Gigwise's 51 Best Albums of 2020

This is the most consistent album Hinds have made so far, synth feels like a natural fit for them and they use it with the vibrancy suggested by the array of colours shown on the album cover.

The overwhelming result ... is an emotive work that, as the title suggests, leaves you permanently seeking thrills long after the initial listen.

Letters To You is a typical Springsteen album in the sense that it contains the same call-to-arms rock tracks that any listener would come to expect on an album from The Boss but this collection carries a greater weight.

Much like the rest of Adrianne’s catalogue, Songs is characterised by its purity of expression and an unbridled vulnerability most of us can only dream of offering - we can be grateful she gifts it so fearlessly.

Viscerals is going to be an incredible record to hear live, and is equally as impactful in its own right.

That observant, honest intensity makes this album feel important beyond its sphere.

With Song For Our Daughter, she joins the ranks of the world’s most extraordinary singer-songwriters.

Working Men’s Club need to be listened to. They offer a vital escape into the unusual, acting as an ecstatic placeholder in a world where we often (ok, always) need to get away.

Saint Cloud offers guidance, accepting that not even something we idolise and long for in society is perfect, in most cases it is messy, complicated and difficult, whilst still hinting that it may all be worth it.

A Hero’s Death is a serious and rare achievement, particularly from a band that could have satisfied everyone with more of the same, and instead chose to evolve.

Through remarkable use of Chiaroscuro - the effect of starkly contrasting light and dark - To Love Is To Live makes a cathartic listen filled with trembling courage.

The wild variety of influences on this album should make it sound like a car crash, but King Gizz have created an album that really puts this band in a league of their own.

A true masterpiece in almost every way imaginable - the only shortcoming being the fact that her brilliant voice wasn’t given more opportunities to shine - I Disagree, is the perfect album to start 2020 with.

Heaven To A Tortured Mind is one of the best rock albums to have been released in recent years. Dark and scary, it pushes the confines of genre to its edge, willing its listeners to fall into its untold depths.

Mordechai is a baptism, a rebirth, a new beginning.

Creating a record that builds on her reputation as the best songwriter on the block while acknowledging the humorous and also political bent of her media presence, Punisher is a triumph in understanding and toying with expectations.

With Future Nostalgia, Dua Lipa has brought a much needed joy into the world. She has shown she can be a powerhouse in the pop world and still allow her creative vision to be at the forefront.

Her best album to date, refining her earlier sound and gifting us with sexy and sultry disco that is begging to be heard on the dancefloor, and the bedroom.

Creeper deliver a near perfect record. An album which is spangled with emotional undercurrents that rise up through dark swirls.

Alongside its pleasing soundtrack of French pop, electronica and disco, Baxter Dury has settled on a unique formula that works.

Overall, Ohms is a transcendental body of work that perfectly amalgamates the beauty and brutality of Deftones' sound – satisfying the tastes of fans both old and new.

Women in Music Pt.III is multidimensional and bold, showing the group high on their original supply of talent as they extend beyond any point they had left to prove.

From top to bottom, Good News vibrates with the infectious confidence and defiance of Meg’s straight-to-camera flow.

In this record - in large part a remote collaboration between Taylor and The National’s Aaron Dessner - Taylor is contemplative, authorial, clear and simply exceptional.