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: 43 minutes ago).
This chart is currently filtered to only show albums from United States. (Remove this filter)
"I don't think I've ever seen a larger disparity between the critics' and audiences' reaction to an album as for this one. Everyone seems to be loving the album except the music critics and honestly, this is the victory The Strokes deserved. For a band who were put on the highest pedestal by the c...""I don't think I've ever seen a larger disparity between the critics' and audiences' reaction to an album as for this one. Everyone seems to be loving the album except the music critics and honestly, this is the victory The Strokes deserved. For a band who were put on the highest pedestal by the critics before they even really started the career, their whole discography since Is This It has felt like an attempt to gain that acclaim back, and they kept failing to impress them, and along the way, their fans.
But this album is a goddamn beast! a spectacle worth the 7 year wait, a redemption arc for one of the biggest band of the indie rock era; and I am almost glad that the critics are shitting on this obvious masterpiece, since now majority of their GP audience can finally tear the band's image away from their critique. And maybe this will help The Strokes themselves become more liberated from the Is This It era. Because, honestly, I was getting real tired of reading about how "they used to be so good in their first two albums" in literally every article about the band thereafter (and that one The National song).
I absolutely adore this album, and I cant wait to scream "drums please Fab" when they finally start performing it live. Fuck the critics man. This is the Strokes' year."[+]Reply
"Percussively, I listen and just think: "why aren't more people doing this?" and "why hasn't anyone done something like this in this way before?" Yes, it's good. It's inventive, creative and just... very very percussive. There is a feel of all the sounds being created w/ kitchenware utensils and p...""Percussively, I listen and just think: "why aren't more people doing this?" and "why hasn't anyone done something like this in this way before?"
Yes, it's good. It's inventive, creative and just... very very percussive. There is a feel of all the sounds being created w/ kitchenware utensils and pots and pans. This is proof that there's more innovation possible when creating great percussion than just adjusting how you EQ the kick and snare.
To my ears it's not so jarring and esoteric as everyone is making it out to be. In fact I find it more accessible than her other albums. I've been unable to get into her too much because of her voice doing the half talking half rapping thing, but here it's so tightly coupled w/ the percussion and the rest of the song that it fits much better whether she is singing or talking. In fact she'll get done w/ a melody before I realize "oh hey she went from talking to singing and I didn't notice"
I can tell it's a very personal album for her and a pent up anger over some political and socioeconomic issues she's very opinionated about. I hear some Beyonce and Solange in the vocals and most prominently the lyrics w.r.t. the identity politics of it all. I'm not necessarily entirely ideologically aligned but I can appreciate she executed on her goals as an artistic statement.
Probably could have been 10 songs as the triplet triplet boom boom gets a little exhausting by the end but overall yeah pretty great record."[+]Reply
"What a delightful album! This year is already shaping up to be a great one for music. I'm loving the vocals on this record, they're so quaint and inviting. I usually hate long albums but this one feels just right, it's not bloated and it doesn't drag on for one minute."Reply
"This albums' slow climb to the very top is representative of how it affects the listener. I first heard it and was like "yeah that was fine". Then months passed and I gave it no attention. Then I went back to it, and realized how much more than 'fine' it actually is! If it doesn't capture you on ...""This albums' slow climb to the very top is representative of how it affects the listener. I first heard it and was like "yeah that was fine". Then months passed and I gave it no attention. Then I went back to it, and realized how much more than 'fine' it actually is! If it doesn't capture you on first listen, give it another chance. This album is the epitome of a slow burner, and really captures the melancholy of 2020."[+]Reply
"I don't comment on here too often but really wanted to give my opinion on Auntie Diaries and some first impressions of the album. Obviously can't speak for any other trans or queer people but there's so much I love about Auntie Diaries and I think it tackles ideas around prejudice, tolerance and ...""I don't comment on here too often but really wanted to give my opinion on Auntie Diaries and some first impressions of the album. Obviously can't speak for any other trans or queer people but there's so much I love about Auntie Diaries and I think it tackles ideas around prejudice, tolerance and acceptance so well. I've seen some criticism of Kendrick using misgendering and deadnaming* from people who still see the positive intent of the track but I think these are actually vital to getting his point across. A lot of the song comes from a place of tolerating but not understanding the trans people in his life. Saying 'my auntie was a man now, we cool with it' gets across a kind of acceptance but the misgendering in this line and in the verses show that his uncle still isn't being seen as who he really is. The final verse changes this. When push comes to shove and Kendrick is forced to challenge this mindset he doesn't just tolerate his cousin, he accepts her. There's a deeper understanding from this point on. Ending the verse by talking to her directly really gets this new closeness across.
Through transition I've been scared of people not accepting me at all but I've also been scared of people accepting me as a surface level thing. Like they're being polite and playing along instead of seeing me for who I am. It often starts that way with people but after some time you see a shift from tolerance to acceptance in the way Kendrick's last verse describes. Without the uncomfortable moments in the track, it wouldn't have been able to get across these subtle points at all. If Kendrick had written a track just about how proud he was of the trans people he knew it would be nice and all, but it wouldn't really get to a deeper level, challenge the listener or keep within the themes of the record.
The record as a whole is very dense and I'll have to give it a few listens before I can form anything like a full opinion but some stuff has stood out on first listen. Most tracks here are really good but a couple didn't do much for me, I think a bit of an edit could have made things a bit more focussed. I really appreciate the lyrical themes of breaking destructive cycles through forgiveness and mutual understanding. The individual songs build to this brilliantly but Kendrick making a point of including Kodak Black on the album hinders this message, I think his inclusion here is a mistake. Mother I Sober is one of Kendrick's best songs and shows that he is a one of a kind artist. I'm really looking forward to going back over this and seeing how much reveals itself on repeat listens.
* I do wish he hadn't deadnamed Caitlin Jenner though. He knew the other people who were deadnamed in the song and probably had their blessing before releasing it, this won't have been the case with Caitlin. Deadnaming her felt very unnecessary."[+]Reply
"Having listened to it thrice today, and knowing the impetus for the record, Javelin stands as Sufjan Stevens's most open-hearted and devastating work to date, even more so than the thorny beauty of his magnificent Carrie & Lowell. Elegiac, wounded, and life-affirming through and through, Javelin ...""Having listened to it thrice today, and knowing the impetus for the record, Javelin stands as Sufjan Stevens's most open-hearted and devastating work to date, even more so than the thorny beauty of his magnificent Carrie & Lowell. Elegiac, wounded, and life-affirming through and through, Javelin is characteristically meditative and soulful, while crystalizing the folktronica sensibilities that he's wrestled with over the years into its most moving configurations yet, and that, despite its weight, is still so warm and inviting. One of the best from one of the best ever to do it."[+]Reply
"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
"This surprised me a lot, after following up her critical breakthrough Norman Fucking Rockwell with a couple of substantially weaker albums I figured that Lana's music had peaked and that the still quite decent standard of Chemtrails and Blue Banisters would be the new normal. I think I was about ...""This surprised me a lot, after following up her critical breakthrough Norman Fucking Rockwell with a couple of substantially weaker albums I figured that Lana's music had peaked and that the still quite decent standard of Chemtrails and Blue Banisters would be the new normal. I think I was about a couple of tracks into this record when I realised that wasn't the case, Ocean Boulevard isn't just a great piece of work but one that elevates the rest of Lana's discography. The opening run of tracks is just as good as on NFR, the effortless emotional build of The Grants, the full production of the title track and the lyrical directness of the second half of Sweet work incredibly together. They also set the stage for Lana's most contemplative and thoughtful album, breaking into new ground while drawing on the fear of being left in the past. This is most successful on A&W which mirrors the lyrical themes of her earliest records but adds some depth to them with its downbeat frustration as she tries to trace the roots of the unfulfilling and demeaning relationships that she used to only cover at a surface level.
For me Ocean Boulevard matches NFR in its earlier tracks but it's deeper into the tracklist that it starts to pull away from it, it stays compelling to the end. There are some especially strong melodies on tracks like Paris Texas and Candy Necklace and a warmth to others like Let the Light In. Each of the tracks I've highlighted has a really effective feature on it, Lana's sense for collaboration is at its best here, we're a long way from unnecessary rap features being stuffed into dull tracks. Only Bleachers doesn't quite pull his weight vocally, but his involvement in Margaret feels fair considering his personal connection to the track. It sets up a great finale as things come full circle with the looseness of the first few seconds of the album being mirrored by the almost conversational conclusion to Margaret.
Except the album just keeps on going and this is still what really confuses me. Fishtail, Peppers and Taco Truck are all really good but they feel like bonus tracks within the structure of the album. I really enjoy the switch up in sound towards something more hip hop influenced, Peppers especially is one of the catchiest tracks of the past year, it's a shame that it just doesn't fit. I think these songs could have made for a really good EP instead of being grafted onto the end of the record, it's a bit annoying though the fact that it stands out so clearly as an issue shows how well the rest of Ocean Boulevard is structured."[+]Reply
"I respectfully disagree with the below comment. Taylor Swift has often had high profile collaborators and producers (Max Martin; Jack Antonoff etc.). Taylor's records tend to sound both like Taylor and her collaborators. I see it as a strength rather than a weakness, which has enabled Taylor to c...""I respectfully disagree with the below comment. Taylor Swift has often had high profile collaborators and producers (Max Martin; Jack Antonoff etc.). Taylor's records tend to sound both like Taylor and her collaborators. I see it as a strength rather than a weakness, which has enabled Taylor to capitalise on the potential of collaboration to help the longevity of her career and move in different directions.
Of'course, Swift wrote or co-wrote every track on this album so she is certainly not being propped up by others. This record sounds a lot like Taylor and the National as well. That said, it is very much a Taylor Swift record-the kind of melodies and and lyrics being already familiar to Swift fans, even as the music moves in a different direction. "[+]Reply
Vatsal | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +17 votes (17 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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corenfro | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +11 votes (11 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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AvalancheGrips | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +6 votes (6 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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Cargusbralem | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +10 votes (10 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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HoldenM | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +8 votes (13 helpful | 5 unhelpful)
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