Best Songs of 2020
One bright spot in the dark cloud of lockdown was having time to dive into new music. Over the last eleven months I’ve listened to 121 albums released in 2020 and another 60 released in previous years that I’d never heard before. I've consumed more new music this year than (I think) any other year of my life. And I can’t imagine I’ll be able to do this again. Perhaps in another post I’ll discuss the 60 albums from previous years. But here I want to talk about the 121 albums I heard that were released in 2020.
I feel like it's impossible to fully digest 121 albums. But I tried to listen to all of them at least twice (though, in the interest of transparency, I admit, some I heard once all the way through). I'm very confident in my top 40. Each of those albums got multiple listens in different contexts: headphones, while writing, while walking, while cooking, while sitting quietly and listening, etc.
The rest are more "first impressions rankings," if you will. I think of them in groupings or tiers more than pure, numerical rankings. I've divided them into tens for reading ease. That doesn't represent literal tiers. The idea is that maybe I would rank them differently over time but they would be in roughly the same grouping or block of ten. I considered doing them alphabetically to illustrate this but decided that it was best to keep them how I had them, in first impression “ranking” order. Everything below from 41-121 is in the right "group" more or less, but I the exact number could shift up or down depending on my mood or the time of day or which drink I’m enjoying while listening.
I look forward to keeping a lot of these albums in regular rotation. I look forward to some of these albums coming back and surprising me over the next decade. This was a fun journey. And necessary.
This was a weird year for so many reasons. But I'm truly grateful for the chance to dive in and explore new music in a way that I've never been able to do previously. I've always loved music. And yet it's an artform that I haven't given as much time and attention as others like film, television, or theater.
I think it's because of my obsessive tendencies. I tend to find something I love and hold on to it for as long as possible. Most years I'm lucky to get 10 albums because I can't stop listening to the ones I love the most. In that way, this endeavor was inspirational and humbling. Comfort zones and predispositions were pressed and exposed. I learned a lot about music, about what moves me, and about myself — not only as a consumer of art, but as a maker of art as well. But maybe the biggest takeaway is that my regular joke that "all songs would be better with a banjo" is actually 100% true.
The Best 121 Albums of 2020 Ranked:
Untitled (Black Is) - Sault
Fetch The Bolt Cutters - Fiona Apple
Gigaton - Pearl Jam
RTJ4 - Run The Jewels
On My Own - Lera Lynn
Blue Eyes, The Harlot, The Queer, The Pusher & Me - Waylon Payne
Lianne La Havas - Lianne La Havas
Kitchen Sink - Nadine Shah
Such Pretty Forks in the Road - Alanis Morissette
Hey Clockface - Elvis Costello
That's How Rumors Get Started - Margo Price
Hearts Town - The War and Treaty
It Is What It Is - Thundercat
Gaslighter - The Chicks
LP2 - Lo Tom
Americana - Grégoire Maret / Romain Collin / Bill Frisell
Saint Cloud - Waxahatchee
Live Forever - Bartees Strange
As Long As You Are - Future Islands
Bad Vacation - Liza Anne
Dias Raros - Melenas
Far From Home - Aubrie Sellers
Suite For Max Brown - Jeff Parker
Women in Music Pt. III - HAIM
SAWAYAMA - Rina Sawayama
Reunions - Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
Asterisk the Universe - John Craigie
Old Flowers - Courtney Marie Andrews
The Waterfall II - My Morning Jacket
Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was - Bright Eyes
Set My Heart on Fire Immediately - Perfume Genius
On the Tender Spot of Every Calloused Moment - Ambrose Akinmusire
Grae - Moses Sumney
Moral Panic - Nothing But Thieves
songs - Adrianne Lenker
Angular Blues - Wolfgang Muthspiel, Scott Colley, Brian Blade
AUGUST - Lewis Del Mar
Impossible Weight - Deep Sea Diver
Sundowner - Kevin Morby
My Love is a Hurricane - David Ramirez
Source - Nubya Garcia
Ascension - Sufjan Stevens
Wake UP! - Hazel English
Punisher - Phoebe Bridgers
For Their Love - Other Lives
Summerlong -Rose City Band
The Universal Want - Doves
Sister - Puss N Boots
The Loves of Your Life - Hamilton Leithauser
McCartney III - Paul McCartney
World On the Ground - Sarah Jarosz
Homegrown - Neil Young
Love - Torgeir Waldemar
folklore - Taylor Swift
After Hours - The Weeknd
El Dorado - Marcus King
Transmigration Blues - The Dead Tongues
Rough and Rowdy Ways - Bob Dylan
A Hero's Death - Fontaines D.C.
Amazones Power - Les Amazones d'Afrique
Future Nostalgia - Dua Lipa
evermore - Taylor Swift
Song For Our Daughter - Laura Marling
Sideways to New Italy - Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever
La vita nuova - Christine and the Queens
Cuttin' Grass Vol. 1 (Butcher Shoppe Sessions) - Sturgill Simpson
Cuttin' Grass Vol. 2 (Cowboy Arms Sessions) - Sturgill Simpson
Old Wow - Sam Lee
What's Your Pleasure? - Jessie Ware
Modern Dead - Denai Moore
Old Time Feeling - S.G. Goodman
Logan Ledger - Logan Ledger
Earth - EOB
Plastic Hearts - Miley Cyrus
Letter To You - Bruce Springsteen
Likewise - Frances Quinlan
Valentine - Bill Frisell
Petals For Armor - Hayley Williams
Rose In The Dark - Cleo Sol
how i'm feeling now - Charli XCX
Bonny Light Horseman - Bonny Light Horseman
UR FUN - Of Montreal
Strange Fascination - Chatham County Line
What's New Tomboy? - Damien Jurado
Saturn Return - The Secret Sisters
Whole New Mess - Angel Olsen
Thank You Ancestor Finger - Harper's Jar
Painted Shield - Painted Shield
TO LOVE IS TO LIVE - Jehnny Beth
Muzz - Muzz
Sugaegg - Bully
Getting Into Knives - The Mountain Goats
Total Freedom - Kathleen Edwards
Are You Gone - Sarah Harmer
Expectations - Katie Pruitt
Folk N' Roll, Vol 1: Tales of Isolation - J.S. Ondara
The New Abnormal - The Strokes
American Death Squad (EP) - Jeff Ament
Straight Songs of Sorrow - Mark Lanegan
Notes On a Conditional Form - The 1975
The Unraveling - Drive-By Truckers
I Grow Tired But Dare Not Fall Asleep - Ghostpoet
It Was Good Until It Wasn't - Kehlani
Aporia - Sufjan Stevens
Hannah - Lomelda
Eclipse - Addy
I'm Your Empress Of - Empress Of
There Is No Other... - Isobel Campbell
Neon Cross - Jaime Wyatt
Manic - Halsey
Beginners - Christian Lee Hutson
color theory - Soccer Mommy
Heavy Light - U.S. Girls
Roisin Machine - Roisin Murphy
Cold Water - Medhane
From Liberty Street - Mapache
Invisible People - Chicano Batman
3.15.20 - Childish Gambino
Music To Be Murdered By - Eminem
Western Swing & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs - Colter Wall
Marigold - Stu Larsen
