Best Albums of the 2020s (so far)

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51.

An Evening With Silk Sonic 

 Silk Sonic

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"The fact that both this AND "Sometimes I Might Be Introvert" came out in the same year automatically makes 2021 a better year than 2020"  Reply

- TheNewm | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +7 votes (8 helpful | 1 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:

241 charts

Rank Score:

1,097

Rank in 2021:

12

Rank in 2020s:

51

Overall Rank:

1,553

Average Rating:

 76 (217 votes)

Comments:

19

52.

The Forever Story 

 J.I.D

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"This is truly fantastic. Possible aoty contender. Kody Blu 31 is one of the best songs I've heard all year."  Reply

- TheNewm | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +7 votes (7 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:

162 charts

Rank Score:

1,092

Rank in 2022:

13

Rank in 2020s:

52

Overall Rank:

1,562

Average Rating:

 80 (173 votes)

Comments:

11

53.

I Don't Live Here Anymore 

 The War On Drugs

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"Heard it 3 times here is my reaction after each listen: 1st- Nice heartland rock (its ok) 2nd- damn some of these tracks are getting me emotional. I think i understand the themes of the albums a bit more. 3rd- Give me War on Drugs music straight in my veins! Try not to get teary eyed! Favorite al...""Heard it 3 times here is my reaction after each listen: 1st- Nice heartland rock (its ok) 2nd- damn some of these tracks are getting me emotional. I think i understand the themes of the albums a bit more. 3rd- Give me War on Drugs music straight in my veins! Try not to get teary eyed! Favorite album of the year so far Let me just listen to the first track, change and I dont live here anymore for the tenth time"  [+]  Reply

- gregthealien | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +4 votes (5 helpful | 1 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:

277 charts

Rank Score:

1,088

Rank in 2021:

13

Rank in 2020s:

53

Overall Rank:

1,567

Average Rating:

 77 (200 votes)

Comments:

11

54.

Prelude To Ecstasy 

 The Last Dinner Party

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"It sounds like they've actually thought about every single element of their music and presentation. Pulling elements from every decade and as many different genres as they can. It's probably the best thing I've heard from a new band/artist since Arlo Parks debut and the best record of 2024...so far.""It sounds like they've actually thought about every single element of their music and presentation. Pulling elements from every decade and as many different genres as they can. It's probably the best thing I've heard from a new band/artist since Arlo Parks debut and the best record of 2024...so far."  [+]  Reply

- meltchett | 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:

2024

Appears in:

235 charts

Rank Score:

1,082

Rank in 2024:

8

Rank in 2020s:

54

Overall Rank:

1,571

Average Rating:

 76 (225 votes)

Comments:

10

55.

The New Sound 

 Geordie Greep

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"You can't expect anything conventional from one of the most distinctive personalities in experimental rock in recent years. In The New Sound, we dive deep into Geordie Greep's creative arsenal, shedding more light on what he brings (or brought?) to the table as part of black midi. Greep has much ...""You can't expect anything conventional from one of the most distinctive personalities in experimental rock in recent years. In The New Sound, we dive deep into Geordie Greep's creative arsenal, shedding more light on what he brings (or brought?) to the table as part of black midi. Greep has much to say, often delving into uncomfortable territory, yet he delivers every line with total confidence, forging the bizarre character that only he can portray. Lyrically, he takes us across a spectrum that ranges from sweet romanticism to unhinged libido. This is backed up by quite the handful of session musicians, blending symphonic grandeur with tropical getaway vibes (Tristan Bongos!) and occasional cacophonies, all of which parallel the lyrical themes. Throughout the runtime, the chemistry among the musicians is flawlessly maintained. With all this said, this project is one that black midi fans simply can't (and won't) miss."  [+]  Reply

- Cargusbralem | 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:

187 charts

Rank Score:

1,064

Rank in 2024:

9

Rank in 2020s:

55

Overall Rank:

1,594

Average Rating:

 80 (176 votes)

Comments:

11

56.

By The Time I Get To Phoenix 

 Injury Reserve

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"(Dense, knotty, complex, scatter-brained, grief-filled, lost, anguished, layered Experimental Hip Hop record with lots of noisy blasts of strange random beats, glitching disorientation, fabulous and varied vocal performances and just generally a frightening and inspired and inspiring new musical ...""(Dense, knotty, complex, scatter-brained, grief-filled, lost, anguished, layered Experimental Hip Hop record with lots of noisy blasts of strange random beats, glitching disorientation, fabulous and varied vocal performances and just generally a frightening and inspired and inspiring new musical realm in album form. Give it 2 or 3 spins before writing it off.) My prior experience with really experimental or unorthodox hip hop was very limited. I love Atrocity Exhibition, enjoy some Death Grips and clipping and Dalek, never could get into Some Rap Songs or Lil Ugly Main or Coin Locker Kid. And I suppose I did also really like that Moor Mother + Billy Woods album last year…. The point is, I am not familiar with this genre, this sort of amorphous, boundary-pushing, strange, experimental side of hip hop. 90% of my favorites in the genre are from the mid 90s. Needless to say, this doesn’t bear any resemblance to Liquid Swords. On first listen I was confused. I thought the album was equal parts dense/hard to follow as well as beautiful/intriguing/weirdly addictive. After I heard it once and was sort of dumb struck, I felt a compulsion to push play and try again to unravel what the fuck this is. Now, after 3 full listens and the 4th in progress, I am getting more and more familiar with it without losing that wonder at the density of the noises and elements and soundscapes created. There are parts of this album that are sad and beautiful (“Knees”, “Top Picks for You, “Postpostpartum”). There are frightening and mentally ravaged moments (“Outside”, “Footwork in a Forest Fire”, “Wild Wild West”). There are glitchy, seemingly random noisy bits (“Superman That”, Ground Zero”) and there are even a couple honest-to-goodness songs that I can follow along with in almost traditional music listening ways (again, “Knees”). And perhaps most importantly, there aren’t clear distinctions between these sounds and emotions. Within one song there is a mixing and melding and an almost infinite variety of potential emotional responses. As a cohesive album, this succeeds in never fully showing or making clear what is the appropriate take-away from the track, whatever track you are hearing at the moment. By The Time I Get To Phoenix album is a journey, a fucked up, lost, aimless voyage through some grimy and miserable world. I keep hearing in comments from fans of IR that this album is deeply rooted in grief and loss. And that would make sense considering the death of founding member of the group Stepa J. Groggs in June of last year. However, either I just haven’t fully unpacked the lyricism here or perhaps its people projecting the emotions onto the album that aren’t fully or exclusively here. There are no on-the-nose and obvious odes or ballads or laments clearly about the loss of Groggs. There IS a distinct hazy, disorienting, vibe throughout this whole project. It feels like the mental state of the members of Injury Reserve are constantly on the edge of fully splintering and breaking apart. This head space is expressed throughout here masterfully. It feels uncomfortable being in these guys’ heads and they fully flesh out the beats and sonic spaces so that you are thrown fully into this state-of-mind. Fabulous and, yes I’ll say it, genius brilliant amazing production now that I have gotten used to it. And listening now to the closing track “Bye Storm” and I am getting emotional. It feels like the slight twinkle of light through the oppressive smoky sky, with that weird and exultant guitar sound. This closer along with the pained grief and apathy of the penultimate track “Knees”, make for a perfect and all-time classic closer to this album. Okay, maybe that is a bit hyperbolic. It is just a truly moving way to cap off this experimental and crushing album is what I’ll say. The production of Parker Corey is going to get most of the ink and praise, understandably. As, despite beats of sounds like this being around in Hip Hop for 15 years, somehow he took the level of detail and wooziness and expansiveness and just expanded it exponentially. Perhaps this isn’t a completely brand new never been remotely heard sound (nothing like that ever drops and comes out of the blue) – but it is, to these admittedly not fully educated ears, a new bar set in terms of detail and expansiveness and layered noisy experimentation. Moving to the vocal performances here, they are similarly impressive. Schizophrenic, sad and lost, slurred and drunken and in pain, cutting and fully embodying the words and living in the soundscapes. Especially the varied vocal sounds in “SS San Francisco (feat. Zelooperz)”. The deep grumbling vocal and the weird high-pitched singing set the table for some playful, sardonic, griefy bars. But its not just here, wherever the rap verses come in (and that is strangely rare, this seems to be an album where the rapping is somewhat sparse and instead there are long stretches of instrumental table-setting before Ritchie with a T comes in with the perfect vocal intonation and flow to complement the beat and sinic space. Random, fly-by thoughts: -The Yeezus-esque screams on “Footwork in a Forest Fire” is awesome and really the whole track and every phase of it is cool, but for some reason those screams got me. -Smoke Don’t Clear” is, as of now, one of the few tracks here that I don’t fully like. But I will say it works well in the context of the album more than its own noisy mess of a thing. -The way “Top Picks for You” with that dramatic melody on that… whatever sound that is… with the whispery singing and the sadness of the verses, its incredible. The whole song is great. One of my faves. -“Knees” was weird and fabulous in isolation as a single, but it feels so much deeper and more moving and beautiful within the context of the LP. One of the best tracks here, or perhaps the best. In closing, I am listening a 5th time, and it grows and grows on me. This is a dense and brilliant experimental and emotionally gripping and profound album. I recommend a couple listens or 3 before making final judgement. I had a similar arc with Atrocity Exhibition, where I was very VERY disoriented and kind of unimpressed on first listens and then over time I understood its dense complicated and knotty brilliance with further listens. Recommend the same for this. Note: This is an album that I am sure I am only scratching the surface with. I hope I listen enough to unravel it more. This comment ain't final. This 5th listen is making me hear other details and that is just really exciting."  [+]  Reply

- Mercury | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +7 votes (7 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:

190 charts

Rank Score:

1,061

Rank in 2021:

14

Rank in 2020s:

56

Overall Rank:

1,602

Average Rating:

 78 (198 votes)

Comments:

18

57.

Motomami 

 Rosalía

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"I don't know... I don't find this album as experimental as music critics are hailing it to be. Rosalia as always is an impressive vocalist and an interesting arranger of flamenco, but after the massive conceptual leap from the conventional – and for a while a mostly under the radar release – Los ...""I don't know... I don't find this album as experimental as music critics are hailing it to be. Rosalia as always is an impressive vocalist and an interesting arranger of flamenco, but after the massive conceptual leap from the conventional – and for a while a mostly under the radar release – Los Angeles to the mesmerising El Mal Querer, Motomami kinda lands flat. It doesn't have the same feeling of being a total reconfiguration of Rosalia, despite sounding quite unique. I think this is just one that's not really for me – that's okay, I respect the attempt."  [+]  Reply

- Arthurknight | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (4 helpful | 1 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:

240 charts

Rank Score:

1,042

Rank in 2022:

14

Rank in 2020s:

57

Overall Rank:

1,624

Average Rating:

 74 (170 votes)

Comments:

14

58.

The Record 

 Boygenius

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"Remarkable how these three idiosyncratic songwriters consciously decide to subsume their quirks within a group voice. Individual traits haven't been erased so much as they've been sanded so they can fit neatly together. Boygenius feels heftier and hookier than Baker, Bridgers, and Dacus do on the...""Remarkable how these three idiosyncratic songwriters consciously decide to subsume their quirks within a group voice. Individual traits haven't been erased so much as they've been sanded so they can fit neatly together. Boygenius feels heftier and hookier than Baker, Bridgers, and Dacus do on their own and I love it."  [+]  Reply

- shanelovesyou1111 | 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:

2023

Appears in:

288 charts

Rank Score:

1,042

Rank in 2023:

5

Rank in 2020s:

58

Overall Rank:

1,625

Average Rating:

 76 (228 votes)

Comments:

12

59.

Sinner Get Ready 

 Lingua Ignota

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"This album is brilliant. It’s harsh like you would expect from her but also incredibly beautiful with elements of folk. Not to mention the incredible journey she takes you through the lens of Christianity that’s just as beautiful as it is horrifying. This is a must listen for sure whether you hav...""This album is brilliant. It’s harsh like you would expect from her but also incredibly beautiful with elements of folk. Not to mention the incredible journey she takes you through the lens of Christianity that’s just as beautiful as it is horrifying. This is a must listen for sure whether you have listened to her before or not. Covered in the Blood of Jesus/10"  [+]  Reply

- pjohnsongolf | 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:

2021

Appears in:

172 charts

Rank Score:

1,032

Rank in 2021:

15

Rank in 2020s:

59

Overall Rank:

1,639

Average Rating:

 77 (167 votes)

Comments:

13

60.

Glow On 

 Turnstile

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"(Not sure why I am putting in a paranthetical opening statement for this comment considering how short and insubstantial this comment is, boiling down to "Not MY Hardcore! grrrr...". Maybe its just a habit. Anyway, yeah I am not a fan of this uber clean, big, anthemic version of post hardcore and...""(Not sure why I am putting in a paranthetical opening statement for this comment considering how short and insubstantial this comment is, boiling down to "Not MY Hardcore! grrrr...". Maybe its just a habit. Anyway, yeah I am not a fan of this uber clean, big, anthemic version of post hardcore and hardcore.) Personally, I'm not feeling this. I sure hope this ultra modern production isn't influential on Hardcore and post-hardcore for years to come because, man, I hate it/ a lot. The anthemic shouts are cool but to say they lean on them would be an understatement. The riff work is alright, but just the way they sound is rubbing me the wrong way. After the first 2 or 3 tracks I was thinking "Yep, this is gonna be top 100 of year for me at least." Even at that point there were some production choices which I was a bit ish about. But the power of the performances were getting me hyped up. But as the album progressed there was a steady and consistent decline in affinity for the album and the band and the sound. Don't like the Alternative Metal sounds, synth sounds, pop sounds, me no like any of it lol. Okay, that's not true, I liked maybe 1 in 5 production choices. whatever I'm rambling. I respect that they are "pushing forward the form" and so forth. That is cool and should be commended. But in this case, to my ears, they are pushing it somewhere but I'm not sure its forward. Not backward either. Maybe they are just kinda nudging it sideways or something. (that analogy died fast upon my fingertips.) EDIT: coming back to say that "Hate" is the wrong word. I don't hate this. I think if this album was playing I would have a good time hearing it. There have been a few albums this year that I "Hated" and this ain't it. However, I guess I just don't like it, and on a scale of hate to love, this would be almost dead center and slightly leaning over into dislike. Okay, that's all. "  [+]  Reply

- Mercury | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (4 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:

212 charts

Rank Score:

1,016

Rank in 2021:

16

Rank in 2020s:

60

Overall Rank:

1,663

Average Rating:

 77 (167 votes)

Comments:

9

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Total albums: 1,000. Page 6 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%