THE TOP ALBUMS OF 2020

Welcome, at long last, to The Top Albums Of 2020.  It's been a helluva rough ride getting here; it's taken me forever to shake loose how to say what I wanted to say about...anything anymore, but I guess this is a first step in trying to get back into...word...words?  Yeah, words.  My brain doesn't work anymore, but I've still got opinions on music, and I listened to a bunch of it this year, so let's take a look at what the fuck happened in this surreal, impossible year we just lived through.

[Link HERE to the Top Ten Worst Albums Of 2020, which normally would have been in this, but I wrote as many words about that as I did about this, the 100 plus albums I thought were better.  Make of that what you will, and I hope you do!]

MEH

Albums in this tier don't necessarily suck, they may even have a handful of songs I was into, but ultimately they just weren't for me.  

The Alchemist & Freddie Gibbs "Alfredo"
All Them Witches "Nothing As The Ideal"

Bury Tomorrow "Cannibal"
DaBaby "Blame It On Baby"
Daedelus "What Wands Won't Break"
Dance Gavin Dance "Afterburner"
Kesha "High Road"
L.A. Salami "The Cause Of Doubt & A Reason To Have Faith"
Lil Yachti "Lil Boat 3"
Mystery Jets "A Billion Heartbeats"
Now THAT'S What I Call Music! Vol. 74
Oscar Jerome "Breathe Deep"
Sabrina Bellaouel "We Don't Need To Be Enemies"
Son Little "Aloha"
Strong Bad "Hooked On Decemberween"
Sylvan Esso "Free Love"
Teyana Taylor "The Album"
Whitney Rose "We Still Go To Rodeos"
The Who "Who" 

• Alfredo was in my mid-year top ten, but on second listen I could barely make it through.  I've really had a hard time getting into rap this year at all (from 2020 or from the before times).  Once I realized this is just ten songs about coke, I stopped caring.
• BOY was I wrong about DaBaby oversaturating the market.  About a week after I reviewed his album, "Rockstar" hit #1.  Instead of making people sick of him, it solidified his position in pop culture.  It's still thrown together and has too much autocrooning, but there's enough catchy hooks on here to make it tolerable.
• Another album from my mid-year top ten to fall so far from grace was Daedelus's What Wands Won't Break.  I gave this four stars in May, and I honestly can't hear what the hell I saw in this album when I listen to it now.
• I really wanted to like High Road; I really did.  Rainbow was my #1 album of the decade, and Kesha is aces in my book, but wow is this album bad.  I liked four songs, so it doesn't make the bottom bottom, but there's a lot I never need to hear again.
• "Son For Someone" is one of the best songs of the year, but aside from the duet with Lianne La Havas, the rest of Oscar Jerome's Breathe Deep was deeply underwhelming.  (Track four was specifically shit.)
• In my review, I lambasted Teyana Taylor, but really there's more good on The Album than anything in the Worst Of list, and ultimately it has a lot more ambition than I gave it credit for.  

OKAY

Albums in this tier have something to them, but as a whole didn't set my world on fire.  They may have had an all right average through the run time, or ping-ponged between high highs and low lows.

Alex The Astronaut "The Theory Of Absolutely Nothing"
Andrew Bird "HARK!"
The Birthday Massacre "Diamonds"
Bob Mould "Blue Hearts"
Body Count "Carnivore"
Christine and the Queens "La Vita Nuova"
Huey Lewis "Weather"
I Fight Dragons "Canon Eyes"
L'Resorts "Bad Love"
The Lazy Eyes "EP1"
Left At London "Transgender Street Legend Vol. 2" 
Little Sims "Drop 6"
Mac Miller "Circles"
Magic Sword "Endless"
Man Man "Dream Hunting In The Valley Of The In-Between"
Oddisee "Odd Cure"
Open Mike Eagle "Anime, Trauma and Divorce"
Qveen Herby "EP 9"
R.A. The Rugged Man "All My Heroes Are Dead"
Shabaka and the Ancestors "We Are Sent Here By History"
Shrapknel
Skyzoo "Milestones"
Strong Bad "Trogdor!! The Board Game Rulebook"
Tame Impala "The Slow Rush"
Testament "Titans Of Creation" 
Tori Kelly "Solitude"
Ultraista "Sister" 
The Vapors "Together"
Waxahachee "St. Cloud"
X "Alphabetland"

• Bob Mould's album has piss and vinegar, vim and vigor, but it's mixed like shit.  Especially the vocals.
• Huey Lewis deserved a better finale than hearing loss and having his comeback album be cut to a seven song EP.
• Man Man sounds interesting, but I could not get myself to pay attention to it, even a little.  I don't know why.  I recommend checking it out because it sounds different, and I'd like to force myself to get over whatever barrier I've encountered and like it, but for now, it's here.
• I have a feeling if I'd had time to listen to Open Mike Eagle more than once, it'd be in the Pretty Good tier.  C'est la vie.
• R.A. The Rugged Man was an album full of high highs and terrible lows, packed in with a lot of repetition and the conceit of the album almost but not quite making it.  He tries to own being an edgelord and tries to use that power for good, which is an interesting experiment, but it doesn't really work.
• The Vapors put out only their second album in my lifetime (their previous one was in December '81; I was almost three months old).  That's 38 and a half years between releases, and they almost stuck the landing, even placing ninth on my Best Songs list, but the last four tracks were just mind-meltingly blah.

PRETTY GOOD

Albums in this tier are ones I wouldn't mind returning to.  Some of them stood out more than others, but they were all relatively pleasant experiences or at least had enough highs to make the cut.

Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad "Jazz Is Dead 001"

Aesop Rock "Spirit World Field Guide"

Against All Logic "2017 - 2019"

Apocalyptica "Cell-0"

Asher Roth "Flowers On The Weekend"

Avenged Sevenfold "Diamonds In The Rough"

Bill & Ted Face The Music (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Busta Rhymes "E.L.E. 2 - The Wrath Of God"

The Chicks "Gaslighter"

Dan Avidan & Super Guitar Bros

E-40 "The Curb Commentator Channel 1"

E-40 "The Curb Commentator Channel 2"

Fiona Apple "Fetch The Bolt Cutters"

Floor Model "Slightly Damaged"

Green Day "Father Of All..."

Haim "Women In Music Pt. III" 

The Happy Fits "What Could Be Better"

Idles "Ultra Mono"

Igorrr "Spirituality And Distortion"

In Love With A Ghost "Playful Spirits"

Incubus "Trust Fall (Side B)"

Kansas "The Absence Of Presence"

Katy Perry "Smile"

Lady Gaga "Chromatica"

Miley Cyrus "Plastic Hearts"

Odessey & Oracle "Crocorama" 

The Outlaws "Dixie Highway"

Patricia Taxxon "Soul Waste [Full Soundtrack]"

Polyrhythmics "Man From The Future"

Qveen Herby "EP 8"

Sault "Untitled (Black Is)"

Taira "If Only I Could Remember"

Tennis "Swimmer"

Thundercat "It Is What It Is"

Trivium "What The Dead Men Say"

Wafia "Good Things"

Wale "The Imperfect Storm"

Yaeji "What We Drew"

Young RJ "2HandsUp" 

THE TOP 20

So how do I determine the Top 20?  Gut feeling.  I'm not scoring on aggregate, I'm not trying to even necessarily say certain albums are better than others.  This is the order I feel they should go for the year.  This is my list, based on what feels right.  

So with that being said, let's see what made The 20th iteration of my Top 20:

20. Lianne La Havas

One takeaway I had listening to "Unstoppable" from 2015's Blood and the Tiny Desk Concert version was "She really needs to have more live instrumentation.  She's good, but with guitars and pianos instead of beats she could be great!"  And GUESS WHAT?!?  The reason this tops out at #20 is because it's a heavy listen, a lot of emotion and it's frankly a little intimidating to come back to.  But also kind of inviting, so...I dunno.  Time will probably prove me a coward for placing it so low.

 

19. The Beths "Jump Rope Gazers"

Twee alternative rock from down under.  It has an energy I desperately need in these desperate times.

  

18. Phenomenal Handclap Band "P.H.B."

Not worth waiting for eight years, but definitely worth jamming to.  "Do What You Like" and "Traveler's Prayer" are especially kickass.

17. Auf-Ki "Punk Album Of The Year"

Truth in advertising from Appleton, Wisconsin's raddest knuckleheads.  2017's No One Eats The Shark was good, but this is really good.

16. Metallica "S&M 2"

The most comfort food of comfort food picks possible.  I started watching Metallica Monday streams on YouTube for some kind of normalcy during the pandemic (I found something that tells me what day of the week it is!  Yay!), and I really got back into the band that solidified my love of music in the fifth grade.  And as it turns out, it was a neat way to lead up to the finale in August, the release of S&M 2.

The choice of songs is definitely geared toward a concert rather than an album.  (I'd argue anything more than two hours isn't an album anymore anyway, just like there's a difference between Albums, EP's and Singles.  There should be a new category called Epics, because after you eclipse feature length, it's a different experience.)  There's the expected hour of hits, a bunch of which were on the previous S&M, but there's also plenty of songs from Hardwired, Death Magnetic and even St. Anger to spruce up the track list.  It's a decent enough experience and I was hankering for something familiar in a world and life I no longer recognize, so it'll do.

15. King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard "K.G." 

It sure is a King Giz album.  And it sure is microtonal.  (Those are both good things because, dude, it's King Giz, but also its greatest limitations?  Still worth the listen.)

14. Jaga Jazzist "Pyramid"

Kind of the halfway point between The Comet Is Coming and Fila Brazillia.  And those are two flavors that go great together, let me tell you.

13. Childish Gambino "3.15.20"

Despite having an intro I considered for my Worst Songs of the Year, this album has  interesting, curveball approaches to hip hop, pop, R&B and soul.  With the amount of vocal warping on it, you could say it even has tinges of hyperpop (which I think are the worst aspects of the project, but still).  It's kind of cryptic, but songs like "Algorhythm", "Beautiful" (aka "19:10"), "Little Foot" (aka "35:31"), "Why Go To The Party" (aka "39:28") and "42:26" (my #2 Best Song of the Year, despite being originally released in 2018 as "Feel Like Summer") are worth digging into the codebook for.

12. Hayley Williams "Petals For Armor"

Vibey, spacey, confessional indietronica painted with melodic brushes of melancholia.  It's a grower.

11. Remi Wolf "I'm Allergic To Dogs!"

I'm a sucker for catchy funk pop confection, what can I say?  (Also, had no idea that one iPhone commercial was from this EP until months later when I re-listened to this for the countdown.  I was always like: "I wonder who did that..." and then "DUH!  I've had a copy for like half a year!")

10. Dua Lipa "Future Nostalgia"

I didn't want this to be in my Top 10 because it's such a basic choice, but a) It's not even the most basic choice in my Top 10, and b) The groove is for real.  Took me a few listens to really get into it into it (probably because this is crowd pleasing music in a very isolated time), but I got there.

9. Taylor Swift "Folklore"

SUPER did not expect this one to rank so high.  Even after second listen this was still a mere 3 out of five: probably straddling the border between Okay and Pretty Good.  Then I actually paid attention to the lyrics on listen three and alright, fine.  I begrudgingly accept this is really well written and the stories resonate, but more than that: it's just relaxing.

I don't normally find music relaxing to be honest; I'm always paying attention to it, trying to figure out what its doing, how to play it, how to sing along, how I feel about it in the moment and based on historical context, all without even intending to.  I don't listen to music to relax because there's always at least one song stuck in my head.  I can never get away from music.  But something about Folklore just puts me at ease.  It also makes me a little sad, but so does everything; it's the 2020's.

8. Sepultura "Quadra"

Eloy Casagrande has given this band such a new hunger they're doing some of their best work.  The musicianship might be the best it's ever been; the band has never been tighter.  They're going for the throat at every turn.  Watch out, cuz Sepultura is a motherfuckin' problem.

7. Run The Jewels "RTJ4"

The only rap album I connected with all year, and how can you not?  If the lyrics on this don't at least raise your eyebrow, you are NOT paying attention.

6. Carly Rae Jepsen "Dedicated Side B"

Did NOT expect this one to stick around from my mid-year Top 10.  It was only there because I needed ten entries, but YO.  I listened to this shit again six months later and it's maybe the best pure pop album of the year.  

5. Vanessa Carlton "Love Is An Art"

As much as I loved Vanessa Carlton's last two albums, they were a bit minimalist and I was hoping she would put a bit back into her sound for the next one.  And she delivered!  There's still a lot of quieter, still parts, but those are always good when she does them.  They're better here because they're put in context with lush orchestrations.  The ideas usually don't happen in concert with each other, more in sequence, but it makes up a beautiful tapestry, flowing from one to the next.  And it culminates in the song "Salesman", which made my best songs of the year list for a damn good reason.

4. Empress Of "I'm Your Empress Of"

Okay, never mind.  THIS is the best pop album of the year.  Statistically speaking (with one major exception we'll get to at number three), this is the album I listened to most this year.  Like Lianne La Havas, this (seems like) a concept album based on a failing relationship, but it just has more bangin' tunes.  Sometimes I just wanna bang.

3. The Sketchballs "Roller Derby"

And now we get to the annual NutterBlog Year End List tradition of Nepotism.  I played drums and did backing vocals on this, and until about January, I had this pegged as an easy number one.  Then I heard it so many goddam times during mixing and I wore it out a bit, but still.

That aside, the material on this album is a band really hitting its stride.  It's a 70's pastiche by way of 90's alternative, it's a breezy 33 minutes but still hits a variety of styles and subjects and the production is easily the best I've ever been on.  (Landon at Blast House knocked it out of the park.)  If you're looking for a quirky slice of sleaze punk grunge rock, here ya go.

2. Neil Cicierega "Mouth Dreams"

The fact that Neil can make "The Reason" by Hoobastank (one of the lamest songs of the 2000's; don't at me) have pathos and emotion by adding Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" and Justin Bieber's "Baby" and making the song be about being an actual literal baby is something I didn't think possible (nor did I think about at all, because...WHAT THE FUCK?!?)

Mouth Dreams is yet another installment of the revered Mouth mashup series, and it delivers again.  Highlights include "Fredhammer" (Limp Bizkit/Peter Gabriel) and "Limp Wicket" (the Ewoks at the end of Return Of The Jedi/"Nookie"), "Closerflies" (Nine Inch Nails/Owl City), "Aerolong" (Aerosmith/Foo Fighters), "Aammoorree" (whatEVER the fuck THAT was...), and "Ain't" (Weezer/"In The Hall Of The Mountain King").

Personal Machete Order for the "Mouth" Series:

1. Mouth Moods

2. Mouth  Sounds

3. Mouth Silence

4. Mouth Dreams

(Moods is I think the most digestible and the one I'd show to a newbie, Silence and Sounds could maybe go in either order; I liked Silence better, but Sounds is the initial project, so maybe go with that.  Dreams is definitely in the "Further Reading" section, which doesn't necessarily mean it's not as good, but it's definitely not the one I'd start with.)

It should also go without saying that the lowest a Iproject has ranked on one of my Year-End lists is #3 (2017), and that wound up being #2 on my Decade list, so...yeah.  As long as he keeps putting these out, I'll keep checking them out.

1. Wild Nothing "Laughing Gas" 

Why this one?  I honestly don't know.  It just felt right.  It's the first time an EP has been number one, and given my listening habits / lack of time/energy going forward, it won't be the last.

Wild Nothing is a band I tripped over in the new releases section of Google Play in August of 2018.  I had been trolling for something to listen to while editing the frantically written Eminem review (which I wrote after looking for something to listen to to edit the more than 3,000 word blog I now had to put on hold because I stumbled across Kamikaze's existence less than 60 seconds after its surprise release.  I had the review up before the Wikipedia article existed.  I used to be good at this, I swear!).  Their album Indigo wound up being my huckleberry for the night, and it was fine.  I haven't gone back to it since.

But this EP...just does something to me.  It's 80's as fuck, but less stereotypical and in a more left of the dial, 120 Minutes way.  It's a whole-ass vibe that few pastiches of that time period manage to do well, because they're going for aesthetics and not emotion.  This nails both.  And the vibe is not the 80's as we knew them, brimming with cocaine-stained excess, but it's how I'm feeling right goddam now.  Empty, melancholy, slowed down, hollowed out, but yet transfixed by the timbre, the tone, the...vibe.  It's a vibe thing, and that's really the best reason I can come up with why this one slayed all comers in 2020.

And that's it.  Finally, at long last, I can put this project to bed.  2020 sucked, it kept sucking well into the new year and will suck at us for the rest of our lives.  We get used to trauma; we never really heal.  Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this look at the year gone by and are having as good a time as you can in the rubble of the world we could have had.  2021 has already had some interesting musical developments, and I look forward to talking about them in the next post.

Love Over Fear.