Best Albums of 2020

[Rattlesnake Gospel]

Anyone feel like indulging?

A few of mine:

Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher
High on Stress - Hold Me In
The Beths - Jump Rope Gazers
Spanish Love Songs - Brave Faces Everyone
Lianne La Havas - S/T
Kathleen Edwards - Total Freedom

I so wanted the new Beach Slang to be on this list. I know a lot of people are loving it but I was majorly disappointed.

[doctoracula]

Rough top 20:

The Beths - Jump Rope Gazers
Taylor Swift - Folklore
Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters
Run the Jewels - RTJ4
Cindy Lee - What’s Tonight to Eternity
070 Shake - Modus Vivendi
Nada Surf - Never Not Together
Lil Uzi Vert - Eternal Atake
Bad Moves - Untenable
Ka - Descendants of Cain
Taylor Swift - Evermore
Denzel Curry & Kenny Beats - Unlocked
Soul Glo - Songs to Yeet at the Sun
Hum - Inlet
Clipping - Visions of Bodies Being Burned
Told Slant - Point the Flashlight and Walk
Kali Uchis - To Feel Alive
Gorillaz - Song Machine Season One
Bright Eyes - Down in the Weeds Where the World Once Was
The Lawrence Arms - Skeleton Coast

[john k]

The Beth's
Idles
Guided by voices
Drive by truckers
Eyelids
Chuck prophet
Nada surf
Fontaines dc
Osees
Bob mould
Metz
Rolling blackouts cf
The fleshtones
Young fresh fellows
X
The dream syndicate

That's everything I've got this year

[john k]

Also got an excellent compilation called Strum and Thrum , the American jangle underground 1983 - 1987. Lots of good stuff on it

[cre618]

Man. 2020 has been an excellent year for new music. I have a short list of 30 that I'm having trouble culling down. Working on that.

Here's to ODP in 2021!

[tbob]

It’s taken me some time to think on this but in this incredibly difficult year I’ve found myself relying on old voices.
From Morrissey’s I Am Not a Dog on a Chain to McCartney III.
Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Ways is tremendous, hearing the E Street Band return on Letter to You was heartening, and much needed. Despite the controversy I very much enjoyed Wednesdays by Ryan Adams. The Fiona Apple album is so good.
Jason Isbell’s album wasn’t his best but I loved it all the same.
Fontaines D.C. and Phoebe Bridgers wrote great albums. What a year.

[john k]

forgot about Isbell. solid enough. another gig that was cancelled.
havent heard the Adams album yet

[doctoracula]

The McCartney album is solid. The first song is especially great. I’m patiently awaiting my LP copy. I played Dylan’s record a ton when it came out but haven’t gone back all that often. I should give another listen this week. Ryan Adams can fuck off forever. Throw him in a hole with R Kelly.

[muzzleofbees]

I had an abysmal year when it comes to checking out new music. But I really liked the Run The Jewels and Jeff Rosenstock albums.

[tlon]

Bad Luck - Answering Machine

A power pop album by a group of Springsteen worshippers who named themselves after a Replacements song, so completely outside my comfort zone lol

PUP
Jeff Rosenstock
IDLES
Jason Isbell
Laura Jane Grace
The Mountain Goats

[star18]

Thought it was a great year for guitar-wielding women.  Besides the aforementioned Phoebe Bridgers, the new records by Margo Price, Waxahatchee, Frazey Ford, and HAIM were my favorites of the year.  And while my college self would be shocked to hear this, I have to say the new Taylor Swift records took me by surprise in a good way. There's some inter-song connectivity which obviously those of us here on THS board might appreciate.

[nosferatu]

Jan 3, 2021 13:58:15 GMT -5 john k said:

forgot about Isbell. solid enough. another gig that was cancelled.
havent heard the Adams album yet

I found both albums a tough listen.

I love Jason Isbell, but I really don’t like this latest record. I also have stopped liking him live. Seems to have developed into a holographic show, does the same thing every time. Wow, such downbeat.

I turned Ryan Adams off after a few tunes, it was just too hard to listen to. Not in the way I was prepared for, just that musically it wasn’t my jam. At all.

[nosferatu]

Feb 9, 2021 17:10:39 GMT -5 star18 said:

Thought it was a great year for guitar-wielding women.  Besides the aforementioned Phoebe Bridgers, the new records by Margo Price, Waxahatchee, Frazey Ford, and HAIM were my favorites of the year.  And while my college self would be shocked to hear this, I have to say the new Taylor Swift records took me by surprise in a good way. There's some inter-song connectivity which obviously those of us here on THS board might appreciate.

100%, there’s a really healthy vibe going on with lyrically self referential stuff in everything you mentioned there, which is always firmly up my street! I’m a little disappointed in the production de jours being so ubiquitous, makes everything unfairly sound similar. But hey, some great songs released this year! (2020)

[blackoutsam]

Feb 11, 2021 16:52:21 GMT -5 nosferatu said:

Jan 3, 2021 13:58:15 GMT -5 john k said:

forgot about Isbell. solid enough. another gig that was cancelled.
havent heard the Adams album yet

I found both albums a tough listen.

I love Jason Isbell, but I really don’t like this latest record. I also have stopped liking him live. Seems to have developed into a holographic show, does the same thing every time. Wow, such downbeat.

I turned Ryan Adams off after a few tunes, it was just too hard to listen to. Not in the way I was prepared for, just that musically it wasn’t my jam. At all.

The only show I saw in 2020 was a Jason and Amanda Shires...it was a socially distanced show. Seeing him that way was much more fun, I agree that his shows have become less interesting.