TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2020

This past year was not the one that any of us expected or wanted. And I think that it's safe to say that everyone experienced such a wide range of thought, feels, and emotions as we all moved through it. This was certainly the case for me. Fortunately with each passing month, there were new albums that provided me with outlets to escape...with any hope to my happy place. Here are my top albums of 2020!

10. Eric Hutchinson, Class of 98

In the press release for Class of 98, Eric Hutchinson explains that sometime last year, he came to a strange realization: he kept daydreaming about high school. It had been over 20 years since the singer-songwriter had graduated, yet the adolescent dreams, hopes, fears, anxieties and emotions he faced as a kid began flooding back. Suddenly, he felt transported back into his teenage self and those years filled with the kind of alienation and private angst that is recognizable to most anyone who’s ever been 16. 

Now, years later, he has chronicled those adolescence years. Wrapping them in ’90s inspired alt-rock-pop music from bands like Fountains Of Wayne and Weezer, Hutchinson has crafted a memorable set of songs and album.

9. The Haar, The Haar

The story goes that Irish folk and traditional percussionist Cormac Byrne and fiddler Adam Summerhayes were on holiday in Inis Oírr when they walked into a pub and were silenced along with everyone else as Molly Donnery began to sing unaccompanied. Fast forward some time and the three meet up in a studio along with accordionist Murray Grainer to record some Irish traditional songs. The four made no plans in advance of entering the studio. As they explained, they just let the music create itself. 

What resulted was the creation of a truly stunning collection of songs captured on their first and only takes. As Folk Radio wrote about The Haar, it's 'a very evocative record, bringing senses of the pain and futility of war and the salt of the ocean, as well as the beauty of the land and the strength of human relationships through its works and music. We need more music like this; spontaneous, alive and affecting, The Haar will take you on a journey and have you appreciating the purest of life's pleasures. Wonderful stuff.' I so agree.

8. Creeper, Sex, Death & The Infinite Void

WOW. WOA?! WOW! That was my reaction listing to Creeper's amazingly original, inventive, and over-the-top sophomore  album. Since then, I have been trying to figure out just how to describe this one. Then I read Kerrang’s perfect review; 'If the coquettish camp of The Rocky Horror Picture Show is your idea of a good time, or you’ve enjoyed the morbid-idiosyncrasies of a John Waters movie, the lovingly-crafted universe evoked by Sex, Death & The Infinite Void might just feel like home. Imbued with endless passion, colour and a carnival of glorious sound, it’s a musical marvel.' A marvel indeed.

7. Inner Odyssey, The Void 

I have kept coming back to Inner Odyssey’s The Void since its March release, an epic and intriguing album that reveals more with each listen. The band’s self-described modern progressive sound balances technical complexity with accessible vocals while drawing on the roots of ’70s prog rock, leaning less on flashy guitar work and more on lush space and colorful accents where they truly shine. The concept follows a protagonist escaping failures and loss by disappearing into a digital world, giving the record a cinematic sweep. The Reckoning perfectly captures the band’s full range with sweeping harmonies, heavy riffs, technical prowess, and soaring melodies.

6. The Flaming Lips, American Head

On their 16th album, American Head, The Flaming Lips show no intention of resting on their laurels. It’s a dreamy, melancholic journey that finds the band at their most reflective. Washed in lush production, the songs shimmer with swirling synths, acoustic guitars, and Wayne Coyne’s fragile vocals, carrying themes of memory, mortality, and fleeting innocence. A nostalgic haze lingers across the record, as if the music itself is drifting between past and present, turning small details into something vast and emotional. American Head stands as a late-period masterpiece, with the band embracing vulnerability and crafting something strikingly beautiful.

5. Fiona Apple, Fetch The Bolt Cutters

After an absence of eight years, Fiona Apple returns with Fetch the Bolt Cutters, an album created in and built from her Venice Beach home. She pounds on its walls, stomps on its floors, and turns the house itself into an instrument. The record thrives on makeshift percussion with handclaps, chants, echoes, whispers, screams, breathing, jokes, and even dog barks from the five pets credited in the liner notes. These sounds accompany her piano, her voice, and above all her words, which remain her sharpest instrument. The result is a restless symphony of everyday noise.

Taking aim at how power corrupts, how society manipulates, and how much of it feels like a rigged game, Apple is unflinching. On “Under the Table” she sings, “Kick me under the table all you want, I won’t shut up, I won’t shut up.” With arrangements stripped of smoothness or polish, she rejects anything resembling perfection. In that space, Apple finds the freedom to explore without compromise. Fetch the Bolt Cutters shows Apple at her artistic best, inventive, defiant, and unforgettable. 

4. Dua Lipa, Future Nostalgia

Having no idea who Dua Lipa was when I first listened to Future Nostalgia, I got all excited that I had made some great musical discovery that I would share with my kids. The album fits squarely in their musical lane. Turns out that I'm about the only one who doesn't know about Britain's biggest female musical artist. 

I will just say that I love Future Nostalgia. As Variety wrote, "It's an impeccably crafted, gleefully executed half-hour plus of pop perfection that does meet the moment, maybe, in just reminding you how good it feels to be human, And to be in love. And to be in Studio 54." This is modern pop at its best. 

 

3. Lime Cordiale, 14 Steps To A Better You 

What a FUN album! Australian brothers, Oliver and Louis Leimbach, along with their bandmates are back with another gem of an album. With their sound that blends 'summery vibes and harmonies and bouncing melodies' (Billboard), Lime Cordiale's catchy sing-along-songs are second to none. 

Listening to this album will put a smile on your face and bounce in all 14 of your steps...to a better you. This is one of those albums that we all could use a bit more of this year. 

2. Katie Melua, Album No. 8

Katie Melua is one of the UK's best selling artists of all time. Yet, here in the states she is not widely known. It's really ashamed. Melua is that rare artist who's music radiates and captivates while remaining quiet and gentle. These are two qualities that we don't see too much of anymore. Being loud, shocking, and controversial seems to sell more albums these days. 

Now in her mid-thirties and recently divorced, Melua's lyrics go deeper and get more personal than on past albums. Wrapped in a beautiful cinematic melancholy soundscape, Melua reflects on  thoughts and feelings of loss, of heartbreak, and of appreciation for what has been and what is to be. While Album No 8 is Melua's story, passages throughout are recognizable and relatable. It all makes Album No. 8, Melua's most special album to date.   

1. Motorpsycho, The All Is One

I was not familiar with Motorpsycho when I first sat down to listen to The All Is One. I also had no idea of its running time. Turns out that the album, the last in a trilogy by the Norwegian trio, clocks in at one hour and twenty-four minutes. It’s a good thing that I did not know or I probably would have never started listening. But honestly, when I got to the end, I was truly disappointed that it was over. I just wanted more. And I wanted to learn everything that I could about this band that has produced 24 albums over the past 30 years.

What struck me most about The All Is One is how completely immersive it is. The songs unfold with patience, shifting from expansive, psychedelic passages to intricate, progressive movements that pull you deeper as the minutes pass. It’s an album that asks you to slow down and give yourself over to it, and the reward is the feeling of being carried somewhere far beyond your surroundings. The music swirls and stretches, heavy and delicate in turns, and it leaves you with the sense of having stepped into another world.

Listening to The All Is One, I could not help but reflect on the truly epic albums that I listened to as a kid and absolutely devoured as they transported me someplace that I had never been. It is exactly what I needed this year...or any year.