It wasn't all Covid-19 and American decline: The Year in Music - 2020!

• My favorite records of 2020. In arbitrary clusters of 10.

• 1-10

• Bonny Light Horseman – s/t 

• Bruce Springsteen – Letter to You

• BLACKSTARKIDS – Whatever, Man

• A Swayze and the Ghosts – Paid Salvation

• Laura Marling – Song for our Daughter

• Luke Haines and Peter Buck – Beat Poetry for Survivalists

• RVG – Feral

• Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher

• Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways

• X – Alphabetland

• 11-20

• Stephen Malkmus – Traditional Techniques

• Run the Jewels – RTJ4

• Sports Team – Deep Down Happy

• Fantastic Negrito – Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?

• Chuck Prophet – The Land That Time Forgot

• Fontaines D.C. – a Hero’s Death

• Bobby Lees – Skin Suit

• Fiona Apple – Fetch the Bolt Cutters

• Guided by Voices – Styles We Paid For

• 21 Savage and Metro Boomin – Savage Mode II

• 21-30

• Maria McKee – La Vita Nuova

• Wire – Hive Mind

• Morlocks – Bring on the Mesmeric Condition

• Polly Scattergood – In This Moment

• Songhoy Blues – Optimisme

• Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud

• Laura Veirs – My Echo

• Tidiane Thiam – Siftorde

• Taylor Swift – Folklore

• Billy Joe Armstrong – No Fun Mondays / Longshot – Love is for Losers

• 31-40

• GA-20 – Lonely Soul

• Puss n Boots – Sister

• A Girl Called Eddy – Been Around

• Dramarama – Color TV

• Jeff Rosenstock – No Dream

• Fenne Lily -Breach

• Strokes – the New Abnormal

• Kathleen Edwards – Total Freedom

• Harrisonics – Love Songs for all Occasions

• CCR Headcleaner – Street Riffs

• 41-50

• Drive-by Truckers – The New OK

• Dehd – Flower of Devotion

• OBGMs – The Ends

• Bright Eyes – Down in the Weeds/Where the World Once Was

• Nadia Reid – Out of my Province

• Tamikrest – Tamotait

• Soccer Mommy – Color Theory

• Pretenders – Hate for Sale

• Howling Hex – Knuckleball Express

• Denzel Curry – Unlocked

• 51-60

• Kiwi Jr. – Football Money

• Low Cut Connie – Private Lives

• Adrienne Lenker – Songs

• Thurston Moore – By the Fire

• Mystery Jets - A Billion Heartbeats 88

• Reverend John Wilkins – Trouble

• Illuminati Hotties – This is not the One You’ve Been Waiting For

• Oumou Sangare – Acoustic – 85

• Paul McCartney – III

• Kid Cudi – Man on the Moon, Part II

• 61-70

• Drive-by Truckers – Unraveling

• Emily Barker – A Dark Murmuration of Words

• Throwing Muses – Sun Racket

• Bob Mould – Blue Hearts

• Chats – High Risk Behaviour

• Basia Bulat – Are You in Love?

• Shabaka and the Ancestors – We Are Sent Here by History

• Songdog – A Happy Ending

• John Anderson – Years

• Childish Gambino – 3.15.20

• 71-80

• Mary Lattimore – Silver Ladders

• Angel Olsen – A Whole New Mess

• Berries – Playland Plus

• Gwenifer Raymond – Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain

• Outrageous Cherry – Meet You in the Shadows

• Psychedelic Furs – Made of Rain

• Courtney Marie Andrews – Old Flowers

• Do Nothing – Zero Dollar Bill

• James Dean Bradfield – Even in Exile

• Dream Syndicate – The Universe Inside

• 81-90

• Joel Ross – Who Are You?

• Laraaji – Through Luminous Eyes

• Jack Cades – Perfect View

• Lunchbox – After School Special

• Joanna Sternberg – Then I Try Some More

• Dead Tongues – Transmigration Blues

• Common – Beautiful Revolution

• Frazy Ford – u Kin B the Sun

• U.S. Girls – Heavy Light

• Orlafur Arnulds – Some Kind of Peace

• 91-100

• Lydia Loveless – Daughter

• Guided by Voices – Mirrored Aztec

• Sturgill Simpson – Cutting Grass I

• Sturgill Simpson - Cutting Grass II

• Shopping – All or Nothing

• This is the Kit – Off Off On

• Max Richter – Voices

• Sam Gendel – Satin Doll

• Dream Wife – So When you Gonna

• Magnetic Fields – Quickies

• Honorable Mentions and Deserving More Listening:

• Kesha – High Road

• Taylor Swift - Evermore

• Algiers – There is no Year

• Ezra Furman – Sex Education, strk.

• Black Lips – Sing in a World That’s Falling Apart

• Earl Sweatshirt – Feet of Clay

• Black Thought – Streams of Thought/Cain & Abel

• Elvis Costello – Hey, Clockface

• Health – Disco 4:1

• Laura Jane Grace – Stay Alive

• Black Mekon – The Lumpiness of Demand

• Nude Party – Midnight Manor

• Anna von Hausswolf – All Thoughts Fly

• Idles – Ultra Mono

• She Drew the Gun – Revolution of the Mind

• Bully – Sugaregg

• 2 Chainz – So Help Me God!

• Gillian Welch and David Rawlings – All the Good Times

• Jarvis Cocker – Beyond the Pale

• Joan Shelley – Live at Bomhard

• Son Little – Aloha

• No Ones – The Great Lost

• Ratboys – Printer’s Devils

• Dana Gavanski – Yesterday is Gone

• William Elliott Whitmore – I’m with You

• The Bats – Foot Hills

• Cornershop – England is a Garden

• Hayley Williams – Petals for Armor 

• Gregg August – Dialogues on Race, V. 1

• Future Entanglements – Who Sent You?

• Shitkid – 20/20

• Margo Price – That’s How Rumors Get Started

• Nyura Garcia – Source

• Steve Earle – Ghosts of West Virginia

• Alex Maas - Luca

• Shirley Collins – Heart’s Ease

• James Hunter Six – The Nick of Time

• Garcia Peoples – Nightcap at Wits’ End

• Lil Uzi Vert – Eternal Avate

• Bill Fay – Countless Branches

• Kelly Lee Owens – Inner Song 

• Fleet Foxes – Shore

• Nick Cave - Live

• Brigid Mae Power – Head Above the Water

• Creeper – Sex, Death, and the Infinite Void

• Moses Sumney – Grae

• Freddie Gibbs – Alberto

• RVRIS – Use Me

• Roisin Murphy – Roisin Machine

• Nadine Shah – Kitchen Sink

• Owen Pallett – the Island

• Katie Gately – Loom

• Lily Hiatt – Walking Proof

• Biffy Clyro – A Celebration of Endings

• Blake Mills – Mutable Set

• Thundercat – It is What it Is

• Sonic Boom – All Things Being Equal

• Code Orange – Underneath

• Jesse Ware – What’s Your Pleasure

• Charley Crockett – Welcome to Hard Times

• Moses Boyd – Dark Matter

• Lucinda Williams – Good Souls Better Angels

• Cribs – Night Network

• Open Mike Eagle – Anime, Trauma and Divorce

• Paul Weller – On Sunset

• The Chicks – Gaslighter

• Rufus Wainwright – Unfollow the Rules

• Empress of – I’m Your Empress of

• Mark Lanegan – Straight Songs of Sorrow

• Jeff Tweedy – Love is the King

• Woods – Strange to Explain

• Fuzz – III

• Hamilton Leithauser – The Loves of Your Life

• Flaming Lips – American Head

• Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Sideways to New Italy

• Sam Amidon - s/t

• Swamp Dogg – Sorry You Couldn’t Make It

• Juliana Barwick – Healing is a Miracle

• The Beths – Jump Rope Gazers

• Bettye Lavette – Blackbirds

• Hinds – The Prettiest Curse

• Mourn – Self Worth

• Emma Swift – Blonde on the Tracks

• Brian Fallon – Local Honey 

• Car Seat Headrest – Making a Door Less Open