With every passing year the world of music expands at an exponential rate, with thousands of albums constantly being released each month -- all available with a single click, for free, through digital streaming services (personal preference: Spotify).
The following Top 30 Albums of 2020 have been selected after listening to more than 1000 brand new records this year. This list features countless genres, languages, and styles.. if it's the best, it's here, regardless of who made it or where it came from.
Scroll down for a Spotify playlist and detailed write-up of all 30 albums!
List of The Top Albums of 2020
BLACKPINK - The Album
Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia
TWICE - EYES WIDE OPEN • MORE & MORE
YUKIKA - SOUL LADY
Run the Jewels - RTJ4
Glass Animals - Dreamland
Big Gigantic - Daybreak
DREAMCATCHER - Dystopia : The Tree of Language • Dystopia : Lose Myself
IZ*ONE - BLOOM*IZ • Oneiric Diary • Twelve • One-reeler / ACT IV
Shawn Wasabi - MANGOTALE
Silverstein - A Beautiful Place to Drown
PassCode - STRIVE
Poppy - I Disagree
Yung Gravy - Gasanova • Baby Gravy 2
Lil Uzi Vert - Eternal Atake • LUV vs. the World 2 • Pluto x Baby Pluto
Oliver Tree - Ugly is Beautiful
Megan Thee Stallion - Suga • Good News
Princess Nokia - Everything Sucks • Everything is Beautiful
blackbear - everything means nothing
DaBaby - BLAME IT ON BABY • DELUXE • My Brother's Keeper (Long Live G)
Bring Me the Horizon - POST HUMAN: SURVIVAL HORROR
Louis the Child - Here for Now
Felly - Mariposa
Ballyhoo! - Message to the World
GROUPLOVE - Healer
The American Classic - Forgive
Denzel Curry - UNLOCKED
Anti-Flag - 20/20 Vision
FEVER 333 - WRONG GENERATION
Chris Brown & Young Thug - Slime & B
Spotify Playlist of All Songs
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2sub6wRI4YqwXrZ2jgU323
Read About the Top 30 Albums of 2020
BLACKPINK - THE ALBUM
BLACKPINK is officially in your area. Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa pack more creative hits and absolute bangers into their debut full-length record than most artists could dream to create in their entire career. The appropriately titled THE ALBUM unquestionably sets the benchmark for international girl group K-pop in 2021 and beyond, easily claiming the #1 spot for best album of 2020 along the way.
Essential Songs
How You Like That
Ice Cream
Lovesick Girls
Lyrical Excerpt
Met him, then get him: I make sure we stay
Got the venom to dead him if he want a snake
I mean, sneak, I mean, play hide and seek
Know that I'm gonna find you
Make sure you get left 'fore you leave
Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia
In an alternate universe where Dua Lipa's good friends (and collaborators) in BLACKPINK didn't unequivocally claim the title of best record of the year, Dua Lipa would be sitting at the top of the pack with her incredible sophomore full-length, Future Nostalgia. Masterfully curated and perfectly sequenced, the British singer-songwriter executes every idea with incredible precision and peerless vision to truly create what is inevitably going to be future nostalgia.
Essential Songs
Levitating
Don't Start Now
Physical
Lyrical Excerpt
If you wanna run away with me, I know a galaxy
And I can take you for a ride
I had a premonition that we fell into a rhythm
Where the music don't stop for life
Glitter in the sky, glitter in my eyes
Shining just the way I like
If you're feeling like you need a little bit of company
You met me at the perfect time
TWICE - Eyes Wide Open • MORE & MORE
If there's anyone who could hope to contend with the genius and performance of #1 BLACKPINK and #2 Dua Lipa in 2020, it's Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Dahyun, Chaeyoung, and Tzuyu, and their career-redefining Eyes Wide Open (and accompanying MORE & MORE). 2020 finds TWICE delivering pitch-perfect, energetic K-pop that checks every box required to be considered a best of the year: unique, creative, and masterfully-executed.
Essential Songs
MORE & MORE
I CAN'T STOP ME
SAY SOMETHING
Lyrical Excerpt
I'm hearing all the alarms ring-a-ling
They go off every time that we're face to face
Why is it so hard to resist temptation sweet as honey?
I know it's too late
I feel it deep inside, I'm gonna lose the fight
Eventually I know that I'll be crossing the line
I try warning myself, 'cause I'm in need of help
Can't hold me back, already standing right at the edge out of control
YUKIKA - SOUL LADY
Yukika Teramoto channels the retro city-pop vibes of decades ago and infuses them with fantastic modern production and sounds to create SOUL LADY. Elegant and heartfelt instrumental opener "From HND to GMP" sets the tone for the entire album, a semi-autobiographical story that begins with a young Japanese woman flying out of Tokyo's Hanedia airport (HND) and landing in Seoul's Gimpo airport (GMP). Eventually becoming a SeOUL LADY along the way (and singing exclusively in this Korean foreign tongue), her truly beautiful debut album masterfully delivers the soundtrack to a late-night drive or leisurely stroll through a nostalgic, pre-pandemic, bustling city. Invoking profound serendipity, things close with the story's heroine learning that "All flights are delayed" upon arriving at the airport en route back home, where the only lyrics on the track are a response to that information: "“What should I do?”", spoken in native Japanese for the first and only time on YUKIKA's masterpiece record.
Essential Songs
SOUL LADY
I FEEL LOVE
All flights are delayed
Lyrical Excerpt, translated from original Korean
With a single ticket in my hands
All the dreams in me are precious
The scent of the city wraps around me today
It keeps making my heart flutter
Nights I was exhausted with loneliness
Countless lights come into my eyes
Overflowing into the night
I’m gonna play a little more
I’m gonna find a different me
Run the Jewels - RTJ4
When Killer Mike and El-P issue another installment in their self-titled album series, it's immediately a contender for album of the year, and 2020's RTJ4 is no exception to that rule. Politically, humanely, and emotionally light-years ahead of most of their peers, the fourth album from Run the Jewels was released during a time when most of the world is trying to play catch up to where the group was in 2013 with their debut; this makes RTJ4 sound even more potent, more virulent, and ultimately, more important than ever.
Essential Songs
ooh la la
yankee and the brave
JU$T
Lyrical Excerpt
Every day on the evening news, they feed you fear for free
And you so numb, you watch the cops choke out a man like me
Until my voice goes from a shriek to whisper, "I can't breathe"
And you sit there in the house on couch and watch it on TV
The most you give's a Twitter rant and call it a tragedy
But truly the travesty, you've been robbed of your empathy, replaced it with apathy
I wish I could magically fast forward the future so then you can face it
And see how fucked up it'll be
I promise I'm honest, they coming for you the day after they comin' for me
Glass Animals - Dreamland
On their third album, Dave Bayley and his band pick up where How To Be a Human Being left off, this time swapping biographical fiction for autobiographical fiction. Dreamland is clean, slick, and, at its best, energizing and exciting, even when the topics swerve into darker themes. With their trademark tropical rhythms, quirky-yet-complex beats, and sugary smooth vocals, Glass Animals show no sign of slowing down from what they do best.
Essential Songs
Your Love (Deja Vu)
Tokyo Drifting
Heat Waves
Lyrical Excerpt
Usually I put somethin' on TV so we never think about you and me
But today I see our reflections clearly in Hollywood, layin' on the screen
You just need a better life than this
You need somethin' I can never give
Big Gigantic - Free Your Mind
Released in February 2020, Dominic Lalli and Jeremy Salken let the speakers blow right off the bat on Free Your Mind, setting the tone for not only the album but for an alternate reality where this year wasn't plagued by a world-wide pandemic that halted humanity. On their latest full-length record, Big Gigantic is all party, a perfect electronic soundtrack to the nights out at social gatherings, clubs, and concerts that just couldn't happen in 2020.
Essential Songs
Let the Speakers Blow
St. Lucia
Friends
Lyrical Excerpt
Who ready for this hard bass?
Claim you don't love me yet I'm always on your mind
Who got another head bop?
Who pull up with the hits for your head top?
Who dancing by the strobe light whole night?
Wanna take me home like a low price?
Better save money for the paid dues
Make money don't let the money make you
DREAMCATCHER - Dystopia : The Tree of Language • Dystopia : Lose Myself
DREAMCATCHER is dark (and sometimes dangerous) in their 2020 Dystopian world. With heavy guitars, moody atmospheres, and a penchant for instantly-memorable choruses, JiU, SuA, Siyeon, Handong, Yoohyeon, Dami, and Gahyeon clearly separate themselves from their peers and carve out a unique K-pop niche that only DREAMCATCHER seems to be able to fill.
Essential Songs
Scream
Red Sun
Jazz Bar
Lyrical Excerpt, translated from original Korean
After everyone leaves, I open my eyes again
All traces are gone, they can't believe me
Don't be sad no more, for me, no more
Forget everything you saw
Pretend that nothing actually happened
Like that, one by one, everyone goes crazy
I just wanna make you scream
IZ*ONE - BLOOM*IZ • Oneiric Diary • Twelve • One-reeler / ACT IV
With just 30 months to create as much high-quality content as possible (their contract as a supergroup is set to formally expire in mid-2021), IZ*ONE uses 12 of their final months as well as anyone could imagine. With the full-length BLOOM*IZ (and accompanying, absolutely-stacked mini-albums, Oneiric Diary, Twelve, and One-reeler / ACT IV), Jang Won-young, Sakura Miyawaki, Jo Yu-ri, Choi Ye-na, An Yu-jin, Nako Yabuki, Kwon Eun-bi, Kang Hye-won, Hitomi Honda, Kim Chae-won, Kim Min-ju, and Lee Chae-yeon make the most of their distinct, individual talents to contribute more than two dozen upbeat, cheery, and infectiously catchy songs to the 2020 world of music.
Essential Songs
Secret Story of the Swan
Panorama
FIESTA
Lyrical Excerpt, translated from original Korean
Would you listen to a fairy tale-like story between two of us?
The secret that we made, would you keep it in your eyes?
The small world filled with you that will open the door
With your glance toward me, I get into you more and more
From the fingertips, it starts: a fairy tale
Shawn Wasabi - MANGOTALE
Shawn Wasabi curated and produced the happiest 'TALE of 2020 on his debut full-length. Across its twelve bubbly, bright songs, the American producer invites a wide variety of guests to tell the story of MANGOTALE as they speak in snacks and play 2020's quarantine-lifeline, Animal Crossing. There is arguably no better cure for the common cold than fresh fruits and likewise no better cure for the common bout of occasional sadness than fresh MANGOTALE.
Essential Songs
HALO HALO
LEMONS
the snack that smiles back
Lyrical Excerpt
I'm gonna be the snack that smiles back
I'm gonna be the Kit to your Kat
Ooh, the snack that smiles back, ooh, the Kit to your Kat
I'm gonna be the one you unwrap
Just take me out and break me in half
Silverstein - A Beautiful Place to Drown
Canadians Shane Told, Josh Bradford, Billy Hamilton, Paul Koehler, and Paul Marc Rousseau return with their tenth full-length record, releasing several of their best songs to date in the process. Never afraid to break from their genre's expectations and norms, A Beautiful Place to Drown finds the quintet experimenting with a large variety of styles and guest performers to deliver an exciting, interesting record.
Essential Songs
Burn It Down
Bad Habits
Madness
Lyrical Excerpt
I'm a romantic ambulance chaser
Fuck pen, let's write in eraser
And when it's all done, I'll be alright
I thought "last time" was the last time
Enough's enough, it's time to wreck havoc
I'm growing cold, I'm caught in your madness
Soon enough, you'll only end tragic
I hear your voice, the comfort in sadness
PassCode - STRIVE
Mixing metalcore, punk, electronic dance, pop, hardcore, metal, and everything in between, PassCode demands, and captures, your attention with their trademark blend of heavily auto-tuned vocals from Nao, Kaede, and Hinako, and brutally intense screams and harsh vocals from Yuna. In 2020 the quartet (backed by a first-class rock band) impeccably executes their brand with STRIVE, their fifth full-length album since forming in 2013.
Essential Songs
STARRY SKY
Seize Approaching BRAND NEW ERA
SPARK IGNITION
Lyrical Excerpt
Hypnotic charm, attraction: I have got it
Awaken new sensations soon to be felt: I own the skills
Far above what you've imagined, I'll be standing
We'll shake up all foundations, sample that taste: I own the skills
Never, never assume you could level us soon
Poppy - I Disagree
On her third full-length record, Poppy takes the final moments of 2018's Am I a Girl and expands them into a full album of dark, industrial sounds laced with breakdowns, screams, and metalcore instrumentalization. Never shy to "be weird" or entirely different from what you might expect, Poppy is weird in a whole new way on I Disagree, her heaviest and most intense release to date.
Essential Songs
I Disagree
Concrete
BLOODMONEY
Lyrical Excerpt
I disagree: everything you believe is a tragedy
I disagree with the way you keep preaching insanity
I disagree with all of the reasons you're mad at me
I disagree: everything in your life is a tragedy
Yung Gravy - Gasanova • Baby Gravy 2
No one executes the dichotomy of lighthearted heavy-hitting hip-hop better in 2020 than Yung Gravy on Gasanova and Baby Gravy 2, the latest two albums from the the Minnesota rapper.
Essential Songs
Welcome to Chilis
yup!
Bag of Chips
Lyrical Excerpt
Light them blunts up when I walk in the building
Gravy gettin' buck every time I get up in it
Always pull up with a plethora of women
I be like, "Yup, bitch, that's how I be livin'!'"
Lil Uzi Vert - Eternal Atake • LUV vs. the World 2 • Pluto x Baby Pluto
Philadelphia rapper Lil Uzi Vert is both surgically precise and completely out of control on Eternal Atake, his best work to date. Wrapped in fierce trap production and a bizarre "out of this world" theme, LUV goes hard song-after-song, with his creative flows being the only thing that eclipses his clever lyrics. Not content with one fantastic album, the young rapper tacks on two more full-length releases in 2020, including more than a dozen tracks with Future.
Essential Songs
POP
Lo Mein
Silly Watch
Lyrical Excerpt
Chopstick came with a large lo mein
Extra clip in it, nigga, I ain't got no aim
Balmain pocket filled with fresh romaine
And I stay with the cash like a XO chain
Fifty-five hundred, nigga, that's your range
When I go to the club, make it storm, hurricane
Nigga pull up, think he G.I. Joe
Man, 7.62, turn him G.I. Jane
Oliver Tree - Ugly is Beautiful
Oliver Tree's debut full-length is the culmination of years of writing, recording, rewriting, re-recording, and reworking the singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/producer's vision of creating a cohesive album that elegantly combines every popular genre music. At its best, Ugly is Beautiful is a stunning example of everything that you wouldn't expect to work.. to work, and to work exceptionally well. Everyone should peer into Oliver Tree's world at least once to see if it's something that makes sense to you.
Essential Songs
Alien Boy
Bury Me Alive
1993
Lyrical Excerpt
Three doors down so you can't ignore it
I'll hunt you down like a tyrannosaurus
My teeth are sharp like the great white shark
Let me taste that flesh, it's my favorite part
Got a eagle beak, with the ostrich feet
Seven spider eyes for every day of the week
Means I'm still up working while your bitch ass sleeps
I'm an alien among the human beings
Megan Thee Stallion - Suga • Good News
The braggadocios Megan Thee Stallion is in top form on Suga. The Texas rapper stacks hard-hitting bars on top of fiery beats that, all of it coming together to somehow perfectly match the extravagance her larger-than-life persona.
Essential Songs
B.I.T.C.H.
Captain Hook
Savage
Lyrical Excerpt
I'd rather be your B.I.T.C.H (I'd rather keep it real with ya)
'Cause that's what you gon' call me when I'm trippin' anyway
You know you can't control me, baby, you need a real one in your life
Them bitches ain't gon' give it to you right
Princess Nokia - Everything Sucks • Everything is Beautiful
Princess Nokia invites you to her hardcore hip-hop Circus on Everything Sucks, and it's as Gross as the New York rapper would lead you to believe. Nothing is off-limits, and Princess Nokia pulls no punches about any topic she wants to discuss, or rather, tell you the facts about.
Essential Songs
Harley Quinn
Crazy House
Welcome to the Circus
Lyrical Excerpt
I'm going crazy and dumb, I'm disrespectful as fuck
I heard they mad and they angry, their daddy ain't showed 'em love
I don't give no fucks, matter fact, not two
I'm disrespectful, offensive, and I've got nothing to prove
Fuck you, and fuck you
blackbear - everything means nothing
blackbear has always bounced in and out of various genres, managing to always find at least one spectacular song in any particular space. On everything means nothing, he continues to do the same, with the California producer/rapper/singer's now-signature vocal cadence tying everything together to create another solid entry into his extensive discography.
Essential Songs
hot girl bummer
i feel bad
me & ur ghost
Lyrical Excerpt
I swear that you're so good at making me feel bad
You're like a college grad that majored in the art of fucking over everything we had
I wanna rip these pictures off the wall and paint 'em all in black
My favorite memories of us are ones I wish we never had
DaBaby - BLAME IT ON BABY • DELUXE • My Brother's Keeper (Long Live G)
DaBaby invented a very particular rap style, and, upon finding there is a considerable public appetite to hear more music that sounds this way, he continued to use his prized possession to its fullest in 2020. The North Carolina rapper is direct in every aspect of his craft, and on BLAME IT ON BABY he demands your full attention every moment of the way.
Essential Songs
ROCKSTAR
CAN'T STOP
TALK ABOUT IT
Lyrical Excerpt
Brand new Lamborghini, fuck a cop car
With the pistol on my hip like I'm a cop
Have you ever met a real nigga rockstar?
This ain't no guitar, bitch, this a GLOCK
My GLOCK told me to promise you gon' squeeze me
You better let me go the day you need me
Soon as you up me on that nigga, get to bustin'
And if I ain't enough, go get the chop
Bring Me the Horizon - POST HUMAN: SURVIVAL HORROR
Midway through POST HUMAN: SURVIVAL, Bring Me the Horizon hits their all-time career high, teaming up with BABYMETAL for the absolutely bone-crushing "Kingslayer" (and its impressive 90-second intro, "Itch for the Cure (When Will It Be Free?)"). It's these cross-culture, intercontinental musical pairings that help make 2020 the best year of music ever and to find it on an already-solid record makes things even more invigorating.
Essential Songs
Itch for the Cure (When Will It Be Free?)
Kingslayer
Parasite Eve
Lyrical Excerpt
Hi, are you looking for the other side?
Feel like nothing ever seems quite right?
Are you circling the drainpipe, getting off on pain like you're corrupted?
I need to know where your loyalties lie
Tell me, are you gonna bark or bite?
Do you really wanna twist a knife in the belly of the monster?
Get the fuck up, wake the fuck up!
Wipe the system and back the fuck up!
You're a puppet, when they cut your strings off don't come crawling back
Louis the Child - Here for Now
Illinois producers Frederic Kennett and Robby Hauldren crush the production on Here for Now, inviting an onslaught of guests to join the party and do the same on the album's lyrics and vocals.
Essential Songs
Big Love
Every Color
Little Things
Lyrical Excerpt
Carpe diem, make love get the cream
Now or never, prime time like Deion
I'm the lion, I can smell if you're frightened
Big love linkin' up like a hyphen
We don't deal with that fear 'round here, no
Free to laugh, free to cry, let your tears flow
At your best, be yourself with your people
Get high, we don't care if it's legal
Felly - Mariposa
Connecticut singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Felly is as smooth as a Caribbean breeze on Mariposa, each song an invitation to what feels like a midnight beach-side party.
Essential Songs
New Soul
Heartstrings
Come Alive
Lyrical Excerpt
I'm such a new soul straight from the afterlife
Promise if I make it home I'ma show you paradise
Dropped in Hell, I saw a vision
Made me gasp for air, exhaled permission
Welcome back to earth, won't play no victim
Had to check my worth, see what was missin' now..
Ballyhoo! - Message to the World
Ballyhoo! is relaxed and introspective on their latest full-length record. The proud Maryland band continues their laid-back island sound on Message to the World, a perfect soundtrack to a relaxing day at the beach.
Essential Songs
Message to the World
Social Drinker
Scarlet Blue
Lyrical Excerpt
I’m going to make the most out of all I’ve been given
Let the cards fall where I lay them
Cause I’ve been making mistakes
But I swear I’ve been learning
And I’ll crawl out from the mayhem
This is a message, a message to the world
You know this is a message, a message to the world
GROUPLOVE - Healer
GROUPLOVE continues to deliver more of their upbeat, anthemic sound on Healer. Here the California natives explore a world of topics, tying them all together with their signature wit and sound.
Essential Songs
Deleter
Youth
Inside Out
Lyrical Excerpt
It's the future, and I'm brain-dead
Yeah, I'm destitute, yeah, I feel no roots anymore
Take another picture, show 'em what you're doing
And how we built a lighthouse out of all these godforsaken ruins
We know it's coming, none of this can live
The world will recover once you put us in the past
The American Classic - Forgive
Wyatt Smith, Kenney Li, Luke Morris, and Jake Wertman breathe life into pop-punk on Forgive. The debut record from the Maine quartet bounces between aggressive, delicate, and downright heavy, but it's always infectiously catchy and demanding of your constant attention.
Essential Songs
Caught Up
Fraud
Gone Away
Lyrical Excerpt
I really meant to stay, but life gets in the way of everything I meant to say
But life's got me caught up in this situation, my damnation
It's hard to see the light at the end
I'm just trying to keep it together, just for the winter
Lighting fires in the snow when there's no place to go, I'll keep you warm
The cold is bitter, don't think that I'll make it through
It's taking me from you
Denzel Curry - UNLOCKED
Teaming up with Kenny Beats, Denzel Curry follows up his fantastic 2019 Zuu with a more experimental, and in some ways more stripped back, record. UNLOCKED is a freeform-styled invitation into the unrestrained mind of one of Florida's most exciting rappers.
Essential Songs
DIET_
Take_it_Back_v2
Lay_Up.m4a
Lyrical Excerpt
Get money from a show, then deposit it
Your shows got no hoes, I acknowledge it
So braggadocios, spit sick shit, it's atrocious (nasty)
Risin' like the stocks, stockbroking
The Shogun, came through with no gun
One man, Ichiban, fresh out of Japan, do as I command
And what I demand is some fuckin' peace and quiet
I told 'em please go to church, and please get on a diet
Anti-Flag - 20/20 Vision
Fueled by four years of an American Presidency that completely opposes everything Anti-Flag stands for, the Pennsylvania punk rockers go off like a bomb on 20/20 Vision.
Essential Songs
It Went Off Like a Bomb
Hate Conquers All
You Make Me Sick
Lyrical Excerpt
When I think about you, you make me sick
You're a maniac, a liar, you're a piece of shit
Cynical, condescending hypocrite
Everything you do, you make me, make me sick
FEVER 333 - WRONG GENERATION
FEVER 333 hones in on their powerful art, slamming eight brief-but-overcharged hardcore songs down the listener's throat with WRONG GENERATION.
Essential Songs
BITE BACK
BLOCK IS ON FIRE
WRONG GENERATION
Lyrical Excerpt
Woke up this morning to people mourning
Another brother they murdered just as a warning
That if we speak up 'bout how they treat us
They’ll do it over and over until we bite back
This time we bite back, so let's bite them back
Chris Bown & Young Thug - Slime & B
Teaming up for some of 2020's smoothest, sexiest R&B, Chris Brown and Young Thug are in perfect form and in complete sync on Slime & B, a fantastic soundtrack to a late-night, relaxing evening.
Essential Songs
City Girls
Undrunk
Go Crazy
Lyrical Excerpt
Finally got a reason I can stay home
Pretty little thing for me to wait on
Fuckin' you all day until the day gone
California King that we can play on
Girl, you know I like it when you naked and you shake it
In my face, and I can't take it