the 2020s” lists in nine years.

The songs are so simple, with lyrics that aren’t pretentious but actually manage to say something interesting with their evasiveness and lack of strong commitment. The instrumentation is very appropriate but also just a little odd in places, in a good way. The whole record is just slightly off-kilter, but in an incredibly charming way.

I find the blowback toward Bridgers and this record to be entirely baseless. This is easily the Best ‘‘‘Indie’’’/Broad-Appeal Album of the Year. ‘Music fans’ read the same websites and magazines every day and then act indignant when it’s reported that the general public is still discovering and admiring an artist/album, in some weird self-loathing cycle that should stay in the comments section.

I’ve heard ten-thousand ‘white-girl-with-blonde-hair-singing-abstract-narrative-songs-with-an-indie-folk-rock-sound’ albums and I would kill if even 0.001% of them were as good as Punisher. Sure, maybe she’s just reinventing the wheel, but she sure as hell is the only one making sure it keeps turning.

3

GoGo Penguin — GoGo Penguin

Jazz Fusion, Post-Minimalism, Nu Jazz

First off, let’s address the personal bias: the first time I listened to “Signal in the Noise”, I saw the face of god (spoiler alert: it’s not who you think). The primary melody in that piece is literally everything that I want in music and the way they basically blast it out of a cannon and into WWII-level flak fire absolutely astounds me.

‘Jazz’, regardless of what you’ve been taught or what La La Land told you to think, is so often better than all other genres. ‘Jazz’ is where the headiness of what the average listener would call ‘classical’ music meets the necessity of ‘danceable’ music.

Jazz is the only cool genre. Don’t sleep with someone until you’ve at least heard them listen to jazz. It’s not pretentious; jazz seems to be the only genre left that treats its listeners as if they have a brain, heart, and functioning hips. It is literally the only genre that makes an active and continual effort to be interesting in more ways that one.

That being said: it is very difficult to make a jazz album in the 2020s that I would willingly recommend to friends, family, and readers…but every piece on this record elicits this kind of response in me and I believe it’ll do the same for you. GoGo Penguin are a simple trio (piano, drums, bass) but they blast out compositions that are both ‘imposing’ and ‘inciting.’ A phenomenal record that sounds like a great forest fire being put out by a torrential flood.

This album, the Best Jazz Album of the Year, is like some unholy mixture of Bill Evans, Dawn of Midi, and…I don’t know, some kind of uber-precise German krautrock percussion. It’s all really simple and really effective. There is nothing here that will surprise or amaze avid listeners of the genre, but I enjoy plenty of jazz and still say, “Hell yeah” every other minute of listening to this.

2

トリコ — 真っ黒

Math Rock, Post-Hardcore, Progressive Pop

We’ve heard the arguments against folk; let’s drag ‘rock music’ onto the stand.

Rock music is really bad, and rock musicians are hacks. That’s a very broad statement and completely subjective, but it’s also pretty specific and quite objective. Convenient, huh?

Rock music’s existence is intrinsically linked with the medium of television. There is no rock-and-roll without an image, and that image is always selling something; an idea, a mood, or even a product is always at the heart of ‘rock’ songs. Blues and folk might be rudimentary and derivative, but they don’t have this inherent flaw.

If you stripped the idea of ‘image’ from rock music and rock musicians, it’d be like taking their guitar; they simply don’t know how to exist without posturing, as the entire ‘point’ of the ‘rebellion’ of rock music is extremely pretentious. The ‘rebellion’ of rock is an insanely-stupid paradox, a belief everyone chips in to support so that a few incredibly self-indulgent idiots can parade around and pretend that they’re saving the world.

Rock is so tied to mood and image and persona that it rarely has anything to say beyond trite aphorisms that really never seem to drift all that far from, “I’m broken-hearted-and/or-horny and a Coca Cola would really hit the spot right now” (‘Coca-Cola’ is a placeholder, it’s always a material possession or external source of validation).

Because of all this attention the performers pay to the aesthetics of their personas, they usually forget to actually compose anything dynamic and instead resort to sloppily playing the same lazy measures over and over again, drilling a half-melody into the listeners head and causing them to confuse ‘listenability’ with quality.

…but every once in a while, we get an artist like Tricot and my wittle heart flutters, “Ah, there is hope.”

I’m no great supporter of math rock, but Tricot’s latest album, the Best Rock Album of 2020, is a great reminder to the world that technical ability, dynamic songwriting, and passion are not all mutually exclusive.

It is impossible to describe how refreshing it is to listen to a rock album where the artists shut up, get to the point, make sure that it’s a fun, interesting, and utterly beautiful point, and then stop. They don’t chew the scenery. They don’t self-aggrandize. They don’t do anything but play the good songs that they wrote very well.

The closest thing to an ‘image’ or persona that they put out with this record is, “We’re all gonna dress in black. The album cover will be black. The name of the album will be ‘Black.’ And it’s not because it’s bad or sad or dramatic. It’s just black.”

This record is unbelievably tight, there’s not an ounce of filler or fat on it. It’s absolutely relentless and an endearing all-in-one bouncing ball of pure adrenaline. Math rock can often devolve into simple noodling and self-absorbed song structures, but Tricot are very good at keeping their lightening strikes simple, consistent, and dynamic.

There is nothing in the world better than a rock band understanding tight percussion and soothing rhythms can also be put in a blender. It’s a tricky equation but they solve it quite well.

I could go the rest of my life without hearing another rock record and be ecstatic; the genre had the better part of a century to lead us somewhere interesting but they couldn’t be bothered to stop jacking-off, “I’m just such a troubadour, you know? A real poet, if anything. Here, watch me play the same three chords for five minutes and sing about either nothing or what it’s like to sing about nothing.”

However, I am quite thankful and grateful for artists like Tricot and albums like this one, testaments to the fact that art really can be simultaneously fun, belligerent, good, and well-done.

1

Jessy Lanza — All The Time

Alternative R&B, Synthpop, Glitch Pop

Every single song on this album has at least one moment where the listener is likely to narrow their eyes, scrunch their face, and nod their head, “Ooof, what the hell is that?” I can count at least thirty moments on this record that had me standing up out of my chair as if I smelled something disgustingly-lovely, like Jay-Z hearing the beat to “Dirt off Your Shoulder” for the first time, and thinking, “Is this so good it’s going to ruin my entire day?”

I remember the first time I heard “Anyone Around”, the album’s opening track. I thought the drum machine was absolutely terrible and rolled my eyes at having to endure another half-hour of half-assed production. But when those synth notes rolled out in the chorus? “Oh my GOD, I need to go to the hospital; my heart is growing three sizes too large for my bitter bones!”

I would argue that ninety-percent of this record is completely unpretentious, unceremonious, and an absolute delight through-and-through. So much of indie-pop and this newer wave of alt-R&B is so dependent on being as cutesy and annoying as possible, but Lanza’s record is nothing but sweet. The chords are simple but they’re very consistent; you won’t be nostalgic for rosy moments of the past but they invoke those spirits with the same warmth and spirit.

Everyone in 2020 loves talking about art that ‘defines’ the year, as if such a thing is knowable right now and as if that weren’t the dumbest way to categorize ‘good’ art. History isn’t written today, and I have even worse news: you don’t get any say in it. The album that most defines ‘artistic merit’ in 2020 won’t really be settled until centuries from now when the context has settled and the present biases no longer exist. There is no album that we ‘need’ right now, let alone any that ‘defines’ the moment.

Lanza’s album is one of the few works, of any medium, that that seems to operate with this understanding. The reason I make such a claim is that it was released in July, well after the COVID-19 pandemic and the building unrest in the United States that spilled over that June; All the Time doesn’t make any reference to these events or acknowledge their existence whatsoever. It doesn’t even attempt to place itself in any specific place or time. Sure, it has some references to old R&B and likes to play in the same sandbox as current synthpop artists, but it isn’t trying to be anything other than itself.

It has the intention of a singular experience. In a world full of references, sequels, prequels, drama, gossip, trends, hashtags, blah blah blah, this Jessy Lanza may not have intended to be something that exists free of context, but it sure as hell achieves it. You don’t need to know who this woman is, what she looks like, what her other work sounds like, or anything about anything. I don’t think anyone creates art with the intention of achieving some kind of ‘true individualism’, but Lanza gets pretty darn close with an album that essentially comes from nowhere, completely and competently controls the space and time in which you’re listening to it, and then leaves with a very polite farewell.

As my father would say, “No fuss, no muss.”

The only snack that’s both sugary and nutritious, Jessy Lanza’s All the Time is The Best Album of 2020 to the degree that there might as well not even be runners up.

Conclusions:

• 2020 was an abysmal year for music, probably the second worst of the twenty-first century so far.
• Pop music will begin losing credibility as ‘hyper-pop’ artists are assumed to be ‘more legitimate’ musicians, resulting in yet another stupid fracturing of the largest genre on the basis of pretension and insecurity.
• Music composition, recording, and distribution are now democratized to such an extent that the 2020s will be defined by a few of the best works in a century and some of the worst art that has ever been created. It will be almost impossible to tell the difference, as any sense of artistic merit will be lost in order to preserve everyone’s ‘right’ to make music. This is neither good nor bad, but a very annoying reality.
• If you’d like to see the full list and listen to the best track from each record, click here for the Spotify playlist (The Microphones and John Zorn aren’t on Spotify, but sit at numbers 12 and 206 respectively). They’re listed in order of rank but I’d recommend clicking shuffle and listening to them blindly. Find out what you like and make your own list; it’d make me happy if you made yourself a bit happier with a new musical discovery and a deepened sense of your own musical preferences.
• Follow me on Spotify and I’ll make you playlists and we can talk about the three good albums that come out next year and the three hundred that make us wish human beings were never born with ears to begin with.

I hope you and your family are safe and have a wonderful new year; may fate have mercy and only burden us with a single Taylor Swift album, if any.

See you next year.