PopMatters' 60 Best Albums of 2020

The latest album from Queens-based singer-songwriter Matt Longo, aka Thin Lear, is an impeccably crafted ode to loners, death, and alienation.

TORRES' Silver Tongue is her most mature release to date. Its nine songs, all evocative and transporting, strive toward a new vocabulary for connection, confidence, and queer love.

Car Seat Headrest push their lo-fi signature into newly polished (and labyrinthine) space on Making a Door Less Open. The result is a glittering look at our everyday fantasies, our patterns of style and denial.

Matmos' Drew Daniels rebrands his solo work to meet the trying times, offering up an ambient techno classic for the ages under his Soft Pink Truth moniker.

Four Tet's 10th album, Sixteen Oceans, begins on the dancefloor, travels to the woods, and ends becalmed, invoking, and bestowing peace and tranquility.

Like the horror films that influenced it, Visions of Bodies Being Burned is a smart, noisy joyride through your worst nightmares, but it's easy to imagine Clipping laughing maniacally while its listeners insist on sleeping with the lights on.

Although Allison had a particular vision for the project, it's tempting to wonder how much tighter the final product would've felt had it been put through a more rigorous edit.

Mournfulness can provide comfort at a time like this, especially when presented with the kind of sincerity, wisdom, and songwriting skill that Doves haven't lost in their time away.

Microphones in 2020 might be his apex as a songwriter.

With Every Bad, Porridge Radio seduce us with the vulnerability and existential confusion of Dana Margolin's deathly beautiful lyricism interweaved with alluring pop melodies.

Full of energizing rhythms, buoyant beats, and memorable vocal melodies, Seeking Thrills is more than just a set of late-night bangers.

Suddenly is Caribou's most willfully experimental album to date, his soft, distinctive vocals flow through every track, binding the whole thing together.

Private Lives captures the spirit of the times in which we find ourselves—the weird world that like Low Cut Connie defies easy categorization—and offers musical solace to help us do more than just survive.

Overall, Reunions doesn't quite achieve the heights of Southeastern or The Nashville Sound, but that's only because Isbell has set the bar so damn high for himself. This is an excellent album in its own right, and I can't imagine any Isbell fan being disappointed by it.

Gaslighter is bold and incendiary, finding the Chicks reclaiming their relevance. Thankfully, the Chicks rejected silencing as Gaslighter reestablishes their penchant for vocalizing raw truths.

It's quite rare when a band discovers new abilities this late in the game. In terms of epic grandeur, though, Ohms somehow surpasses even the band's most ambitious middle-period work.

There's only so much you can say about how Set My Heart sounds. It's excellent. I don't know how it could really be better. Sometimes melodies will crawl out of nowhere and make you think, "is this the catchiest thing Perfume Genius has ever written?"

On Taylor Swift's surprise Lock Down album, Folklore, the omnipresent, world-conquering princess of self-mythology embraces a brooding post-pop texture that strikes a balance between lusty exuberance and indie-folky introspection.

If Rough and Rowdy Ways is his valedictory statement to us, it's certainly in keeping with his traditionalist spirit.

As society contends with sickness, anger, and fear, Donald Glover remedies the malignancy while fueling the anguish. 3.15.20 signals an important shift for Childish Gambino and secures the album's spot as one of the best of the year.

Dua Lipa's Future Nostalgia is near immaculate meta-pop that refuses to forego tight songwriting for nostalgic bells and whistles, helmed by a singer is exponentially more aware of what she's capable of.