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