My 20 Favorite Records of 2020

Under normal circumstances, this is where I'd take the opportunity to point out that the year has sucked and the world is garbage and we're all gonna die. However, it's gonna take decades of work from the world's best minds -- scientists, political theorists, philosophers, and artists -- to BEGIN to understand what happened this year. Thus, I'm not even gonna try here, no matter how flippantly. What I do know is: 2020 turned me back into a complete sad-sack. I listened to Pink Moon, Time Out of Mind, and From a Basement on the Hill a lot, and instead of listening to new records, I mostly just ate ice cream, drank tequila, and stared at the TV, pausing only to cry softly into my ice cream. So there'll be just one list this year, and you're looking at it. May it help to put your ennui on hold briefly.

#20

Gleemer

Down Through

Dream pop/emo hybrid with a twist of early Red House Painters. Some of the richest guitar tones in recent memory. First time I listened to this was by myself, in a gentle rain, and that's probably the best way to hear it.

#19

Terje Rypdal

Conspiracy

Atmospheric, icy beauty courtesy of my favorite Norwegian jazz guitarist. Conspiracy is a welcome return to Rypdal's classic sound, and holds up next to the best of his catalogue.

I've posted about him before.

#18

Fluids

Ignorance Exalted

Put on your mesh shorts, rip the sleeves off your shirt, and get ready to blast your bis, tris, and guacs, 'cause this shit is fucking heavy. Take Mortician, flip the blastbeat-to-breakdown ratio, and you get Ignorance Exalted.

#17

Bruce Hornsby

Non-Secure Connection

People think it's a joke when I say I love Bruce Hornsby, but it's not. At all. This year, he continued the creative renaissance that began last year with Absolute Zero, leaning further into his abstract tendencies while steering them back towards generally more melodic ground. Whoever thought we'd live to see a Bruce Hornsby album with songs called "Shit's Crazy Out Here" and "Porn Hour"?

#16

The Goners

Good Mourning

70s throwback, horror-themed hard psych in the vein of Uncle Acid, but punk-er. Dueling guitar solos, songs about death, evil, and murder, plus a Dead Moon cover. Total summer backyard beer-drinking tunes.

#15

Asofy

Amusia

Asofy are still one of the most singular black metal (-adjacent) projects going. The generally extremely slow tempos suggest doom metal, and the vocals are all black metal, but there's very little in terms of 'heavy' riffing, and the overall feel is more anxious and expressive than the all-out depressive vibes that blackened doom generally brings.

Asofy - ebYm (2001)

#14

Green / Blue

Green / Blue

An excellent addition to the Jay Reatard/Marked Men school of catchy but sharp-edged punk, that occasionally touches down in sludge-y, grunge-y territory. My homie who first played this for me would want me to mention that half of Green / Blue used to play in The Soviettes, who I still haven't heard.

#13

Boris

NO

I'm so glad that Boris wants to be heavy again, because they are so much better at this kinda thing. NO merges the full-tilt hardcore of (the hardcore version of) Vein with the shoegaze-y textures that they've explored over the past decade or so, and throws in some of the heaviest, most pissed-off sludge they've put together since Amplifier Worship.

Previous Boris posts

#12

Rose City Band

Summerlong

The lazily named Rose City Band is Ripley Johnson of Wooden Shjips and Moon Duo, and it essentially sounds like Moon Duo reimagined as an extremely chill country rock band. Listening to this in the sun with a few friends (safely distanced, of course) with the misters on was one of the few bright spots of my year.

#11

Kate NV

Room for the Moon

Weird, disjointed art pop grooves built on staccato synths and a whole bunch of other elements. Had I made this list before the winter blues began to sink in, this record would surely have placed higher.

#10

Hachiku

I'll Probably Be Asleep

A lush, wondrously constructed sound-world of downtempo, slacker-friendly dream pop. Truly, a wonder of production, and a low-key masterpiece of a debut.

#9

Cloud Nothings

The Black Hole Understands

In which Cloud Nothings drop their harsher tendencies in favor of warm, homespun power-pop, resulting in their most compelling album since Attack on Memory.

#8

Brigid Mae Power

Head Above the Water

Mae Power's previous record, The Two Worlds, was one of my favorite records of 2017, and Head Above the Water represents an undeniable step up. It retains the base sound of jazzy, melancholic folk rock, but leans hard into gorgeous, kaleidoscopic psychedelia.

#7

Imperial Triumphant

Metropolis

Imperial Triumphant's most effective, seamless synthesis of black metal and dark/free jazz yet. They've entered fully uncharted territory, and it's absolutely thrilling to behold. 

#6

Destroyer

Have We Met

My favorite Destroyer record since Kaputt. Creaky vocals intoning poetically awkward lyrics against a widescreen 80s instrumental backdrop. It's beautiful and sad, without taking itself completely seriously.

#5

Hum

Inlet

One of the best surprises of 2020, and pretty much a best-case scenario for a reunion album. It's a throwback to their classic sound but with spacious, modern production and the perfect amount of stylistic expansion -- it's both airier and heavier than their old stuff, and shows an awareness of post-metal while never really sounding anything like it.

Hum - Downward Is Heavenward (1998)

#4

Oranssi Pazuzu

Mestarin kynsi

The reigning kings of psychedelic black metal are still operating at an absolutely dizzying creative peak. Mestarin kynsi is maybe the furthest out they've ever ventured into their krautrock, prog, Italo-horror, and other non-metal tendencies, but it also feels like a refinement -- every song is meticulously composed and realized, and every payoff is exactly where it should be. It's a tall order, but it's probably my favorite Oranssi Pazuzu record.

Oranssi Pazuzu - Kosmonument (2011)

#3

Moses Sumney

græ

A double album exploring the multitudes that make up one Mr. Moses Sumney, via a fusion of art pop/rock, experimental neosoul, and much more. Sumney is clearly operating at a genius level, so writing about his music legit makes me feel dumb, especially because it's impossible to even say what kind of music it really is. But if you like experimental yet accessible music and haven't heard it, you really should.

#2

Andy Shauf

The Neon Skyline

My most listened-to album of the year. A voice like Paul Simon with a Canadian accent over simple but hooky folk rock, and a concept album about a relatively uneventful night out overshadowed by a not-so-long-lost love. Each song is a vignette set either in the present (at the bar) or in our narrator's memory, reliving the dissolution of a relationship. The whole thing gives me kind of an Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind vibe, and it's just so sweet and sad and human and easy to love.

#1

Westerman

Your Hero Is Not Dead

Heavenly sophisti-pop that reminds me of some of my all-time favorite artists -- Arthur Russell, John Martyn, The Blue Nile -- while retaining an undeniable sense of self. Deft, fluid guitar work; smooth, honey-sweet, understated vocals; and stripped-down, synth and drum machine bases. Alternately playful and downcast, knotty and beautiful, with a sense of constant exploration and questioning that ultimately lands on an answer in the album-closing title track. Your Hero Is Not Dead has already helped me through some of the darkest times of 2020, and I expect it to be a reliable companion for years to come.

My 40 Favorite Albums of 2018: Not Black Metal or Doom Metal Edition

You read, reread, and memorized my year-end doom metal top 10. You sat, spellbound, as I listed off my 40 favorite black metal records of the year. And now, I give you the best of the rest. Electronic, death metal, neoclassical, punk, experimental, basic-bish indie rock — all that shit. As always with these lists of mine, no download links 'cause it'd get this place shut down faster than you can say "You can probably find every single one of these on Spotify."

40.

Lawrence

Illusion

Lawrence (aka Dial label-head Peter Kersten) continues to make ambient tech-house in more-or-less the same fashion as he did in the early aughts — minimal, slightly warped, and heavenly.

Previously:

Lawrence - Lawrence (2002)

39.

E L U C I D

Shit Don't Rhyme No More

NYC rapper with a laid-back but off-kilter flow and experimental, noise-addled, but soulful production. I generally prefer rap that just goes super-hard over the artsy stuff — I’ll take DMX over Antipop Consortium every time — but with so many artists coming off as painfully forgettable imitations of Future and Migos, I’ve found my interest drifting back towards the fringes.

38.

Donny McCaslin

Blow.

Jazz-heavy art rock from saxophonist and bandleader of the group of musicians who helped to make David Bowie’s Blackstar such a brilliant swansong. It’s definitely not his first solo album, but it has the feel of a debut, as its song-based, vocal-heavy approach — surely an after-effect of his work with Bowie — stands in sharp contrast to the comparatively traditional jazz records that he's put out over the years.

37.

Ripped to Shreds

埋葬

Ass-annihilating solo US death metal. OSDM-worship with doom undertones and gnarly production.

36.

Wata Igarashi

Niskala

A cosmic trip through arpeggiating synths, pulsing beats, and colorful, hypnotic atmospheres. Only an EP, but I love it too much not to include it.

35.

Less Bells

Solifuge

Ethereal neoclassical from what sounds like a small chamber orchestra led by American violinist Julie Carpenter. Though the instrumentation is largely the same from song-to-song — stately violins, gauzy synths, and wordless choirs — there’s an impressive amount of emotional ground covered, from angelic ambience that would sound appropriate emanating from the gates of heaven, to dramatic, mournful peaks that you might hear playing as a camera pans over a massive battlefield covered in corpses.

34.

Vessel

Queen of Golden Dogs

A mind-melting collision of harsh electronics and chamber/classical music. Red-lining beats and various forms of digital trash intermingled with ethereal choirs, harpsichord, and dissonant string arrangements. The effect is jarring but immensely satisfying.

33.

City Hunter

Deep Blood

Blown-out, ripping, murder-happy hardcore with spooky synth interludes. Don’t gimme that “I’m sick of raw punk” line, 'cause City Hunter musically and aesthetically massacres 99% of their peers.

32.

Dead Can Dance

Dionysus

Dipping deeper and deeper into their seemingly boundless set of influences, Dead Can Dance have more-or-less completely abandoned the idea of being a rock band, and created an awe-inspiring synthesis of countless musical traditions from around the globe.

31.

Arp

Zebra

A shimmering, playful combination of electronic and organic elements. At first resembles something like modern-day krautrock, but gets looser and looser until it’s full-on space-age jazz.

30.

Ilyas Ahmed

Closer to Stranger

Cloudy, psychedelic folk rock. His sound’s a bit less abstract than it once was, but the stoned haze and phenomenal songwriting remains.

Previously:

Ilyas Ahmed - Between Two Skies (2005)

Ilyas Ahmed - Speaking of Shadows (2006)

29.

Undersave

Sadistic Iterations... Tales of Mental Rearrangement

Combines the angular guitar work of Morbid Angel with the lysergic aesthetic of Incantation. Honestly, after a number of listens, I still haven’t quite wrapped my head around this one. It’s not like they’re doing anything particularly groundbreaking — they’re essentially moving around the parts of classic OSDM to create something more modern — but it doesn't sound quite like anything else I've heard.

28.

GosT

Possessor

The best album yet from the best synthwave project currently in operation. Harsh and terrifying, with moments that are much more akin to metal than to anything John Carpenter ever recorded.

27.

Conway

Everybody Is F.O.O.D.

Creepy, borderline horrorcore NY hip-hop. Falls into the same nihilistic lineage as Mobb Deep, but feels more like an evolution of the sound than a throwback.

Previously:

Conway - G.O.A.T. (2017)

26.

Lisa Gerrard & David Kuckhermann

Hiraeth

Another phenomenal solo record from the otherworldly Lisa Gerrard. Essentially sounds like a stripped-down version of the Dead Can Dance record above — here, though, her chill-inducing voice is front-and-center.

Previously:

Lisa Gerrard - The Mirror Pool (1995)

Lisa Gerrard & Patrick Cassidy - Immortal Memory (2004)

25.

Marissa Nadler

For My Crimes

Dark, haunting, ethereal folk from an artist who’s spent the past decade-and-a-half perfecting and expanding the style. For My Crimes is a breakup album at heart, but it sounds and feels more like a collection of murder ballads.

24.

Nahja Mora

As Death

An imposing, meticulously constructed electro-industrial behemoth that finds Nahja Mora somehow entering even denser, more cacophonous sonic territory. Since this is the second time I'm posting about them, in the interest of full disclosure, I should maybe mention that I’ve known one of the dudes in this band since way back when, but 1) we were never that close and 2) I have hella friends in bands, and do you see their albums on here? Nope. Thank u, next.

Previously:

Nahja Mora - The Trees See More (2017)

23.

Kamaal Williams

The Return

Explorative, smooth-as-butter, boogie-flavored jazz-funk straight out of the golden age thereof.

22.

Emma Ruth Rundle

On Dark Horses

Powerful — at times wrenchingly so — song-driven, atmospheric rock. Crystalline guitars give way to overdriven windstorms, with Rundle's haunted voice and cryptic, fantastical musings at their cores.

21.

Rival Consoles

Persona

Colorful, dreamy, synth-driven sounds rooted in techno and deep house, but with ethereal touches and an enveloping atmosphere that takes it far away from the dance floor and into a pair of headphones in a smoke-filled living room.

20.

Conner Youngblood

Cheyenne

Wistful, ornate, R&B-infused indie folk rock. Occupies a similar sonic landscape as the immensely popular self-titled Bon Iver record, but it's smoother, brighter, and has more of a groove. And "Lemonade" might be my favorite song of the year.

19.

Andrew W.K.

You're Not Alone

An expansive musical journey through all of Andrew W.K.’s favorite sonic touchstones — from Genesis to the Ramones to Meatloaf to the Beach Boys — and topped with his most starry-eyed, life-affirming lyrics and ambitious arrangements yet. I personally have never needed Andrew W.K. on the level that I did this year, so the fact that You’re Not Alone just so happened to be truly great was really just a bonus.

Previously:

Andrew W.K. - Party Til You Puke (2000)

18.

Scorched

Ecliptic Butchery

Hands-down, my favorite death metal record of the year. Old-school brutality, doom-y breakdowns, and tinges of horror and the paranormal. Apparently, I'm not looking for a whole lot of innovation from my death metal.

17.

Anenon

Tongue

Breathtaking ambient composed of synth, piano, sax, and field recordings. Remarkable sonic cohesion throughout makes the whole thing play like a patient, extended suite.

16.

Heads.

Collider

Droning, queasily melodic noise rock. Heavy-yet-barely-distorted guitars, understated vocals that at times take on a murmuring, shoegaze-like quality, and a hypnotic, plodding rhythmic consistency that brings to mind the great Lungfish.

15.

The Caretaker

Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 4

Leyland Kirby has an extensive discography based around exploring how the past — both forgotten and remembered — intrudes on the present. While it often comes across as a series of memories-as-musical-vignettes, here it sounds like a panic-ridden onslaught of half-formed memories, coming too fast and too blurry to be interpreted as anything but an overwhelming whole.

Previously:

The Caretaker - Selected Memories from the Haunted Ballroom (1999)

The Caretaker - A Stairway to the Stars (2002)

14.

Arctic Monkeys

Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino

Never got into this band until they brought this weird-ass thing to life. An indie-lounge-glam concept album about life on a luxury resort on the moon. And what’s remarkable isn’t the concept, but that they manage to make an album that's built on such an inscrutable conceit feel so relevant to life here on earth in 2018.

13.

R+R=NOW

Collagically Speaking

Laid-back, R&B and hip-hop-flavored jazz from a ridiculously talented six-piece band assembled by keyboardist Robert Glasper. Synth and vocoder play major roles, which pretty much means that I’m automatically sold.

12.

Brigid Mae Power

The Two Worlds

A breakup album of the highest order. Clever, heartbreaking folk rock with touches of slowcore and jazz-folk á la Van Morrison. I must have listened to this record 25 times this year.

11.

Pusha T

Daytona

Seven tracks, seven absolute bangers. Push T has slid quite smoothly into the role of hard-as-fuck elder statesman, and Kanye “I Can Still Make Good Beats” West crushes it on production. Would have made the top 10 but for the inclusion of an ill-advised guest verse about wearing a MAGA hat from Kanye “I’ve Completely Lost My Mind” West.

10.

Father John Misty

God's Favorite Customer

Father John Misty may be a ham, and seemingly a bit of a prick, but he's also one of the most gifted songwriters currently alive. And with God's Favorite Customer, he's arrived at a rarely-found cross-section of ELO-level tunefulness and Randy Newman-level wit. The two most upbeat tracks ("Mr. Tillman" and "Date Night") both actually made me laugh out loud, while a number of the other songs got me a little verklempt.

9.

Autechre

NTS Sessions 1-4

Eight. Mother. Fucking. Hours. Of. Autechre. Came out back in April and I'm still excited that it even exists.

8.

Steve Tibbetts

Life Of

On his first record in almost a decade, Tibbetts continues with the beautiful, subtle abstractions that we heard on 2010's Natural Causes. Fragmented, texturally rich vignettes for acoustic and electric guitar, piano, and, of course, the tastefully sparse accompaniment of his inseparable percussionist/collaborator/right-hand-man, Marc Anderson.

Previously:
Steve Tibbetts - Steve Tibbets (1977) + Yr (1980)
Steve Tibbetts - The Fall of Us All (1994)
Steve Tibbetts & Knut Hamre - Å (1999)

7.

Beach House

7

Another dream pop tour-de-force from Beach House. Surprise, surprise. They're such a shockingly consistent band that it's almost to their detriment — it's so expected that 7 would be amazing, a lot of you didn't seem to notice that it might actually be their best album. (Note: I swear that I didn't intentionally put this at #7 to be cute, but I like that it happened. It stays.)

6.

Kelly Moran

Ultraviolet

Awe-inspiring experimental abstractions made entirely of prepared piano and synthesizer. Chiming, bell-like notes ring out in flurries against waves of rich, sumptuous chords. One of those hard-to-come-by records that actually feel mentally and physically rejuvenating to listen to.

5.

Nine Inch Nails

Bad Witch

Not sure if y’all have noticed or cared, but Trent Reznor has been in fine form these past few years. Bad Witch is the final installment of an artistically reinvigorating trilogy that he kicked off in 2016, and contains some of the best work Reznor’s done since The Fragile. Catchy, chaotic anthems, paranoid instrumentals, and a pair of songs ("God Break Down the Door" and "Over and Out") that sound like nothing else in the NIN discography, and find Reznor adopting a wavering, intentionally Bowie-esque croon.

4.

Tor Lundvall

A Dark Place

Listening to A Dark Place truly feels like entering another world. It’s a simple enough formula — gentle, pulsing beats, lush, nocturnal synths and drones, and whispery, reverberating vocals — but the effect is so dream-like and completely immersive, you'd be forgiven if you didn't notice that the songs themselves are utterly beautiful and heartbreaking.

3.

Mount Eerie

Now Only

Now Only is a continuation of the work that Phil Elverum began with A Crow Looked at Me: a brutally direct chronicle of his life in the aftermath of his wife Geneviève's death from cancer. His songs find despair and hope in the most minute of details, in a way that's simultaneously plainspoken and poetic. All in all, these two albums amount to arguably the most profound and true-to-life exploration of grief that's ever been committed to tape. If the criteria for this list was 'which album made me cry the most,' this would be at #1 by a wide margin.

Previously:
Mount Eerie - Pts. 6 & 7 (2007)

2.

Oneohtrix Point Never

Age Of

A mind-melting fusion of numerous musical styles and ideas, including cosmic new age, chamber music, glitchy electronics, and auto-tuned pop. Along with its theatrical companion piece MYRIAD, Age Of explores a dystopian vision of humanity's absurd history and an AI-fueled, terminally overpopulated future. I should note, though, that I didn't need to know about any of these weighty concepts to have my goddamn head blown off the first time I heard it.

1.

Low

Double Negative

"It's not the end, it's just the end of hope."

In which Low, with the help of producer B.J. Burton, completely reimagine their sound and land in fascinating, uncharted territory. Could be likened to their Kid A, but that doesn’t really tell the story. There are certainly Low songs in there somewhere — elegant, elegiac, and deeply sorrowful — but they’ve been torn apart, obfuscated, buried, exhumed, and shot through with shards of harsh noise, static, and all other types of glitchy sonics. As anxious and angry as they’ve ever sounded, and one of the best records they've ever made.

Previously:
Low - The Curtain Hits the Cast (1996)
Low - Songs for a Dead Pilot (1997)
Low - Murderer EP (2003)