The albums of 2020

The year was great, judging from the perspective of music released in 2020, proving nothing can turn off the creative spark. In an attempt to remember the year by its virtues, we substitute the usual bad-news-chronology of a year with the best albums list ordered chronologically (by the date they were released). So, THIS was the year:

The Innocence Mission - 'See You Tomorrow'

Gentle as an autumn leaf, 'See You Tomorrow' lacks any intention save for the one to make pretty music. With love added between the members, what's left is sheer beauty.

Garganjua - 'Toward The Sun'

Big and ambitious, melodic and hard, the latest by the doom trio steps into a new path for atmospheric metal. It's as simple as it is natural.

James Yorkston, Suhail Yusuf Khan, Jon Thorne - 'Navarasa: Nine Emotions'

Scottish folk, Hindustani classical music, and jazz get together great - just like many other entities could and should - on this rich, colorful, and peaceful album.

Paysage d'Hiver - 'Im Wald'

The first official LP by the Swiss one-man black-metal band keeps the distinctive minimal production, and emphasizes the ambiental side. Two hours of 'Im Wald' serve as a gore walk through the woods.

Envy - 'The Fallen Crimson'

It's a post-metalic hardcore symphony, destructive and pretty, a great way to show how beauty and aggressiveness go hand in hand.

Against All Logic - '2017 - 2019'

Melancholic club music on Nicolas Jaar project's new album (unintentionally) touches the bleakness of the year in a way he couldn't have predicted. Yet, it's quite fitting.

Moses Boyd - 'Dark Matter'

Debut solo album by the UK jazz drummer seamlessly blends jazz, hip-hop, and psychedelia to build a modern and ever-so-mighty jazz album. So much fun!

Rebecca Foon - 'Waxing Moon'

A somber and calming debut solo album by the Canadian pianist and eco-activist about the not-so-calming threat of mass extinction. It's affirmative about the beauty of nature, rather than the threat of losing it.

Sunny Jain - 'Wild Wild East'

Modern groovy jazz with attitude and cool got a new leader with this Indian Brooklynite. Different, yet familiar.

Violet Cold - 'Noir Kid'

Probably the strangest metal album of the year, a gargantuan sympho-black metal gem played mostly by one person - Emin Guliyev. Pop female vocals add to the strangeness of it.

Porridge Radio - 'Every Bad'

The English band does it simple - indie-rock sonics on the way of self-discovery. It's straight, catchy, and fun.

Jay Electronica - 'A Written Testimony'

JE delves into symphonic hip-hop on his long awaited, magnificently produced debut, with Jay Electronica showing his equally impressive lyrical skills, at par with his "right-hand MC" Jay-Z.

Nazar - 'Guerrilla'

This Angolan musician's debut album is an electronic music diary of a civil war, one where the artist's parents fought. It's harsh and cold, but it is also an hommage to parents, to the fight and freedom as well.

Irreversible Entanglements - 'Who Sent You?'

The nu-jazz collective combines free jazz with street poetry on an album of raw energy that makes it sound centuries old. It's essentially a ritual of music.

Sea Wolf - 'Through A Dark Wood'

'Through...' is something to hold on to, warm and safe. It calms and it lifts up, like a friend who's always in just the right mood. Simply makes you feel good.

WuW - 'Rétablir L'Eternité'

Parisian brothers duo add minimalism to their dramatic doom metal, on top of the haunting atmosphere. With a touch of prog and calmness, tge resulting album is soothing yet rich.

Tamikrest - 'Tamotaït'

Desert is a place of tranquility and monochromous beauty, so is Tamikrest's latest venture into Sahara blues. A great soundtrack to chill...

Fiona Apple - 'Fetch the Bolt Cutters'

Makes us feel better, even happy, about ourselves, however strange we might be.

Westside Gunn - 'Pray For Paris'

This was the most productive year for the Griselda collective with six releases, however, Westsider Guns' first of the three stands out the most thanks to great raps and flawless production.

Oranssi Pazuzu - 'Mestarin kynsi'

These Fins go from the ugliest vocals in music this year to the prettiest guitar, leaving behind, for a big part, their former black metal and stepping into prog psychedelia.

Jason Isbell - 'Reunions'

Self-confident electric guitar and comforting acoustic are woven through 'Reunions', a brave album with the author questioning himself and his imperfections.

Moses Sumney - 'grae'

Sumney's search for his voice has seemingly made full circle with his double album, with broad sonics encompassing an ocean of sounds, yet staying modest. 'grae' is a happy place - an island of many colors, friendship, love, and tranquility, despite being isolated. It's multi-genre yet delicate, subtle yet powerful. A treasure island indeed.

Infant Island - 'Beneath'

The band expands their screamo with metallic stuff, post-rock, and shoegaze, keeping the sheer energy with a rich sonic palette.

Perfume Genius - 'Set My Heart on Fire'

PG has set out to make us feel free and understood by exploring anything at all on 'Set My...'. It's an album of a person at peace with oneself, and keen to look around.

Sex Swing - 'Type II'

Hermetic and intense, the second album by the psychedelic-noise supergroup is a demanding listen. It's a rock carousel with no happy ending.

Imperial Triumphant - 'Alphaville'

The sound of New York today, IT argue, is jazz/black-metal, artistic and ambitious hybrid, avant-garde and rich. Psychedelic elements crawl between, a sign of threat to come. Not an easy listen, yet an awarding one.

Backxwash - 'God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It'

The only album on this list that's self-released, due to uncleared samples, is an example of freedom. It has hard-rock's energy and hip-hop's straightness.

Ondara - 'Folk n' Roll Vol. 1: Tales Of Isolation'

The poetry on 'Folk N' Roll, Vol 1: Tales of Isolation' is as prosaic as the year gone has been, with fantastic tunes about isolation, loneliness, lay-offs, uncertainty, lack of money, lack of self-esteem... Had enough people heard it, it might have started a movement.

Drakeo the Ruler - 'Thank You for Using GTL'

He had freedom within his grasp, he was even entitled to it, but the system was just so rigged that he had to wait in prison, so he used that very system (specifically the GTL, the inmate telecommunications system) to speak the truth about it. Happy ending - Drakeo is out the prison, the album is on year-end lists, but the system's still the same. 

Armand Hammer - 'Shrines'

Billy Woods and Elucid deliver poetic, complex, and revolutionary lyrics on 'Shrines', with the dynamics of the two fueling the engine of the record.

Dua Saleh - 'Rosetta'

Dua Saleh is exactly at pop music's greatest place - where pop melodies meet alternative sonics, and claustrophobic atmosphere messes with clubby beats.

Phoebe Bridgers - 'Punisher'

She's known for being sad and smart, and with 'Punisher' Bridgers has added hope through somewhat energetic songs. Her pretty voice and her endless charm make you reach across where the grass is greener.

Sam Lee - 'Old Wow'

English folk singer comes out naive attempting to save the birds and nature itself remaking traditional songs, which is exactly the idealism and warmth needed.

Neptunian Maximalism - 'Éons'

Probably the most ambitious album on this list, a three-part, two-hour concept record of drone metal, free jazz, and folk. It's grand without being ostentatious or demanding, an easy flowing magnum opus.

Haim - 'Women in Music Pt. III'

Apart from continuing to grow as musicians, Haim also continue to grow in genres they manage to encompass in order to create their own sound, and they make it seem so effortless.

A.A. Williams - 'Forever Blue'

British cellist and pianist was also in love with alt-metal as a teenager, which all made it to her debut album - a dark post-metal gem in classical music robes, covered with melancholic and grand colors.

Keleketla! - 'Keleketla!'

One of the biggest projects in non-classical music this year, a collaboration of dozens of UK and African musicians determined to break boundaries with their boundless music. A one-of album.

Thin Lear - 'Wooden Cave'

One of the plenty great debut albums by solo artists this year, a lush record of psychedelic folk rock with abundance of groove and melody.

Sevdaliza - 'Shabrang'

Beautiful songs and gorgeous melodies - what else does the music really need?

Regrowth - 'Lungs'

Sardinian band rip it up on their debut album, an anthemic and emotional record, condensed to half an hour of pure hardcore. From some other time, yet their honesty is timeless.

Sault - 'Untitled (Black Is)' / 'Untitled (Rise)'

Fight and pray - Sault suggest with their two albums released this year, a manifest of revolution through love. Since it's an idea, being anonymous is a necessity, because it needs all of us.

Matt Berry - 'Phantom Birds'

There's innovative albums, there's some played masterfully, there's deeply emotional music, and than there's albums with great songs. 'Phantom Birds' is one such.

Anjimile - 'Giver Taker'

Debut album by the Malawian/USA singer-songwriter is the sound of modesty, sang in half-a-voice, and with the guitar played as if it's rain dripping on strings. A monument to fragile self.

Bartees Strange - 'Live Forever'

Genres don't really mean much to music fans anymore, especially the younger ones, they just listen to music. BS does just that on 'Live Forever' - music beyond genres, as he pleases.

Shamir - 'Shamir'

With their counter-tenor voice, Shamir step beyond genders, and with their music - which glues together indie-rock and dance-pop - above genres. Very 2020, and beyond.

Kevel - 'Mutatis Mutandis'

The Greek metal foursome expanded their instrumental sludge sound of their debut album with vocals, prog and death on this record. It's rich, fuller, broader, a "strong" album in every sence.

Lucidvox - 'We Are'

The four Moscow ladies step out of time on their debut combining post-punk and prog-rock. Add with the fairy-like vocals in Russian, it takes you away in time.

Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou - 'May Our Chambers Be Full'

Dark-folk singer-songwriter Emma Ruth Rundle and sludge metal band Thou found perfect fit in each other. The pairing on 'May Our Chambers Be Full' is so natural and giving, much greater than the sum of its parts.

Small Bills - 'Don't Play It Straight'

Underground rapper Elucid teamed up with producer The Lasso for a chaotic and psychedelic hip-hop project, one that surfs on the energy of new collab. Very left field.

Blood From The Soul - 'DSM-5'

The big-sounding comeback album by the punk/metal supergroup loses all the limits of members' original bands. 'DSM-5' keeps the rawness of punk, the power of hard-core, and metal's musical skills.

Gwenifer Raymond - 'Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain'

Welsh guitar virtuoso brings horror-core to the old-school folk on 'Strange Lights...', a playful, brave and exquisite album.