nightbringer's 2020
In which I defy the purpose of my simplified rating system in order to precisely position albums relative to each other. Nah, this is actually pretty loosely ranked. Anyway, little late to this, dropped off Sput for most of Christmas/Jan. Some quick-fire blurbs included for the top bunch. |
| 35 |  | Gorillaz
Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez
Art Pop/Hip-Hop |
| 34 |  | Rubio
Mango Negro
Trip-Hop |
| 33 |  | Deserta
Black Aura My Sun
Synth Pop/Shoegaze |
| 32 |  | Ulver
Flowers of Evil
Synth Pop |
| 31 |  | Cloudkicker
Solitude
Prog Metal/Djent |
| 30 |  | Emery
White Line Fever
Emo/Alt Rock |
| 29 |  | Moses Sumney
grae
Art Pop/Soul/Experimental |
| 28 |  | Rival Consoles
articulation
IDM/Techno |
| 27 |  | Black Thought
Streams of Thought, Vol. 3: Cane and Abel
Hip-Hop |
| 26 |  | Mammal Hands
Captured Spirits
Nu Jazz |
| 25 |  | Ital Tek
Dream Boundary
IDM/Ambient |
| 24 |  | Caligula's Horse
Rise Radiant
Prog Metal |
| 23 |  | Alex Banks
Tephra EP
Techno/IDM |
| 22 |  | Let Spin
steal the light
Jazz Fusion/Avant Garde
I like to feel the producer's hand over an album and whereas much jazz opts for a simple, 'just-playing-it-live' setup, this record welcomes studio trickery into its sound palette. It's not heavy handed, but on top of the uneven prog rhythms, it's a little touch that makes this stand out. |
| 21 |  | Solstafir
Endless Twilight of Codependent Love
Rock/Black Metal
An album devoted to atmosphere more than technical wizardry. The production washes the jazzy ballads and spots of black metal-lite with a velvety, sensuous sheen. Expect a wild vocal performance rather than a crowd-pleasing one. |
| 20 |  | Nothing
The Great Dismal
Shoegaze/Alt Rock
Is that a guitar or a falling missile? |
| 19 |  | Josh Johnson
Freedom Exercise
Jazz
A bass-driven outing where the sum of small stylistic choices is greater than its parts. Forward-thinking, but in its bones, a non-nonsense flash of classy jazz. |
| 18 |  | Elephant Tree
Habits
Alt Metal/Doom Metal
An ethereal and spacey take on fuzzy stoner/doom riffs, with crossover appeal to many rock fans. |
| 17 |  | Ben Lukas Boysen
mirage
IDM/Ambient
Cannot confirm that no real instruments were harmed in the making of this recording. |
| 16 |  | Fleet Foxes
shore
Indie Folk/Pop Rock
Fleet Foxes cheer us all up with a dreamier, poppier take on their folk sound. |
| 15 |  | R.A.P. Ferreira
purple moonlight pages
Hip-hop/Jazz
The lyrics teeter dangerously on faux-intellectualism but have just enough poetry to convince of genuine substance. All the effortless cool of jazz rap with catchy choruses and bites of philosophy. |
| 14 |  | Two People
Second Body
Dream Pop/Trip-Hop
This duo wasted no time in cranking out the follow-up to last year's intoxicating debut. It's not quite the finished product its predecessor was, with its slap-dash album art and slashed runtime but the added pop flavourings make for a more listenable experience. It's still silky and sexy, just more direct. |
| 13 |  | Deftones
Ohms
Alt Metal
Deftones do Deftones. Chino's voice, aided by a smattering of studio effects, continues to be the most hypnotising in all of rock. The production gives the album a unique voice - dense, grey, metallic. Anything you've wanted from this band, they do it at the height of their powers here. |
| 12 |  | Sophia Loizou
untold
Ambient/Jungle
An immersive soundscape experience that pulled me in and kept me impressed with its aquatic textures. |
| 11 |  | Pain of Salvation
panther
Prog Metal
Any slim chance this band ever had of being cool has been wrecked by Panther. Just look at that comic-hero cover art. And then listen to that rap metal song. Ah well, leave any hipster points you thought you'd accumulated on the shelf and lend this furry animal your ears.
It's actually a pretty cool concept album about neuro-diversity. The idea is that so often our struggles to function are not due to our intrinsic qualities alone but to the *context* we are put in. Maybe in a different context, we'd flourish, but instead we are forced to operate in a context forged by and for neuro-typicals. SOMETIMES WE ARE PANTHERS LIVING IN A DOG'S WORLD OKAY. It's a simple thought but it's stuck with me this year. |
| 10 |  | Young Jesus
Welcome to Conceptual Beach
Indie Rock/Math Rock
I have a soft spot for records from angsty bands that suddenly turn all mellow & self-accepting. Case in point, mewithoutYou's "It's All Crazy, It's All False..." is perhaps my all time favourite album. The latest from Young Jesus has a similar vibe even down to its zaniness. It's a rough, home-spun collection of songs finding space in a loose, jazz-rock sound. Its biggest assets are in the lyrics. Sadly, the final two songs, which together make up 20 minutes of the overall runtime, are too meandering to land the record safely. Otherwise, this would be ranked higher. |
| 9 |  | Elder (USA-MA)
Omens
Prog Rock/Heavy Psych Rock
One of those heavy albums that manages to feel chill at the same time. The introduction of keys shifted the texture of their sound away from merely dense guitars into something more expansive and open. It won me over. The vocals have their blemishes but it's all endearing to my ears. |
| 8 |  | Gidge
new light
Techno/House
Still digesting this but it impressed enough to jump into the top 10. |
| 7 |  | The Ocean
Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic
Prog Metal/Post Metal
Part II of this project pulls from the more ostentatious side of prog. Bursts of black metal, theatrical hooks and ... lyrics about dinosaurs? ... make this a campy but gleeful spin. |
| 6 |  | Rob Clouth
Zero Point
Glitch/IDM
High-concept electronica utilising randomness and actual quantum data from the universe in its composition. The music's good too. Bewildering rhythms collide to make cosmic soundscapes for a trying but rewarding journey. |
| 5 |  | Tame Impala
The Slow Rush
Electro Pop/Psych Pop
A grower - this disc is packed with wistful Summery synths and production that packs every inch of sonic space your headphones can spare. |
| 4 |  | Autechre
SIGN
Glitch/Ambient
I'm not ashamed to have fallen in love with the Autechre album pegged as their most immediate and accessible. The first time I listened to this was on holiday after submitting my thesis. It offered the perfect sounds to melt into. Soothing fluid electronics with a touch of warmth. Healing for a tired brain. |
| 3 |  | Intronaut
Fluid Existential Inversions
Prog Metal/Post Metal
This began as a guilty pleasure. It's a ridiculous record although mercifully self-aware of it. Busy and bombastic, abounding with over-technical grooves, it's a bit much. But the more I listened I more I became convinced of the good artistic sense laying behind the silliness (and behind the patchy vocals). |
| 2 |  | Our Oceans
While Time Disappears
Prog Rock/Singer-Songwriter
A more aggressive outing than their laidback debut. While still floating and dreamy in places, most songs pay-off with a heavier crescendo. This record is vocal-centric and shows off some impossible notes and tearing screams. A heart-on-sleeve and tightly crafted slice of modern prog. |
| 1 |  | Taylor Swift
Evermore
Pop/Indie Pop
This spot is jointly shared with folklore.
I don't know how this happened. I've liked Taylor for a while but at the start of the year I would have put the odds that she released my favourite music of 2020 as very low. Yet Taylor has released 30+ songs in 2020 and I love every single one. It's also been special to have these albums as a shared experience with my wife. Truly the soundtrack to our life in lockdown. |
|
