Around this time last year, I wrote an article ranking the years of the 2010s by their indie and alternative music. If I were to do the same thing nine years from now, I’m sure 2020 would be at the very bottom. This year has sucked not just for indie and alternative music, but for music and the performing arts as a whole. The COVID-19 pandemic cancelled countless tours and shows, and musicians have had the misfortune of watching their livelihood essentially forced into limbo for a year. Many have put on virtual performances or even held live drive-in shows to try and make the best of a terrible situation, but it’s hard to compare those to their pre-pandemic, in-person counterparts. Concert venues have been in dire straits, and dozens have closed for good.
The actual music produced and released this year has been pretty good all things considered, there’s just been less of it. Most musicians haven’t been able to practice with others or access recording studios, causing 2020 to be frontloaded with album releases. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were fewer albums in the first half of 2021 as well.
All that said, if you’ve been doing OK financially during the pandemic, I recommend doing what you can to support the musicians, performers, and venues that have given you happiness over the years. Buy physical or digital albums, get some merch, and look into ways you can help your local venue stay afloat.
As far as this year’s “best of” list, I’m doing things differently to reflect how different of a year this has been. That and I only listened to 35 new releases in 2020 as oppose to the usual 50 or so. Therefore, there’s no top songs list, and I’m only writing about 5 albums instead of the usual 10. Additionally, I’m going to forgo ranking these 5 against each other (since it always got a little arbitrary in the top 5 range anyway), and instead am just listing them alphabetically.
Lastly, I was going to write a “top music videos of 2020” list until I realized that the best music videos this year came from artists who would be on the top albums list. Making a separate list felt duplicative, so just make sure to check out the music videos on this list as well.
1. Bright Eyes – Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was
I’ll admit that me being a big ol’ Conor Oberst fanboy played no small part in this album’s inclusion on this list, but Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was is brilliant in its own right. For those who missed Bright Eyes during their unofficial hiatus of the 2010s, it’s a warm trip down memory lane, as it combines the electronic pop of The People’s Key (“Mariana Trench”), the full orchestration of Cassadaga (“Dance and Sing,” “Comet Song”), the folk-rock of I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning (“Tilt-A-Whirl”) and more. It also has enough downer lyrics to fill a LiveJournal, particularly on “To Death’s Heart (In Three Parts)” and “Hot Car in the Sun.” Glimpses of Oberst’s more mature, chilled out self also appear (“Just Once in the World”), and the whole thing has an incredible production behind it that makes it stand out from anything Bright Eyes has done before. You can read a full review of Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was here.
2. Fontaines D.C. – A Hero’s Death
I gave Fontaines D.C.’s debut album Dogrel my top slot in last year’s countdown, mostly because I could not think of any other album I had gone back and revisited over and over to the same extent. Admittedly, I have not revisited A Hero’s Death as much, but it’s still an excellent follow-up that distinguishes itself from Dogrel. It’s altogether darker and more brooding, as is apparent from the opening back-to-back of “I Don’t Belong” and “Love is the Main Thing.” They show off their chops for making heavier music on tracks like “Living in America” and “A Lucid Dream,” but then tracks like “Oh Such a Spring” and “You Said” rank as their mildest yet. There are also some curveballs, like the contrast between intensity of the title track and it’s doo-wop backing vocals, or the psychedelic flair of “Televised Mind.” It’s the best post-punk album I’ve heard in 2020, and it’s hard to think of many other bands who managed to knock it out of the park two years in a row. You can read a full review of A Hero’s Death here.
3. Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher
My first time listening to Phoebe Bridgers was hearing her collaboration with Conor Oberst, Better Oblivion Community Center, last year, and I made a mental note to check out her solo work, since she was great on this side project. It turned out that she released her sophomore album Punisher this year, and I unfortunately got it too late in the year to give it a full write-up. By the time I did mange to give it a listen, it had been hyped up quite a bit, so I was a little skeptical. Fortunately, Punisher deserves the acclaim it’s received. Musically it ranges from gentle folk (“Halloween,” “Moon Song”) to livelier rock (“Kyoto,” “I Know the End”), with touches like strings (“Chinese Satellite,” “Savior Complex”) or percussion (“ICU”) making each track feel unique. Of course, the real centerpiece of the album is Bridgers’ vocals, particularly her lyrics. These range from funny (“I swear I’m not angry, that’s just my face”) to macabre (“they killed a fan down by the stadium, was only visiting they beat him to death”) to sincere (“I feel something when I see you now”). It’s a captivating album from the opening ambiance of “DVD Menu” to the chaotic finale of “I Know the End,” and is one of the most memorable releases of 2020.
4. The Strokes – The New Abnormal
During the 2000s, the Strokes were easily one of the most (if not the most) influential indie rock bands, which made their 2010s output (Angles and Comedown Machine) pretty disappointing. Between albums from Julian Casablancas with the Voidz and Albert Hammond Jr.’s solo work, I had mentally put the Strokes on the back burner. The New Abnormal caught me off-guard with how good it was, and it’s been growing on me ever since. There’s something for the retro Strokes fans (“Bad Decisions”), but also songs that sound absolutely nothing like you’d expect (“At the Door”). In between are tracks like the synthpop “Brooklyn Bridge to Chorus,” the understated “The Adults are Talking,” and the excellent tone-changing “Selfless.” The closing track “Ode to the Mets” also deserves attention for being a great track that gave us the unforgettable line “drums please, Fab.” You can read a full review of The New Abnormal here.
5. Tame Impala – The Slow Rush
As the sole album on this list that was released before shit really hit the fan with COVID (all the way back in February!), I have fond memories listening to this album while actually driving to do things that aren’t essential errands. The Slow Rush builds on the psychedelic pop success of 2015’s Currents by adding even more electronica to the mix. “Borderline” is basically a dance track, “It Might Be Time” brings in new wave synthesizers, and “Breathe Deeper” ends with a minute-long electronic jam. There’s also plenty of the psychedelic haze you’d expect on tracks like “Posthumous Forgiveness” and “On Track.” The whole album is linked by a motif of musings on the passage of time and memory (see: “One More Year), although I’ll admit this is sometimes blunted by Kevin Parker’s lyricism (see: “Is It True”). The Slow Rush had a fair amount of hype around it earlier this year, but I’ve noticed that attention has fallen off quite a bit since then. That’s a shame, since I always appreciated when one of the album’s tracks came up on the radio in 2020, and it seems like Tame Impala have yet to go anywhere near a misstep after four albums. You can read a full review of The Slow Rush here.
