Reviews That Mention COVID-19
I might be totally off-base here, but I get the suspicion that a lot of reviews in the last year had a mention of COVID somewhere. Comment yours (or someone else's) below and I'll add it. Maybe in 2025, when we're all old and gray, we can bump this list and reminisce on the g̶o̶o̶d̶ times. Or not, whatever. |
| 1 |  | Dry Cleaning
New Long Leg
SandwichBubble
“A.L.C.” is the same way, though with slightly more diverse instrumentation and a solid lyrical focus (daydreaming about going outside while stuck in COVID-19 quarantine). |
| 2 |  | The Mountain Goats
Songs for Pierre Chuvin
porcupinetheater
In the Year of the Novel Coronavirus, The Mountain Goats is once again a singular noun. And it couldn’t feel more fitting. |
| 3 |  | Social Gravy
A Different Kind
InsightOut
Despite a global shutdown in 2020, when coronavirus among many things wreaked havoc also on music, many artists didn’t shelve their plans to release their music to the world and thus provided listeners with a refuge in unprecedented times. |
| 4 |  | AJR
OK Orchestra
Lowlander2
Taylor Swift had to retreat to indie folk because stadium pop couldn't exist without stadiums. Oliver Tree flat out quit because of coronavirus (he got better). |
| 5 |  | pg.lost
Oscillate
Brinner
For fans of the band, it has been four nerve-wracking years wondering whether pg.lost's next record can lift the band out of a bit of a rut, not to mention years of radio silence and the added financial pressures caused by the coronavirus pandemic throwing the future of many bands into disquiet. |
| 6 |  | Andy Hull
Who Is Your Humble? (Demos: 2006-2007)
SowingSeason
These are unprecedented times. Entire nations are closing their borders in the wake of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. |
| 7 |  | Andrew Bird
HARK!
SowingSeason
In counting the myriad ways in which I’m privileged, my to-date avoidance of the coronavirus is somewhere near the top of that list. |
| 8 |  | Weezer
Van Weezer
SowingSeason
Thanks to Van Weezer’s hilariously long roll-out – the album was delayed a full year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, even though it has been completed all of that time – its pitfalls only become more glaring and magnified. |
| 9 |  | Nine Inch Nails
Ghosts V: Together
SowingSeason
If fifteen years from now my son is working on a homework assignment and asks me to recall the COVID-19 pandemic, all I’ll need to do is play this album and it will all come rushing back to me in the worst way. |
| 10 |  | Yellowcard
Lights and Sounds
SowingSeason
Months-deep into a quarantine over COVID-19, I’m inching closer and closer to summertime, but things just don’t feel the same anymore. |
| 11 |  | Jeff Tweedy
Love Is The King
SowingSeason
He’s crafting songs at a studio he built himself with his family, and is now in COVID-induced isolation. |
| 12 |  | Drive-By Truckers
The New OK
SowingSeason
Drive-By Truckers’ thirteenth album, The New OK, comes just three days after the commander in chief dictatorially hijacked the first presidential debates while calling upon white supremacy groups to wait in the wings, and mere hours after learning that he’s now contracted the potentially deadly COVID-19. |
| 13 |  | The War On Drugs
I Don't Live Here Anymore
Sowing (minus the Season)
I Don’t Live Here Anymore is in many ways an album about transformation. In the time since we last heard Granduciel (2017’s A Deeper Understanding), Adam became a father and endured the pandemic – two life-altering events. |
| 14 |  | The Killers
Pressure Machine
Sowing (minus the Season)
Between the global job market shifting from industrial/blue-collar to technological/white-collar and the COVID-19 pandemic snuffing out whatever signs of life remained in small business, it's like the world has left many of these places behind. |
| 15 |  | Yellowcard
Ocean Avenue
Shamus248
I see reports that enough vaccines for the entire country are in hand, followed swiftly by warnings of newer, more dangerous COVID variants. |
| 16 |  | Rascal Flatts
Twenty Years of Rascal Flatts: The Greatest Hits
Shamus248
Then of course, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the tour was postponed and ultimately cancelled. |
| 17 |  | Goat Girl
On All Fours
Dewinged
Songs like "Once Again" and "Sad Cowboy" paint a pretty picture for the band, the first with a strong vocal chorus that spirals down your brain as the song fades away and the latter with a synth taking the spotlight and inducing a mental dance party of all things potentially doable in a post-covid timeline. |
| 18 |  | Hilary Woods
Birthmarks
Dewinged
The world lives in confinement, subjugated by one of the most destructive pandemics of modern history. |
| 19 |  | Lost Horizons
In Quiet Moments
Dewinged
The theme of In Quiet Moments was set by the debacle that was 2020, the year of Covid-19. |
| 20 |  | Jinjer
Wallflowers
Dewinged
With lyrical themes that go from a hateful message to an inquisitive journalist who wouldn't let the band out of his political schemes, to Tatiana's struggle to socialize while also dealing with everyday life in a pandemic riddled post-world, Jinjer ravages through 47 minutes of intensely charming mathcore with a release that may very well be their best, if not my personal favorite, or the one that I found somehow more engaging. |
| 21 |  | Kamaal Williams
Wu Hen
Barry000
The cheekily titled 'Wu Hen', with it's album cover concept being a comment on the current pandemic situation, is a new album from jazz-fusion artist Kamaal Williams. |
| 22 |  | Yo La Tengo
We Have Amnesia Sometimes
Barry000
The thing I appreciate most about this album is that it was recorded as an improv session during strict lock-down in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. |
| 23 |  | Caliggy Jack
Passover
CaliggyJack
I said it was because I was in Florida and Covid restrictions in New York were tough. |
| 24 |  | Tiny Mouse
The happiest mouse alive
BallsToTheWall
The Happiest Mouse Alive is short, digestible affair full of heartwarming synth melodies and new agey, slipper wearing good vibes that go hand in hand with lounging around your house and or nature while absolutely ***ing off from the Coronavirus and almost everyone around you. |
| 25 |  | Runa
The Tide of Winter
Divaman
Sting and Rihanna might have to sell a plane or something to make it through the pandemic, and I'm sure they're all sad about having to hole up in their mansions. But for these little touring bands, if they can't play in front of live audiences, their ability to put food on the table is pretty severely compromised. |
| 26 |  | Blackmore's Night
Nature's Light
Divaman
They recorded Nature's Light in 2019 for a planned release in April of 2020. Then COVID happened, and, well, you know how that goes. |
| 27 |  | Black Moth Super Rainbow
Panic Blooms
Ageispolis
To be fair to Black Moth Super Rainbow, although 2020 was the source of much blooming panic for billions worldwide, it does seem like covid-19 will be, if not defeated, at least tamed by science and the dozens of modifications we’re all making to our behaviour and social norms. |
| 28 |  | Stay Inside
Viewing
BigTuna
It’s impossible not to hear Stay Inside’s debut LP Viewing in the context of this novel coronavirus. |
| 29 |  | Lana Del Rey
Chemtrails Over The Country Club
TheMoonchild
To summarize: she released a clumsily-titled book full of pretentious poetry called "Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass", coupled with a spoken word record full of recitations of said poems, went off on some bizarre rant about how she's apparently facing some double standard because she writes about uncomfortable subjects that other female pop stars romanticize and getting shit for it, went off on weird racist tangents, did a meet and greet with fans in the midst of a pandemic and wore a face mask made of netting, and so on. |
| 30 |  | Wingz
Modify
Evok
It's been a strong showing no doubt, bolstered by some great independently released COVID-era singles, but his work with Overview by way of Modify's three incredible selections can't help but steal the show. |
| 31 |  | Wounds of Recollection
Nowhere Else Feels More Like Home
Evok
Perhaps drawing those initial comparisons to emo/indie ideologies is a bit misguided when bands like Harikiri for the Sky, Ultar and Møl exist in such close proximity, but COVID-era Wounds of Recollection has such a personal touch that it's hard to escape feeling those swells of contemplation and release that made one's favourite touchy-feely records of young adulthood so special. |
| 32 |  | Ulcerate
Stare Into Death and Be Still
IntriguingSergei
Delving into the thick of things, a few months ago - before Coronavirus burst its balloon over my native Russia - I was stationed on a remote alternative education campus some 100 miles out from Yakusk. |
| 33 |  | Devil Sold His Soul
Loss
Teal
Inspiration was overflowing not only because of the reignited passion within the band, but also due to the death of drummer Alex Wood’s mother, various members of the band grappling with anxiety and depression, and the dread which arrived with the Coronavirus epidemic early in 2020. |
| 34 |  | Bon Jovi
2020
AshArcher
What would become “2020” was originally written and recorded in 2019 for an early 2020 release, until the original release of this album and it’s supporting tour were cancelled with the United States becoming the nation most heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| 35 |  | Strike Anywhere
Nightmares of the West
Joeman82
To say that the United State domestically is having a “rough year” would be a massive understatement. A pandemic that has only instilled more doubt and disdain about the country's infrastructure and leadership, a recession caused from said pandemic, riots in every major city in America after the death of George Floyd, secret police being deployed in Portland, and so much more have left lives destitute and scrambling for answers. |
| 36 |  | Chris Corsano and Bill Orcutt
Made Out Of Sound
grapefruitlacroix
As what we would now call COVID’s first wave hit the city, white collar workers and a vast trove of trust fund wanderers and creatives settled in for the long haul. |
| 37 |  | Little Dragon
Ritual Union
DivergentThinking
He specifically singled out live performance as a ritual union, and one of the only examples of such that still exists in the Western world… or at least they will be again once the world at large manages to regain some semblance of normality. |
| 38 |  | Tori Amos
Ocean to Ocean
DivergentThinking
Yet another album born out of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ocean to Ocean was the result of the time Tori Amos spent in lockdown in Cornwall, England. |
| 39 |  | A.A. Williams
Songs from Isolation
Sunnyvale
Giving an album the title Songs From Isolation and releasing it towards the tail end of a pandemic which has dramatically curtailed many people’s social lives feels a bit on the nose, but it’s hard to imagine a better artist to pull this off than A.A. Williams. |
| 40 |  | Saccades
Flowing Fades
Sunnyvale
The LP seems designed as a companion piece for summer escapism, and there are throngs ready for just such a style as the weather gets warmer and the world slowly emerges from the pandemic. |
| 41 |  | Max Richter
Voices
hel9000
Its release in the summer of 2020—where demonstrations for basic human rights have exploded globally, the fires stoked by an anomalous global pandemic—feels like a perfectly appropriate time for such a document. |
| 42 |  | Shabason, Krgovich and Harris
Philadelphia
hel9000
Although Joseph Shabason, Nicholas Krgovich, and Chris Harris recorded Philadelphia in the autumn of 2019, its themes of solitude and homey comfort feel especially poignant in the year of social distancing and quarantine. |
| 43 |  | William Tyler
New Vanitas
hel9000
Tyler recently moved back to his hometown of Nashville to be closer to his parents during the pandemic, and he credits a subsequent reconnection with the “sonic building blocks” that initially inspired his own music—old cassettes of Protestant hymns, records that have seen decades of use, the fuzzy hiss of AM radio as dusk settles—for New Vanitas’ homespun quality. |
| 44 |  | Khotin
Finds You Well
hel9000
Finds You Well grapples with sincerity and human connection in the shadow of the pandemic through lively and danceable upbeat tracks, as well as distant and frigid ambient work. |
| 45 |  | Deafheaven
Sunbather
JohnnyoftheWell
As a profoundly significant side-effect of all this, media that is not music and is less easily consumable under normal circumstances (the entirety of Terrace House) or usually unavailable (Covid-19 live news channels, that Tricot YouTube chat from last night) is now a moral imperative. |
| 46 |  | ZOMBIE-CHANG
TAKE ME AWAY FROM TOKYO
JohnnyoftheWell
2020 being what it is, nobody needs a recap of the many, many reasons why it’s a bit of an imperative to confront multiple months’ worth of latent stir craziness some time around right now. Varying periods of varying levels of confinement have drastically altered the lifestyles of literally everybody, and so it’s only natural for a certain measure of cooped-up, unreleased energy to pass from between their four walls to studios across the world, and back again. |
| 47 |  | Nick Cave and Warren Ellis
Carnage
JohnnyoftheWell
That red herring overture yields to eight succinct showcases of shifting narratives, clashing tones and momentous oscillations of intensity, threaded together by a twisted logic at times stylistically jarring but instantly familiar with the spirit of Covid-era online reality. |
| 48 |  | downy
Mudai (7)
JohnnyoftheWell
The relation in this case is purely epimusical, but amplify that alignment four times over and you’ll have a pretty good sense of what it feels like to listen to Mudai (7) in the ages of Covid-19. |
| 49 |  | Show Me A Dinosaur
Plantgazer
MarsKid
The contents of Plantgazer mimic the fluctuating moods of the secluded individual, illustrating the lonely box quarantine all have been placed in and the struggle to identify beauty when it has apparently dried up. |
| 50 |  | The Motion Mosaic
Avant-Garbage
MarsKid
Despite the Covid-fueled analogies and the self-aware description offered by its title, this sophomore effort is far from scattered; elements such as the heaviness and intricacies of Betrayer-era Harlots find themselves melded with the melodic tendencies of the Greyhavens of the world and the progressive elements of Name. |
| 51 |  | Youth Novel
Youth Novel
MarsKid
A self-titled effort, released posthumously during a quarantine push to finalize past works, is the lasting testament. |
| 52 |  | TRVSS
New Distances
MarsKid
Be it for the unyielding approach of a global pandemic, dissatisfaction with political action or inaction, not having reliable employment, or whatever other reason supplied by the pandemonium of 2020, artists are responding in kind. |
| 53 |  | Croy and the Boys
Of Course They Do
ramon.
I never thought I’d live to see the day I heard a cover of Crass’ “Do They Owe Us A Living?” in the key of “americana, country, roots, tex-mex, honky-tonk, Austin” (cheers, Bandcamp tags), though it seems anything goes in a pandemic world. |
| 54 |  | Sam Cooper
Gleamer
dmoz47
The guitar riff is just BEGGING to be played at a beach somewhere right now. If you're looking for songs like that to throw on your post-quarantine summer playlist, definitely check out this one. |
| 55 |  | Kim Petras
Clarity
Get Low
I listened to Clarity and thought it was okay. I remember thinking that there was nothing exceptional about the beats or production, as this was around the time when Charli XCX and Jessie Ware had both dropped their quarantine-opuses how i'm feeling now and What's Your Pleasure? respectively. |
| 56 |  | The Avalanches
We Will Always Love You
granitenotebook
"For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love" said Sagan in Contact, and surely thoughts like this have passed through all our minds as we have struggled with our relationships throughout COVID-19's reign. |
| 57 |  | Disclosure
Energy
dedex
It's almost cliché at this point to reference the current pandemic times we are now living in. |
| 58 |  | Wasted Space
like summer, but colder
dedex
How many recent reviews started with an unoriginal summary ranting about how the current pandemic situation impacts our daily life? |
| 59 |  | The Strokes
The New Abnormal
dedex
This record is cool at its core, fueled with breezy tunes to spend your post-quarantine parties to. |
| 60 |  | Thundercat
It Is What It Is
dedex
A pure product of his generation, which manages to create memes about the biggest pandemic in a century, Thundercat is capable of laughing at his own misfortune, and injects a shaggy silliness into his darkest thoughts. |
| 61 |  | Four Tet
Sixteen Oceans
dedex
It is fitting in these times, as clubs shut down in the midst of a virus outbreak. |
| 62 |  | Moribund
Oracular Eyes
ShadowRemains
Such factors may include the level of unhinged desperation or guttural atrophy in the vocals or the necessity to avoid rampant (understatement of the year besides "COVID-19 kind of sucks") copy-catting in the guitar work, which naturally becomes more and more difficult as the progress through the underground moves above ground. |
| 63 |  | Public Enemy
What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down
CaptainKronosVampire
With the overall mediocre to outright bad recording quality of both the vocals and DJing, I'm not sure why they bothered recording during a massive worldwide pandemic anyway. |
| 64 |  | Sarin (CAN)
You Can’t Go Back
PistolPete
From that point on, a slow but patient process ensued that saw some recording in London, Ontario, a new bassist (Andrew) officially join in 2019, a pandemic that dented everyone and their grandmother's plans for the entirety of 2020, and then finally a crack of light at the end of the tunnel. |
| 65 |  | Krallice
Demonic Wealth
Nocte
It seems for all the restraints a world of Covid could apply to a seminal black metal band their time wasn’t spent re-arranging the house or licking the paint off the walls. |
| 66 |  | Abiotic
Ikigai
Nocte
Yeah, the themes are a bit reaching, delivered in the form of screams, roars, fancy guitar leads and blasting drum work - but in comparison to a lot of other groups within the death metal genre we could forgive Abiotic’s attempts to appeal to a modern world, especially on the back of a pandemic crisis. |
| 67 |  | Sevendust
Blood and Stone
Nocte
Two years and a “Covid filled 2020 later” I’m glad I didn’t promise anyone I’d eat my hat if they returned to form because Blood & Stone is that, and more. |
| 68 |  | DevilDriver
Dealing With Demons I
Nocte
Ironically, especially considering the world’s Covid predicament at the moment comes the new record’s opening track, “Keep Away From Me”. |
| 69 |  | Maddie and Tae
The Way It Feels
Nocte
Sure, there’s been ample time for the girls to get the creative juices going (to which they own co-writing rights to fourteen of the fifteen tracks on their 2020 release), but without a steady release schedule or the backing of an original label, Maddie & Tae’s path to success had a few left turns and forks to slow their second studio full-length (not to mention a possibility that Covid - 19 would delay the record further). |
| 70 |  | Mastodon
Hushed and Grim
Gnocchi (The artist formerly known as Nocte)
The [recent] usual covid disclaimer applies here, after all Mastodon went through the same touring and promotional pitfalls as so many other acts across the globe, but Hushed and Grim is largely a representation of the quartet’s experiences over the last few years, with longtime manager and friend Nick John succumbing to pancreatic cancer in 2018 standing as a larger example. |
| 71 |  | Weezer
OK Human
Crxmateo
'OK Human' puts Rivers Cuomo’s criticism of technology on full display, being fully recorded during the COVID-19 lockdowns with entirely analog equipment and a 38-piece orchestra. |
| 72 |  | Enter Shikari
Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible
ajcollins15
We aren’t prepared for this and we are about to crash (and in many ways American is seeing the crash with the COVID-19 pandemic), and the world as we know it is not only changing but changing in a bad way. |
| 73 |  | All Them Witches
Nothing as the Ideal
Inoculaeted
On “See You Next Fall” each musician is afforded the space to playfully explore a hypnotic bassy groove. The result is a track that elicits the experience of swaying in a crowded hot dark bar, drink in hand. (Maybe next fall?) |
| 74 |  | Wake
Devouring Ruin
TheNotrap
I accidentally stumbled upon this album yesterday when looking for something to fill my Sunday's COVID-19 confinement. |
| 75 |  | Brockhampton
Roadrunner: New Light, New Machine
TheWalkinDude
Now that they've broken, healed, and come together, we see them lift each other up and support one another through several notable struggles: the pandemic, isolation, insecurity, loss, things they have indeed covered before. |
| 76 | | Brockhampton
Roadrunner: New Light, New Machine
cordwainerbird
In 2021 Humans will wear half a face. They will walk empty streets forced to change and reform. |
| 77 |  | Chad VanGaalen
World's Most Stressed Out Gardener
Kompys2000
Of course, it was also mostly recorded during quarantine, so it also makes the requisite allusions to isolation and boredom (“days keep rolling away, like every one is the same / and every step that you take is like you’re forcing the motion” is handily the most heartbreaking line on the album). |
| 78 |  | Bull Of Heaven
287: n
Kompys2000
The notions of apocalypse and isolation have, naturally, been on my mind a lot recently. While it is, at this juncture, still pretty unreasonable to expect the COVID-19 pandemic to result in some kind of widespread disintegration of human society as we know it, watching the world economy crash and burn as thousands upon thousands fall gravely ill and die naturally calls to mind images of such a collapse. |
| 79 |  | Peachy Fingernail
i'm nothing if not a silly girl
Kompys2000
The opening sections of “quilt pearls of cum” tackle jittery avant-pop in a Feels-era Animal Collective mold, and the chorus of “i’m ocean foam, let me die.” nudges blearily against spiky riot grrrl tones like a quarantine-addled Bikini Kill. |
| 80 |  | Glass Animals
Dreamland
Kompys2000
Now, after an auto accident almost killed their drummer and a global pandemic scuttled their upcoming live dates, Glass Animals have delivered Dreamland, simultaneously their most personal and most frustratingly anonymous work yet. |
| 81 |  | Ian William Craig
Red Sun Through Smoke
dmathias52
Six months to two years from now there will be an onslaught of artists releasing albums inspired by the current shut down of the world due to COVID-19, each one claiming to have stretched their own artistic abilities to create a magnum opus. |
| 82 |  | Darlingside
Fish Pond Fish
dmathias52
My family is incredibly close and my dad wanted nothing more than for us to be together at all times. We tried as much as we could, but this year made it harder than normal due to COVID. |
| 83 |  | Noah Gundersen
A Pillar of Salt
dmathias52
Like many releases from the past twelve months, A Pillar of Salt is inspired by the anxiety and forced self-reflection of the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| 84 |  | Danny L Harle
Harlecore
brandontaylor
If you’ve also been locked inside during the pandemic and itching to get back to raves and re-live the clubbing days of your teenage years, then Harlecore will boot you straight back there – bonus points if you were clubbing in Central Europe or knew how to shuffle. |
| 85 |  | Taylor Swift
Folklore
rifkadm
Put on Sufjan Steven’s Michigan or Illinois and they seem to capture the sadness of our isolation and disparity during these “unprecedented” times with the COVID19 pandemic - even though both albums were released years ago. |
| 86 |  | Charli XCX
How I'm Feeling Now
BlitzPhoenix98
Charli herself has been asking us fans to collaborate with her on making the music video for her lead single, Forever* to show how we all will not let the coronavirus pandemic win. |
| 87 |  | Loathe (UK)
The Things They Believe
JesperL
Other songs are equally cleverly titled, such as ‘The Year Everything and Nothing Happened’ (2020, get it, virus but also no concerts and stuff) and ‘The Rain Outside…’ (probably alludes to rain outside which can be nice but also not nice, really depends on the situation and whether you have to leave the house or not). |
| 88 |  | Sullii
Me and My Absent Mind Again
JesperL
Simultaneously, the inverse could be true as blissful ignorance can be annihilated: remember the relative collective optimism of the first corona-lockdown, one year ago? |
| 89 |  | Free Throw
Piecing It Together
JesperL
Piecing It Together is a corona-lockdown album through and through. |
| 90 |  | Butch Walker
American Love Story
JWT155
Today is May 8th, 2020. The world has, for the most part, stood still due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. |
| 91 |  | Hazing Over
Pestilence
hesperus
Guitarist Owen Traynor describes getting stuck in a creative rut during the pandemic and being unsatisfied with the music they were writing for Shin Guard, and how shifting to a style inspired by the heavy music they liked when they were younger allowed them to move forward. |
| 92 |  | The 1975
Notes on a Conditional Form
boredcore
Life is too short, even in the midst of a pandemic where we are all at home. |
| 93 |  | Gavin Castleton
Home
cfbassist
An instrumental, reminiscent of Gavin's Gruvis Malt days,news reports in the background speak of all the normal "zombie" things, such as quarantine, chaos, etc. etc. |
| 94 |  | Rich People
Grace Session
joshieboy
A tweet by Pat Miranda of the excellent Californian band ‘Movements’ (who are not dissimilar to this band and someone you should definitely check out) describing what quarantine is like saw this EP’s ‘Fierce Grace’ coming through loud and clear and l was instantly transfixed. |
| 95 |  | Lio
Ever After
Valzentia
Rush had been experimenting with hip hop even before his release from the wrestling goliath due to largely unnecessary corona-related budget cuts, having already dropped the incredibly average 11:11 EP in late 2019, which was more or less a middling introduction of sorts; the kid could definitely carry a mindless tune if nothing else, but obviously you have to strive for something more if you want to perfect your craft. |
| 96 |  | Playboi Carti
Whole Lotta Red
ian b
No, because of course they did, this was clearly orchestrated because what else are you going to do when your hardcore fans have been asking for this album for over a year, and your management is begging you to wait until post COVID to release? |
| 97 |  | Martin Gore
The Third Chimpanzee
Kaleid
Excused from the pressures of penning another Depeche Mode album by the pandemic, The Third Chimpanzee sees Martin exploring the blurred line between humans and their simian relatives. |
| 98 |  | Narrow Head
12th House Rock
TiedDown93
Releasing a record during a pandemic in which bands are unable to tour is unfortunate; Narrow Head will have people clamoring for their live return immediately. |
| 99 |  | Everything Everything
RE-ANIMATOR
ashcrash9
“Big Climb,” replaced at the last minute as the lead single due to its unfortunate implications in a COVID-addled world, is classic Everything Everything, showcasing off-kilter rhythms, guitars that might as well be squawky keyboards, and Higgs running the vocal gamut with layered harmonies, uncountable jumps from chest to head voice, and rapid-fire (nearly rapped, even. Remember “Blast Doors?”), snarled flows. |
| 100 |  | Make Them Suffer
How to Survive a Funeral
TheCakeIsALie
Maybe I should’ve spent my last 10 bucks of Corona relief on Misery Signals or Xibalba. |
| 101 |  | Area
Arbeit Macht Frei
MementoMori
With protests manifesting themselves the world over in light of the malignant police violence that resulted in the death of G. Floyd on the 25th of May 2020, it is becoming abundantly clear that the corona epidemic isn’t the only turbulent crisis to be imposed upon the world this year. |
| 102 |  | Epica
Omega
Mythodea
Their steady, yet fast-paced evolution, result of their assurance of their compositional and instrumental prowess, seemed to climax with the 2016 album The Holographic Principle , and – global pandemic aside – it is not specifically weird to see the band occupied with side-quests, releasing renditions of Attack on Titan songs, a book, and an EP, which while not valuable to their catalogue, kept their audience entertained, attracted new fans and gave them incentive to continue. |
| 103 |  | Paul McCartney
McCartney III
IsolatedSymmetry
McCartney III, then, is simultaneously a product of Covid-19, and a celebration of the times that preceded it. |
| 104 |  | Rotting Kingdom
A Deeper Shade of Sorrow
frozencarl
The third decade of the millennium is off to a dismal start, be it the impending environmental apocalypse, a planet-wide pandemic, the slow collapse of capitalism as we know it, or the various other class struggles and tribulations going seemingly unnoticed. |
| 105 |  | Baroness
Gold and Grey
Musefan58867
The themes are especially resonant during the current COVID-19 pandemic. |
| 106 |  | Anaal Nathrakh
Endarkenment
Dizchu
While written before the COVID-19 pandemic, the album's lamentation of public anti-intellectualism and disinformation, along with humanity's capacity for selfishness and cruelty has become more relevant than ever. |
| 107 |  | The Soft Pink Truth
Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase?
nilsson
Released during a time of global isolation and crisis, Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase is a beautiful piece of music that is genuinely healing, a meticulously crafted odyssey that nudges one toward a better state of mind. |
| 108 |  | Armored Saint
Punching the Sky
MaryBabko
Through a year that will forever be remembered as the one in our lifetimes marred by a global pandemic and social unrest, music is one of the mediums through which people have found peace, and it is fitting that into the final quarter, we have a solid contender for Album Of The Year. |
| 109 |  | Maria BC
Devil's Rain
Trifolium
After a year of worldwide lockdowns during the covid pandemic, a short but sweet album filled to the brim with introspective intimacy might just be what the world needs. |
| 110 |  | Ensiferum
Thalassic
linguist2011
Immediately, you get the sense that the band are simply at ease with their output here, the none-too-serious opener “Rum, Women, Victory” galloping along with renewed vigour and accompanied by a fan-bolstered video which reminds us all to make the most of 2020's dire global situation. |
| 111 |  | Dierks Bentley
Long Trip Alone
riffariffic7
Whether it be through divisive over-politicization or global pandemics locking us away from our loved ones, 2020 has been a disaster. |
| 112 |  | Primitive Man
Immersion
deathofasalesman
There’s an unpleasant feeling in my stomach. I can’t tell if it’s the coffee I drank, the breakfast sandwich I ate, the Zoom outage that disrupted my first day back to school, living during a pandemic, the video of Jacob Blake being shot seven times in the back by a police officer, the third largest wildfire in California’s history raging up north with limited resources to contain it, the inmate firefighters being paid three dollars a day to help manage it, the underpaid migrant workers that hand-pick food for vegans—and are under constant duress from their employers who threaten to call ICE on them—who are still working in this undying heatwave. |
| 113 |  | Regional Justice Center
Crime and Punishment
cvlts
Fresh outta quarantine, Seattle-based powerviolence collective Regional Justice Center offer their sophomore album Crime And Punishment in the form of ten haymakers straight to the listeners eardrum. |
| 114 |  | Afsky
Sorg
twlichty
As the snow falls on a world of virus and hate, sometimes the darkest forms of music can be the most comforting. |
| 115 |  | Five Iron Frenzy
Until This Shakes Apart
TreblinkAlive
In While Supplies Last Roper concentrates the most anger of any song on the album, decrying the hypocrisy of leaders who minimized the COVID crisis while evidently taking precautions for themselves and their families. |
| 116 |  | Smog
Red Apple Falls
eureka
Listening back to these songs during the coronavirus pandemic that has ravaged the world over twenty years after this album’s release, they seem to remind the listener that the pain is real and valid. |
| 117 |  | Doss
4 New Hit Songs
eureka
It reminds me a bit of India Jordan’s EP “For You” from last year in its unrelentingly positive sound; both songs seem contextually linked by the disconnect between their club-oriented sound and the antisocial nature of the pandemic within which they were released. |
| 118 |  | Celer
Xièxie
eureka
I’ve often found myself during the pandemic with a distinct lingering feeling – that of transience, of being in a liminal existential space. |
| 119 |  | Bo Burnham
Inside (The Songs)
notkanyewest
It’s probably a little bit about Burnham’s relationship to live performance, a bit about his anxiety, a bit about living Inside and on the internet during a time of pandemic. |
| 120 |  | ECCO2K
E
GarciReviews
Oh, and of course I'll remember how this album and the rest of Ecco's Swedish and Thai friends got me through the Coronavirus pandemic. |
| 121 |  | Funeral for a Friend
Welcome Home Armageddon
Idlemild
"See the world outside, beauty in the fire" may well be coronavirus, it might be Twitter, it could be the climate disaster. |
| 122 |  | Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp
We're OK. But We're lost anyway.
MiloRuggles
The musicianship is interesting without being overbearing, the songwriting is surprisingly concise, the mixing is as clear and wide as our collective existential doom in 2021... |
| 123 |  | Fleet Foxes
Shore
SublimeSound
Its clearly the product of Pecknold’s isolation under quarantine, likely the best piece of Covid-influenced art to date, because it asks the listener to peel apart the layers of our respective isolation. To reflect. |
| 124 |  | Courtney Barnett
Things Take Time, Take Time
lz41
Barnett’s home city of Melbourne spent more than 200 days under carrying degrees of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions from March of last year to the (hopefully) final lifting earlier this month. |
| 125 |  | Black Veil Brides
The Phantom Tomorrow
JeremiahBullfrog
The Unfortunate COVID-19 Pandemic actually granted BVB more time out of touring to write and record this record, so what are the results? |
| 126 |  | Ed Sheeran
=
DrGonzo1937
Of course, part of me knew it wouldn’t deliver in the same way “Bad Habits” did, but since that song was a knee-jerk reaction to the pandemic, I had a slither of optimism for Sheeran yearning for new pastures. |
| 127 |  | Wage War
Manic
jouroboros
The pandemic left many an artist to their own creative devices and for better or worse, we will be seeing an influx of new music for the next year or two at least. |
| 128 |  | Faceless Burial
Speciation
Atari
There’s something about this Covid-19 hell that makes death metal sound that much better. |
| 129 |  | Plebeian Grandstand
Rien ne suffit
Imperial
The pandemic was not kind to many people. |
| 130 |  | Cloud Nothings
The Black Hole Understands
ieatbabies795
Living in unprecedented times of a pandemic can evoke emotions of gloom and despair. Given this, one would expect an album fully recorded during quarantine to convey similar emotions. |
| 131 | | Mastodon
Hushed and Grim
thatdeftkid
Reflecting on the grief of losing long-time manager Nick John, Mastodon encapsulates many of the feelings we have all had during the coronavirus pandemic in Hushed and Grim. |
| 132 |  | Candlemass
Green Valley
garas
The recording quality is excellent since they could set up everything as planned, and of course there was no audience present to interrupt due to Covid regulations, and the mixing is very-well balanced. |
| 133 |  | The Antlers
Green to Gold
Rowan5215
Not to say the album is totally free of the darkness The Antlers have always fought: "It Is What It Is" seems to grapple with the fallout of the Trump administration's handling of COVID (or lack thereof) with precise and cutting language, while "Volunteer" frames a bittersweet kiss-off to a previous life with a shoegazey build that wouldn't be out of place on Undersea. |
| 134 |  | David Thompson
The Wall
ljubinkozivkovic
When the COVID-19 lockdown hit, Thompson decided to re-visit some of the material he was working on previously and put it in some sense and order that would fit the times. |
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