Rock Club Denver Vol. 37 — Best of 2020

The Theme

Another year come and gone and another time for the best of the annual Rock Club! This has been a favorite of many regular Rock Club members for years as it’s our chance to go back to listen to critically acclaimed music we may have missed.

We start by reviewing end-of-year lists from major music publications. We have looked at Pitchfork, Stereogum, Rolling Stone, and Spin every year and other years have integrated other publications to view their lists.

The lists are organized here for easy viewing. In that Google Doc, you can view the last four year’s best-of lists as well as best-of the 2010 decade.

The Process

We used JQBX (pronounced Jukebox) again. It requires a Spotify Premium subscription, but it works flawlessly.

The Actual Rock Club

We gathered in JQBX and also on Houseparty to talk while we listened to music. It takes a bit of extra effort as everyone needs to use two screens to accomplish this, but Rock Club has always been about the conversation as it has been the music.

We always enjoy trying to predict which album would be played the most. The first guess was Phoebe Bridgers or Fiona Apple. After it’s over, we always remark at which album was actually played the most. The big surprises were Future Islands and Fleet Foxes!

The Playlist

Originally published at https://www.thisisrockclub.com on January 11, 2021.