Wicked Mike’s 13 Best Albums 2020

Best Album of 2020, Black Foxxes
Before the corruption of politics drowned me, I was a music lover. The associated websites may be dead but not the emotions in me. Consequently, I was pleased to trade emails with the lead singer of Deity’s Muse regarding our favourite albums of 2020. That become this blog.
Most heavy music was unimpressive this year. It felt too similar to what has been before, not as the warmth of an old friend but as boredom. Rage no longer sounds genuine. Even clever playing felt contrived. Considering covid, its an irony… or maybe it’s just that the response to disaster is more introspective.
I found Pearl Jam, The Flaming Lips, Mark Lanegan, Idles and GoGo Penguin to be adequate but considerably less than their last albums. However, Deftones, Smashing Pumpkins and Body Count made good comebacks. Although I don’t include in my rankings below, Bush delivered their best songs in decades.
Taylor Swift was a surprise. I’ve never liked her music and the braindead pop genre I thought she belonged to. However, I love documentaries so was intrigued after watching the two she released this year, ‘Miss Americana’ and ‘Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions’. Her covid albums are easily the best she’s done and made me aware that she’s a talented lyricist.
Despite my disappointment in the overall quality of music (and English movies), these albums can be vigorously praised. They include folk, alternate, rock, prog, metal and electronic. It’s possible that the order changes as I play them more.
01 Black Foxxes – Black Foxxes
02 Crippled Black Phoenix – Ellengaest
03 Lunatic Soul – Through Shaded Woods
04 Pain of Salvation – Panther
05 My Morning Jacket – Waterfall II
06 Pineapple Thief – Versions of the Truth
07 Pusifer – Existential Reckoning
08 The Ocean – Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic / Cenozoic
09 Psychedelic Furs – Made of Rain
10 Marilyn Manson – We Are Chaos
11. All Them Witches – Nothing as the Ideal
12. Gazpacho – Fireworker
13. All India Radio – Eternal
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I also recommend these runner-ups (in no specific order):
Bright Eyes – Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was
SOPHIE PECORA – Various Singles
Fleet Foxes – Shore
Taylor Swift – Folkmore & Evermore
Jonathan Hulten – Chants From Another Place
Fiona Apple – Fetch The Bolt Cutters
James Dean Bradfield – Even in Exile
The Struts – Strange Days
Brkn Love – Brkn Love
Palaye Royal – Bastards
Phoxjaw – Royal Swan
The Smashing Pumpkins – CYR
Paradise Lost – Obsidian
Deftones – Ohms
Halocene, Lauren Babic & Violet Orlandi – Various Covers
In This Moment – Mother
Enslaved – Utgard
Body Count – Carnivore
Greg Puciato – Child Soldier: Creator of God
GREEN CARNATION – Leaves of Yesteryear
Albinobeach – The Ladder
Birthmarks – …And Then the Rain Stopped
AA Williams – Forever Blue
Intronaut – Fluid Existential Inversions
Tigran Hamasyan – The Call Within
A.A. Williams – Forever Blue
Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou – May Our Chambers Be Full
Pallbearer – Forgotten Days
Katatonia – City Burials