Since 2020, I’ve been ranking and reviewing the top 5 albums - plus a fair few extras - according to users on rateyourmusic.com (think IMDB for music) from every year from 1960 to the present. If you want to know more, I wrote an introduction to the ‘challenge’ here. You can also read all the other entries I’ve written so far by heading to the lovely index page here.

Welcome to 2001, the year George W. Bush became president, 9/11 happened, John Prescott punched a protestor who threw an egg at him, and I entered year 9. We’re here for the music though right? Here’s what the nerds on rateyourmusic.com rated as the year’s top 5 albums:

#1 Björk - Vespertine
#2 The Microphones - The Glow Pt. 2
#3 Daft punk - Discovery
#4 The Strokes - Is This It
#5 Unwound - Leaves Turn Inside You

I’m also grabbing a bunch from further down the list:

#6 System of a Down - Toxicity
#7 Tool - Lateralus
#8 Converge - Jane Doe
#10 Aphex Twin - Druqks
#12 Radiohead - Amnesiac
#29 Aaliyah - Aaliyah
#35 Life Without Buildings - Any Other City

That’s plenty, off we go.

“Aaliyah is the third and final studio album by American singer Aaliyah. Aaliyah is described in critical commentaries as an album of R&B, neo soul, and dance-pop, while drawing on an array of other genres such as funk, hip-hop, alternative rock, electronica, and Latin music.” - Wikipedia

Aaliyah’s final album, before her tragic death in a plane accident the same year, is a solid, smooth and very listenable album that throws some interesting influences into its production. Lyrically I found it a little bland though.

Song Picks: We Need a Resolution, More than a Woman

6.5/10

“Discovery is the second studio album by the French electronic music duo Daft Punk. It marked a shift from the Chicago house of their first album, Homework, to a house style more heavily inspired by disco, post-disco, garage house, and R&B. Discovery is credited with influencing pop production over subsequent decades. In 2020, Rolling Stone included it at number 236 in its updated list of ‘The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time’.” - Wikipedia

There’s no doubt that Discovery has a few iconic tracks on it, One More Time is surely one of the most influential pieces of dance music ever, and even plenty of the lesser known stuff is very fun. However, for me, there’s a bit too much fluff on here for it to be a great album. Brilliant in parts, but inconsistent. Shoot me.

Song Picks: One More Time, Aerodynamic, Digital Love

6.5/10

“Leaves Turn Inside You is the seventh and final studio album by the American post-hardcore band Unwound. The album received critical acclaim from several music publications, both contemporarily and after its original release.” - Wikipedia

Unwound were to break up in a fairly messy manner 10 months after the release of this album, and it serves as a spectacular goodbye. I haven’t listened to the band’s other releases, which I’m told are much more noisy, but this one is often soft and undoubtedly pretty. For me it doesn’t quite pay off its 1 hour 17 minute run length though, and feels like it could have done with a bit more focus.

Song Picks: Look a Ghost, December

7.5/10

“Jane Doe is the fourth studio album by American metalcore band Converge. Although Jane Doe did not chart, it was a commercial breakthrough for the band and received immediate acclaim, with critics praising its poetic lyrics, dynamics, ferocity and production. It has since been listed as one of the greatest albums of the metalcore genre by various publications, and has developed a cult following, with the cover art becoming an icon of the band.” - Wikipedia

A chaotic, ferocious break-up album that doesn’t quite fit into any of metal’s many buckets. It has an insatiable punk energy which refuses to be bound to that genre’s conventions too. Essentially, it’s singular.

Song Picks: Concubine, Homewrecker

8.5/10

“Morning View is the fourth studio album by American rock band Incubus. Continuing the move away from nu metal, the album ranges widely from soft to hard rock sounds in the style of alternative rock. Morning View generally achieved critical praise and went double-platinum, making it the band's highest selling album.” - Wikipedia

Incubus was my favourite band from year 10 until the end of school, and much of that was due to this album (though Make Yourself and SCIENCE were also on regular rotation in my bedroom). Returning to it now, I think it holds up - Einziger’s riffs are pulverising, but it’s the way the band flow from smooth world music inspired breakdowns to heavier nu-metal that sets them apart from the decade’s plethora of nu metal bands. Jose Pasillas was my inspiration as a drummer growing up, and I still think he’s very underrated, with a musical style that goes beyond others in the genre and really helps to make the more ethereal breakdown sections work. Brandon Boyd’s lyrics are definitely the band’s weakness, as he has a tendency to throw in the odd clunker. His vocals also divide opinion, but I feel like they fit the band well, cutting through and adding a certain unhinged quality to stop everything sounding too smooth.

Overall, this has been a very fun revisit, and though I think it perhaps repeats its party-trick one too many times by the end, it’s still a very good album, and one that feels fresh in a genre that was getting a little stale at this point.

Song Picks: Circles, Wish You Were Here, Are You In?

8.5/10

“Vespertine is the fourth studio album by Icelandic recording artist Björk. Björk aspired to create an album with minimal and intricate electronic music to evoke an intimate and domestic feeling, in contrast with the louder styles of her previous studio album Homogenic. Lyrically, the album drew inspiration from Björk's new relationship with Matthew Barney, exploring themes related to sex, intimacy, eroticism, and love. Other lyrical sources include the poetry of E. E. Cummings and British playwright Sarah Kane's Crave. Vespertine received universal acclaim from music critics, with some considering it Björk's best album to date. The album appeared on several publications' lists of the best albums of 2001 and of the decade, and has been evaluated by many critics to be one of the best albums of all time.” - Wikipedia

The production on this is a gorgeous collage of softer, cloudy tones and sparkles. It feels like being transported to some sort of crystal palace (no, not that one) while a mysterious voice sings from some unreachable corner of it. Vocally, Bjork's style is as hypnotic and singular as always, but here it soars over much quieter arrangements, and the two feel somewhat juxtaposed. No bad thing, but to me her vocals work more when followed more closely by punchier arrangements.

Song Picks: Unison, Hidden Place, Undo

8.5/10

“Toxicity is the second studio album by the American heavy metal band System of a Down. Expanding on their 1998 eponymous debut album, Toxicity incorporates more melody, harmonies, and singing than the band's first album. Categorized primarily as alternative metal and nu metal, the album features elements of multiple genres, including folk, progressive rock, jazz, and Armenian and Greek music, including prominent use of instruments like the sitar, banjo, keyboards, and piano. It contains a wide array of political and non-political themes, such as mass incarceration, the CIA, the environment, police brutality, drug addiction, scientific reductionism, and groupies. Toxicity received highly positive ratings and reviews from critics, among them perfect ratings from AllMusic, Kerrang!, and Blabbermouth.net. Many critics praised the album's sound and innovation, and it ranked on multiple "best albums" lists.” - Wikipedia

I'm finally coming across an album I listened to when it came out. I loved this in Year 9 and I think it holds up now. Their ability to change a song's direction on a dime, and to pull huge roared crescendos out of parts that already sounded like crescendos is magical. The album’s eclectic influences help to give it a bunch of personality. Toxicity is unafraid to get political, it’s cerebral and technical, and it’s just so damn moshable. Pure adrenaline fuelled fun.

Song Picks: Chop Suey!, Toxicity, Forest, Science

8.5/10

“Amnesiac is the fifth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 30 May 2001 by EMI. It was recorded with the producer Nigel Godrich in the same sessions as Radiohead's previous album Kid A (2000). Radiohead split the work in two as they felt it was too dense for a double album. Amnesiac was named one of the year's best albums by numerous publications. It was nominated for the Mercury Prize and several Grammy Awards, winning for Best Recording Package for the special edition. "Pyramid Song" was named one of the best tracks of the decade by Rolling Stone, NME and Pitchfork, and Rolling Stone ranked Amnesiac number 320 in their 2012 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". - Wikipedia

I'm handing over this review to Stick Around co-host Michael Johnson. Here's his 2009 review of this on rateyourmusic.com, which I wholeheartedly agree with:

“This is a difficult record, to me. Took me a while to fully appreciate, then the glory of it came to the fore in the end. I seem to be in some sort of minority, at least generally, of people who adored Kid A from the first listen, but that didn't help me here. This album is way out there. I reject any suggestions that it sounds like a collection of rejected Kid A cuts though. It has its own appeal, and is only Kid A's poor little brother in the sense that any album juxtaposed with that triumph would be.”

SP (mine): Morning Bell / Amnesiac, Life In a Glasshouse, Pyramid Song

9/10

“Drukqs (stylised as drukQs) is the fifth studio album by the British electronic music artist and producer Richard D. James under the alias of Aphex Twin.It is a double album that includes a variety of contrasting styles, from meticulously programmed beats inspired by jungle and drum and bass, to classical-type piano and prepared piano, ambient, and electroacoustic pieces.

James released Drukqs to pre-empt a potential leak after he accidentally left an MP3 player containing his music on a plane. It received polarised reviews from critics: many dismissed it, focusing on its perceived lack of innovation and similarity to James's previous works, while some praised it as an accomplished work.” - Wikipedia

I love this. Maybe you need to be a hardcore Aphex Twin fan to feel like this doesn't push what he does forwards? To me, it's an insanely ambitious, calculated mess of an album that provides 1 hour and 40 minutes of edge of your seat entertainment. It sounds like every note and beat was laboured over with intent, yet it also feels like the spontaneous digital meltdown of a genius.

Song Picks: Avril 14th, Vordhosbn

9/10

“Is This It is the debut studio album by American rock band the Strokes. For their debut, the band strived to capture a simple sound that was not significantly enhanced in the studio. The album received widespread critical acclaim, with many critics praising it for its charisma and rhythm, which often referenced the works of 1970s garage rock bands. The release of the album is widely considered to be a watershed moment, and crucial in the reinvention of post-millennium guitar music. It has featured in several publications' lists of the best albums of the 2000s and of all time.’ - Wikipedia

The drums are rudimentary, the tempo is the same for most songs, and there's practically no dynamics; the quiet as fuzzy as the shouted. All these sound like criticisms, in reality though it means nothing distracts from the album's main strengths - which are Casablancas' ear for simple catchy melodies, the songwriting, and the catchy guitar interplay. The simple sound also creates a breezy vibe: one that doesn't rely on your emotional investment but is always a good time.

This is the album that most reminds me of school, but somehow makes me do it in a more objective and accepting way than other albums I liked at the time. The album feels wise somehow, Casablancas' shouts mature, the simple guitar riffs calculated. It's also packed with genuine bangers, though the last couple of tracks feel comparatively inconsequential, which perhaps holds me back from calling it a masterpiece.

Song Picks: Last Nite, New York City Cops

9/10

“Lateralus is the third studio album by the American rock band Tool. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling more than 555,200 copies in its first week of release.” - Wikipedia

This is the cultured choice for favourite nu metal album isn't it? Good. It's my favourite. Full of the crushing riffs you'd expect in the genre; peppered with a sophisticated selection of time signatures you wouldn't. The band makes the album’s complexity feel completely effortless, and it never feels showy for the sake of it. Every twist and turn makes it hit harder. It feels like the ultimate, mature refinement of a genre that defined the decade,

Song Picks: Parabola, Ticks & Leeches, Lateralus

9.5/10

2. Any Other City

Life Without Buildings

The Glasgow band made one album and then split when they all felt what they’d started for fun had become too serious. That one album was a masterpiece. Sue Tompkins’ vocals sound like nothing else, a kind of energetic spoken word that is as likely to break into a shout as it is a catchy melody. They sound spontaneous, and as full of life as any vocal I’ve heard.

The band backs her performances perfectly, with mathy, but never overly complex, arrangements that seem to bloom and swell with Tompkins’ emotions. Nothing feels pre-rehearsed, it all feels like it’s happening right now, for the one and only time, and you’re a lucky bastard to get to listen to it. Any Other City is an album that feels as free as a spontaneous dance through deserted city streets after a particularly good night out. It could only have been written by the type of people who would amicably break-up to follow their own artistic pursuits despite rising success - because this was never meant to be a long term thing.

Song Picks: Let’s Get Out, Juno, The Leanover, New Town

9.5/10

“The Glow Pt. 2 is the third studio album by American indie folk and indie rock project the Microphones. The album takes influences from numerous music genres such as black metal, ambient and avant-garde, as well as non-musical sources like the American drama television show Twin Peaks and primary member Phil Elverum's relationship to Khaela Maricich. Elverum was responsible for the album's production in its entirety.

Musically, The Glow Pt. 2 diverts from the band's previous studio release It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water, and features experimental production, alongside musical techniques and lyrics that often reference nature and the Pacific Northwest. An immediate critical success, it has since appeared in multiple rankings of the best albums of the 2000s, and is considered by many music critics to be the Microphones' best work and an important release in the lo-fi genre.” - Wikipedia

Elverlum's lyrics are uncomplicated and pretty, while the production jumps from discordant, to messy, to gorgeously melodic with the ease of a passing breeze. The album breathes with the pain and beauty of being human, or as Elverum puts it on the title track: 'my blood flows harshly'.

Elverum's seemingly off the cuff vocals, along with the completely unpredictable production and arrangements add to a feeling that this whole thing was never written, and has somehow always existed. How can something so bloody beautiful and groundbreaking feel so effortless?

When an album is hard to describe, it's usually a good thing, and that's the case here. I'm not sure what box it belongs in other than the one labelled 'one of a kind masterpieces'.

Song Picks: I Want Wind to Blow, The Glow Pt 2, The Moon

10/10

While I decide on my favourite album from every year in the past in this challenge, I’m also going to keep track of my favourite albums in years as I live them. This will be done a little differently to my other lists, mainly in that there’ll be more albums and less writing, but I’ll still review and include the top 10 albums according to rateyourmusic.com’s users for at least some consistency. I’ll also be sure to include any of the most critically well received albums, by grabbing the top rated albums from albumoftheyear.org; any that come high in my favourite online music reviewers’ estimations that aren’t already included; as well as, of course, anything else that I’ve enjoyed. Essentially, we should have a pretty solid list of what’s had the most buzz in 2020, both from critics’ and more general listeners’ perspectives.

Well 2020 was a year wasn’t it? But let’s not talk about all that, let’s focus on the music. So before we go onto the full list, here’s what our lovely rateyourmusic.com users rated as their top 10 albums of 2020:

#1 The Microphones - Microphones in 2020
#2 Ichiko Aoba - WIndswept Adan
#3 Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters
#4 Clipping - Visions of Bodies Being Burned
#5 Jessie Ware - What’s Your Pleasure?
#6 DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ - Charmed
#7 Moor Mother & Billy Woods - Brass
#8 Run the Jewels - RTJ4
#9 Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin Kynsi
#10 Charli XCX - How I’m Feeling Now

Those ten will be thrown into the mixer with 27 others. Let’s see who comes out the victor shall we?

What'sPleasure.jpg — 37. What’s Your Pleasure?

Jessie Ware

Undeniably well written and produced, and with plenty of catchy songs. It just didn’t feel exciting enough to keep me interested for its over 50 minute duration, often losing my attention by the final third.

Song Picks: Soul Control

6.5/10

Perhaps a little twee, but this is refreshingly positive, vocal led electronic music to warm the soul.

SP: What If, Ring, Free

7/10

Visionsofbodiesbiengburned — 35. Visions of Bodies Being Burned

clipping.

Clipping’s follow up and second part to 2019’s There Existed an Addiction to Blood creates another memorable horrorscape, which at times is more clever than affecting. You’ll be kept on your toes for the album’s 52 minute length, which features some truly memorable, at times cataclysmic moments (that pounding percussion on Something Underneath for example), but at times its doors are so meticulously crafted and complex it can be hard to work out how to get in.

Song Pick: Say the Name, Something Underneath

7/10

**34. Charmed**

**DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ**

A three hour trip through a gently euphoric land of colourful sweets and sherbet. At times unflinchingly cheesy and repetitive, but always charming. A chilled trance hug that’ll help replace that sad mist with a happier, yet equally unclear one.

Song PIcks: Pool Party, I Want You 2 Know, How Did You Know?, Charmed Life

7/10

Fleet Foxes’ fourth album is as pleasant and calming as the lapping of the sea on your toes at the beach. It blends into the background among some of the year’s other releases as it’s not the most memorable record, but there is an inescapable warmth to the sound and songwriting here.

Song Picks - Wading in the Waist-High Water, I’m Not My Season, Quiet Air/Gioia

7/10

The Strokes are back with their most enjoyable record for a while. Those warm fuzzy vocals, those catchy melodies, that breezy guitar sound. It’s all had a bit of a 2020 refresh, but the early 2000s soul is still there.

Song Picks: The Adults are Talking, Brooklyn Bridge To Chorus, Bad Decisions, Not the Same Anymore

7.5/10

The New Zealand extreme metal band’s sixth album is technically astounding, has so many time signatures you’ll find yourself in a perpetual state of confusion, and roars like a beast having a rather intense fit. It growls, it pounds, it thunders, but it never breaks, walking off again at the end of this spectacular 60 minute display unharmed, as if that earth-shattering display was simply in its DNA. It’s as challenging and full on as that description sounds though, so not for the faint hearted.

Song Picks - Stare into Death and be Still, Drawn into the Next Void , Dissolved Orders

7.5/10

Nicolas Jaar’s livelier side project continues to walk the tightrope between danceable and intriguing, never quite falling off to either side. Infectiously inventive.

Song Pick: Fantasy, You (forever)

7.5/10

saint cloud.jpg — 29. Saint Cloud

Waxahatchee

Waxahatchee’s fourth album already feels like a country and folk classic, an album with a beautiful, polished sheen. Nothing is done which doesn’t aid the song. Things are kept simple, straight and honest, and it’s fitting that an album about recovering from alcoholism should leave you feeling so emotionally cleansed. Nigh on impossible as it would have been, I just wish the latter half lived up to the first.

Song Picks - Oxbow, Can’t Do Much, Fire

7.5/10

The debut album by Canadian Micah Visser is an album he himself has said is about “growing up, moving on, and everything that happens in between”. The lyrics are simple and relatable and musically it’s full of thick synth lines with the attitude of distorted guitars. These are songs you can imagine playing as university students stand arm in arm in the middle of the dance-floor, eight £1 pints down, singing their lungs out, staring at the lights in the ceiling.

Song Picks : Keeping Up, Dear Megan, Your List, Making Peace with Suburbia

8/10

Rapper Billy Woods and activist/poet Moor Mother combine to create a dark, mysterious record that floats outside of definition. Rumbling along like a lost woolly mammoth the pairs’ words and sounds conjure up an image of a lost past.

Song Picks: Furies, The Blues Remembers Everything

8/10

The Swedish electronic duo have created quite probably the year’s most euphoric release. There’s nothing all that new here, but it’s a brilliant distillation of hand raising synth lines, electronic music tropes and melodic dreams, seemingly hoovering any negativity from your body like a despondency Dyson.

Song Picks: Portland, Attic, Arresten

8/10

FutureNostalgia — 25. Future Nostalgia

Dua Lipa

As the title suggests, this is a very current take on nostalgic genres such as disco, funk, synth-pop etc. Dua Lipa focuses on catchy songs about ‘dancing and having fun and being free and being in love’ while also making sure the whole thing has a cohesive feel. Needless to say, she’s succeeded, the sound palette is varied enough to keep it interesting while still sounding like a neat package. It’s rammed with bangers, and for its 37 minute duration you do indeed feel rather free.

Song Picks: Don’t Start Now, Cool, Physical, Love Again, Boys Will Be Boys

8/10

Un Canto por Mexico.jpg — 24. Un canto por México Vol. 1

Natalia Lafourcade

You sure as hell can’t fly to Mexico this year, but this gets you stupendously close. Lafourcade’s collection of covers and new versions of her older songs shines with all the joy and beauty of the sun on a cobbled Mexican street; bursting with life, melody and history.

Song Picks - Veracruz, Y No Vivo por Vivir , Mi Tiearra Veracruzana, Cucurrucucu Paloma

8/10

Mac Miller died two years ago as the result of an accidental drugs overdose in 2018. Circles was being worked on at the time. Posthumously completed and released by Miller’s producer, Jon Brion, the album is tastefully done, with perfectly subtle production to match Mac Miller’s relaxed sound. With a voice as smooth as polished marble, it’s the perfect lazy Sunday listen. A quietly sad and introspective goodbye from a true talent.

Song Picks - Circles, Blue World, Good News

8/10

Japanese folk singer-songwriter Ichiko Aoba’s seventh album ebbs and flows, flickers and enchants. The vocals hum like angels and the dense instrumentation sparkles as clearly and crisply as a mountain stream. Windswept Adan is rather hard to put into words, and the picture on the cover does it as much justice as anything. It’s a journey through a mysterious underwater world, where your exhalation becomes more than the exiting of oxygen, but the temporary glitter of a passed moment.

Song Picks: Dawn in the Adan, Sagu Palm’s Song

8/10

It’s difficult to call something so lo-fi a ‘wall of sound’ but within it’s limited frequency range Im Wald is a relentless storm by the Swiss one man band determined to make a racket. 2 hours in length, it sucks you into its ‘landscape of Winter’ with a sound that ceases to become a load of instruments playing as loudly as possible and seamlessly becomes one mass of emotionally affecting noise. Im Wald is an unforgettable ambient black metal experience, one that screams so loud it cleans your soul.

Song Picks - Uber den Baumen, Stimmen im Wald

8/10

setmyheartonfire — 20. Set My Heart on Fire Immediately

Perfume Genius

Perfume Genius’ fifth album feels both humongous - thanks to the engrossing depth of the production - and intimate - thanks to Hadreas’ wavering, delicate vocals - a combination that at times is so beautiful it somewhat buries the significant substance contained underneath. Set My Heart on Fire Immediately is the musical equivalent of a flowing and captivating interpretive dance.

Song Picks - Whole Life, Nothing at All, Some Dream

8/10

Named after his daughter’s favourite word, Suddenly is the first album to feature Dan Snaith’s vocals on every track. It’s danceable and yet relaxing, and surprisingly introspective. Snaith’s knack for hooks and melody is here in spades, and his vocals add a great intimacy to the songs. The production, as you’d expect, is as smooth as the finest silk.

Song Picks: Sunny’s Time, Home, Like I loved You

8/10

18. Alfredo

Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemis

Freddie Gibbs and the Alchemist combine to create a 35 minute gem packed with bars so quick it’s hard to understand what’s said, but it hardly matters when the flow and rhythm are this good. The production is as slick as an ice-rink, combining with the syrupy smooth raps to create one of the year’s most immediately enjoyable albums.

Song Picks - God is Perfect, 1985, Something to Rap About

8/10

oranssipazuzu — 17. Mestarin Kynsi

Oranssi Pazuzu

The Finnish black-metal band’s fifth album is a dark journey into the belly of a giant orc. Atmospheric, gritty, doomed, and utterly disgusting, it growls with the anger of someone dying a prolonged and pointless death.

Song Pick: Ilmestys

8/10

purplemoonlightpages — 16. Purple Moonlight Pages

R.A.P. Ferreira

Rory Allan Philip Ferreira works with Jefferson Park Boys to create an intricate jazz fuelled hip-hop album. Segal, Carmack and Parvizi’s perfect productions are old-school in their sound, but very much new-school in their alluring complexity. Ferreira’s raps lack the urgency common in the genre, but it’s refreshing to listen to someone behind the beat, someone relaxed, someone not pushing for the mainstream but happy to drift along in a tributary.

Song Picks - LAUNDRY, GREENS, CYCLES, RO TALK

8/10

Swift’s eighth album, and first of two in 2020, is a gentle, constantly catchy, and just rather gorgeous step into storytelling for an artist that has tended to be autobiographical. Lyrically, she’s able to paint with fine brushstrokes, while her pictures are framed by a singular ability to craft endlessly pleasant melodies. A little one note perhaps, but what a lovely note.

Song Picks - Exile, the last great American dynasty, August, this is me trying, epiphany

8/10

Charli XCX’s fourth album, recorded during lockdown, is a serotonin coated glitch wave of pop-gems. Immediately accessible, and yet sparkling with abstract intrigue. A party of a record in a year without parties.

Song Picks - forever, claws, detonate, anthems, c2.0

8.5/10

A Hero's Death — 13. A Hero’s Death

Fontaines D.C.

The fast paced punk of their debut has largely gone, repalced by dreamier, slower and more atmospheric tracks filled out by a massive sounding distorted guitar. Sometimes this humongous sounding production adds a layer of mystery to a beautifully simple song - such as on Oh Such a Spring - other times it makes the whole thing explode through your headphones as in Televised Mind. Catchy and angry, it feels endlessly important.

Song Picks: I Don’t Belong, Oh What a Spring, Televised Mind

8.5/10

The Big Thief lead vocalist and guitarist’s sixth solo album is a record so delicate that it feels like it might crumble under my attempt to describe it, much like a dried leaf will break with the slightest touch. In a year where hugs have been hard to come by, Lenker provides one in the most beautiful musical form, with melodies and acoustic guitar lines as soothing and comforting as a warm fire.

Song Picks: two reverse, anything, half return, dragon eyes

8.5/10

roughnrowdyways — 11. Rough and Rowdy Ways

Bob Dylan

Dylan’s 39th album is probably his best since 1997’s Time Out of Mind. Perfecting the quietly growled vocal he’s had on his last few albums, he weaves lyrics as engaging as any he’s written for some time - and which are the best on any record this year - while backed perfectly by minimalistic and pretty instrumental melodies that never distract the attention from his meticulous poetics. The 17 minute closer, Murder Most Foul, is the year’s best song in my books, and one of the most affecting things Dylan has ever written.

Song Picks - Murder Most Foul, I Contain Multitudes, My Own Version of You, I’ve Made up my Mind to Give Myself to You

8.5/10

Blackis — 10. (Untitled) Black Is

Sault

The mysterious British collective’s third album is their first of two 2020 releases. They don’t interact with the press or on social media, and it’s pretty hard to find out who they are, other than that Inflo produces them. Released a month after George Floyd’s murder, (Untitled) Black Is seems to have been recorded entirely in response. This is music of the resistance, and not the burst of anger Rage Against the Machine variety, but the kind that is always there, simmering beneath the surface. Mixing disco and r&b with the more vintage sounds of blues and soul, all 56 minutes of this album sound timely and yet timeless, classic and yet modern, accessible and yet labyrinthine.

Song Picks: Hard Life, Wildfires, Monsters, Miracles, Pray Up

8.5/10

Run the Jewel’s fourth album is potent mix of raps that flow like gnarled treacle, with lyrics as serrated and sharp as a rambo knife and beats like a bulldozer smashing through a wall (and not the polystyrene type, Boris). A non-stop march of irresistible, infectious anger.

Song Picks - yankee and the brave, ooh lala, holy clamafuck, JU$T, a few words for the firing squad

8.5/10

ewomeninmusicpt3 — 8. Women in Music Pt. III

HAIM

Haim’s third album is another collection of 70s inspired pop gems. The three sisters incorporate new genres, while never losing their characteristic approachable catchiness. Women in Music Pt. III is the kind of album I imagine anyone would like. It’s not at all challenging, but it holds up to deep listens due to its creative production, infectious melodies, and grainy warmth. It’s 2020’s best comfort record.

Song Picks: The Steps, I Know Alone, 3am, I Don’t Wanna

8.5/10

heaventopatorturedmind — 7. Heaven to a Tortured Mind

Yves Tumor

Experimental electronic artist Yves Tumor’s fourth album perfectly mixes the vintage with the modern. It’s concise and yet expansive, soaking up every genre on earth and spitting out the complex mess of what results into surprisingly digestable songs. Heaven to a Tortured mind seems to sparkle in a separate universe, refusing to be defined. Like the superstars of old, Yves Tumor is ploughing his own path, creating a sound completely his own. Quite the achievement in 2020.

Song Picks: Gospel for a New Century, Kerosene

8.5/10

Marling’s other albums, for one reason or another, have always passed me by. Songs for our Daughter however grabbed me immediately. There’s a wonderful depth to her vocals, lyrics and the production. It feels like the album of a woman who’s found herself, and that’s a pretty remarkable thing to listen to. One of the year’s most confident efforts, her delicate vibrato seemingly opening a door right into her soul, which she’s happy to lay out on the floor in one of the best minimalist folk albums for quite some time.

Song Picks - Alexandra, Hold Down, Fortune, For You

8.5/10

Phoebe Bridger’s second album is a journey of melancholoy, delicate, and reverb-drenched beauty. Occasionally exploding to anger from its general sadness, it’s a triumph of affecting and unforgettable songwriting. A musical version of that introspective night you spent alone in the corner of your room on the verge of tears, before waking up the following day with a paralysing numbness to the world.

Song Picks: Garden Song, Kyoto, Halloween, Chinese Satellite, Moon Song, Graceland Too

9/10

The Japanese-British songwriter’s debut sounds like the result of someone throwing nu metal, 2000’s and 90s pop, and a whole host of other genres into a raging cyclone. It opens with quite probably the year’s most cataclysmic pop track, Dynasty, which is followed not long after by the best nu metal track I’ve heard for ages, STFU, with a riff that sounds like a mountain coming to life. Endlessly creative and completely unpredictable, SAWAYAMA is surely the birth of our next pop superstar.

Song Picks: Dynasty, STFU, Paradisin’, Bad Friend

9/10

Fetch the Bolt Cutters is an album of creative confidence, one where Fiona has rarely stopped herself and gone, ‘nah, this sounds like a bad idea,’ but rather followed a song’s path to completion, regardless of how unconventional and odd it might sound to begin with. What results is the rarest of beasts, an album as unique as herself, using music that has come before only as smatterings of influence, while never turning them into a template. Put simply, it’s groundbreaking.

Song Picks: Fetch the Bolt Cutters, Under the Table, Drumset, On I Go

9/10

We needed Melee in 2020. With no live performances since March we needed an album that got pretty close to doing the impossible, bringing the energy of a live show onto a record. Soitsiadis’ vocals are endless body-tensed screams - where it sounds as if his voice could crack on any one, never to work again. Grissom’s lead guitar screeches and flutters like his strings are unable to sit still, and Macinski’s bass marches along as Jacob Hanlon’s drumming flurries and thrashes at breakneck speed like an out of control tornado. In Bolivia, it’s not uncommon to end up driving on what seems like a normal straight road that is actually more than twice as high as the highest mountain peak in the UK, you only notice the marvel of what you’ve just experienced when you get back to sea level and can breathe again. On Melee, there’s so little let-up that this absolute typhoon of energy almost feels normal, until it ends and you return to ‘sea level’ and immediately feel less alive, before impulsively starting the record again, in an addictive need for the energy it provides. In a year where I needed a kick up the arse to break the endless monotony, Dogleg’s debut provided just that, and what a marvel it is.

Song Picks: Kawasaki Backflip, Fox, Headfirst

9.5/10

Elverum returns under his the Microphones moniker for the first time in 17 years in a characteristically experimental effort. A 44 minute song comprised of just two chords, it hums with a delicate beauty. Elverum breezes over lines like “The thing I just realised / For probably the millionth time / That walking with my knees trembling / Is the true state of all things” as if they weren’t bloody gorgeous, setting out his stall and struggle with a mumbled bluntness that’s infinitely refreshing. It breaks the fourth wall in such a way as to make you part of the experience of its creation, and to experience this while listening to the end product puts you into a weird state of timelessness. Then, as your guard drops in this void, you realise someone with Phil Elverum’s platform and success is just as lost as your are, and that you’ll probably both remain just as lost forever, and though you don’t know each other and never will, he feels like your brother. And you sit and stare at the ceiling as the song weaves from that double tracked acoustic guitar to the heavily distorted segments and back out like a boat navigating a sporadic storm, and you realise once again “for probably the millionth time” that you’re just an insignificant piece of sand in a massive universe that doesn’t mean anything, and everything you make will one day be lost, and everything you’ve made will one day be forgotten as if it never existed in the first place. And weirdly this thought makes you smile, because there’s a melancholy freedom in realising “for probably the millionth time” the futility of it all. And you go downstairs and you hug someone in your household. And suddenly their aura feels stronger as you realise, again “for probably the millionth time”, that all that really matters is each other, and that there’s no end, and that sure your search for meaning will never bear fruit, but some fruit will drop from the branches regardless if you just look around once in a while. And then finally, you realise how cheesy that all sounds, but you couldn’t care less. The Microphones in 2020 is 2020’s masterpiece.

9.5/10