The best from the worst year….

This has been an incredibly painful year. Music has really been one of the best things to help sooth those difficult moments, and a lot of the musicians on this list created cathartic, personal works during this time as well. Sometimes just sharing those thoughts and ideas with others is a part of the healing process, which the world needs right now. Others on this list are just fun, or danceable works. That light is also needed among the darkness.

A._G._Cook7G.jpg — No. 1 - A.G. Cook - 7G

Personal Best from the PC Music founder himself.

A year ago I never would have guessed A.G. Cook would have my album of the year, despite being familiar with his work. A.G. is the founder of the music label PC Music, and essentially the reason the genre of the same name (PC music) sounds the way it does. He and a few other key producers really are the reason PC music is a movement right now. The reason I found Cook and PC Music to begin with is in large part because he produced other music I love or was in some way affiliated with (he produced the Number 1 Angel and Pop 2 mixtapes for Charli XCX, a few of my favorite albums) and...down the rabbit hole I went. I discovered many new artists through him and his work, slowly falling in love with the PC music sound and diverse roster of musicians in their collective.

After years of being the mastermind behind so many other projects, Cook dropped his first debut full length 7G this year, in August. It is not your typical debut, or even a typical album. The album is made up of 7 mini albums, with 49 total songs. This thing clocks in at 2 hours and 39 minutes. The audacity to release such an album is bold as hell to begin with, but what about the music?

Upon first listen, the opening mini album might have detoured others, but my ears have been primed for years now on the other material he worked on. It was an easy jump in for me. The different mini albums are also meticulously organized by the specific driving instrument among their set of songs. It’s hard to believe but it only took me a few full listens through 7G to hear all 49 songs as one complete project like I would the songs on another album. There are swells and highlights, dips and transitions that my brain knows front to back.

There are many full tracks on 7G with no lyrics at all but there is still a driving storyteller via instrumentation in each one, starting with the opening “A-Z” which gives you an accurate taste of the experience you are about to have with the next 48 songs, should you stick with it. The song is bombastic at first, ends with a more subtle interlude, all with a charming melody that seems to be the signature sparkle of Cook’s work.

There are also a handful of incredible covers on this project. The Smashing Pumpkins cover of “Today” and a cover of Charli XCX’s “Official” were huge highlights for me.

The album has no weak moments for me at this point, I will try my best to sell anyone on it, but of the original songs, some favorites include: “Gemstone Break”, “Mad Max”, “Silver”, “Drink Blood”, “Car Keys”, “Oracle”, “Windows”, and “Alright”. Yes, that is me just naming a few highlights.

I think it is a disservice for me to try to break down the PC Music sound here, or try to describe all of what Cook has achieved with 7G. The album touches on so many techniques and sounds. Cook has been establishing his skillest for years and it is on full display in this project. I am not surprised he may have had some of these songs in his pocket for some time, but I’m so thankful they are now here in the world and at the ready for me to dive into whenever I want. This album is a total musical trip, and undeniably ambitious.

TLDR: The boldest album released in 2020. Just jump into it already.

No. 2 - Charli XCX - *How I’m Feeling Now*

The album of the pandemic.

Charli XCX (hereinafter “Charli”) is probably my favorite artist. I am in constant awe of her music and also her professional ambitions to keep releasing so much music. Any other year, this would have swooped the #1 spot - and would have in 2020 if A.G. Cook hadn’t released such a bomb of an album that I swoon over above. However, with Charli’s How I’m Feeling Now, Charli and A.G. Cook again teamed up to produce this cathartic, emotional, dancey, thrill of a release that dropped in May, which feels so long ago now. Charli started the album from her home studio at the beginning of the pandemic to create relevant music for this difficult and lonesome time many of us are still experiencing now. The project was completed from front to back in a few months. It is quite literally an album encapsulating the beginning months of this pandemic, and how it felt initially.

The album is sincerely personal, discussing subjects of mental health, the new dynamic of her own relationship while getting used to being quarantined with her long-time boyfriend, and missing friends. This subject matter is easy to relate to for most, and even more exciting to fans like me, How I’m Feeling Now was the first time Charli really opened up to her fans along the way with her creative process. She documented so much along the way, complete with very DIY music videos as the singles came out, and even had live Instagram or Zoom videos with fans where she received real-time feedback on the direction of her work.

I was there listening as she demoed her early take on “Athems,” on Instagram live where a fan suggested a line that made it into the song word for word “I just want to go to parties, up high, want to feel the heat from all the bodies”. It was so much fun to watch this creative process as it happened, to feel like we were all included in it, and then we still were at the final product. Charli further did this by including fan-submitted clips in her music video “Forever”. In a time where it is so easy to feel disconnected, this album really brought so many of her fans together. We felt a part of something. Sharing our pain together, we were all a part of history with this album.

Although the album tackles the seriousness of lonesomeness through the pandemic, don’t get me wrong, the songs are absolute bangers. When I say bangers I mean, this album hits. The opening and closing tracks “Pink Diamond” and “Visions” are loud pieces. You may not even notice some of the more melancholy messages if you just put How I’m Feeling Now on because it is such a danceable album, and even the song I mentioned earlier, “Forever” is a totally sweet love song. The song is so sweet that my now fiancé proposed to me in quarantine to his own remixed version of it.

Yeah. This album is special to me in more ways than one, but in a time filled with so much despair, this album is really what I needed. It is just fun enough and just personal enough to hit all the beats that I look for in an album. The melodies created by Charli and Cook are top notch, expectedly - they seem to just get better with each release and complement each other. If you’ve never clicked with a Charli album yet, give this one a chance, it may make you feel good too.

TLDR: A raw look at the emotional affects of the pandemic, wrapped up within this poppy and historic album.

No. 3 - The Weeknd - *After Hours*

Undoubtedly the best traditional pop album of this year.

The Weekend is another artist I have been following the work of for some time, and is probably my favorite well-known pop musician (thinking along the lines of Top 40 artists)... he definitely grew to even more popular heights this year with his single “Blinding Lights” from his latest album After Hours.

Right around the beginning of when everyone I knew with office jobs (including me) started to work from home in March of this year, After Hours dropped. It was the first album this year that was on constant repeat for me, and really became my soundtrack for that time. I remember having it on all day long for weeks while working. That’s because the album is such a catchy, interesting take on a nostalgic sound. I can’t imagine anyone not agreeing that at least half of this album is pure star power. With After Hours, The Weeknd puts out his strongest and most cohesive work to date. Do you want a great pop song? Check. Do you want a great song to dance to? Check. Do you want a song that is super fun to sing along to? You know it. The Weeknd has you covered. He has mastered the meticulously crafted pop song.

The single “Blinding Lights” alone broke the record for most weeks spent atop Billboard’s All-format Radio Songs airplay chart and could be found in countless memes. The other singles did well, too, but my favorite is a different song near the beginning of the album called “Hardest to Love”. It’s a bit more subtle compared to the rest of the album but conveys a simple message - the character in this song is confronting what a troubled lover he is. That is the main essence of After Hours - in some song’s our lead is gloating about how great he is, in others he is coming clean about how problematic his actions are to others.

After Hours, also shares something in common with my albums numbered 1 and 2 on this list - all were more than just album releases. The Weeknd, is his delivery, embodied this album all year, starting with “Heartless” released in December 2019. He dressed the part of his protagonist from the songs, with an iconic suit and wounds/bandages on his face. Many were confused but The Weeknd is all for a great concept and he consistently sold us on this story between all his live appearances, Tik Tok experience and music videos. The character he created is a troubled soul, and when his character’s decapitated head (from the previous music video ‘“In Your Eyes,'' filmed slasher-style) is found by two women familiar with surgery, they decide to resurrect him à la Frankenstein and make love to him in “Too Late”. Yes, he goes there. This album gets heavy but the visuals are even darker. Dark.. but still sexy and still fun.

I fully appreciate this album itself, but ultimately, The Weeknd’s commitment to After Hours as a whole is really what puts it over the top. He isn’t just concerned about making the music fantastic, but obviously cares about the fully immersive experience for his music to be delivered through. He’s gifting us with more than just a record. He’s putting on a production. This is a work of art, and The Weekend is one of the best artists in our generation.

TLDR: Do you want a good time? The Weeknd is ready to give it to you.

No. 4 - Perfume Genius - *Set My Heart On Fire Immediately*

Another fantastic album to add to the PG roster.

Set My Heart on Fire Immediately really creeped up on me, though it shouldn’t have. Each time I heard a new stand alone track, be it a single or a random Spotify pick, I loved it. I’m also a huge fan of Perfume Genius (Michael Alden Hadreas) as he’s a local musician that I’ve seen live many times. With each album he evolves fresher and bolder than previously, which I can’t say for many musicians. This album being completely spellbinding should have not been any surprise to me.

Hadreas’ previous release, No Shape, was full of vibrant colors and magically compelling melodies, but in Set My Heart of File Immediately, Hadreas instead brings out a bit of a grittier side of the same cloth. On “Describe” there are still intricate melodies at play, but some distortion is added on top, and some twang, which play on the emotional distress established in the song. This song and the others along this album is incredibly personal, and at times, the album almost feels uncomfortable once you pay attention to how private some topics are that Hadreas is sharing. For example, in “Jason”, Hadreas describes an almost dream-like one night stand.

It makes perfect sense that the album would have a more grounded sound than Hadreas’s previous releases. Despite this, some of my favorite moments on the album are the more charming and poppy sections, like “Without You” and “On the Floor,” still filled with melancholic messages of longing to know a literal shape of love.

The ultimate highlight for me is definitely “Your Body Changes Everything” where Hadreas discusses the human anatomy (another common thread on Set My Heart on Fire Immediately) and the duality of bodies during sex in a drum-pattern driven and robust chant. The power play of the act of sex and the push-pull of masculinity/femininity are the driving forces between the layers of this song. The battle, the support, the feeling of being with the other is explored. It’s fascinating, it’s scary, and it’s beautiful.

In Set My Heart on Fire Immediately, no one track sounds similar to another, but together, they complete a telling of different pieces of the human experience.

TLDR: Perfume Genius offers a collection of different small stories telling of vulnerabilities and strengths that mortal bodies endure.

No. 5 - Empress Of - *I’m Your Empress Of*

Lost in the crowd of other albums this year, but her most personal to date.

Empress Of is probably my favorite solo female artist just after Charli XCX, and I like her and her music for a lot of the same qualities. She is incredibly driven in her work, collaborates with other musicians I love, and puts her full personality into her work. Empress Of (Lorely Rodriguez) is sexy and silly at the same time in her stage presence, and I just love how true she is in her work. In her latest album, I’m Your Empress Of, Rodriguez also created her most personal album to date, where all of the songs are written by herself, with the exception of one track who had a co-writer.

Rodriguez knows how to craft perfection in a pop song, but what makes her work more interesting is her infusion of influence from her Honduras heritage. There is an edge that is felt in the soul of her work, be it the driving background baselines and beats, or the mixture of English and Spanish. Sometimes a phrase just isn’t the same unless spoken or felt through the intended language. In Rodriguez’s work, I may not know what every word means, but I still feel the emotion through the words sung or spoke in Spanish and it makes her music that much more powerful.

For this release, the title track and intro song “I’m Your Empress Of” is a building crescendo, dropping dancey elements as the wave builds, there is some spoken word from Rodriguez’s mother in a mixture of Spanish and English before going back to the beat and then jumping into the first proper song “Bit of Rain”. In the rest of I’m Your Empress Of, the flow of the album continues similarly, drifting through a mixture of emotions, spoken word, dance beats, and expert production.

After the initial opening, the album then goes on to explore the different states of emotion while navigating a complex relationship. In “Love is a Drug” Rodriguez confronts the knowledge of a relationship having power of someone but that “I just want to be touched,” which is followed up by “U Give it Up” which is about falling back into the familiar relationship you are still drawn to. The first single “Give Me Another Chance” is up shortly after this, which is a near begging to be with someone, even asking him to “choose me over her”.

My favorite song, “What’s The Point” is a brutally real look into the relationship, questioning it’s obvious failures, but continuing to love despite all of the issues. I can both understand this position but also feel so scared for the emotional well-being of Rodriguez or her character who is experiencing such a difficult reality. Followed by this is “Maybe This Time” which continues with some very sad optimism, “I don't know what else to do // Then break myself for you... // Maybe this time you'll feel me, feel me, feel me // Maybe, you'll hurt me, hurt me, hurt me”.

I’m Your Empress Of is a swirl of big and heavy emotions. There are obvious call outs to the flowing of emotions throughout the album if you listen for them: ”A bit of rain, A bit of thunder, I love the exchange”, “Should've been one fight, For me to see you sink, but I let myself sink”, “I feel a flood, feel a disaster coming through,” “Hold me like water, Hold my taste in your mouth”.

In I’m Your Empress Of, I can feel pain for the woman going through these emotions to my core. It is intensely sad, but it is also powerful. In the closing track “Awful” there is the pressing question - what do you do after a split with someone that you are addicted to? How can you move on? Rodriguez elaborates that “I get off on being awful to myself,” but also, there is some understanding at this loud closure: she answers her own question, which is knowing she needs to learn to love herself in order to truly move on.

TLDR: An intensely vulnerable album… but make them dance tracks.

No. 6 - A.G. Cook - *Apple*

The “2nd debut” of Cook’s this year.

Yes, that’s right. Apple, A.G. Cook’s second release of 2020, is self-described as his “2nd debut” as it followed his first 49-song album 7G, released just a month prior to it. Apple is like 7G’s more polished baby brother, if you will.

We have well established now how great of a producer A.G. Cook is. On Apple’s first initial single and opening track “Oh Yeah” Cook strips things down a bit to create an incredibly catchy pop ballad. Just him and his guitar...until the production kicks in which is just perfectly slick. We actually got a tiny preview of this song on 7G in the form of some ASMR-type whispering on the track “No Yeah”. Now fully flushed out, “Oh Yeah” is incredibly layered while still feeling like such a simple song. The end trails off with a more dramatic abstract swell and distorted vocal play. It is beautiful.

Speaking of beautiful, the following single “Beautiful Superstar” is something ethereal. With lyrics like “Don’t trust your other life, The one that grew apart… // You super star, you’re beautiful,” the song is incredibly uplifting, all along a 90s nostalgic sound but made fresh with Cook’s production. His particular layering of his separate vocals makes this song sound especially transcendent.

Did I say “Oh Yeah” was the first single? Well, before the track list was known for Apple, it was. Once known though, we saw that “Lifeline” was officially on this album as well, previously dropped in 2019 and the definition of a Cook power ballad. Here Cook is more existential and emotional “And I don't know what they're thinking // But I believe there's a reason // If every door is left open // Would you show me the way? // You are my lifeline // You, you are my lifeline“. It is the perfect album closer.

Of course, the album is much more than just the singles I’ve talked about above. Cook extends all of his playfulness on Apple and there are a few tracks without vocals again like “Xxoplex” and “Stargon” which focus on the instrument play only. There is even a Oneohtrix Point Never cover on this album too, in “Animals”. Apple really is like the little brother of 7G, or at least an extension of it.

The last reason Apple is also so special is because it brought us Appleville. Appleville was a live stream music festival curated by Cook and co. with plenty of different PC Music affiliated artists (and some not) that each had small DIY sets of their own flavor, lasting a total of a few hours. The headliners for the set were none other than A.G. Cook and Charli XCX. It nearly made me remember what going to real music festivals (in person) felt like while quarantined.

TLDR: Why not drop 8 albums across 2 months time during a pandemic? Apple is a beautiful follow-up to 7G.

No. 7 - Against All Logic - *2017-2019*

When you need something to dance/chill/work-out/wind down/all-the-things to.

I’m familiar with Nicolas Jaar in general, but not any specifics other than he is a beloved composer and producer. Against All Logic is a moniker that Jaar released this year’s 2017-2019 album under, which was randomly either suggested to me through streaming or other means. I was instantly drawn to the energy of the songs and quickly finished the whole album just to jump back in.

Starting with the opening song “Fantasy,” which has almost a tribal vibe and intensity, we are dropped in. I imagine the vocal sample must be a Beyoncé lift (from 2009’s “Baby Boy”?), which completely elevates the song. I am not sure if he got her to re-record those vocals or if his production work is just so skilled that he was able to lift these vocals and give them new life in a dramatic way. Either way, this opener on 2017-2019 is catchy as hell.

The album is solid up until the next track that is the highlight of the album for me “If You Can’t Do it Good, Do it Hard” ft. Lydia Lunch. The first half of the song is a mixture of metallic instrumental play all leading up to an increasing beat that will have your head rocking or your hips moving. Then we get to the vocals “Because if you can’t beat em, kill em // If you can’t kill em, fuck em // If you can’t fuck em, kill em // If you can’t do it good, do it hard // Can’t do it, can’t do it, can’t do it hard.” My ears just perk up to this song at every listen. I want to break dance, but I don’t know how to breakdance… my body wants me to move to this regardless of if I know what the hell I’m doing. This goes straight into “Alarm,” filled with the balance of the previous track, and similar call of urgency.

Ah, then we get into “Deeeeeeefers” which continues the climb and fast pace of 2017-2019, this time with some sampling of what I guess is steam from a pot? Some screeching is in there too. Some vibrant charms. Police sirens, maybe as well? This mix is all over the place but just makes me want to get up and run.

The tone gets brought back down a bit on “Faith” and even “Penny” despite the fast bpm - both have more of a polar feel, it’s a little cooler here, in this space. The closer, “You (forever),” is a calmer mixture of everything before it. The metallic sounds and scratches are brought back in, a bit of the tribal elements too, some fluttering, and then it’s all completed with some droney lulls, like we had been sprinting through a vibrant forest this whole time and finally we have reached the edge and the clearing of it all.

TLDR: My first true Nicolas Jaar experience was a complete story, intense until the final moment. Now I can’t wait to see what other adventures came before it.

No. 8 - Arca - *KiCk i*

A glitchy, cosmic and energetic mess of the best kind, closed with a subtle love song.

Arca, another musician/producer I am familiar with, but not previously strongly connected to, blew me away with their album KiCk i, this year. I honestly believe I probably first heard a song off of this album during an All Songs Considered NPR podcast episode. Wherever I was, the first song I leant my ears to on this album ended up being the album’s closer “No Queda Nada,” a romantic and subtle lullaby. Imagine my surprise and pleasure after returning to hear the rest of the album just to be treated to a variety of pulsating and vibrant songs, none soft like the closer that I initially fell in love with. In fact, KiCk i is nominated for a Grammy for Best Dance/Electronic Album this year...

I really shouldn’t have been surprised at all by the different twists Arca could develop on KiCk i - when I re-looked up the Venezuelan musician, I quickly remembered why her name was so familiar, as I am a huge fan of her work with FKA Twigs, and she is widely also know for her work as a producer on Kanye West’s Yeezus. Then there is also the simple fact of who Arca chose to collaborate with on KiCk i - Björk, Shygirl, Rosalía and even Sophie. The album leaks Arca’s strength everywhere in this highly individualized album. Starting off bold with “Nonbinary”, she boasts “I do what I wanna do when I wanna do it // Bitch, I got the bags to prove it // Hips to move it around and make shapes, yes”.

Next is another mesmerizing song in “Time,” a solar and positively vibing song, reminiscent of “Midnight City” vibes à la M83 (always a good thing) - which heads into “Mequetrefe,” a layered reggaeton track mixed over some very playful guitar with more futuristic and un-namable glitchy sounds swirling over the entire mix as it nears the end. When looking up the lyrics, I believe this song describes the strutting of an embolden woman showing herself off instead of hailing a car service.

Getting towards the end of the album we run into “KLK” with Rosalía, bringing her flamenco-pop vocals in together with Arca’s beat heavy production work to create a thriving electronic and shifting world. There are switch ups pace-wise throughout this track but you can easily dance to it. From beginning to finish this song does not let up in it’s fabulous twists.

A simple catchy pop track with “Machote” leads up to that entrancing and quiet closing track that kicked off my entire binge of this album. I got something unexpected when I looked deeper into KiCk i, but isn’t that beautiful in itself?

I recognize that like the album art for KiCk i, this album is deliberately a mix of complex separate pieces to create one whole. I appreciate it but I am well aware it may not work for everyone, because the flow of this album is not as delicate as any of the others on this list. I am quite okay with this though, because the collection of work takes me to so many different enjoyable places that I have no doubt I have likely missed out on so much prior work of hers, and I am so eager and excited to get my feet wet and see where Arca came from before this.

TLDR: Go in with no expectations, leave happy.

No. 9 - Rina Sawayama - *SAWAYAMA*

Make it early 2000s but way better.

This album would have probably been higher if I had really listened to it sooner. Sawayama, from Rina Sawayama, is a decadent pop album resonant to the early 2020 pop hits I grew up with. Listening closely, I am reminded of Britney Spears, Korn, and even t.A.T.u., throughout Sawayama. That’s to say, the album does remind me of a certain time period in music, but not any one specific genre - and it takes those influences in small doses to deliver an new pop album, each song as impressive as the track before it, with production values we might expect from a well established artist of today - yet this is Rina Sawayama’s first full length.

On “XS” Rina Sawayama discusses the materialistic expectations and excesses of our consuming culture “Gimme just a little bit (more)// Little bit of (excess) // Oh, me, oh, my //I don't wanna hear ‘No, no’ " over a complementary dance and pop track. Afterwards the album goes into “STFU!” which has Sawayama yelling over a nu-metal inspired track! The song is a punch back at multiple microaggressions against Sawayama, as she herself has explained. The song is a cathartic release and clap back to haters and it is SO MUCH FUN. The whole album is simply fun at it’s core where there’s also sweet and soft vocals, creepy laughter, or straight up yelling.

There’s also the different narratives of each song. I am very impressed with the many different tones this album shifts through - in “Bad Friend,” Rina Sawayama discusses simply her failures in following up on what was a very close friendship. Move on a bit farther and Sawayama discusses her dissociation and disconnection to the world in “Fuck the World,” something so many of us can probably relate to at some point in our lives, and especially during the current pandemic. Sawayama expresses “This is a mission impossible // May not be solvable // May not be viable // But least we're trying”. In “Tokyo Love Hotel” Samayama criticizes tourism culture surrounding Japan and ultimately the disrespect she has witnessed first hand with regards to the country and tourism.

Towards the end of the album we find ourselves instead at a beautiful and thankful song in “Chosen Family” in which Sawayama was inspired to write about her brothers and sisters in the LGBTQ community: “I chose you, You chose me // So what if we don’t look the same? We’ve been going through the same pain // We don't need to be related to relate, we don't need to share genes or a surname // You are, you are, my chosen, chosen family”.

In Sawayama, Rina Sawayama shows her true diversity and range in crafting iconic and powerful pop songs, rooted from many specific experiences and other genres of music. I sometimes get so wrapped up in my previous favorite artists and only their work - I am so glad this one broke through that barrier and can’t wait to keep re-listening to the album.

TLDR: A hyper nostalgic yet experimental pop album that draws from personal experience and multiple genres.

No. 10 - Fleet Foxes - *Shore*

Familiar friends and familiar sounds. New lessons.

For many years, Fleet Foxes were my cherished favorite band. I still love them deeply, but my tastes have evolved into a much more vast sound, and Fleet Foxes have remained remarkably consistent. In this year’s Shore, there are a few surprises, though.

For starters, the opener “Wading In Waist-High Water,” shocked me to not be first welcome by lead singer Robin Pecknold’s voice, but instead I found a beautiful female soothing my ears via Uwade Akhere. I found out later after looking up the mysterious voice that Pecknold had discovered the singer’s cover of one of their previous songs and fallen in love with it, so now had included her on Shore. She is also on the closing title-track “Shore” as well.

In the middle of this luscious album, we are met with many very familiar sounding Fleet Foxes entries. What is so familiar is the instrumentation work and the harmonies that Fleet Foxes are ultimately known for. I feel like I am visiting family again on their property deep into the woods, for them to tell me their most recent experiences through song. It is all comfortable, but the material is new. Because so much of Shore is reminiscent of previous Fleet Foxes, it is both enjoyable, but much harder to determine highlights on the album.

There are a few moments of charm I cannot dismiss. On “Sunblind” Pecknold tells a beautiful thank you to many of his late predecessors. “For Richard Swift // For John and Bill // For every gift lifted far before its will….I'm overmatched (for Arthur Russell) // I'm half as wise (Duncan and Curtis) // If this is flat, brother I apologize // (Jimi and David, for Nick and Otis) // No one alone (For Bell and Buckley) // Can leave the cave (Marvin and Adam),” are bulk of some of the names Pecknold holds dear. He mentions Arthur Russell specifically a few times, which breaks my heart because I am a big Russell fan too. He is underappreciated and was so transformative. Pecknold addressed his influences here in this sincere testimonial before moving forward with the rest of the record.

“For a Week or Two” is a subdued piano-led track, rich with heavily layered vocals, yet Pecknold remains the strength, and it ends with the chirping of birds. Pecknold has said this was truly about the experience of being out in nature and appreciating that simplicity during backpacking trips. Some songs are best left simple.

I really appreciate that Fleet Foxes continue to release music and also stay true to themselves. My favorite of all of their work is their more experimental takes, but I fell in love with them for their original EPs and record, and Shore really brings me back to those moments. The album is overwhelmingly remindful of their music of previous times and it warms me to be there again.

TLDR: If you are a fan of early Fleet Foxes, you will be in comforting hands with Shore.

Honorable Mentions

Christine and the Queens - *LA VITA NUOVA (EP)*

I can’t make this post without taking about Christine and the Queens’s LA VITA NUOVA EP. The 6-track EP (including the bonus) is one of the best works I’ve ever heard, period. The opening single “People, I’ve been sad” was probably my favorite song of the entire year and this was written before the pandemic but released near the peak beginning of it for the U.S. The timing of this EP couldn’t have been more appreciated. Just watch and listen to the whole thing below:

With her ALIAS EP, Shygirl showed up in 2020 stronger than ever before. Her edgy, lucious tracks paint a picture of a year I did not personally experience at all - I didn’t ever really club before 2020, but this EP transports directly to the dancefloor, especially with “Slime”.

Salvador_Sega Bodega.jpg — Sega Bodega -*Salvador*

Sega Bodega is not only a newly beloved producer (writing and producing works like the Shygirl ALIAS EP directly above this, as well as working with a few of my other favorites like Dorian Electra), but he also released his own debut album this year with Salvador. Sega Bodega has a distinct production style that perfectly mixes both a grit and slick sound - it’s the type of production my ears naturally prefer at this moment. Salvador is also exciting because it is another album that mixes seriousness with playfulness seemingly. “U Suck” is a perfect example of this, the song feels both immature yet sophisticated all at once. It’s a jam.

EPHEMERA_Jim-E Stack.jpg — Jim-E Stack - *EPHEMERA*

Another producer I am not very familiar with yet, but someone who has established himself hugely with EPHEMERA, a colorful and light album with a handful of incredible features with Empress Of, Bon Iver, and Dijon, to name a few. The synth-pop lover inside of me bursts with joy while I listen to this album. Outside of this album, Jim-E Stack is responsible for my favorite remixes throughout 2020 as well.