Look, I get it. This year was horrible for so many people in so many ways. There were times the suffering seemed never-ending. For some, it still hasn't ended. For others, it never did. It feels odd to be writing about anything good that happened, in any way. But in times like these, we need our coping mechanisms more than ever. Writing has always been mine, so that's what I'm choosing to do. Below, you will find my favorite albums and EPs from 2020, in no particular order (well, except for the first one).
Album of the Year: Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher I've been making lists like these and choosing an album of the year about 15 years now, and this year's pick is far more different than the other past recipients. Still, there's something poetic about the fact that I, a person whose album of the year almost always includes loud guitars and/or screaming in one form or another, am choosing a quiet, more subdued album in a year that saw the music industry become forced to become the same. It also helps that Phoebe Bridgers is one of the best and most unique songwriters alive. Punisher is an album that reflects the struggle for understanding yourself and your place among the world in a way that feels like it was written by someone you're closest to. Whether it's monster single "Kyoto," follow-up smash "ICU," or the painfully bare "Halloween," Bridgers plucks all the right strings with her guitar and her lyrics. It's an album that feels impossibly relatable from start to finish. And, in a perfect summation of the year in which the album was released, Punisher's finale "I Know the End" finds Bridgers screaming to the point of exhaustion to round out the song. The streak lives on.
Like Moths to Flames - No Eternity in Gold If I didn't throw in a metalcore/post-hardcore album into this list soon, my head would explode. Luckily, Like Moths to Flames made the best album of their career, so it's easy to make the case why this should be mentioned so early on in this post. No Eternity in Gold found the band at a crossroads, where their last album Dark Divine was a sonic shift for the band that produced some of their most well-written songs, but didn't have the bite of their previous work. It seems LMTF figured out how to work a balance between the two, as No Eternity finds the band combining everything they've been working toward over their near-decade of a career, and turned every knob to 11. This was the album I always knew the band could make, and it'll likely be my most-replayed 2020 album throughout the next few years.
Spanish Love Songs - Brave Faces, Everyone Sometimes, life just sucks. And it's not anything that can be fixed by a friend, or by exercising, or through any other means. Sometimes, life insists on sucking. It's important to keep that in mind, and to also keep in mind that nothing, even pain, lasts forever. That's the feeling I get when listening to Spanish Love Songs' sophomore release, and it's a feeling that I needed to feel quite often throughout this year. The band have often been compared to emo stalwarts (I think the most accurate are The Menzingers and The Wonder Years), and it shouldn't be too much longer before they reach the same heights as those bands, either. This is a record that's just chock-full of anthems to be screamed in sweaty concert halls, when we're allowed back in them.
The 1975 - Notes on a Conditional Form I can't count on much these days, but I can count on The 1975. Though their two most recent releases have seen the band meandering and experimenting to the tune of 16+ song records, they still find a way to hone in and create timeless pop music when they need to. Notes is a record that feels a sense of urgency, as if the band needs to let out what it's been holding in, a feeling many listeners likely share. This is certainly The 1975's most politically-charged record, but there's still plenty of space here for the band to provide another dance-worthy masterpiece like "If You're Too Shy (Let Me Know)" along the way, as well. It may not be a perfect record, but it's definitely a great record, and it's definitely a 1975 record, and those two things are one in the same at this point.
The Weeknd - After Hours Despite what the Grammy Nominations Committee may say, this was the definitive pop record of 2020, and maybe of the entire 2020s as well. Taking 80s-style influences and juising them up with modern-day production created a flourish of an album for The Weeknd, whose star power only continues to shine brighter and brighter. While most of the hype accompanies the monstrous single "Blinding Lights"--and rightfully so-- it's the albums deeper cuts that turn this from the typical pop-star song dump that studio albums have become to a genuine experience about how heartbreak, experimentation, and human nature can drive us all to dark places. The Weeknd's illustrious career may still be on its upswing, but I think this album is his highest peak thus far.
Run the Jewels - RTJ4 I was always on the outside looking in when it came to the hype surrounding Run the Jewels, but this is the album where it all finally clicked for me. In an age where social consciousness and music grow closer to walking hand-in-hand, the rap duo have been paving the way for the better part of this century. This is evidenced both in their own personal-best lyrics, and by the talent they attract. On this one they've got 2Chainz, Mavis Staples, Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, and Pharrell Williams, but it's Rage Against the Machine's Zack De La Rocha who steals the show with the final verse in album highlight "JU$T." I may be late to the party, but soon enough everyone will be attending the RTJ takeover.
PVRIS - Use Me Whether it was finally time to stand on her own or her major label seeing more of a marketing opportunity, Lynn Gunn of PVRIS is taking her place at the throne of pop-emo. Use Me finds the band opting for a more electronic, synth-based sound that they've always hinted at and explored, but the soul-bearing lyrics that hooked fans in still remain here. The result is a brooding, somber album that still finds ways to be catchy despite the dreary tones. While a few songs were released on an EP last year, there's plenty of new ones to sink your teeth into on this album that only gets better and more affecting with each listen.
Movements - No Good Left To Give Stuck with the unenviable task of following up an album that was an instant-classic for the emo genre, Movements assuredly avoid the sophomore slump on No Good Left to Give. Despite the toned-down aggression through most of the album, Patrick Miranda's lyrics are just as memorable this time around. The band's musicianship remains unmatched as well, so regardless if it surpasses Feel Something for you, it's undeniable that Movements are one of the best emo bands out there these days.
Dance Gavin Dance - Afterburner Bands that stick around for as long as Dance Gavin Dance has seem to be held to a different standard, don't they? Each time we get a new album from them, I go into it knowing I'm probably going to like it a fair amount. As long as the band stay true to the sound they've perfected over the years, while still picking spots to throw in some new pieces of flair as well. This time around, we've got Tilian Pearson singing an entire song in Spanish and name-dropping Kyrgyzstan in another, while the band mixes up song structures throughout. We get another great feature from Andrew Wells in this one on "Nothing Shameful," too, in addition to former Attack Attack! crabber Johnny Franck's project Bilmuri to close out the album as well. It's not a record that'll sway casual listeners of the band in the opposite direction, but Afterburner is a solid listen that fits right in with the band's expansive catalog.
Code Orange - Underneath It's tough to describe why I find Code Orange so fascinating. They have the swagger of hip hop artists, but they so routinely prove their talents with their forward-thinking approach to their music and everything else they do. They routinely redefine what it means to be a hardcore band, and as we move to an era of unprecedented genre-bending in music, Code Orange are the perfect band to lead heavy metal into that future. Put simply, no band's two lead singles were as different as "Underneath" and "Swallowing the Rabbit Whole," and the band found ways to make each song sound absolutely massive. Underneath can also be appreciated as a whole, as the style-bending keeps you guessing throughout for one of the most unique listening experiences of the year.
Four Year Strong - Brain Pain Four Year Strong came back with what will likely be their most ambitious release of their career this year, as Brain Pain is far more than the big, loud, chorus-focused songs of the band's past. There's a few slower songs on this one, and opener "It's Cool" doesn't even bother to have a chorus so the band can spend the rest of their time headbanging through the chaotic shifts throughout the song. Of course, you'll still get a few arena-ready songs like "Talking Myself in Circles" mixed in for good measure, but overall, this is a Four Year Strong album that does a lot to stand out from the rest of the band's catalog.
Machine Gun Kelly - Tickets to My Downfall Leave it to 2020, a year defined by irregularity, to have the best pop-punk album of the year come from a rapper who infamously tried to beat Eminem in a diss-track battle. Well, here we are, as Machine Gun Kelly bleached his hair, bought some pink shit, and plugged in his guitar for some tunes with none other than blink-182's Travis Barker. Barker's involvement highlights that this album really resembles early blink-182 work: fast-paced, immature, and ultimately pretty overrated. Still, there's a lot of really catchy choruses, and with the pop-punk community forced to put their releases on halt for a while, someone had to take the crown. I'll give it to MGK here, simply for awakening the emo frontwoman within Halsey on "Forget Me Too."
Touche Amore - Lament You would have forgiven vocalist Jeremy Bolm if he receded a little bit. After using his band's last album Stage Four to detail his mother's struggle and demise at the hands of cancer, he'd certainly earned the opportunity to have the band's next album not be so personal. Thankfully, Touche Amore has never been a band to shy away from those dark corners of the mind, and their new album Lament is a wide-ranging follow-up that somehow nearly meets the emotional peaks of its predecessors. With Bolm's journey through grief, a journey many recognize as a winding, peak-and-valley road to travel on, pacing the songwriting, the band explore a few different sounds (most notably on the slide-guitar outro of lead single "Limelight"), and showcase their talent and sensibility in implementing this new flairs flawlessly. Elliot Babin would still be the drummer in my emo all-stars band, as he provides a driving pulse to guide the album, while Bolm's emotional lyrics and vocal deliveries provide the heart and sole of the band once again. This band simply has not missed on an album in their entire career.
Silverstein - A Beautiful Place to Drown Silverstein had metalcore's best 1-2 punch ever for a while with When Broken is Easily Fixed and Discovering the Waterfront, which set them up for a long career, even if they only played songs off of those two albums for the most part. This, of course, isn't what they did, as they spent most of the late-2000s and 2010s churningout albums every few years, each of which containing at least a couple of songs that became staples of their hour-plus headlining tour sets. Then in 2017, the band proved their ageless abilities with Dead Reflection, perhaps the best metalcore album of the entire decade. Surely, after all of that, you'd imagine the band didn't have anything left in that bag of tricks, right? Well, dear reader, if they didn't, do you think I'd even bother writing about this album? Of course not, but when Silverstein throws two haymakers out of the gate with "Bad Habits" and "Burn it Down," you're immediately reminded why this band is so special. Guest features are the big story here, as nearly half of the album's songs have them, but when the band are by themselves, they're still taking big risks, like the saxophone solo in "All on Me," and the rap verse provided by Princess Nokia in "Madness." That's not to say that all of these bells and whistles add a positive element to the sonic experience, but for a band with 20 years of music under their belt, to see Silverstein actively refusing to rest on their laurels is yet another accomplishment in their Emo Hall of Fame Career.
Juice WRLD - Legends Never Die Man, did this one hurt. After Juice WRLD's overdose-induced seizure that lead to his untimely death after just 21 years on earth, a chasm in the emo and rap communities was left behind. Thankfully, the gifted artist was so dedicated to his craft, his team and family were able to put together a series of songs that showed not just how talented he was, or how big of a phenomenon he was going to continue to become, but how important his music is to the genres he represented, and the fans who adored him. When you're able to get today's biggest artists like Marshmello, Halsey, and The Weeknd to come in and spice up your already-great songs, your impact on the music industry is easily seen. Juice WRLD is one of my favorite artists I've come across in the last few years, and to have an album this good come from him after I thought he'd released his last songs is such a great bright spot in an otherwise awful year.
It's been a tough year, and I'm very aware of the privilege I have to be writing about how bad it was instead of experiencing its atrocities in ways so many others have. I hope to do what I can to help those in need in 2021, so that we can all work toward something more positive in 2021.
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