The 2020 end of year music lists thread

6 Music's Albums Of The Year

MOJO:

75. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Sideways to New Italy
74. U.S. Girls - Heavy Light
73. Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit - Reunions
72. Wire - 10:20
71. Field Music - Making a New World
70. Angel Olsen - Whole New Mess
69. The Psychedelic Furs - Made of Rain
68. The Homesick - The Big Exercise
67. Jeff Parker - Suite for Max Brown
66. Bonny Light Horseman - Bonny Light Horseman
65. Beck - Hyperspace
64. The Lemon Twigs - Songs for the General Public
63. Car Seat Headrest - Making a Door Less Open
62. Ren Harvieu - Revel in the Drama
61. Chris Forsyth with Garcia Peoples - Peoples Motel Band
60. Doves - The Universal Want
59. Baxter Dury - The Night Chancers
58. Working Men's Club - Working Men's Club
57. Songhoy Blues - Optimisme
56. The Magnetic Fields - Quickies
55. Tim Burgess - I Love the New Sky
54. The Waterboys - Good Luck, Seeker
53. Nadine Shah - Kitchen Sink
52. SAULT - Untitled (Rise)
51. Don Bryant - You Make Me Feel
50. Sufjan Stevens - The Ascension
49. Lianne La Havas - Lianne La Havas
48. Nadia Reid - Out of My Province
47. Tricky - Fall to Pieces
46. Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets - Live at the Roundhouse
45. Bruce Springsteen - Letter to You
44. Pearl Jam - Gigaton
43. Blake Mills - Mutable Set
42. Bill Fay - Countless Branches
41. Tame Impala - The Slow Rush
40. Thurston Moore - By the Fire
39. HAIM - Women in Music Pt. III
38. Lucinda Williams - Good Souls Better Angels
37. Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia
36. Drive-By Truckers - The Unravelling
35. Rose City Band - Summerlong
34. Maria McKee - La Vita Nuova
33. The Necks - Three
32. Coriky - Coriky
31. Taylor Swift - Folklore
30. Sam Lee - Old Wow
29. Thundercat - It Is What It Is
28. Shirley Collins - Heart's Ease
27. Stephen Malkmus - Traditional Techniques
26. Khruangbin - Mordechai
25. Sparks - A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip
24. Moses Boyd - Dark Matter
23. Shabaka & the Ancestors - We Are Sent Here By History
22. Leonard Cohen - Thanks for the Dance
21. Mark Lanegan - Straight Songs of Sorrow
20. Nubya Garcia - Source
19. SAULT - Untitled (Black Is)
18. Toots and the Maytals - Got to Be Tough
17. Laura Marling - Song for Our Daughter
16. Nick Cave - Idiot Prayer
15. Frazey Ford - U Kin B the Sun
14. Tony Allen & Hugh Masekela - Rejoice
13. Moses Sumney - Græ
12. Idles - Ultra Mono
11. Paul Weller - On Sunset
10. The Flaming Lips - American Head
9. Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher
8. Run the Jewels - RTJ4
7. JARV IS... - Beyond the Pale
6. Cornershop - England is a Garden
5. Fleet Foxes - Shade
4. Bill Callahan - Gold Record
3. Fontaines D.C. - A Hero's Death
2. Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters
1. Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy Ways

This is not a terribly exciting list and as ever there's approx a 60% overlap with Uncut but there's some great stuff tucked away in the specialist top 10 lists (each compiled by a single writer).

Beatrice Dillon is no.1 in the "electronica" list with K-LONE, Soft Pink Truth, Luke Abbott and Katie Gately also in the top 10. L'inattingible by Delphine Dora in the "underground' list is gorgeous in a vaguely Broadcast + Focus Group vein; Apká! by Céu is a lovely bit-overlooked trinket from the "world" list.

Also there's a nice Moses Sumney feature in the middle of the albums list with some nice photos of Moses Sumney taken by Moses Sumney.

lol @ that #1.

I love that K-Lone album. beautiful record!

Yeah, it's so lush

I'm just looking forward to the Quietus and RA lists, tbh. The rest just have no appeal to my tastes, at this point.

the Keeley Forsyth and Brigid Dawson albums from the middle of the Uncut list are both really glowering and wonderful and poss a bit neglected here

― technopolis, Thursday, 12 November 2020 21:03 (one week ago) link

Yeah that Brigid Dawson record is so good.

― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, 12 November 2020 21:09 (one week ago) link

I have it on right now and it's dope!! Getting some Cate Le Bon vibes, at least from this number ("The Fool")

Also looking forward to the Picadilly Records compilations one as I usually find some amazing stuff on there every year xp

Here's the Musicophilia end-of-year list:

https://www.twitter.com/musicophiliamix/status/1331894795778859008

I'll try that again...

The fifty-three months the year of 2020 have been... yeah. But musicians have carried us through.

From the 300 LPs and EPs from 2020 I bought this year, here are my very favorites. I'll link to every album's @Bandcamp page in the thread below.

What were your favorites? pic.twitter.com/7YXjbacQTG

— Musicophilia (@musicophiliamix) November 26, 2020

https://time.com/5915313/best-albums-2020/

tiwa savage!

Interesting list. Ungodly Hour is good, but it’s not all that.

Ugh at Grimes and Taylor Swift on that TIME Top 10 but otherwise a very solid list. Tiwa Savage and Fiona Apple, Chloe x Halle and Makaya McCraven make me particularly happy.

Top 10 songs list also online, good choices but not many surprises... makes me wish they had a top 50:

https://time.com/5914984/best-songs-2020/

Grimes totally deserving, IMO. Excellent album

the grimes album was quite mediocre but the taylor album was her very best

Amanda Petrusich's favorite album of 2020 ... is from 2018:

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/2020-in-review/the-best-music-of-2020

ok in what world does the time track list not have many surprises. i don't think many other lists are going to have any south african house tracks

xp the Etran de L'Aïr album is dope and placed pretty high on my 2018 list iirc

Yeah, that Time tracks list is ridiculously eclectic (even by ILM standards). These past few linked write-ups keepmentioning “the pandemic” too much, though (IMO). How about we forget about it for a few minutes while we enjoy music? I get that covid provided a certain context for these writers, but I can’t relate to that.

Maybe I’m an anomaly, but I don’t reflect on any the music I loved this year and think, “Ah yes – this was perfectly suited for these times of isolation,” blah blah.

HAIM seemed that way to me tbh

The Charli XCX album is the one true quarantine album.

yeah that one too

Allow me to rectify: not that many surprises - for me - as I had heard every song in that top 10. I actually love how eclectic it is for a top 10 hence I’d love if we got a top 50 following that same spirit.

Anyhow... another one:

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/2020-in-review/the-best-music-of-2020

Oops shared above already sorry

Just voted in the Pitchfork Readers’ Poll, where I can be assured to see few of my picks show up in the final accounting (if last year’s performance is any indication of future results).

I soured on the Imperial Triumphant after repeated listens

Yeah same here

UNCUT's AOTY has anticipated the ILM poll winner for the past 2 years! This will not continue:/

Ha! I loved R&RW way more than I expected but no way is it coming anywhere near my ballot

Yeah, that Time tracks list is ridiculously eclectic (even by ILM standards)

Ehh I feel like this list only works tbrr if you need TIME magazine to clue you in on "Yo Perreo Sola" or "#WAP" in 2020. Is "Uwrongo" a p cool Afrobeats track? Because Yo Perreo Sola basically sucks

Reggaeton is getting super dreamy lately but you'd never guess from what's crossing over into the Anglosphere

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRl7siIfcPc

Obviously not “WAP,” but most of the others.

I'm giving it the twice over; it def covers a lot of bases, its true

"uwrongo" is cool and not really afrobeats as that generally means west african stuff. south african house like "uwrongo" is a totally different scene that hasn't had anywhere near the same level of attention from the western music press (so, basically none) so it's very cool to see it show up there

Yeah I was giving it a couple listens, its great!

uwrongo is great and it got extensive love on the afro thread, didn't it?

nope, sun-el. #onethread

rolling stone's top 2 is probably bob dylan and taylor swift

sitting in a tree

quietus list is out, once again ruined by not having me as a contributing voter

oh this year's quietus list is a bunch of stuff i've mostly never heard of instead of a bunch of stuff i'm totally baffled that they like. it's always one of the two so i'm glad this year's is the more interesting one

for me it is a mixture of those two things but with an emphasis on the latter

well not baffled - it's clear by now they love a dirge

My favorite list! I'm so excited to spend some time with it today.

https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/best-albums/best-albums-of-2020/

https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/best-albums/best-albums-of-2020/

That’s strange. Link doesn’t seem to work, but on the homepage it does...

The backslash on the end isn't part of the url code in your post and should be

Also think that's the first list I've seen with both Sault albums in. Seemed to be one or the other so far elsewhere

I've got over 20 on that Quietus list, which is a new record for me I think. Had no idea Young Knives had an album out this year!

Lots of great records by mates on that Quietus list but I've got to admit I was secretly hoping we'd sneak in the lower levels ;_;

your album would be one of the better things on there, absolutely