BEST OF / LISTS
Best Albums of 2020
Here are my top 25 Albums released in 2020 and some words on the choices, diversity in music and why “genre-defying” is the theme of the year.
As a year, 2020 has been truly genre-defying. In music however this trend has been a steady beacon marking creative evolution despite the despair and degeneration of the present moment. As discussed below, musicians of diverse backgrounds are increasingly prominent and visible, bringing an arson of intersecting influences. Alongside an information age of bottomless digital libraries and heady interconnectedness it is hardly surprising the correlation is diversity in sound, making genre wobbly and ushering in an exciting surge of works which resist categorisation. This year there are those albums that glide between schools of style like Touché Amoré, Jyoti (Georgia Anne Muldrow) or The Soft Pink Truth, and those artists who’ve donned new sounds, like Jessie Ware, Arca or Yves Tumor, and of course Taylor Swift. Shedding restrictive coda has been a theme, and a triumph for innovative music that more honestly represents plurality through form.
Some of my favourites from this year’s list include Run The Jewel’s RTJ4, Dehd’s Flower of Devotion, Phil Elverum as The Microphones with Microphones in 2020 and of course, Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters, which I’ve adequately fawned over in my lengthy write-up. You can read about many of these choices through my reviews on Medium. Some favourites I’ve not previously discussed include Charli XCX’s early-iso thumper How I’m Feeling Now, Jean Dawson’s sharp and finessed Pixel Bath, Adrianne Lenker’s poignant poetry in her songs/instrumentals duo, and the accessibly curated multiplicity of Actress’ Karma & Desire.
I first started publishing these yearly recap lists in 2018 (followed by 2019) to my friends via social media. That year, I had been reflecting on the presence of women in music for a history thesis which centred around the changes between “waves” of feminism and albums by female artists which represented those shifts. Growing up a music nerd, I had been plagued by the fact that the artists I idolised were predominantly male but through the years I had gradually noticed a shift in my own tastes and in the music media towards more female, queer and non-binary artists. Publishing recap lists was a way for me to reflect and catalogue my personal history with music.
Currently, I am also witnessing a welcome move towards far more Black, Latinx, Asian and indigenous artists producing work across different spheres. This has been reflected in both mainstream and indie media, as well as my own listening habits. This year in particular, many Black artists have enriched the spirit of protest through music which speaks to both the unjust brutality and collective humanity of experiences that the BLM movement has again brought into stark focus.
Over the course of the decade, visibility and diversity has increased markedly. I am relieved to say that my female and non-white musical idols now well and truly rival the old boys club. However, while these are improvements, discrimination is founded in age-old biases and as such still remain insidious.
Women in music continue to face violence and harassment, unequal pay and systemic disadvantages. The male gaze is normalised while female desire and sexuality remains a novelty. Non-English language albums are receiving greater attention with multi-lingual artists proudly celebrating this, but the label of “World” music still serves to foreground a Western/Anglosphere.
More generally, the financial uncertainty that has accompanied 2020’s pandemic has been stark within the gig-economy, and the literal gig-folk in the arts community are among those most hard hit. While we continue to live in a system that affords little security or recognition to artistic labour, please make an individual effort to pay artists. If you’re anything like me, I am sure that music, literature, and art generally has provided so much therapy and company through isolation in the current moment and universally.
Finally, 2020 also marks the year I began publishing my writing. For the longest time I had wanted to start a music blog, and been held back by my own imposter syndrome, but having had a crack at it, this exercise has been extremely stimulating and enjoyable, so I hope to keep at it. Best of all I am listening to and learning so much more about the music I love.
It has been exciting to be shared and liked by artists who I admire, read by strangers, and featured on collections within Medium. It is nice sharing these articles with my friends, and I’m grateful to all those who have clicked my self-promotional posts and read about my thoughts on music far and wide.
So while you’re here, these are a few great albums to listen to and reflect on a genre-defying 2020:
Top 25 albums (in no particular order):
- The Microphones — Microphones in 2020
- Run the Jewels — RTJ4
- Charli XCX — How I’m Feeling Now
- Julianna Barwick — Healing is a Miracle
- Arca — KiCk i
- The Soft Pink Truth — Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase?
- Dehd — Flower Of Devotion
- Shygirl — ALIAS
- Kamaal Williams — Wu Hen
- Oneohtrix Point Never — Magic Oneohtrix Point Never
- Bully — SUGAREGG
- Adrianne Lenker — songs
- Fiona Apple — Fetch the Bolt Cutters
- Yves Tumor — Heaven to a Tortured Mind
- Sorry — 925
- Actress — Karma & Desire
- Phoebe Bridgers — Punisher
- Jean Dawson — Pixel Bath
- Sault — Untitled (Black Is)
- Amaarae — The Angel You Don’t Know
- Machinedrum — A View of U
- A. G. Cook — 7G
- Nubya Garcia — Source
- Fleet Foxes — Shore
- Illuminati Hotties — FREE I.H: This Is Not the One You’ve Been Waiting For
(I also regret not recommending Australian artists on this list but very close runners up are: Brutalist, Michael J. Fox; Felicity Groom, Magnetic Resonance Centre, The Avalanches, We Will Always Love You; Tame Impala, The Slow Rush, Katie Dey, My Data and Gordon Koang, Unity. I would be remiss not to mention the most bestest album of the year by my oldest and closest friends The Mangroves, What’s Better Than Brisbane)
words by Joy Qin
