Courtesy of the artists
I don t think it s a coincidence that you, our listeners, chose a list of music filled with well-established artists this year. It was a year when the discovery of new music was tough. The absence of music festivals and live concerts, in general, kept me from discovering those remarkable opening acts, those second stage acts. Most of us had less listening time, whether it was the lack of a commute or the houses full of families. That s not to say great music didn t come out in 2020, but only Rina Sawayama and Hayley Williams had debuts dent your top 50, and Hayley is already an established artist with her band Paramore and Rina put out a 24-minute mini album in 2017.
NME’s Top 50 Albums of 2020
End-of-year list season continues with UK publication
NME which has been online-only since 2018. Their Top 50 Albums of 2020 has most of the big records that are on most lists (
Fiona Apple, Taylor Swift, Phoebe Bridgers, Run the Jewels, Bob Dylan, Dua Lipa), and the usual suspects for
NME (
The Strokes, The Cribs, Fontaines DC, Porridge Radio, Working Men s Club), just maybe not in the order you might expect.
Check out
50. Rico Nasty, ‘Nightmare Vacation’
49. Bob Dylan, ‘Rough And Rowdy Ways’
48. Grimes, ‘Miss Anthropocene’
46. IDLES, ‘Ultra Mono’
44. BTS, ‘Map Of The Soul: 7’
43. The 1975, ‘Notes On A Conditional Form’