Over what will likely be the next few years I’m going to be ranking and reviewing the top 5 albums - plus a fair few extras - according to users on rateyourmusic.com (think IMDB for music) from every year from 1960 to the present. If you want to know more, I wrote an introduction to the ‘challenge’ here. You can also read all the other entries I’ve written so far by heading to the lovely index page here.

Welcome to 1999, the year I started primary school, the year war started in Kosovo after Yugoslavia's president Slobodan Milosevic clamped down on the province, massacring and deporting ethnic Albanians, the year Nelson Mandela stepped down, the year everyone freaked out about the Y2K bug, the year everyone partied like it was… well….

Our lovely rateyourmusic.com masses rated the following albums as the year’s top five:

#1 Sigur Rós - Ágætis byrjun
#2 Fiona Apple - When the Pawn
#3 Mos Def - Black on Both Sides
#4 Gustavo Cerati - Bocananda
#5 The Roots - Things Fall Apart

And I’ll add a bunch from further down the list:

#6 Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile
#7 Opeth - Still Life
#8 The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
#9 Built to Spill - Keep It Like a Secret
#10 American Football - American Football
#23 Tom Waits - Mule Variations
#27 Advantage Lucy - Fanfare

And from NPR’s best female albums of all time list, we’ll take Sleater-Kinney’s The Hot Rock.

Let’s finish of the 90s in style.

“Still Life is the fourth studio album by Swedish progressive metal band Opeth. In 2014, TeamRock put Still Life at #83 on their "Top 100 Greatest Prog Albums Of All Time" list with Jordan Griffin stating that it is "still regarded by many fans as a career high point, Still Life’s deft blend of beauty and brutality was lauded by metal and prog fans. Opeth’s first true classic.". Loudwire placed the album at #54 on their "Top 90 Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Albums of the 1990s" list commenting that Opeth closed out the 90s with their strongest album yet.In 2021, it was named one of the 20 best metal albums of 1999 by Metal Hammer magazine.” - Wikipedia

Still Life is a concept album, following the narrative of someone banished from their hometown due to a difference of faith. This is quite hard to pick up on amongst the unintelligible roars that Mikael Åkerfeldt’s vocals generally consist of. The album is a great mix of brutal riffs, and more delicate clean and intricate guitar sections (Benighted a fine example of this). Once again, it’s never going to be my favourite album due to the roaring and overly theatrical vocals, but I did thoroughly enjoy this, and I can see how influential it is.

Song Picks: Benighted

7/10

12. American Football

American Football

“American Football, also known retrospectively as LP1, is the debut studio album by the American emo band of the same name. American Football was positively received by critics and US college radio stations, but the band split up soon after its release. The album has since received further critical acclaim and attained cult status and is today considered one of the most important math rock and Midwest emo records of the 1990s.” - Wikipedia

‘Never Meant’ is a masterpiece, the next three tracks are superb, and then it kind of meanders to a nice warm finish, with nothing else being particularly memorable. I feel like it’s an album to get lost in, but it’s just never quite pulled me in enough for that to happen. At times sublime, always pretty, but occasionally a bit unexciting.

7.5/10

“The Hot Rock is the fourth studio album by the American rock band Sleater-Kinney. The Hot Rock marks a considerable change in the band's sound, veering into a more relaxed and gloomy direction than the raucous punk rock style of its predecessors. The lyrical themes of the album explore issues of failed relationships and personal uncertainty. The album received positive reviews from music critics, who praised the songwriting and the vocal and guitar interplay between band members Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein.” - Wikipedia

This is a really dynamic album, with more vocal range and complex instrumental arrangements. The great riffs are still there, but they’re now backed by more intricate beats from Janet Weiss, more varied songwriting in general, and great guitar interplay from Tucker and Brownstein. It all adds up to another kick ass album from the band, but one with a bit more pizzazz. It also feels like the entirety of 2000s indie’s riffs were probably based off the ones on this album in some way. I still don’t love the more bellowed vocals, I find them a bit monotone, but it’s a minor gripe.

Song Picks: Start Together, Burn Don’t Freeze, God is a Number

8/10

“Bocanada (Puff) is the second solo album by Argentine rock musician Gustavo Cerati. The album, an eclectic mix of neo-psychedelia and trip hop with a variety of styles, is considered by critics and fans as a highlight in Cerati's career and one of his best albums. His first album release after the breakup of Soda Stereo, Bocanada followed Cerati's time with the groups Plan V and Ocio, two bands oriented towards electronic music. Bocanada is mostly an electronic music album, with an art pop, trip hop, and neo-psychedelia sound, making a huge change of Cerati's classic pop rock sound and influences. Similar to other artists of trip hop scene like Massive Attack or Portishead, several songs use one or more samples.” - Wikipedia

Considered one of the most important influences in Latin rock, Bocanada is an album that ties together his rock background and contemporary electronic influences. Tracks like Puente are fairly straight rock numbers (though very good ones), while most tracks lean much more into the electronic side of things, clearly taking influence from the trip-hop scene, with simple, tunneling beats. Cerati’s vocals have an enticing huskiness to them, but they also sound like some lost genius from the 60s, his Beatles influences being obvious. The production and instrumental variation doesn’t always feel that cohesive, but the variety is exciting, and Cerati’s enticing melodies sung with the slight haziness of that glorious album art are the wonderful glue that holds it all together.

Song Picks: Rio Babel, Perdonar es Divíno, Paseo Inmoral

8.5/10

9. Keep It Like a Secret

Built to Spill

“Keep It Like a Secret is the fourth studio album released by American indie rock band Built to Spill. After feeling burned out from constructing the lengthy songs on his previous album, Perfect from Now On, Doug Martsch made a conscious decision to write shorter, more concise songs for Keep It Like a Secret.” - Wikipedia

Keep it Like a Secret is Built to Spill cut up into more bite-sized chunks. Martsch’s twisting riffs are still there, the vocals are still infectious, and the the jam element is still evident, even if it has been cut down significantly. Speaking of which, the final track, Broken Chairs, has a jam outro which is one of my favourite ways for an album to end. If Perfect from Now On was standard Weetabix, Keep it Like a Secret is those bite-sized ones with chocolate in. Just as nice, some might even prefer them, but they’re probably a tad less wholesome.

Song Picks: The Plan, Center of the Universe, Broken Chairs, Sidewalk, Else

8.5/10

“Mule Variations is the thirteenth studio album by American musician Tom Waits. It was Waits' first studio album in six years, following The Black Rider (1993). Mule Variations won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album and was nominated for Best Male Rock Performance for the track "Hold On". It has sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide. In 2012, the album was ranked number 416 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Upon its release, Mule Variations received widespread critical acclaim. AllMusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine stated that "the album uses the ragged cacophony of Bone Machine as a starting point, and proceeds to bring in the songwriterly aspects of Rain Dogs, along with its affection for backstreet and backwoods blues, plus a hint of the beatnik qualities of Swordfish.” - Wikipedia

That bloke from AllMusic above pretty much sums it up. Mule Variations feels like a combination of everything that’s come before from Waits. It’s packed full of great songs; growling vocals; percussive, ramshackle production and a sense of sincerity. I think the fact it’s a Tom Waits melting pot means it lacks some of the distinct character that Waits’ albums from his famous trilogy had, but this is still the kind of album any songwriter would kill to write. I think you could also make a pretty strong argument that this features, as a whole, his best vocal performances on a single record. Basically, I can’t fault it other than by saying it’s not quite as good as Rain Dogs, but considering that’s now one of my favourite albums, that doesn’t mean much.

Song Picks: Hold On, Get Behind the Mule, Picture in a Frame, Georgia Lee, Filipino Box Spring Hog

9/10

7. Emergency & I

The Dismemberment Plan

“Emergency & I is the third studio album by American indie rock band the Dismemberment Plan. At its release, the album was met with critical acclaim, receiving praise for its instrumental performances and lyrics. Initially released on CD, Barsuk Records reissued Emergency & I in vinyl format for the first time on January 11, 2011 where it received further praise from critics and listeners, with many calling it a landmark indie rock album and the band's best release.” - Wikipedia

Emergency & I feels like a confluence of alt-rock, prog rock, emo and punk which then splits out again, influencing countless records well into the 2000s and 2010s. Although Morrison had aimed to make the album less wacky, it still has plenty of wackiness to it. It also has a refreshingly optimistic world view, something not all that common in this style of music. Apparently inspired by the birth of his sister's daughter, and the death of their father, Morrison was keen to get into more real life topics, but to address them in a less self-absorbed manner which is again, refreshing. Emergency & I gets crazier as it goes on, like a speeding car gaining a little too much confidence in the corners (and nearly crashing on Girl O’Clock in particular) finishing with a perfect mix of catchy choruses, bouncy riffs, restless time-signatures, and energetic. slightly unhinged vocals. It’s a ride.

Song Picks: Memory Machine, The City, Back and Forth, Girl O’Clock

9/10

“The Fragile is the third studio album by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released as a double album. Looking to depart from the distorted production of their previous album, The Downward Spiral, the album features elements of ambient and electronic music within a wide variety of genres. The album continues some of the lyrical themes from The Downward Spiral, including depression and drug abuse. The album notably contains more instrumental sections than their previous work, with some entire tracks being instrumentals. The Fragile is also one of the band's longest studio releases, clocking in at nearly 1 hour and 45 minutes long.

Upon release, critics applauded the album's ambition and composition, although some criticised its length and perceived lack of lyrical substance. However, in the years following its release, it has come to be regarded by many critics and listeners to be among the band's best work.” - Wikipedia

Pitchfork gave this a paltry 2.0 in 1999, and then an 8.7 in 2017, which I think is fine. Two different people reviewed it, which just re-emphasises (shock!) this is all subjective opinion, which, again, is fine. My subjective opinion is that this thing slaps. Maybe I’m mad, but this thing sounds very nu-metal to me. It’s 1 hour 44 of face-smashing riffs with simple melodies growled over the top through a very loud transistor radio. Trent Reznor essentially says it’s about the chaos of his existence when struggling with drug abuse and depression, but it sounds more like a cohesive statement than that makes out. As it’s final, simple and targeted chaos ends, I can just see Trent Reznor dropping his mic, exhausted that he’s let all his demons out. At the same time, he’s inadvertently rendered much of the heavier music that followed in the 2000s a bit redundant.

Song Picks: The Wretched, We’re In This Together, La Mer, Where Is Everybody, The Mark Has Been Made

9/10

“When the Pawn... is the second studio album by the American singer-songwriter Fiona Apple. In 2010, Spin named the album the 106th-greatest of the last 25 years, and Slant Magazine named it the 79th best album of the 1990s. The album received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Alternative Album. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked When the Pawn... at number 108 on its "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.” - Wikipedia

The album title, which is posted out below in full (yes, that’s all the title) is a response to an unflattering piece Spin wrote about her in 1997.

When the pawn hits the conflicts he thinks like a king
What he knows throws the blows when he goes to the fight
And he'll win the whole thing 'fore he enters the ring
There's no body to batter when your mind is your might
So when you go solo, you hold your own hand
And remember that depth is the greatest of heights
And if you know where you stand, then you know where to land
And if you fall it won't matter, cuz you'll know that you're right

When the Pawn... is an album that sounds unlike anything else, and yet features very accessible and mature songwriting. The production choices give space to Fiona’s deep vocals, and everything pulls in the same direction: just the right amount of embellishment and never over-dramatic. It is what it is. It feels like the musical equivalent of that hyper-realistic film about a slice of life that hits harder than the one with a million special-effects about the future of mankind. I’m not sure you’ll ever necessarily be singing along, but somehow - even though the songs are not particularly complex - it never loses its significant intrigue. It’s hard to describe - but you owe it to yourself to listen.

Song Picks: Limp, Paper Bag, Fast as You Can

It’s hard to find much about Advantage Lucy online, besides the fact that this is their debut album, and that they were initially called ‘Lucy van Pelt’ after the Peanuts character, but changed to their current name due to copyright concerns. I want to thank the rateyourmusic.com community for enlightening to me to this bundle of joy.

While it’s in no way ground-breaking it’s just so darn ‘nice’ that I have completely fallen in love with it. Much like reading the Peanuts comics that inspired their name, listening to their debut fills me with a nostalgic warmth, optimism, and the childhood innocence that the album’s cover portrays. The band’s melodies are happy, and just the right side of twee, with the instrumentation never being particularly attention grabbing and but always serving the song. Want a feeling of contentment? Get that gentle lighting on and put this on at a room filling volume. Sit back, maybe sketch some cartoon characters on a pad with a nice pencil, stare at the ceiling, whistle along, smile. Relish in the beauty that music, and the sheer amount of it us humans have made for each other, really is rather wonderful. I can see myself putting this one on regularly for as long as the world lets me.

Song Picks: Armond, Metro, So,

“Things Fall Apart is the fourth studio album by American hip hop band the Roots. Recording sessions for the album took place at Electric Lady during 1997 to 1998, coinciding with recording for other projects of the Soulquarians collective, including D'Angelo's Voodoo (2000), Erykah Badu's Mama's Gun (2000), and Common's Like Water for Chocolate (2000). According to Spin magazine, the album became a landmark moment for the Roots and the collective, as it "swelled the Roots clique into a movement-style posse." - Wikipedia

Thee album has been considered by music writers as the Roots' breakthrough album, earning praise from major publications and critics, while becoming the group's first record to sell over 500,000 copies. It includes the song "You Got Me", which won the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, while Things Fall Apart was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album of the same year, losing to Eminem for The Slim Shady LP. Rolling Stone called it a "top-flight record", while AllMusic cited it as "one of the cornerstone albums of alternative rap." The album takes its title from Chinua Achebe's novel of the same name.” - Wikipedia

The Roots are always known as a hip-hop ‘band’, and that’s definitely something that distinguishes them from many other hip-hop artists who are more apt to put together a bunch of samples than play instruments. But on Things Fall Apart, the Roots blend more into that more traditional hip-hop sound, with Questlove’s beats seemingly put through a food processor, while the bass lines wobble like something synthesised on Pro Tools, rather than played by the laid back maestro Hub, who sadly died in 2021. On the hit You Got Me (you’ll know it trust me) everything is so relaxed it’s impossible not to bop from side to side, lost in the groove as Black Thought raps in the pockets with the smooth flow of an angrier Nas. Questlove’s drums tap, tap, tap and skitter like the restless limbs of a being that is actually at its core very relaxed. Things Fall Apart is lyrically dense, but it’s the production that sets it apart. Questlove’s drum grooves are some of the best in hip hop, and the way they work with Hub’s chatty basslines has me hop-stepping on pretty much every track. They’re cut down to their essential elements, Questlove’s snare sounding almost like a clap, Hub’s bass so low it’s underground, the guitars and key stabs as precise as a laser. It’s perfect, and yet human.

Song Picks: You Got Me, Don’t See Us

9/10

“Black on Both Sides is the debut solo studio album by American rapper Yasiin Bey, then known as Mos Def. Released after his successful collaboration Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star, Black on Both Sides emphasises live instrumentation and socially conscious lyrics. Black on Both Sides received universal acclaim from critics.” - Wikipedia

Black on Both Sides feels prophetic, not since Nas’ Illmatic have I listened to hip-hop so buttery smooth and clever. The beats are laid back, the vocals more creamy than tart, and the lyrics deft and intelligent - written by a man who seems to see everything from a bird’s eye view. In an era of gangsta-rap and egotistical, self-interested rap (not that there’s anything wrong with those), it’s refreshing to have something like Black on Both Sides, which says it like it is. It being more or less everything - doing so in a manner that is pretty much irresistible, with beats that got me boppin’ like it’s 1994.

Song Picks: Hip Hop, Love, Speed Law, Rock ‘n’ Roll

9.5/10

“Ágætis byrjun (A good beginning) is the second studio album by Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós, Ágætis byrjun represented a substantial departure from the band's previous album Von, with that album's extended ambient soundscapes replaced by Jónsi Birgisson's cello-bowed guitar work and orchestration, using a double string octet amongst other chamber elements.”

Ágætis byrjun was a commercial and critical breakthrough for the band. It won numerous awards, and has appeared on multiple critics' lists of the best albums of the 2000s.” - Wikipedia

Ágætis byrjun sounds otherworldly. Birgisson playing the guitar with a cello-bow is probably the most famous aspect of Sigur Rós‘ sound, but it’s his falsetto singing and the general atmosphere they create that really pulls them apart. He hits some frankly daft notes, and his falsetto vocals give the whole thing an angelic, ethereal feel, but without the religious connotations that come with that. It’s one of those albums that changes the hue of the world when you put it on, but also seems to make everything float. It’s an anti-gravity album, a spiritual journey for those of no religion. I don’t believe in god, nor do I feel there’s any grand meaning to our existence beyond the one we give it and the effect we have on those around us, but I can listen to this and feel aconnection with everything around me. Not necessarily in a euphoric way, but just that, a connection. It feels like a reminder that everything and everyone is a minuscule cog in a ginormous, random machine. And I’ve always found that pretty glorious. It sounds like nothing else, it’s its own thing, a glorious, emotive gift.

I’ve said this before of other albums, but this feels like another where the word ‘magical’ feels completely appropriate.

Song Picks: Svefn-G-Englar, Staralfur, Flugufrelsarinn

9.5/10

While I decide on my favourite album from every year in the past in this challenge, I’m also going to keep track of my favourite albums in years as I live them. This will be done a little differently to my other lists, mainly in that there’ll be more albums and less writing, but I’ll still review and include the top 10 albums according to rateyourmusic.com’s users for at least some consistency. I’ll also be sure to include any of the most critically well received albums, by grabbing the top rated albums from albumoftheyear.org; any that come high in my favourite online music reviewers’ estimations that aren’t already included; as well as, of course, anything else that I’ve enjoyed. Essentially, we should have a pretty solid list of what’s had the most buzz in 2020, both from critics’ and more general listeners’ perspectives.

Well 2020 was a year wasn’t it? But let’s not talk about all that, let’s focus on the music. So before we go onto the full list, here’s what our lovely rateyourmusic.com users rated as their top 10 albums of 2020:

#1 The Microphones - Microphones in 2020
#2 Ichiko Aoba - WIndswept Adan
#3 Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters
#4 Clipping - Visions of Bodies Being Burned
#5 Jessie Ware - What’s Your Pleasure?
#6 DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ - Charmed
#7 Moor Mother & Billy Woods - Brass
#8 Run the Jewels - RTJ4
#9 Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin Kynsi
#10 Charli XCX - How I’m Feeling Now

Those ten will be thrown into the mixer with 27 others. Let’s see who comes out the victor shall we?

What'sPleasure.jpg — 37. What’s Your Pleasure?

Jessie Ware

Undeniably well written and produced, and with plenty of catchy songs. It just didn’t feel exciting enough to keep me interested for its over 50 minute duration, often losing my attention by the final third.

Song Picks: Soul Control

6.5/10

Perhaps a little twee, but this is refreshingly positive, vocal led electronic music to warm the soul.

SP: What If, Ring, Free

7/10

Visionsofbodiesbiengburned — 35. Visions of Bodies Being Burned

clipping.

Clipping’s follow up and second part to 2019’s There Existed an Addiction to Blood creates another memorable horrorscape, which at times is more clever than affecting. You’ll be kept on your toes for the album’s 52 minute length, which features some truly memorable, at times cataclysmic moments (that pounding percussion on Something Underneath for example), but at times its doors are so meticulously crafted and complex it can be hard to work out how to get in.

Song Pick: Say the Name, Something Underneath

7/10

**34. Charmed**

**DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ**

A three hour trip through a gently euphoric land of colourful sweets and sherbet. At times unflinchingly cheesy and repetitive, but always charming. A chilled trance hug that’ll help replace that sad mist with a happier, yet equally unclear one.

Song PIcks: Pool Party, I Want You 2 Know, How Did You Know?, Charmed Life

7/10

Fleet Foxes’ fourth album is as pleasant and calming as the lapping of the sea on your toes at the beach. It blends into the background among some of the year’s other releases as it’s not the most memorable record, but there is an inescapable warmth to the sound and songwriting here.

Song Picks - Wading in the Waist-High Water, I’m Not My Season, Quiet Air/Gioia

7/10

The Strokes are back with their most enjoyable record for a while. Those warm fuzzy vocals, those catchy melodies, that breezy guitar sound. It’s all had a bit of a 2020 refresh, but the early 2000s soul is still there.

Song Picks: The Adults are Talking, Brooklyn Bridge To Chorus, Bad Decisions, Not the Same Anymore

7.5/10

The New Zealand extreme metal band’s sixth album is technically astounding, has so many time signatures you’ll find yourself in a perpetual state of confusion, and roars like a beast having a rather intense fit. It growls, it pounds, it thunders, but it never breaks, walking off again at the end of this spectacular 60 minute display unharmed, as if that earth-shattering display was simply in its DNA. It’s as challenging and full on as that description sounds though, so not for the faint hearted.

Song Picks - Stare into Death and be Still, Drawn into the Next Void , Dissolved Orders

7.5/10

Nicolas Jaar’s livelier side project continues to walk the tightrope between danceable and intriguing, never quite falling off to either side. Infectiously inventive.

Song Pick: Fantasy, You (forever)

7.5/10

saint cloud.jpg — 29. Saint Cloud

Waxahatchee

Waxahatchee’s fourth album already feels like a country and folk classic, an album with a beautiful, polished sheen. Nothing is done which doesn’t aid the song. Things are kept simple, straight and honest, and it’s fitting that an album about recovering from alcoholism should leave you feeling so emotionally cleansed. Nigh on impossible as it would have been, I just wish the latter half lived up to the first.

Song Picks - Oxbow, Can’t Do Much, Fire

7.5/10

The debut album by Canadian Micah Visser is an album he himself has said is about “growing up, moving on, and everything that happens in between”. The lyrics are simple and relatable and musically it’s full of thick synth lines with the attitude of distorted guitars. These are songs you can imagine playing as university students stand arm in arm in the middle of the dance-floor, eight £1 pints down, singing their lungs out, staring at the lights in the ceiling.

Song Picks : Keeping Up, Dear Megan, Your List, Making Peace with Suburbia

8/10

Rapper Billy Woods and activist/poet Moor Mother combine to create a dark, mysterious record that floats outside of definition. Rumbling along like a lost woolly mammoth the pairs’ words and sounds conjure up an image of a lost past.

Song Picks: Furies, The Blues Remembers Everything

8/10

The Swedish electronic duo have created quite probably the year’s most euphoric release. There’s nothing all that new here, but it’s a brilliant distillation of hand raising synth lines, electronic music tropes and melodic dreams, seemingly hoovering any negativity from your body like a despondency Dyson.

Song Picks: Portland, Attic, Arresten

8/10

FutureNostalgia — 25. Future Nostalgia

Dua Lipa

As the title suggests, this is a very current take on nostalgic genres such as disco, funk, synth-pop etc. Dua Lipa focuses on catchy songs about ‘dancing and having fun and being free and being in love’ while also making sure the whole thing has a cohesive feel. Needless to say, she’s succeeded, the sound palette is varied enough to keep it interesting while still sounding like a neat package. It’s rammed with bangers, and for its 37 minute duration you do indeed feel rather free.

Song Picks: Don’t Start Now, Cool, Physical, Love Again, Boys Will Be Boys

8/10

Un Canto por Mexico.jpg — 24. Un canto por México Vol. 1

Natalia Lafourcade

You sure as hell can’t fly to Mexico this year, but this gets you stupendously close. Lafourcade’s collection of covers and new versions of her older songs shines with all the joy and beauty of the sun on a cobbled Mexican street; bursting with life, melody and history.

Song Picks - Veracruz, Y No Vivo por Vivir , Mi Tiearra Veracruzana, Cucurrucucu Paloma

8/10

Mac Miller died two years ago as the result of an accidental drugs overdose in 2018. Circles was being worked on at the time. Posthumously completed and released by Miller’s producer, Jon Brion, the album is tastefully done, with perfectly subtle production to match Mac Miller’s relaxed sound. With a voice as smooth as polished marble, it’s the perfect lazy Sunday listen. A quietly sad and introspective goodbye from a true talent.

Song Picks - Circles, Blue World, Good News

8/10

Japanese folk singer-songwriter Ichiko Aoba’s seventh album ebbs and flows, flickers and enchants. The vocals hum like angels and the dense instrumentation sparkles as clearly and crisply as a mountain stream. Windswept Adan is rather hard to put into words, and the picture on the cover does it as much justice as anything. It’s a journey through a mysterious underwater world, where your exhalation becomes more than the exiting of oxygen, but the temporary glitter of a passed moment.

Song Picks: Dawn in the Adan, Sagu Palm’s Song

8/10

It’s difficult to call something so lo-fi a ‘wall of sound’ but within it’s limited frequency range Im Wald is a relentless storm by the Swiss one man band determined to make a racket. 2 hours in length, it sucks you into its ‘landscape of Winter’ with a sound that ceases to become a load of instruments playing as loudly as possible and seamlessly becomes one mass of emotionally affecting noise. Im Wald is an unforgettable ambient black metal experience, one that screams so loud it cleans your soul.

Song Picks - Uber den Baumen, Stimmen im Wald

8/10

setmyheartonfire — 20. Set My Heart on Fire Immediately

Perfume Genius

Perfume Genius’ fifth album feels both humongous - thanks to the engrossing depth of the production - and intimate - thanks to Hadreas’ wavering, delicate vocals - a combination that at times is so beautiful it somewhat buries the significant substance contained underneath. Set My Heart on Fire Immediately is the musical equivalent of a flowing and captivating interpretive dance.

Song Picks - Whole Life, Nothing at All, Some Dream

8/10

Named after his daughter’s favourite word, Suddenly is the first album to feature Dan Snaith’s vocals on every track. It’s danceable and yet relaxing, and surprisingly introspective. Snaith’s knack for hooks and melody is here in spades, and his vocals add a great intimacy to the songs. The production, as you’d expect, is as smooth as the finest silk.

Song Picks: Sunny’s Time, Home, Like I loved You

8/10

18. Alfredo

Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemis

Freddie Gibbs and the Alchemist combine to create a 35 minute gem packed with bars so quick it’s hard to understand what’s said, but it hardly matters when the flow and rhythm are this good. The production is as slick as an ice-rink, combining with the syrupy smooth raps to create one of the year’s most immediately enjoyable albums.

Song Picks - God is Perfect, 1985, Something to Rap About

8/10

oranssipazuzu — 17. Mestarin Kynsi

Oranssi Pazuzu

The Finnish black-metal band’s fifth album is a dark journey into the belly of a giant orc. Atmospheric, gritty, doomed, and utterly disgusting, it growls with the anger of someone dying a prolonged and pointless death.

Song Pick: Ilmestys

8/10

purplemoonlightpages — 16. Purple Moonlight Pages

R.A.P. Ferreira

Rory Allan Philip Ferreira works with Jefferson Park Boys to create an intricate jazz fuelled hip-hop album. Segal, Carmack and Parvizi’s perfect productions are old-school in their sound, but very much new-school in their alluring complexity. Ferreira’s raps lack the urgency common in the genre, but it’s refreshing to listen to someone behind the beat, someone relaxed, someone not pushing for the mainstream but happy to drift along in a tributary.

Song Picks - LAUNDRY, GREENS, CYCLES, RO TALK

8/10

Swift’s eighth album, and first of two in 2020, is a gentle, constantly catchy, and just rather gorgeous step into storytelling for an artist that has tended to be autobiographical. Lyrically, she’s able to paint with fine brushstrokes, while her pictures are framed by a singular ability to craft endlessly pleasant melodies. A little one note perhaps, but what a lovely note.

Song Picks - Exile, the last great American dynasty, August, this is me trying, epiphany

8/10

Charli XCX’s fourth album, recorded during lockdown, is a serotonin coated glitch wave of pop-gems. Immediately accessible, and yet sparkling with abstract intrigue. A party of a record in a year without parties.

Song Picks - forever, claws, detonate, anthems, c2.0

8.5/10

A Hero's Death — 13. A Hero’s Death

Fontaines D.C.

The fast paced punk of their debut has largely gone, repalced by dreamier, slower and more atmospheric tracks filled out by a massive sounding distorted guitar. Sometimes this humongous sounding production adds a layer of mystery to a beautifully simple song - such as on Oh Such a Spring - other times it makes the whole thing explode through your headphones as in Televised Mind. Catchy and angry, it feels endlessly important.

Song Picks: I Don’t Belong, Oh What a Spring, Televised Mind

8.5/10

The Big Thief lead vocalist and guitarist’s sixth solo album is a record so delicate that it feels like it might crumble under my attempt to describe it, much like a dried leaf will break with the slightest touch. In a year where hugs have been hard to come by, Lenker provides one in the most beautiful musical form, with melodies and acoustic guitar lines as soothing and comforting as a warm fire.

Song Picks: two reverse, anything, half return, dragon eyes

8.5/10

roughnrowdyways — 11. Rough and Rowdy Ways

Bob Dylan

Dylan’s 39th album is probably his best since 1997’s Time Out of Mind. Perfecting the quietly growled vocal he’s had on his last few albums, he weaves lyrics as engaging as any he’s written for some time - and which are the best on any record this year - while backed perfectly by minimalistic and pretty instrumental melodies that never distract the attention from his meticulous poetics. The 17 minute closer, Murder Most Foul, is the year’s best song in my books, and one of the most affecting things Dylan has ever written.

Song Picks - Murder Most Foul, I Contain Multitudes, My Own Version of You, I’ve Made up my Mind to Give Myself to You

8.5/10

Blackis — 10. (Untitled) Black Is

Sault

The mysterious British collective’s third album is their first of two 2020 releases. They don’t interact with the press or on social media, and it’s pretty hard to find out who they are, other than that Inflo produces them. Released a month after George Floyd’s murder, (Untitled) Black Is seems to have been recorded entirely in response. This is music of the resistance, and not the burst of anger Rage Against the Machine variety, but the kind that is always there, simmering beneath the surface. Mixing disco and r&b with the more vintage sounds of blues and soul, all 56 minutes of this album sound timely and yet timeless, classic and yet modern, accessible and yet labyrinthine.

Song Picks: Hard Life, Wildfires, Monsters, Miracles, Pray Up

8.5/10

Run the Jewel’s fourth album is potent mix of raps that flow like gnarled treacle, with lyrics as serrated and sharp as a rambo knife and beats like a bulldozer smashing through a wall (and not the polystyrene type, Boris). A non-stop march of irresistible, infectious anger.

Song Picks - yankee and the brave, ooh lala, holy clamafuck, JU$T, a few words for the firing squad

8.5/10

ewomeninmusicpt3 — 8. Women in Music Pt. III

HAIM

Haim’s third album is another collection of 70s inspired pop gems. The three sisters incorporate new genres, while never losing their characteristic approachable catchiness. Women in Music Pt. III is the kind of album I imagine anyone would like. It’s not at all challenging, but it holds up to deep listens due to its creative production, infectious melodies, and grainy warmth. It’s 2020’s best comfort record.

Song Picks: The Steps, I Know Alone, 3am, I Don’t Wanna

8.5/10

heaventopatorturedmind — 7. Heaven to a Tortured Mind

Yves Tumor

Experimental electronic artist Yves Tumor’s fourth album perfectly mixes the vintage with the modern. It’s concise and yet expansive, soaking up every genre on earth and spitting out the complex mess of what results into surprisingly digestable songs. Heaven to a Tortured mind seems to sparkle in a separate universe, refusing to be defined. Like the superstars of old, Yves Tumor is ploughing his own path, creating a sound completely his own. Quite the achievement in 2020.

Song Picks: Gospel for a New Century, Kerosene

8.5/10

Marling’s other albums, for one reason or another, have always passed me by. Songs for our Daughter however grabbed me immediately. There’s a wonderful depth to her vocals, lyrics and the production. It feels like the album of a woman who’s found herself, and that’s a pretty remarkable thing to listen to. One of the year’s most confident efforts, her delicate vibrato seemingly opening a door right into her soul, which she’s happy to lay out on the floor in one of the best minimalist folk albums for quite some time.

Song Picks - Alexandra, Hold Down, Fortune, For You

8.5/10

Phoebe Bridger’s second album is a journey of melancholoy, delicate, and reverb-drenched beauty. Occasionally exploding to anger from its general sadness, it’s a triumph of affecting and unforgettable songwriting. A musical version of that introspective night you spent alone in the corner of your room on the verge of tears, before waking up the following day with a paralysing numbness to the world.

Song Picks: Garden Song, Kyoto, Halloween, Chinese Satellite, Moon Song, Graceland Too

9/10

The Japanese-British songwriter’s debut sounds like the result of someone throwing nu metal, 2000’s and 90s pop, and a whole host of other genres into a raging cyclone. It opens with quite probably the year’s most cataclysmic pop track, Dynasty, which is followed not long after by the best nu metal track I’ve heard for ages, STFU, with a riff that sounds like a mountain coming to life. Endlessly creative and completely unpredictable, SAWAYAMA is surely the birth of our next pop superstar.

Song Picks: Dynasty, STFU, Paradisin’, Bad Friend

9/10

Fetch the Bolt Cutters is an album of creative confidence, one where Fiona has rarely stopped herself and gone, ‘nah, this sounds like a bad idea,’ but rather followed a song’s path to completion, regardless of how unconventional and odd it might sound to begin with. What results is the rarest of beasts, an album as unique as herself, using music that has come before only as smatterings of influence, while never turning them into a template. Put simply, it’s groundbreaking.

Song Picks: Fetch the Bolt Cutters, Under the Table, Drumset, On I Go

9/10

We needed Melee in 2020. With no live performances since March we needed an album that got pretty close to doing the impossible, bringing the energy of a live show onto a record. Soitsiadis’ vocals are endless body-tensed screams - where it sounds as if his voice could crack on any one, never to work again. Grissom’s lead guitar screeches and flutters like his strings are unable to sit still, and Macinski’s bass marches along as Jacob Hanlon’s drumming flurries and thrashes at breakneck speed like an out of control tornado. In Bolivia, it’s not uncommon to end up driving on what seems like a normal straight road that is actually more than twice as high as the highest mountain peak in the UK, you only notice the marvel of what you’ve just experienced when you get back to sea level and can breathe again. On Melee, there’s so little let-up that this absolute typhoon of energy almost feels normal, until it ends and you return to ‘sea level’ and immediately feel less alive, before impulsively starting the record again, in an addictive need for the energy it provides. In a year where I needed a kick up the arse to break the endless monotony, Dogleg’s debut provided just that, and what a marvel it is.

Song Picks: Kawasaki Backflip, Fox, Headfirst

9.5/10

Elverum returns under his the Microphones moniker for the first time in 17 years in a characteristically experimental effort. A 44 minute song comprised of just two chords, it hums with a delicate beauty. Elverum breezes over lines like “The thing I just realised / For probably the millionth time / That walking with my knees trembling / Is the true state of all things” as if they weren’t bloody gorgeous, setting out his stall and struggle with a mumbled bluntness that’s infinitely refreshing. It breaks the fourth wall in such a way as to make you part of the experience of its creation, and to experience this while listening to the end product puts you into a weird state of timelessness. Then, as your guard drops in this void, you realise someone with Phil Elverum’s platform and success is just as lost as your are, and that you’ll probably both remain just as lost forever, and though you don’t know each other and never will, he feels like your brother. And you sit and stare at the ceiling as the song weaves from that double tracked acoustic guitar to the heavily distorted segments and back out like a boat navigating a sporadic storm, and you realise once again “for probably the millionth time” that you’re just an insignificant piece of sand in a massive universe that doesn’t mean anything, and everything you make will one day be lost, and everything you’ve made will one day be forgotten as if it never existed in the first place. And weirdly this thought makes you smile, because there’s a melancholy freedom in realising “for probably the millionth time” the futility of it all. And you go downstairs and you hug someone in your household. And suddenly their aura feels stronger as you realise, again “for probably the millionth time”, that all that really matters is each other, and that there’s no end, and that sure your search for meaning will never bear fruit, but some fruit will drop from the branches regardless if you just look around once in a while. And then finally, you realise how cheesy that all sounds, but you couldn’t care less. The Microphones in 2020 is 2020’s masterpiece.

9.5/10