Listed below are the best albums of the 2020s (so far) as calculated from their overall rankings in over 59,000 greatest album charts. (Chart last updated: 6 hours ago).
"'PAINLESS' is spare and brooding, with crunching electronic drums and fizzing alkali guitar and synths. I enjoyed myself overall, as I thought Yanya's writing had a harsh beauty to it, Wilma Archer's exec production was very consistent and I have a soft spot for the flourishes Bullion added to th...""'PAINLESS' is spare and brooding, with crunching electronic drums and fizzing alkali guitar and synths. I enjoyed myself overall, as I thought Yanya's writing had a harsh beauty to it, Wilma Archer's exec production was very consistent and I have a soft spot for the flourishes Bullion added to the sonic palette. Overall however, I have to agree with Arthurknight that it's really very good but perhaps doesn't surpass that."[+]Reply
"For such a major event, I’m surprised I have not listened to more music about the pandemic. Certainly some surface level references but nothing really conflicting with the event. That was until I heard “Dance Fever”. Florence paints such a vivid picture of the removal of live music by the plague....""For such a major event, I’m surprised I have not listened to more music about the pandemic. Certainly some surface level references but nothing really conflicting with the event. That was until I heard “Dance Fever”.
Florence paints such a vivid picture of the removal of live music by the plague. The music struggles with the loss of an artist’s entire livelihood and the longing for its return. “Choreomania” shows the ecstasy of movement with its pitter-patter drums and the increasingly exuberant vocals. “My love” is frantic with the loss of her emotional outlet. “Daffodil” is a gothic monster built through the growing crescendo of drums. The diversity of angles in which it’s covered just makes the concept stronger.
The Machine’s traditional instrument selection is fantastic. In particular, the harp becomes an elegant accent point. The best sound on the record is Welch’s voice. Her voice shoots into chorus just as naturally as it buries itself in growls. Truly impressive breath control throughout. Some tracks like “King” and “Restraint” are a bit flatter, but the album lacks a truly bad track. The movement can’t be stopped."[+]Reply
"(Clairo gets in a spacious, calming, introspective groove with this album and sticks the landing. A beautiful, laid-back, Singer/Songwriter album with some cool folk/pop rock, Baroque/Chamber pop elements. The tracklist never veers far from that feeling of contemplative melancholy mixed with opti...""(Clairo gets in a spacious, calming, introspective groove with this album and sticks the landing. A beautiful, laid-back, Singer/Songwriter album with some cool folk/pop rock, Baroque/Chamber pop elements. The tracklist never veers far from that feeling of contemplative melancholy mixed with optimistic dreeamy youth.)
There is an impressive commitment to mood on this album. With few exceptions this Clairo project stays in a very introspective, hushed, and contemplative Chamber/Baroque folk pocket. This consistent sound, with few angles or almost anything metaphorically jutting out, may turn some people off. Not me, however. I quite like the mood and space this album puts me in. Sounds like a young woman making beautiful folk, filled with many vintage sounds and snippets of self-analyzing and discovery and conversational meandering.
The production is pretty ace almost all the way through. A few times I was a bit put off by the overly-lush and overly-used multi-tracked vocal oohs and ahhs, and I can't remember which track now, but at one point the drums sounded very flat and "off" I suppose. But generally the production is crisp and detailed and gorgeous. Jack Antonoff has a Type and a sound. I was actually unaware of who the producer was the first couple times listening, and I had a thought that this is yet another beautifully executed throwback to those beautiful early 70s folk singer/songwriter records. The other albums from 2021 that I was thinking made up this micro-trend were St. Vincent's 2021 album "Daddy's Home" and Lana Del Rey's 2021 album "Chemtrails Over The Country Club". When I saw a comment on RYM trashing Antonoff's production, I went to verify if this was true. Voila! It is! It's not true that the production sucks, lol, but it is true that the guy behind the last 2 LDR albums, the last St. Vincent album, the last folkie Taylor Swift album - or one of them - "Folklore" and the person behind the very different sounding from those 5 albums "Melodrama: by Lorde is the one who produced this one. Weird. Anyway, the combined work of Antonoff and Clairo make this a tidy, tender and balanced album.
This is just a really even, warm hug of a record. The soft, folkie rock upticks are beautiful, the lush chamber/baroque is solid, the lyrics are solid and the whole record is really well done. The maturity of Clairo before our eyes is almost astounding. At just 22 she has made a very beautiful album and I think she has many more excellent records in her in the years to come. "[+]Reply
"70-80/100 (Really solid dance punk album. Has some killer tracks to dance to and some that may make you feel very sad - whilst still dancing - and sadly some songs/interlude tracks that seem a bit pointless.) This was actually a very, very sad listen. I feel like this is an incredibly desperate, ...""70-80/100 (Really solid dance punk album. Has some killer tracks to dance to and some that may make you feel very sad - whilst still dancing - and sadly some songs/interlude tracks that seem a bit pointless.)
This was actually a very, very sad listen. I feel like this is an incredibly desperate, depressed, lost collection of songs. The words and songs seem to express the low down, hopeless feelings of people who have completely given up and accepted that they've lost any hope of redemption in their lives.
Well, I guess there are some silver linings in the form of love and an undying attempt to turn shit around. But I don't feel like these glimmers of hope seem to be going anywhere. They feel like daydreams, brief flights of fancy to take your mind off the gritty reality of life.
Basically, while listening to this there was a moment I went from kinda quasi-dancing and enjoying myself greatly to stopping still and feeling a sick sadness in my gut as I took in the misery in the vocalist and in the music. It's probably just a personal reaction, but it was very real for me.
Now as for the music its mostly really cool dance punk, high energy, funky, and cool. I love the creepy yet strangely affecting John Prine cover ("In Spite of Ourselves) especially love the squealing and crazy last half. I also love the extended instrumental jam of "6 Shooter", the song "Creatures" is the best fill-in for LCD Soundsystem that I've heard in a long while, the stupid fun of the opener "Ain't Nice" is strangely charming and pathetic all at once, and christ if "Boys & Girls" isn't the a towering track I don't know what is.
In this album there are quite a high amount of really great songs. But I am not a fan of some of the little throw-away songs. Some of these feel like interludes, but don't feel like they are necessary at all. I get nothing or close to nothing out of "Best In Show/Secret Canine Agent", This Old Dog" or "Cold Play". Maybe on further listens I'll get a better idea of the concept or flow they are stitching together with these tracks.
All in all I actually quite liked a majority of this album. This was my introduction to the band and I didn't know what to expect. This was a satisfactory enough listen that I may go and listen to more of their stuff. And any album with real stand out tracks like "Creatures", "In Spite Of Ourselves" "6 Shooter", "I Feel Alive" and "Girls & Boys" is a good album. This happens to be an album a bit weighed down by fluff. Still it packs an unexpected emotional punch."[+]Reply
"So much good music here. "Miles Davis" and "The End" are favorites. It's ridiculously long, but I can't decide whether that adds to or detracts from its greatness. It's tough to get through the whole thing in one sitting, but taken in pieces, it's all fantastic."Reply
"This is a really nice folk project by Grizzly Bear frontman Daniel Rossen, and stands right up there with their best albums. Also, this album screams Scott Walker all throughout it, but I never really felt that this influence came on too strong, as Rossen takes the melodic phrasing in slightly di...""This is a really nice folk project by Grizzly Bear frontman Daniel Rossen, and stands right up there with their best albums. Also, this album screams Scott Walker all throughout it, but I never really felt that this influence came on too strong, as Rossen takes the melodic phrasing in slightly different directions, and the rhythmic flurries that come up at different moments shatter any illusion it was made by a dead man."[+]Reply
"Saw this at the top of a music journalist's 2021. Not my usual cup of tea, but it's good for scratching an old school rock, hard rock, itch with a little 90s alternative/grunge seasoning."Reply
"I adore Car Seat Headrest. Teens of Denial was one of the best indie albums of the '10s, but after an unimaginative re-record of Twin Fantasy in 2018 and five years passing since a bizarre DIY synthpop record, I and many others feared that the prolific Will Toledo and co. had finally run out of s...""I adore Car Seat Headrest. Teens of Denial was one of the best indie albums of the '10s, but after an unimaginative re-record of Twin Fantasy in 2018 and five years passing since a bizarre DIY synthpop record, I and many others feared that the prolific Will Toledo and co. had finally run out of steam. What a way to prove the doubters wrong -- a 70 minute prog rock opera that trades in biblical (and furry) themes. Godspeed space cowboy.
From my top 20 Albums of 2025: https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=83050&cbid=0&f=&fv=&orderby=Rank&sortdir=asc &page=1"[+]Reply
"In an out of nowhere splash Mckinley Dixon raps about home, urban life, contesting memories of childhood, lost friends and living communities. More specifically, the whole album is a Toni Morrison reference. The title invokes the 'Beloved trilogy' of Morrison historical fiction novels Jazz, Belov...""In an out of nowhere splash Mckinley Dixon raps about home, urban life, contesting memories of childhood, lost friends and living communities.
More specifically, the whole album is a Toni Morrison reference. The title invokes the 'Beloved trilogy' of Morrison historical fiction novels Jazz, Beloved and Paradise. If you haven't, read them, and not just because they will illuminate Dixon's work. Morrison's writing is the quintessential prose of contemporary America and its tangled traumatic history.
Though Dixon speaks of history, of how we are shaped by it and cannot place finality on its tectonic movements (that we could have such hubris to say history is past us), he is principally focused with themes of development and artistic solitude – the history here is a personal one where Dixon reflects on the memories in the lead-up to success. The opening track Hanif Reads Toni follows word for word an excerpt from Jazz and I think it is relevant in light of his many references to the city to continue on that reading a couple paragraphs forward in the chapter:
"Do what you please in the City, it is there to back and frame you no matter what you do... All you have to do is heed the design--the way it's laid out for you, considerate, mindful of where you want to go and what you might need tomorrow."
Perhaps the one thing that remains cloudy to me in this work is what Dixon's reading of Morrison is. He is certainly interested in how she represented the black urban experience in Jazz, however what else beyond that remains unclear. In some sense, there's a missed opportunity to interrogate the lasting and rather subtle implications of the trilogy's projection of Dante's Divine Comedy onto modern American racism. Morrison's writing is fundamentally about the unregulated system of sin and consequence which is inflicted with indifference onto African-American people, especially black women. Moreover, the revisionist historicity of Morrison's trilogy works to insert black women into a history where they are otherwise absent. Dixon offers little in the way of any direct inspection of these themes.
Dixon has definitely read Jazz though. In Dedicated to Tar Feather (the 'tar feather' here likely more a reference to torture tactics rather than Morrison's Tar Baby) he invokes the character Joe Trace's line "Don’t ever think I fell for you, or fell over you. I didn’t fall in love, I rose in it. I saw you and made up my mind." However, Dixon rejects the idea, using it to represent the loneliness of being an artist. The irony here, perhaps lost in the lyric, is that Trace himself is a fundamentally alone person. His mother left him without a 'trace' and his love expressed above is unrequited.
Maybe this is an over-reading of the album but I think Dixon is mostly adopting Morrison aesthetically. As Dante brought poetry to Summa Theologica, Dixon brings music to Morrison... Jazz!?"[+]Reply
Mercury | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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Arthurknight | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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ForegroundNoise | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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