Luke's Top 15 Albums of 2020
As final lists of the year are being written, staff writer Luke Chobanian gifts the world with his Top 15 Albums of 2020. Ranging from death metal and hardcore to hyperpop and hip hop, here are his favorites from the year.
2020, man. What a hell-scape of a year. However, I've had some incredible personal growth and can finally say that I have become a fully functional adult, who is 40 pounds lighter and has gained incredible introspection through isolation. With this introspection, I have dived further into new music than ever before. While metal and hardcore still held a significant place with my 2020 listens, hip hop and electronica have been consuming me at an alarming rate. Here is my list:
15. Weight of the World - MIKE
MIKE single handedly dropped his first defining album. Lo-fi, warped and dusty boom-bap beats create a foundation for MIKE to goofily bumble through the grief of his recently lost mother. These songs are as emotionally potent as they are uplifting, truly capturing celebration and positive memories with anguish that is barely talked about in music, period. Lyrics like “I got my Mother’s laugh, grinning through a bunch of bad shit” strike me at such a personal level. Despite this album literally having ONE SINGULAR flow - leading to some redundancy - it is still a cohesive and memorable listen that I have returned to again and again throughout the year.
14. Inlet - Hum
Holy shit! Hum is back and has successfully added to their perfect discography, doing so over 20 years later. This is one of the strongest comeback records in recent rock history. It showcases Hum sticking true to their shoegaze-laden alt-metal that they helped define the 90s with, but explores new sonic territory with stoner and doom metal leanings seen in Inlet’s heavy drop-tuned goodness. The ambience found all throughout this album, especially when using drones covered in lush reverb, is jaw droppingly-beautiful, and this album barely misses any steps in the songwriting and riff departments.
13. Stare Into Death and Be Still - Ulcerate
Ulcerate has dropped their best album yet. It is a pure exercise in the unrelenting technicality and brutality expected from the band, but something feels more complete and thoughtful than their previous albums. The drums - while still outrageously busy - are now able to keep a solid groove, and the riffs are more bleak and atmospheric. This album is taking so much from one of my favorite genres - post-metal - with clear nods to Neurosis that is infused well into their technical death metal sound. It is definitely the most original take on this dead genre I have seen in well over a decade. While my hype for this album has certainly died since my initial review, and I now find the mix quite fatiguing with its pounding drums, this is still a visceral and engulfing listen, an essential release in metal from 2020.
12. Speed Kills - Chubby and the Gang
This is definitely one of the most fun rock records I have heard in a while. Chubby and the Gang kicked off 2020 with their first ever project; containing members of Violent Reaction, Chubby and “their” gang take on a far catchier sound by moving poppy British punk into fun and uplifting territory. Taking huge notes from Blitz and Cock Sparrer, they utilize oi! and skinhead leaning soul through a modern lens (skinhead as in the working class movement, kill all Nazis). These songs are so incredibly catchy and British, it is impossible not to smile and bob your head to these throttling songs. This is everything the suckfest IDLES wishes they were and proof that pop-punk does not have to lose its gusto or turn into shitty emo for kids. It can kick-ass and be embraced by skins and punks everywhere. Can’t wait to see this band take over the world.
11. Ada Irin - Navy Blue
Navy Blue really floored me with this release. You may know him as Earl Sweatshirt’s right hand man on songs like “The Mint,” but Navy Blue has proven he can very well carry his own project. Navy Blue’s rapping style is incredibly sorrowful and calm, but makes every hair on my body stand the fuck up. He may not pack his words with clever lines or word play, but he will bleed his entire heart into a few brief phrases like “Ancestors watching over me, I pray we see tomorrow and many days after/When the pain subsiding on the disguise with laughter, trying to find peace/Spliff gets me there faster.” The beats are eclectic, and perfect for a misty, miserable New England day in quarantine. This album cuts deep, and is my 2020 pick for depression naps and the realization that my favorite pub, the Field in Cambridge, MA is closed forever.
10. Healing is a Miracle - Julianna Barwick
Jesus is back everyone, FYI. Julianna Barwick summoned him with her angelic vocal loops and cathedral-esque reverb. She takes her new-age, Enya-influenced beauty into more ambient and trip hop landscapes, with the help of Nosaj Thing and others. The song “Nod” is deadass one of the most beautiful things I have heard all year. This album is an ode to the serenity of life and what it means to be human. It shows an appreciation for our happy moments and the struggle and pain that we are so lucky to feel everyday. Sorry, I’m a counselor in training and super humanistic and corny. But anyways, Julianna knows how to use her voice and keep building loops and harmonies until it becomes a completely different song. Everything here is a dynamic journey that begs to be listened to and proves you can do so much with so little. Some of these songs are just her voice and contain more beauty than any post-rock weenie band *cough EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY cough cough* could ever dream.
9. how i’m feeling now - Charli XCX
This is definitely the quarantine album to end all quarantine albums. Charli decided to dive further into harsher and experimental PC Music territory. She sheds the gloss and decadence of last year’s Charli, which I have loved so much, in trade for creating her take on a bedroom pop record. It is more rushed and more skeletal, but my god does it cover every bit of loss and pain we have all been feeling through during this coronavirus pandemic. She takes huge risks with noisier beats and embraces more of the chaos of hyper-pop’s bricked out and glitchy production. All the while, she stills maneuvers with the monumental hooks and powerful vocal melodies we love her so much for. This album is definitely front-loaded, but the first half makes for some of the best music this year.
8. Retribution of the Jealous Gods - Malignant Altar
Death metal done fucking right. Three songs that do not miss with some of the heaviest and most visceral material from the latest crop of death-metal revival bands. Armed with drumming from former Insect Warfare drummer Dobber Beverly, these caveman riffs are backed up with some of the craziest grindcore fills I’ve heard in some time. The drumming is what makes this album completely special and stick out from its relatively generic, slow burning death metal riffs. Yet every song is perfectly crafted, with the title track’s riff being the RIFF OF THE YEAR in every sense of that ridiculous phrase.
7. @@@@@ - Arca
My favorite artist ever dropped a flooring 60+ minute DJ mix, containing some of her most difficult yet ambitiously experimental material yet. This mix is cacophinous and wonked the fuck out. Expect soundscapes made out of out of sync car motors and overlapping Rugrats-esque vocals fighting to stay on beat but consistently failing. It is the anxiety attack of my dreams. While her regular full length” KiCk i” did disappoint me a bit with its final product, feeling tame for Arca standards, this is the boundary pushing Arca that I live for. Personal highlights include her crooning over a chopped and screwed Deftones riff, as well as at the 9:00 mark, which showcase some of the freakiest vocal chops all interfering with each other to make the scariest music this year. This album is simply nauseating and one of the most uncomfortable things I have heard in a while.
6. Savage Mode II - 21 Savage and Metro Boomin
21 Savage and Metro Boomin truly go together like an emo music scene and an outed abuser. One of hip hop’s most excitingly dynamic duos come together to drop their most focused release yet. 21’s bars are hilarious (“He told on his brother, call that a siamese rat”), but become impressively introspective and captivating at times, focusing more inward with his newly gained wisdom from business and rap success. Metro Boomin decides to take his beats in a throwback direction, appreciating golden-era drums and samples that recall NWA or Biggie. But don’t worry, it still hits through trap standards and has the modern bite we expect from the duo. These songs are extremely diverse, from love-filled swoons to robber anthems, making for some of the most impressive hip hop this year.
5. May You Be Held - Sumac
Sumac, one of the torch bearers for innovation in modern metal, somehow have made an even headier album than their previous records with May You Be Held. The record contains two epic pieces that close in at 20 minutes, separated in between with three free-improv leaning interludes. This album makes for their most fluid listen, while also being their most minimal and spirited. They aren’t afraid to use space and calmness in between monolithic dissonance and noise. These songs oddly have such an optimistic light shrouded in darkness. You can feel Aaron Turner’s proclamations about love and togetherness over artsy takes on sludgy fight riffs. This time around, Sumac’s improv has gotten more thrilling and tighter than ever. While Love in Shadow had some incredible moments, some of the improv felt tacked on and ruined song structures and suspense. Now with May You Be Held, the actual songs are only second to the improv, which has become the very thing they have always been striving for. Keep pushing for the gold, Sumac.
4. Magic Oneohtrix Point Never - Oneohtrix Point Never
One of electronica’s top innovators drops their concept album based around Boston’s very own soft rock station, Magic 106.7. The fact that this radio station brings up memories of childhood dentist office visits where my teeth were pulled did not make me very excited for this album. But what it DID do was so much more than I could ever expect. Oneohtrix successfully creates 80’s future pop anthems that are bombarded with the plunderphonics we know him for. Many of these songs take on the corny 80’s sounds and synths we come to expect from soft rock and adult contemporary, but it utilizes them in the most warped and manipulated senses possible. He is pushing sonic territories further, getting the best grasp on art pop and classically-leaning instrumentation. “Lost But Never Alone” is one of the most haunting pieces of music this year. This honestly is Oneohtrix’s radio-rock album, and it’s the most bizarre thing ever, but it works so fucking well.
3. Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress - Gulch
This album is the rollercoaster of my dreams. There are no shortages of thrills. This is what hardcore needs. It’s a bunch of dudes with metal-level chops implementing black and death-metal riffs into speedy skank-beated hardcore. No, these aren’t your run of the mill metallic hardcore chugs. This album is finesse and speed, done in ways that shows how lacking these qualities are in the modern hardcore landscape. With Gulch, think DYS meets Darkthrone. The vocals are maniacal and Daffy Ducked out and every single minute has me at the edge of my seat. I have punished this album to death and every tight performance and blood curdling scream never grows old for me. This band just does so much, that so many other heavy bands fail to do. Also: to close out on that Siouxsie and the Banshees cover is an unbelievable risk that they pulled off perfectly. They somehow made something original out of hardcore/metal tropes and pulled off the heaviest album of the year. They truly deserve to be remembered as legends for this output.
2. Alfredo - Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist
This album blew me the fuck away. While Madlib helps Freddie get out of his comfort zone, I believe that the Alchemist moreso meets Freddie in his newly achieved comfort zone, making some of the best instrumentals Freddie has ever rapped over. Freddie goes way beyond coke rap on this one, touching on the grief and trauma he has endured with his family through his life and drug dealing. The beats are an exercise in 70’s prog and jazz guitar flips, absolute bangers that are consistently disguised with atmospheric glory. I simply cannot fathom how Alchemist made a jazz scale run on “Skinny Suge” into one of my favorite hip hops beats ever. Freddie got Tyler, The Creator to rap his most cold blooded verse ever over “Something to Rap About,” and even got Conway to step out of his shell to discuss the problems he has had being a father. This album created a perfect world that brings out the best material in everyone contributing to it. It truly has no misses and is proving to be the standard for 2020s hip hop onward.
1. Man Alive! - King Krule
Once I heard it, I knew this was it for me, my top album of 2020.
King Krule has been a favorite of mine from last decade. His innovative take on trip hop and indie rock is lacquered with his bizarre baritone croon that could only come out of a Delta Blues singer in the 1930’s… except its a fucking gangly ginger kid from South London. While 6 Feet Beneath The Moon was one of my favorites last decade, his last release The Ooz was a massive disappointment to say the least. It contained meandering songs with zero sense of identity and purpose. It was so comatose and lacking in the spirit and bite that King Krule brought on so many songs prior. It felt like someone giving up their talents and songwriting completely into a depressive state. That shit hurt.
However, where The Ooz failed is where Man Alive! succeeds, as Krule has returned to form by creating his best album yet. The first leg starts off with throttling post-punk anthems, but this time they’re covered with abstract soundplay and bizarre atmospheres. King Krule sounds like himself again, but more experienced and willing to push what makes him his best. However, the album takes a dip into the depths of depression, where its most harrowing and captivating material lies. This record is akin to Some Rap Songs by Earl Sweatshirt in so many senses, mainly through how it is the actual sound of depression and grief placed into an incredibly well thought, spur of the moment release. I will remember and cherish this album for years to come.
