20) Tom Misch & Yussef Dayes - What Kinda Music
A collaboration between funk/soul musician and producer Tom Misch and jazz drummer Yussef Dayes, What Kinda Music is one of those albums that is difficult to categorise. It's a sumptuous, laidback and atmospheric collection of songs that is perfect both for focused listening and as a background for a lazy day. Once you're immersed within the music, time becomes irrelevant anyway. Have you been listening for hours or seconds? It's hard to tell. But, without a doubt, you've spent the whole time nodding your head with a satisfied expression on your face.
19) Ray LaMontagne - MONOVISION
Raw and delicate is what we've come to expect from Ray LaMontagne, now on his eighth studio album. MONOVISION is no different but what's striking is the simplicity of his songwriting. The lyrics speak directly to you and the chord progressions sound so familiar. It's like tuning into one of your favourite TV shows expecting some well-loved repeats but finding they made some new episodes that are just as good. The highlight is We'll Make It Through, an intimate song of hope that was perfect for a mid-2020 release.
18) Margaret Glaspy - Devotion
On her second album, American singer-songwriter Margaret Glaspy introduces electronic elements to her indie folk arrangements. It's a commonly tread path and not one that always works but Glaspy makes it feel like she's been doing it all her life. Many of the tracks seem experimental and yet would sound equally at home on commercial radio. Primarily about the ups and downs of love, it's an album that will resonate with many a listener with its heartfelt lyrics and catchy melodies. The standout track is You've Got My Number: funky, confident and sexy.
17) Biffy Clyro - A Celebration of Endings
One of the many bands to have an album release pushed back due to the pandemic, Biffy Clyro are an act whose expansive rock sound is brought alive through live performance so not being able to tour this one must be hugely frustrating. A Celebration of Endings is the band's eighth album and their third consecutive UK number one so it would be easy for them to fall into a rut. Instead, they've recorded an album of progression and invention with many twists and turns throughout. The first single to be released, Instant History, hinted at a more electronic direction but in context of the full album, it's just one of the experiments they try before building up to the huge, frantic climax, Cop Syrup. Play it loud.
16) Creeper - Sex, Death & the Infinite Void
If your tastes haven't been catered for yet, maybe Creeper's second album will remedy this. Referring to themselves as "more of an art project than a band", they take elements of horror culture and mix them up with the sounds of emo, punk and a sprinkling of Britpop. High-energy sing-alongs and dramatic ballads are interspersed with creepy spoken-word interludes to really ramp up the experience. It's rewarding to listen to and difficult to explain but if you ever wished that My Chemical Romance and Panic! At The Disco would write a horror musical together, you may be pleasantly surprised.
15) Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher
Atmospheric but for a completely different reason, Punisher, the second album by indie singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers has been hugely lauded this year. Lyrically, its complex themes deal with loneliness, endings and the connections between the inner and outer self, which makes it a great album for self-reflection and drawing your own conclusions. If this sounds heavy, it is. Bridgers has made a very personal record and there's a lot of emotion here but there's lightness too. On Halloween, she shows her cutting sense of humour and jokes that she lives near a hospital so if she's awoken by sirens "someone better be dying".
14) Sault - Untitled (Black Is)
This is the first of two albums released this year by Sault, a secretive collaboration of musicians who eschew media attention and highlight black issues through their music. This very much feels like a landmark album to release in a landmark year for equal rights. Untitled (Black Is) is ostensibly a rhythm and blues album full of protest songs. At times, you feel this could have been written in the 1960s and at others, like there's no time like the present for an album like this. Sometimes these thoughts happen in the same song. It's a powerful record and is often not easy to listen to, which is exactly as it should be. It's an album designed to make you sit up and listen. Even in the beautiful and soulful Wildfires, whose lyrics reference George Floyd and other victims of police brutality, the intent behind this record is clear.
13) Róisín Murphy - Róisín Machine
Disco made a big comeback in 2020, a year in which many of us apparently wanted something we could dance away our cares to. Dua Lipa's Future Nostalgia was another great example but, for me, Róisín Murphy did it better. Once the singer with the band Moloko, she's now an established solo artist who uses lots of influences to great effect. On this, her fifth studio album, 70s disco combines with 90s house music to hypnotic effect. At times, she channels Grace Jones at her peak, which ironically does not include Jones's early disco period. Róisín Machine is one of those albums which is perfectly suitable for consuming track by track but which, when listened to in full, unfolds slowly and reaches a crescendo leaving you wanting to listen again.
12) Sault - Untitled (Rise)
It was tough, and almost unfair, to decide which of Sault's two albums was their best this year, especially when Untitled (Black Is) was so powerful. However, this, their second of 2020 and fourth overall, seems more hopeful. The rhythm and blues of their previous album gives way to some funk and disco influences. The themes of protest and spoken-word elements are still present and, while there's definitely no indication that the fight is nearly over, it feels like the band can start to plan for what that world may look like once it is. The musicianship is immediately evident and for a relatively new band to release two albums of such high quality in quick succession shows incredible talent indeed.
11) The Avalanches - We Will Always Love You
A very late addition to the list, having only been released in the second week of December, the third album from electronic duo The Avalanches could maybe have been higher up the list if I'd had chance for a few more listens. The Avalanches famously took 16 years to follow up their outstanding debut, Since I Left You, an album so innovative that it warranted the creation of a new genre: plunderphonics. It took samples from a huge array of different songs and finely crafted them into new pieces. Their follow-up relied less on sampling and more on collaborations with other musicians, a trick which didn't always pay off. Thankfully, they've taken the best of both strategies and even introduced a third to produce a kind of concept album about space travel. There are similarities with Daft Punk's masterpiece Random Access Memories and, again, disco plays a huge part here. Like so many other albums on this list, it's best enjoyed from start to finish as interludes and sound effects help to build the narrative before the final track comprising Morse code. By this point, you've already left the stratosphere.
10) Laura Marling - Song for Our Daughter
In my book, Laura Marling is a national treasure. Now on her seventh studio album, the folk singer-songwriter actually brought the release of this forwards this year so that people could enjoy it during lockdown. With its stripped back and intimate sound, it suited that period remarkably well, even if the concept may seem a little strange. Marling wrote the album as an homage to a fictional daughter but I guess creating art can feel like taking a piece of you and putting it out into the world. Although nominated for the Mercury Prize this year, I feel Song For Our Daughter was still under-rated. The media went crazy for two Taylor Swift albums that were heralded as "stripped back" and yet they sound busy and overproduced compared to Marling's thing of beauty that somehow sounds sumptuous and delicate all at once.
9) The Killers - Imploding The Mirage
Building on the new-found confidence of their previous release, Imploding the Mirage is bold, assured and triumphant. When The Killers started out, they were seen as part of the post-punk revival scene of the 2000s with an electro-influenced debut. Many of their contemporaries have fallen by the wayside but The Killers have continually adjusted their sound to try and find their place since. There were a couple of hiccups in the middle of their career but they have re-found their purpose and have settled into a bombastic Americana groove that has improved over the last few albums. Another album to be pushed back due to the pandemic in the hopes that they'd be able to tour these songs that would surely resonate around stadiums, it's their first album without regular guitarist Dave Keuning. Instead, they've filled the gap with big names such as Lindsey Buckingham from Fleetwood Mac, Adam Granduciel from The War on Drugs and k.d. lang. If you think you know The Killers because you're sick of hearing Mr Brightside, consider giving them another go. The lead single, Caution, is a particular highlight but My God, a gospel-tinged 80s power ballad in collaboration with Weyes Blood and Lucius is an excellent slow burner.
8) Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud
A new discovery for me this year, Waxahatchee is the alter ego of American singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield, now on her fifth studio album. Saint Cloud was inspired by the artist's alcoholism and quest to get sober. Its heartfelt and honest lyrics are set to a background of country-tinged indie rock and features plenty of simple refrains that quickly get lodged in your brain. A great example of this is Hell which is surely made for belting out at home on your own. It's another one of those albums that sounds both new and familiar, and made the perfect soundtrack to lockdown.
7) Caribou - Suddenly
From here onwards, I found it incredibly difficult to put these albums into rank order. Suddenly is the tenth studio album by Canadian musician and producer, Dan Snaith. Caribou's music would generally be described as electronic but that's really the extent of its classification. The beauty of Caribou's music is its inconsistency because you never know what's around the corner. There are dreamy vocals, samples, dancefloor fillers and experimental bleeps, often all within the same track. It can feel like you're listening to the artist's personal record collection but I guess this is Snaith making music for his own sake rather than anyone else's. This makes it a freeing and exhilarating experience, and with each listen you notice and appreciate something different.
6) Bright Eyes - Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was
Nine years after releasing their "final" album, Bright Eyes have returned with one of their best. In the interim, the members had all worked on separate projects and had started to tease new material as a band earlier this year. For me, the release was unexpected and maybe this has helped to play down expectations. The album begins in typical Bright Eyes style with some spoken-word pieces and a piano rag, and then gives way to thoughtful Americana with lush string accompaniments backing up Conor Oberst's fraught outpourings of emotion. If you already know Bright Eyes, it's everything you'd expect but cranked up a notch. There is room for experimentation and surprises on several tracks, yet chord progressions and melodies that seem so familiar on others. If you're new to Bright Eyes, it's a great introduction. I've spent my whole life detesting bagpipes and yet the standout track, Persona Non Grata, features this most polarising of instruments. That Bright Eyes have me actually loving them is very special indeed.
5) Doves - The Universal Want
Another comeback album, this is Doves' first since their 2009 number-two hit, Kingdom of Rust. Doves have always been masters at creating a sense of loneliness, even an element of foreboding through their music, and that's still present here. But there's something stirring in the darkness and starting to soar. "We can see hope, no more sorrow, you will love again" Jimi Goodwin's world-weary voice sings on For Tomorrow. These are songs that come from a knowing place, that acknowledge where we've been but provide hope for the future. I've said it so many times already but, that this album was released during a year of such upheaval seems so fitting. It may simply consolidate existing fans rather than winning new ones but it's an artfully made album nonetheless.
4) Khruangbin - Mordechai
Named after the Thai word for aeroplane, Khruangbin are a Canadian musical trio who take many different musical references from around the world and mash them all together. Mordechai is their third album and pretty much their breakthrough. Released at the end of June, it's the perfect album for listening to by a pool and would sound great blasting from the speakers of a beach bar. It's a shame so many of us didn't get to experience that this year. Mordechai incorporates latin, jazz and funk influences, plus many others genres which I'm sure I've never heard of. At turns, it will have you dancing on the furniture, grooving sensuously and kicking back in a comfortable corner. Pour yourself a pina colada and enjoy.
3) Nathaniel Rateliff - And It's Still Alright
With an earthy voice and simple instrumentation, Nathaniel Rateliff produces music that seems so primal. He's at his meandering best when building up to a chorus with an almost guttural wail, such as in Mavis or Time Stands. But by contrast there are also times of restraint and clarity which reflects how we all navigate through life. As a full album, it's a cathartic experience and displays a talent he has honed throughout his career. This is Rateliff's third solo album of stripped-back Americana, although he's also released three others with backing bands The Wheel and The Night Sweats which tend to gravitate more towards bluesy rock 'n' roll. It makes no matter which style he attempts, he's a master at both.
2) Haim - Women in Music Pt. III
Released with a blaze of publicity, Women in Music Pt. III is a confident step towards superstardom. It was written by the trio of sisters on the back of many personal struggles such as a friend's death, a partner's cancer diagnosis and a band member's diabetes. There's also many references to misogyny faced within the music industry. All of this sounds heavy but it's backed up with catchy melodies and sublime harmonies to create a bittersweet experience. There's also a huge array of styles, incorporating pop, rock, funk, country and many others. Ironically, some credit should also go to producer Rostam Batmanglij for bringing such a collection together and making it cohesive. He also performed the same mastery on my favourite album of 2019, Father of the Bride by his former band, Vampire Weekend. Make no mistake though, thematically, lyrically and musically, the success of this album belongs to Haim themselves.
1) Jessie Ware - What's Your Pleasure?
Earlier I claimed that disco made a big comeback in 2020 and nowhere is that more evident than on Jessie Ware's fourth studio album. Adapting the soul and electronica of her previous albums, What's Your Pleasure? uses elements of 70s pop and 90s house to great effect. It begins low-key with sultry opener Spotlight which contains hallmarks of what to expect later on. We get an introduction of funk before the album peaks at Save A Kiss, which grows and expands, and is crying out for a dance routine dreamt up in a bedroom. The tempo only lets up with sensual and pulsating tracks like In Your Eyes, which still manages to incorporate a thumping bassline. Penultimate track, The Kill, wouldn't sound out of place on an album by some Nordic electronic hipsters like Royksopp. Whether it was a tactical decision, or a natural career progression, Ware seems to have picked an opportune moment to change musical direction but it does feel like she's ahead of the curve rather than jumping on a bandwagon. I'm excited to see where she takes this next.
Thanks for reading this far. If you don't fancy listening to all 20 albums, I also put together a Spotify playlist of my favourite tracks of the year which includes songs from all these albums and many more. You can find here.