The Year in Music, 2020

Best Records of the Year

Song Machine, Season One - Gorillaz
The Prettiest Curse - Hinds
Amazones Power - Les Amazones d'Africa
That's How Rumors Get Started - Margo Price
Punisher - Phoebe Bridgers
RTJ4 - Run The Jewels
Untitled (Black Is) - Sault
Folklore - Taylor Swift
Lost in the Country - Trace Mountains

Honorable Mentions

Cha Cha Palace - Angelica Garcia
We Will Always Love You - The Avalanches
I Made a Place - Will Oldham
Twice as Tall - Burna Boy
Fetch The Bolt Cutters - Fiona Apple
American Head - The Flaming Lips
Mirrored Aztec - Guided By Voices
The Loves of Your Life - Hamilton Leightauser
Serpentine Prison - Matt Berninger
Anime, Trauma, and Divorce - Open Mike Eagle
Untitled (Rise) - Sault
Color Theory - Soccer Mommy
Optimisme - Songhoy Blues
Cuttin' Grass, Vol. 1 - Sturgill Simpson
Sorry You Couldn't Make It - Swamp Dogg
The Slow Rush - Tame Impala
Evermore - Taylor Swift
Heavy Light - U.S. Girls
Saint Cloud - Waxahatchee
What We Drew - Yaeji

So 2020 was a fucked up year, wasn't it? Music felt different. When life is so fully off its axis, a perspective on art is equally as skewed. Though I knew better, I was looking for something more in the music than it could provide, as if anyone recording in 2019 could predict what life would be like in the year those songs would be released. That's unfair expectations.

Despite all that, I was surprised to look back and find so many great records given to us. My list is 29 strong, and 9 of those are what I would say are exceptionally great. Taylor Swift also managed to put out a record in that top tier list. What a weird year. Folklore was the most exciting surprise. I'm as big a fan of Swift as a 40 year old man can be; she just doesn't generally write songs for my demo, I think we can agree. But privately and intimately writing a record with Aaron Dressner was an inspired idea and it really produced. Was Folklore my favorite album of the year? Maybe!

The Gorillaz record this year was more like a collection of singles. Albarn started the year by releasing about a song a month, recorded at odd intervals with a usual eclectic mix of artists. They ended up putting out a collected record of these earlier than I think was the plan, but it all comes together so well. I'm gonna love almost anything Albarn releases, and many of his tracks this year were incredible. In the end, my love of his music really keeps this at the top for me.

It was a very uninspired year for hip hop. Run the Jewels put out another great record, on tier with their best. The intentionally private band Sault put out two solid R&B/Soul records after two even better records in 2019. I liked, but wasn't very impressed with the Childish Gambino record. Burna Boy put out a good album, but not one I'd push on to others. I guess Open Mike Eagle's Anime, Trauma, and Divorce was the second best. I highly recommend it. It's honest and direct.

I've been listening to a lot of world music in the last few years, largely African. But this year didn't seem to produce much that I'd elevate. Les Amazones d'Africa put out a record I highly recommend. And the Songhoy Blues record is wonderful. I'm hoping there were another few great ones I've missed.

And here's my playlist for the best tracks of the year: 2020 Favorite Tracks. As always, it's ordered by the date I first heard each track, to give it a bit of an autobiographical flavor, instead of just ordering by release date. And the other rule is that it includes no more than one track per artist, unless there's some rare partnership release or something.

The Gorillaz tracks "Désolé" and "Momentary Bliss" were probably my favorite tracks of the year. They each got the most listens, by far. Perfect pop tunes that few people in the world are able to produce. "Désolé" has a heartache I really vibed on. "Momentary Bliss" captures the anger we have at today's historical moment, but with a headstrong optimism I want to believe I have. But the one song which really gives me those synaptic chills almost every time I listen to it is the Hinds and CHAI combo track "United Girls Rock'n'Roll Club." It's a track by women and for women and which this guy want's to push further out into the world. More people should know this track. It's for everyone and it's amazing.