The Only 100% Correct Top 50 Albums of 2020 List You Will Ever Read
By: Caio'S Corner
Tags: Best Of, Independent Music, Lists, Music, Best Albums Of 2020

THE TOP 50

Ranked in order of preference.

Top-to-bottom;left-to-right.

50. Wobbler — Dwellers of the Deep (Yes)

If you woke up this year due to night terrors, gasping for breath; grasping at straws for possible ways out of our contemporary predicament, and your (admittedly improbable) solution was to conjure Yes from the depths of the 70s with chaos magik and positive-thought manifestation for the sole purpose of healing us with pastoral, earnest tunes; and you believe that Yes as a singular force could untangle spacetime by chanting “Yes I said Yes I will Yes” over mystic chords, returning us to some opaque semblance of cosmic unity: here you go. There’s some Doors and Iron Butterfly. A touch of Rush in there as well. No frills; this is unadulterated classic-rock era prog worship. My dad heard some of the album and said “wow, it does sound just like Yes.” I’d wager your dad will think the same.

49. Run the Jewels — RTJ4 (Rap)

More of the same from the RTJ fellas. I’ve felt some burnout towards their music since RTJ2 (2014). I still think they are one of best at what they do. This politically dystopian anger fest is no doubt cathartic.

48. Armand Hammer — Shrines (Rap)

More of the same from the Armand Hammer fellas. I’ve felt some burnout towards their music since Rome (2017). I still think they are one of the best at what they do. This politically dystopian anger fest is no doubt cathartic. (The lyrics are immeasurably better on this one, though.)

47. Destroyer — Have we Met? (Indie Rock)

Dan Bejar and co. have been quietly building one of the strongest discographies in 21st century popular music. They have a habit of releasing one extraordinary album within the first 2 years of a new decade. In 2001, there was the tastefully weird Streethawk: a Seduction. 2011 gave us the sensual Kaputt. Now there’s Have We Met? Unfortunately that means it’s all downhill from here until at least 2030. Hang in there, Destroyer fans.

46. Yves Tumor — Heaven to a Tortured Mind (Alternative Rock)

The soundtrack to a mental breakdown? A fist-pumping, mosh pit inducing chugger? Tearjerker? This album is all these things and more, etc.!

45. Natalia Lafourcada — Un Canto Por Mexico Vol. 1 (Ranchero)

Joe Biden should’ve played this instead of “Despacito” when he was pandering to Latinos.

44. John Luther Adams — Become Trilogy (Classical)

A seminal contemporary classical trilogy dealing with ecocide and climate change. Most of the works here have been out for a long time, but this bundle may be the impetus to experience them as a single massive piece, culminating in tragedy.

43. Void Rot — Descending Pillars (Death Doom Metal)

It makes you feel like a pillar descending towards the pits of Jahannam.

42. Denzel Curry x Kenny Beats — UNLOCKED (Rap)

Bouncy and energetic, Denzel is unstoppable. This will make you want to have a 17 minute bedroom party. Great for introverts.

41. Taylor Swift — Folklore (Pop)

Swift’s trajectory has been one of the seminal American bildungsromans: from Disney-backed republican to indie-adjecent, lib Artist. This album is her strongest since Red, arguably her best. In fact, with some light trimming, it’d be one of the best recent pop albums period.

40. Horse Lords — The Common Task (Math Rock)

Reich’s Electric Counterpoint, Glenn Branca, Talking Heads, Neu, La Monte Young, Fela Kuti. And so much math: algebra, trig, geometry. Angles and polyrhythms. Parabolas here and there. Math’s really out here, good for her.

39. Mamaleek — Come & See (Black Metal)

Black metal stripped down to its skeleton, made almost beautiful in its starkness. I’ve been getting the album cover mixed up with the Horse Lords’ one, though. It’s all quite confusing.

38. Haim — Women in Music Pt. III (Indie Rock)

Before this point, Haim have tended to release great singles and then disappointing albums. They’ve finally stuck the landing. Some of the songs on Women in Music Pt. III are better than the singles. I can’t stop listening to “The Steps.”

37. VoidCeremony — Entropic Reflections Continuum: Dimensional Unravel (Death Metal)

It’s all about the fretless bass for me on this one. What would otherwise be a run of the mill Death Metal release is elevated into quirky territory by its insistence on allowing this madman of a bassist to solo on what seems like every song. Other Death Metal bands, please follow suit. It is both very funny and epic.

P.S. The bassist is the same guy from StarGazer. He goes by The Great Righteous Destroyer. This, dear reader, makes a lot of sense.

36. Shabaka & The Ancestors — We Are Sent by History (Jazz)

I mean, what a title! With a title like that the album simply cannot be bad. And sure enough, it’s wonderful. Patient in the night, I await more spiritual lusciousness.

35. Maud the Moth — Orphnē (Neoclassical Dark Wave)

Orphnē can be categorized with the likes of Current 93: music that is odd yet can elicit surprising emotional resonance. This may take some getting used to — a worthwhile effort.

34. Odraza — Rzeczom (Black Metal)

What this kind of music should be. Slashing. Cold as a glass container coming out of the freezer. Manages to be somewhat rollicking at points. Commendable in its attempt to be varied in tempo and mood throughout the album, a cardinal sin amongst many a metal band.

33. Proscription — Conduit (Blackened Death Metal)

Ferocious Blackened Death Metal from American-Finnish, multi-instrumentalist ChristButcher & co. An album with a cover as good as the hellish music within. Conduit delivers in all its pummeling, otherworldly glory.

32. Boldy James & Sterling Toles — Manger on McNichols (Rap)

An immersive, immaculate sounding release from the Detroit duo. Creates what too many rap albums of late lack: a palpable soundworld. Many ideas are thrown at you via sample and lyrics. Manger on McNichols is benefited by repeated listens.

31. Tyler Childers — Long Violent History (Appalachian Folk)

This surprise and welcome release from Childers’ makes me feel a sort of gratitude. I found his second album disappointing, doubly so because his debut gave me hope for the future of country music as we know it. In response to the George Floyd murder and BLM protests of mid-2020, Childers’ released this disquieting and inspired piece of Appalachian Folk. All culminating in a final song, which in true folk fashion: has lessons to be learned within.

30. Fiona Apple — Fetch the Bolt Cutters (Singer/Songwriter)

Fiona Apple brings to mind D’angelo. For me they are related. Two geniuses who only release albums once every decade or so, all worth the wait. This is not Apple’s best album, although it contains a few songs I believe will become iconic in her catalogue, a catalogue already chock-full of gems.

29. Mike Sopko, Bill Laswell, & Tyshawn Sorey — On Common Ground (Free Improvisation/Experimental Rock)

Heavy, wild, and unvarnished. I listened to On Common Ground because of the drummer, Tyshawn Sorey, whom I believe is one of the most exciting young musicians today. I stayed for the shredding. Do not be frightened by the genre distinction “Free Improv” here. Believe me when I say it is fun.

28. Venom Prison — Primeval (Deathcore)

With the release of such masterpieces as Effigy of the Forgotten (1991) and Pierced from Within (1995), Suffocation opened Pandora’s Box and unleashed substantial evil upon the metal scene — spawning forth a legion of imitators, all of whom have sucked. This new genre founded on the ideology of “the breakdown” came to be known as Deathcore. It has since been a blight on Metal. Suffocation released two of the greatest heavy metal albums of all time, but at what cost? Venom Prison, though, have forced me to reevaluate my implicit biases and given me pause. This is a fine piece of work and there’s nothing I can do about it.

27. Tony Allen & Hugh Masekela — Rejoice! (Jazz)

Is this what it felt like to be alive when, like, straight-up jazz would be released and people would listen to it?

26. Black Curse — Endless Wound (War Metal)

Is it black metal? Death metal? Who knows? All that matters is that Endless Wound rips.

25. Afterbirth — Four Dimensional Flesh (Brutal Death Metal)

Quite experimental by the standards of Brutal Death. There are some jazzy incursions throughout; soundscapes to awe at; all with the added bonus of gurgled vocals. Sounds like a talented musician with high harmonic IQ is being drowned in a swimming pool.

24. Vikingur Olafsson — Debussy-Rameau (Classical/Romantic)

Part of this new wave of what I call the “conceptual turn” in classical music album sequencing. There isn’t Debussy (or Rameau, for that matter) that hasn’t already been recorded. The stroke of genius here is the temporal and thematic flow at play between the composers, who are separated by 100 years. Rameau was a contemporary of Bach’s, yet he sits comfortably enough with the apotheosis of the romantic canon. As the kids say, makes you think.

P.S. Another album that similarly brilliantly personifies this conceptual turn is David Greilsammer’s Scarlatti & Cage Sonatas (2014). It’s wilder with the sequencing — borderline trolling.

23. Jyoti — Mama, You Can Bet! (Jazz)

Supernatural multi-instrumentalist Georgia Anne Muldrow’s third release, Mama, You Can Bet! floored me on the first listen and has continued to do so since. Some of these songs are subtle enough to make them seem deceptively simple. Beautiful singing, beautiful percussion. Amazing.

22. Jessie Ware — What’s Your Pleasure (Nu-Disco)

If you make so-called Disco music and your name isn’t Chic, kindly get out of my face. Except apparently Jessie Ware because this is, what, great? I’m not sure if I should feel happy or sad because of this. Despondent, maybe. Yes, a gloom has come over me.

21. Decoherence — Unitary (Noise Metal)

Living in the post-death of God era, we must now sublimate God elsewhere. Be it the moon, the stars, vegetation, Beyoncé, or, as in the case of this album, quantum physics. Imagine that God is a supermassive black hole. Incomprehensible, frightening, and, I imagine, hideously loud.

20. Lianne La Havas — Lianne La Havas (Soul)

La Havas has hit it out of the park with this self-titled album. Psychedelic guitar textures and throbbing vibrato in her singing makes for great listening. Excellent soundtrack material for a proper cry.

19. Laura Marling — Songs For Our Daughter (Folk)

My earholes like the sound this album produces when I click the play button on my phone lock screen.

18. The Microphones — Microphones in 2020 (Alternative Folk)

I’ve come to very much like this album, albeit with trepidation. At first I wasn’t sure about it. As I’ve returned to it, the structure of the MFA personal essay lyrics washed over me and I was won over by its beleaguered intelligence. Paradoxically, this album may be most affecting on the first listen; I am jealous of those who get to experience it for the first, perhaps most powerful time.

17. Adrianne Lenker — Songs (Folk)

Right off the coattails of a massive 2019 for Lenker’s band Big Thief, she’s released another stripped-down paean to the pangs of human interaction — a study in debasement by way of folk. The spirits of Vashti Bunyan and Bob Dylan hang over this graceful work.

16. Defeated Sanity — The Sanguiry Impetus (Brutal Death Metal)

Vile, sickening — real psychopath shit. Can be painful to listen to at points. Can’t recommend this heinous attack on the senses enough.

P.S. I swear there’s an interpolation of the Twelve Days of Christmas in the final minute of “Driveling Putrefaction.” Intentional or not, it opened my chakras, ascended me.

15. Liturgy — Origin of the Alimonies (Experimental Metal/Classical)

Hunter Hunt-Hendrix continues to push the boundaries of black metal with this new release, which I believe is her best work. Combining Ligeti-like strings, manic horns, and even trap; this strange suite may further alienate “black metal purists.” For being an artist willing to take the punches from a pathetically insecure community due to her adventurousness, Hendrix may well be remembered as one of the great metal songwriters of the last ten years.

14. Thomas Adés — Adés Conducts Adés (Classical/Contemporary)

Adés, a current star of the continental classical scene, conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra for recording powerhouse Deutsche Grammophon. I have no expertise in the matters of high art (one of my favorite albums of all time is called Dopesmoker) so I cannot properly judge Adés interpretation of his own music, other than enjoying it when I put it on. It sounds nice, what can I say? I hope Mr. Adés kissed the tips of his fingers like a chef after composing the “Concerto for Piano and Orchestra,” which is lovely.

13. John Moreland — LP5 (Alternative Country)

It is an indictment of the country genre that John Moreland is as underrated as he is. His albums mix classical country themes with Robbie Basho’s spiritual exuberance and iterative guitar picking to create something special. I, for one, cannot wait for more solemn, introspective, and elegiac albums from this talented individual.

12. Perfume Genius — Set Your Heart on Fire Immediately (New Wave)

It seems Michael Hadreas only knows how to improve. Take note songwriters, the secret formula is to mix happy instrumentals with down in the dumps lyrics. You will produce powerful music.

11. Burna Boy — Twice as Tall (Afrobeat)

One of the better pop albums to come out in a long time. Buttressed by a trifecta of excellent production, sequencing, and Burna Boy’s infectious (perhaps not the best metaphor for the moment) appeal, this album, although relatively long by stream-saturated modern standards, whizzes by. I plan to return to it often.

10. Carcass — Despicable EP (Melodic Death Metal)

The performances on this EP — of well-woven songs — are so tight they could keep you warm in the winter. Also, it gets bonus points for making me chuckle every time Jeff Walker does those death growl harmonies at the end of “The Long and Winding Bier Road.” Exquisite stuff.

P.S. I associate Despicable with cleaning the bathroom. How much this fact matters to you depends on the amount you care about cleanliness.

9. Igor Levit — Encounter (Classical/Baroque)

If you’ve never heard of Igor Levit, I recommend you look into him. He’s a pianist who, in Germany at least, is as famous for his activism as his playing. He’s had to perform with police protection in the past. His music speaks for itself. Even without knowing who he is, his politics, his background, I dare you not to be moved by his playing. Currently, nobody plays Beethoven with as much authority and lightness of touch and wit. Encounter lives within the current trend of the “conceptual turn”; a good example of its virtues.

8. Faceless Burial — Speciation (Death Metal)

They sound like Death at points. Considering Death are the greatest rock band of all time, you should take this as quite the compliment and recommendation from me, a Death fan.

7. Fleet Foxes — Shore (Folk Rock)

My being basic comes out with the Fleet Foxes. Their charms cannot be denied. The songwriting is more streamlined on this one — more rock oriented — and they really lean into the Brian Wilson worship. Thankfully, they do a great job of it.

6. Undeath — Lesions of a Different Kind (Death Metal)

After three decades of death metal evolution and genre fusion and shitty, tacky compression, it’s nice to go back to the basics with some tried and true, gross riffage. You’ll feel like the guy getting decapitated on the cover. Party time.

5. Putrescent Seepage — Dead and Demented (Brutal Death Metal)

The guitar, bass, snare, and vocal cords are all tuned down to Jahannam’s basement. I like that. This under appreciated piece of Aussie aggression ought to be a welcome surprise for all those who’ve, like me, witnessed the brutal death sub-genre stagnate into boring Suffocation clones and bass drum abuse worthy of prison time. Seasoned with a pinch of grindcore for extra kick, this debut bodes well for the underground. A band I will follow closely this next decade.

4. Gil-Scott Heron / Makaya McCraven — We’re New Again (Jazz)

I could hardly believe this album came out this year when I was making this list; it sounds like a classic. This reimagining of the already great I’m New Here by Gil-Scott Heron is, in virtuoso fashion, better than the original. Everything about We’re New Again is a win. Please listen to it.

3. Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist — Alfredo (Rap)

Freddie Gibbs’ status as a protagonist of the planetary narrative was set when he, under the auspices of Madlib’s customary brilliance, released Piñata (2014), one of the musical masterpieces of the last decade. In 2019, he returned beside Madlib for the sequel: Bandana. A year later, Gibbs, this time with The Alchemist on production duties, has returned — possibly dropping another masterpiece — in this chilled out, pensive, and gorgeous set of tracks. Alchemist steps up to the plate with much pressure on his shoulders: both having to contend with two extraordinary albums produced by a living legend/actual genius + having to match Gibbs’ energy and preternatural manipulations of flow. And to The Alchemist’s credit, he succeeds by being low-key. This allows Alfredo to create a space for itself alongside Piñata and Bandana, being a yin to Madlib’s yang.

2. Kahil El’Zabar — Spirit Groove/America the Beautiful (Jazz)

From my first listen of America the Beautiful, I knew I was dealing with an Album of the Year contender. And that’s before I knew that El’Zabar had already released an album in 2020 called Spirit Groove. So I listened to that one too, and was, as you, dear reader, may have guessed from the placement, gobsmacked by it. On Spirit Groove, El’Zabar is joined by the iconic David Murray, who does a mean John Coltrane impression on “Trane in Mind,” mimicking Coltrane’s inflection and attack to such a degree you may be fooled into thinking he was channeling him in some occult musical seance. Both albums have spiritual concerns: be it freedom, racial justice, peace and love. Done by a lesser artist, these would be unbearable clichés, an immediate turn-off. Here, though, they are dealt with the seriousness and mastery such subjects deserve. “America the Beautiful” starts with an off-kilter version of the standard, queuing the listener to the album’s objectives: this is ultimately a utopian effort; a thought experiment by way of music to push America thru history towards justice, towards its foundational ideals. The ways the notes are bent and harmonized, how the rhythm is lax, how the horns drag the beat throughout the track, brought to mind the current American dystopia. It made bare the ever widening gap between the propaganda and ideals of These United States versus the lived-in reality. That being: racism, misogyny, monetary inequality, political fractionation, spiritual decay, nihilism, corruption, oligarchy. And yet…and yet. These albums carry enough grace within them to fashion in the listener the option to hope for utopia. And, against my better judgement, I was reeled in — made to believe there’s reason to hope. An undeserved gift.

1. Kaatayra — Toda Historia pela Frente/Só Quem Viu o Relâmpago à Sua Direita Sabe

Like the preceding entry, Kaatayra released two albums in 2020. Both masterful and moving. To add on to this incredible achievement, it may be that Kaatayra has done something genuinely new. I cannot think of another example of the confluence of Brazilian dance and samba music with black metal. The whole thing is fairly melodic, so fans of Agalloch may feel at home with this one. But I hope that even those who don’t normally listen to metal, especially black metal, give this one a try, because it is, for lack of a better word, unique. Where else will you hear screaming vocals accompanied by cuíca? I’ll tell you where: fucking nowhere that’s where. Só Quem Viu… is particularly noteworthy, as the instrumentation is almost entirely acoustic. No electric guitar, no electric bass. A mere acoustic guitar, percussion, and synth flourishes is all it takes to create ample atmosphere and intensity. Kaatayra makes it all sound like and be black metal.

I’m talking to a wall when I say that “albums of the year” are arbitrary. Everybody knows this. There is no metric for artistic quality. Hierarchies are made up. In fact, you may listen to these two albums and think they are stinky turds. You are well within your rights to think this; I respect your opinion. So deciding just what are and aren’t the best albums — best books, best whatever it may be of the year — is fraught from the start. My idea of best, in this case, is, 1) what sounds good to me, and 2) what I think will have posterity; what may have some eventual influence, even. No doubt, if people listen to these albums, they will be remembered. And, for Pete’s sake, Kaatayra’s whole discography is available on Bandcamp for free. What’s stopping you, god dammit.