Plus, it’s likely the only 2020 rap album that builds a haunting loop around a sample from the ’70s Swedish prog-rock band Zamla Mammaz Manna. Recorded on both sides of the pandemic, the group’s layered fourth record offers the warmth of a tweed sweater — best exemplified by “Can I Believe You,” the delicate “Young Man’s Game” and the bittersweet tribute to Richard Swift, David Berman and others on “Sunblind.” In a year that’s felt like a long winter, Shore has brought a meditative sense of acceptance. The ad-libs remain the same, but 21 is a different savage. – D.K. Shedding the careful precocity of their debut, the Bailey sisters’ second album skipped the traditionally salacious we’re-grown-now stage of pop evolution to paint in complex emotional shades. Sault’s new album is weapons-grade R&B: rugged, soulful and unapologetically Black. It was bleak, touching on addiction and death, yet carried a sense of triumph. Alim Kheraj Read more. Though he was a member of the New York hip-hop group Natural Elements in the ’90s, Ka found solo success relatively late in life. It references Olivia Newton-John, turn-of-the millennium Madonna, 1930s Lew Stone (and by extension, 90s White Town), 80s INXS, Lily Allen and the Who. The 50 Best Albums Of 2020: 50-41 / 40-31 / 30-21 / 20-11 / 10-1 The songwriter’s debut LP, Fake It Flowers, takes on ’90s nostalgia, offering hints of Lush, Elliott Smith, Veruca Salt, Sonic Youth and…Pavement. Her debut, — produced and largely co-written by her longtime, bandmate Taylor York — is a fairly stark departure from her band’s radio-friendly rock and emo roots, boasting dance-friendly synth lines, strings and electronics behind Williams’ more controlled voice. Calling to mind the insularity of John Carroll Kirby’s work with Solange and Eddie Chacon, Forever, Ya Girl spirals around murky thickets of R&B, harmonised incantations and stilted beats that mustered a sense of off-kilter propulsion. After securing his place in reggaetón, Bad Bunny shifted the goalpost to a more global outlook with his second solo album, YHLQMDLG (which stands for “Yo Hago Lo Que Me Da La Gana” and translates as “I Do Whatever I Want”). The 50 Best Albums of 2020 So Far Including Bob Dylan, Lil Uzi Vert, Bad Bunny, Dua Lipa, and more. – B.O. The best of them all was this lilting, versatile record by Wizkid. LS Read more. It’s hard to celebrate much of anything in 2020. The effect is like clambering inside a single particular mind, one that is – as the brilliantly unreadable title suggests – jangled by anxiety but also fumbling towards happiness. “Less of who I am for you in case I offend you,” she rued on the song LINE, pledging to be alone instead. “Maybe music is kind of what we need,” Lipa said on Miley Cyrus’ Bright Minded Instagram Live series back in March. “Let it drift and wash away,” he sings on Whole Life. It was more than worth the four-year wait, offering a reason to believe in a year where there weren’t many options. The recent craze for bedroom pop had a further boost this year as so many of us were increasingly confined to our bedrooms, although there’s a sneaking suspicion this term can undersell the ambition of these (often female) artists. And although Suddenly was less club-facing than Caribou’s previous albums Our Love and Swim, Snaith’s pleasure centres remained satisfyingly intact on the understated house of Never Come Back, and the filtered giddiness of Ravi. “royal screw up” shines a light on her own insecurities, while also making revelations. This is El Conejo Malo’s world domination — and now we’ve had front-row seats. The imaginative innocence of “Dinosaur on the Mountain” melds with the acid trip dreaminess of “Flowers of Neptune 6” and the Beatles-esque psych ballad “Mother Please Don’t Be Sad,” fitting together like the kind of Lips puzzle only they can assemble. Their widely beloved 2019 debut single Bad Blood suggested the Yorkshire quartet could go in any number of directions – vintage new wave, jangly indiepop – but they headed for the club, using the industrial synth pulsations of Depeche Mode and early Ministry, and guitars that nodded to various legendary Mancunians – Bernard Sumner, Johnny Marr, Vini Reilly. –, If there was ever a year to wade into an Alabama creek, stare at the sun and figure out how the hell you’re going to keep on keepin’ on, it was 2020. Enter Dua Lipa, who (much like Madonna and Kylie Minogue) flipped the genre on its head with her sophomore album, . also doubles as the folk-fueled battle cry of a generation still trying to find meaning in the mess. But the record is also reliably playful. Having (mercifully) reached the end of this awful year, we have even more perspective on the functionality of a great record. Music reviews, ratings, news and more. But Bea Kristi still makes the record feel innately hers, penning deeply personal lyrics about mental health struggles, difficult past relationships and finding love with her longtime boyfriend. The 30 Best Albums of 2020 (So Far) Written By SPIN Staff May 21 2020, 1:39 PM ET. There’s an excellent photo wherein a man is … These are our 100 favorite albums of 2020. Fetch the Bolt Cutters arrived eight years after its predecessor, The Idler Wheel…, but opener “I Want You To Love Me” maintained her signature idiosyncrasies, vulnerability and wit — all qualities that bloom further as the record continues. Pantha Du Prince - Conference of Trees [Modern Recordings] 4. – D.K. These are Complex’s picks for the 50 best albums of 2020. But Disco didn’t just compete with this year’s surprisingly widespread revival of the genre; Kylie’s fantastical dancefloor, one of catharsis and community, resonated precisely with these weird times. On the fluttering “bloodstream,” Sophie Allison grapples with an inexplicable inability to remain happy. Bartees Strange finally broke through, earning universal acclaim in a terrible year where artists struggled more than ever. Towering choruses burst with relief for the simple fact of survival. Making few references to the lockdown that brought about its existence, Folklore expands Swift’s focus from her personal relationships to imagined characters, widening the emotional and narrative range of her already considerable songwriting. - Z.S. It’s peaceful, unhurried, and concerned only with internal turmoil. But there are so many particular musical voices across these songs, such as the witheringly hilarious woman on You Know It Ain’t, that it’s never monolithic but rather a collection of personalities. Read more. Savage’s voice is still one of the best in contemporary rap: withering, jaded, but slicked with dark humour. You can’t argue with science Claire Boucher – AKA Grimes – intended Miss Anthropocene as a concept album about a personified, demonic climate crisis. Best music of 2020 Folk music. Yet Heavy Light made good on both halves of its name, contrasting those crushingly depressing perspectives with loose, sun-streaked funk and soul and strutting choruses – the sound of people in a room, finding hope where they can. Ware might be telling us to save a kiss — but in return, she managed to save the whole summer. –, Blockbuster movie sequels typically raise the stakes to go bigger than the original, and 21 Savage & Metro Boomin’s. Pen & Pixel album art and a robust merch line accompanied the album narrated by Morgan Freeman (who, among other things, defines “savage”). – Stephanie Mendez. © 2021 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. He blends his bleeding-heart baritone with delicate synth washes and New Order-worthy bass lines, compelling us with sheer charisma to consider the weight of each word as he delves into heady topics like body dysmorphia, romantic refuse and self-worth. For his return to original songwriting after eight years away, Dylan was showing his age in the best way possible: these songs are reflective, wise and slow. The beautiful album brought endless moments of quiet bliss during this relentlessly chaotic year. But instead of hurrying to follow it up, Dan Snaith spent years reveling in his dance-y alter ego, and being a parent to his two young daughters. The album emerged out of Daniel’s anger with the Trump presidency and his desire to avoid creating “‘angry white guy’ music in a purely reactive mode.” What he created instead is a luxuriant deep house odyssey, percolating and humming with drones, bells, murmuring voices, twinkling piano and even some live saxophone. Pen & Pixel album art and a robust merch line accompanied the album narrated by Morgan Freeman (who, among other things, defines “savage”). It doesn’t feel egocentric, but proof of a messy and complicated psychological exploration. All rights reserved. Thirty years after the invention of the “parental advisory: explicit content” sticker, pop celebrated Tipper Gore’s prudish legacy with its filthiest year in recent memory. Most of the lyrics are unintelligible, except for when Domenic Palermo defeatedly sings, “Isn’t it strange / Watching people / Try and outrun rain?” – D.C. 25. The guitarist with jazz-rockers Tortoise, who has released numerous solo records and played sideman to Meshell Ndegeocello, Makaya McCraven and more, was in personal and crowdpleasing form on this LP, which breezes between funk, hip-hop rhythms and cosmic jazz in honour of his mother (named in the title). LS Read the full review. The peak is the ecstatic chaos of Flux Capacitor and its use of Rihanna at full tilt. Premier Guitar Staff. That balance of beauty and bleakness also anchors another centerpiece, the crunchy “Death Star” where Stevens unnervingly chants “Death star into space / What you call the human race / Expedite the judgment day.” Earlier in 2020, Stevens also collaborated with his stepfather Lowell Brams for the New Age album, f the Oscar nominee has demonstrated anything in the last 20 years, it’s range. This was the biggest and best statement yet from the sort of irreverent, box-resistant talent that makes pop culture truly pop. The album’s fiery message, bombastic beats and sharp humor offered both a musical reprieve and the soundtrack for a moment that needed one. –, In late May, the U.S. faced a social and cultural reckoning that had been building for years. Left alone by a departed friend or lover (“I wish you’d’ve taken me with you wherever you went”) on the funny, phantasmagoric My Own Version of You, a truculent nursing home inmate cobbles together a companion like Frankenstein. Stephen Bruner’s fourth album caught some flak for lacking the finesse of his earlier work: spattered with sub-two-minute ideas that seemed to constrict and slacken his six-stringed bass excursions; his louche falsetto barely concealing his existential anxiety and fear of loss. But the best albums of 2020 proved that incredible new music will always make their way to our ears, even in the toughest of times. Plus, it’s likely the only 2020 rap album that builds a haunting loop around a, sample from the ’70s Swedish prog-rock band Zamla Mammaz Manna, Though he was a member of the New York hip-hop group Natural Elements in t, Ka found solo success relatively late in life. A A We made it. But this complex art-pop style, exemplified by lead single “Simmer,” is an intriguing step in a new direction. From the singsong chorus of Tomorrow to the twanging riff of John Cooper Clarke, the melodies are insistent and prodding, set to unleash a poorly coordinated army of robot dancers when indie discos reopen. Taylor shows how sex itself is communication, adding up to one of the hottest, most emotionally astute albums of the year. LS Read the full review. Snaith’s plaintive voice, reminiscent of Arthur Russell, contrasted soulful samples to particular effect on Home, as if contrasting reality and desire. A little bit of Nashville and Southern rock seems to have been good for her soul. We count down to number one, with entries from Soccer Mommy, Run The Jewels, HAIM and Moses Sumney. The 50 best albums of 2020. But where his fictional counterparts were criticised for declining to delve beyond surface recognition, Healy’s frustration at the social dynamics that affirm such behaviour is all over Notes on a Conditional Form. “Burn it to the ground,” she sings. She breaks free of constrictions, skewers and then undresses the affectations used by the powerful to conceal their abuses, and interrogates her own part in these structures. –, Foo Fighters Swing for the Stadium (Again) on, Miley Cyrus Embraces Her Rock Star Destiny on. There are frequent pleas for better communication and reciprocity, likely to comfort anyone gaslighted into thinking, “Is it just me?” But when the connection works, it really works, as evinced by the numerous rapturous slow jams. 2 peak on the Top Latin Albums chart. Humanity, for example, is “a room of pit ponies / Drowning forever in a sea of love”. – D.C. Megaton Sword - Blood Hails Steel (Dying Victims Productions) Gibbs floats over every Alchemist beat, his versatility unrivaled as he jumps from double to triple time flows, from brute force to melodic finesse. LS Read the full review. El-P fills his lyrics with funny Burroughsian grot and non sequiturs that somehow make perfect sense, while Killer Mike dispenses scorn like ticker tape on some of his most proficient bars yet. Now a “full-time rapper” (“Glock in My Lap”), 21 balances the felonious with the luxurious. Following 2015’s Currents, Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker became an in-demand artist throughout the industry — countless festival gigs, teaming with Lady Gaga and Travis Scott, lending Rihanna an album cut. Although hyper-specific to its creator (see: lyrics about hopping the fence at the Huntington Gardens, eating saltines on the floor, and. to carnal vintage funk (Super Stars), Ariel Pinkish psych pop (Strawberry Privilege), and a really blockbuster lead single in Gospel for a New Century. From Selena Gomez's 'Rare' to The Weeknd's 'After Hours' to Phoebe Bridgers' 'Punisher,' these are 20 of the best albums released in 2020. But Bea Kristi still makes the record feel innately, , penning deeply personal lyrics about mental health struggles, difficult past relationships and finding love with her longtime boyfriend. Dead bodies are largely swapped out for more bands and women, as homicides are in the rearview. It’s been a gradual evolution with each successive project inching him closer to the kaleidoscopic sprawl of, , his fifth and most expansive LP. Every moment is memorable, from the fun piano and hopeful lyricism on “Shameika” to the playful vocals and clever wordplay on “Rack of His.” Though the album easily could’ve gotten lost amid pandemic madness, fans clung to it throughout quarantine. This is horrorcore hip-hop, but deadly serious rather than cartoonish, an apocalyptic world filled with blood, petrol, drugs and rust where “core snap like yolk, floor crack like joke / More cat eye opens, sky racked like coat”. 21 Savage & Metro Boomin – Savage Mode II, Blockbuster movie sequels typically raise the stakes to go bigger than the original, and 21 Savage & Metro Boomin’s Savage Mode II adheres to the unwritten sequel rule. Just be sure to leave Waxahatchee’s, Katie Crutchfield, now 10 years removed from her place in indie-punk cult favorite P.S. Those expecting another Paramore album were thrown for a loop — Petals for Armor isn’t Riot! BBT Read the full review. The anxiety of anticipation for Fiona Apple’s new album was relieved within its first three minutes and 58 seconds. Soft rock’s poet laureate returned with one of his strongest sets yet, with the coldwave chill that arrived on Ken (2017) now getting right into his bones. The rapper released this debut album 13 years after his first mixtape – it had to be very good to warrant the wait, and it was even better. Like a sky laced with pastel cirrus, it is effervescent and awe-inspiring. But on her third LP, , Price veers closer to classic rock and away from the honky-tonk that once echoed through the Nashville songwriter’s music. “But you don’t need solving — you’re just not what I want.” Allison showed a rare level of vulnerability and reflection on her 2018 debut, Clean, but color theory goes even deeper. 2020 is the year that rock keeps rolling, whatever the world throws at it: here are the best albums of the year so far (Image credit: Future) If you'd picked up a pen at the end of last year and listed the things to look forward to in 2020, you'd have been spoiled for choice. Its plush disco setting evoked the era’s velvet, feathers and static-crackled polyester – cinders at the drop of a lit Vogue. Apple’s lighthearted yet confrontational songs made a terrible year a little easier to process. By Sean Maunier on January 8, 2021 But this album was made following the death of Bruner’s close friend, rapper Mac Miller; its telescoping focus and subaquatic funk perfectly mirrored the tides of grief. With It Is What It is, he exceeded his lofty standards and made his best album yet. The Flaming Lips love grand concepts. Taken as a whole, these choices contain drama, solace, poetry and fire, a fitting selection for a turbulent year, by Ben Beaumont-Thomas and Laura Snapes, Fri 18 Dec 2020 08.07 GMT Composite: Michelle Lotker/Enda Bowe. Price is at her most stunning on the gospel-tinged confessional “Prisoner of the Highway,” in which she reflects on the cost of being an artist on the road while in love and starting a family. Who else has the strength to enlist Josh Homme and Mavis Staples on the same album, much less the same song (“Pulling the Pin”)? “The Old Earth” both accepts unrelenting misery and yearns for a cataclysmic reckoning in which Andrew Craighan’s trademark drawn-out melodies and crushing death-doom dirges become antonyms for dissociation. Dead bodies are largely swapped out for more bands and women, as homicides are in the rearview. Our pick of the best 2020 albums is only 20 long – which seemed an apt number – and therefore still omits plenty of LPs that we have enjoyed this year. Aside from the wrecking ballad Lose You to Love Me, it’s confidently unruffled, taking the Talking Heads-aided oddness of her 2017 single Bad Liar as her template. On, , his storytelling remains gruff and rich with detail, his matter-of-fact lyricism full of unflinching wisdom (“Never marinate on beef you don’t plan on finishing,” he growls on “Patron Saints”) and his grainy production more complex than ever. Still, nothing on, sounds like giving up. Alchemist supplies sparse, loop-driven suites that are alternately grimy and regal, the ominous score to the dope deals or the relaxed, elegant soundtrack to the champagne-stocked yacht cruises those transactions afforded. Bad Bunny turns bossa-nova classic “The Girl From Ipanema” into ‘90s Nintendo trap; blasts eardrums with the rock ending of “Hablamos Mañana;” gets dirty with Jowell & Randy and Ñengo Flow on sonic mash-up “Safaera;” and dresses up in drag for women’s autonomy in the “Yo Perreo Sola” video. He even eases off down to the blues joint for a couple of classic 12-bar stomps, though at a geriatric pace. Pick up the December 2020 issue to discover the Top 20 reissues/archive albums of the year. – D.C. 21 Savage matches Boomin by subtly experimenting with his own delivery — making his menacing, mid-pitched drawl looser and occasionally more melodic. But on her third LP, That’s How Rumors Get Started, Price veers closer to classic rock and away from the honky-tonk that once echoed through the Nashville songwriter’s music. LS Read the full review. Eliot, has developed her solo persona into a captivating and deeply emotive sad-song dynamo. Metro Boomin’s production is grander and more diverse while still retaining his ominous thump. BBT Read more. While they hark back to the heyday of Destiny’s Child with Busy Boy – their heavenly vocal harmonies heavy with knowing as they catch a guy plying several women with his trade – there’s also the striking Wonder What She Thinks of Me, a pained dispatch from the other woman who longs to be the only woman. , Margo Price has often been positioned in outlaw country, flanked by comparisons to Bobbie Gentry and Loretta Lynn. The stakes become entirely her own. – Bobby Olivier, Few artists could convincingly cover Korn and Carly Rae Jepsen in the same set, and next to zero can conjure both of those acts within a single song. Katie Crutchfield cited alt-country pioneer Lucinda Williams as a crucial influence on Saint Cloud, but the spectre of a more conventional giant is equally hard to ignore. “Burn it to the ground,” she sings. BBT. The Freshman 15: 2020's Best Debut Albums Published: December 14, 2020. Above is Metacritic's list of the 40 best-reviewed albums of 2020, ranked by Metascore. Released in March, Colores won best urban album at the 2020 Latin Grammys, and scored the Colombian superstar a No. - L.S. BBT Read the full review. The concept of Chromatica was unusually light for her: a planet of kindness punks? Released on Valentine’s Day, the album builds upon the artist’s knack for perfectly fusing prog-rock and psychedelic pop. Occasionally, reality intrudes as she sings about the final moments of a person’s life, and her own battle to gain ownership of her back catalogue. But the response to Live Forever was well-earned, following years of grinding and sonic experimentation. BBT Read the full review. along the way), but he never strays too far from the soulful, house-inspired pop songcraft he’s mastered on these past two albums. Considering the dramatic origins of her third album – lupus, a kidney transplant, splitting from Justin Bieber and the Weeknd, rehab for her mental health – Gomez could justifiably have released an hour of equally high-intensity bloodletting, but Rare abides by the maxim “when it’s hot, write it cold”. The gauzy synths of “Borderline” attempt to hide loneliness, and “Breathe Deeper” is a funkified sigh of relief. She had spent a few years off the pulse with try-hard Kiss Me Once (2014) and Nashville-inspired, retirement-tempting Golden (2018). This year was an exercise in being dressed up with nowhere to go, but Jessie Ware edged us toward the dance floor anyway with her mirrorball-blessed fourth album, What’s Your Pleasure? Alchemist supplies sparse, loop-driven suites that are alternately grimy and regal, the ominous score to the dope deals or the relaxed, elegant soundtrack to the champagne-stocked yacht cruises those transactions afforded. The same goes for power ballad “I’d Die For You,” where she parallels a soaring Stevie Nicks. Authority figures from warmongers to the Twitterati are dispensed with as the duo seem to embrace chaos as a means of making change.