The Odinary Playlist’s Best Albums of 2020
The albums that made my 2020.
Let the previous post do the intro. Here, I just wanna share the love letters I made for the albums that helped me go through 2020.
10. Riz Ahmed: The Long Goodbye
Style: Conscious Hip Hop, Spoken Word, South Asian Music
It’s a great thing that everyone acknowledges Riz Ahmed’s outstanding performance in Sound of Metal, but there isn’t much coverage of the greatness he’s done this year with music.
The Long Goodbye is a conceptual record that speaks out about the hate and prejudices subjected towards British-South Asians (specifically Moslems), especially in the wake of brexit. With the help of his superb acting skills, he also delivers some powerful spoken word performances throughout the record and it’s interesting how thematically he likens the relationship of moguls and Britain to his relationship with a toxic ex named Brittany.
Favorite Tracks: “The Breakup (Shikwa)”, “Toba Tek Singh”, & “Fast Lava”.
9. Moses Sumney: græ
Style: Art Pop, Neo Soul, Experimental
græ is a grand presentation of a simple yet crucial concept: understanding oneself and our gray nature. It’s an album (or a double album, if you will) that defy labels, but defined by one’s individuality. A self-reflection manifested into a series of sonic diversity.
Sure, there are some low moments due to inconsistency in here where it lacks solid songwriting or strong subject matter, especially on a few tracks in the second disc. But the highs are just too compelling to leave this record off this list.
Presenting his well-put artistic vision on “Cut Me”, tackling the traditional notions of masculinity on “Virile”, to performing vocal acrobat on “Me in 20 Years”, Moses Sumney had painted some of the greatest musical moments of 2020.
Favorite Tracks: “Virile”, “Conveyor”, & “Me in 20 Years”.
8. Jessie Ware: What’s Your Pleasure?
Style: Dance Pop, House, Disco
During a time where no dance club was open for the public, this album turned my bedroom floor into a dancefloor that was quite like nowhere else.
This record feels like a chamber of disco that’s fully decorated with the best variety of musical styles that emerged throughout the genre’s history — from Giorgio Moroder and Diana Ross, to Talking Heads and ESG, to modern acts like Robyn — and the whole chamber is illuminated by Jessie’s soulful and intimate vocals.
Despite the sexual tendencies, this album has some ballroom jam qualities to it that somehow feel appropriate to be played at grand/ceremonial types of occasions, especially the delicate final track, “Remember Where You Are”, which features elements of chamber folk.
Favorite Tracks: “Spotlight”, “Ooh La La”, & “Remember Where You Are”.
7. Code Orange: Underneath
Style: Metalcore, Industrial, Alternative Metal
Underneath is a brutal reflection on our current digitized society — depicted in a dystopian cyber world vision that somehow translates the musical aspect of this record.
Here, Code Orange presents us with sonic experimentation that seamlessly blends various palettes from the 90s alternative music — from industrial, metalcore, electronic, to grunge — with the futuristic, and glitchy production of today’s music, which has now officially become their signature sound. Using elements of the past and the current to broaden future possibilities.
Objectively speaking, with this record, it’s time to confirm Code Orange as the definitive hardcore band of this generation.
Favorite Tracks: “Last Ones Left”, “A Sliver”, & “Underneath”.
6. Fiona Apple: Fetch The Bolt Cutters
Style: Singer-songwriter, Alternative, Art Pop
There is, perhaps, no better album to describe the weird year of 2020 than Fiona Apple’s latest LP, Fetch the Bolt Cutters. This album is unlike any music you’ve heard before, or at least not within the popular music sphere.
On Fetch, we see Fiona Apple and her companies approach instruments in unorthodox ways, compose music in the rawest sense and produce it in the most organic manner, to evoke the ability to cause catharsis. With its philosophical yet sardonic lyricism, the album holds this strong message of how we should “Fetch the fucking bolt cutters and get yourself out of the situation you’re in”.
Favorite Tracks: “Newspaper”, “Ladies”, & “Heavy Balloon”.
5. The Strokes: The New Abnormal
Style: Indie Rock, Post Punk, Electronica
Joined by Rick Rubin behind the board, our indie rock veteran The Strokes is back with a collection of emotionally potent rock songs that bring us comfort in the time of new abnormality.
Slower, lengthier, and dreamier than their usual formula, this record sees Jules and friends embracing more electronic elements and taking more musical risks, showing how the band is still relevant to the current indie and alternative game while maintaining their typically cool, listless and tight swagger. Ultimately, it’s as beautiful as Basquiat’s painting on its cover.
Favorite Tracks: “The Adults Are Talking”, “Selfless”, & “Ode To The Mets”.
4. Rina Sawayama: SAWAYAMA
Style: Hyperpop, Alternative R&B, Nu Metal
I still remember the night I listened to SAWAYAMA for the first time when it premiered back in April. The album opened with “Dynasty”. I was first hesitant because Rina previously had a wonderful opener (“Ordinary Superstar”) on her previous record — how could she top it off? But then I had my first spin, and boy did it deliver. That night, “Dynasty” left me so moved and overwhelmingly emotional, I was on the verge of tears. I chose to stay for the rest of the tracklist.
Drawing on every aspect of her identity, through SAWAYAMA, Rina creates an expansive musical account of her personal identity. The lyrics also grapple with the issues of family and the inherited cycle of pain that runs within. With this album, Rina’s inviting the listeners to break the chain and figure out the world with her. It’s a mission statement, it’s a generational call to action. It’s a powerful body of work, it’s a moving piece.
Favorite Tracks: “Dynasty”, “Akasaka Sad”, & “Chosen Family”.
3. clipping.: Visions Of Bodies Being Burned
Style: Industrial Hip-Hop, Horrorcore, Noise
This album is a flex. What can I say about Daveed Diggs’ rap career? And also, what can I say about Jonathan Snipes and William Hutson infinite musical knowledge?
This avant-horrorcore piece does offer a challenging and unsettling listening experience through top-notch sound designs and masterful rapping skills in order to narrate a number of terrifying horror short stories.
It contains some of the most creative and boundary-pushing displays of sounds the trio have done in their career so far — and to the world of contemporary hip-hop (or even contemporary music in general), really. This album may one day be the most important artifact in the history of horrorcore music.
Favorite Tracks: “Say the Name”, “‘96 Neve Campbell (feat. Cam and China)”, & “She Bad”.
2. Phoebe Bridgers: Punisher
Style: Singer-songwriter, Indie Rock, Folk Rock
Honestly, I did not expect this album to be on this list, let alone making it a runner-up.
At first, I neglected the beauty of this album, calling the dreamy and heavily filtered production rather stupid and pretentious. However, on my first listen, I still believed that there was still a lot of interesting angles that Phoebe Bridgers presented to us here through her songwriting which led me to give the album a few more chances. It turns out that I’m the one who’s stupid and pretentious.
Now, I can finally understand and feel the beauty of these sonic decisions. In fact, the production on this thing is the number one aspect that uplifts the emotional potency of the songwriting into a powerful and robust set of tracks, which eventually, sets Punisher apart from the rest of Phoebe’s projects. Started out as a dismisser, I still to this day cry to it almost every night.
In a bigger context, Punisher sees Phoebe Bridgers expands her breakout from being an Elliott Smith successor to an indie darling, and finally, to becoming a defining voice of a generation. Her lyrics read like brutal confessions people make on Twitter, with an idiosyncratic level of wittiness. Not many artists especially in the indie scene these days have such a level of prolificacy as Phoebe, and not many artists even in the current pop sphere have garnered much attention like her. Definitely a year-defining album.
Favorite Tracks: “Punisher”, “Moon Song”, & “I Know The End”.
1. Perfume Genius: Set My Heart On Fire Immediately
Style: Art Pop, Baroque Pop, Experimental Pop
“Half of my whole life is gone”… Perhaps, there is no better line to describe my biggest fear in the uncertainty of 2020 than the opening line of Perfume Genius’ latest LP, Set My Heart On Fire Immediately.
Mike Hadreas’ lyrics mostly ponder on subjects of longing for love and acceptance, traumas and illnesses, bodies and sexual desires. But it’s not how he addresses these issues that fascinates me with this album — by the time he steps into his fifth LP, he no longer needs to justify his feelings and generally misunderstood identity.
“Let it drift and wash away”, reads the next line of the very same verse as the opening line of this writing.
It is how he teaches us how to react to circumstances with grace, elegance, and sincerity. To make peace with others, with the uncontrollable, with ourselves, with our body and our mind. There’s just so much optimism in this record — cathartic even. Exactly what we need in times like these.
Set My Heart On Fire Immediately somehow feels like an album that Mike has built the first decade of his career towards. It embodies everything from the understated beauty of Learning (2010), the intricate tenderness of Put Your Back N 2 It (2012), the eclecticism of Too Bright (2014), the cinematic and baroque sensibilities of No Shape (2017), as well as the exploration of body and movement, found in his recent collaboration with choreographer Kate Wallich called The Sun Still Burns Here (2019). While finding inspirations from classic pop/rock artists of the 50s to 90s, Mike uses all these elements to expand the physical expressions of rock music.
This record is lush, alive, and moving. Every instrumental is built to sync with physical movements, and every layer constantly brings listeners into an unexpected new world of soundscapes.
Not only does this album set my heart on fire, but it also does set my body on liberation, and set my mind on restfulness.
Favorite Tracks: “Without You”, “On the Floor”, & “Nothing at All”.
