Best Albums of the 2020s (so far)

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21.

Only God Was Above Us 

 Vampire Weekend

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"When Vampire Weekend reformed and released Father of the Bride in 2019 I was just glad that my favourite band in my teenage years could still produce fun and exciting music, even if the output was a bit less consistent in quality than the stuff I'd grown to love years earlier. Only God Was Above ...""When Vampire Weekend reformed and released Father of the Bride in 2019 I was just glad that my favourite band in my teenage years could still produce fun and exciting music, even if the output was a bit less consistent in quality than the stuff I'd grown to love years earlier. Only God Was Above Us is a different prospect altogether, we're back to a shorter 10 track structure with each of these brimming with ideas and none having the throwaway quality of some of FotB's worse tracks. There's something else though, I've always found something very warm and reassuring in the band's earliest records and I'm finding it here as well, the baroque pop of Capricorn or Connect feels like the natural next step from Don't Lie and Everlasting Arms. It's a tough quality to completely describe but there's an effortless feel to these tracks, as though they simply grew from the emotions of the band members and the city setting. Maybe losing the pressure of delivering for a big comeback album has helped the band out or maybe they've just fully adjusted to Rostam's departure, either way they really feel back to their full powers here. Through their early records, the improvements in the lyrics really charted the band's overall progress. The self-titled's sometimes anxious commentary on campus life gave way to something more emotionally resonant on Contra, before Modern Vampires of the City took the elaborate lyricism that the band were known for and twisted it into something strangely evocative and profound. Only God Was Above Us comes in at a similar level, there's lots of lines that I couldn't totally explain to you, but I could tell you how they made me feel. It's strong musically as well, the quirks in each of the tracks still hold close to the overall feel of a track and never feel like they were thrown in to try to make a song more interesting. None of the tracks stand out quite as much as Classical, where the multiple tracks of percussion, warm keys and wilder guitars & brass blend in this beautiful way. Ezra's vocals, reaching that mournful but not hopeless place he's so good at getting to, really wrap it all up as one of the band's best ever songs. There's no stand-out bad or even lacklustre tracks across the rest of the record, but it doesn't reach this level again. I'm also not always 100% sure about some of the more dissonant elements on some of these tracks, the final moments of Capricorn are especially guilty of this, as one of the better songs here starts to fall apart under the weight of the sound. Still, these are pretty minor points to make about an indie band which has had to adapt to so many changes in the musical landscape while either on hiatus or between albums. As a teenage Vampire Weekend obsessive I think I built myself up for the release of Modern Vampires of the City more than I have for any album before or since, I got a pleasant surprise with these subsequent two releases where I held much less of an interest in what was coming prior to their release, but with this I've really taken notice again and will be glad to be back on the VW hype train when it next rolls into the station."  [+]  Reply

- JamesMowbray | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

2024

Appears in:

314 charts

Rank Score:

1,800

Rank in 2024:

4

Rank in 2020s:

21

Overall Rank:

960

Average Rating:

 81 (298 votes)

Comments:

15

22.

After Hours 

 The Weeknd

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"These songs are gorgeously produced and this album is insanely listenable, but this man is a goddamned clown. Here's a verse on the album that I may have made up, but still feels less outrageous than most of what is on this record. I'm filled with so much sadness And all these hoes are filled wit...""These songs are gorgeously produced and this album is insanely listenable, but this man is a goddamned clown. Here's a verse on the album that I may have made up, but still feels less outrageous than most of what is on this record. I'm filled with so much sadness And all these hoes are filled with as much of my dick as I am with sadness And I should stop having sex, because it makes me sad But with all these tears and all this pussy, I can't stop getting it wet"  [+]  Reply

- HoldenM | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +9 votes (9 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

2020

Appears in:

310 charts

Rank Score:

1,785

Rank in 2020:

7

Rank in 2020s:

22

Overall Rank:

969

Average Rating:

 75 (450 votes)

Comments:

25

23.

Shore 

 Fleet Foxes

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"This year has been so shitty. And while an album like Fetch the Bolt Cutters recognizes our turmoil and frustration, Shore is a great complement. This is a work of love, joy, and hope that has come at not a moment too soon. But even musically, it's making a strong claim as the best Fleet Foxes al...""This year has been so shitty. And while an album like Fetch the Bolt Cutters recognizes our turmoil and frustration, Shore is a great complement. This is a work of love, joy, and hope that has come at not a moment too soon. But even musically, it's making a strong claim as the best Fleet Foxes album. It encapsulates the excitement and accessibility of their self-titled, matches the scope and consistency of Helplessness Blues, while pushing the sound and songwriting with similar adventurousness as Crack-Up. It remains to be seen whether it captures thee same adoration for me as those first two records, given that I've had a decade with them, and at such a formative age. But I gotta say, Shore does not disappoint. "  [+]  Reply

- HoldenM | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +11 votes (11 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

2020

Appears in:

391 charts

Rank Score:

1,726

Rank in 2020:

8

Rank in 2020s:

23

Overall Rank:

1,001

Average Rating:

 78 (372 votes)

Comments:

21

24.

RTJ4 

 Run The Jewels

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"RTJ 4 is the opposite of timeless music. This is the encapsulation of a specific moment in history: here and now."  Reply

- SamNassiri98 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +9 votes (9 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

2020

Appears in:

436 charts

Rank Score:

1,682

Rank in 2020:

9

Rank in 2020s:

24

Overall Rank:

1,032

Average Rating:

 79 (402 votes)

Comments:

26

25.

Skinty Fia 

 Fontaines D.C.

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"This band continues to churn out bangers like it's easy. I like how they're flirting with shoegaze this time around."  Reply

- Cargusbralem | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +4 votes (4 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

2022

Appears in:

333 charts

Rank Score:

1,651

Rank in 2022:

7

Rank in 2020s:

25

Overall Rank:

1,053

Average Rating:

 75 (272 votes)

Comments:

14

26.

Renaissance 

 Beyoncé

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"Renaissance has a lot of redeeming features, mostly how Beyoncé historicises the disco canon. However, it is also indisputably overhyped, a prime example of the way popstars of the 21st century post-album-distribution hellscape of streaming can waltz into mass critical appraisal with a single for...""Renaissance has a lot of redeeming features, mostly how Beyoncé historicises the disco canon. However, it is also indisputably overhyped, a prime example of the way popstars of the 21st century post-album-distribution hellscape of streaming can waltz into mass critical appraisal with a single foray into big concept driven "high art" full album. Beyonce has proven already with Lemonade that she can be more than a singles artist, so I don't want to suggest that it's entirely bad faith, just more that let's settle at pretty good at best rather than "revolutionary". Moreover, people are and will continue to attach other weirdly hyperbolic triumphalist tags to this – i.e. music as celebration of [insert your choice of really anything] – and that's nice and all, but this really only is somewhat convincing when Beyonce is looking back and celebrating 70s/80s black musicianship, a well trodden path in the last decade. Early tracks like Alien Superstar and Cuff it are perfect examples of modernised disco, they are genuinely fun songs to return to, but god the areas in this indulging in contemporary pop and trap trends, as if they too are – in a way – as iconic as Donna Summer ruin this. Energy is the first completely terrible song, exemplifying the worst of Beyonce-does-Jay Z nonsense. While Break My Soul's sudden interruption of it makes for a very fun opening of the single (which, when initially heard in isolation seemed very cringe), the irony in that opening sample is a little lost by Beyoncé doing it rather than James Ferraro. I think Renaissance starts to get back on track with Virgo's Groove, but the backend of this is littered with sleepfest tracks like Move and All Up In Your Mind, which honestly should have been binned (Virgo's Groove -> Pure/Honey would have been a nice transition). Summer Renaissance's celebration of I Feel Love, which should also retrospectively be a celebration of "Renaissance" – or a track that rationalises why Beyonce needed to do this – just ends up making me want to listen to the original 12" to be brutally honest. Beyonce is at her best in Renaissance when she is subtle rather than overt with the referentiality. It's a record that could open a window to the past for zoomers, but worst case this will date itself quickly."  [+]  Reply

- Arthurknight | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +6 votes (6 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

2022

Appears in:

289 charts

Rank Score:

1,560

Rank in 2022:

8

Rank in 2020s:

26

Overall Rank:

1,108

Average Rating:

 74 (221 votes)

Comments:

16

27.

Call Me If You Get Lost 

 Tyler, The Creator

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"We had The College Dropout, Late Registration, and Graduation We had Aquemini, Stankonia, and Speakerbox We had Good Kid Maad City, To Pimp a Butterfly, and Damn And now we have Flower Boy, IGOR, and Call Me If You Get Lost"  Reply

- corenfro | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +10 votes (12 helpful | 2 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

2021

Appears in:

351 charts

Rank Score:

1,560

Rank in 2021:

4

Rank in 2020s:

27

Overall Rank:

1,109

Average Rating:

 78 (361 votes)

Comments:

22

28.

Bright Green Field 

 Squid (2020s)

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"Ok, time for a real comment and not just reference to other existing bands. This album, for me, lived fully up to the hype I gave it, which was a lot. Mostly because of how good Narrator was as a single. The Squid boys are masters of combining groovy, melodic sections with experimental walls of s...""Ok, time for a real comment and not just reference to other existing bands. This album, for me, lived fully up to the hype I gave it, which was a lot. Mostly because of how good Narrator was as a single. The Squid boys are masters of combining groovy, melodic sections with experimental walls of sound and ambient sections. The greatest example of this is "Boy Racers". The opening groove is tight and skillful, it builds with more and more layers, and has a final climax. Then, it turns into a massive, celestial ambient track. There is also a general vibe I've been getting from these newer post-punk bands. It's this careless and melodic sound that I have noticed on "2010" by Squid, "Despair" by black midi, and the end of "Athens, France" by Black Country, New Road. They're all so pretty, which is kind of a divergence away from the typical post-punk sound. Squid capture this vibe a couple times on this album. I'm excited for what's to come from them in the future. Pretty much every song is a banger so give this album a listen and have some fun."  [+]  Reply

- AvalancheGrips | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +10 votes (10 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

2021

Appears in:

311 charts

Rank Score:

1,559

Rank in 2021:

5

Rank in 2020s:

28

Overall Rank:

1,113

Average Rating:

 78 (321 votes)

Comments:

22

29.

Once Twice Melody 

 Beach House

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"First, don't want to ruin this experience for anybody by over hyping it. Take it in in a natural way. So, Beach House is my favorite. I contemplate my favorite album of all time as Teen Dream, Bloom, Depression Cherry, and now Once Twice Melody. This album blows me away with the sonics and sounds...""First, don't want to ruin this experience for anybody by over hyping it. Take it in in a natural way. So, Beach House is my favorite. I contemplate my favorite album of all time as Teen Dream, Bloom, Depression Cherry, and now Once Twice Melody. This album blows me away with the sonics and sounds they captured on this album. I heard this once so far in full and it fucking blew my mind. I know my tastes of music well and I know what I like. I've been seriously listening to music for about 13 years now and the other 14 I was listening but not as close. This is the best double album of all time, I don't like, I love every single song. Beach House explores different sonics on this one and it even has some sounds that Muse would come up with without Muse's technical abilities. The keyboards are very cool and beautiful sounding. Victoria is an artist and showcases her art on this one in a very creative way. Alex is great too but I don't like acoustic guitar but for some reason, I like it on this album when it has its 3-4 moments. "  [+]  Reply

- C_Krug2009 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +5 votes (5 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

2022

Appears in:

352 charts

Rank Score:

1,528

Rank in 2022:

9

Rank in 2020s:

29

Overall Rank:

1,134

Average Rating:

 80 (342 votes)

Comments:

21

30.

Jubilee 

 Japanese Breakfast

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"From ALC #19— Sounds like: The sadness which seeps after a night of consuming party drug soup dumplings, yet the memories of the good times persist. Drink of choice: Spiced yuzu lemonade with a twist Look! Persimmons! Ah, persimmons. A jubilee is a jamboree with less amor and more uil, which isn’...""From ALC #19— Sounds like: The sadness which seeps after a night of consuming party drug soup dumplings, yet the memories of the good times persist. Drink of choice: Spiced yuzu lemonade with a twist Look! Persimmons! Ah, persimmons. A jubilee is a jamboree with less amor and more uil, which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but at least we’ve steeped an album out of it. I remember when I first heard Everybody Wants To Love You and all going through my head was how I used to hang in studios with so many singer/songwriters who would have loved to create something like that. Felt like she nailed it. That was it. Absolute bullet. Questioned why she wasn’t bigger, why this wasn’t the smash of the summer, track of the year, blasting out of every car whipping down the beach front. Felt like a nugget of gold was tossed into a mall’s wish fountain. An epitome of indie pop fired at us from nowhere and we shrugged it off. We plucked it out of that wish fountain on occasion, but I’m still not quite sure people realized it was an actual gold nugget. Won’t lie, wasn’t super hot on her follow up record, but at least she gained momentum. Was happy about that. Knew the next release would be make or break time. And then something interesting happened. She was shot out of a canon. That same brain listening to Everybody Wants To Love You for the first time would have never imagined this singer would be topping bestseller lists while also having chart topping hits, but I’m glad Japanese Breakfast squeezed through the crowd. Think she made it with this one. A warm, glistening, citrus-burst of a record with a summertime fuzz and the sadness which comes along with it, a hug for tears happy or sad. I may be writing to Ms. Breakfast as to why she dedicates the final thirty seconds of her songs to building them, but otherwise, I think this record is everything it wants to be. Standouts: Posing In Bondage, Kokomo, IN., Sit, Be Sweet"  [+]  Reply

- Hayden | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +5 votes (5 helpful | 0 unhelpful) A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.

Year of Release:

2021

Appears in:

364 charts

Rank Score:

1,503

Rank in 2021:

6

Rank in 2020s:

30

Overall Rank:

1,150

Average Rating:

 78 (304 votes)

Comments:

22

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Total albums: 1,000. Page 3 of 100

Best Albums of the 2020s (so far) composition

Top 1,000 Top 500 Top 250 Top 100

Year	Albums	%
2020	197	20%
2021	200	20%
2022	194	19%
2023	169	17%
2024	143	14%
2025	97	10%
2026	2	0%

Artist	Albums	%
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard	12	1%
Taylor Swift	7	1%
Charli XCX	4	0%
Bad Bunny	4	0%
Nas	4	0%
Black Country, New Road	4	0%
파란노을 [Parannoul]	4	0%
Show all

Country	Albums	%
	516	51%
	234	23%
	45	4%
	39	4%
	29	3%
	19	2%
	15	1%
Show all

Compilation?	Albums	%
No	995	99%
Yes	7	1%

Live?	Albums	%
No	988	99%
Yes	14	1%

Soundtrack?	Albums	%
No	999	100%
Yes	3	0%