The 16 Best Albums of 2020
Did pandemic shutdowns make music sound different? Without concerts, parties, and (for many people) commutes, some of the best venues for enjoying the art form vanished. But isolation and panic gave music a more urgent job to do: help people survive. Here are the albums that made 2020 bearable. Follow along on Spotify.
Toby Hay, Morning/Evening Raga
Back in March, way, way back, when everyone was either baking sourdough or winding up to the first of their COVID-era nervous breakdowns, the Welsh guitar master Toby Hay sat below the hills of his native Rhayader and improvised a song to the dawn. Morning/Evening Raga collects that performance and eight more like it, recorded at different times of day and in different locations, all one-take performances. Hay’s technique is formidable, his obedience to the music complete. Now he shimmers like a harpist; now he blurs like an impressionist; now he plays in the wide-open style known as “American primitive”; now he sounds like the sweetest, most meditative parts of Led Zeppelin, those interludes stretched and looped and heightened and spangled over a sheep-studded hillside. Birds hop about in the background; the world hums distantly. The effect is gently stunning, and even (here’s a word that’s been doing a lot of work this year) healing. — James Parker
Listen to: “VI”
Fiona Apple, Fetch the Bolt Cutters
When Fiona Apple released back in April, the album seemed . Her first record in eight years, it vibrated with anxiety and defiance. Now, nine months into pandemic-induced isolation, is no less resonant—we’ve all.” Apple is more than a musician of the moment, though. Some of the album’s sharpest moments are her most personal triumphs. Take the confident insubordination of “Under the Table,” for example: “Kick me under the table all you want / I won’t shut up, I won’t shut up,” she sings on its hook. A soft repetition of the song’s first two lines echoes behind her strident voice, then builds to its own banner declaration: “I would beg to disagree / But begging disagrees with me.” That’s a pretty timeless sentiment. — Hannah Giorgis
