Year-End Lists

A hand-curated, browsable index of notable year-end lists. Follow the link for each list to see essential commentary from its author, at the source.
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Highlights

2020
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Mojo: 75 Best Albums of 2020

16 November 2020

Rough and Rowdy Ways - Bob Dylan

Mojo Magazine: 75 Best Albums of 2020

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011]

  1. Rough and Rowdy Ways
    Bob Dylan
  2. Fetch the Bolt Cutters
    Fiona Apple
  3. A Hero's Death
    Fontaines D.C.
  4. Gold Record
    Bill Callahan
  5. Shore
    Fleet Foxes
  6. England Is a Garden
    Cornershop
  7. Beyond the Pale
    Jarv Is
  8. RTJ4
    Run the Jewels
  9. Punisher
    Phoebe Bridgers
  10. American Head
    The Flaming Lips
  11. On Sunset
    Paul Weller
  12. Ultra Mono
    Idles
  13. Græ
    Moses Sumney
  14. Rejoice
    Tony Allen and Hugh Masekela
  15. U Kin B the Sun
    Frazey Ford
  16. Idiot Prayer
    Nick Cave
  17. Song for Our Daughter
    Laura Marling
  18. Got to Be Tough
    Toots and the Maytals
  19. Untitled (Black Is)
    Sault
  20. SOURCE
    Nubya Garcia
  21. Straight Songs of Sorrow
    Mark Lanegan
  22. Thanks for the Dance
    Leonard Cohen
  23. We Are Sent Here by History
    Shabaka and the Ancestors
  24. Dark Matter
    Moses Boyd
  25. A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip
    Sparks
  26. Mordechai
    Khruangbin
  27. Traditional Techniques
    Stephen Malkmus
  28. Heart's Ease
    Shirley Collins
  29. It Is What It Is
    Thundercat
  30. Old Wow
    Sam Lee
  31. Folklore
    Taylor Swift
  32. Coriky
    Coriky
  33. Three
    The Necks
  34. La Vita Nuova
    Maria McKee
  35. Summerlong
    Rose City Band
  36. The Unraveling
    Drive-By Truckers
  37. Future Nostalgia
    Dua Lipa
  38. Good Souls Better Angels
    Lucinda Williams
  39. Women in Music Pt. III
    Haim
  40. By the Fire
    Thurston Moore
  41. The Slow Rush
    Tame Impala
  42. Countless Branches
    Bill Fay
  43. Mutable Set
    Blake Mills
  44. Gigaton
    Pearl Jam
  45. Letter to You
    Bruce Springsteen
  46. Live at the Roundhouse
    Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets
  47. Fall to Pieces
    Tricky
  48. Out of My Province
    Nadia Reid
  49. Lianne La Havas
    Lianne La Havas
  50. The Ascension
    Sufjan Stevens
  51. You Make Me Feel
    Don Bryant
  52. Untitled (Rise)
    Sault
  53. Kitchen Sink
    Nadine Shah
  54. Good Luck, Seeker
    The Waterboys
  55. I Love the New Sky
    Tim Burgess
  56. Quickies
    The Magnetic Fields
  57. Optimisme
    Songhoy Blues
  58. Working Men's Club
    Working Men's Club
  59. The Night Chancers
    Baxter Dury
  60. The Universal Want
    Doves
  61. Peoples Motel Band
    Chris Forsyth with Garcia Peoples
  62. Revel in the Drama
    Ren Harvieu
  63. Making a Door Less Open
    Car Seat Headrest
  64. Songs for the General Public
    The Lemon Twigs
  65. Hyperspace
    Beck
  66. Bonny Light Horseman
    Bonny Light Horseman
  67. Suite for Max Brown
    Jeff Parker
  68. The Big Exercise
    The Homesick
  69. Made of Rain
    The Psychedelic Furs
  70. Whole New Mess
    Angel Olsen
  71. Making a New World
    Field Music
  72. 10:20
    Wire
  73. Reunions
    Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit
  74. Heavy Light
    U.S. Girls
  75. Sideways to New Italy
    Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever

Uncut: 75 Best Albums of 2020

14 November 2020

Rough and Rowdy Ways - Bob Dylan

Uncut Magazine: 75 Best Albums of 2020

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012]

  1. Rough and Rowdy Ways
    Bob Dylan
  2. Shore
    Fleet Foxes
  3. Punisher
    Phoebe Bridgers
  4. The New OK
    Drive-By Truckers
  5. It Is What It Is
    Thundercat
  6. Saint Cloud
    Waxahatchee
  7. Gold Record
    Bill Callahan
  8. Beyond the Pale
    Jarv Is
  9. Heart's Ease
    Shirley Collins
  10. Song for Our Daughter
    Laura Marling
  11. Reunions
    Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit
  12. Dark Matter
    Moses Boyd
  13. The Slow Rush
    Tame Impala
  14. Old Flowers
    Courtney Marie Andrews
  15. A Hero's Death
    Fontaines D.C.
  16. Traditional Techniques
    Stephen Malkmus
  17. Untitled (Black Is)
    Sault
  18. U Kin B the Sun
    Frazey Ford
  19. Head Above the Water
    Brigid Mae Power
  20. Letter to You
    Bruce Springsteen
  21. Ever-Roving Eye
    James Elkington
  22. Fetch the Bolt Cutters
    Fiona Apple
  23. On Sunset
    Paul Weller
  24. Græ
    Moses Sumney
  25. SOURCE
    Nubya Garcia
  26. Sideways to New Italy
    Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever
  27. Sundowner
    Kevin Morby
  28. Good Souls Better Angels
    Lucinda Williams
  29. Optimisme
    Songhoy Blues
  30. England Is a Garden
    Cornershop
  31. Lindé
    Afel Bocoum
  32. American Head
    The Flaming Lips
  33. The True Story of Bananagun
    Bananagun
  34. Summerlong
    Rose City Band
  35. We Are Sent Here by History
    Shabaka and the Ancestors
  36. Have We Met
    Destroyer
  37. A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip
    Sparks
  38. Bonny Light Horseman
    Bonny Light Horseman
  39. Made of Rain
    The Psychedelic Furs
  40. Ballet Of Apes
    Brigid Dawson & The Mothers Network
  41. Debris
    Keeley Forsyth
  42. Róisín Machine
    Róisín Murphy
  43. Cantus, Descant
    Sarah Davachi
  44. Pleasure, Joy and Happiness
    Eddie Chacon
  45. Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was
    Bright Eyes
  46. Mixing Colors
    Roger Eno and Brian Eno
  47. Working Men's Club
    Working Men's Club
  48. Three
    The Necks
  49. Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain
    Gwenifer Raymond
  50. That's How Rumors Get Started
    Margo Price
  51. Women in Music Pt. III
    Haim
  52. Free Humans
    Hen Ogledd
  53. The Ascension
    Sufjan Stevens
  54. Set My Heart on Fire Immediately
    Perfume Genius
  55. Mordechai
    Khruangbin
  56. Songs for the General Public
    The Lemon Twigs
  57. Rejoice
    Tony Allen and Hugh Masekela
  58. Shortly After Takeoff
    BC Camplight
  59. Healing Is a Miracle
    Julianna Barwick
  60. Lianne La Havas
    Lianne La Havas
  61. Hey Clockface
    Elvis Costello
  62. Land of No Junction
    Aoife Nessa Frances
  63. Eno Axis
    H.C. McEntire
  64. Kitchen Sink
    Nadine Shah
  65. Nightcap at Wits' End
    Garcia Peoples
  66. Companion Rises
    Six Organs of Admittance
  67. Phantom Birds
    Matt Berry
  68. Ghosts of West Virginia
    Steve Earle & The Dukes
  69. Starmaker
    Honey Harper
  70. Countless Branches
    Bill Fay
  71. The View From Halfway Down
    Andy Bell
  72. Tamotaït
    Tamikrest
  73. The Universal Want
    Doves
  74. Suite for Max Brown
    Jeff Parker
  75. Inner Song
    Kelly Lee Owens

Decibel: Top 40 Albums of 2020

12 November 2020

Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism - Napalm Death

Decibel Magazine: Top 40 Albums of 2020

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2019 • 2012]

  1. Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism
    Napalm Death
  2. Ravening Iron
    Eternal Champion
  3. Alphaville
    Imperial Triumphant
  4. Im Wald
    Paysage d'Hiver
  5. Enlightened In Eternity
    Spirit Adrift
  6. Mortal
    Necrot
  7. The Eternal Resonance
    Sweven
  8. Djinn
    UADA
  9. Obsidian
    Paradise Lost
  10. Beyond Darkness
    Goden
  11. Sect of Vile Divinities
    Incantation
  12. Punching the Sky
    Armored Saint
  13. Sulfuric Disintegration
    Of Feather and Bone
  14. Glory, Glory! Apathy Took Helm!
    Vile Creature
  15. 亂 (Luan)
    Ripped to Shreds
  16. Dropdead 2020
    Dropdead
  17. Reflections
    Godthrymm
  18. Heir Of Ecliptical Romanticism
    Lamp Of Murmuur
  19. Forgotten Days
    Pallbearer
  20. Dream In Motion
    Kirk Windstein
  21. Flashback
    Haunt
  22. Under Sullen Skies
    Tombs
  23. Stygian
    Atramentus
  24. The World that Was
    Temple Of Void
  25. Satan Is King
    ACxDC
  26. Mass Cathexis
    Krallice
  27. Rebirth by Blasphemy
    Midnight
  28. The Secret Teachings
    Celestial Season
  29. Conduit
    Proscription
  30. Forever Black
    Cirith Ungol
  31. Devouring Ruin
    Wake
  32. Años en Infierno
    Xibalba
  33. LUX
    In the Company of Serpents
  34. Utgard
    Enslaved
  35. When I Die, Will I Get Better?
    Svalbard
  36. Mestarin kynsi
    Oranssi Pazuzu
  37. Blood Hails Steel - Steel Hails Fire
    Megaton Sword
  38. Solve Et Coagula
    Exgenesis
  39. Sleeper Vessels
    Fawn Limbs
  40. Spectres from the Old World
    Dark Fortress

Rough Trade: Albums of the Year 2020

10 November 2020

Untitled (Black Is) - Sault

Rough Trade: Albums of the Year 2020

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2019]

  1. Untitled (Black Is)
    Sault
  2. Punisher
    Phoebe Bridgers
  3. Sawayama
    Rina Sawayama
  4. Song for Our Daughter
    Laura Marling
  5. Beyond the Pale
    Jarv Is
  6. So When You Gonna...
    Dream Wife
  7. Viscerals
    Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs
  8. Bedroom
    bdrmm
  9. Every Bad
    Porridge Radio
  10. Sideways to New Italy
    Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever
  11. England Is a Garden
    Cornershop
  12. Saint Cloud
    Waxahatchee
  13. Protean Threat
    Osees
  14. Ultra Mono
    Idles
  15. Suddenly
    Caribou
  16. What Kinda Music
    Tom Misch & Yussef Dayes
  17. By the Fire
    Thurston Moore
  18. Galore
    Oklou
  19. Working Men's Club
    Working Men's Club
  20. Wake UP!
    Hazel English

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Year-end lists are fingerprints; aggregate statistics are smudges. Therefore, I make no tallies.