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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.
Playlists For All 100 Songs: Apple Music | Spotify
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With a nasty bass, wry vocals, and dynamic flows, Zebra Katz' 'MOOR' pounces across Industrial-tinged Hip-Hop with confidence and an unwavering demeanor. The type of song that'll find you mean-mugging no one in particular..
99 | U.S. Girls - Quiver To The Bomb | Heavy Light
Heavy Light didn't make quite the impact as U.S. Girls' previous efforts, but for a brief four minutes that was set aside as Meg Remy rides anxiousness using apocalyptic Pop on 'The Quiver To The Bomb.' Revelatory or hopeless; here it's all the same.
98 | Machine+ - Alien Interference Blues | Saṃsāra
'Alien Interference Blues' is, well, on the nose. With static that overwhelms, even in a Wall Of Sound environment, and downtrodden glum, Saṃsāra's best really does sound like melancholy from a world beyond.
97 | Lil Darkie - Composition XI | This Does Not Exist
Word to the wise; If you enjoy 'Composition XI,' don't listen to the rest of This Does Not Exist. Like a eulogy for a drug-addict, Lil Darkie's most introspective work reveals a shrewd mind consumed by peer pressure. Building soundscapes, with horns and strings alike, intensify under the weight of imperfection.
96 | Son Lux - Last Light | Tomorrows I
Son Lux's best efforts straddle the wire between empowering and anxious. Caught in the fray is Ryan Lott and his weary falsetto, as seen on 'Last Light' with its torrent of drums and invasive circling of synthesizers.
Given the sprouting ante of Heaven To A Tortured Mind by Yves Tumor's standards, 'Strawberry Privilege' is a relatively sedentary affair. A tantalizing bounce, Neo-Soul voluptuousness, and an understated groove help 'Strawberry Privilege' find a home in a precarious situation.
94 | Material Girl - Meets The Devil Pt. II & I | Single
Material Girl wowed some with Tangram. The total tonal shift to 'Material Girl Meets The Devil' should do the same. Comparisons to Lil Ugly Mane have manifested, as contorted Outsider House strays from convention. Like Talking Heads in the upside down.
93 | Flaming Lips - Will You Return | American Head
It's Flaming Lips' single most ambitious song in over a dozen years, moving gracefully over, under, and through intoxicating poppy fields. 'Will You Return' is mesmeric Neo-Psychedelia, with acoustics that entice hypnotism and vocals long gone from the effects.
92 | Phoebe Bridgers - I Know The End | Punisher
A monumental finish both slight and significant, 'I Know The End' dazzles with notability. Before a celebratory finale that recalls Sufjan Stevens' best works, Bridgers' quivering voice and grief-stricken lyrics add substance to death's already-dreadful permanence.
91 | Nicolas Jaar - Faith Made Of Silk | Cenizas
Much of Cenizas languished listlessly over sparse Ambient. But not 'Faith Made Of Silk,' the album's closer that brought Nicolas Jaar out from the darkness with a sonic ode to his past works; Psychic and Sirens. Equal parts melodic, weighty, and esoteric, 'Faith Made Of Silk' closed with transcendental supernal.
Who knew the early 2000's were rife with maudlin romance, the kind spurred onwards by films depicting Romeo and Juliet-esque courtship. A Girl Called Eddy's 'Come To The Palisades!' lives in that era, with warming tones and a loving heart to connect star-struck lovers across miles of pastoral terrain.
89 | Jessie Ware - Spotlight | What's Your Pleasure?
Take decades worth of Pop, both instantaneous and everlasting, and homogenize their best assets under the all-seeing disco ball. The ensuing result will undoubtedly sound similar to Jessie Ware's 'Spotlight,' an aspirant piece of striking Dance-Pop that takes what predecessors accomplished and ran with it.
88 | Lonker See - Open & Close | Hamza
By its very nature, Space Rock sets its sights on a journey into the unknown. On 'Open & Close,' Hamza's standout, Lonker See zip, shift, and veer around calamitous asteroids and blazing laser shootouts. Joanna Kucharska's dreamy vocals and humanistic Jazz Rock helps 'Open & Close' bridge that unfathomable gap.
87 | bedbug - Attic In The Videostore | Life Like Moving Pictures
Cradled up by the fire, coated by weighted blankets, enthralled in a good book. Bedbug's Lo-Fi aesthetic fixates on a homely atmosphere in order to bluff listeners who come seeking a loving embrace. Best seen on 'Attic In The Videostore,' Dylan Citron's languid vocals dance drowsily over DIY instrumentation that animates the inanimate objects sat neglected around the house.
86 | Sault - Strong | Untitled (Rise)
Too often, Neo-Soul artists tend to rest in bed. Inept and uninterested in anything but sensual homogeneity. Not Sault, and not the six-minute 'Strong,' which unfurls through a litany of groovy sections concerned solely about conquering systematic oppression. The pairing is both unorthodox and totally natural.
Adrianne Lenker - anything
songs
songs
Lenker's quivering vocals, frail and delicate, are a match made in heaven for rumbling, Contemporary Folk acoustics. On 'anything,' she provides a subtle - and sublime - melody that cascades across both hook and verse, enchanting with romanticized lyrics that quieten anything outside the two lovers.
84 | HEALTH - Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0. | DISC04
Okay, my years-long hunger for Cyberpunk 2077 may be influencing this decision, but even outside of that blatant sourcing, HEALTH's trek into an aesthetic that fits them like a glove works wonders. Acid rain falls from the skies of 'Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0.' as anarchy surrounds a questioning mercenary.
83 | Jeff Rosenstock - f a m e | NO DREAM
Jeff Rosenstock's the perfect representation of a nonconformist. Whatever modern society has thrown at us, just assume the Power Pop fanatic believes the opposite. On 'f a m e,' his relentlessness towards puppet-string masters reaches critical mass, culminating in an incendiary coda that pushes his quest for independence to the forefront.
82 | Auscultation - Turn Down These Voices | III
With clubs closed due to a worldwide pandemic, it only makes sense to take the party to the streets. 'Turn Down These Voices'' distant echoes of a life more gratifying fulfills Outsider House's goal of second hand ambience. Building layers, entrenched rhythms, and smoldering vocal entanglement help achieve this aura.
81 | Fax Gang - Breathe2 | FXG3000
Prickling synthesizers, misremembered lyrics, and an aesthetic that sounds as if it's been passed down, generation by generation, via cassette tape. Fax Gang's 'Breathe2' is a fascinating, exhaustive look at the potential future of individualized music. Niches so specific, one can't help but find their internal.
That contorted, EBM bassline. It hits hard. So does shygirl's ravenous brand of Hip House, her filthy debauchery and frenetic importunity included. Despite failing to reach the three-minute threshold, 'FREAK' goes in a litany of hitched directions, enticing with an aesthetic that's both chic and tasteless.
79 | Klô Pelgag - Rémora | Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs
Klô Pelgag's 'Rémora' is decidedly French, presenting an idealized version of the country and all its romanticized splendor. Antediluvian horns, panoramic vocals, and a prancing Progressive Pop soundscape assimilate to an aesthetic rich in renaissance passion. With only one shifting eye downturn towards abandoned oubliette inmates.
78 | Gidge - New Light | New Light
As it bleeds flawlessly from its predecessor 'Quasar,' 'New Light' instantly rouses dance-eager bystanders with a multi-rhythm Tech House breakdown, before alleviating such prowess with Gidge's stirring sample work. The ensuing combination a thing of beauty.
77 | Everything Everything - Violent Sun | RE-ANIMATOR
There's always that song, that Indie Rock anthem that seems to decry complacency in favor of soul-searching freedom. Think Interpol's 'Obstacle 1' or Future Islands' 'Seasons.' Well, RE-ANIMATOR's uptempo closer 'Violent Sun' asserts itself into the fold, with emotive unspooling and an engaging rhythm section.
76 | Fennec - Boy-U | Free Us Of This Feeling
Much of Electronic in this day and age is dreary, cold, and grim. Not 'Boy-U,' Fennec's bubbly jaunt that bobs and weaves around multi-layered percussion and oscillating Soul samples, culminating in a dizzying Plunderphonics affair that's intoxicating and blithely.
MIKE's aesthetic roots itself by offering peace of mind for the present through distorted Soul of the past. 'weight of the word*' is a textbook example of this, with a blurry first verse offset by chirping sample loops, before a beat switch using garble, non-English vocals forces MIKE to spew with elevated cadence.
74 | Blu & Exile - American Dream | Miles
No longer the luminary upstart, Blu's position in Hip-Hop has now shifted to status of revivalist. On 'American Dream,' and Miles at large, that sentimentality evokes itself through the return of Miguel, Blu's pensive perspective on aging, and Exile's touching samples from a time long since missed.
73 | Deradoorian - Illuminator | Find The Sun
Divisive, interruptive, and at times downright comical. Deradoorian's nine-minute desert odyssey 'The Illuminator' experiments with untethered drums, spacious dust plume synthesizers, and a parched woodwind to create a natural aesthetic totally singular in 2020.
72 | Fleet Foxes - Sunblind | Shore
Is 'Sunblind' a stereotypical Fleet Foxes track? Yes, but when quality beams with such grace one can not be disappointed. Over rolling pastures and sun-scorched streams, Robin Pecknold reflects on the predecessors who helped develop his style. A cerebral Folk epic.
71 | Kelly Lee Owens - Corner Of My Sky | Inner Song
It derails Inner Song's momentum, the wading seven-minute dirge featuring John Cale's agrarian poetics. But it's precisely that isolation, with its hypnotic build and vacillating waves, that causes 'Corner Of My Sky' to soar. A peculiarity advancing the already-intellectual Tech House forward.
I'll never tire of rolling percussion. That style of snowballing energy, like friction accelerating a runaway freight train, sparks ricocheting off in every direction. 'I Was Not Born' pounds relentlessly, like a well-oiled machine performing its steadfast routine. Grian Chatten's disdainful sneer only reinforces this brusque display of liberation.
69 | Katie Dey - Bearing | Mydata
Katie Dey's style exudes artistic levity thanks to the emotional injection she enacts upon the Internet's barrage of one's and zero's. It's a delicate duality expressed beautifully on 'Bearing,' as her fragile vocals lumber longingly across glitchy intrusions, ignoring them for the pursuit of expression.
68 | Animal Collective - Piggy Knows | Bridge To Quiet
With its trivial humor - following a snout-down story of a pig - and its unorthodox clashing of Neo-Psychedelia elements, 'Piggy Knows' pits itself as a classic Animal Collective song. Playful, vicarious, and full of tantalizing bounce, the Bridge To Quiet standout is one of the band's best in the past decade.
67 | Big Blood - Hail The Happy Hourlings | Deep Maine
There's something magical about 'Hail The Happy Hourlings,' Deep Maine's whimsical opening. With Colleen Kinsella's vocals delicately tip-toeing around plucky piano drips and topsy-turvy woodwinds, a fairy tale atmosphere is quickly aroused. Imagine Tinkerbell, lost but tantalized, by the vivid imagery of Wonderland.
66 | Fiona Apple - Under The Table | Fetch The Bolt Cutters
The best poets merge provocative imagery with a harsh lens on reality. Fiona Apple is one of them, as seen on 'Under The Table.' On it, Apple assumes the role of neglected mutt, being shoved under the table for failing to put on heirs and hide her disinterest. The twist? Unlike the content dog, occasionally receiving scraps, Apple's demanding presence refuses to make tradition acceptable.
Punk synth stabs, harmonizing vocals that would make Heavenly or Alvvays proud, and a maximalist climax that reminiscent of The Go! Team, defines 'Super Natural Teeth' and Pet Shimmers' intoxicating brand of dilating Neo-Psychedelia.
64 | R.A.P. Ferreira - Cycles | Purple Moonlight Pages
R.A.P. Ferreira's one of the greats when it comes to waxing poetics using meaningless drivel. Right up there with Aesop Rock and Busdriver. Sometimes though, the artist formerly known as Milo sees the light and imparts truths able to comprehend. On 'Cycles,' he tackles record industry injustices while exposing the true cost of broken Capitalism.
63 | Pink Siifu - Fk | Negro
Negro was unprecedented. Pink Siifu cared not for reception, only provocation. Largely a derelict Sound Collage examination of minority strife, one moment of pissed-off angst required the most savage of musical genres; Hardcore Punk. 'Fk' rushes in with pitchforks, tear gas, and one blown-out boom box.
62 | Postcards - Freediving | The Good Soldier
Don't look at my review for The Good Soldier, or even the album itself. 'Freediving' is all you need, exemplifying the schtick-driven Dream Pop of Postcards with tickling vocals, skittish percussion, and a battle between riffs; one harmonious, the other sulky. Plus, a hook crude in its simplicity, knowing the listener will take the bait.
61 | Beyonce - BLACK PARADE | Single
For a billionaire, Beyonce is remarkably in-tune with the people. While her roots may have been moderately lost due to that incalculable wealth, her vehement tether has forever remained a priority. 'Black Parade' is yet another example, with an erudite assimilation of R&B, Trap, and Pop, all polished with African flair.
Hidden towards the end of Magic OPN, 'Lost But Never Alone' descends into a moody, Hypnagogic Pop cacophony that marries OPN's experimental tendencies with a gratifying hue of idyll. 80's Synthpop sapped of all its languished moxie.
59 | clipping. - Chapter 319 | Single
There was a time when American politics were reasonably divisive. No longer is that the case, as Daveed Diggs makes abundantly clear on 'Chapter 319:' "Donald Trump is a white supremacist, full stop. If you vote for him again, you're a white supremacist, full stop." Nothing more needs to be said.
58 | DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ - Charmed Life | Charmed
Forgive me for not yet listening to Charmed's overwhelming three hours. A glance at track 30 however, the 14-minute stunner 'Charmed Life,' revealed the true prom night euphoria of DJ Sabrina's curious aesthetic.
57 | James Blake - I Keep Calling | Before
On 'I Keep Calling,' James Blake bridges the gap between his Future Garage past, Alternative R&B present, and Glitch Pop future. Masterfully executed, this structureless ride through contorted vocal patterns and spiked synthesizers hits all the right notes.
56 | Go! Team - Cookie Scene | Single
You hear it time and time again from aging artists; "We're going back to our old stuff." More often than not, it's a shell of threadbare styles. Not in The Go! Team's case, as their effervescence never comes up flat. With Ninja's schoolyard Rap playing second fiddle to, well, a fiddle, 'Cookie Scene' rhumbas around hop-scotch concrete in the most emancipated way possible.
'Grounds' crawls up skin, sending shivers in its wake. In IDLES' punkiest affair, ricocheting guitar riffs and unnerving drums circle Talbot like a tornado controlled by its master. A destructive crescendo sends 'Grounds' off a cliff and into an active war zone.
54 | Squid - Sludge | Single
Ever the eccentrics, Squid's stylized brand of kitchen sink Art Punk hit a breaking point on 'Sludge.' Over five, fatiguing minutes Squid combat Louis Borlase's off-the-wall vocals with bombastic Noise Rock that fractures into a billion pieces of debris by song's end. The uplifting finale is your reward for enduring.
53 | Floral Tattoo - She | You Can Never Have...
It's not just Shoegaze, or Noise Pop, or Power Pop, or Emo. Floral Tattoo's 'She' roars with the best assets of them all, excited about dejection, slamming out failure with crashing drums and vicious guitars. A sparkling sheen akin to My Bloody Valentine's 'When You Sleep' dominates the lovely, instrumental chorus.
52 | Inventions - Outlook For The Future | Continuous Portrait
Whimsical wind flutes, unperturbed streams of Field Recordings, and pleasant synthesizer harmonies make up the mold of 'Outlook For The Future.' It's Animal Crossing set in a future utopia, carefree and perennially content.
51 | Rina Sawayama - STFU! | Rina Sawayama
Though it's filtered through a Pop lens, like BABYMETAL and Poppy, 'STFU!' still manages to enrage through insolent, vitriolic Alternative Metal. Crunchy guitars contend with sarcastic Barbie aesthetics on a hook that astounds.
50-21 | 20-1 | Top 50 Albums
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