ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2020

or when i sit and listen to my blood

https://i.imgur.com/wbFWE3o.jpg
#29: Destroyer - Have We Met? - 361 points - 12 votes- 1 Nº1 vote

Destroyer "Have We Met" out 1/31/20

https://destroyer.bandcamp.com/album/have-we-met

“On his masterful new album, Dan Bejar moves like a ghost through his familiar and inscrutable universe.”
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/destroyer-have-we-met/

we have

The last show I saw before lockdown. The album's faded, though, after playing it for a week last January.

haha xp

I like some tracks off of this one, but it never stuck with me as much as some of his previous albums

re: microphones in 2020. I can't really describe how much I needed this song/video combo when it came out. Sitting down and being immersed by his music and photos during such a point of uncertainty in life, I'll forever cherish

I voted for this. I like it a lot. The name of the album is "Have We Met" though, not "Have We Met?"

this was a really good destroyer album tbh

there's a feeling of ILM going a bit full-circle on indie rock in recent times, having previously dismissed it as sonically unimaginative and limited in scope comparred to other genres

dl, i think you're working off an incomplete picture of ilm (or you have confused "ilm" with "the lex"). the beths and soccer mommy placing is not materially different to me than, say, alvvays placing in the tracks polls, except that the beths is imo a much better band than alvvays

if you do not like destroyer it will not change your mind

his best since kaputt, not the masterpiece that it was but what is?

I voted for this, but also it's too high. There's no way in hell this is better than *any* of the previously listed albums

actually it's better than all of them that's how numbers work

the rollout should be in ascending net worth order imo

I guess I can't fight math

a lot of hay made about pre-lockdown albums upthread; this is mine. last time i walked around manhattan when things were "normal" was while listening to this record, and i believe that's its natural environment, so i haven't really heard it since lol

yep, destroyer was also my final show pre-lockdown. the new songs sounded fantastic in that setting, better than the kaputt or rubies songs he and the band did.

He was probably drunk off his ass too.

ditto re: last show before lockdown. excellent live band.

the end of "kinda dark" is so cool

I will never understand how I can be so into the New Pornographers including Bejar's songs but have spent the exact same two decades never being moved by a Destroyer album

even Rubies?

they're doing pretty different stuff, i don't really like bejar's new pornographers songs much at all despite being a huge destroyer fan

Phil Elverum and Dan Bejar back to back like this is Pitchfork's 2002 poll.

both have only gotten better since then

https://i.imgur.com/s2bFmIW.jpg
#28: Katie Pruitt - Expectations - 388 points - 12 votes

Katie Pruitt

https://rounderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/expectations

“With stately ballads and choruses to shatter glass, the Nashville singer-songwriter’s debut builds into a record that feels deeply thoughtful and unified.”
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/katie-pruitt-expectations/

one of my favorite albums from last year; can't wait to hear her live.

too low!!! did i vote for it?? no

pvmic

YES one of my absolute favourite albums of the year

it was just a v strong year and i see her somehow releasing even better records in the future, what a talent

I will never understand how I can be so into the New Pornographers including Bejar's songs but have spent the exact same two decades never being moved by a Destroyer album

― Guayaquil (eephus!),

The opposite for me.

Katie Pruitt was my #3. My favorite country album in years.

and what a VOICE

The title cut of Expectations is in the running for the year's best quasi-Fleetwood Mac jam, neck in neck with the Killers' "Running Toward a Place."

HAIM might have something to say about that

Hey, no body, no crime!

You're saying that HAIM might have Something to Tell Us?

xp

my favorite Bob Marley song

I am 5 seconds into this Katie Pruitt album and the guitar alone is giving me a visceral DO NOT WANT reaction.

It's somewhat aggravating that the popular genre I could probably best adapt my voice to is so repellent to me.

I'm less enamored of the album: tonally it's too relentlessly sad. It could be I'm impatient with glum queer drama in 2020-2021.

I love the title track (thanks, Tim!), haven't heard more than that.

xp I too started singing "sometimes I feel like I don't have a PARDNER" when that guitar started but it really doesn't sound like that if you can wait 30 more seconds

woohoo!

I love Katie Pruitt's album, high adolescent drama that resonates with my family's history in numerous ways. and Tim F's comment that every song eventually lifts off like The Lion and the Cobra helped me hear it outside of more immediately obvious frames.

Loved her singles, didn’t check oout the album, sounds great right now

I too started singing "sometimes I feel like I don't have a PARDNER" when that guitar started but it really doesn't sound like that if you can wait 30 more seconds

If it sounded like California skate rock instead of country-pop, I would be on board.

particularly now, virtually everything in that genre sounds like the Klan to me regardless of who is performing it

prejudice against country ain't gonna help if you're trying to get into pruitt; she doesn't really step outside of the genre boundaries neatly. What she does do is sing honestly and cleanly and find some real solid guitar hooks. She sounds incredibly self-assured to me and, while I'm excited about where she's going, where she's at is well worth celebrating too.