some albums i enjoyed in 2020

2020 has been a complete and utter dumpster fire. (no puns intended) the only thing to bring me any solace was music. i could be basic by beginning this post by saying the typical "music has saved my life" mumbo-jumbo, but i will save that for a later time. i wish i had a better excuse for being less consistent with this blog than i wanted to, but, frankly, i don't really have a good reason, so let's pretend i did.

i trust you all have been on your best behavior, staying indoors and wearing a mask and whatnot, and if you haven't...

 

well, damn that's crazy...

 

but the new year is almost upon us and i've determined to be on some fresh stuff for 2021 and not just because i upped and moved my entire life 5 hours up north. that's right. i've finally moved to chicago. and if we're also talking accomplishments, let's also just talk about how i consistently went to about 90% of my therapy appointments (thanks, cynthia). i also deleted all my dating apps (also, thanks to cynthia). and lastly, i also unfollowed everyone that i found remotely irritating and am now pretending that they died because their internet presence felt like an attack on my personal well-being. BUT what kind of year would it be without some sort of wrap-up buzzfeed-type list. i thought that i would like to close this year off with some albums that have truly brought me the kind of peace of mind that i never thought i could achieve during a literal pandemic. 

interestingly, a few years ago, as much as i loved music, i was terrified of sharing how much i loved it. i truly thought that i was clinically insane from the physical and emotional sensations that i would get from hearing a good song. good music makes me cry. good music makes me feel alive. good music makes me feel like i could be shot by a gun and still keep throwing it back at the club. i didn't go to shows alone and i don't think i am quite there yet to go alone, but i'm more than confident in talking about music critically and sharing my love for music with other people at shows without feeling insecure that my taste was either way too weird or not good enough for the people i was sharing it with.

 

am i a bit annoying about it? sure. i mean i started a whole blog about my own interests as if it wasn't enough to just talk about them in regular conversation.

but, nothing beats hearing a good song and moreover, nothing beats being able to be open about how good music makes me feel and sharing that experience with others. (seriously, my 55-year-old ex-coworker sends me music on facebook messenger)

 

so, here i am sharing these thoughts with you....dear reader.  

 

i will also preface this by saying that these are listed in no order whatsoever. i like what i like. i enjoy what i do for VERY SPECIFIC REASONS (all of which i will list here). if 2020 has done anything, it has kept my musical memory bank fed. if you'd like more insight into what i am listening to on a regular basis, check out my newsletter, where i post a weekly curated list of tunes.

for a playlist featuring all the top hits from the albums that i'm about to discuss, click here.

thundercat - it is what it is - drunk was better, BUT i will say that there's evident growth in this album. its cohesive, and oddly more intimate and personal than drunk, showing an unexpectedly matured and musically elevated side to thundercat, but there's not much going on outside of that and on top of that, it lacks the sort of funky, experimental, playfulness that you typically associate with thundercat, but its still a strong album nonetheless. top tracks: funny thing, dragonball durag, unrequited love, overseas

open eagle mike - anime, trauma and divorce - i like this album because i am a headass, unfortunately. but all, jokes aside, this album bangs hard. much like a lot of other rappers i enjoy, anime, trauma and divorce is a lot about just that: anime, trauma and divorce. or moreover, how we choose to give our pain depth to contextualize. its an honest and refreshing take on how life doesn't always go the way we want and how even so, we might just be okay in the end, but told like an episode of courage the cowardly dog. top tracks: headass (idiot shinji), sweatpants spiderman, the black mirror episode, i'm a joestar (black power fantasy)

food house - food house - probably one of the most exciting of the bunch on this list. this album is eclectic and almost audibly overwhelming in the best way possible. moreover, even though, like 100 gecs' 1000 gecs, it presents itself with a meme-like demeanor and doesn't itself too seriously, the production DEMANDS your attention and you give it your full attention to take it all in and understand it as if it were tackling very serious issues. top tracks: mos thoser, metal, pharmacy

 

070 shake - modus vivendi -  i think the first time i heard this album, i fully got whiplash. i literally had to sit on the floor and listen to it in its entirety after it was recommended to me on instagram. its hard to believe that this a debut with as heavy, emotionally fueled and tightly bound it is without letting any of that weigh it down in the slightest. top tracks: guilty conscious, come around, divorce, rocketship, microdosing

flo milli - ho, why is you here - i've played at least one song off this album since it came out. i adore watching Black women succeed, especially dark skinned Black women who have been paid dirt. flo milli really has never really gotten and still isn't getting the  mainstream attention i would like her to. she needs to be a household name and not just amongt gen zers like myself. CRITICALLY ACCLAIM THIS ALBUM ASAP! top tracks - not friendly, beef flomix, pussycat doll, in the party, like that bitch.

 

devonwho - offworld - an instrumental experience described by a friend as "dream pop meets footwork." i'm not to familiar with their work outside of this album, but they're surely an artist that i've got my eyes on and one that i was really happy to discover this year. top tracks: soap, blas, tangent

 

machinedrum - a view of u - also one of my favorites from the year from its features (which includes....father...freddie gibbs, tanerelle?? amazing!) to the sort of maddening progression of its wide range of sounds to disjointed dissonance it has from vocal presence that somehow just works with all that it has going on...this album is a masterpiece. top tracks: the relic, wait 4 u, sleepy pietro, spin blocks, believe in you

lido pimienta - miss colombia - this is a reminder for myself that i should be listening to more non-english music. there's such a complexity that i am not used to in this album, but, this may be just because i am used not used to the sound. however, i am not mad at it. i want more. top tracks: te queria, nada, reisto y ya

 

tkay maidza - last year was weird, vol 2. - this album just made me happy. it made me feel like making a bunch of shuffling tik toks on my kitchen counter or something. its fresh, confident and dynamic and says and does all the sorts of things i want to be doing with my life, but have yet to accomplish, but serves to prove that i still have time and things can and will look up no matter how "weird" they may get. top tracks: 24k, awake, don't call again

tops - i feel alive - this quiet and endearing feat never fails to make me smile. it glitters in remembrance, familiarity and comfort in such a modern, bold and engaging way. this album feels like a warm hug on a sunny day and moreover, a genuine hug which is especially helpful after the year we've had. top tracks: direct sunlight, i feel alive, ballads & bad movies, colder & closer

 

good news - megan thee stallion -  miss stallion demands attention with her presence and such about everything she does and this album is no different. while i don't love it as a whole, it, again, obviously has such a strong presence and its doing so many different things that i felt compelled to keep listening to it over-and-over. top tracks: shots fired, circles, what's new, girls in the hood, don't stop.

the weeknd - after hours - now THIS is what starboy should have been. after hours feels more lived in. more true and tried and moreover, the tracks on it feel more developed and work better to paint the sort of image of who the weekend is, rather than what he's been through. top tracks: save your tears, hardest to love, blinding lights.

vze - vzepop vol 3. - i do bang vol. 2 more, but this album is still a vibe because it breeds the confidence of something greater coming; something i can't quite put my finger on, but something i am quite excited for. vze reminds me a lot of the mid 2000s duo, millionaires, which is why i am drawn to them and moreover, why this album made this list, but don't be fooled, the production has much more depth than what they were doing back then, so it does do something for the ears and the heart. - top tracks - freeze, BNZ, sideways, pop

 

sawayama - rina sawayama -  much like the entirety of the hyper-pop genre, this album fueled my nostalgia for all sounds that were early 2000s, but it does so in such a masterful way. i think that's what i like about rina as an artist; her ability to tap into the sounds of yesterday and still make them found fresh and less overwhelming than other artists tend to do. there's some heavy britney spears influence as well as some evanescence, and nu-metal (which WHO SAW THAT COMING??) and i mess with the variation HEAVILY. top tracks: xs, comme des garçons (like the boys), bad friend, akasaka sad.

 

jam city - pillowland - this album is what the inside of my head would look like on any given day. imagine it being a mix of distorted, dream pop tracks. that's what this is and that is why i like it so much. top tracks: pillowland, sweetjoy, they eat the young, climb back down

 

cookii - blossom - more hyperpop nonsense! if it makes me feel like i'm 15 again, it works, especially when you have tracks like "not that inna u" which sounds like an avril lavigne song. top tracks: like like, coco cola, not that inna u

yves tumor - heaven to a tortured mind - i said i would never stop talking about this album when it came out in april and i have YET to stop. a very consistent and very powerful work of psychedelic noise-rock and probably my favorite album of the year. it feels like a classic in the making due to the fact that it is SO powerful that it has lingered in my mind for so long. while it features many of the typical rock tropes of heartbreak, loneliness, sensuality and seduction it holds it all together with a sort of noisy, distorted growl to make it stand a part from the likes of anything else out here today. top tracks: super stars, gospel for a new century, kerosene, a greater love.

charli xcx - how i'm feeling now - i expect to write about it at some point, but for now, i will just write it off as: simply amazing. how i'm feeling now is a BEAST in terms of production, lyrics and overall tone of capturing how it feels to be a person living in a pandemic. at some points the album is overwhelming, some points are intimate, some are loud, some are just painful, but each track makes you FEEL something and for me, i felt something DIFFERENT with each listen. top tracks: claws (i had a crush on someone and they lowkey ruined this song for me, but the vibes are still off the charts), anthems,  detonate.

 

100 gecs - 1000 gecs and the tree of clues - i love that the newgrounds type, meme beats i listened to in middle school are coming back. i really don't know how to describe 100 gecs other than eclectic, (much like with food house/gupi/fraxiom), but the thing i like the most about this is that all the remixes feel lived in and different from their predecessors. i won't say that they are better because that would take away from the unique value of the OG tracks, but i will say that this album and the gecs overall, specialize in transcending the ironic, meme-like personas that people place on them. they've evolved their sound to evoke an oddly intimate, seductive whiplash effect and its something that never fails to draw.  top tracks: 745 sticky (black dresses remix), gecgecgec ft. lil west & tony velour remix, came to my show, ringtone ft charli xcx, rico nasty, and kero kero bonito.

 

tennis - swimmer - my love affair with this band continues....read my thoughts in a more coherent way here. top tracks: need your love, how to forgive, runner, swimmer.

 

weight of the world - MIKE - powerful, compelling and i even dare to say, experimental, this album is one of the best produced pieces i've heard all year that sort of capture the sort of mental experiences that most rap albums do, but without relying just on the lyrics to capture that journey.  top tracks: love supremacy, no no, plans, weight of the word*, allstar

 

crush - that kidd - while you could write it off as a collection of party hits and sickly, sweet hyper-pop jams, i think this embodies and works to transcend the sort of long forgotten aesthetic of mid-2000s music that's been long due for a revival. top tracks - captain, taco bell, kiss me, kiss me thru the phone

 

what's your pleasure - jessie ware - disco ain't dead and jessie is making sure of that, but in a way that sort of explores how much of a facade the entire genre is once you really think about it. it taps its the lustful longing and yearning that the embodies the disco genre and instead of fun tracks that make you forget about it all, jessie tackles them headfirst in a fun, crafty way. top tracks - what's your pleasure, in your eyes, spotlight, step into my life, the kill

 

bree runway - 2000AND4EVA - this is an album i've been pumped for! its an unapologetic, high energy, genre-bending banger that honestly just screams "KELIS"! when i say that, i mean, it really encapsulates kelis' ability to experiment and play around so much in a single album without throwing certain elements off, and not feeling calculated. plus, the sound really just brings you back to the things that she was doing and you really can see that with that missy elliot feature, but she also makes it clear who she is and what she's doing to set her apart from other rappers. top tracks: gucci (ft. malibu mitch), damn daniel (ft. yung baby tate), atm (ft missy elliot), apeshit.

chloe x halle - ungodly hour - i sound more coherent while talking about how great this album here! please, read, but know that its great. top tracks:  tipsy, ungodly hour, forgive me, lonely, ROYL

 

u.s girls - heavy light - this album is sensual, eerie and poetically rich. there's so much here and i really wish i was smart enough to decipher it all, but nonetheless, the substance is pleasing to my ears. top tracks: 4 american dollars, overtime, and yet it moves / y se mueve, woodstock '99

 

fiona apple - fetch the bolt cutters - heavily political, highly emotional and overall, a mind-boggling experience for one-and-all. this album picked my brain like no other and basically encapsulate what it means to "scream off into the void where no one will hear you" and sort of be okay with that for until its time to scream again. top tracks: i want you to love me, fetch the bolt cutters, shameika, under the table, ladies, on i go.

 

dua lipa - future nostalgia - dua lipa really did what she needed to do with this album. although i have to say that i really have to physically remind myself about this album at times, its still safe to say that dua lipa is bringing back the 80s and shows that you CAN do this and still reinvent the wheel in a very dynamic way. we really need a comeback of white girl pop music like this.  top tracks - don't stop now, break my heart, love again. 

steve lacy - the lo-fis - this may be a hot take, but i really wasn't a fan of apollo xxi. it was a more refined and better sounding version to what i am used to hearing steve lacy's music, but it felt...different. it didn't feel like him. this, however, does. this album encapuslated the lo-fi (hence the title), DIY, experimental appeal that drew me into him in the first place. its the same reason why i didn't like thundercat's newest album, but, unlike thundercat, steve lacy gains his momentum back with this release. top tracks: atomic vomit, cocky girl, uuuu, jars of it.

 

the avalanches - we will always love you - a late addition to the game that i don't have much to say about, but i will say that between the clean mixing and the very unexpected, but very favorable samples, (THE alan parsons project) this album pulls every single punch and doesn't stop. this album could have been a mess because its doing a lot, but it doesn't and that's what makes it so damn good. top tracks: intersellar love, the divine cloud, reflecting light, oh the sunn!, take care in your dreaming, music makes me high.

i have a few honorable mentions, but those will appear on my weekly newsletter on Saturday. if you would like to subscribe and have them sent directly to your email, go ahead and find it here.