50 Favorite Albums of 2020
From bolt cutters and folklore to prayers and written testimonies
Presented without further ado and in alphabetical order by album:
After the disappointment of 2016’s Starboy, I was pleasantly surprised to fall in love with the synth-y, late-night-drive-ready goodness of The Weeknd’s After Hours. “Blinding Lights” is simply a jam and was the best-performing song of the year for good reason. Meanwhile, songs like “Hardest To Love” and “Scared To Live” highlight Abel’s penchant for gorgeous melodies and introspective self-exploration.
The Unforgettables: “Blinding Lights,” “Hardest To Love,” “In Your Eyes”
Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist - Alfredo
Freddie Gibbs was the rapper of the year. He just never misses. His flow and rhyme schemes are impeccable. Combine that with the dusty, cocaine-crusted luxury beats from legendary producer The Alchemist, and Alfredo is an instant classic.
The Unforgettables: “Something To Rap About,” “Scottie Beam,” “Frank Lucas”
Open Mike Eagle - Anime, Trauma and Divorce
The Unforgettables: “The Black Mirror Episode,” “Wtf Is Self Care,” “Bucciarati”
Sufjan Stevens - The Ascension
The Ascension, like much of Sufjan’s work, is a piece of literature. I will be returning to it for years to mine its truths and allow the music to wash over me. This year, The Ascension offered me a place to lament our country’s brokenness, to see myself in lines like “by living for myself / I was living for unrest,” and to pray and beg God, “don’t do to me what you did to America.” I didn’t know a prayer of nine words could so simply say so much.
The Unforgettables: “The Ascension,” “America,” “Video Game”
Future Islands - As Long As You Are
The Unforgettables: “Thrill,” “Hit the Coast,” “For Sure”
On his second record, the Stratford, London rapper-singer J Hus seamlessly synthesizes Afrobeats, reggae, soul, R&B, grime, and hip-hop into a unique expression of danceable music. Every rap is crisp; every hook is an earworm; every song is plotted. As J Hus weaves together introspection and playfulness, gritty rap and gorgeous melody, it becomes clear his greatest strength is balance. Hus never sacrifices one idea for another. Nor does he tonally ping pong back and forth as many pop records are known to do. On Big Conspiracy, J invites us along for his personal journey from fear and paranoia to an embrace of hope—a journey where hard times are around every corner, yet he chooses to dance in spite of them.
Read more of my thoughts at DJBooth.
The Unforgettables: “Love, Peace, and Prosperity,” “Fight For Your Right,” “Big Conspiracy”
Bonny Light Horseman - Bonny Light Horseman
The Unforgettables: “The Roving,” “10,000 Miles,” “Deep In Love”
In 2020, we needed music that reminded us that it’s OK not to be OK. Sometimes the world tries to shove a balloon in our hand or a tiara on our head and tell us to be happy despite needing to sit alone at the party on the edge of tears. Chicagoan Nnamdi Ogbonnaya meets us in that scene with a gorgeous blend of experimental pop that borrows equally from hip-hop realism, lush jazz improvisation, and candid bedroom rock confessionalism to remind us to never waste a moment.
The Unforgettables: “Wasted,” “Semantics,” “It’s OK”
Tré Burt - Caught It From the Rye
On his debut album Caught It From The Rye, Sacramento-based folk artist Tré Burt sings with the authority of someone who has committed Woody Guthrie’s Dust Bowl Ballads to memory. “Make amends, tell your childhood friend they were something to you / ‘Cause it gets dark, and when it’s so dark you gonna wish for a light or two,” Burt exhorts on the album’s opener.
Burt is unafraid of darkness: on “Undead God of War,” he grimly concludes, “Mother Nature, I guess she caters/ To those with white skin/ I don’t feel well anymore / To darkness I’m returnin’.” The world according to Burt is harsh, unwelcoming, and in need of change. Until that change comes, however, he offers this honest collection of “prison tunes to pass the time.”
Read more of my thoughts on this record and other Oh Boy Records releases at Bandcamp Daily.
The Unforgettables: “Undead God of War,” “What Good,” “Only Sorrow Remains”
I still grieve that I couldn’t appreciate Mac while he was still with us. However, I’m so thankful for this record, offered with care in the wake of his death, filled with some of Mac’s most tender songs and most prescient reflections on mortality. “Well, this is what it look like right before you fall / Stumblin' around, you've been guessing your direction / Next step, you can't see at all,” he sings on the title track. If 2020 has taught me anything, it’s that there is absolutely no visibility of the next step.
If 2020 has taught me anything else, it’s that we have to be OK with not being OK, something Mac reminds us of on “Good News.” Over some of the most beautiful, soulful instrumentals Mac has ever encountered, he invites us to reflect on ourselves, to take one day at a time, to not be afraid, and to be a source of peace, love, and comfort for each other.
The Unforgettables: “Woods,” “Blue World,” “Good News”
The Unforgettables: “yellow is the color of her eyes,” “circle the drain,” “royal screw up”
I’m no aficionado of reggaetón, música urbana, or Latin pop, but J Balvin’s Colores has made me smile all year. Nothing about 2020 has felt like a party, save for Balvin’s vibrant burst of melody and rhythm here. Sky Rompiendo’s production (aided by the likes of Diplo and DJ Snake) is an absolute oasis.
The Unforgettables: “Rojo,” “Morado,” “Gris”
I’m always a sucker for a good concept album. Brooklyn rapper Kaseem “Ka” Ryan makes good concept albums. This time around, his record centers around the biblical story of Cain, the first perpetrator of violence on Earth, and traces a line from its themes—exile, generational sin, justice—to his experiences in modern-day Brooklyn. In the end, though, love conquers.
The Unforgettables: “I Love (Mimi, Moms, Kev),” “Sins of the Father,” “Patron Saints”
Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters
I’m not familiar enough with Apple’s discography and career, but a perfect 10 rating from Pitchfork (the first in 10 years) and near-universal critical acclaim caught my attention. Fetch the Bolt Cutters does not disappoint. Its raw, earthy rhythms and avant-garde tangents are captivating at every turn. From beginning to end, Apple’s fifth album is filled with drama and everything unexpected. Just look at the credited instruments. Joining Apple’s wonderful piano is everything from Spencer Maggart’s “soft shoe stomp” to myriad percussive instruments including chairs and a metal butterfly to the “backing barks, collar jangles, and thrashing” of a handful of dogs. Over this homemade symphony, Apple breaks free from the patriarchy with a wink, a smile, and a commanding presence.
The Unforgettables: “Fetch the Bolt Cutters,” “Ladies,” “Shameika”
folklore is the Taylor Swift record I’ve been waiting for since 1989. It’s the one where she decided to clear every doubt that she belongs in the greatest songwriters of the century discussion. Gone are her worst pop impulses (see “Me!”), here you’ll only find sharp lyricism and quarantine-ready minimalism courtesy of essential collaborators Aaron Dessner, Justin Vernon, and Jack Antonoff. I’ve worn folklore like a favorite cardigan for the entirety of the fall and winter, and don’t expect that to end soon. I just hope evermore breaks in a little more as time goes on.
The Unforgettables: “invisible string,” “the last great american dynasty,” “epiphany”
One of the most aptly-titled records of the year, Dua Lipa’s sophomore album is a vortex of era-bending dance pop at once drawing from ‘90s Europop, disco, Nile Rodgers-inspired funk, and the euphoric synth-pop of the ‘80s. You’ll hear interpolations of INXS (“Break My Heart”) and rich pop atmospheres reminiscent of Michael Jackson or Peter Gabriel. But for all the nostalgic Easter eggs within, Dua Lipa never crosses into nostalgia worship. She respects the past enough to morph it into something new, and every second is a blast.
The Unforgettables: “Love Again,” “Break My Heart,” “Physical”
Bill Callahan is a traveling poet riding on the dusty winds of the Western deserts, and boy, does he have stories to tell. The opening track of Gold Record, “Pigeons,” is a perfect (I don’t use that word lightly) song told from the perspective of a limo driver for two newlyweds. When they ask his advice, he responds, “When you are married, you're married to the whole wide world / The rich, the poor / The sick and the well.” I’m still puzzling that one out, but Bill Callahan makes me want to love people better.
The Unforgettables: “Pigeons,” “The Mackenzies,” “35”
The phrase “light as a feather” is still too cumbersome for Moses Sumney’s voice. No, his falsettoed vocal performances somersault entirely unhindered by gravity, like a beam of light dancing across textured glass or hitting a disco ball and scattering polka dots of brilliance across Sumney’s musical landscape. It’s truly unforgettable.
The Unforgettables: “Me in 20 Years,” “Virile,” “In Bloom”
Charli XCX - how i’m feeling now
The Unforgettables: “forever,” “claws,” “7 years”
Cave’s stripped-down performance here, alone in an empty Alexandra Palace, serves as a perfect primer for his rich catalog and highlights the spiritual thread that weaves its way through every bit of his songwriting.
The Unforgettables: “Waiting For You,” “Jubilee Street,” “Higgs Boson Blues”
The Killers - Imploding the Mirage
Imploding the Mirage carries the hope of a future beyond pandemics, racial injustices, pain, and everything else 2020 has given us. Here, the Killers are energized to keep running and keep striving, to hold on to the people they love and brace for the blowback, to strike out sometimes while swinging for a home run. Like Flowers sings, “It’s some kind of sin to live your whole life on a might’ve-been.” It’s a sin The Killers can never be accused of committing, and that’s worth celebrating.
Read more of my thoughts at Consequence of Sound.
The Unforgettables: “When the Dreams Run Dry,” “My Own Soul’s Warning,” “Imploding the Mirage”
I didn't know I needed an electronic cover of Radiohead’s “Arpeggi,” but Owens’ rendition is a perfect opener to her synth-laden 2020 record, my favorite electronic record of the year. There’s healing in Owens’ production, highlighted in her meditative John Cale collaboration “Corner of My Sky” which repeats the refrain, “The rain, the rain, the rain / Thank God, the rain.”
The Unforgettables: “Jeanette,” “Corner of My Sky,” “Re-Wild”
Quelle Chris & Chris Keys - Innocent Country 2
Quelle Chris couldn’t have imagined the world he’d release Innocent Country 2 into when he and Chris Keys recorded it (or maybe he could have). Released toward the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, IC2 was a record I desperately needed. At a time of incredible societal anxiety, Chris told me over the phone, “There are still ways to find peace. There could be lights at the end of the tunnel that coexists with the darkness.” This is the thesis of his newest record.
Over expertly composed jazz instrumentals (almost entirely performed by Chris Keys), Chris celebrates black life, hard work, and hopes for a bright future. At the album’s peak, QC collaborator Big Sen offers an inspired outro to “Mirage” that should inspire anyone to go out and create something beautiful:
The movies we make are largely dystopian, post-apocalyptic. I think we all just trying to make sense of it somehow. And that's cool. Sometimes, it just be them seasons. Predatory capitalism. And all the -isms, you know what I'm saying? And err'ybody's fed up. And people don't know what to do, so we make our art and art is beautiful. But art is also the truth.
The Unforgettables: “Mirage,” “Grease From the Elbows,” “Make It Better”
The Unforgettables: “Dragonball Durag,” “Fair Chance,” “Black Qualls”
Lianne La Havas - Lianne La Havas
I didn’t come around to Lianne La Havas until late in the year, but she quickly became one of my favorite vocalists of 2020. La Havas is a powerhouse who packs a punch of emotion into everything she says. “Bittersweet summer rain / I’m born again,” she sings on the album’s opening track with a freedom in her voice that is simply infectious.
The Unforgettables: “Bittersweet,” “Weird Fishes,” “Can’t Fight”
The Microphones - The Microphones in 2020
Nobody makes music like Phil Elverum. I was first introduced to him via his other project, Mount Eerie, whose 2017 album A Crow Looked At Me is the most devastating exploration of grief I’ve ever experienced. On Microphones in 2020, Elverum continues in his mode of memoir rock. Over one extended 40-plus minute song, Elverum considers how he’s compartmentalized his history instead of embracing each moment and finding meaning in the whole of his story.
The Unforgettables: “The Microphones in 2020”
The Unforgettables: “Living Room,” “Neon Skyline,” “Try Again”
Crack Cloud started as a project focused on its members’ recovery from various addictions and mental health struggles, and their music carries every bit of that goal’s urgent energy. From opening track “Post Truth (Birth of a Nation)” with its Talking Heads-Arcade Fire punk fusion to “The Next Fix” which carries a rap-like flow, Pain Olympics is over the top, and that’s exactly what makes it great.
The Unforgettables: “Ouster Stew,” “Post Truth (Birth of a Nation),” “The Next Fix”
John Mark McMillan - Peopled With Dreams
Save for maybe Jason Isbell, no other songwriter’s lyrics have echoed my head as much as McMillan’s honest prayer:
So shall I plant sequoias
And revel in the soil
Of a crop I know I'll never live to reap?
Then sow my body to my Maker
And my heart unto my savior
And spread me on the road, the rocks, and the weeds
The Unforgettables: “The Road, The Rocks, and the Weeds,” “Pilgrim,” “Juggernaut”
Hayley Williams - Petals For Armor
No other artist has traced my personal transition from pre-teen to adult quite as closely as Paramore. My family uprooted and moved to Franklin, Tennessee two years after Williams sang about it on Paramore's debut record. The opening line "When we get home, I know we won't be home at all" reminds me of the loneliness I felt in that season with each listen. The pop-punk angst of Riot! was the soundtrack to my teen years; "Playing God" from Brand New Eyes was my first official break-up song; "Ain't It Fun" put words to the strange transition of college and adult life; and After Laughter blew my mind with its maturity (a perfect move away from their pop-punk past).
Williams is on her own this time, offering a shattered window view into her simmering post-marriage wreckage. Her whispers are violent; her rage—groovy. On Petals For Armor, Williams miraculously marries weightless fun with emotional gravity, and the result is glorious.
The Unforgettables: “Simmer,” “Dead Horse,” “Over Yet”
Westside Gunn - Pray For Paris
The Unforgettables: “327,” “$500 Ounces,” “George Bondo”
This rookie Louisville rapper has just the bounciest flow, and I love it. Every word out of his mouth is melodic gold. Take for example the excessive line on “Half a Milli,” “The choppa go dah-dah-dah-dah-dah, dah-dah-dah, dah-dah-dah-dah,” which shouldn’t work, right? Wrong. It’s obscenely catchy. 2K isn’t all style though. His hustle and love for family keep me coming back for inspiration.
The Unforgettables: “Old Soul,” “Half a Milli,” “Old Streets”
Boldy James & the Alchemist - The Price of Tea In China
The Unforgettables: “Surf & Turf,” “Giant Slide,” “Scrape the Bowl”
The chaotic, apocalyptic conclusion to closing song “I Know the End” is the most appropriate soundtrack to 2020 I’ve heard. I won’t try to describe it. It must be experienced. But in the midst of apocalypse, it’s the moments like “ICU” where Bridgers finds unlikely hope in the face of love. The end may be near, but the small moments, the people we love are still here. “Let the dystopian morning light pour in.”
The Unforgettables: “I Know the End,” “ICU,” “Kyoto”
Stove God Cooks - Reasonable Drought
The Unforgettables: “Rolls Royce Break Lights,” “Bread of Life,” “Money Puddles”
Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit - Reunions
Though I’ve thought this internally for some time, I had shied away from calling Jason Isbell the modern-day Springsteen (no disrespect to Springsteen, he’s still going strong). Reunions shattered my inhibitions. The Alabama storyteller, guitarist, and singer (in that order) has been at the forefront of an alternative lane of country music for about a decade. It’s about time he receives the widespread acclaim he deserves.
On Reunions, Isbell offers a timely and empowering mantra for 2020: “Be afraid, be very afraid/ But do it anyway.” Nothing about this year has been easy, but this phrase is a battle cry strong enough to stand against the giants we face. What makes Reunions and Isbell special, however, is not that he can write a memorable motto. It’s that he exemplifies it through every lyric, vulnerably offering his experiences fighting alcoholism, loneliness, and a struggling marriage. It’s an important reminder to stand with those who struggle, grieve with those who grieve, and rejoice with those who rejoice.
Essential tracks: “Be Afraid,” “Overseas,” “River”
Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy Ways
Just listen to “Murder Most Foul.” Do it already.
The Unforgettables: “Murder Most Foul,” “I Contain Multitudes,” “False Prophet”
The chemistry between MCs El-P and Killer Mike is among the best in hip-hop history. They don’t just feed off each other’s momentum, they propel each other into the stratosphere with sharp raps and righteous anger as they chant, “Look at all these slavemasters posing on your dollar.” For all the album’s highlights, I will never forget hearing this verse just eight days after the death of George Floyd:
They promise education, but really they give you tests and scores
And they predictin' prison population by who scoring the lowest
And usually the lowest scores the poorest and they look like me
And every day on the evening news, they feed you fear for free
And you so numb, you watch the cops choke out a man like me
Until my voice goes from a shriek to whisper, "I can't breathe"
The Unforgettables: “Walking in the Snow,” “JU$T,” “Ooh La La”
The Unforgettables: “Ramesses II,” “Bitter Cassava,” “King Tubby”
Kevin Parker’s love for hip-hop, sampling in particular, informs the very building blocks of his music, as he told The New York Times: “You can have all this music that’s of all different types coming together, and if you can say something over the top of that that’s meaningful, and is coming from the same person as the rest of it, it will join it together. And people will never even realize that it’s different eras of music coming together.” This philosophy oozes out of The Slow Rush, a record that could only be developed by a determined crate-digger.
The Slow Rush is as much about moving forward as it is lamenting the past. “Does it help to get lost in yesterday?” Parker asks in the chorus of “Lost in Yesterday”. He answers his own question with infectious, bass-driven grooves (the most memorable musical moment of the record), reminding us to keep dancing, unhindered by past pain. For someone so steeped in sonic nostalgia, Parker is self-aware enough to recognize reliving the past with rose-colored vision, while perhaps comfortable, isn’t always a boon to growth.
Read more of my thoughts at Consequence of Sound
The Unforgettables: “On Track,” “Lost In Yesterday,” “Posthumous Forgiveness”
Laura Marling - Song For Our Daughter
The Unforgettables: “For You,” “Only the Strong,” “Blow By Blow”
This is one of the most beautiful, delicate collections of songs I’ve ever encountered. I had written off Big Thief (and lead singer Lenker) as one of those groups everyone loves, but I just don’t get whatsoever. That changed this year dramatically. songs is a delight at every turn, and I am happy to continually get caught in its tender clutch.
The Unforgettables: “anything,” “not a lot, just forever,” “two reverse”
Chris Stapleton - Starting Over
If I could steal anybody’s voice, it’d be this man right here. He carries the soul of Sam Cooke and Otis Redding and filters it through the grit of a seasoned southern rocker. Starting Over is a tearjerker. “Maggie’s Song” tells the story of a dead dog in the style of The Band’s “The Weight.” “Cold” is a classic heartbreak ballad executed to perfection. But at the heart of the record is a lament for a Nashville that once was—a Nashville that Stapleton’s seen change both physically and philosophically and is ready to leave behind.
The Unforgettables: “Nashville TN,” “Devil Always Made Me Think Twice,” “Starting Over”
Jeff Parker - Suite For Max Brown
A tribute to the jazz multi-instrumentalist’s mother, Suite For Max Brown is simply the best jazz record I’ve heard this year (again, I’m not a jazz aficionado, a fact that irks me to no end). Parker shows great emotional range throughout, blistering through a fiery guitar solo on “Build a Nest,” where he also plays every other instrument, then turning around and playing beautiful, spare notes on the gorgeous “After the Rain.”
The Unforgettables: “After the Rain,” “Build a Nest,” “Fusion Swirl”
Denzel Curry & Kenny Beats - UNLOCKED
There’s a scene from Tarentino’s Once Upon a Time In Hollywood (which I’m going to butcher off the top of my head) where Rick Dalton (Leonardo Dicaprio) is set to play the mustachioed villain of TV western Lancer. Typically a slick, clean cut actor, Dalton expresses worry to his director that the audience won’t recognize him in his costume, makeup, and aggressive facial hair. The director emphatically responds, “Exactly! That’s the point!”
Denzel Curry would agree with Dalton’s director. He bends and twists his voice like a contortionist—sometimes growling, other times singing melodiously; sometimes pitched up to chipmunk levels, other times down to cartoon monster levels. Zel’s thrillingly cartoonish energy is elevated on UNLOCKED by producer Kenny Beats’ absurdist beats and samples. It’s the most fun 18 minutes you’ll have in 2020.
The Unforgettables: “Take_it_Back_v2,” “DIET_,” “So.Incredible.pkg”
The Unforgettables: “Brightest Star,” “Rae,” “Walking Proof”
Named after (one of) the meteorological event that generated high winds in Nashville this spring, Wake Low have created hope in the midst of devastation. Their particular blend of indie rock is big, yet personable, carrying hints of both the Killers and Phoebe Bridgers. An impressive debut, one I return to when I need reminding that the horizon is a little brighter than yesterday.
The Unforgettables: “Green Light,” “How Did We Get Here,” “Morning Star”
Colter Wall - Western Swing & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs
The key to a good covers record is recontextualization, whether that’s through a dramatic overhaul of the music that gives birth to new emotion to the lyrics or an introduction to a song or style that the listener wouldn’t otherwise easily encounter in the present day. Canadian cowboy Colter Wall takes the latter approach here, re-introducing western classics by Marty Robbins, Lewis Pederson, and others with care. Pairs perfectly with a whiskey neat and Red Dead Redemption 2.
The Unforgettables: “Big Iron,” “Diamond Joe,” “High & Mighty”
HAIM - Women In Music, Pt. III
The Unforgettables: “The Steps,” “I’ve Been Down,” “Leaning On You”
Jay Electronica - A Written Testimony
It’s been a long, long time coming, but Jay Electronica’s debut album is finally here a decade later. While some have complained that A Written Testimony didn’t feature enough Jay Elec (especially after waiting so long), his interplay with Jay-Z on this record is absolutely phenomenal. Both are in prime form as they offer their hip-hop sermon based on the teachings of Elijah Muhammad. The pen game is unmatched, and I’ll leave it at that, offering instead a snippet from the end of “Fruits of the Spirit”:
Swing low sweet chariot, my train is on schedule
But I had to take the Underground Railroad like Harriet
Weave the whole industry, every jab I've parried it
My cross I carried it
My crown of thorns to cavalry from Nazareth
The orbit was too wide to calculate the azimuth
The journey was technically unexplainable, hazardous
Rise, young gods, all paths lead to Lazarus
The dry bones that lifted up from the valley dust
The prayers of the slaves are the wings that carry us
A field full of dreams is where they tried to bury us
The Unforgettables: “Fruits of the Spirit,” “Ghost of Soulja Slim,” “Universal Soldier”
Oh! And a bonus, my favorite EPs of the year:
Christine and the Queens - La vita nuova
Conway the Machine & The Alchemist - LULU
Kurt Vile - Speed, Sound, Lonely KV
Little Simz - Drop 6
Obongjayar - Which Way Is Forward?
Skye Peterson - Searching For Us
Susanne Sundfor - Self Portrait Original Soundtrack