Best Albums of the 2020s (so far)

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431.

Ultrapop 

 The Armed

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"(Post Hardcore meets Noise rock meets noise pop at points. Some cool electronic bits, some messy hardcore excellence as well as bits of mathy virtuosity, this album is just a really LOUD, at times thrilling, always interesting mix of genres that mostly work really well. Check it out if you like t...""(Post Hardcore meets Noise rock meets noise pop at points. Some cool electronic bits, some messy hardcore excellence as well as bits of mathy virtuosity, this album is just a really LOUD, at times thrilling, always interesting mix of genres that mostly work really well. Check it out if you like these styles or if you want to damage your ears as efficiently as possible.) This is the 3rd (or is it 4th?) official album by this Detroit hardcore punk/post hardcore band The Armed. In prep for this anticipated release of went back and listened to some of their earlier songs and albums. They were loud, wild, mathcorey, knotty bits of post hardcore and quite good. But, based only on the singles from Ultrapop, it felt like they had drastically changed their sound. This interesting and pretty cool evolution made me even more hyped about this album. All in all Ultrapop lived up to my hype. The main surprise was that the 3 songs I had heard on repeat before hearing the whole thing - “All Futures”, “An Iteration”, and “Average Death” - are probably 3 of the 5 most divergent songs from their post hardcore sound. Most of the other tracks, while having a ridiculously loud mix and some elements added, were essentially “classic The Armed” - meaning a majority of the songs here are gnarly and nasty and discordant walls of hardcore insanity. The strangely pop-oriented, tuneful experimentation is much less present in the songs that were not released early on streaming services. This wasn’t blatant, like, false advertising and I’m not mad, just surprised. As for the album as a whole, it’s very good, bordering on GREAT. The production is really ridiculous. By ridiculous I mean LOUD like REALLLLY LOUD. It’s almost Sleigh Bells-level of tinnitus-inducing. And actually it works really well for the music. The music being this maximalist melding of incredibly forthright and aggressive post hardcore with noise pop and subtle electronic and pop elements nestled underneath. The walls of unhinged sound that storm out of my headphones when I hear this record are brilliant and mostly invigorating. The musicianship is pretty solid. It’s not the most mind-bogglingly complex and the chops aren’t on another plane, but they suffice. (Note: I’m not a musician and for all I fucking know a musician may hear this and think these guys are the second coming of the Mahavishnu Orchestra or something. Just my perception as a neophyte.) But, honestly, the fact that at times the band sounds, well, like a hardcore punk band rather than a Mathcore band, is what makes a lot of the unhinged moments work more. It sounds slightly off time at points, the band isn’t always in perfect lockstep, and it makes for a more classic punk experience in amongst all these distinctly alien-to-punk-and-Hardcore elements. The critiques I have and the reason this album isn’t quite the AOTY candidate that I thought it may be based off first listen and those excellent pre-release singles, are vague and somewhat two-fold. And, again, both critiques are somewhat vague and incredibly personal no doubt. For one I feel that the album somehow has a mild personality crisis. When it is going ape shit with the noisy, oppressively loud hardcore it is consistently awesome. When the band is doing a weird quasi-MBV kinda thing where there is clearly some gorgeous melodies underneath thick slabs of noise and muck, it sounds absolutely awesome. EDIT: hey this is me. That MBV comparison was sticking in me craw and I think that is because it’s a bit of a stretch and they aren’t too similar stylistically. But at points there is a certain element of hiding rich and sweet melodies under lots of noise that is somewhat similar). And yet I don’t personally feel these two styles are melded or meshed into a beautiful and brilliant complete cohesive whole. The sum of the parts is somehow less than the 2 individual stylistic achievements. The other thing is that I feel this album doesn’t quite consistently blow me away. This is much less of a clear-cut, in my mind, problem. And honestly both issues may slowly dissolve into time as I revisit this beast. But for now I feel that the initial momentum of the album which is created by a brilliant and visceral run of tracks to start, is dampened quite a bit in the middle before the album ends with a pretty brilliant run of gems again. Again, with almost any album that I love the core sound of, this critique usually abates over time and many listens. Overall, this is indeed a creative, blistering, intense and loud (loud in ways I haven’t heard in almost any other album this year) record that, for the most part, sticks the landing on integrating some electronic, noise pop, and other disparate sounds into the post-hardcore central sound/style. Really excellent album and recommended. "  [+]  Reply

- Mercury | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 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:

67 charts

Rank Score:

227

Rank in 2021:

85

Rank in 2020s:

431

Overall Rank:

5,931

Average Rating:

 70 (54 votes)

Comments:

2

432.

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Prioritise Pleasure 

 Self Esteem

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Year of Release:

2021

Appears in:

59 charts

Rank Score:

225

Rank in 2021:

86

Rank in 2020s:

432

Overall Rank:

5,958

Average Rating:

 72 (49 votes)

Comments:

0

433.

Dropout Boogie 

 The Black Keys

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"Sounding a little like classic ELO, especially on the second track, "It Ain't Over", the duo brings forth another album of sparkling garage rock/blues and an early favorite for the best album of 2022."  Reply

- TheDude85 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 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:

91 charts

Rank Score:

224

Rank in 2022:

85

Rank in 2020s:

433

Overall Rank:

5,982

Average Rating:

 70 (88 votes)

Comments:

5

434.

Pirouette 

 Model/Actriz

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Year of Release:

2025

Appears in:

60 charts

Rank Score:

223

Rank in 2025:

37

Rank in 2020s:

434

Overall Rank:

5,998

Average Rating:

 73 (57 votes)

Comments:

1

435.

The Gods We Can Touch 

 Aurora (NO)

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"There is an auteur spirit to “The Gods We Can Touch”. Aurora frames the album with explorations of femininity and tributes to pagan deities. Her fae voice compliments the vision quite well giving a bit of magic to every line. The concept's limitation is its volume. The project never leaves a midd...""There is an auteur spirit to “The Gods We Can Touch”. Aurora frames the album with explorations of femininity and tributes to pagan deities. Her fae voice compliments the vision quite well giving a bit of magic to every line. The concept's limitation is its volume. The project never leaves a middle volume and that hinders. If it were quieter, it could develop a real sense of intimacy and if it was louder, it could be a ground proclamation. In the middle, it’s not as potent as it could be."  [+]  Reply

- titansaurs28 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 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:

57 charts

Rank Score:

223

Rank in 2022:

86

Rank in 2020s:

435

Overall Rank:

6,012

Average Rating:

 72 (66 votes)

Comments:

4

436.

Glory 

 Perfume Genius

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"Album Rating: 76.09 (837/11) Perfume Genius (Glory - USA - Mar 25) - Glory 28.03.2025 Another very good Perfume Genius album, albeit one that once again hits the mid-70s without ever endangering the decade chart. Rubber boots on an escalator. Album highlight 'Dion' tells the story of that broken ...""Album Rating: 76.09 (837/11) Perfume Genius (Glory - USA - Mar 25) - Glory 28.03.2025 Another very good Perfume Genius album, albeit one that once again hits the mid-70s without ever endangering the decade chart. Rubber boots on an escalator. Album highlight 'Dion' tells the story of that broken leg, of that broken neck and that broken conversation between Fergie and Bryan Richardson. Sky blue thinking under the hammer with Huckerby on Dube. 1.Perfume Genius (Glory - USA - Mar 25) - It's A Mirror 78 2.Perfume Genius (Glory - USA - Mar 25) - No Front Teeth (Feat. Aldous Harding) 76 3.Perfume Genius (Glory - USA - Mar 25) - Clean Heart 73 4.Perfume Genius (Glory - USA - Mar 25) - Me & Angel 75 5.Perfume Genius (Glory - USA - Mar 25) - Left For Tomorrow 75 6.Perfume Genius (Glory - USA - Mar 25) - Full On 72 7.Perfume Genius (Glory - USA - Mar 25) - Capezio 67 8.Perfume Genius (Glory - USA - Mar 25) - Dion 81 9.Perfume Genius (Glory - USA - Mar 25) - In A Row 79 10.Perfume Genius (Glory - USA - Mar 25) - Hanging Out 83 11.Perfume Genius (Glory - USA - Mar 25) - Glory 78 Ranked in order: * Perfume Genius (Glory - USA - Mar 25) - Hanging Out 83 * Perfume Genius (Glory - USA - Mar 25) - Dion 81 * Perfume Genius (Glory - USA - Mar 25) - In A Row 79 * Perfume Genius (Glory - USA - Mar 25) - It's A Mirror 78 * Perfume Genius (Glory - USA - Mar 25) - Glory 78 * Perfume Genius (Glory - USA - Mar 25) - No Front Teeth (Feat. Aldous Harding) 76 * Perfume Genius (Glory - USA - Mar 25) - Me & Angel 75 * Perfume Genius (Glory - USA - Mar 25) - Left For Tomorrow 75 * Perfume Genius (Glory - USA - Mar 25) - Clean Heart 73 * Perfume Genius (Glory - USA - Mar 25) - Full On 72 * Perfume Genius (Glory - USA - Mar 25) - Capezio 67"  [+]  Reply

- ThuramThugood | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 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:

2025

Appears in:

85 charts

Rank Score:

222

Rank in 2025:

38

Rank in 2020s:

436

Overall Rank:

6,029

Average Rating:

 73 (93 votes)

Comments:

1

437.

Eternal Sunshine 

 Ariana Grande

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"Grande is one of those generally popular artists that I innately hated. Their huge popularity and commercial success smothered my own artistic appreciation. This is her latest and, for my taste at least, finest release. The musical ride is still gentle but greatly enjoyable. She just gets better ...""Grande is one of those generally popular artists that I innately hated. Their huge popularity and commercial success smothered my own artistic appreciation. This is her latest and, for my taste at least, finest release. The musical ride is still gentle but greatly enjoyable. She just gets better and better, with every album release."  [+]  Reply

- dukeboxkool | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 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:

46 charts

Rank Score:

222

Rank in 2024:

62

Rank in 2020s:

437

Overall Rank:

6,031

Average Rating:

 69 (62 votes)

Comments:

4

438.

Omega 

 Epica

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Year of Release:

2021

Appears in:

20 charts

Rank Score:

221

Rank in 2021:

87

Rank in 2020s:

438

Overall Rank:

6,039

Average Rating:

 77 (19 votes)

Comments:

0

439.

Hushed And Grim 

 Mastodon

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"Teardrinker and Gobblers of Dregs are up there with my favorite Mastodon songs. A lot of other songs on this album I really enjoy listening to, in particular The Crux and More Than I Could Chew. I think this collection falls under that category of double albums that would have benefitted from bei...""Teardrinker and Gobblers of Dregs are up there with my favorite Mastodon songs. A lot of other songs on this album I really enjoy listening to, in particular The Crux and More Than I Could Chew. I think this collection falls under that category of double albums that would have benefitted from being pared down to a lean single album, but once all the music sinks in, it's a solid listen all the way through."  [+]  Reply

- TheSmithsAreDead | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 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:

65 charts

Rank Score:

221

Rank in 2021:

88

Rank in 2020s:

439

Overall Rank:

6,046

Average Rating:

 74 (46 votes)

Comments:

3

440.

Raise The Roof 

 Robert Plant & Alison Krauss

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"Not quite as memorable as Raising Sand, but certainly a great album. Amazing musical chemistry and a few really great tracks. Burnett's production is once again impeccable."  Reply

- sszwalbenest | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 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:

61 charts

Rank Score:

221

Rank in 2021:

89

Rank in 2020s:

440

Overall Rank:

6,047

Average Rating:

 73 (35 votes)

Comments:

2

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Total albums: 1,000. Page 44 of 100

Best Albums of the 2020s (so far) composition

Top 1,000 Top 500 Top 250 Top 100

Year	Albums	%
2020	199	20%
2021	204	20%
2022	192	19%
2023	157	16%
2024	147	15%
2025	98	10%
2026	5	1%

Artist	Albums	%
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard	12	1%
Taylor Swift	7	1%
Nas	5	0%
Black Country, New Road	4	0%
파란노을 [Parannoul]	4	0%
Maruja	4	0%
Bad Bunny	4	0%
Show all

Country	Albums	%
	501	50%
	241	24%
	46	5%
	41	4%
	31	3%
	19	2%
	15	1%
Show all

Compilation?	Albums	%
No	996	99%
Yes	6	1%

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

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