Album of the Year - 2020

Yeah start of Jan, which was approximately 4000 years ago

+1 for Beatrice Dillon. Incredible.

other notables:

Lyra Pramuk – Fountain
Duval Timothy – Help
Elysia Crampton – ORCORARA 2010
Actress – 88
ML Buch – Skinned
Oklou – Galore
Mary Lattimore – Silver Ladders

Just realised that I picked up about 250 LPs this year, and only about 5 of them were actually released this year. I'll start exploring 2020 in another 10 years or so. Of those I did get, the Fontaines DC album stands out as being by far the worst - an utter turd after a really good first album.

There was a new Smashing Pumpkins LP out this year which I'm contractually obliged to give a spin but it's not that promising so far. Love Carley Rae Jepson but haven't given as much time as I'd like to her Dedicated Side B album to form an opinion. I've enjoyed Howling Hex in the past, they've got one out, again 2020 got in the way. Oh that Juliana Barwick LP is amazing, probably earned a place on my list.

On a less positive note I like Best Coast but does anyone need another Best Coast album. And that Sonic Boom record was just ANNNNNOOYYYING! Like the worst excesses of Spacemen 3.

Purchased quite a few albums this year, but mainly old jazz stuff, only thing I can think of that I bought from this year is Tunng - Tunng presents.... Dead Club. It's very Tunng, to me that's a rather good thing.
Thanks to @owl I'll be buying Bonny Light Horseman's album, very nice.

I love the flohio, it should be bigger. I'm a bit disappointed it's not been more successful.

does anyone need another X album

I have thought this about so many artists that have released albums this year only to then listen to them and be like 'yes, appears we do.'

Coriky -Coriky
Far Enough - Cable Ties
III - Fuzz
A Celebration Of Endings - Biffy Clyro
Father Of All Motherfuckers - Green Day

The Avalanches have dropped the best album of the year for me.

Nils Frahm - Empty 2
Kamaal Williams - WuHen

I missed those two

As others, I've bought hundreds of albums this year, few recent

AstroFuzz - Necromancer
Autechre - Sign
BC Camplight - Shortly after takeoff
Black Solstice - Terrathree
Gaslamp Killer - Heart math
Lucifer - Lucifer III
Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou - May our chambers be full
Gil Scott-Heron & Makaya McCraven - We're new again
Supersuckers - Play that rock'n'roll
Anna Von Hausswolff - All thoughts fly

I've bought far less than usual but the stand out for me was the Lunch Money Life record https://lunchmoneylife.bandcamp.com/album/immersion-chamber

Really good list here that I've been working my way through to see what I've missed https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2020/12/16/aquarium-drunkard-2020-year-in-review/

This is my other forums Top 50, ordered using some convoluted scoring system, if anyone wants to work through it

1. Julianna Barwick - Healing Is A Miracle
   
2. Perfume Genius - Set My Heart On Fire Immediately
   
3. The Microphones - Microphones in 2020
   
4. Adrianne Lenker – Songs
   
5. Deftones - Ohms
   
6. Sufjan Stevens - The Ascension
   
7. Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher
   
8. Hamilton Leithauser - The Loves of Your Life
   
9. Muzz - Muzz
   
10. Sault - Untitled (Black Is)
    = William Basinski – Lamentations
    
11. The Strokes - The New Abnormal
    
12. Haim - Women in Music Pt. III
    
13. Lyra Pramuk – Fountain
    = Braids - Shadow Offering
    
14. The Beths - Jump Rope Gazers
    = Mary Lattimore - Silver Ladders
    
15. Róisín Murphy - Róisín Machine
    = 1 Mile North - Tombs and Cocoons
    = This Is The Kit – On Off On
    
16. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Ghosteen
    = Sparks - A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip
    
17. Holy Fuck – Deleter
    = I Break Horses – Warnings
    
18. Young Ejecta - Ride Lonesome
    = Jaguar Sun – This Empty Town
    
19. Moses Boyd - Dark Matter
    = Upsammy - Zoom
    
20. Bill Callahan - Gold Record
    
21. Ezra Feinberg - Recumbent Speech
    = Kate NV - Room For The Moon
    = Kelly Lee Owens - Inner Song
    
22. Oliver Coates - Skins n Slime
    = Run The Jewels - RTJ4
    = North Americans - Roped In
    
23. Gia Margaret - Mia Gargaret
    
24. Matt Berninger - Serpentine Prison
    = Nyx Nott - Aux Pieds de la Nuit
    
25. Fleet Foxes – Shore
    = Cindy - I'm Cindy
    = Hayley Williams - Petals for Armor
    = Hikaru Yamasa and The Librarians - Genre Music
    = Khruangbin – Mordechai
    = Michel van der Aa - Time Falling
    = Richard Youngs and Raul Refree - All Hands Around The Moment
    = The Chats - High Risk Behaviour
    = Wilma Archer - Western Circular
    
26. Beatrice Dillon – Workaround
    = Jeff Parker - Suite for Max Brown
    = Rina Sawayama – Sawayama
    

Yes Ghosteen was from last year but no one remembers what year it is anyway so it gets in

the lack of taylor swift in this is a sure fire sign of hipsters

Heh, I can offer you Hayley Williams and HAIM for yer popsters

The Microphones - Microphones in 2020

this is a single.

😂

Waxahatchee and Frances Quinlan LPs were bangers. Yeah.

Dead heat between avalanches and perfume genius.

Just wanna say thanks to numerous points from people to The Avalanches record. Good vibes indeed

Parallel by Four Tet is pretty bloody good as a latecomer.

PE

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Still not too sure what to think about the new Deftones album yet...I like it but sometimes it sounds a bit too Deftones? I love the style they have and you can tell it’s them without knowing it... but have they done it to death? Ohms isn’t as half as good as Koi No Yokan or Around The Fur.

Anyway, been listening to quite a bit of new bands this year, even if they haven’t released an album. Here’s my shortlist:

Fuming Mouth
Spine
Gulch
Geld
Sexless Marriage
Spy
Wound Man
Fiddlehead
Candy
Baptists... and the mighty Sex Prisoner

Avalanches
Dua Lipa
Mr Beatnick
Troy Sivan
Four Tet
Pantha Du Prince

Due to the strange nature of this year, I realised most of the albums I was going to list actually came out in late 2019...I just listened to them constantly in 2020.
A few albums that actually were released in 2020 though which I really enjoyed are...

Theo Parrish - Wuddaji
Likwid Continual Space Motion - Earthbound
Nubya Garcia - Source
Jeff Parker - Suite for Max Brown
Sault - Untitled (Rise + Black is)
Moses Boyd - Dark Matter
Bloto Quartet - Erozje + Kwiatostan
Shabaka and the Ancestors - We are sent here by history
Eabs - Discipline of Sun Ra
Yussef Dayes trio - Welcome to the hills
Blue Note - Re:Imagined
Aesop Rock - Spirit World Field Guide
Moodymann - Taken Away
Moodymann - Demos, Cassettes, ADATS & Floppies PT​.​1
Omar S - You Want
Omar S - Fuck Resident Advisor (purely for the title!)
Andrew Ashong & Kaidi Tatham - Sankofa Season

I'm sure there are others I have forgotten right now...but that's enough for now. :)