best indie rock albums 2020

Visit Juno Studio. Best Rock And Indie Albums Of 2020. She doesn’t like to do what is expected of her. Beabadoobee – Fake It Flowers [Dirty Hit] Fake It Flowers, the debut from the British singer-songwriter Bea Kristi, is such an earnest homage to the 1990s that it's hard to find fault with it. Guaranteed fast delivery and low prices. Within 10 seconds, you know—without a doubt—it’s a Waxahatchee album. New Releases Now - Sign up to find top new songs of 2020 and videos from the best new 2020 albums! As a woman who lives mostly secluded from society and releases music so rarely, she’s frequently the object of speculation and even sexualization (see: the late ’90s). Grant that their latest, The Prettiest Curse, dropped in June out of sober respect for the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced a reschedule from its original April 3 date. But Shadow Talk, the second album from Chicago experimental five-piece Cafe Racer, reaches heady emotional and sonic heights, not by leaning on overused effects or sprinkling meaningless, abstract imagery, but by expecting more out of a song and its lyrics. —Eric R. Danton, Let’s face it: In 2020, nobody is expecting a new Strokes album to compete with the band’s classic, essentially perfect first two albums. Quinlan has long had one of the best voices in indie rock, so why not essentially subtract everything else and give it 100 percent of the spotlight? Rose pithily skewered the objectification women must put up with when they enter the limelight and further criticizes the music industry in the accompanying video. Swimmer was borne from this heart wrenching period of time, a fitting name considering the sailing motif in Tennis’ discography (Cape Dory recounts their post-college sailing trip along the East Coast, and most of Yours Conditionally was written during their journey at sea from San Diego to the Sea of Cortez). Dua Lipa's vivid, disco-infused "Future Nostalgia" is an instant pop classic. DJ equipment. You’re not seeking a partner for a pleasure cruise, but rather for an intrepid, Magellan-style circumnavigation, in which sailors get scurvy or fall overboard because they mistook a manatee for a mermaid. These challenges lied solely at the periphery of Clean’s tales about youthful, regretful romantic breakdowns and insecurities, but on her eagerly anticipated Clean follow-up color theory, Allison bravely pulls her mental illness from the sidelines to the forefront, and she also tackles a grave subject she’s spoken about far less frequently: her mother’s terminal cancer. But rarely does an artist deconstruct and completely transform a beloved song to the extent that Frances Quinlan does with “Carry the Zero,” the Built to Spill classic that landed at number two on Paste’s best songs of 1999 list. 20. The Best Indie Rock Albums of 2020. The former reads mostly the same, but occasionally brightened with layers of pop. On Loner, Rose placed the system surrounding fame and celebrity squarely in her crosshairs. Our full range of studio equipment from all the leading equipment and software brands. The intimacy of the story is bolstered by the album’s production and Shauf’s deft instrumentation. He’s now wondering aloud about getting a home in Miami, going and getting married and tattooing her name on his arm (“Instant Destiny”) and thinking back on how he was feeling a year prior when he had no cares in the world (“One More Year”). 100% Secure Shopping. Now, a few decades after the golden age of ’90s indie rock, that’s not so much the case. As Rose embraces her craft’s most hermit-like aspects, she consolidates her longtime fascinations with change and disconnectedness into grim portraits of whom she becomes when she doesn’t maintain her closest relationships and properly tend to (the ever-marketable art of) self-care. The words “I’m not knocking,” even when spoken out of context, will get “Carry the Zero” stuck in one’s head for hours. To call it an early contender for the year’s best indie rock album wouldn’t be an exaggeration. Not so with The Prettiest Curse. She’s said as much. Moore herself never learned to swim, just as most of us are not taught how to navigate the choppy waters of grief and strife. Now, Shauf is following up his 2016 effort with The Neon Skyline, another concept album about a couple of friends on a night out at the pub. Over the course of Half Waif’s discography, Nandi Rose’s music has expanded from bucolic soundscapes into icier portraits. —Max Freedman, In 2012, Kevin Parker was an introvert. The latter plays strictly in the mode of garage rock. The top 20 are: 20. Her most recent, the staggeringly good The Idler Wheel… arrived in 2012. Facebook10LikeShareTweet With this being the year of the pandemic, many indie rock bands and artists’ 2020 releases were simply ‘missed’ as indie music fans’ lives were turned upside down. July … Fetch the Bolt Cutters is finally here, and it’s another miraculous case of bottled lightning. For 2017’s boxy form/a EP and 2018’s grief-stricken Lavender, she embraced synths that resembled icicles falling onto a patio and shattering—an element previously scattered, but not placed front and center, throughout her work—in service of songs as thoughtfully composed as they were towering and immediate. —Zach Schonfeld, Her sophomore album Punisher cements what may be Bridgers’ most understated gift of all: her seemingly innate ability to capture the mundanity of modern sadness in song. Gone are the cathartic, fist-pumping moments from “Cadmium,” the louder, capital-R Rock aesthetics from “Then Again” or the bruising solos à la “Aphasia.” Hall & co. respond with a more refined batch of songs on Marigold. But she tacks on an extra bit that contextualizes the rest of the song: “It’s 4 a.m. again,” she sings flatly, “and I’m doing nothing again.” And all of a sudden … you’re there. ... the best 50 albums from this year have something for everyone. Now, though, as her star is rising, Rose has turned that critical eye inward. Starting out as a duo of Isaac deBroux-Slone and Raina Bock in Madison, Wisc., the band self-recorded their first release—an EP titled Disq 1—in deBroux-Slone’s basement and released it in 2016. One of this year’s highlights arrived early in … But Apple isn’t just sitting on these songs during the long gaps between albums; she’s buffing them to perfection. Most of the songs here feel a bit rougher around the edges, which is partly what gives them so much charm. Discover the best new indie, rock & alt music in our April compilation! —Scott Russell, Dan Bejar’s songs often sound like part of the soundtrack to a movie that exists only in his mind. In some ways, it possesses little pieces of all the musical lives Crutchfield has lived before: punk-y vocals à la her once-upon-a-time rock band with Allison, P.S. Set My Heart on Fire Immediately, the fifth studio album by Perfume Genius, boasts the best album title of 2020. have been used interchangeably in the past decade. It runs on twang, jangle, truth and wide open spaces; on the album cover, Crutchfield, dressed in a billowy baby-blue frock, sprawls across an old Ford truck bearing a license plate from her native Alabama. Working Men's Club - 'Working Men's Club' 18. (See: The 50 Most Anticipated Albums of 2020) It’s important to note that denotations such as indie rock and alternative rock and pop-rock, etc. It’s their first LP since signing with Secretly Canadian, and it follows their 2016 self-recorded debut Rice, Pasta and Other Fillers. —Clare Martin, Some psychedelic albums reach a hypnotic end cheaply. 59 votes, 42 comments. How do we make things better and dig ourselves out of a hole—especially if we don’t see the hole or if that hole has become comfortable? INDIE BASEMENT BEST ALBUMS OF 2020 SO FAR Activity - Unmask Whoever (Western Vinyl) Their half-hearted performance brought to mind the women in the background of Robert Palmer videos, who serve as ornamentation at best. Her record Out in the Storm, which we named one of the best albums of that year, displayed a whole new side of the singer. Hinds—Carlotta Cosials, Ana Perrote, Amber Grimbergen, and Ade Martin—have a strong grip on their musical identity, and they’re not keen on a makeover. “I don’t forgive you,” she sings as a horn arrangement crests over this mind-numbing scene, “but please don’t hold me to it.” Later, in “Moon Song,” Bridgers traces the blurry boundaries of a complicated relationship before laying it all out in the final verse: “You are sick and you’re married and you might be dying,” she sings over a small crescendo, “but you’re holding me like water in your hands.” —Ben Salmon, Although Soccer Mommy’s 2018 debut studio album Clean transformed her into a critical favorite, indie-rock leader and tour opener for Paramore, Kacey Musgraves and Vampire Weekend, anyone who’s grappled with mental illness knows that success isn’t a salve. Shadow Talk is all about finesse and dynamics—melodies cascade with subtlety and spark with a euphoric glow. ... and Lilly Hiatt dove headfirst into R.E.M. The word “indie” once strictly implied “independent,” meaning the release, be it a film or album or what have you, was put out without the money and resources that come along with a major label (your Atlantics, Columbias, etc.) But it’s put to such superbly squalling ends, resulting in the breakthrough of one of the best British indie-rock bands in ages. Effervescence is a key ingredient in all their music, but The Prettiest Curse’s bubbliness is more pronounced, the froth that shapes the band’s rising to the surface in a slightly broader coating. Also grant that the tone baked into every Hinds record, from 2016’s Leave Me Alone to 2018’s I Don’t Run, pairs perfectly with warm, sunny days spent driving on beachside highways with the windows rolled down, even when they’re singing about loneliness, breakups and the neverending quest for hugs and cuddles. The quintet—which comprises singer-songwriter-guitarist trio Tom Russo, Joe White and Fran Keaney, plus bassist Joe Russo and drummer Marcel Tussie—arrived essentially fully formed with 2016’s Talk Tight, and have remained remarkably consistent since, from 2017 EP The French Press to their acclaimed full-length debut, 2018 standout Hope Downs. All Rights Reserved. As … From the culture-shaking event that was Fetch the Bolt Cutters to the lesser-known records we’ve fallen in love with this year, here are the best indie rock albums of 2020 so far. It’s an extremely calming album until it isn’t—the guitar and synth fury on “Faces” is life-affirming, the guitar solo in “Exile” is painfully emotive and its subsequent outro track creates blistering, ambient havoc. That stylized artificiality has been an unspoken running theme in Bejar’s music as Destroyer, at least since Kaputt in 2011. 10. That’s particularly obvious on “The Alarmist,” as Hall nearly whispers the final line of the first verse: “I whisper to myself / Then I’m spinning it half around / Like an echo / A faraway sound / Saying, ‘be good to me.’” Though the first stanza makes it seem like this is a song about the breakdown of a relationship and Hall’s inability to communicate effectively, that raw “be good to me” refrain feels wholly personal, directed towards himself and no one else. Studio equipment. The 10 Best Indie Rock Albums of 2020. Because you’ve been there (probably), and because Bridgers has been there, too, and she knows how to make this song about a stranger’s overdose into a highly relatable moment. To say the album is derivative is to miss the point. They want us to know that it’s okay to not have all the answers, and it’s okay to feel contradictory emotions. Now that their Rob Schnapf-produced (Beck, Elliott Smith) first album Collector has arrived, we have an answer: It’s perhaps more uniform in sound than their debut EP and live shows would suggest, but it shows off their dynamic guitar triple-threat, down-to-earth lyrics and instantaneous pop know-how that made them so enjoyable and relatable in the first place. Indie rock is an ever-evolving genre spanning bedroom recordings and Jack Antonoff-produced powerhouses. The 30 best country and Americana albums of 2020, including records by Ashley McBryde, Elizabeth Cook, Jason Isbell, and Hailey Whitters. As an example, look back to “Funeral,” one of the highlights of Bridgers’ 2017 debut Stranger in the Alps. It’s a devastating tune about death and depression, and if it ended at the three-minute mark, it would still be a stunner. Following the commercial success of Yours Conditionally in 2017, Moore wound up in the hospital with a bad bout of the flu, Riley’s father Edward died of cancer and his mother Karen was hospitalized “on the brink of a stroke,” Moore recalls. It seems Hall realized yelps and screams don’t necessarily attract the most attention; he now recognizes that by being even more vulnerable than ever before, he’s capable of producing his finest songwriting yet. Most of life’s darkest days often occur after two people have committed themselves to one another: Loved ones fall ill or die, responsibilities mount and any number of unexpected catastrophes may land on your doorstep. Superstar tells a fictionalized, though autobiographically-inspired, story about an up-and-comer seeking a life of stardom, critiquing the protagonist’s self-centered aspirations. or studio (Universal, Disney, Warner Bros….). There are moments of wonder and discovery, but often those are bookended by rough seas. That magic reappears in flashes on The New Abnormal—the first Strokes release since Future Present Past and their first full-length in seven years—but even if the album’s strong songs are among the liveliest, most effortless music the band has made in over a decade, their bursting energy only modestly offsets the LP’s many sharp lows. illuminati hotties - FREE I​.​ H: This Is Not The One You've Been Waiting For. Hop Along actually began as a solo project in the mid-2000s, but by the time the band started to take off with 2012’s Get Disowned, it was a full outfit, complete with Quinlan’s brother Mark on drums, bassist Tyler Long and multi-instrumentalist Joe Reinhart, who has produced each of their records since. As a concept album, it documented the titular event, exploring vignettes about all of the party’s various attendees. Instead of aiming to melt the brains of tens of thousands of twenty-somethings in a field on psychedelics (though this likely still will, let’s be honest), Parker instead turns his eye toward dancehalls, replacing fuzzy guitars and impressive percussion with bouncy piano and dance-y synths. Doves - 'The Universal Want' 19. Marigold also follows Skylight’s tendencies to aim for a softer, more delicate, more intimate sound than anything on Cardinal. Katie Crutchfeld quite literally blew the music always is things even harder running in... Western Vinyl ) H.e.a.t - H.e.a.t II s best indie rock has needed for years quite literally the! To him before it, her latest album Fetch the Bolt Cutters is finally confident left wondering won. Co. have avoided anything resembling musical consistency on every Strokes release since Unmask Whoever ( Vinyl... Subtlety and spark with a euphoric glow all the leading equipment and software brands of wonder discovery... 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