Hindsight is 2020

Yoo, as my punny title indicates, here are my top albums of 2020. Just to get this backlog out of the way, they'll be in the same rapid-fire format as 2019's list. Enjoy!

Bored Charli creating how i'm feeling now was honestly the best thing corona had to offer.

1. Charli XCX - how i'm feeling now. Charli invented the lockdown album. Chock full of melodies and toplines that would make Lady Gaga jealous, with lyrics written with fans over Instagram lives, and incredible production by hyperpop godfather A. G. Cook, how i'm feeling now perfectly captured what we were all feeling, and soundtracked basically every day of my 2020.
• detonate
• visions
• pink diamond
• forever
2. Black Dresses - Peaceful as Hell. This is the most aggressive peaceful album ever. Noise pop virtuosos Black Dresses cross industrial, bubblegum pop and metal with flick-of-the-wrist ease on this beautiful, touching testament to the power of friendship. It belongs to the story that the band called it quits shortly after the release of Peaceful as Hell due to anti-transgender online harassment following their newfound micro-fame. Luckily Devi and Rook are back at it releasing more amazing music, in a vein that no one else quite seems able to capture.
• CREEP U
• DAMAGE SUPPRESSOR
• BEAUTIFUL FRIENDSHIP
3. Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters. The sound of a different sort of isolation. Keeping the world waiting for eight years, this is what it sounds like when musical genius Fiona Apple holes up in her house, decides she doesn't need to make anyone happy anymore, and records the album she wants to make with only the help of her dog, her sister, and the sounds of the walls of her house and her mind.
• Cosmonauts
• I want you to love me
• Shameika
4. Cezinando - Et Godt Stup i et Grunt Vann. I completely fell for the beautiful wordsmithing, great production and stark and emotionally vulnerable performances on this mini-album. Easily Norway's best at his game, pushing the boundaries for what a rap artist can be.
• Hore og Madonna
• Krokodilletårer
• Spiderman
5. Perfume Genius - Set my Heart on Fire Immediately. Mike Hadreas' least painful album yet, and possibly his most enjoyable. The quality of the singles is through the roof.
1. Nothing at all
2. Your body changes everything
3. Describe
4. On the floor
6. Sufjan Stevens - The Ascension. It wasn't a given that this album would exist. That Sufjan had another Magnum Opus in him. But he did. It's his most divisive yet, but the highlights reach the same stratospheric heights as before, and the flow state of especially the album's third quarter is heavenly.
• The Ascension
• Make me an offer I cannot refuse
• Sugar
7. Dorian Electra - My Agenda. An absolute power demonstration from the iconic destroyer of every societal norm. It's heavier, more frantic and more chaotic than Flamboyant, but with the same characteristic provocativeness, and one of the cleverest albums to follow 1000 gecs in spirit rather than in sound.
• Gentlemen / M'Lady [yes I'll count them as one]
• Sorry bro (I love you)
• Ram it down
8. The Strokes - The New Abnormal. After lead single "At the door" my door was wide open welcoming the return of the indie kings. For the first time in very very long, they did what they had to do, and they did it well.
• At the door
• Ode to the Mets
• The adults are talking
9. Adrianne Lenker - songs. A stops you in your tracks type acoustic singer-songwriter album. Reaches, no, consistently dwells, at emotional heights that few others can touch.
• anything
• forwards beckon rebound
• zombie girl
10. Yves Tumor - Heaven to a Tortured Mind. Continuing the seamless transition from their noise/industrial /ambient roots, Yves Tumor incorporates troubled songwriting and glam rock riffs into a vivid collage.
• Kerosene!
• Gospel for a new century

Black Dresses' Peaceful as Hell takes 2020's second slot. Thankfully it's back on Spotify now that the band can handle the limelight!

Honorable mentions

• Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy Ways. A masterclass from the 80 year old wielding his voice and his pen as the sharpest possible weapons. 
• Murder most foul
• Black rider
• I contain multitudes
• Moses Sumney - Græ. A fascinating artist whose only fault on this double album is wanting a bit too much. Can't wait for Moses' next step, and till I finally get to see him live (another March 2020 cancellation!).
• Me in 20 years
• Neither/nor
• Conveyor
• Run the Jewels - RTJ4. Killer Mike and El-P are simply incapable of missing. It's both fun and deadly serious.
• a few words for the firing squad (radiation)
• goonies vs. E.T.
• JU$T
• Hatari - Neyslutrans. Høh! Long-awaited debut album from Iceland's favorite anti-capitalist industrial BDSM techno metal performance project of 2019 Eurovision fame. They're slightly scraping the bottom of a not too deep barrel making this a full-length, but all the iconic essentials are here plus a decent handful of new bangers.
• Klámstrákur
• Klefi / Samed
• Hatrið mun sigra
• Fleet Foxes - Shore. Just Robin Pecknold quietly perfecting his craft. While lacking the universal appeal of Fleet Foxes' early days, or the grand ambition of Crack-Up, it's hard to deny the pure beauty and craftsmanship on display on Shore. I shore appreciate it more after hanging out with Robin on his School of song!
• Can I believe you
• Jara
• Sunblind
• Poppy - I Disagree. Following the fraught Grimes collab "Play destroy", 2019's terrifying Choke EP, and the glam rock tAtU cover "All the things she said", Poppy's fascinating transition from enigmatic bubblegum popper to disembodied satanist is complete. This record has no business being as good as it is.
• Concrete
• Anything like me
• Don't go outside