To say that the year 2020 has been memorable could quite possibly go down as the greatest understatement in the history of mankind. There’s obviously a whole slew of other, more aggressive adjectives that would prove to be a much more fitting descriptor as well. With all of that being said however, the year in music turned out to be pretty freaking fantastic. It started out with plenty of promise, and then seemed to stop dead in its tracks as the majority of spring releases became delayed at the onset of the pandemic. By early summer, with it now evident that the new state of the world was anything but fleeting, things began to pick up steam as album roll-outs resumed.
Sadly, it also became clear before long that any hopes of live music returning before the year concluded were disappointingly dashed. While the silencing of our stages and live event venues was certainly one of the great cultural losses of 2020, it only provided artists with an unlimited amount of time to pour themselves into writing and recording new music. Releases eventually began moving up, and the increasing frequency of surprise album drops became a fascinating and exciting trend for music lovers to indulge in. This ultimately made 2020 one of the most robust years for new music in recent memory, proving once again that the power of music remains one of life’s true escapes and silver linings during times of strife and sadness.
With so much new music being released at such a feverish pace, it’s an impossible task to hear everything. It also makes it extremely challenging, yet fun, to attempt to thoroughly chronicle the very best of it all. So, of course, I’m going to take a stab at just that over the next few days, with the unveiling of my fifty best singles and fifty best albums for 2020.
Lists of this nature are, of course, always subjective and dictated by the author’s own personal tastes and influences. This is the music that personally moved, intrigued and entertained me the most during 2020. There were plenty of other selections that I enjoyed that ultimately didn’t make the cut because well, you have to stop somewhere. I hope it leads you to discovering some great records you may have overlooked this past year. I likewise welcome you to speak up in the Comments section to share what you agree or disagree with, and also let me know what I may have missed altogether. The adventure of new music discovery and conversation is an endless one.
For the albums list, I considered any record officially released during the calendar year as eligible.
For the singles list, I deemed eligible any single (be it radio, promotional or video singles) released during the calendar year, or those released during 2019 that reached either its chart peak or greatest visibility in 2020. Also, for the sake of variety, I limited the number of entries on this list to one proper single per artist (an artist could appear multiple times however if they were on a feature or collaboration with another artist).
You can access the lists as they’re posted using the below links, or via our Home Page.
Fifty Best Singles of 2020: Part I Part II
Fifty Best Albums of 2020: Part I Part II
Enjoy and Happy New Year!
Joe
Editor/Columnist- The 706
The 706 
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