Year-End Lists

Library Journal: Best Literary Fiction of 2020

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2019 • 2017 • 2016 • 2012 • 2011]

• Homeland Elegies
  Ayad Akhtar
• Leave the World Behind
  Rumaan Alam
• Little Family
  Ishmael Beah
• The Index of Self-Destructive Acts
  Christopher Beha
• Transcendent Kingdom
  Yaa Gyasi
• Apeirogon
  Colum McCann
• Migrations
  Charlotte McConaghy
• A Burning
  Megha Majumdar
• The New American
  Micheline Aharonian Marcom
• Hamnet
  Maggie O'Farrell

Stereogum: The 50 Best Albums Of 2020

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2010s • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011]

1. Fetch the Bolt Cutters
   Fiona Apple
2. Saint Cloud
   Waxahatchee
3. RTJ4
   Run the Jewels
4. Women in Music Pt. III
   Haim
5. Folklore
   Taylor Swift
6. Manger on McNichols
   Boldy James / Sterling Toles
7. Magic Oneohtrix Point Never
   Oneohtrix Point Never
8. Lament
   Touché Amoré
9. Untitled (Rise)
   Sault
10. color theory
    Soccer Mommy
11. Inlet
    Hum
12. Hannah
    Lomelda
13. Heaven to a Tortured Mind
    Yves Tumor
14. Shore
    Fleet Foxes
15. Set My Heart on Fire Immediately
    Perfume Genius
16. Live Forever
    Bartees Strange
17. Notes on a Conditional Form
    The 1975
18. Alfredo
    Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist
19. how I'm feeling now
    Charli XCX
20. 925
    Sorry
21. Inner Song
    Kelly Lee Owens
22. Rough and Rowdy Ways
    Bob Dylan
23. World House
    Mil-Spec
24. No Dream
    Jeff Rosenstock
25. Song for Our Daughter
    Laura Marling
26. What's Your Pleasure?
    Jessie Ware
27. It Is What It Is
    Thundercat
28. Punisher
    Phoebe Bridgers
29. Viewing
    Stay Inside
30. Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress
    Gulch
31. Microphones in 2020
    The Microphones
32. KiCk i
    Arca
33. 2017 - 2019
    Against All Logic
34. The Neon Skyline
    Andy Shauf
35. The Price of Tea in China
    Boldy James & The Alchemist
36. Suddenly
    Caribou
37. Reunions
    Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit
38. Sign
    Autechre
39. Every Bad
    Porridge Radio
40. Græ
    Moses Sumney
41. Southside
    Sam Hunt
42. Descendants of Cain
    Ka
43. Introduction, Presence
    Nation of Language
44. A Hero's Death
    Fontaines D.C.
45. FREE I.H: This Is Not The One You've Been Waiting For
    illuminati hotties
46. Take A Chance On Rock 'n' Roll
    Couch Slut
47. May Our Chambers Be Full
    Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou
48. It Was Good Until It Wasn't
    Kehlani
49. As We Suffer From Memory and Imagination
    nuvolascura
50. Future Nostalgia
    Dua Lipa

Uproxx: The Best Albums Of 2020

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2010s • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016]

1. Folklore
   Taylor Swift
2. Fetch the Bolt Cutters
   Fiona Apple
3. Spilligion
   Spillage Village
4. Eternal Atake
   Lil Uzi Vert
5. Future Nostalgia
   Dua Lipa
6. Circles
   Mac Miller
7. Saint Cloud
   Waxahatchee
8. Women in Music Pt. III
   Haim
9. Ungodly Hour
   Chloe x Halle
10. After Hours
    The Weeknd
11. Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial
    Roddy Ricch
12. Shore
    Fleet Foxes
13. RTJ4
    Run the Jewels
14. My Turn
    Lil Baby
15. Punisher
    Phoebe Bridgers
16. Ho, Why Is You Here?
    Flo Milli
17. Heaven to a Tortured Mind
    Yves Tumor
18. Cuttin’ Grass - Vol​.​1 (The Butcher Shoppe Sessions)
    Sturgill Simpson
19. Fine Line
    Harry Styles
20. Positions
    Ariana Grande
21. Black Habits
    D Smoke
22. What We Drew
    yaeji
23. how I'm feeling now
    Charli XCX
24. color theory
    Soccer Mommy
25. Live Forever
    Bartees Strange
26. Set My Heart on Fire Immediately
    Perfume Genius
27. Limbo
    Aminé
28. YHLQMDLG
    Bad Bunny
29. The Goat
    Polo G
30. Rare
    Selena Gomez
31. Talk About It
    Blimes and Gab
32. Everything
    Kota the Friend
33. Good News
    Megan Thee Stallion
34. Wunna
    Gunna
35. Sawayama
    Rina Sawayama
36. Mordechai
    Khruangbin
37. It Was Good Until It Wasn't
    Kehlani
38. Imploding the Mirage
    The Killers
39. songs
    Adrianne Lenker
39. instrumentals
    Adrianne Lenker
40. Pray for Paris
    Westside Gunn
41. The Album
    Blackpink
42. Better
    Deante' Hitchcock
43. Queen of Da Souf
    Mulatto
44. Twice as Tall
    Burna Boy
45. The Slow Rush
    Tame Impala
46. A Written Testimony
    Jay Electronica
47. Fake It Flowers
    Beabadoobee
48. My Agenda
    Dorian Electra
49. Heaven or Hell
    Don Toliver
50. The New Abnormal
    The Strokes

Library Journal: Best Poetry of 2020

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2019 • 2016]

• Lean Against This Late Hour
  Garous Abdolmalekian
• Conjure
  Rae Armantrout
• Dearly
  Margaret Atwood
• Field Music
  Alexandria Hall
• Summer Snow
  Robert Hass
• Every Day We Get More Illegal
  Juan Felipe Herrera
• The Absurd Man
  Major Jackson
• The Age of Phillis
  Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
• Living Weapon
  Rowan Ricardo Phillips
• Three Poems
  Hannah Sullivan

Chicago Public Library: Top 20 Books of 2020

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

• A Burning
  Megha Majumdar
• Caste

  The Origins of Our Discontents
  Isabel Wilkerson
• The City We Became
  N.K. Jemisin
• The Cold Millions
  Jess Walter
• Deacon King Kong
  James McBride
• Finna
  Nate Marshall
• Hamnet
  Maggie O'Farrell
• Hidden Valley Road

  Inside the Mind of an American Family
  Robert Kolker
• Homeland Elegies
  Ayad Akhtar
• Interior Chinatown
  Charles Yu
• Leave the World Behind
  Rumaan Alam
• Luster
  Raven Leilani
• Memorial Drive

  A Daughter's Memoir
  Natasha Trethewey
• Mexican Gothic
  Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• The Mirror & the Light
  Hilary Mantel
• Shuggie Bain
  Douglas Stuart
• Transcendent Kingdom
  Yaa Gyasi
• The Vanishing Half
  Brit Bennett
• Vesper Flights
  Helen Macdonald
• Writers & Lovers
  Lily King

Gorilla vs. Bear: Albums of 2020

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2010s • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011]

1. Someone New
   Helena Deland
2. Untitled (Black Is)
   Sault
2. Untitled (Rise)
   Sault
3. Send Them to Coventry
   Pa Salieu
4. Weaving a Basket
   sea oleena
5. Modus Vivendi
   070 Shake
6. Fires In Heaven
   Salem
7. Galore
   Oklou
8. What's Tonight To Eternity
   Cindy Lee
8. Cat O'Nine Tails
   Cindy Lee
9. Miss Anthropocene
   Grimes
10. Taken Away
    Moodymann
11. All the Time
    Jessy Lanza
12. Alletiders
    Alle
13. What We Drew
    yaeji
14. Because of a Flower
    Ana Roxanne
15. How Much Works
    Sweet Whirl
16. songs
    Adrianne Lenker
16. instrumentals
    Adrianne Lenker
17. The Don Of Diamond Dreams
    Shabazz Palaces
18. Magic Oneohtrix Point Never
    Oneohtrix Point Never
19. Hunger for a Way Out
    Sweeping Promises
20. Your Hero Is Not Dead
    Westerman
21. Future Nostalgia
    Dua Lipa
22. Alfredo
    Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist
23. Remote Control
    Discovery Zone
24. how I'm feeling now
    Charli XCX
25. Help
    Duval Timothy
26. Yes
    Shinichi Atobe
27. What's Your Pleasure?
    Jessie Ware
28. I Was Born Swimming
    Squirrel Flower
29. Healing Is a Miracle
    Julianna Barwick
30. Mia Gargaret
    Gia Margaret
31. I Feel Alive
    TOPS
32. Karma & Desire
    Actress
33. Crooner qui coule sous les clous
    Oï les Ox
34. Bobby Joe Hope
    Jon Mckiel
35. Motherhood
    No Joy
36. Land of No Junction
    Aoife Nessa Frances
37. acts of rebellion
    ela minus
38. Cave Vaults on the Moon in New Mexico
    Tan Cologne
39. Sundry Rock Song Stock
    Yves Jarvis
40. A Mythology of Circles
    Faten Kanaan
41. Man Alive!
    King Krule
42. Inner Song
    Kelly Lee Owens
43. Good Songs For Bad People
    Drab City
44. Roped In
    North Americans
45. Sorceress
    Jess Williamson
46. Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin
    Eartheater
47. Fantasy Chapel
    Riches
48. Ride Lonesome
    Young Ejecta
49. Shimmering Basset
    The Green Child
50. Silver Ladders
    Mary Lattimore

Margaret Lyons: The Best Shows That Ended in 2020, as published by The New York Times

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017]

• BoJack Horseman
• Brockmire
• Corporate
• Doc McStuffins
• The Good Place
• Last Chance U
• Lenox Hill
• Schitt's Creek
• Teenage Bounty Hunters
• Vida

James Poniewozik: Best TV Shows of 2020, as published by The New York Times

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016]

• Better Call Saul
• Better Things
• City So Real
• The Good Lord Bird
• I May Destroy You
• Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
• Mrs. America
• Normal People
• PEN15
• P-Valley
• What We Do in the Shadows

Eric Kohn: The Best Movies of 2020, as published by IndieWire

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

1. First Cow
   Kelly Reichardt
2. Small Axe: Lovers Rock
   Steve McQueen
3. Collective
   Alexander Nanau
4. Nomadland
   Chloé Zhao
5. Never Rarely Sometimes Always
   Eliza Hittman
6. Time
   Garrett Bradley
7. The Climb
   Michael Angelo Covino
8. The Mole Agent
   Maite Alberdi
9. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
   Jason Woliner
10. Bacurau
    Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles
11. Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets
    Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross
12. The Assistant
    Kitty Green
13. Sound of Metal
    Darius Marder
14. Soul
    Pete Docter
15. Mank
    David Fincher
16. Mayor
    David Osit
17. Small Axe: Mangrove
    Steve McQueen
18. The Vast of Night
    Andrew Patterson
19. Dick Johnson Is Dead
    Kirsten Johnson
20. She Dies Tomorrow
    Amy Seimetz

Runners-up

• Another Round
  Thomas Vinterberg
• Gunda
  Viktor Kosakovskiy
• I Carry You with Me
  Heidi Ewing
• Minari
  Lee Isaac Chung
• Relic
  Natalie Erika James
• The Truffle Hunters
  Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw
• The Painter and the Thief
  Benjamin Ree

Glide Magazine: 20 Best Albums of 2020, in alphabetical order

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2019 • 2018]

• The True Story of Bananagun
  Bananagun
• Starting Over
  Chris Stapleton
• Circles Around the Sun
  Circles Around the Sun
• Country Westerns
  Country Westerns
• Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?
  Fantastic Negrito
• Shore
  Fleet Foxes
• Women in Music Pt. III
  Haim
• Neon Cross
  Jaime Wyatt
• The Beautiful Madness
  Jerry Joseph
• Song for Our Daughter
  Laura Marling
• Private Lives
  Low Cut Connie
• Daughter
  Lydia Loveless
• Rock Bottom Rhapsody
  Pokey LaFarge
• Welcome to Bobby's Motel
  Pottery
• Summerlong
  Rose City Band
• RTJ4
  Run the Jewels
• Untitled (Rise)
  Sault
• Optimisme
  Songhoy Blues
• It Is What It Is
  Thundercat
• Heaven to a Tortured Mind
  Yves Tumor

20 Honorable Mentions

• Rough and Rowdy Ways
  Bob Dylan
• Suddenly
  Caribou
• Coriky
  Coriky
• Impossible Weight
  Deep Sea Diver
• Ohms
  Deftones
• Have We Met
  Destroyer
• The Unraveling
  Drive-By Truckers
• A Hero's Death
  Fontaines D.C.
• Fetch the Bolt Cutters
  Fiona Apple
• Total Freedom
  Kathleen Edwards
• K.G.
  King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
• Never Not Together
  Nada Surf
• Sigma Oasis
  Phish
• Sideways to New Italy
  Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever
• We Are Sent Here by History
  Shabaka and the Ancestors
• A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip
  Sparks
• The Slow Rush
  Tame Impala
• By the Fire
  Thurston Moore
• Strange To Explain
  Woods
• Saint Cloud
  Waxahatchee