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: 5 hours ago).
"Very loop heavy but clean production by Hit-Boy. I love the sound of this and it's under 30minutes. 9 tracks. Nas is definitely on a roll lately, and this one is my favorite."Reply
"(I am far faaaar from a fan or connoisseur of Hip Hop and especially not UK Hip Hop, but I really really enjoyed this brisk album.) I have to say I loved the production here and I thought it was consistently vibrant and there was always something cool happening to keep my ears engaged. The rappin...""(I am far faaaar from a fan or connoisseur of Hip Hop and especially not UK Hip Hop, but I really really enjoyed this brisk album.)
I have to say I loved the production here and I thought it was consistently vibrant and there was always something cool happening to keep my ears engaged. The rapping was solid as well, and while I don't pay attention to recent events with artists at all, I could hear that he was delicately working out his shortcomings and mistakes and thoughts on recent events in his career. Again, I don't give a fuck about that aspect, but as far as the lyrics and themes dealing with it he seemed to do well.
This is a genre that I have so little insight or background on I tend to just grade or rate based off my oblivious enjoyment. That is kinda how I initially look at all music, but with a genre I am a bit more familiar with I can connect the dots and critique things based off other listening experiences. Not so with UK Hip Hop. So, all I can say is I really liked this, I liked that all the songs are good and pretty rapid fire, I like the shortness of the album, the production and the flow. Really solid stuff."[+]Reply
""Unearth Unreal” has a few things going for it. Hozier is a technically talented vocalist. The lyrics are well written. The ones in Gaelic are a particular nice touch. As the album unfolds, all these qualities are overwhelmed. Hozier’s performance becomes overwrought with him carrying his vocals ..."""Unearth Unreal” has a few things going for it. Hozier is a technically talented vocalist. The lyrics are well written. The ones in Gaelic are a particular nice touch. As the album unfolds, all these qualities are overwhelmed. Hozier’s performance becomes overwrought with him carrying his vocals like a chorus kid showing off. It bogs down any of the emotion root from the songs. The song writing becomes obsessed with writing about a relationship not working out. Each time it is brought up it’s less interesting than the last. The production alternates between dim acoustic backings and tacky gospel splatterings. The energy begins to take on that of a 90’s movie credit song desperately trying to hammer in the message. A good foundation built into an ugly house. "[+]Reply
"Here we go, J. Cole, everyone has something to say when his name is being brought up. Where does one even begin? He’s been one of the biggest names of hip hop for a decade now, probably the most polarising rapper of his generation. There’s a good chance someone will tell you he is better than Ken...""Here we go, J. Cole, everyone has something to say when his name is being brought up. Where does one even begin? He’s been one of the biggest names of hip hop for a decade now, probably the most polarising rapper of his generation. There’s a good chance someone will tell you he is better than Kendrick (or even sidestep any comparisons and proclaim him the G.O.A.T) or that he is worse than Drake ( no offense to Drake, it’s just that a surprisingly large amount of people that take part in such debates barely know another rapper, so these two are the most common points of reference, lol). As it happens more often than not in similar cases, in my opinion the truth lies somewhere in the middle - boring, I know. He is a good rapper, I wouldn't call that in question, but hardly anything beyond that, the word bland perfectly characterises him. I’d go as far as to say he’s been constantly deteriorating in that regard and here he may have reached his peak. Allow me a couple of flashbacks, In 2014 Forest Hills Drive he opened up, showing a vulnerable side of himself, using his own journey as a means to deliver some universal messages. It wasn't hard to spot some flaws, in an attempt to become relatable he did get too personal in an awkward way, but at least he tried – and the jazzy laid-back sound was ear-pleasing if nothing else. 4 Your Eyez Only saw him getting more ambitious, both in terms of production, where some modern touches were added to his typical sound, but mostly in terms of the narrative, featuring story arcs that don’t restrict themselves to one song, but unfold over the entire album. Again, saying he fell short of creating a masterpiece would be an understatement, but you couldn’t blame him that much. And then (fast forward to the present , conveniently skipping some of his "lesser" albums) came The Off-Season. The basic premiss of this record is obvious simply by looking at the title: he took his time during the off-season (it's noteworthy that the sport references remain a thing throughout the album, which are almost always a positive in my book) to prepare, improve, focus on his goal and come back better than ever. Well, after listening to this, it’s fair to say it did him more harm than good. Production wise, he’s fully immersed in a modern, kinda generic trap based sound, while his performance is also dangerously close to forgettable when it comes to either rapping or lyrics. So, yeah, all this quite possibly unnecessary and undoubtedly overly long introduction just to say that his previous albums displayed some effort, no matter how the final product sounded like, while this is disappointingly indolent."[+]Reply
"Glitch Princess is one of the most varied, creative and well structured pop albums I've heard. The PC music adjacent release, which sees production credits from Danny L Harle, Mura Masa and Yeule herself among others, contains a set of distinct and eerie tracks, with vocals and lyrics from Yeule ...""Glitch Princess is one of the most varied, creative and well structured pop albums I've heard. The PC music adjacent release, which sees production credits from Danny L Harle, Mura Masa and Yeule herself among others, contains a set of distinct and eerie tracks, with vocals and lyrics from Yeule that present and build on downbeat themes as the record progresses. My Name Is Nat Ćmiel is a fantastic opener. With its minimalist sound and direct approach in its lyrics, it sets up the emotional core that the record builds from. I'm amazed it's so low rated on here, the distorted vocals and withdrawn background electronics might have a repetitive feel to them, but they bring to the foreground lines like "I like to eat, but I don't like when it lingers on my body, I like to take up as little space as possible". From here the production gets much bigger, but Yeule's personality and struggle remain at the centre of the music. 'Don't Be So Hard on Your Own Beauty' and 'Bites On My Neck' stand out as the albums highlights. The former is built around an acoustic guitar, helping the track find a strange kind of peace as the vocal delivery sees one line come quickly after another, almost turning into a blur, the latter is one of my favourite tracks of the year, the euphoric feeling as the instrumental builds is phenomenal and they manage to pull it off twice. However, between these big tracks, you get something like 'Fragments', a track whose emptiness and distortion slows the middle of the album. These frequent changes of pace allow the individual tracks to shine for their own qualities without any risk of becoming overpowering or samey in the tracklist. Ending with the repetitive and dissonant 'Mandy' lets the album finish with a driving non-conclusion and is the loud and unsettling opposite of the opener. In a thought provoking and sometimes harsh album it refuses to offer an ending that neatly ties everything together."[+]Reply
"Richie Faulkner's guitar playing really shines on this album. It gives you that 1970's and 1980's Judas Priest feel to it. Rob Halford, as usual is the Metal God. Great vocals as always. The drumming by Scott Travis is also superb and helps to drive every song deep into metal madness. If you are ...""Richie Faulkner's guitar playing really shines on this album. It gives you that 1970's and 1980's Judas Priest feel to it. Rob Halford, as usual is the Metal God. Great vocals as always. The drumming by Scott Travis is also superb and helps to drive every song deep into metal madness. If you are an old fan and haven't heard this line-up of the band you should definitely do so. This albums grade is a solid A."[+]Reply
"Let’s be honest, Jacky Boys 2018’s ‘Boarding House Reach’ was a lot of a disaster and the proceeding ‘Lazaretto’ wasn’t much better so can you imagine my surprise with this latest platter - its actually rather good ! ‘Entering Heaven Alive’ has this wonky off key charm to it with J.W finally park...""Let’s be honest, Jacky Boys 2018’s ‘Boarding House Reach’ was a lot of a disaster and the proceeding ‘Lazaretto’ wasn’t much better so can you imagine my surprise with this latest platter - its actually rather good ! ‘Entering Heaven Alive’ has this wonky off key charm to it with J.W finally parking his fat head ego for more considered, down to earth lyrics and restrained compositions that simply work
I haven’t heard ‘Fear Of The Dawn’ which came out three months prior to this one but I’m sure to be checking it out "[+]Reply