Great list and great work everybody. My favorites not included above are the worst party ever EP and the LPs from Charmer, Hot Mulligan, Dryjacket, and Pinegrove. If Short Fictions waited a few weeks, they would've been my #1 by a lot.
Here are my top hip-hop albums of the year. We had a big discussion in last year's thread about black music being represented on the site, so here ya go... In no order: Polo G - THE GOAT Rod Wave - Pray 4 Love Lil Uzi Vert - Eternal Atake (Deluxe) - LUV vs. The World 2 Rico Nasty - Nightmare Vacation Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist - Alfredo Denzel Curry - UNLOCKED Lil Uzi Vert & Future - Pluto x Baby Pluto Juice WRLD - Legends Never Die
I enjoy that album, but I was kind of surprised it got so much shine from most other publications. There were a lot of other albums in the country/Americana space that held my attention more.
Hell yeah! Love to see it, thank you for checking that out. I throw together & share a Spotify playlist every year with selections to coincide with each record on my list, and I’m always surprised at who with responds with what they found and loved. The picks are genuine, but I’d like to think there’s always something for everybody else too. Here’s that playlist if it helps you work your way through it all! Albums of the Year list - 2020, a playlist by Trevor Graham on Spotify
Been seeing a ton of love for the Rico Nasty record throughout ranking season, adding that to my list of things to get to this week!
Really solid list, would have put Wake up Sunshine more close to the top 10 and petals for armor a little later, also would have added Bring Me The Horizon, Kid Cudi, and Less Than Jake. But Punisher is definitely number one.
Cool seeing Phoebe at #1. Record was a huge step up from her first for me. 2020 had some really good albums, but felt a little disappointing for me for some reason. I feel like I really didn’t discover anyone new and didn’t really get obsessed with a record like I have in previous years. For what’s it’s worth, here are a few of my favs in a very rough order: Top tier: Sufjan Steven’s - The Ascension Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher O’Brother - O’Brother Land of Talk - Indistinct Conversations Second tier: Sinai Vessel - Ground Aswim Tomberlin - projections ep Owen - The Avalanche Young Jesus - Welcome to Conceptual Beach Andy shauf - Neon Skyline Fleet Foxes - Shore Adrianne Lenker - songs Bombay Bicycle Club - Everything else has gone wrong Hodera - You’re worth it ep
Hodera!! That EP was so good. Consistently awesome artist, I’m hoping whenever he releases another LP that it has a bigger impact around here.
I don't think the year was disappointing for music - but I definitely don't think i was in the free headspace to take in, consume, and lose myself in as much new music as I might have been in years past. this year was all about finding comfort music, for me, which tended to be older albums that i knew i loved and knew brought me some joy. i didn't find myself actively seeking out new music as much this year, i think i only found the Bartees album because of the weekly newsletter. i didn't do a EOTY list this year but my favorites in on particular order were; - Bright Eyes - Phoebe - Bartees - Ruston Kelly - Spanish Love Songs
Happy new years everyone! After 15+ years checking this website every day, I finally did the right thing and got a membership today! This has been the single website (and maybe ESPN) that I’ve checked every weekday of my life haha, through high school, college, med school, residency, and my first full year as a practicing hospitalist, during my 15 minutes of lunch when I don’t have to be all gowned up! Anyways, website means a lot to me. that being said, this is also the year my eoty list really varies from the site’s! My faves were: 1. The Midnight - Monsters. Dance with somebody easily my favorite song of the year. Saw these guys in concert in 2019, best show I’ve been to since the matches back in like 2005. 2. The kid Laroi - fck love. Did not think I would like this. Ended up obsessed. No shame. 3. MGK- tickets to my downfall. Shocked not to see this on the list! Great pop punk, some hints of hip hop, never really listened to his previous rap stuff, but was in on this. 4. RTJ- 4 This just came out at the right time, encapsulated everything that was going on when it came out, and was extremely cathartic to just blare from my car speakers coming back from work. 5. All time low - wake up sunshine Y’all nailed it. The soundtrack to the summer that never was. What a fun album. My favorite of theirs since so wrong it’s right. 6. Taylor Swift - both new ones. Love the sound, she is just untouchable these days. those were the full albums I got into most this year. Prob some I missed but those were the ones off the top of my head. Sorry for the long post! Very excited to listen to the rest of the staff picks!
Manger on McNichols is far and away my favorite hip hop tape of the year. All the Boldy tapes are great, but that one stands out. Also rec Rod Wave, Redveil, Your Old Droog and the rest of the Griselda crew. And of course all the albums that constantly get mentioned
Cool list and a lot of albums I apparently missed. A glaring omission to me is Declan McKenna's album Zeros but I need to catch up on all the ones I haven't listened to to see what I'd boot for that (and there's always subjective taste to take into account).
In terms of hip hop specifically, I’m looking at ovrkast., R.A.P. Ferreira, redveil, Logic, Action Bronson, Blu & Exile, Freddie Gibbs/The Alchemist, Pink Siifu/Fly Anakin, Polo G, Knxwledge, and Westside Gunn for my favorites of the year. Mac too of course, if we’re still counting that as hip hop. Tons of incredible stuff from hip hop in 2020 I think I missed Rod Wave, adding that to the “check out” list
Was sad when I saw I missed the deadline for this by just a few hours. Alfredo woulda taken it. I really cooled on Uzi over the years and don’t know why, seeing as Eternal Atake seems to be universally loved