Best Albums of the 2020s (so far)

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Explore the best albums of the 2020s (so far), based on over 2 million album rankings across 60,000 charts.
Last updated: 4 hours ago

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2020s decade summaryThe best artists of the 2020s are Black Country, New Road, The Strokes, Charli XCX, Little Simz, Magdalena Bay, Fontaines D.C., Big Thief, Kendrick Lamar, The Smile and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard.

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61.

The Turning Wheel

Spellling

"No one would have ever cared about this album if it wasn't for Fantano, at least it got the recognition it deserved." Reply

- DJLogs95 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +5 votes (5 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2021

Appears in:

194 charts

Rank Score:

1,174

Rank in 2021:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

1,458

Average Rating:

79 (223 votes)

Comments:

62.

The Record

Boygenius

"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..." [+] Reply

- shanelovesyou1111 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2023

Appears in:

293 charts

Rank Score:

1,161

Rank in 2023:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

1,477

Average Rating:

76 (233 votes)

Comments:

63.

Everything Is Alive

Slowdive

"For a band that was releasing brilliant music 30 years ago to come out with something as good as this in 2023 is remarkable. Its albums and artists like these that reminds us of why we all love music so much , certainly one of years best albums and possibly the most pleasing return by a band last..." [+] Reply

- | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2023

Appears in:

240 charts

Rank Score:

1,154

Rank in 2023:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

1,482

Average Rating:

77 (192 votes)

Comments:

64.

Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez

Gorillaz

"Incredible return to the quality songwriting of Plastic Beach and Demon Days. 9/10 Best Tracks; Strange Timez, Pac-Man, The Pink Phantom, Aries, Désolé, Momentary Bliss. Worst Tracks: Friday 13th, I don't like Octavian's delivery on this song at all." Reply

Puzzlr | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +5 votes (6 helpful | 1 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2020

Appears in:

224 charts

Rank Score:

1,138

Rank in 2020:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

1,500

Average Rating:

77 (276 votes)

Comments:

65.

Arcade Fire

"Arcade Fire stepping into their elder millennial dad (and mom) rock shoes, perhaps by design the attempts to speak to modern day anxieties are mixed but works very well when it delivers those heart-on-its-sleeve arena-thumping art pop that they've delivered constantly in the past. Mostly toe-tapp..." [+] Reply

cestuneblague | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2022

Appears in:

229 charts

Rank Score:

1,124

Rank in 2022:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

1,518

Average Rating:

71 (350 votes)

Comments:

66.

G_d's Pee At State's End!

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

"sorry in advance for the following: (Basically, I liked it. Everyone or nearly everyone reading this knows who this band is and what Post rock is and that this band and that genre are linked inextricably. It's a solid album. Leave now unless you want to read my unending comment which starts in 3....""sorry in advance for the following: (Basically, I liked it. Everyone or nearly everyone reading this knows who this band is and what Post rock is and that this band and that genre are linked inextricably. It's a solid album. Leave now unless you want to read my unending comment which starts in 3... 2... ) 1... ---------I don't know how I feel about this album. Not exactly. Same goes for this iconic band. And, as this band's work encompasses all existence and transcends life and is up in the ether hobnobbing with Infinity itself per their most ardent fans, I suppose this means I don't know what to think of life, the universe, or anything. Which, come to think of it, is true. But, to elaborate, I don't know where my thoughts fall yet after 2 listens to this album about urine of god ending states. As with all GY!BE albums, this is a detailed and many-layered beast, grasping for questions and answers rarely asked or sought in rock music. All this without saying a thing. On first listen I was transfixed and transported and when the album ended I said "well, shit" and wondered if this was going to be my end-of-year number 1 album. On second listen my subjective response was a bit muted. Although, certain crescendos (they sure do love their crescendos and builds... don't worry this won't be yet another annoying nerdy asshat rant about "Crescendocore" and "oh, oh, this has been done, like, a million times, gosh!" or "wtf can't anyone hear that this is not gooood? it's nothing compared to Tortoise." blah blah blah. Don't worry, I can't stand those people as much as you can't stand them. ) and moments are just as mindboggling on second and now third listen as they were in my first. The things that maybe I was less engaged with were the shorter and less "buildy" songs, or, rather, parts or pieces. Although without exception each one of these tracks/parts, short and long, are rich and well-conceived, some of the hors d'oevre tracks left me less than blown away. I suspect this is an opinion that will change or at least develop with repeat listens and perhaps I'll start mentally stitching this newest Godspeed conception together. For now though some of the sounds at the beginning of the 2 main 20 minute pieces didn't engage me a whole lot. But see, as I write this I am listening a third time, and you know what? I'm already starting to feel my opinions shift mercurially as I type. Damn you, Godspeed! Now I'm wondering again if this is AOTY contender. And this vacillation is making for a REALLY shitty comment. (Future self, 1 hour after typing last sentence, I end up yet again in between Really solid and AOTY, as of now, after 4 listens, its like top 10 album of year, okay lets continue and see what other crazy shit this wild ginger says...) Let me talk through a couple of these tracks here and see if that helps clarify my opinions... Okay, starting with the end, "OUR SIDE HAS TO WIN (for D.H.)" is a pitch perfect, tear-inducing, muddy, noisy, serene and haunting ambient piece and a perfect closer to the album. The last minute of this thing made me feel like Frodo rolling out of Rivendell with the boys. Now going back toward the beginning, I thought the opening bit with the word Military in the name, wasn't particularly special even 4 listens in, but finally 20% into "Job's Lament" shit starts getting tense and maybe i'm just too simple for this post rock stuff, but I get most hyped about those HEAVY bass notes and that staticy guitar as it builds up to the muscular close of that track. This leads into the first "Holy Shit...is you angels?" moment of the album for me, when the guitar comes searing in with the faint sound of voices melded in, that is a nice moment. Brilliant, really. Only lasts for a couple minutes, then some cool down from that high and then some gunshot noises annnnndddd close first big suite. The in-between track that follows and is jammed betwixt the 2 MEGA post rock suites "Fire At Static Valley" is quite nice. Its not the same level as the closer, but quite gorgeous. Okay, and then as for the second big suite, I probably won't go into detail what I thought of each piece within like I did with the first, but I can say that almost everything about "GOVERNMENT CAME pretentious coordinates or something" is dope. Almost all 11 minutes of it was candy to me ears. The first 5 minutes are build up and pretty good build up as it has that dark power that is what I loved about F#A# Infinity, but its all foreplay to the moment when the soaring guitars, well, when the guitars soar. lol. Then they do that post rock thing where it gets intense and then more intense and then more and at some point you notice you're not breathing, you're eyes are squinting unflatteringly, and you're mumbled "Stop, No, I can't take it!" turns into euphoric shouts of "No, don't stop! don't STOOOOPPPP!!!!". Its orgasmic is what I'm saying. And just like orgasms, despite being played out and ever so familiar, they're quite good. From there there is more slow noodling as if they're getting themselves ready for another go-round, followed by another (less impactful, yet still gorgeous) epic crescendo. And then BOOM! We are back to where we started, which was the end, and that final god-tier ambient closing track. The name is silly, but Idk maybe I am just basic. Seems pretty weird. The cover is, on first glance, underwhelming - BUT, I like it now that i look at it. has a certain circular, symbolic meaning. Said symbolism and cover maybe influenced my hackneyed attempt at such a round-about structure to this comment and track break down. And as far as how this fits/ranks in their discog, well I'm far from a mega fan of this band. I like/love their 1997 album because it has the word blues in one of its songs and that is an instant winner in my books. I love their 2000 album, but of course I'm contractually obligated to say that on this site and on this internet. But in all seriousness I haven't listened to Lift Yr Skinny Fists in years, but there was a time when I was in love and thought I'd discovered the holy grail of music when i heard that. Never heard Yanqui I don't think, and I really like their legendary 1999 EP although I've only heard it once and can't say what I liked about it. When I first joined this site in 2012, I was caught up along with almost every other BEA member in the recent release of Allelujah... Don't Bend Ascend. As a matter of fact, I believe that was the VERY FIRST album comment I ever made on this site. I loved it and still do tbh. I adore how fucking brutally heavy that album is. Haven't heard their 2015 or 2017 offerings. All that is to say I don't really feel I have any strong context or freshness to any relative quality assessments. I will say that I really really liked this album. It hit me at the right time and I am very glad its in my life. I am still not someone who will get excited about Post Rock when placed as a genre on an album, as a matter of fact I kinda avoid such albums. Not sure why. Maybe I like music that is more immediate and less drawn-out than what that genre tag evokes. Anyway, this will end up being the most unstructured (aka least structured) of all my 2021 chart/album comments and my longest and my most deserving of ridicule and the one with the most bad English (which is saying something). I will close by saying, "cool album". The highs are heaven, the lows sound like somewhat by-the-numbers GY!BE things analogous to a nice serene Nebraska cornfield. Oh and one final added comment, regarding the general darkness or vibe of this album, I felt like it was the least dour, apocalyptic of the albums I've heard by them. All their albums have some moments of soaring beauty, but I felt this had several that felt almost religious and not in a end-of-days type of way either. Anyway, I have seen comments saying this has a a deeply dark atmosphere, and maybe that is just a personal reaction thing, but I personally found it refreshing how GY!BE sounded a little less morbid this time around. cool album" [+] Reply

Mercury | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +10 votes (10 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2021

Appears in:

216 charts

Rank Score:

1,120

Rank in 2021:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

1,527

Average Rating:

77 (209 votes)

Comments:

67.

Motomami

Rosalía

"An unexpected experimental release from Rosalia after her recent mainstream traction. Very hit and miss throughout though for me. Some very good ideas hidden within this that could be built upon to great success in future releases." Reply

- Rm12398 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2022

Appears in:

241 charts

Rank Score:

1,120

Rank in 2022:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

1,529

Average Rating:

74 (172 votes)

Comments:

68.

Circles

Mac Miller

"Great album, I've been sleeping on Mac Miller's music for his whole life when I should have gave it a chance. RIP" Reply

- NickD89 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (3 helpful | 1 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2020

Appears in:

242 charts

Rank Score:

1,112

Rank in 2020:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

1,544

Average Rating:

76 (309 votes)

Comments:

69.

Tigers Blood

Waxahatchee

"There is some great lyricism on this album, but I think the musical structure is very subpar." Reply

- samueljlakin | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2024

Appears in:

186 charts

Rank Score:

1,111

Rank in 2024:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

1,546

Average Rating:

76 (162 votes)

Comments:

70.

Wet Leg

"Sounding something like a cross between The Pretenders and Sleaford Mods, Wet Leg give us one of the most original-sounding albums of the pop year. Woozy, sweary and full of post-punk attitude, Wet Leg entertains at every turn." Reply

DJFresh-Rock | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2022

Appears in:

293 charts

Rank Score:

1,104

Rank in 2022:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

1,554

Average Rating:

73 (234 votes)

Comments:

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Total albums: 1,000. Page 7 of 100

Best Albums of the 2020s (so far) composition

Year	Albums	%

2020	199	20%
2021	201	20%
2022	190	19%
2023	144	14%
2024	148	15%
2025	102	10%
2026	16	2%

Artist	Albums	%

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard	11	1%
Taylor Swift	7	1%
Nas	5	1%
Black Country, New Road	4	0%
파란노을 [Parannoul]	4	0%
Bad Bunny	4	0%
Maruja	4	0%
Show all

Country	Albums	%

	500	50%
	245	25%
	47	5%
	41	4%
	34	3%
	19	2%
	15	2%
Show all

Compilation?	Albums	%
No	994	99%
Yes	6	1%

Live?	Albums	%
No	987	99%
Yes	13	1%

Soundtrack?	Albums	%
No	997	100%
Yes	3	0%

Best Albums of the 2020s (so far) chart changes

Biggest climbers Biggest climbers in top 100 since last month
Up 7 from 76th to 69th Tigers Blood by Waxahatchee
Up 3 from 98th to 95th Wild God by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Up 3 from 22nd to 19th What's Your Pleasure? by Jessie Ware

Biggest fallers Biggest fallers in top 100 since last month
Down 3 from 85th to 88th Microphones In 2020 by The Microphones
Down 2 from 19th to 21st Folklore by Taylor Swift
Down 2 from 28th to 30th Bright Green Field by Squid (2020s)

« View best albums of the 2010s

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