Poll Results: NPR Listeners Pick The Top Albums Of 2020
I don't think it's a coincidence that you, our listeners, chose a list of music filled with well-established artists this year. It was a year when the discovery of new music was tough. The absence of music festivals and live concerts, in general, kept me from discovering those remarkable opening acts, those second stage acts. Most of us had less listening time, whether it was the lack of a commute or the houses full of families. That's not to say great music didn't come out in 2020, but only Rina Sawayama and Hayley Williams had debuts dent your top 50, and Hayley is already an established artist with her band Paramore and Rina put out a 24-minute 'mini' album in 2017.
So on this edition of All Songs Considered, NPR Music's Ann Powers and I discuss the top 20 albums in our 2020 Listener Poll and reflect on a pretty good year of music, with some odd twists.
NPR Listeners' Top 50 Albums Of 2020
1. Phoebe Bridgers, Punisher
2. Taylor Swift, folklore
3. Fiona Apple, Fetch The Bolt Cutters
4. Waxahatchee, Saint Cloud
5. Run The Jewels, RTJ4
6. Dua Lipa, Future Nostalgia
7. HAIM, Women In Music Pt. III
8. Fleet Foxes, Shore
9. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Reunions
10. Lady Gaga, Chromatica
11. The Weeknd, After Hours
12. Tame Impala, The Slow Rush
13. Rina Sawayama, SAWAYAMA
14. The Strokes, The New Abnormal
15. Perfume Genius, Set My Heart On Fire Immediately
16. Mac Miller, Circles
17. Adrianne Lenker, songs
18. BTS, Map of the Soul: 7
19. Charli XCX, how i'm feeling now
20. Bob Dylan, Rough and Rowdy Ways
21. BTS, BE
22. Sturgill Simpson, Cuttin' Grass - Vol.1 (The Butcher Shoppe Sessions)
23. Bruce Springsteen, Letter To You
24. The Chicks, Gaslighter
25. SAULT, Untitled (Black Is)
26. Sufjan Stevens, The Ascension
27. Khruangbin, Mordechai
28. Soccer Mommy, color theory
29. Bright Eyes, Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was
30. Bad Bunny, YHLQMDLG
31. Lianne La Havas, Lianne La Havas
32. Sylvan Esso, Free Love
33. Laura Marling, Song For Our Daughter
34. Pearl Jam, Gigaton
35. Ariana Grande, Positions
36. Glass Animals, Dreamland
37. Hayley Williams, Petals For Armor
38. Jeff Rosenstock, NO DREAM
39. Taylor Swift, evermore
40. Chloe x Halle, Ungodly Hour
41. IDLES, Ultra Mono
42. The Killers, Imploding The Mirage
43. Chris Stapleton, Starting Over
44. The 1975, Notes On A Conditional Form
45. Bonny Light Horseman, Bonny Light Horseman
46. Moses Sumney, græ
47. Pinegrove, Marigold
48. Freddie Gibbs / The Alchemist, Alfredo
49. SAULT, Untitled (Rise)
50. Kathleen Edwards, Total Freedom