Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order):
Beach Slang – The Deadbeat Bang of Heartbreak City
Diet Cig – Do You Wonder About Me?
Drive-By Truckers – The Unraveling/The New OK
Frances Quinlan – Likewise
The Front Bottoms – In Sickness & In Flames
Katie Pruitt – Expectations
The Killers – Imploding the Mirage
Lydia Loveless – Daughter
Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher
Sløtface – Sorry for the late reply
Best Tracks: "Life Ain't Fair and the World Is Mean," "Long White Line," "Oh Sarah," "Keep It Between the Lines"
I don't know what teenage John would be more surprised to see on this list: such a preponderance of female artists or a bluegrass album. (Technically two bluegrass albums.) Even though teenage John listened to a super macho nü metal diet of Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, and Papa Roach, he might be more surprised to see the bluegrass. But Sturgill Simpson's two albums of bluegrass versions of his songs is that good. Simpson's country sound has always put an idiosyncratic spin on the conventions of the genre—lyrical content, song structure, instrumentation. (The album title Metamodern Sounds in Country Music is apt.) But on these records, Simpson sounds like an old hand at bluegrass, and his songs sounds like genre standards. Or maybe I just need to check out more bluegrass. (Although I'm not unfamiliar with the genre, as I love this album and its all-time album cover.) Either way, this is just a super fun listen, at once easygoing and invigorating and perfect for any number of moods—and we've all gone through any number of moods here in twenty-twenty. If "musicians touring" and "live music" were things this year, I would have 100% gone to a Sturgill Simpson bluegrass show at (probably) the Van Buren and had a blast. Maybe in 2021, maybe in 2021 (he repeats into oblivion).
9) Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – Reunions
Best tracks: "Dreamsicle," "Only Children," "Overseas," "Be Afraid"
Jason Isbell's follow-up to 2017's phenomenal The Nashville Sound (my #4 that year) doesn't quite reach the same lofty heights as its predecessor, but that's more a function of Nashville's near perfection than any commentary on the quality of Reunions. Don't get me wrong—this is an outstanding album. The more personal, introspective songwriting here ("Children, "Letting You Go") might be even better than that on Nashville, and the musicianship is top notch, with the production and guitarwork at times reminding me of Dire Straits, one of my all-time favorite bands. (Isbell apparently covered "Brothers In Arms" on his last tour, which, kill me now.) Just listen to the opening riff on "Running with Our Eyes Closed"—it's pure fucking Mark Knopfler. Overall, Reunions has a very timeless feel, whereas Nashville, with its more outward-looking, political themes (which aren't entirely absent here, to be sure) felt more immediate and of its time. I wonder which will age better. I know I haven't tired of going back to Nashville yet; we'll see if Reunions has the same staying power. If only I could hear some of these songs live to further burn them into my mind...
8) Best Coast – Always Tomorrow
Best Tracks: "Different Light," "Everything Has Changed," "For the First Time," "Master of My Own Mind"
Sturgill Simpson has a song called "Turtles All the Way Down" (which is included on Cuttin' Grass!). Well, from here it's women all the way down. As I mentioned above, my top 8 albums of the year are all by female artists, which is pretty remarkable. We'll start with Best Coast, whose last full length—2015's California Nights—also cracked my top-10 that year (the top 5, in fact). Their latest isn't quite the near-masterpiece as their last one, but it's another addictive dose of Bethany Cosentino's cynical-yet-hopeful musings brilliantly bathed in Bobb Bruno's sunshiny, pristine production. (I like alliteration, okay?) This is just a righteous collection of earworms, led by "For the First Time," the most delightfully dreamy song in the band's catalogue, an upbeat, poppy little gem that shines brighter than just about anything else here in 2020. I was looking forward to hearing it live earlier in the year... but, alas, the show was in late March and was the very first (of several) COVID cancellations. Maybe we will get live music back sometime in 2021?
7) Margo Price – That's How Rumors Get Started
Best Tracks: "That's How Rumors Get Started," "Letting Me Down," "Twinkle Twinkle," "Stone Me"
Margo Price first grabbed my attention with a Tom Petty reference on the title track of 2017's All American Made. It's pretty much impossible to make a better first impression than that. I liked that album a good deal, but Rumors is on another level. "Stone Me" was one of the first singles that really grabbed me in 2020 and has some of my favorite lyrics of the year: "Call me a bitch, then call me baby / You don't know me / You don't own me / Yeah, that's no way to stone me." What a statement, and one that all the country goddesses of old who clearly inspired her would have put to music if they could during their era. But I think the best track here might be "Letting Me Down," an absolute jam where Price almost sounds like she's backed by the Heartbreakers themselves—are we sure that's not Campbell and Tench on this one? The rest of the album is more of the same—Price channeling those goddesses (Lynn, Wynette, Raitt, et al.) while her band puts a modern spin on a '70s classic/country rock sound. (Try to tell me you don't hear the Eagles on "Gone to Stay.") Inject this shit directly into my veins, please.
6) HAIM – Women in Music Pt. III
Best Tracks: "Los Angeles," "The Steps," "Gasoline," "Summer Girl"
Next up is the latest from the Haim sisters, who must not have listened to Spotify's CEO advice about musicians releasing music more frequently. (Uh, fuck that guy.) This is only the sisters' third album, after 2013's Days Are Gone (which made my top-10 that year) and 2017's Something to Tell You (which garnered an honorable mention but might crack the list proper if I redid it today). I still remember seeing them at the Crescent Ballroom when they were still getting their feet wet as a live act and now they're nominated for Album of the Year. Crazy. Anyway, Women in Music is another slick, soulful jukebox journey through various eras and styles, like the sisters went to town on a box of old vinyls from Mr. and Mrs. Haim's garage. The Stevie Nicks/Fleetwood Mac comparison is still as apt as ever, but there's also a decided '80s Cyndi Lauper/Wilson Phillips vibe on a lot of tracks, even some Sheryl Crow (100% "I've Been Down"). I generally dig acts that wear their influences on their sleeves, and HAIM fits that to a tee (shirt). But those influences are all gussied up in an ultramodern pop sensibility courtesy of producer Ariel Rechtshaid—who I just learned was once the lead singer of The Hippos, one of the dozens of SoCal ska bands I listened to as a youth. Could the next HAIM record be... a ska-punk album? I would definitely... pick it up.
5) Soccer Mommy – color theory
Best Tracks: "circle the drain," "crawling in my skin," "yellow is the color of her eyes," "lucy"
Like the Jason Isbell and Best Coast releases, my only quibble with the new Soccer Mommy album is that it isn't quite as good as its predecessor. I consider 2018's Clean to be one of the best albums of the previous decade, so it was always going to be tough to follow it up. But Sophie Allison was up to the task and very nearly equaled her landmark debut. Her follow-up is even more intimate than Clean from a lyrical standpoint, but the arrangements and production give color theory almost a removed kind of feel, like Allison is armoring her most personal songwriting yet behind a veneer of studio polish, creating a fascinating discord that just seems to fit 2020. The album also has probably the most 2020 song of 2020, "circle the drain": "Things feel that low sometimes / Even when everything is fine," right into the line that perfectly sums up this godawful year: "Hey, I've been falling apart these days." Haven't we all? The album as a whole isn't the easiest listen on this list, but it's one of the most vital and perhaps the most apt for this year. I can't even imagine what Allison has in store for her next album, but I know that I wait for it as eagerly as just about anything.
4) MisterWives – SUPERBLOOM
Best Tracks: "whywhywhy," "rock bottom," "decide to be happy," "SUPERBLOOM"
Changing tracks a bit, this MisterWives album is the catchiest damn thing I heard all year. Seriously, this album is more jam-packed than a jelly donut and has more bangers than a British breakfast. It's got jangly keys and smooth, sexy horns aplenty, backed by a crisp rhythm section and all topped by Mandy Lee's vivacious, honeyed vocals. I had heard of but not really heard this group before this year (truth be told, I was put off by their name, which is kind of bad), but if someone had told me they're like a poppier Naked and Famous (who also put out a solid album this year), I'd have been all over them. I dug into their other albums and they're just as hooky and infectious as SUPERBLOOM. (Hmmm, that's maybe not the best word choice here in 2020...) But nothing in the band's catalogue—or anything released this year, really—can touch "rock bottom," one of my three favorite songs of the year, in the catchiness category. It starts slow and deliberate before picking up on a propulsive rhythm, adding those keys and horns on the way to an absolutely MONSTER chorus that hits like a disco wrecking ball. Just an unbelievable jam. This album was a much-needed dose of energy and positivity in 2020.
3) Taylor Swift – folklore (and evermore)
Best Tracks: "the 1," "cardigan," "exile," "betty"
If we can revisit the teenage John question for a second, he'd surely be shocked to see the predominant pop star of the past decade or so on this list at all, much less ranked this highly. But Taylor Swift is as unassailable as she is unavoidable, and I long ago gave in and embraced my inner Swiftie, which teenage John would be horrified to learn. In the late '90s/TRL days, pop music (the boy bands, Britney/Christina, et al.) was the enemy. It was just so... manufactured. That's not to say Swift's music isn't manufactured—it most certainly is, and carefully so—but it's also important to point out that she write almost all her own songs, and there's a kind of try-hard earnestness about most of her music that actually really works. The most manufactured-sounding of her music (several regrettable lead singles, pretty much the entire Reputation album) is easily her worst. Which brings us to folklore (and its sister album, evermore, which I haven't listened to as much but still quite dig). It might be the "best" album of her career—the deepest lyrically, the most accomplished from a songcrafting standpoint, the most immaculately produced. The sensational "Teenage Love Triangle" ("cardigan"/"august"/"betty") is a microcosm of her career—at once girlish and mature, manufactured yet earnest. I have no problem saying this, teenage John be damned: Taylor Swift is really fucking good. Excited to see where she goes from here. (Also, what's with all the stylized lowercase song titles this year?)
2) The Beths – Jump Rope Gazers
Best Tracks: "I'm Not Getting Excited," "Dying to Believe," "Jump Rope Gazers," "Out of Sight"
This year was actually a pretty good year for new* discoveries. In the honorable mentions, Beach Slang, Diet Cig, Katie Pruitt, and Sløtface are all excellent new-to-me acts I got into in 2020. (* I'm sure I had heard a song or two from these acts before this year, but this is the first time I actively listened to them.) MisterWives cracked my top 5. But by far the most important new discovery this year was New Zealand indie pop/rock band The Beths. I vaguely recall seeing 2018's Future Me Hates Me on a few year-end lists, and I probably even gave it a listen or two. I'm not sure why it didn't make much of an impression, and their new one wasn't really on my radar this year. I think it might have been the baseball writer Keith Law who put it on my radar in one of his (excellent) periodic newsletters. I checked it out and was immediately hooked by the two opening tracks: the feisty, rollicking "I'm Not Getting Excited" and the joyous, monumentally catchy "Dying to Believe." But the best song of the album—and one of the best of the year—is the slower, more heartfelt title track. (The opening three tracks are as good of a three-track run as you'll hear this year.) "Jump Rope Gazers" didn't grab me right away like the first two tracks, but once it grabbed me, it it grabbed me HARD and refused to let go. In most years, this plaintive ballad would have been my #1 song. The guitarwork is beautiful, and singer Liz Stokes's impassioned, yearning vocals are just heartrending. I don't know how this band can follow up this record, but I can't wait to see them try.
1) Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud
Best Tracks: "Can't Do Much," "Fire," "Lilacs," "War"
Most years, if you're lucky, you find one album that immediately enters your personal pantheon, one that you know you'll revisit again and again and again over the years. It's the first album you'll think about when you think of that year, towering over the rest of the music released that year. No disrespect to the other albums on this list, but for 2020, that album is Waxahatchee's Saint Cloud. It's far and away the best album on this list, and the most important to me. I was familiar with Waxahatchee, Katie Crutchfield's once solo project and now band, prior to this year and had enjoyed several of her songs/albums. So her new album was definitely on my radar (Steven Hyden hyping it up on Twitter didn't hurt either). But I wasn't adequately prepared for just how incredible this album would be. Saint Cloud features Crutchfield's typically confessional songwriting, but is another step forward after 2017's Out In the Storm sound-wise, with a fuller, richer sound that that album and, especially, her more rough-hewn earlier albums. It's a (mostly) sunny, twangy trip through the backcountry, capturing a carefree Americana sound that serves as accompaniment to Crutchfield's wry observations and struggles with sobriety and self-doubt. Her masterful lyrics range from the devastatingly simple ("And the lilacs drank the water / And the lilacs die / And the lilacs drank the water / Marking in the slow, slow, slow passing of time" on "Lilacs" to figuratively clever ("In my loneliness, I'm locked in a room / When you see me, I'm honey on a spoon" on "Can't Do Much"). But the centerpiece of the album (to me anyway) and what might very well be the song of the decade (yes, just one year in) is "Fire." I've already listened to it more this in year than any song (but one) I've listened to total since 2005. It hit me like an emotional sledgehammer when I first heard it one afternoon working in my home office, and I probably listened to it 10-15 times that day, and several times a day for weeks thereafter. From the delicate opening keys to Crutchfield's croon of "That's what I wanted" to the gentle percussion to that transcendent moment a little over a minute in when the whole band kicks in, it's just a perfect fucking song. One of my sincerest regrets of this year was not getting able to see her perform this song live. That's really what I wanted. I hope I get the chance to in 2021.
Bonus: My Top 10 Songs of 2020 (roughly in order):
"Fire" – Waxahatchee
"Jump Rope Gazers" – The Beths
"rock bottom" – MisterWives
"Smokestack" – Alkaline Trio
"circle the drain" – Soccer Mommy
"For the First Time" – Best Coast
"Letting Me Down" – Margo Price
"Armageddon's Back in Town" – Drive-By Truckers
"Be Afraid" – Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit
"Kyoto" – Phoebe Bridgers
Here's a link if you want to check out a playlist of all my favorite songs of the year.
That's all for this year. As always, thanks for reading (if anyone is reading). I know 2021 will be a better year overall, even though I tend to doubt it'll be a better year for music. I guess we'll see!
