2020 Album of the Year
This was one of the most gut-wrenching, heart-breaking and mind-bending decisions I’ve had to make for album of the year, in recent memory.
In fact, it was such a tough decision that I didn’t upload my final list and put it out sometime before the 31st of December, like I normally do. Here we are on January 1, 2021 and I’m just now writing and publishing my pick.
Happy New Year!
Before I unveil the top five finalists and placement of the albums, I want to note that the calendar year I use for eligibility is November to November. Therefore albums like Taylor Swift – ‘Evermore’ and BTS – ‘Be’ were not included in my decision making but will be eligible next year. In truth, they are easily the front runners so far.
With all of the ups and downs that came with 2020 – one of the definite ups was the music we listened to this year. Personally, I had so many albums and songs from so many different artists on my radar, that I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the biggest music consumption year of my life.
Breaking it down to the final five was much harder than I anticipated. These are the five albums that resonated with me the most in 2020.
End of year lists are subjective and should not be taken as a slight to anyone’s favorite artist or band. This is only my opinion and yours may be (and probably is) different than mine. I would encourage every single person reading this to compile their own list and publish it somewhere. BUT this is my list and you are reading it on my damn site. So you’re going to have to deal lol. But in truth, these five are all excellent records. I honestly love them all and I’m proud to include them in my final five.
Number Five: Ashton Irwin – Superbloom. Here’s a great example of an album that was completely off of my radar and has me feeling grateful that I decided to dive into it.
Of all of the bad things that people (including myself) say about social media, one incredible thing is the information sharing aspect. I was sent this album along with Irwin’s livestream concert by one of my followers. If she never sent me this, I may have never listened to what would become one of my favorite albums of the year.
Irwin’s look gives me the Jim Morrison vibes and the album had me thinking of an “In Utero version of Kurt Cobain” meets that raw ass-kicking “Raconteurs” flavor.
Irwin already has a great day job in being the drummer for 5 Seconds Of Summer but I’m already counting the days until we get another solo album.
Fave Four: Skinny, Skinny, Greyhound, The Sweetness, SCAR
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Number Four: Jack Hues – Primitif. A double LP that never loses my attention. This is one of the most complex and emotional rides I have taken.. maybe ever.
This 16-track album takes you on a ride of deep thought, love, loss, life & death and a journey through the seasons. We rarely get concept records like this one anymore.
Hues, whose band Wang Chung rose to prominence in the 1980’s with songs like ‘Dance Hall Days’, ‘Everybody Have Fun Tonight’ and my personal favorite ‘To Live and Die In L.A.’, has created an album that is a must listen for anyone wanting to go down a rabbit hole of progressive rock, jazz-chord infused, singer-songwriter bliss. I can also tell you that ‘Whistable Beach’ was my third most played song in 2020.
If you are to take this journey, my advice is to block out some uninterrupted time. Listen to this one, start to finish and lose yourself in the brilliant songwriting of Jack Hues.
Fave Four: Whistable Beach, Astrology, Video Games (Lana Del Rey cover), A Long Time
Number Three: The Weeknd – After Hours. Grammy’s be damned, this is one of the best albums of 2020. Like many people, I was introduced to this album by the brilliant, number-one-across-the-board smash hit, ‘Blinding Lights’.
This album is the product of genius level writing, production and execution. The Weeknd a.k.a. Abel Tesfaye, has a hand in all things that have to do with the album. He is definitely not an artist that shows up to the studio and just works on top lines. From conception to theme to completion, Tesfaye knows exactly how he wants his audience to feel.
The only positive I can take from his exclusion from the Grammy list was that I’m hoping it fuels him to create something we have never seen or heard before. Not sure it’s a hope as much as a certainty. Either way – I’m here for whatever comes next for The Weeknd.
Fave Four: Blinding Lights, Save Your Tears, In Your Eyes, Escape From L.A.
Number Two: Taylor Swift – Folklore. As I expressed earlier, this was such a tough decision that I have agonized over it the last several days to almost ulcer level sickness. And truth be told I almost pulled the trigger a few times and kept going back and forth between these last two albums. They are that good.
Swift has such a story to tell and she does it in a way that leaves you almost speechless. Here’s the thing – I’m exactly three albums into her discography (Evermore, Folklore, Lover) and I’ve come to realize that she is not just a successful pop star. She is one of the greatest singer-songwriters of her generation.
She expresses her imagination and inspirations so easily that I think it almost gets overlooked in mainstream media. In a world that focuses on a celebrity’s private life, relationships or record catalogs, what we should be focusing on is the expert level way she crafts a song or her being the undisputed “Queen of Bridges”. The songwriting ability of Swift is incredible.
Folklore is an elite level album that deserves all of the recognition it is getting. Don’t let anyone tell you different. This is isn’t a case of the “favorites getting all of the awards”. It’s worthy and belongs on everyone’s list. If anyone reading this has it number one on their list, you’ll get no argument from me. These last two albums on my own list are a solid 1 and 1A.
I will definitely be cheering Folklore on to win the Grammy for Album of the Year later this month.
Fave Four: Mirrorball, August, The 1, Cardigan
Album of the Year: Harry Styles – Fine Line. In the horse-race between Fine Line and Folklore, Styles pulls it out by a whisker for my pick as album of the year. If I was able to pull the “weenie-out” card and name them both – I would. But as with many things in life, there can only be one winner.
Fine Line has a plethora of great things going for it and is also an elite level album. I don’t know that there’s a more listenable start-to-finish record this year, than this one. There’s not one song that is a skip for me. Fine Line also contains my most played song of 2020 in the ultimate summer song – ‘Golden.’ I carry a few different playlists for my different moods and ‘Golden’ shows up on almost all of them.
Fine Line, sonically, takes a leap from HS1 although HS1 is special to me in a completely different throwback-retro kind of way. But the moment I put on Fine Line the first thing that jumped out was the mix and overall production. It was wide, full of analog warmness and catchy as all get out.
I’ve heard the argument that Fine Line isn’t as deep as some other albums but I disagree. Look no further than the title track. Digging into relationships, the good, the bad, the fun and the heartache is one of Styles’ forte’s. And like he says to close the album, “We’ll be alright”. Even if you don’t believe it – Harry’s crafty way of building a story, only to comfort you is one of the redeeming qualities I love about his songwriting.
The album has its all-time-fun songs like ‘Sunflower, Vol. 6’ and ‘Canyon Moon’ to go along with the more Lennon-esque tracks like the epic, guitar driven ‘She’. And while “hits” don’t mean as much to me as some, this album has those as well. ‘Adore You’ and the number one, chart topping ‘Watermelon Sugar’ are both worthy contenders for song of the year.
My honest opinion is that the album, while popular enough to become his second consecutive number album, hasn’t had the respect it deserves because of some misguided pre-conceived notions about his former “boy-band” past. If you are reading this and haven’t given Fine Line a full listen-through, do yourself a favor and queue it up with an open mind and maybe you’ll fall in love with it just as much as I have.
Oh and remember to #TPWK. This concept works much better when we all live it everyday.
Fave Four: Golden, Sunflower Vol. 6, Adore You, Fine Line
-Tommy Marz
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