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2020, man. What a year. What a shitty, dour, mournful, hateful, do-nothing year. Here's to hoping 2020 was nothing more than a hurdle for humanity to overcome. Life seemed to turn into an uphill battle, with light just now reaching the tunnel's end. Even art, the main form of escapism that could abate the tremors of reality, struggled to thrive in a world where creation was stifled to bedrooms and privately-owned studios. Lest it be the artists who provided when times weren't kind to them, or anyone. Though it didn't stand out against its recent predecessors, music in 2020 had one thing going for it: determination. The will to create when society crawls to a halt. The alms-giving charity when profit on-stage wasn't attainable. The desire to define culture even in the wake of an insurmountable zeitgeist.
Old favorites reclaimed thrones lost to fresh-faced up-and-comers, stalwart artisans doubled-down on neoteric atmospherics, irate revolutionists sought essential rallying cries, adept starlets used technology to ride out quarantine, and a slew of indomitable musicians purveyed through tumultuous uncertainty. Unlike the majority of us, music persevered, as it has shown for countless centuries beforehand.
As we enter list week, let's look forward by looking back and appreciating all the greatness 2020 offered, in spite of the wretchedness that prevailed. Hopeful discoveries and eager affirmations lie below. Chosen from a collection of 200 albums and 2,000 songs, I present Dozens Of Donuts' Top 50 Albums and Top 100 Songs of 2020. Enjoy.
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20
shygirl | ALIAS
UK Hip-Hop | Listen
Shygirl has no shame, and her success will be solely reliant on that fact. Unlike Cruel Practice, which just dabbled in the debauchery, Alias gets down and nasty. Songs like 'Slime,' 'Freak,' and 'Tasty' are littered with sexual gravitas as shygirl bounces slyly across futuristic dance music. Her prominence, poise, and wanton personality - along with this upbeat Hip House - draw similarities to Azealia Banks. Except more depraved and tenacious. Nothing goes harder than 'Freak,' with its knotty synthesizers and ever-evolving tempos, but 'Siren' comes close, as Alias' most sober and analytical moment. This duality will serve shygirl well in the coming years, with a foot in the mainstream as acclaim pours in from the alternative scene.
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19
Perfume Genius | Set My Heart On Fire Immediately
Ambient Pop | Listen
Perfume Genius, once again, set the bar high with some illustrious lead singles. Except, in the case of Set My Heart On Fire, there was the added pressure of competing with 2019's one-off singles in 'Eye In The Wall' and 'Pop Song.' His track record was unmissable, and while the leads still rose to the top - 'Describe' being one of 2020's best - the fifth LP from the resolute liberator captured the duality of a self-assured individual grappling with societal infractions that continue to look down on his kind. Fragile and fierce, reticent and riveting, Set My Heart On Fire dug into Perfume Genius' roots, expounding on what makes the artist feel alive.
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18
A.G. Cook | 7G
Electronic | Listen
It stands menacingly at a hefty two hours and forty minutes, comprised of seven discs and 49 songs of mercurially-composed ideas. For a stranger to PC Music, 7G almost goads prospective listeners into avoiding it. However, quality and eminence reign supreme, as A.G. Cook ventures exhaustingly into every divergent sub-genre PC Music has ever been affiliated with. There's something for everyone to love, though sheer quantity guarantees a handful of ho hum rejects. But therein lies the beauty of 7G; it's embracive, inclusive, and future-proof. Diversity at the cost of reliability, content accepting all forms of lunacy even if some are dreadful blunders. 'Silver,' 'Soft Landing,' 'Windows,' '2021,' and 'Crimson & Clover' more than make up for it.
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17
HAIM | Women In Music Pt. III
Sophisti-Pop | Listen
A girl group blossoming with age, rather than withering under the weight of mediocrity. HAIM's Women In Music celebrates the sisters' cerebral appreciation of their parents' vintage music, bouncing between Contemporary Country ('Gasoline'), Acoustic Rock ('FUBT'), and Synthpop ('Now I'm In It') with but a moment's notice. Sure, it lacks congruity, but one's never far removed from quality with instantaneously-pleasure upticks in 'The Steps,' 'Up From A Dream,' 'Don't Wanna,' and the Lou Reed-inspired swan song 'Summer Girl.' Emotional volatility sparks these performative ventures, as the three sisters merge into one soul, speaking on behalf of the dejected, female lover.
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16
Gidge | New Light
Tech House | Listen
Previous to New Light, I sensed Gidge going down the path of Emancipator. A one-trick pony infatuated with infusing tactile Electronica into natural landscapes; crisp and unblemished. No longer, for Gidge has jumped ship, swimming towards the celestial tranquility of Jon Hopkins' brand of Tech House. Sure, originality is still hard to come by, but this new direction is bold, dynamic, and above all else, an imperial experience from front to back. Pacing is instinctive, yet logical. Percussion gravitates from rigid and exacting to loose and airy. Atmospherics elevated by indecipherable vocal samples akin to Burial. New Light is just all so stainless, as mesh wiring and enriched tree roots entwine with effortless precision.
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15
Waxahatchee | Saint Cloud
Singer/Songwriter | Listen
It was one of 2020's greatest surprises given Waxahatchee's futile trajectory downward. Saint Cloud regathered her lost strands, fixated on her humbling Southern roots, and provided an array of memorable Alt-Country songs that felt, given the depressive nature of the parent genre, damn near essential. Grounded passages like 'Lilacs' and 'Hell' found the beauty in life's simple pleasures, while other more artistic affairs, like 'Oxbow' and 'Arkadelphia,' provided meaning and impressions for Waxahatchee's heartfelt lyrics. In the South, heritage is cardinal law. And as we saw through Saint Cloud's consistent, eleven-track affair, one can seldom stray far from that source.
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14
Sault | Untitled (Rise)
Neo-Soul | Listen
During times like these, one needs artists like Sault to combat such dejection with woke Neo-Soul meant to enlighten the masses as much as it forces them to dance. Empowering all those living under the weight of oppression - primarily women of color - Rise moves with gusto, grit, and determination. Tracks like 'Strong' and 'I Just Want To Dance' express resentment not with doleful recess, but proud confrontation. Others, like 'Free' and the tearful lullaby 'Little Boy,' make a plea for change on the back of beauty. Rise is Sly & The Family Stone's There's A Riot Goin' On for the modern era. Beautifully-composed and deceptively-enjoyable. Reeling escapists in with Funk and Soul, before forcing them bear witness to such injustices.
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13
Fleet Foxes | Shore
Indie Folk | Listen
Up until Shore, Fleet Foxes music has always seemed to turn pastoral picnics into daunting expeditions turned everlasting memories. After proving their stature without a shadow of a doubt, Shore seems modest and celebratory by nature. It's rustic, yet teeming with whimsy. Pure, yet majestic in all the right places. Sure, tracks like 'Sunblind' and 'Quiet Air / Gioia' recall their delicate touch of Folk reformism, but others like 'Can I Believe You' and 'Young Man's Game' appreciate life's simple treats, accessible to all creeds and colors. At the helm is Robin Pecknold, as bathetic and chivalrous as ever, trotting down fairy-tale boulevards in search of hopeless romantics to seep up from their serfdom. Shore elicits such valiance, a commodity long gone in the modern age.
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12
Quelle Chris & Chris Keys | Innocent Country 2
Conscious Hip-Hop | Listen
2020 has left me battered and bruised. And I'm a white male living contently on his lonesome in Connecticut. The state of America is appalling, it's artistic projects like Innocent Country 2 that impede my thoughts of hopelessness. Over murky, laborious Jazz Rap, Quelle Chris details strife both internal and at large, online and in the streets, providing essential levity on tracks like 'Black Twitter' and 'Sudden Death' to offset the uneasy anxiety mustering elsewhere. The balance between presenting an unaltered reality and conjecturing a future more jocund than this is handled delicately, uplifted by Chris Keys' divine piano and mellow grooves. When it comes to Innocent Country 2's final moments ('Graphic Bleed Outs,' 'Mirage,' 'When You Fall'), you'd be hard-pressed to find emotion as doleful in all of Hip-Hop.
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11
Backxwash | God Has Nothing To Do With This
Horrorcore | Listen
Though it'll never see the light of day to those who need to hear it the most, Backxwash's God Has Nothing To Do With This is exactly what Trap, the unavailing genre, needs to expand. A torch lit under the ass, a chainsaw revving in the dwindling distance. Backxwash's unabashed progressivism accepts popular Trap tactics, with trunk-rattling bass and walloping hi-hats, into the vein of Horrorcore. The result, as seen on epics like 'Black Magic,' 'Into The Void,' and 'Amen,' not only matches the replayable tendencies of Trap, but engulfs into a pit of flames that's best viewed from hundreds of feet away. Backxwash is volatile, disgusted, and intelligent enough to provide conscious lyrics to masses beholden to the banger.
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50-21 | 10-1 | Top 100 Tracks
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