Current: 2020 Album of the Year
By Resonate | January 20, 2021
2020 was one hell of a shit show. After slugging our way through it I’m sure we are all opening our arms to what 2021 could bring. However, this is a perfect time to look back at the diamonds in the rough, the true gems that shone through and got us to the other side. Here is Resonate’s picks of the best albums of 2020.
Boston Manor – GLUE
Since their humble beginnings in 2014 as a run-of-the-mill Tumblr pop-punk band from Blackpool, Boston Manor have come on leaps and bounds. 2018’s Welcome to the Neighbourhood saw the band make a statement not be bound by the shackles of their previous releases (thank god!), but it is 2020’s GLUE where the band really came into their own, creating one of the best records of the year. It may be a cop-out cliché to use the word mature when talking about a band’s change in sound, but here there is no better way to describe the depth and intricacies of GLUE. The top-notch pacing is evident from the incendiary 1’s & 0’s, through to the eerie Stuck in the Mud; every track is precisely placed and the end result is a strong contender for album of the year.
Grimes – Miss Antropocene
The Anthropocene is the proposed name for the epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on earth’s ecosystems. Hence, the titling of Grimes’ Miss Anthropocene release is very fitting for the disastrous 12 months we had to slug our way through. But, it’s not all doom and gloom. Everyone’s favourite avant-garde art-pop alien princess’ 5th studio album was an interstellar release. The sounds of the album are fittingly dark with all the qualities to a soundtrack to a dystopian video game, complimented by Grimes’ experimental attitude to creating music. With five incredible albums to date she has cemented herself as a true innovator of our times. As both her music and her interesting private life take her to icon status, we can be sure that the 2020’s will be a decade dominated by Grimes.
The Spitfires – Life Worth Living
Life Worth Living is the latest release from Watford Mod trio The Spitfires. After being written off by the press as a copy of The Jam’ or Paul Weller fanboys, I’m pleased to say they’ve struck a chord with an impressive fourth album that shows a more sensitive, well thought out and melody-driven collection of tracks. While there is much more on offer for passive audiences, the hardcore fanbase won’t find themselves leaving anytime soon. Whether it’s the raw and punk sound of (Just Won’t) Keep Me Down or the brilliant It Can’t Be Done, with a canvas of synths, brass and samples, it’s a far cry from the simple three-chord beginnings of the band. An album with a combination of ska, soul, reggae, post-punk and everything in-between may sound like a difficult blend – let me assure you it’s not and you should sample it for yourself.
Conducta – The Kiwi Sound
Undoubtedly a contender for Album of the Year, UKG label Kiwi Records’ compilation album, The Kiwi Sound, is the recent pinnacle of collaborative excellence present in the UK garage, grime and bass community. Released in March 2020, the 38-track body of work mastered by label head and producer Conducta, is all emotive basslines, lacey female vocals, balanced with a stomping party tempo that is unavoidable and infectious. UKG (since the 90s) has always cut through, holding underground relevance but has also been naturally polished and accessible to the masses with its pop sensibilities. This prestigious anthology of new breed UKG is fiercer, more united and draws upon the influences and success of the scene’s original subgenres. The contributors’ roster features some holier-than-thou artists including; Sammy Virji, Sharda, Y U QT, Reece West, Jaykae, Morgan Munroe, with remixes including Jorja Smith, Wiley, Stefflon Don. I put it to any label in any genre to outdo the volume and quality of what Kiwi Records have put out to the world this year, in spite of such a challenging 12 months for everyone.
The Strokes – The New Abnormal
Remember the first lockdown? It seemed like everywhere you looked there were forced smiles and “keep calm and carry on” attitudes. As people coped with baking, sit-ups in the living room or bingeing Tiger King, the mechanism that many needed was a new set of doomer anthems to soundtrack our lockdown introspection sessions, and boy did The Strokes deliver.
Despite being formed long before the idea of national lockdowns and social distancing, The New Abnormal was a perfect album for 2020. Not only for its disturbingly prescient title, but all nine tracks on this album are drenched in pure Strokes ennui. Even the more musically upbeat tracks like the disco-infused Brooklyn Bridge to Chorus, or the throwback Bad Decisions, sees Julian Casablancas’ doleful drawl and despondent lyrics add a tinge of something melancholic.
The New Abnormal is a perfect fit for the times we find ourselves in, but also a look inside the minds of 45 somethings reflecting on their lives, careers and relationships. Drenched in nostalgia and introspection and filled with details that will keep us listening for years to come, it is The Strokes at their best.
The Garden – Kiss My Super Bowl Ring
Another contender has to be Southern California’s prolific demi-gods The Garden, with Kiss My Super Bowl Ring, released on Epitaph in March 2020. The twin-brother-duo consisting of primary vocalist and guitarist Wyatt, and drummer Fletcher Shears, have created a thing of beauty with legitimate destruction. Anti-pop guitar hooks, a discrete obsession with ragga jungle beats, and futuristic lo-fi production run alongside constant ASMR schizophrenic whispers which deviate to harsh screeches. All this is pushed by break-neck horror-core drumming adding elements of predestined experimental chaos, appropriate for the calamitous year.
Their self-described eruptive and unhindered ‘Vada Vada’ sound breaks genre boundaries are ever-present on the 11 tracks. Clench to Stay Awake is a teasingly ominous endeavour, which hassles the listener into a grunge sutured safety-net, before quickly ensuing into horror-core punk. Sneaky Devil, Kiss My Super Bowl Ring, Hit Eject and Please, Fuck Off are fusion-tracks, melting dnb influences over the indie death-core main course. It could be found in a mid-2000’s RAM Records discography, lurking in the realms the post-punk revivalists such as Parquet Courts, and the shatteringly hardcore Show Me the Body.
This album serves to stand for self-empowerment, self-searching and ultimately youthful self-disrupting, with experimentation that could never put The Garden into one static genre pool.
Krust – The Edge of Everything
After a lengthy hiatus, Bristol-born super-producer, Kirk Thompson (better known as Krust) came bounding back with the most forward thinking, dark and eclectic electronic album of 2020. The Edge of Everything takes his origins as a respected pioneer of jungle and DnB as a starting point, allowing the listener to revel in this much anticipated follow up to his 1999 jazz-step album, Coded Language.
This album is a film. A true Francis Ford Coppola epic. The imagery present throughout the record, such as the ranging swirls and sirens layered through the 12-minute-plus long Constructive Ambiguity, transport the listener. Beyond glacial mountains, beneath the darkest chasms, where, in the cold and crust, a strange allure pounds away and echoes with the drum loops.
The LP opens with Hegel Dialect, effortlessly swooning from expansive half-time rhythms to deep driving DnB laced with jungle fanaticism. In 7 Known Truths and Space Oddity, Krust melts the walls with reverb and tremolo fine cured hard-tek. Every bleach-soaked synth and dark drum scene painted seems to offer a dial or light, as in Negative Returns. Only to quickly dissolve as a bass revelation takes over. The album has birthed several tantalising remix EPs with features from renowned artists Calibre, Four Tet and LCY.
Something for fans old and new, The Edge of Everything will truly broaden the listener’s understanding of not only who Krust is, but where electronic sound can take you.
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