Prior to Christmas we revealed our albums of 2020 poll, now here are my personal top fifty records of 2020, in all honesty after the first twenty albums there is not much to choose between them. Its an eclectic list that soundtracked a very tough and surreal year, that showed the best and worst of humanity.
Unable to tour for most of the year we need to support the artists we love so listen and buy!
I Break Horses – Warnings
Swedish artist Lindén sketches out widescreen cinematic soundscapes and invests them with her magnificently haunting vocals and vast vision. Crafting each song in her bedroom, she meticulously pieces together layers of mellotron, glistening synth loops, and underpins them with a pulsing rhythmic mainline. Six years in the making since the release of previous long-player Chiaroscuro, after numerous false starts, in my opinion, Warnings is I Break Horses’ most definitive statement yet.
Perfume Genius – Set My Heart On Fire Immediately
Hadreas is an artist, a master craftsman, who gets better with each release, his quivering voice and knowing use of textures, atmospheres, and hooks resplendently showing his growth. Reflecting vividly upon identity, pain, hope, queer sexuality, and plunging us all into his orbit, possessed of restraint and extravagance that is balanced artfully as he unfurls perhaps his finest record yet. And that’s saying something. Magnificent.
Roisin Murphy – Roisin Machine
With decades in the industry Róisín Murphy still somehow seems under rated. Welcome to the Roisin Machine, ripe with knowing, hooks and infectious brilliance, invested with Murphy’s soulful wisdom and grooving, disco ball kissed dancefloor sound it offered an escapism during a time of grim reality.
Islet – Eyelet
Powys trio Islet‘s superlative third record Eyelet is coursing with perpetual motion and meditative depth of the undercurrents of water that flow through the Welsh hills of their home, elemental, hypnotic and spiritual, the cycle of life from birth to death.
The Beths– Jump Rope Gazers
The Beths are one of the best bands I’ve seen live in recent years. For the follow up to their awesome debut, the New Zealanders returned with the hooks, frenetic percussion and knack for a killer melody, but also showed off a more reflective side that concerned itself with heartbreak and long distance relationships. It’s a beguiling charming album that soundtracked the bipolar nature of lockdown and one that confirmed them as one of the best acts around.
Kidsmoke – A vision in the dark
Waxahatchtee – Saint Cloud
Fenne Lily – Breach
Porridge Radio – Every bad
Beach Bunny – Honeymoon
Adrianne Lenker – Songs
Moses Sumney – Grae
Gordi – Our Two Skins
Katie Malco – Failures
Loma – Don’t Shy Away
Private World – Aleph
Thick – 5 Years Behind
Ani Glass – Mirores
R.A.P Ferreria – Purple Moonlight Pages
Kelly Lee Owens – Inner Song
Dana Gavanski – Good Instead Of Bad
James Dean Bradfield – Even In Exile
Choir Boy – Gathering Swans
Annie – Dark Hearts
Sault- Black Is
Keeley Forsyth – Debris
U.S Girls – Heavy Light
Chemtrails – The Peculiar Smell of the Inevitable
The Allergies – Say the Word
Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher
Beabadoobee – Fake It Flowers
I Like Trains – KOMPROMAT
MT.Doubt – Doubtlands
Happy Spendy – You’re Doing Okay
Morgan Powers – Bugs in a Jar
Common – A Beautiful Revolution Part One
Ganser – Just look at that sky
Rona Mac – Sheelah
Deep Sea Diver – Impossible Weight
Carla J Easton – Weirdo
Tugboat Captain – Rut
Ultraflex – Visions of Ultraflex
Deyah – Care City
Squirrel Flower – I was Born Swimming
Georgia – Seeking Thrills
Krakow Loves Adama – Darkest Dream
Anta – Made by Desire
Hannah Georgas – All that Emotion
Bambara – Stray
Steve Buscemi’s Dreamy Eyes – Sweetie
