Let’s not go pondering about what 2020 has forced us to do. And, even if it feels weird to celebrate at this moment, the year-end is just a week away. After prolonged months of isolation, social distancing, and embracing void, the time has now come to embrace the New Year. Well, don’t get us wrong, we are talking about tuning in to the Top 10 albums of 2020. Don your headphones or your speakers and groove to the magic of a cohesive, refined playlist. It is never too late to indulge in the sonic world, isn’t it?
So, here we have jotted down all your favorites, pick your choice, and get grooving.
1. Fiona Apple: Fetch the Bolt Cutters
On the top of the bark, we have American singer-songwriter Fiona Apple who is an eleven times Grammy Award nominee and one-time winner. The singer made this incredible playlist Fetch the Bolt Cutters an exceptional record that shows her taking a new, daring way to shatter the conventional pop-song patterns. It’s a wild collection of every day, an unshielded masterpiece that has never been heard off in the past. Cracking on real and raw life, the record is filled with chants, handclaps, percussion, echoes, whispers, breathing jokes, and dog barks. Her voice, the chosen words, the piano music creates a mesmerizing ambiance. The album is the fifth studio project by the singer and was released on 17th April, 20. The album quite convincingly exploits her complex relationships with other women and also her other experiences, including sexual assault. This is supposedly her most humorous album so far.
Listen Now: | Apple Music | Spotify
2. Waxahatchee: Saint Cloud
Waxahatchee is an American indie music band formed back in 2010 where Katie Crutchfield most popularly known as Waxahatchee shows her exquisite talent in the record Saint Cloud. She shifts her voice and highlights her versatility more than ever before with this record. There’s a certain sharpness in her tracks coming from the album that I supposedly her most accomplished album so far, louder, fiercer, and confident than ever. The songs nestle heartbreak and encompass the hard-won wisdom. She has turned away from indie-rock to embrace the Country-Americana style of her native region which makes it her best album so far. The album necessarily gathers and rather embraces all the moods that we all can relate to. Sonically it captures the moments we face during our adolescents to the late 20s.
Listen Now: | Apple Music | Spotify
3. Moses Sumney: græ
3. Moses Sumney: græMoses Sumney is an American singer-songwriter whose album græ is a splendid, multi-genre composition soaked in different colors. From the grey-ness of its monochrome title to every other element, this is possibly the 2020’s biggest album so far, and also one of the boldest. Filled with hitting horn arrangements and swirling strings, the album has an intimate soundscape burned with the weight of few countable glowing embers. Hitting the screen just before the onset of the lockdown, the album explores the singer’s voice where he makes hybrid minimalism on a grand scale by combining folk, jazz, art-pop, R&B, and other impressive sounds. He has gracefully touched on the subjects of love, feminism, race, and also defining the stereotypes with a forward-thinking edge, and a genuine sense of peacefulness. The sprawling album is a mix of various moods throughout.
Listen Now: | Apple Music | Spotify
4. Phoebe Bridgers: Punisher
American indie musician Phoebe Bridgers who is best known for her performance as a solo singer-songwriter has redefined her style and sound with the album Punisher. The marvelous album has beautifully highlighted her explicit writing in a candid manner, multi-dimensional, and of course full of heart. Her music has precisely become a world of itself. The concrete album encloses the anxiety and pain of leaving home and being directed to an actual and vivid depiction of apocalypse driven by fire rises, people screaming, and lightning. Her delivery is on-point and light, as she uses her casual tone to perfectly convey the fleeting thoughts. The album has certainly established me as a distinct writer.
Listen Now: Apple Music | Spotify
5. Yves Tumor: Heaven to a Tortured Mind
American musician and producer of experimental music, Yves Tumor has efficiently proved himself to be the iconoclastic artist who has shifted to a plush kind of rock music with this intensifying record titled Heaven to a Tortured Mind. Coming as the fourth studio album from his end, the album released the album on April 3rd. Unlike his previous projects, this album sounds much different than the rest. Genre-bending is one of his unique attributes and with each new record; the singer sounds even more enticing. The album is a hitting collage of various styles that include psych-rock, glam, Britpop soul, and noise. The songs are heavy on horns and crashing drum sounds giving the tracks a plush rock feel. Amidst all, the singer’s voice comes in as the perfect distillation and quickly becomes a thing of beauty. This is his most honest, direct, and straightforward creations to date, an album with a mass-appeal indeed.
Listen Now: | Apple Music | Spotify
6. Perfume Genius: Set My Heart on Fire Immediately
Michael Alden Hadreas, most famously known as Perfume Genius is an American singer whose album Set My Heart on Fire Immediately is an easy hit or miss. The album is stitched with intricate detailing and some exotic melodies. The dynamic and upbeat pop harmonies jammed with danceable hooks and grooves make it highly entertaining. The fifth album delivered by this artist swiftly glides between sublime and grimy melodies, while also embracing the burdens and joys of the human body and its innumerable yearnings. It is rightly said that each of his albums is a sort of metamorphosis. The album sounds more grounded, both in the flesh, and bones, and the earth. His outstanding vocal range and the string arrangements create a sparkling and dynamic effect. Perfume Genius has rightfully taken his inspiration from classic pop and other sounds and has made them his own. It’s a flash fiction short story.
Listen Now: | Apple Music | Spotify
7. Bob Dylan: Rough and Rowdy Ways
American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan releases his first sample of new songs in over eight years, and the result is an absolute classic. The record has the majesty of latter-day and rightfully goes beyond that tapping into deeper American mysteries. The album has the same twilight ambiance driven with string ensembles and some motifs from classical and electric guitars. The whole album has been furnished with words that we are already aware of. The words are real, hitting, and something that would urge you to devote yourself to. He has produced the best and most majestic poetic statement of his life, and the album also includes the longest song Dylan has ever made. The project stands as a testament to his impressive presence as a singer throughout.
Listen Now: | Apple Music | Spotify
8. Bad Bunny: YHLQMDLG
Rapper Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, most famously known as Bad Bunny finds gold in the past with his latest album YHLQMDLG. The album sounds like a punch of memory and the mood is set around the mid-2000s. The production is driven by hard-snapping reggaeton with vintage effect and compiles wobbly melody with flashes from the genre’s past. The rapper who is considered to be the most modern or rather postmodern of his times is finding grounding this year with this release. His latest album flows in a different direction and pays homage to reggaeton’s past as well as future. He has pushed all boundaries combined with his swagger to make it sound stunning. Bad Bunny is well aware of the emotions attached to being bad but he also knows how to believe in himself, and does everything to pull it off in his unique ways. The album is gorgeously crafted with crooning beats with 808 drums, catchy atmospherics, and catchy synth bass. The tracks have also borrowed influence from the Southern hip-hop style, and celebrate his caricature perfectly.
Listen Now: | Apple Music | Spotify
9. Haim: Women in Music Pt. III
Pop band Haim has so far released their best album Women in Music Pt III, which is their most direct album. The trio has given it their best by filling it with intimate, wide-ranging, multi-dimensional sound effects, and the songwriting shines out brightly with great curiosity and personality. The tracks from the album come in with fresh production styles and melodies and link them as cool, confident, and full of crackling energy. The album speaks of the dark events of the sister’s recent past and they have combined west-coast rock with louche funk to create an impeccable impact. What works out incredibly well for them is the certain lightness that drives the album. Their sense of effortlessness and infectious harmonies seem to seal the deal for them. This is the third studio album from their end which was released on June 26, 20. Post its fabulous release, the album received much appreciation and was critically acclaimed for its honest and vulnerable lyrics, and also for its distinctive experimentation with various genres. The trio also paid homage to several other artists and was eventually nominated for being the Album of the Year at the 63rd Grammy Awards.
Listen Now: | Apple Music | Spotify
10. Jessie Ware: What’s Your Pleasure?
English singer, songwriter, and podcaster Jessie Ware, who recently released her fourth album titled What’s Your Pleasure? Has quite effectively proved why you should never listen to your mother. Jokes apart, this is perhaps her best release to date. The tracks are a defiant return to the club floors, which we have been banned from hitting during the lockdown. Pulling away from the industry expectations, the singer has stepped out of her comfort zone in this one by introducing sexy and plush disco-sounds in a rather flirtatious manner. She is bolder and frankly more fun in this new album, something which she has never been in almost a decade. Filled with emotional and dramatic moments, the singer’s voice sounds incredibly lustful and at a certain point seems timeless. The album encompassed electro-funk, disco, and deep house experimental sounds that inject eclecticism into the nightclubs. The stunning performer has been able to capture the essence of the 21st century’s electro-pop scene as she shares the thrill of being single and heads out to a packed dance floor in the seeming possibility of attraction.
Listen Now: | Apple Music | Spotify