My Top Records of 2020 (So Far)

A weird amount of good music has given 2020 one point of pride amidst an otherwise complicated year (to put it lightly). All the chaos we’ve seen and legitimate uncertainty within the music industry has made all the great new records a lesser priority in our world. That may not be fully true, but the internet makes it easy to think that people’s interests are limited to complaining about Zoom and other non-musical trends of the moment.

My favorite records from the front half of the year could hold a fiddle in any end of year list from the past decade. Unless the second half of the year is a dud, these records will probably make my end of year list a tough bargain to put together.

These records are purely my favorites, so my apologies if this list doesn’t match up to greater “discourse” of music critics (and sorry if it lines up a little too closely). None of these records are ranked in any order, but I divided the listing up into a few buckets that give a sense of what I enjoyed the most.

My Top Five

Run the Jewels – RTJ4

Killer Mike and El-P’s music has had a special place with me for years. The idea of RTJ4 being anything more than another great record from an elite duo seemed pretty simple, but this record is another rock of excellence for the pair.

The RTJ formula of rock solid production, expert flows, and stellar guest spots is all in tact, but with the dense, 40-minute fervor that made the band’s sophomore record such a success. Run the Jewels writes music for revolutions, and it’s only fitting that we received another game changer from the duo in the midst of an uprising of our own.

Bad Bunny – YHLQMDLG

Bad Bunny’s career has quickly sent him to the global forefront of Spanish-language pop in the U.S. and Latin America, and YHLQMDLG capitalized on this moment in all the right ways. Released within the month of Bad Bunny’s appearance in this year’s Super Bowl halftime display of Latinx excellence, it’s quite fitting that this powerhouse of a record came when it did.

The record’s infectious pop melodies have no boundaries, and serve as the blueprint of pop music’s future, giving us a genre-bending experience that holds strong in its reggaeton roots. Bad Bunny knocked a boulder into the stylistic and linguistic walls of pop music that he had already begun to transcend. This record is simply assurance that his dominance is only just beginning.

Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia

Mimicking the steps of Carly Rae Jepsen and Charli XCX, Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia shows us what picture perfect pop is meant to be when craft, rather than commercial success alone, is at the core. The record captures its name perfectly, giving us a futuristic sound rooted in classic tricks that click together so well.

The record’s pacing pushes and pulls in the right ways, making it an infectious listen that is hard to put down. In a world without coronavirus, this summer and the next would have been Dua Lipa’s world, driven by the expertly-produced romps that make her impossible to ignore.

HAIM – Women in Music, Pt. III

Women In Music, Pt. III seemed to blend into a busy release calendar, but it deserves full recognition for taking HAIM’s sound to the next level. I have struggled to fully embrace the band beyond their singles, but this record moved the needle for me. It mirrors Dua Lipa in its seamless blend of new and old sounds to create a wonderfully dynamic, guitar-driven sound.

Danielle Haim, Rostam Batmanglij, and Ariel Rechtshaid take cues from their shared experience on Vampire Weekend’s Father of the Bride, turning that record’s weaknesses into HAIM’s greatest strengths this time around. The melodic highs of their sunniest melodies and crunchy guitars drive the album forward, while giving space to flip those assets into intimate reflection that is as timeless as anything you might hear this year.

Dogleg – Melee

Dogleg was one of the last bands I saw live before COVID took full form, and Melee captures their greatest strengths perfectly. The band’s sound was menacingly simple but resoundingly cathartic, taking melodic tendencies and amplifying them through dense musicianship and louder influences to send waves through the crowd.

The record’s combination of hardcore and indie rock creates an emotionally invigorating sound that unleashes its power from front to back. Dogleg understands that the power of these sounds do not come in isolation, and require a dedication to excellent songwriting to give a record like Melee the cathartic elements that define it.