Howdy!
Below are my thirty favorite albums of the year followed by my thirty favorite songs of the year along with some honorable mentions for each because I struggled this year more than most to narrow my lists down to my usual thirty. For my favorite songs of the year, I chose to not include too many songs that were already listed on my favorite albums of the year in order to make room for other songs I feel very strongly about. There are exceptions, as a couple of my very favorite songs happen to be from some of my favorite albums.
I hope you enjoy going through this list as much as I’ve enjoyed making it!
HONORABLE MENTIONS!
100 gecs – 1000 gecs and The Tree of Clues
Bad Bunny – YHLQMDLG
Bill Callahan – Gold Record
illuminati hotties – FREE I.H: This Is Not the One You’ve Been
The Koreatown Oddity – Little Dominiques Nosebleed
Poppy – I Disagree
R.A.P. Ferreira – Purple Moonlight Pages
Rico Nasty – Nightmare Vacation
Shygirl – ALIAS
Taylor Swift – Evermore
30
Jessy Lanza
All the Time
I’m so into Jessy Lanza’s whole vibe. There’s nothing quite like it. Her lyrics are candidly sentimental and unsubtle to the point of being pretty cheesy and they match so well with her slow, chill synths. I love it so much. I think I may have this album ranked too low because I’m certain I’ll be listening to it years from now.
“Anyone Around”
“Over and Over”
“Lick In Heaven”
29
Julianna Barwick
Healing is a Miracle
“In Light” (ft. Jónsi)
“Oh, Memory” (ft. Mary Lattimore)
“Healing is a Miracle”
I’m nowhere near articulate enough nor well-versed in how music is made to write anything worthwhile about Healing is a Miracle, but it’s unquestionably the most absorbing, beautiful choral album I’ve heard in quite a while. Julianna Barwick’s best.
28
Sarah Davachi
Cantus, Descant
I’m a sucker for historical junk even when it comes to music. This album was created using six different organs, including a reproduced Renaissance-era (1479) pipe organ. Completely engrossing despite being so minimalist and soft. The loneliest album I heard all year.
“The Pelican”
“Gold Upon White”
“Still Lives”
27
Sweeping Promises
Hunger for a Way Out
Hunger for a Way Out feels like it could have been released anywhere between 1970 and now but manages to feel completely fresh regardless. This exact type of lo-fi indie pop I’m into — raw, loud, and with some pretty rad bass lines.
“Hunger for a Way Out”
“Cross Me Out”
“An Appetite”
26
Cindy Lee
What’s Tonight to Eternity
One of the year’s early standouts and one that I keep coming back to. Infectious 60s girl-group style melodies buried behind lo-fi experimentation. Patrick Flegel’s best album since Women’s Public Strain.
“Heavy Metal”
“What’s Tonight to Eternity”
“Just for Loving You I Pay the Price”
25
Eartheater
Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin
Excuse the jarring album cover and give this one a shot if you haven’t already. It’s undoubtedly a unique album, but it’s not as bizarre and unapproachable as the cover might make you expect. Otherworldly orchestral folk(?) music with some of the most beautiful and arresting vocals I’ve heard in quite some time. “How to Fight” is unreal.
“Faith Consuming Hope”
“How to Fight”
“Volcano”
24
Jeff Rosenstock
NO DREAM
“I’ve been told for most my life
“Try to see the other side”
By people who have never tried
To see the other side”
I’ve always really enjoyed Jeff Rosenstock’s brand of angry and loud pop punk anthems, but in the past that enjoyment has extended to individual songs more than full albums. Maybe it is due in part to the “energy” of 2020, but something about No Dream really clicked for me in a way Rosenstock’s music hadn’t in years past, at least not fully. He manages to maintain a particular contagious energy throughout the album that keeps me coming back to it. This album, along with the release of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2, also makes me feel a strong desire to pick up skateboarding again despite being old and out-of-shape. I don’t know what that means, but it feels like it would be fun. I guess I’m kind of all over the place on this one.
And darnit, that silly metalcore breakdown halfway into “Scram!” is one of the most enjoyable musical moments of the year.
“Scram!”
“Old Crap”
“State Line”
23
Moor Mother & billy woods
BRASS
This album is only a couple weeks old, so it feels sort of weird including it, but it’s probably the most unique and experimental hip-hop album I heard all year. Moor Mother and billy woods have both released some excellent material on their own, but there’s something about this collaboration that just hits extremely well. This is one I’ll be listening to a lot in the near future.
“The Blues Remembers Everything the Country Forgot” (ft. Wolf Weston)
“Arkeology” (ft. ELUCID)
“Furies”
22
the Microphones
Microphones in 2020
Many, many years later
I heard “Freezing Moon” by Mayhem
And these words jumped out:
“The cemetery lights up again”
“Eternity opens”
And I say:
“Nothing stays the same
No one knows anything
Someone else lives in the house I used to live in
And soon it will be torn down or burn”
And who would even want to live in a prolonged stagnation?
I am older now and I no longer feel the same way
That I did even five seconds ago
Watch me thrash around
And try to gracefully allow the past to hang
Like: “No big deal”
Another difficult one that I was unsure whether to add or not. This is a release I’ve experienced (by listening to it while watching the accompanying video) only once and I don’t know if I will again for quite some time. Phil Elverum is nearly untouchable as a writer and his writing here in this 44-minute long song is just so darn good and compelling. I loved this a lot.
21
DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ
Charmed
This is a 3-hour house-pop(?) “experience.” It’s over-long, it’s cheesy, it’s full of so many absolutely silly samples that don’t always work, but man, this is rad as heck and it makes me unabashedly happy. This is the album released this year that I’ve had the most fun with by far.
“Charmed”
“Charmed Life”
“End of an Era”
20
Chris Stapleton
Starting Over
My favorite country music album released this year without question. Not every song hits, but the ones that do hit hard. Some awesome writing, a ton of variety, and Chris Stapleton’s unique and excellent voice made this one I keep coming back to this past month. Feels like an excellent cold weather album.
“Starting Over”
“Cold”
“You Should Probably Leave”
19
Helena Deland
Someone New
Incredible songwriting and singing and the perfect follow up to her Altogether Unaccompanied releases a couple years ago. This was among my most anticipated albums this year and it didn’t disappoint at all. Nearly flawless.
“Someone New”
“Comfort, Edge”
“Truth Nugget”
18
Gia Margaret
Mia Gargaret
Following illness and exhaustion that left her unable to sing for almost half a year, Gia Margaret created this synthesizer-led masterpiece as a form of comfort and to help her “hold onto (her) identity as a music maker” (from her Bandcamp page). This album brought a genuine warmth to the year for me and as the weather gets colder, I’ve found myself listening to this a lot. “body” is the major highlight for me. It’s really wonderful.
17
Chloe x Halle
Ungodly Hour
Some really phenomenal 90s-style female-group R&B. It was hard to narrow my highlights to the three listed below as there are so many on here. There isn’t a bad song on here.
16
Jessie Ware
What’s Your Pleasure?
Speaking of an album that doesn’t have a bad song, Jessie Ware’s What’s Your Pleasure? is flawless. I’m a sucker for pop that can make disco work and this is easily the most effective album that has done so that I’ve heard. The first four songs are quite possibly the strongest stretch of songs from any album this year. “Spotlight” is untouchable and “Ooh La La” makes me want to dance (embarrassingly and poorly) every single time I hear it.
“Spotlight”
“Ooh La La”
“Soul Control”
15
clipping.
Visions of Bodies Being Burned
The first clipping. album that I’ve latched onto fully. They took the horror-influenced hip-hop from last year’s There Existed an Addiction to Blood and perfected it. This might be a little hyperbolic, but this might have my favorite production in a hip-hop release since Shabazz Palace’s Black Up (2011). It’s incredibly unique and fun to listen to.
“Enlacing”
“Pain Everyday” (ft. Michael Esposito)
“’96 Neve Campbell” (ft. Cam & China)
14
Okkyung Lee
Yeo-Neun
I know so little about classical music, particularly modern classical music. Really, that extends to most styles of music. I’m no musician. I tend to just like what makes me feel something, and this album excels at that. At risk of sounding like someone staring at a painting and trying to discern its meaning, I’ll just say this: it’s a really nice album with some really pretty (and, at times, entrancingly chaotic) compositions.
“another old story (옛날이야기)”
“here we are (once again)”
“one bright lazy sunday afternoon (you whispered that name)”
13
Zora Jones
Ten Billion Angels
If there’s a style of music that I have an even harder time than classical music to write about it’s any style of electronic music. I don’t really know what this is or how to define it, but goodness gracious it’s compelling and full of some genuine bangers. The second half of “Low Orbit Ion Cannon” in particular blew me away the first time I heard it.
“Low Orbit Ion Cannon”
“Sister’s Blade”
“Melancholy Princess”
12
Special Interest
The Passion Of
Certain points of this year made me yearn for something loud and angry to listen to. The Passion Of is an album I keep coming back to for that very reason. There’s so much infectious, angry energy coming through the pounding, loud wall of sound on this album. Real good.
“Street Pulse Beat”
“With Love”
“All Tomorrow’s Carry”
11
Natalia Lafourcade
Un canto por México vol. 1
I’m sounding like a broken record with all my “I know nothing” blurbs, but that applies to Mexican folk music as well! This is an album that is intended to be a celebration of the many different styles of traditional Mexican folk music and boy is it fun to listen to. Natalia Lafourcade has an incredible voice. Her showing up for the first time at the near-halfway point of the first song (“El Balajú / Serenata Huasteca”) is one of the most memorable “woah, I love this” moments I had all year.
“El Balajú / Senrenata Huasteca” (ft. Los Cojolites)
“Veracruz”
“Para Qué Sufrir” (ft. Jorge Drexler)
10
Rina Sawayama
SAWAYAMA
The first time I heard Rina Sawayama sing alongside the sudden guitar solo in the opening song “Dynasty” I knew I was hooked. This album is so bombastic and varied and underappreciated. If it weren’t for a couple somewhat underwhelming songs near the end, this might have been my album of the year (and honestly was in that slot for a good chunk of the year). It’s really good.
09
Mary Lattimore
Silver Ladders
The perfect album for the moments of the year where something calming was needed. There’s some really exceptional variety here, between the beautiful, harp-led “Pine Trees”, the long drone-y “Til a Mermaid Drags You Under” and the calming harp-accompanied post-rock in “Sometimes He’s In My Dreams”. I don’t know. This writing is nonsense, but I really enjoyed this album a lot.
“Pine Trees”
“Til a Mermaid Drags You Under”
“Sometimes He’s In My Dreams”
08
Phoebe Bridgers
Punisher
What can be said about Phoebe Bridgers that hasn’t already been said? She’s exceptional and this album is basically perfect. The way her voice conveys emotion in “Kyoto” makes my insides twist all sorts of ways. I can’t handle it. This album is truly incredible and exceeds all the hype around it. This is another album I’ll undoubtedly be listening to for years.
“Kyoto”
“I Know the End”
“Moon Song”
07
Tkay Maidza
Last Year Was Weird, Vol. 2
Simply one of the best rappers around right now. There isn’t a bad song on this. This is another release that had been in my #1 slot for a bit. All these months later I am still kind of at a loss for words for it. “Grasshopper” is one of the hardest songs of the year. She is incredible.
“Shook”
“Awake” (ft. JPEGMAFIA)
“Grasshopper”
06
Oklou
Galore
It’s possible tracks 2-5 is my most-listened to section of an album all year. Props to Brent for introducing her to me via his mix earlier this year and Brendan for getting me to listen to the full album. No album, save for my #1, feels more like “my kinda thing” than this one. Really great.
“god’s chariots”
“unearth me”
“fall”
05
Kelly Lee Owens
Inner Song
My easy pick for most unappreciated album of the year and my easy pick for best album to drive around to as well. It’s such a perfect combination of dreamy pop and some of the best dance music I heard all year. I can’t think of anyone who commits to both styles so fully the way she does and it works so well.
04
Ichiko Aoba
Windswept Adan
The most beautiful album of the year. There’s a dense lushness to how she uses the many different instruments on here (including her voice) that combine to make this album a genuine joy to listen to. Full disclosure: I’m a sucker for xylophones.
“Pilgrimage”
“Parfum d’étoiles”
“Dawn in the Adan”
03
Jean Dawson
Pixel Bath
The best “Discover Weekly” recommendation Spotify has ever recommended to me. “Power Freaks” had me falling instantly in love with Jean Dawson’s particular brand of “genre-bending” and this instantly became my most anticipated album of the year at that point. It still somehow managed to exceed every expectation I had for it. The amount of variety throughout these thirteen tracks is ridiculous. There simply isn’t a dull moment on the entire thing. I honestly had no idea how to pick my three highlights from this album because the entire thing is just that good. This won’t be for everyone, but for those it hits for, it’ll hit hard.
“Power Freaks”
“06 Burst”
“Dummy”
02
Sault
Untitled (Black Is) & Untitled (Rise)
I’m trying not to sound hyperbolic, but I feel like no one is making music more pertinent and necessary and at such an unstoppable rate (four incredible albums in two years!) as Sault. On Juneteenth, weeks after the murder of George Floyd and in the midst of the protests that followed, Sault released Untitled (Black Is), an album that funnels sorrow and anger into a call to action against oppression and police brutality against black lives. Only a few months later, they released Untitled (Rise), a more upbeat album that focuses on empowerment and a celebration of black life and black music, while still maintaining the protest spirit of (Black Is). It feels like cheating to have two albums in this spot, but each album is equally incredible and each has such a distinct variety of styles. It feels like they belong together. These albums feel important and are full of some unbelievably incredible songs. Sault rules, these albums rule and are what I feel are the two best albums made this year without question.
Untitled (Black Is)
“Wildfires”
“Stop Dem”
“Why We Cry Why We Die”
Untitled (Rise)
“Street Fighter”
“Uncomfortable”
“Free”
01
Charli XCX
how i’m feeling now
While Sault’s two albums are what I consider the best albums of the year, Charli XCX’s how i’m feeling now is my favorite album of the year. It is the album I keep coming back to, over and over. It’s an album that perfects Charli XCX’s descent into “PC Music-style” pop, with continuing collaboration between her and producers like A. G. Cook and 100 gec’s Dylan Brady. Created in the midst of the “quarantine” many people experienced and continue to experience this year, this album encapsulates another side of 2020: the chaotic, lonely aspects brought on by the pandemic, one that somehow both exudes the craving of human interaction while also celebrating the joy (and messiness) that close relationships can bring. There isn’t a single moment of this album that I don’t completely love. Everything about it is 100% my jam.