Phoebe Bridgers' Punisher was the best album of 2020
Solving COVID newsletter For a year that teetered much of the time on the verge of total shutdown, 2020 saw the release of a lot of very good music. Fiona Apple put out an album's worth of new material for the first time in eight years. Bob Dylan showed he still had quite a lot to say at the age of 79. Regular readers know how much I loved Dawes' Good Luck or Whatever. Taylor Swift proved she's not just one of the most accomplished songwriters alive but also one of the most prolific, releasing more than 30 songs written and recorded since the pandemic began.