B&C's 2020 Albums of the Year Thread

[bono_212]

Well, Gump is awesome and left a great breadcrumb trail of the rules in his, Peefs and Mofo's thread of the past, so this was much easier than I thought it'd be:

Mofo rules
- You list your top 15 albums.
- You distribute 100 points up among those 15 albums however you see fit. You cannot exceed 15 points for a single album, however.
- A top thirty will be formed, and if necessary, a minimum number of votes will be required for an album to make the top thirty.
- In case of a tie, the album with the larger number of votes gets precedence. If they are tied in both points and votes, we move to a shootout.

Whether 1 person or 15 people participate doesn't matter, as long as we have some discussion, so please don't stress at all about submitting a list. If it happens, great. I'm going to possibly suspend the minimum number of votes rule this year, if we don't have enough entries, but we'll see. This is my dictatorship now.

Let's aim for having lists submitted by January 15th, but I'm totally OK with offering leeway in favor of more lists. The actual countdown would then likely occur on January 18th.

Other than that, please also feel free to use this thread to discuss end of year lists (but my God, that Pitchfork singles list is awful), submit a list without participating in the countdown, or just discuss what your favorite band from [insert slightly obscure country here] was up to this year.

This was a GREAT year for music, in the face of an extremely challenging year. At the end of the day, I truly want to celebrate it.

Thanks everyone!

[bono_212]

My top three most-played tracks this year are by Dua Lipa, Carly Rae Jepsen and Charli XCX. I don't even know what's happening anymore.

[the tourist]

This is great. I don’t think I listened to enough new music this year to participate in a list, but I look forward to discussion.

My top three most played songs via Spotify for 2020:

1. Impossible Weight by Deep Sea Diver ft. Sharon Van Etten
2. Lost In Yesterday by Tame Impala
3. Cardigan by Taylor Swift

It wouldn’t be wildly different if including vinyl, though there might be more by one of those three or less. Likely another Deep Sea Diver or Taylor Swift song would bump Tame Impala off since I’ve listened to the shit out of the DSD and Taylor records on vinyl.

[gump]

Thanks, Ashley! Looking forward to this.

I agree, this was a great year for music. Though I'll say that the vast majority of my favorite albums were released in the first half of the year; the second half was somewhat less impressive to me.

My most listened song this year was Waxahatchee's Fire. I don't know if Fire or Lilacs is my favorite song from St Cloud, they are both basically perfect.

[LuckyNumber7]

Is it bad if I can’t name 15 albums from 2020

[mikal]

Awesome year for music actually:

1. Biffy Clyro - A Celebration of Endings
2. Dance Gavin Dance Afterburner
3. Bilmuri - Eggy Pocket
4. Deftones - Ohms
5. Corey Taylor - CMFT
6. Mondo Cozmo - New Medicine
7. Slaves - To Better Days
8. A Day To Remember - You're Welcome

I may have forgotten some and will add points later.

[GirlsAloudFan]

Folklore - Taylor Swift - 15 points
Petals For Armor - Hayley Williams - 13 points
The New Abnormal - The Strokes - 12 points
Women In Music Pt. III - HAIM - 10 points (the best HAIM album yet)
Gigaton - Pearl Jam - 8 points
That's How Rumors Get Started - Margo Price - 6 points (I think this was the most overlooked album of the year)
Punisher - Phoebe Bridgers - 6 points ("Kyoto" is my song of the year)
Fetch the Bolt Cutters - Fiona Apple - 5 points
RTJ4 - Run the Jewels - 5 points
How I'm Feeling Now - Charli XCX - 5 points
Chromatica - Lady Gaga - 5 points
Haunted Painting - Sad13 - 4 points (Sadie Dupuis is one of the coolest people in music these days)
Rough and Rowdy Ways - Bob Dylan - 3 points
Letter To You - Bruce Springsteen - 2 points
Plastic Hearts - Miley Cyrus - 1 point (only listened to this once and didn't think it was all that great but I'll put it here on general principle)

Honorable mentions:
Live at the Royal Albert Hall - Arctic Monkeys (didn't want to put a live album on the official list)
High Road - Kesha
Always Tomorrow - Best Coast
Devastator - Phantom Planet
American Head - The Flaming Lips
Color Theory - Soccer Mommy (mostly for the track "Circle the Drain")

[U2inUtah]

Originally Posted by mikal

4. Deftones - Ohms

I’ve never really paid much attention to Deftones but this was a surprisingly great listen for me. It may make my end of the year list as well. I need to check out their back catalogue. Change (in the House of flies) and a Duran Duran cover are like the only two other Deftones songs I know

[GirlsAloudFan]

Fuck, I completely forgot to add INLET by Hum. Oh well. Great album, great band.

[bono_212]

Very surprised to see High Road in the honorable mentions. You know I love Kesha, but man, that album was a bit of a bore for me. What were your favorite tracks?

[mikal]

Originally Posted by U2inUtah

I’ve never really paid much attention to Deftones but this was a surprisingly great listen for me. It may make my end of the year list as well. I need to check out their back catalogue. Change (in the House of flies) and a Duran Duran cover are like the only two other Deftones songs I know

Yeah I was always kind of just "ok" with them, but this album freaking grabbed me. Fantastic late career album.

[mikal]

Originally Posted by GirlsAloudFan

Fuck, I completely forgot to add INLET by Hum. Oh well. Great album, great band.

Oh I'll have to check that one out. I always liked them and somehow missed it.

[GirlsAloudFan]

Originally Posted by bono_212

Very surprised to see High Road in the honorable mentions. You know I love Kesha, but man, that album was a bit of a bore for me. What were your favorite tracks?

It's in the honorable mentions simply because it is a Kesha album that existed in the year 2020. A fact worthy of acknowledgment.

[LemonMelon]

I had a difficult time choosing between #1 and #2, so I went with the one I felt was going to need more help:

1. Charli XCX - How I'm Feeling Now (15)
2. Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters (13)
3. Jessie Ware - What's Your Pleasure? (12)
4. Natalia Lafourcade - Un canto por México Vol. 1 (10)
5. The Microphones - Microphones in 2020 (9)
6. A Girl Called Eddy - Been Around (7)
7. Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist - Alfredo (7)
8. Yves Tumor - Heaven to a Tortured Mind (6)
9. Rina Sawayama - Sawayama (5)
10. Empty Country - Empty Country (4)
11. Perfume Genius - Set My Heart on Fire Immediately (4)
12. Tennis - Swimmer (3)
13. R.A.P. Ferreira - Purple Moonlight Pages (2)
14. The Strokes - The New Abnormal (2)
15. Jeff Rosenstock - NO DREAM (1)

Honorable mentions:

The Flaming Lips - American Head
Dan Deacon - Mystic Familiar
Protomartyr - Ultimate Success Today
Gorillaz - Song Machine, Season One
Destroyer - Have We Met

At some point, I will have a more detailed write-up with a top 50 and playlist to go along with it, but this will do for now. I doubt my ranking of the top 20 is going to change much. I'm second-guessing ranking Jeff Rosenstock ahead of the Flaming Lips, but eh, he will need more representation.

[GirlsAloudFan]

Ah, I should hit up that Tennis album. Was pretty into them back around 2012/2013 and saw them live. Completely forgot about them.

Also, don't think I knew Gorillaz put out an album. That shit flew under the radar.

[iron yuppie]

Glad this thread was made. I'll submit something when work calms down in a few weeks.

[LemonMelon]

Originally Posted by GirlsAloudFan

Ah, I should hit up that Tennis album. Was pretty into them back around 2012/2013 and saw them live. Completely forgot about them.

Also, don't think I knew Gorillaz put out an album. That shit flew under the radar.

I've kept up with Tennis over the years but was never really thrilled with any single one of their albums until this one. Need Your Love is a SOTY candidate for real.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGZVZcMYdmA

Those tempo changes!

The weird, protracted rollout took the air out of Song Machine's sails, but it's easily the best Gorillaz release in 10 years. The guest list is ridiculous and the songwriting is way more consistent than it has been since Plastic Beach. It's a blast to listen to.

[gump]

It looks like cobbler and me will have to boost grae.

[cobl04]

Indeed.

This has been a terrific year for music, and I still haven't listened to Fetch the Bolt Cutters. I'm actually a bit stressed out, and I've asked this many times before in many different ways, but I'd love advice anyone has if they feel they get in a similar position with new music... but there's still, like, at least seven or eight albums that have been highly ranked by everyone that I'm keen to listen to, like FTBC, the Perfume Genius record, Yves Tumour, Gibbs, Women in Music, Saint Cloud (I span it once and quite liked it) but it feels very overwhelming and stressful, because it's an effort to dedicate all this time to new music and fall in love with these records, particularly whilst I'm also trying to play Xbox and Switch games, read books, learn how to cook, reflect, work, be a good partner and friend... it's a major cause of stress for me lol.

[cobl04]

Another problem that exacerbates my stress is that I'm so album-focused. If I was more song focused I could just make playlists of songs I really enjoy and listen to that. As an example, two songs of 2020 I fucking adore but don't really love the rest of the records they're on: Obongjayar's Carry Come Carry Go and Mikaela McCraven's I'll Take Care of You