Music has been one of the lone bright spots of 2020. Iconic artists returned once again with great projects. Many big names delayed their projects, which allowed a lot of the younger artists to shine through with some forward thinking music. It gave us the soundtrack for both the pandemic and the ongoing protests across the country for racial equality. Music always seems to mean more when you’re struggling, and there’s no doubt that most of us struggled more in 2020 than ever before. So even though I don’t think I heard a perfect album that came out in 2020, music this year has been used to heal more than ever before. Whether that’s a posthumous project from Mac Miller at the beginning of the year or Kid Cudi’s album that came out three weeks ago, the best projects this year were made to heal. Every project in these top 25 helped to cope and heal in 2020, whether that be as a distraction or specifically addressing the problems at hand. So without further ado, my favorite 25 projects of 2020!
25. James Blake - Before
I’ve gone back and forth on whether I should even include this project since it’s only 4 songs, but it’s so great and flows together as a cohesive project so well that it’s worthy to be on a list of best projects. James Blake has gone back to his dance inspired roots with this project instead of the beautiful, electronic ballads of Assume Form. All 16 minutes of this project is filled with electronic layers and downtrodden club beats. The opener is a full on dance track that interperlotes a Charlotte Day Wilson track. “Before” has a more low key vibe, but it transitions beautifully into a spellbinding outro. Even though the title track is the single, “Do You Ever” is probably the most accessible track on here with these minimal strings, beautiful chorus, and groovy drums. This whole project is the perfect soundtrack for the quarantine dance parties in your bedroom.
24. Run The Jewels - RTJ4
Hopefully there will be a day where what RTJ raps about will not be relevant, but that day is sadly not today. They tackle the never ending topics of racism, violence toward Black people, institutionalized racism, oppression, and so much more. Musically, El-P improves once again with the production, making it even more forward thinking than ever. They have perfected how they bounce off one another lyrically, sometimes even finishing each other's lines. Of course, Killer Mike and El-P still have enough moments where they shine by themselves, but by themselves isn’t what makes Run The Jewels special. It’s about two seemingly different underground hip hop legends coming together to form one cohesive group that’s willing to fight the powers that be.
23. Gorillaz - Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez
Gorillaz comes back with their best project in a decade with this new album. It’s also one of the most easily enjoyable projects of the entire year, as you can just put it on and listen to all the catchy choruses and unique production. There’s enough diversity on the project that almost every song on here sounds different from the rest, which is due in large part to the guests. Every feature on here adds to the song in one way or another, including everyone from Robert Smith to ScHoolboy Q. There are also some very different collaborators that are on the same song, including Elton John and 6lack on “The Pink Phantom”, and Gorillaz with Mike Will Made-It on “Dead Butterflies”. It’s a project that will appeal to everyone and is easily replayable.
22. Open Mike Eagle - Anime, Trauma, & Divorce
Few projects this year balance hilarity and depression with as much nuance as Open Mike Eagle’s Anime, Trauma, & Divorce. He can be hilarious in one moment, and introspective in the next, so much so that he even ends the project with a live performance with his son rapping about a snorkeling trip gone wrong that they took the day before. There’s even a whole song on here where Open Mike Eagle talks about wanting to be a Joestar, a fictional family from an anime. But he gets extremely personal about his divorce and mental health on “The Black Mirror Episode” and “Everything Ends Last Year” respectively. It’s another unique and engrossing album that fits right up there with Open Mike Eagle’s best so far.
21. Charli XCX - how i’m feeling now
Charli challenged herself to make an album in just under 6 weeks, starting less than a month after quarantine started. She came through with arguably her best album yet, as this short time frame allowed her to create some catchy, cohesive, and unique electro-pop songs. The songs not only reflect Charli as a whole, but also the state of those first couple months in quarantine. The project is produced by some of the biggest names in the genre, including AG Cook and Dylan Brady, which helps bring this project together. How i'm feeling now is one of the rare albums to be made and come out exclusively during quarantine that feels like it really is of the times.
20. Ian Isiah - Auntie
Ian Isiah brings back the funk with this Chromeo produced project. This project is nonstop greatness for the entire 7 songs. The more heavy and uplifting funk tracks will get the most recognition, and deservedly so. “N.U.T.S.” provides a groovy opener that eases the fans into this project. Songs like “Princess Pouty” and “Lady Bug” put the listener back in the 80s with these emphatic choruses and instrumentals. Even the ballads on the project stand out, with “Loose Truth” bringing the traditional R&B ballad closer and “Bougie Heart” brings some jazz influence with Onyx Collective featuring on the instrumental. The entire project is jam packed full of quality songs that prove Ian is doing this sound better than almost anyone else in 2020.
19. Thundercat - It Is What It Is
Thundercat is back with arguably his best and most concise album so far. The jazz influence comes through a lot on songs like “Innerstellar Love” and “I Love Louis Cole” with Louis Cole himself. He still has loads of hilarious lyrics that make Thundercat special. Not many other people could say things like “I may be covered in cat hair, but I still smell good” or “Do you like my new whip? Watch it go ‘zoom zoom’” and have it not be cringy, but Thundercat can. There’s this special aura around Thundercat and this project that almost no one else has. He can go and make music with traditional jazz people and still be on their level, help write the instrumentals for arguably the most acclaimed album of the 2010s, but then also write songs about anime and dragonball durags and everyone accepts it because it’s who he is. Thundercat is truly himself, and this project is his truest expression yet.
18. Kid Cudi - Man on the Moon III: The Chosen
The previous Man on the Moon albums each have timeless tracks that helped save a generation, so when he announced a third installment of the series a decade later, expectations were high. Luckily, this album lives up to expectations and is worthy of the title. He shows his version of the Travis Scott trademarked brand of psychedelic trap on the first half of the album. There are a couple moments where he sounds like a copycat, but most of it is unique enough for Cudi himself and is highly entertaining. The second half gives us the classic Cudi vibes. There is so much psychedelia and emotion put into these tracks that is virtually unmatched by almost anyone else making music. This album definitely could’ve been higher if it came out a few months earlier, but I can’t justify putting it above these top 17. After four years without solo music, this is Cudi reminding people why he’s held in such high regard.
17. Tkay Maidza - Last Year Was Weird Vol. 2
Tkay proves that she’s a voice for the future with this project. There are not many artists currently out that are as versatile as Tkay. She can do the slower and more melodic tracks like “You Sad” and “Don’t Call Again”, and truck rattling bangers like “Grasshoppers” and “Awake” with JPEGMAFIA. There are even more sounds like neo soul, house, and bounce tracks on here on the songs “My Flowers”, “24K”, and “Shook” respectively. Everything about this project is nonstop fun; from all eight tracks, the colorful and lighthearted videos, and Tkay herself. She proves once again that she is putting hip hop on the map for Australia.
16. Denzel Curry & Kenny Beats - Unlocked
There’s only so many artists that can make an entire project in three days and have it come out great, and Denzel is one of those artists. The simplicity of this project really helps the listening experience, as you can just put it on and listen to a great rapper rap. Kenny does a great job at capturing this boom bap sound that is generally considered old and making it fresh for the new generation. The rollout for the project is also one of the most unique of the year, where they had a fake beef and leaked their project through a full animated video with different styled animations. It’s no surprise that a project between one of the best current rappers and one of the best producers is one of the best hip hop projects of the year.
15. Moses Sumney - græ
There’s not many more ambitious albums of 2020 than Moses Sumney’s græ. There’s so much music and diversity on here that he felt compelled to release it in halves so fans would be able to truly digest the entire thing. The first half is full of maximalist experiences, filled to the brim with different types of genres. There’s no accurate way to describe the music on the first half of the project, just that it’s some of the most daring, but yet gorgeous moments of 2020. The second half is full of these heartbreaking ballads and Moses’s one of a kind falsetto. These two sides help to show his multiplicity that he wanted to get across with this project. There’s only so many Moses Sumneys out there pushing sonic boundaries, so we need to appreciate the ones we have.
14. Dorian Electra - My Agenda
This project exists in a world beyond boundaries. Dorian is always breaking gender boundaries with their outfits and song topics. The whole genre of hyperpop tends to be breaking many different genre boundaries in music itself, but Dorian takes it to a new level on My Agenda. There is almost no logical reasoning why the Village People would be on an album made by people less than half their age, but here they are on the title track with a dubstep breakdown and sounding great. I would’ve never thought it would be possible to combine dubstep, metal, and a gregorian chant into an entertaining minute long song, but it’s on here with the track “Monk Mode”. There is nothing about this project that is ordinary, and it ends up being one of the most fulfilling and immersive projects of 2020.
13. Sault - Untitled (Black Is) / Untitled (Rise)
Anonymous group Sault dropped two of the best soul projects of the year only three months away from each other. Even outside of the almost two hours of intricately detailed drums, strings, and basslines, they are two great representations of what it’s like to be Black in the world today. There are songs like “I Just Want to Dance” and “Son Shine” that can be listened to in the background as pure dance tracks, but they each have very important undertones as well. There are beautiful moments on each project like “Eternal Life” and “Miracles” on the first project, and “Little Boy” and “The Black and Gold” on the latter. It’s something special when a group that’s more or less anonymous can pump out projects that are this great in such a short period of time, and hopefully they don’t slow down anytime soon.
12. Conway the Machine - From King to a God
From King to a God is the perfect title for this project. It encapsulates all that made Conway and Griselda underground favorites over the past couple years, just up to a bigger scale. The grimy, gutter sound that they got popular in here, but now there’s a phenomenal feature from Method Man. There are countless posse cuts with Conway, Westside Gunn, and Benny, but “Spurs 3” is one of the best yet. He has an incredibly personal song about his recently deceased mentor, DJ Shay. “Front Lines” is one of the most visceral protest songs to come out this year. Conway even brings on some more accessible tracks while still being able to be extremely grimy, like on “Fear of God” or “Anza”. Even though Conway has dropped three projects this year, From King to a God is by far the best and shows that Conway has the potential to make an incredible project.
11. 21 Savage & Metro Boomin - Savage Mode 2
Morgan Freeman narrates the trailer to this album and describes this series by saying, “So to be in Savage Mode is to go hard, not allowing anything to stop or deter you from your mission.” 21 Savage and Metro Boomin do just that on this project. They became more diverse and tried out new styles of songs while still giving the longtime fans a bit more of what they loved from the original. Metro stepped up to the plate with better and more detailed beats than before, and 21 became more introspective and had loads of great flows and bars all over the project. The theme and importance of the project is upped a ton from the original, as evident with the Morgan Freeman narrations throughout the trailer and project itself. They’re not reinventing the wheel on Savage Mode 2, but rather sharpening the knife.
10. The Strokes - The New Abnormal
There aren’t many 20 year old rock bands that make music that are still making great music, but The Strokes are one of those bands. The New Abnormal shows them finally progressing past the sound of their debut album. There are some older sounding songs, like the repetitive “Bad Decisions” and a guitar ballad with some beautiful vocals from Julien on “Selfless”, but most of this album is new territory for the group. The lead single, “At The Door”, is a five minute long synth ballad with an incredible vocal performance and thought provoking lyrics. They even threw in a bit of autotune at the end to create this psychedelic outro. “Brooklyn Bridge to Chorus” brings together both the synths and guitars into this blown out chorus that has no logical reason why it should work, but it does. The New Abnormal is one of the catchiest, most accessible, and one of the projects that’s making rock music feel current in 2020.
9. Benny the Butcher - Burden of Proof
There aren’t many rappers currently better than Benny the Butcher, and he proves it once again with Burden of Proof. It’s only twelve songs, under forty minutes, and still features some of the biggest rappers of the past decade. Even when he’ll have people like Lil Wayne and Big Sean on a song, they never outshine Benny himself. The whole project is produced by Hit-Boy, who was easily one of hip hop’s most prolific producers this year. It brings the listener back to a time when a one producer, one rapper project was normal. He even mentions the older style of hip hop on the third track, “Sly Green”, declaring himself the “Only rapper that would’ve thrived in the Tupac era”. Burden of Proof only gets better the more you listen to it, and it ends up being one of the best pure hip hop albums of 2020.
8. 100 gecs - 1000 gecs & the Tree of Clues
100 gecs might be the most unique group in music, and they decided to bring on some artists from all across the musicsphere onto this remix project. Big names like Fall Out Boy, Charli XCX, and Rico Nasty show up on here, but so do smaller people like 99jakes and umru. The styles of these tracks are all over the place as well. The “gecgecgec (Remix)” with Lil West and Tony Velour is close to a traditional rap song, as it starts out almost like something Dababy could’ve rapped over. The “xXXi_wud_nvstop_UXX (Remix)” with Tommy Cash and Hannah Diamond sounds like a normal Eurodance song with it’s heavy bass and fast paced synths. The “ringtone (Remix)” is the most accessible song the group has ever been a part of, and both Charli’s chorus and Rico’s verse are easily memorable. It’s not necessarily better than the original, but it stacks up to the original by taking their sound even further into the most extreme places possible.
7. Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist - Alfredo
At this point, there’s no arguing that Freddie Gibbs is a top tier rapper. He hasn’t missed in his whole career, and has only been getting better. Alfredo feels like a victory lap for Freddie’s career so far. It’s not experimental or testing the limits of what Freddie can flow on like Bandana, but it’s still produced by one of the best producers of the year, if not all time. The Alchemist gives Freddie these airy, minimal beats that allow Freddie to throw everything that he has at them. The flows come fast and plentiful all over the project, especially on songs like “God is Perfect” and “1985”. Some of the previously mentioned Griselda members show up on here and kill their features, including verses from Benny the Butcher and Conway the Machine. Even more mainstream acts like Rick Ross and Tyler, the Creator show up on here and give memorable performances to their songs. Freddie has never sounded this comfortable, and hopefully he continues to make projects this concise in the future.
6. Clipping. - Visions of Bodies Being Burned
Clipping brings another helping of their experimental, noisy, horrorcore hip hop that somehow surpasses the original. Daveed shows his diversity on this project by telling harrowing stories of cannibalism, witches, people going insane, zombies, current politics, cults, and much more. His ability to weave worlds by being a narrator is purely incredible. I also have to acknowledge the stark contrast he provides here to his more famous roles in Hamilton and the new Little Mermaid adaptation. Of course, Daveed’s lyrics wouldn’t have the impact they do without Jonathan Snipes and William Hutson’s production. They create soundscapes fit for a horror movie, which makes sense considering both of them have made horror scores before. They know when to be incredibly noisy and experimental like on “Looking For Meat”, but also when to make it almost a traditional hip hop beat like on “Check the Lock”. No one in hip hop is making music with this kind of horror subject matter. This is a project that's only gotten better over these past couple months, and I'd imagine one that will continue to be in rotation for years.
5. Childish Gambino - 3.15.20
There was hardly an album more confusing than Gambino’s latest opus, 3.15.20. Released as a surprise, the lack of cover art and song titles is shocking for someone with the popularity of Gambino. But like with every new Gambino project, you can’t predict where he’ll go sonically. His Prince influence really shines through on a good amount of the album, but so does a good amount of soul and hip hop. Songs like “Algorhythm” and “12.38” are locked into these metallic, experimental grooves, while “53.49” is one of the most freeing moments in all of music this year. The songs are also lyrically nonspecific enough that the project can be about anything depending on the person. Personally, I think the songs are about Gambino coming to terms with the death of his father, and the lasting impact it had on his life. That mystery surrounding the project is part of the reason it’s so entertaining. You can read what people are saying online, but having your own meaning and theory makes it feel just that more personal.
4. Kenny Mason - Angelic Hoodrat
This was the album that shocked me the most this year. Before 2020, I only knew him as an up and coming rapper with one song, “Hit”. When the album surprise dropped in mid April, it threw me for a bit of a loop with how much rock influence Kenny had on here. He’s not overbearing with it, but rather tastefully includes it throughout the project. Kenny raps and sings without too much emotion, as if the things he’s talking about have left him scarred. A song like “Lean” shows Kenny singing a heartfelt chorus about losing his family members, while “Handles” is an acoustic guitar interlude about Kenny’s mental health and being alone. “Metal Wings” and the title track are examples of the few bangers on the project, each of which talks about when Kenny was shot in 2014. The whole project has this gloomy, dreary attitude to it to the point where even the bangers don’t feel recklessly optimistic. Everything about this project instantly made Kenny become one of my favorite newcomers, and hopefully he can continue to improve from here.
3. Spillage Village - Spilligion
There was no better project about the pandemic than the uplifting, spiritual journey that is Spilligion. The whole project was created with the entire group in one house while quarantining and unlike most of us, it sounds like they were thriving. Two of the main artists in the group, JID and Earthgang, both did over 100 shows each last year and many other artists in the house toured with them. So being stuck in a house all together allowed everyone to finally take a deep breath and reconnect with each other. On Spilligion, they also trade traditional southern hip hop beats for gospel, soul, and even folk inspired instrumentals. These group vocals soar throughout these choruses and immediately make the listener want to sing along. There’s just something so moving about these hooks that pull on the heartstrings, whether it’s JID’s plea for peace on “Ea’alah” or the group vocals about getting closer to God on “PsalmSing”. There’s still some great rapping on here, “Baptize” and “Mecca” for a couple examples, but it’s really the extra things about this project that makes it special.
2. The Weeknd - After Hours
The Weeknd and After Hours have been impossible to avoid during 2020, and for good reason. He finally created the album that he’s been leading up to for almost a decade. It isn’t quite perfect, but it’s pretty close. He mixes the dark R&B sound that he started with and the 80s synth pop sound he’s started to do in the last couple years. Instead of partying for the sake of partying, this time he’s getting over a breakup and trying to cope as well as he can. He goes through tales of losing his significant other, overdosing, wallowing in his loss, reminiscing on the good times, and much more on this project. There are plenty of synth heavy tracks like the cinematic “Alone Again” and the Elton John interpolated “Scared to Live”. He brings out all the heavy hitter producers including hip hop royalty Metro Boomin and pop icon Max Martin to create arguably the best produced album of the year. The only thing that keeps this from getting the top spot is that I think The Weeknd can still do slightly better than this. As great as this is, there are still a couple things I think he can do better to make a perfect project.
1. Mac Miller - Circles
This is definitely not the album I listened to the most this year, but rather the album that had the largest impact on me. Every listen just brings this feeling of peace over these spacy, synth layered, purposeful instrumentals. The single, “Good News”, demonstrates what really makes this album special. The instrumental seems simple on the surface, but has lots of guitars and bass layered throughout the entire thing. Instead of his traditional rapping, he chooses to sing. His vocals are at the forefront of the mix, to the point where it sounds like he’s right in your ear with these thoughts. And of course, the lyrics bring it to another level. Themes of self doubt and faking being happy for the public are what dominate the track, but lines like “There’s a whole lot more for me waiting on the other side. I’m always wondering if it feels like summer” hit really hard knowing that he passed away before he could officially release it.
There’s no denying that the layer of Mac passing away in 2018 makes much of this album hit a lot harder. While Swimming seemed to be about deciding whether or not to try and become better, Circles seems to show him at peace. He’s still got his demons to face, but this time he’s optimistic about what’s to come with the rest of his life, but he never got to live that part. This project fully broke him from the genre boundaries that confined him for a decade, as well as became his most well received album, both critically and sales wise. Circles felt like a turning point in Mac’s career, but instead it helped close the career for one of the most beloved rappers in the industry during the 2010s.
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