Another year, another list. Yep. Nothing special about 2020. Hahaha. I mean, other than the global pandemic, racial injustice, riots, and mass isolation leading to what is probably going to end up being a worldwide mental health crisis on top of everything else. Life’s been crazy. It’s hard to believe I got married early on in 2020 only weeks before the pandemic arrived in America. Marriage, cats, and work have been my top priorities, in that order. But I always need to find time to make this list, even if it’s two months late.

I usually do some deep reflections on alternative music evolutions in the year. I think what I said in 2019 still remains to be true. But in 2020–especially the middle and latter portions–anxiety has been dialed up to 11. A lot of albums featured dissonance and angst in the face of the crisis. But others sought to escape from it through trying to go in the exact opposite direction. Escape through music and other media has been therapeutic for many, and it’s good to see artists keep putting out material. It had to be a strange, awkward time to drop new music. Many even felt that they didn’t want to overshadow the voices of the black community that needed to be heard. But it was Phoebe Bridgers who made a great comment on that topic. I’ll have to paraphrase because I can’t find the exact quote, but essentially she didn’t want to “wait until things cool down” because that suggests waiting for a time when the topic of police brutality can go back to being ignored by the majority of the population. We can’t. So if we want to establish that conversation as normal — not just an election year conversation — we can’t tiptoe around it. It has to be an everyday thing as Phoebe dropping her album. It took courage to come out with such a deeply personal and introspective album in the midst of all of everything going on. That much is true for many of the artists on this list, such as (spoilers) Charli XCX and Phil Elverum. I’m glad they kept their creative output going in the middle of it all. It helped a return to normalcy for us all, and helped us all feel less alone in these trying times. 

Without further ado, here’s the list below.

50. Yppah – Sunset in the Deep

49. Grimes – Miss Anthropocene

48. Phantom Posse – Forever Underground

47. Mary Lattimore – Silver Ladders

46. Destroyer – Have We Met

45. The Chats – High Risk Behavior

44. Hen Ogledd – Free Humans

43. R.A.P. Ferreira – Purple Moonlight Pages

42. Wolf Parade – Thin Mind

41. Half Waif – The Caretaker

40. 100 gecs – 1000 gecs and The Tree of Clues

39. Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou – May Our Chambers Be Full

38. Oneohtrix Point Never – Magic Oneohtrix Point Never

37. Oliver Tree – Ugly is Beautiful

36. Hey Colossus – Dances / Curses

35. Four Tet – Sixteen Oceans

34. Pet Shimmers – Face Down in Meta

33. Kevin Krauter – Full Hand

32. Bill Callahan – Gold Record

31. Protomartyr – Ultimate Success Today

30. Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia

29. Hum – Inlet

28. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Sideways To New Italy

27. Stay Inside – Viewing

26. Adrianne Lenker – songs

25. Baxter Dury – The Night Chancers

Cinematic and nocturnal, The Night Chancers is a musical journey into a seedy English underworld through new wave, post-punk, and indie rock influences. 

24. Sorry – 925

Releasing your debut album in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic has to be weird, but I’m glad they did. It is a wonderful escape of youthful indie rock that deviates from norms in its style and sounds in subtle yet surprising ways. 

23. Nothing – The Great Dismal

Dark, brooding shoegaze and noise rock with a burning intensity. Its songs are well-realized and complete vision with a coherent artistic statement that puts the album a step above the band’s peers in the genre. 

22. Bxckwash – God Has Nothing to Do With This Leave Him Out of It

I was turned onto this album by Anthony Fantano of the Needle Drop. It is a jarring yet impressive blend of hip-hop, goth rock, psychedelic rock, and hard rock. It digs deep into anxiety and questions of self-identity until blood is drawn. 

21. Tangents – Timeslips

A sprawling, alien landscape of improvisational jazz, electronic, and post-rock easy to get pulled into and even easier to beg to stay.

20. IDLES – Ultra Mono

Ultra Mono lept out of the depths of 2020 quarantine depression to deliver an post-punk assault of anger, angst, and anxiety towards the sicknesses that bind our society, be they social, systemic, or state. 

19. Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud

Saint Cloud is an ornate flourish of indie folk songs that pull from Americana. It seeks to fill the hole dug by addiction and alcoholism with the bittersweet beauty of rural America. 

18. Hazel English – Wake UP!

Wake UP! might get easily mixed up with other similarly hazy indie pop and dream pop artists out there. While it certainly hits on those influences, what shouldn’t be ignored is its incredible, heartfelt songs fueled by addictive melodies and rhythms. Hazel’s songwriting has matured and developed into something that should garner respect today and leave us watching with excitement for what she will do in the future.

17. Squarepusher – Be Up A Hello

Dynamic, dreamy, kaleidoscopic, and glitchy, Squarepusher’s Be Up A Hello puts IDM back on the map in 2020 with an impressive collection of electronic music. Reminiscent of Aphex Twin’s Drukqs, it dives into old school jungle influences but raises them to new standards of fidelity and intricacy. 

16. Fiona Apple – Fetch The Bolt Cutters

A clamoring helping of musical and lyrical catharsis, created by one of the most talented and expressive singer songwriters of all time. 

15. SAULT – Untitled (Rise) + (Black is)

These are two sister untitled albums that infuse elements of R&B, house, and disco seamlessly into a tapestry of their own. The pair of albums share revealing explorations of the trials and tribulations of being black in a world of white oppression. The genres tapped on the project remind us that the whole of Western pop music, both in America and the UK, is deeply indebted to black artists. Like Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly, it is a love letter to prior decades of soul and R&B. But SAULT also takes undeniable ownership of what was culturally hijacked from generations past. The result is somehow something new and urgent. The collective of musicians that perform across this wide collection of songs work in tandem to create something special — it all feels so raw and genuine. I think this appears to be thanks to producer Inflo, who has been shaping all of these influences together in an incredible form. It is strange when something new sounds like it could be old, like songs that have been around forever but you just never heard. That is the secret magic to the albums that have been released under the SAULT name. Thanks to this effort towards authenticity and an adoration for its influences, more than most music today, their music stands out as art as a sociopolitical statement more so than a commercial package. 

14. Jean Dawson – Pixel Bath

Creatively courageous and genre-defying, Pixel Bath is one of 2020’s most unique and inspired deconstructions of alternative, hip-hop, and pop music held together with sharp melodies and killer performances. 

13. Porridge Radio – Every Bad

A fiery, supercharged sadcore punch propelled with the angst of ‘90s grunge, post-hardcore, and the most fervent of indie rock. 

12. The Soft Pink Truth – Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase?

A strange, majestic, journey. It stands out against other ambient releases of the year through its otherworldly ambition intricately crafted with patient subtlety and simple yet heavenly instrumentation. 

11. Soccer Mommy – color theory

For the last few years, women have been leading the way in urgent, relevant, and emotional  indie rock rooted with punk, DIY sensibilities. That used to be a male dominated genre, but is now very much open and heavily competed with all genders and persuasions. As the space has become more contested, it’s perhaps become harder to stand out. Soccer Mommy’s color theory managed to do so in 2020. It achieves this without any gimmicks. The songs are simple, the production is relatively tame and reminiscent of its peers. It’s got a soft glow of nostalgic vibes, sitting in some vague, dreamy middleground between lo-fi and hi-fi. Where it shines is the place that matters most: the songwriting. These are standout, vulnerable confessionals that are packaged in sharp melodies and genuine vocal performances. After multiple listens, the production reveals itself as much greater than it appears on the surface. It shows restraint in the segments that are best reserved for simple acoustic enchantments. But it also has flourishes of strings, subtle vocal double tracking, and so many little instrumental touches layered in without taking away from the songs themselves. It is a mastercrafted indie pop album, surely with ample influence but deserving of becoming a template of its own.

10. The Microphones – The Microphones in 2020

This is a strange album to recommend at all. Yet, it was one of my favorite things I heard this year. This album has somewhat limited audience appeal, and that audience is existing fans of Phil Elverum and his extended catalog going back to the early 2000s. The Microphones in 2020 is one single song nearly 45 minutes in length. While the song goes a subtle evolution, it also maintains a steady rhythmic flow in the form of a repetitive guitar refrain. But as a huge fan of his work, it was inevitable for me to adore this release. It is a strangely meta reflection of his music career, full of so many internal reference points and callbacks to previous work. Like his past few releases, it is written with an open, plainspoken nonchalance. But while that nonchalance was previously used in the capacity of loss and tragedy, The Microphones in 2020 takes the lens to nostalgia. But it is certainly a stab of nostalgia with a twinge of pain. That pain comes from the comparison to then and now, what was lost and what we miss. But this album manages to keep its focus towards heartfelt fondness of the past, and enriches us with so many little details of his inner thoughts and mindset from back in his early career. It’s all seen through the lens of now and everything he’s been through. And of course, as listeners, we hear and experience this while thinking about our own reflections on those times. I reflect on where I was when I first got into his work, and the impact it had on me during my young adulthood. And then I think about my life now, the direction it’s gone. Our wayward paths as artist and listener, each in separation directions but along the same linear path of life. It’s this peculiar connection that makes the album not only personal to Phil, but personal to his fans. 

9. Deep Sea Diver – Impossible Weight

Deep Sea Diver’s Impossible Weight was a delightful surprise, and wins the prize for the most underrated album of the year. Deep Sea Diver is far from a new project, though. It is primarily the vessel for singer/songwriter Jessica Dobson, who formed the band back in 2009. I’ll admit that this is my first exposure to her work, so I can’t say it’s a career I’ve been following. However, my attention has been fully attained with this album. The things that attract me most are the performances. They feel refreshingly live, untamed, and bursting at the seams with emotions. The vocal delivery is passionate, and the guitar performances are heartpumping. The album’s production allows these layers to really shine. It is densely packed with sounds, from synthesizers to multiple guitar layers, but everything is coherent and packs a punch. What keeps bringing me back to this album, though, is the songwriting. The songs are life-affirming and exhilarating. It is a deep sea dive into impossible depths of introspection, and worth its weight in stone as one of the best alternative rock albums of the year. 

8. Perfume Genius – Set My Heart On Fire Immediately

Set My Heart On Fire Immediately is the exact sentiment I have when I listen to this album. It’s a beautiful, intricately crafted art pop masterpiece. It’s also a manifestation of passion, lust, and urgency. I’ve been following his music going back to his debut, and I’ve enjoyed songs here and there, but rarely whole albums. 2017’s No Shape was the closest I got thanks to its rich, masterful, and consistently majestic production. However, I felt its songwriting to be a bit inconsistent with a handful of songs that felt like good ideas that didn’t quite come together. Well, everything comes together on Set My Heart On Fire Immediately. The songs are so memorable, with cohesive themes and infectious earworms. This album is delicately crafted in every aspect. It feels like a place you can go to, and that place is decadent, exciting, and moving. It’s like a high school gym, dripping with youthful emotion and sexual tension decked out in the most ostentatious ornamentation. It’s set ablaze, and then the fire is drenched out with a dump truck of ice, burying its attendees in the tantalizing drench of icy hot desire. 

7. clipping. – Visions of Bodies Being Burned

Avant-hop trio clipping. began as a  project that was as rough around the edges, but those edges pushed the boundaries of hip-hop. Their style has developed to become more consistent and realized over their last few releases. This culminated in 2019’s There Existed an Addiction to Blood developed into a horror-influenced concept album, and was one of my favorite albums of that year.  2020’s Visions of Bodies Being Burned is a sister album, furthering the horror concept even more. The two are comparable in quality, with some preferring one versus the other. I tend to prefer Visions of Bodies Being Burned. I think the songs are better written, and the concept feels more confident and comfortable for the trio. They balance playfully between hip-hop and the avant-grade. All aspects of the production, lyrics, and mood are on point. Rapper Daveed Diggs also seems so much more developed as an artist, throwing down some insanely intricate passages of abstract, horror-tinged poetry. This album is both a testament to the perfection of their craft as well as a masterfully realized conceptual project. 

6. Charli XCX – how i’m feeling now

how i’m feeling now is such an impressive project. It was written and recorded in response to the isolation of COVID-19. It was released fairly early on in the quarantine, only in May of 2020. It’s got a host of PC MUSIC-approved producers, most notably A.G. Cook, Dylan Brady of 100 gecs, Danny L Harle, and BJ Burton. The lineup gives the album a consistent aesthetic, but enough variation to keep it interesting and engaging throughout. There’s an apparent spark to the collaboration — that they all poured so much creative soul into this album during a tough time and managed to come out with something so pristine and well-formed is commendable. They struck while the emotional and creative irons were hot, and the result is something genuine and raw. But strangely, it doesn’t necessarily sound that way. It actually sounds quite sharp and well through, with only a few rough spots that could have used a little more time to smooth over.

Charli XCX’s last album, 2019’s Charli, was a comprehensive and sprawling pop record about her identity. Yet, it sounded like the Charli that she sees in the mirror: the artist and extravagant future pop innovator. how i’m feeling now is Charli as you see her on the album cover — bare, exhausted, and lonely. That’s not a commentary on the production, which remains as forward-thinking and exciting as ever. But it is a commentary on her lyrics and overall attitude. And it’s a good look for her. The pandemic might push a lot of artists into unknown emotional territory, but Charli didn’t waste any time exploring. But more than just a well-timed emotional outpouring; how i’m feeling right now is one of the most exciting, well-produced experimental pop albums of the year. 

5. Yves Tumor – Heaven To A Tortured Mind

Yves Tumor has been on my radar for a few years now, but he hadn’t released a project that completely floored me. This album broke that trend in the strangest ways possible. There are few albums I can put on that I don’t even try to pin with genre associations because they operate in a realm of their own. Heaven To A Tortured Mind is one of those albums. Its production is so inspired and unique. It tends to draw more from the mood of neo-psychedelia more than its structural underpinnings. Its production is a dense obfuscation. The palette is a kaleidoscopic flourish of  ‘70s psychedelia-inspired guitars, impassioned vocal deliveries, and drums that have the repetition of electronic music but the weight and feel of acoustic drumming. There’s much out there like this today, there’s not much like this ever. Heaven To A Tortured Mind is far from torturous; it’s a trip to the moon and back. 

4. The Strokes – The New Abnormal

I’ll start by saying i’m not actually a Strokes fanboy, though I might look the part. I’ve enjoyed songs of theirs in the past, but no full project has really stayed my attention for long. My interest in this record was piqued after I fell in love with The Voidz, Julian Casablancas’s other band, on their 2018 album Virtue. I was intrigued if any of the influence from that project would intersect with The Strokes. Interestingly, it didn’t much at all, but the project also didn’t disappoint. Instead, we got something that has the bones of a Strokes record with production that reminds me more of early to mid ‘00s indie rock. The opening song, The Adults Are Talking, is one of the best opening songs on an album I’ve heard this year. That song’s production has some strong comparisons to Phoenix,  The New Abnormal is one of the most consistent and exciting projects I’ve heard from the band. It’s noteworthy that the infamous Rick Rubin produced this record, which some have complained has created a sound that’s too compressed and too high volume. I definitely hear that, especially on songs like Brooklyn Bridge to Chorus and Bad Decisions. 

This record could have been a catastrophe if the only draw were these few singles, especially because I started to tire on them over time. What’s striking is the rest of the album: It’s full of songs in a moderate to lower tempo. Songs like Selfless, Eternal Summer, At The Door, Why Are Sundays So Depressing, and Ode To The Mets. They aren’t immediate bangers. But unlike the album’s singles, they grew on me over time. They form the real glue of this album. They work through intense and memorable performances by Julian Casablancas, stellar production that isn’t as flashy as the singles, and standout songwriting that’s some of the most mature and vulnerable the band has assembled to date. 

3. Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher

This album is no stranger to year-end lists. For good reason: it’s one of the most wistfully captivating and vulnerable records of the year. Many have drawn up lists of her myriad indie folk and sadcore influences, but this album requires no scaffolding built from her muses. She delivered on her potential hinted at on her debut album, Stranger in the Alps. More than that, she put out one of the best records of the year. The production is wonderfully understated, leaving plenty of room for her voice and personality while also drawing you closer to her deeply introspective world with its careful touches of detail. And when songs build up to heavier fruition, they bloom and swell with wonderful arrangements of strings and horns. This isn’t an easy album to throw on, but when I do, it’s easy to get lost in Phoebe’s world. 

2. Run The Jewels – RTJ4

Back with fire and fury, Run The Jewels’ El-P and Killer Mike continue their duo’s saga on RTJ4. This was the album we needed this year. A year of protracted political pandemonium, repugnant racially-charged wrongs, a punishing and painful pandemic, and a rise of radical ridiculousness. I hate that we needed this album, and it was barely a respite through it all. Perhaps it was brief consolation and a momentary feeling of unity for all those who listened to it. But beyond its sociopolitical urgency, it is one hell of an album. I’m a huge fan of El-P and his entire catalog of work. It’s an incredible showcase of his talent as both a producer and a rapper. I think it is the best RTJ album to date. It’s a testament to their best qualities: El-P’s boundary pushing and grim and grimy beats, Killer Mike and El-P’s infectious back-and-forth, and bars that throw fantastic damage towards everyone in their way. It’s addicting from start to finish with no duds on the tracklisting. 

I can’t say it enough: El-P’s production is insanely good. I’m not sure how he does it. Songs like “walking in the snow” shift through so many different sounds and textures through its runtime while  keeping a consistent mood and insatiable flow maintained by raps. Rage Against The Machine’s Zack de la Rocha fitfully returns, this time along with Pharrell on the status quo shattering track JU$T. The album becomes increasingly introspective and slower tempo in the latter quarter, but that doesn’t detract from its potency. This is a relentless album. It tires me out because of how energetic and compelling it is through and through. 

1. Rina Sawayama – SAWAYAMA

Rina Sawayama’s SAWAYAMA album is one of the most well-formed and fully realized debut albums I’ve ever heard. Every song is distinct, memorable, and purpose-driven. It’s a codex of an individual, an invitation into her world and her innermost thoughts and dreams. Producer Clarence Clarity helps Rina realize this vision with stellar, intricately layered production. It’s clean and sharp yet wild and ear-catching. 

What is incredible about SAWAYAMA is how well the songs work both as individual singles and as a cohesive project. This is a testament to the songwriting–which helps each song stand well on its own–and the production, which provides a sonic through-line that ties everything together. It’s an album that manages to be both personal and topical at the same time. Songs like XS challenge materialism while also empathizing with its draw. STFU! tackles patriarchy from a personal perspective of frustration and ire. But more often than not, this album is striking confessional of emotion: from the guilt of being a bad friend, to the perils of nostalgia on Paradisin’, to a multi-generational tapestry of pain on Akasaka Sad, and the heartwarming belongingness felt on Chosen Family. SAWAYAMA draws from her own personal identity, but has created something that is also identifiable and near universal in its themes. 

I’ve seen this album get a few nods as an AOTY, but I don’t think enough from major publications. It’s surprising to me because this song has cross-appeal as both an accessible pop album and an excitingly creative, norm-shattering indie album. There’s a timeless quality to the album’s songs which separate itself from the PC MUSIC and hyper pop trendsetters. The album certainly has some aesthetic draw from those scenes, but I think it stands on its own two feet without the need to bite on any cliché. It’s a damn near immaculate album. I still remember my excited smiling giddiness the first time I heard songs like XS and STFU! They were so fun, but also intricate with calculated interplay between the lyrics and the production, calling back to each other in creative ways. It’s not afraid to be loud and edgy, but it’s also not above being kitsch and corny. The addition of guitars gives it a strong ‘90s pop influence, and it taps into that decade better than any other nostalgic project I’ve heard. And it doesn’t hurt that the closer song, Snakeskin, has got what I’m pretty sure is a Final Fantasy battle theme inserted as the chorus melody. It’s countless little touches like that which keep me coming back listen after listen. It’s rich and bountiful in aesthetic appeal, its lyricism, and its style. It’s for sure the 2020 AOTY.