Best Music of 2020

2020. Bad for living. Great for music. Well, not live music. And not so much for musicians either. But it was great for listening to music while holed up in a bunker waiting for a vaccine.

Here’s what Parties with Townies has been listening to during our pandemic hiatus, starting with Caleb’s picks.

Want to listen? We created a playlist for you on Spotify.

Caleb’s top 50 albums

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1. Neon Skyline - Andy Shauf

Since March, I’ve been locked away from friends, bars, and the mundane misadventures that used to define my life. But, thanks to Shauf's masterful songwriting, I could vicariously waste time with Judy, Charlie, Claire, Rose, and all of the other townies at the Neon Skyline.

Sample lyric: “I’m wasting time. Sometimes there’s no better feeling than that.”

Song pick: “Try Again”

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2. Fetch the Bolt Cutters - Fiona Apple

An album that more than lives up to the hype: dog barks, hand claps, alliterative scats, windworn philosophy, survivalist feminism, and oceans of soul. This is the music Yoko Ono would have made if she had John Lennon’s ear for melody.

Sample lyric: “I would beg to disagree, but begging disagrees with me.”

Song pick: “Ladies”

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3. Set My Heart on Fire Immediately - Perfume Genius

Perfume Genius makes me miss David Bowie less.

Sample lyric: “Touch me deep before you leave, just enough to find me.”

Song pick: “Without You”

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4. folklore - Taylor Swift

Saying that this is my favorite Taylor Swift album is like saying that JT is my favorite NSyncer or that Mary is my favorite Trump. It's not even close. Folklore combines the character sketches of Swift's best early work (e.g., "Tim McGraw," "Our Song") with the consistency of 1989, and the indie aesthetic of Bon Iver, Jack Antonoff, and the National.

Sample lyric: “Every time you call me crazy, I get more crazy”

Song pick: “Last Great American Dynasty”

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5. Reunions - Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

Another home run from Isbell and his Unit. This album inspired its own blog post back in May. Read it here.

Sample lyric: “Be afraid. Be very afraid. Do it anyways.”

Song pick: “It Gets Easier”

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6. Punisher - Phoebe Bridgers

Phoebe Bridgers’ songs have more shades of blue than eskimos have words for snow.

Sample lyric: “I’m not angry, that’s just my face.”

Song pick: “I Know the End”

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7. Untitled (Rise) - Sault

No Blood Orange or Solange in 2020? No problem. Sault released two albums to quench your thirst for soulful, funky, trippy, experimental R&B.

Sample lyric: “They’re not gonna conquer us. Feel the resistance.”

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8. Live Forever - Bartees Strange

Strange is an alchemist who forges gold from Kings-of-Leon-arena-rock and Sault(see #7)-Sweatshirt(Earl, that is)-space-aged R&B in his phenomenal debut.

Sample lyric: “Don’t come up out of the crib if you ain’t strange, babe.”

Song pick: “Mustang”

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9. Decatur County Red - Jessi Alexander

Songs about southern highways, drinking, Mama, and George Jones. My favorite country album of the year.

Sample lyric: “Fifty-hour week, no fun, no sleep, pulling that overtime. It's a delicate dance working like a man while you're keeping your apron tied.”

Song pick: “Mama Drank”

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10. The Unraveling - Drive-by Truckers

DBT fully embrace their role as the "Dance Band of the Resistance" on this politically charged album about addiction (Heroin Again), suburban decay (21st Century USA), ineffectual politicians (Thoughts and Prayers), and human right catastrophes (Babies in Cages).

Sample lyric: “Men working hard for not enough at best. Women working just as hard for less. They get together late at night at bars, and bang each other like crashing cars.”

Song pick: “Armageddon’s Back in Town”

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11. Starting Over - Chris Stapleton

The title is misleading. Starting Over continues Stapleton's brand of country, soul, rock. I'm happy to have been misled.

Sample lyric: “You want me to say that I want you stay, so you should probably leave.”

Song pick: “Starting Over”

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12. Letter to You - Bruce Springsteen

Springsteen and E. Street Band recorded this album using the approach that created Darkness on the Edge of Town, the River, and Born in the USA. The result is an album that sounds like something they might have recorded in the late 1970s. It's also Springsteen's best work in decades, an album built for aimless Friday night driving while searching for a party that you’re sure is just around the corner... a needed feeling in 2020.

Sample lyric: “I’m the last man standing now.”

Song pick: “Ghosts”

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13. A Hero’s Death - Fountaines D.C.

The soundtrack of angry Irish rain.

Sample lyric: “The clouds cleared up. The sun hit the sky. I watched all the folks go to work just to die.”

Song pick: “Living in America”

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14. RTJ4 - Run the Jewels

Run the Jewels are often compared to Public Enemy, but they have thirty extra years of music to sample. I also think that RTJ’s flow, lyrics, and beats are more versatile than Flav et al.

Sample lyric: “If even one scrap of what Jesus taught connected, you'd feel different.”

Song pick: “Walking in the Snow”

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15. Women in Music, Part III - Haim

My poolside album of the summer.

Sample lyric: “You say there's no stupid question, only stupid people. Well I've been feeling pretty foolish.”

Song pick: “The Steps”

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16. Dixie Blur - Jonathan Wilson

Laurel Canyon country for the 21st Century. Graham Parsons would be proud.

Sample lyric: “Missing someone is a kind of hurt a heart should be grateful to feel.”

Song pick: “‘69 Corvette”

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17. Lianne La Havas (self-titled)

Pairs perfectly with a Black Manhattan or Campari Spritz.

Sample lyric: “You can find me dancing on my own.”

Song pick: “Bittersweet”

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18. Shore - Fleet Foxes

Fleet Foxes have made four excellent albums.This is my second favorite (after 2011's Helplessness Blues).

Sample lyric: “May the last long year be forgiven.”

Song pick: “Maestranza”

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19. American Head - The Flaming Lips

Their best album since Yoshimi. Feels just as trippy but more grounded.

Sample lyric: “"Mother, I've taken LSD. I thought it would set me free, but now I think it's changed me."

Song pick: “Mother Don’t Be Sad”

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20. That’s How Rumors Get Started - Margo Price

Another triumph from the Loretta Lynn protégé.

Sample lyric: “Way back in the good old days, things weren’t really all that good.”

Song pick: “That’s How Rumors Get Started”

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21. Gold Record - Bill Callahan

An auteur at the top of his game.

Sample lyric: “I protest his protest song. I’d vote for Satan if he said it was wrong.”

Song pick: “Pigeons”

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22. Good News - Megan Thee Stallion

Megan was everywhere this year from writing op-eds in the New York Times to crushing the charts with an ode to vaginal lubrication (see WAP).

Sample lyric: “I’m the hood Mona Lisa”

Song pick: “Body”

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23. Silver Tongue - Torres

I will never understand how Torres gets dropped from her label while Muse sells out stadiums. Silver Tongue and Sprinter run laps around the vampire schmaltz that saturates Muse's catalogue. (The rest of PWT dig Muse - I’m the outlier here.)

Sample lyric: “You make me want to write a country song [that] folks here in New York would get a kick out of. I'd sing about knocking you up under the Tennessee stars in the bed of my red Chevrolet pickup.”

Song pick: “Good Scare”

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24. Caretaker - Half Waif

Contemporary trip hop.

Sample lyric: “If this doesn’t change me, nothing will.”

Song pick: “Ordinary Talk”

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25. Grae - Moses Sumney

I first heard Moses Sumney on a Grateful Dead tribute album, which is like discovering the Waggles on a Slayer bootleg. This album took a few listens to grow on me, but that is true of most music that eschews easy.

Sample lyric: “If there’s no pain, is there any progress?”

Song pick: “Cut Me”

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26. Alfredo - Freddie Gibbs / Alchemist

The lyrics are straight outta the early 1990s Compton. The beats might still be ahead of their time in the 2090s.

Sample lyric: “I'm the reason your mama be smokin' that Brillo.”

Song pick: “God is Perfect”

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27. Ghosts of West Virginia - Steve Earle & the Dukes

The Godfather of alt-country dropped the most cohesive album of his career and his best in decades.

Sample lyric: “Half a life is better than nothing at all.”

Song pick: “Black Lung”

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28. Daughter - Lydia Loveless

I discovered Lydia Loveless nearly a decade ago on "Bootliquor Radio." She was good then, and she keeps getting better.

Sample lyric: “I've been patiently taking my time. Or I'm just lazy, your guess is as good as mine.”

Song pick: “Daughter”

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29. Bonnie Light Horseman (self-titled)

I didn't know I needed a collection of old-timey Irish ballads, but I'm happy I got it.

Sample lyric: “I've wandered through Kerry and I've wandered through Claire, from Boston down to Jersey, from there to God knows where. And I've never met a cailín’ with such beauty blessed, as the one so fair in the magpie's nest.”

Song pick: “Magpie’s Nest”

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30. St. Cloud - Waxahatchee

The music stands up with Dylan's best work from the late 60s. The lyrics are a step below, but it's only one of those little steps that are easy to trip over because they’re so short and that make you wonder why in the world the builder bothered to build such a diminutive step in the first place.

Sample lyric: “We do stupid things in the right way.”

Song pick: “Ruby Falls”

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31. Melee - Dogleg

Best hard rock album of the year. Reminds me of And You Will Know Us by the Trail of the Dead.

Sample lyric: “Any moment now I will disintegrate.”

Song pick: “Headfirst”

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32. Superstar - Caroline Rose

Snarky self-affirmation with a side of rock and roll.

Sample lyric: “I’m so in love with myself; it’s so romantic.”

Song pick: “Feel the Way I Want to”

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33. Never Will - Ashley McBryde

Sample lyric: “It ain’t murder if I bury you alive.”

I'm not sure that her arguments would hold up in a court of law, but they sound great on a twangy rock and roll record.

Song pick: “Martha Divine”

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34. Heavy Light - US Girls

Part Bowie. Part P.J. Harvey. All delightful.

Sample lyric: “There’s nothing to lose when you become a sound.”

Song pick: “Born to Lose”

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35. A Written Testimony - Jay Electronica

Reminds me of another rapper named Jay.

Sample lyric: “Spread love like Kermit the frog that permeate the fog.”

Song pick: “Ghost of Soulja Slim”

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36. Naked Garden - Lukas Nelson & The Promise of the Real

Nelson and crew don't break new ground with Naked Garden, but they continue to till rich soil.

Sample lyric: “Focus on the peace that music brings. Nothing else matters.”

Song pick: “Civilized Hell”

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37. Pauline - Ashley Ray

Packed with Americana, wit, and wisdom.

Sample lyric: "Behind every good man, there's a better woman.”

Song pick: “Lawrence, Kansas”

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38. Notes on a Conditional Form - The 1975

If 'bombasticity" is a word, it describes this album.

Sample lyric: “My generation wanna fuck Barack Obama living in a sauna with legal marijuana.”

Song pick: “Birthday Party”

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39. The Slow Rush - Tame Impala

Some records demand close attention. Others are better as background music. Tame Impala records fall halfway in between. It's best to attend enough to appreciate the arrangements but not to prevent you from drifting with sound.

Sample lyric: “Eventually, terrible memories turn into great ones.”

Song pick: “Lost in Yesterday”

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40. Inlet - Hum

Adam loved this album so much it has its own post. Check it out

Sample lyric: “Everything here isn’t true.”

Song pick: “Step Into You”

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41. Every Bad - Porridge Radio

According to Wikipedia, Porridge Radio's music was inspired by the Brighten sea. It must be a sea where shudders and raincoats are more useful than sunscreen and water wings.

Sample lyric: “I’m bored to death, let’s argue.”

Song pick: “Born Confused”

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42. Total Freedom - Kathleen Edwards

After her last record, Edwards took a sabbatical to open a cafe. She was probably good at making coffee, but she is definitely great at writing songs, and I’m glad she’s back at it.

Sample lyric: “We had a tour bus with a bed in the back. We bought a rock and roll dream. It was total crap. We toured the world, and we played TV. We met some of our heroes. It almost killed me.”

Song pick: “Options Open”

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43. Old Flowers - Courtney Marie Andrews

Confessional piano ballads with a country lilt.

Sample lyric: “I know I can’t change, but for you I’d compromise”

Song pick: “Guilty”

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44. Rough and Rowdy Ways - Bob Dylan

Like Leonard Cohen, Dylan has aged into his voice. His words continue to be timeless.

Sample lyric: “I paint landscapes, and I paint nudes. I contain multitudes.”

Song pick: “I Contain Multitudes”

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45. Myopia - Agnes Obel

The best way to listen to this album is when you realize that you're dreaming but you’re not yet awake. That is to say, "Broken Sleep" and "Myopia" live up to their titles.

Sample lyric: “The camera’s rolling, what will you do?”

Song pick: “Broken Sleep”

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46. Good Luck with Whatever - Dawes

Dawes have yet to make a bad album. Good Luck with Whatever is not my favorite by Goldsmith and company, but "St. Augustine at Night" stands with "A Little Bit of Everything" and "All Your Favorite Bands" as masterworks of nostalgic realism.

Sample lyric: “I never put off tomorrow what I should have done today. I always wait much longer than that.”

Song pick: “St. Augustine at Night”

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47. The New OK - Drive-by Truckers

This surprise gift from DBT continued the political furor of The Unraveling by combining topical malaise (“Watching Orange Clouds”), prescient outtakes (“The Unraveling”), and a foot-stomping Ramones cover (“The KKK Took My Baby Away”).

Sample lyric: Sarah Palin “made PC worse to mama than the VD daddy brought home from the rodeo. She made it look so easy, all fat Donnie had to do was wear the pants.”

Song pick: “Sarah’s Flame”

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48. Always Tomorrow - Best Coast

I remember listening to this album while running the Mission Beach boardwalk at the end of February. Simpler times.

Sample lyric: “Let's toast the bad years behind us, and quit pretending this one's better.”

Song pick: “For the First Time”

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49. Imploding the Mirage - The Killers

I never know whether the Killers are trying to be Journey or Ween, or whether that should matter. Better to not overthink it and enjoy breathing in the blowback.

Sample lyric: “There's gonna be opposition. Ain't no way around it. But if you're looking for strong and steady, baby you found it.”

Song pick: “Caution”

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50. After Hours - The Weeknd

If you like 80s pop you will love this album. If you don't like 80s pop (guilty), you might dance to it anyways.

Sample lyric: “I just pretend I’m in the dark”

Song pick: “Blinded by the Lights”

Songs - Caleb’s picks

“People I’ve Been Sad” Christine & the Queens

“WAP” Cardi B. & Megan Thee Stallion

“The Nationalist Anthem” Sincere Gifts

“Texas Sun” Leon Bridges & Khraungbin

“Family Farm” The Hold Steady

“Only the Young” Taylor Swift

“Children of Coyote Woman” All Them Witches

“When You Cross Over” Ryan Adams

“Joey” Samantha Crain

“Can’t Be There Today” Billy Bragg

Adam’s Picks

Inlet - Hum

Fetch the Bolt Cutters - Fiona Apple

Nothing as the Ideal - All Them Witches

Ghosts V & VI - Nine Inch Nails

Josh’s picks

“Broke” Teddy Swim

“WAP” Cardi B. & Megan Thee Stallion

“Goodbyes” Sublime w/Rome

“Sugar High” Harry Styles

“I Hope” Gabby Barrett

John’s Picks

John chose Lana Del Rey's Norman Fucking Rockwell!, which I would argue is not eligible, but was my favorite album of 2019. Even when we play a different song, we end up on the same note.