Kelly Lee Owens on Daft Punk: their music was like a door being opened nme.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nme.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Disclaimer:
I am only one man with limited time and, in 2020, I undertook a law conversion (hence the drop of in features in the winter), so if your favourite record is missing chances are I just haven’t heard it yet, so please share your favourite LPs below the line.
Equally, because I’ve been extremely busy, this list leans heavily on albums that I have reviewed (big names, big hype releases) as there are still a host of records I’m desperate to hear, but will not include without having listened to them in full (Thou, Pallbearer, Sasha Sloan, The Koreatown Oddity, Napalm Death, Thundercat, Idles, Against All Logic, Declan McKenna, Denzel Curry, 21 Savage, etc…).
Last modified on Wed 30 Dec 2020 05.32 EST
“A balm to your soul” – so went the Observer review of Julianna Barwick’s album this July, which was inspired by the musician’s move from New York City to the wellbeing mecca of Los Angeles. Her one-woman choir of celestial vocals is as calming as the bit at the end of a yoga class where you get to shut your eyes and lie under a blanket, and the album, along with its title Healing Is a Miracle, had extra resonance in 2020. Music is so often a communal experience, but with those possibilities snatched away this year, many of us have looked to sounds like this to soothe us where human connection couldn’t. Another reviewer agreed, writing that Barwick’s new music was “a salve for the collective wound”.
The Best Albums Of 2020 Dec. 29, 2020 8:49 a.m.
Before we get to the best albums of 2020, I want to highlight the most unexpectedly delightful song of the year, “I Wonder What’s Inside Your Butthole.” Lisa Rieffel dropped her daughter Jolee s inspired, inquisitive song about the mysteries of the human digestive system in May 2020, at a time when many people had just started to process the fact that the pandemic was going to disrupt life for much more than a few months. It was a welcome bit of surreal levity, and a spark of connection for many, spawning a seriesofcovers (I m partial to this one). Jolee ended up recording her own rock version, as well as a hip-hop remix which almost sounds like a long-lost M.I.A. demo. There s a lot of 2020 ephemera and memes which have already been lost to the miasma of this strange year, but this was one of the few that continues to bring a smile to my face.
21.12.2020
Beat’s Writer’s Wrap-up 2020: Our inquisitive music critics tell us their favourite releases of the year From left to right - Phoebe Bridgers, Perfume Genius and Tame Impala
We spotlight the best releases of the year through the eyes of our writers.
2020… what a disaster. Thank fuck we can say goodbye to the absolute slime ball that’s been the last 12 months and look towards 2021 through a positive lens. Fingers crossed ol’ mate COVID decides to take a backseat and then we’re off to the races with gigs, festivals and events allowed to operate freely enough.
Before we get to 2021, we thought we’d take a look back at the year that was but through the eyes of our wisest investigators – our writers. Spotlighting their top ten albums, top five songs and a few other interesting miscellanea, this is the traditional Beat’s Writer’s Wrap-up but in digital form.