Best Albums of the 2020s (so far)

*AI Generated Band The Velvet Sundown Enjoy Deepfake Burgers*

Best Albums from 2020 to 2025

(or finding great art in streaming’s stagnant middle age)

From AI Fleetwood Mac to the Trump campaign, 2020s algorithmic media proved it works best as an amplifier for con artists. So how can an earnest music fan find the good stuff inside a flooded zone? Never fear dear listeners, I’m back! And I alone can fix it.

So far, the 2020s have been a sad decade with great music. Ok, the pop music has sucked. But that genre is too tied to macro-economic changes, its output mirroring the hollowing out of innovation by crypto schemes and corporate consolidation. From 1960 to 2005, pop stars partnered with media conglomerates to sell their music to fans or sell ad space around their music on radio. In the 2010s and 2020s, that all shifted. Nowadays, pop stars develop fan bases online and sell their fans’ data and attention to tech companies. The cultivation of social media “fan armies” who drive number one hits by streaming songs with the volume off leaves us with what Kieran Press-Reynolds calls “vapid ‘main character music’ emblematic of the algo-driven streaming era.”

But dig beneath the surface and you’ll find an abundance of breathtaking music. Shoegazers, afrobeatniks, post-punks, and jazz-ass techno bullshitters have all expanded minds and hearts over the last half-decade.

You won’t find much rap music on this list–in my view rap is going through the same fragmentation process that balkanized big tent metal/hard rock after its commercial peak in the 90s/early 2000s. Much like metal, rap lives on in polarized, niche sub-genres that are harder for outsiders like this critic to grab onto (horrorcore cloud rap is the new pigfuck.) 20 years from now we will see Drake as the Nickelback of rap–a lazy cannibal who made the spectacle of being a genre star seem so ridiculously uncool that young people wrote Old Town Road to rebel.

But the good stuff is so good! Read on for a list of albums from the past half decade that are worth your deep reflections. Many of the albums on this list are not popular, but my goal here is to identify the albums who will still have passionate defenders in 20 years. Songs like “Hollaback Girl” or “Gangsta’s Paradise” might have ruled the airwaves in 2005 and 1995, but these hits aren’t inspiring modern musicians in the same way as less popular releases like Fiona Apple’s Extraordinary Machine (2005) or Radiohead’s The Bends (1995).

Think of this as a kind of record buyers guide for records you will never need to buy. A search bar companion as you amble through an infinite hovering library of sound.

Love,

Anand

PS. if you’re more of a ‘singles’ person, here are the best songs from each year: 2020. 2021. 2022. 2023. 2024. Half of 2025.

Best Albums of the 2020s…so far

Note: This is not a numbered list. All albums are listed in the order that I wrote the blurb

Kiwi Jr - Football Money (2020) - In the 90s post-modern dada lyrics came in many different flavors, including irreverent (Beck), suburban (Pavement), self-important (Bush) and opioid (Wilco.) Toronto’s Kiwi Jr does my favorite version of Don Delillo as frontman, combining absurd word-salad with precise character studies. This album has lines for days: “last night your dreams were broadcast, but no one you know owns a television.” A writer's delight and album for the ages. “I want cigarettes that taste like oranges!”

Mia Garget - Romantic Piano (2023) - Pretty much what the album title says, a set of gorgeous piano pieces each with its own patient intimacy. Eugène Delacroix-core? Dinner for two at Stolzenfels Castle? How romantic.

Cola - Deep in View (2022) - Krautrock clockwork and garage rock scuzz come together for this blissful set of fuzzed out koans. Lyricist Tim Darcy uses his generational talent for monotone profundities to "explain the mirror to the wall.” Reminds me of the first Television record or that Phoenix record where they were better at being the Strokes than the Strokes ever were. This thing exudes an NYC cool that is probably too poor to afford NYC rents.

Courtney Maire Andrews - loose future (2022) - Lyrically, a single minded album—Courtney Marie Andrews knows she wants to be single and knows she hurts someone every time she says this out loud. There is a kind of Kacey Musgraves Golden Hours thing going on production wise. Bongos, slide guitars, country western melancholy done oh so right.

Horsegirl - Versions of Modern Performance (2022) - The coolest band on this list, Horsegirl make my favorite variety of guitar music. Their searching songs are full of unexpected twists and turns, full of guitar hooks that keep it like a secret and slanted/enchanted squalls of noise. Underneath deadpan harmonies are rich and winding tunes with new joys to discover on every spin.

Danielle Durack - No Place (2021) - Soulful vocals + minimal Moon Pix grandeur. New Mexico song writer Durack’s delicate melodies stick around…unlike the lovers she's singing about. “Your bullshit is my weakness”-- this line is either a deft description of love’s complicated tangle or the mindset of an Ann Davidson voter.

*You are allowed to rip off David Berman if you are uglier than David Berman*

Friendship - Love the Stranger (2022) - If Silver Jew’s Bergman spent less time staring into the abyss and more time staring at nature documentaries he might have come up with something like Philadelphia's Friendship on their 2022 LP. Mundane moments spun into poetry, both too sad to be pure comedy and too profound to be pure diary entry–has there been a better description of the mundane dissolution of a relationship than:

What's the move baby?

You're here again with your earbuds in

What were you thinking?

You get up to close both windows

Andy Shauf - Neon Skyline (2020) - A writerly concept album with so much oboe. This guy hears a rumor his ex will be at their old favorite bar. He goes to try to reconnect, gets drunk and remembers why the relationship fell apart. Right when he’s leaving, she shows up and he botches his meet-cute by attempting a joke with a terrible English accent. Shauf is a great writer with so many good lines–the depressed narrator looks in his fridge: “it was a dark scene, so I buttered some bread and chewed my way out the door”–and insightful renderings of awkward bar conversations.

Ovlov - Buds (2021) - the definitive pop-rock record of the 2020s. Great squalling guitar hooks and the kind of 20-something miasma writing that can only be achieved by guys who are going to quit smoking soon they swear.

King Hannah - Big Swimmer (2024) - What if Crazy Horse joined Slint?

Dear Nora - Human Futures (2022 )- Long time DIY stalwart hits her stride in her 40s to deliver “the shortest short stories ever told.” Her 2022 album adds PBS science education show synths to her minimal compositions. Tight harmonies perfect for a long car ride. “And the DJ said, Nebraska in the house” lol this shit is a classic.

Beth Orton - Weather Alive (2022) - slanted jazz supports Beth’s earthbound observations, drawing on conversations with art museum security guards and driving instructors to soundtrack revelations from her restless 30s. Hard Drive is a great song, its titular phrase recontextualized in each chorus to profound effect. Its existential oboe time baby.

*If Trump really wanted to end cocaine traffic to the US, he would bomb Geese's Cameron Winter instead of Venezuelan boats*

Geese - 3D Country (2023) - Geese’s Cameron Winter “fell in love with a tumbleweed” on their absurdist ode to T Rex glam rock. New. York. City. …under-watah! (this band’s 2025 album is probably better, but they released it after I wrote this blurb and I need to make dinner)

Tobacco City - Horses (2025) - This band smokes more cosmic country schwag than Willie Nelson in the 70s. Dig beneath the Gram Parsons harmonies and you’ll find the clever chord changes that helped Townes Van Zandt elevate gutter ballads into dirt-bag myths.

The Beths - expert in a dying field (2023) - The scalding break up diss track has been the surest ticket to manufactured media cycle success in our video tabloid hellscape. Olivia Rodrigo, Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift, Lily Allen etc have all scored hits by showing that shitting on an ex is what the enshit-ified internet craves. Thats why I have such affection for the Beths’ mature take on the end of a relationship. Using the wonderful metaphor of a relationship being like a defunct field of study, Expert in a Dying Field conveys the true sadness of investing yourself in another person and having it all fall apart. Combine it with the sharpest power-pop songwriting of their generation and you’ve got an all timer on par with Teenage Fan Club, the Cars, or Huey Lewis and the News.

Greg Freeman - I Looked Out (2022) - lo-fi-scuzz-wild-sing-your-heart-out indie. This guy never paid his bill for a stay at the neutral milk hotel and I’m loving it. Awesome verse on Colorado tells a family’s entire history in 30 seconds:

Uncle was a gambler

With a butterfly tattoo

Somewhere down in Florida

He did a favor for some dude

With a pistol in his glove box

It was open and shut

I met him the week he got out

At the wake of his son

SML - Small Medium Large (2024) - What a scene - an LA cocktail bar named after a line from Infinite Jest (Enfield Tennis Academy) birthed a verdant jazz ecosystem. Part post-rock, part Fly-lo sativabeat, part astral sax and all together the most exciting evolution of meaning a thing by having that swing. Anna Butterss on bass, Jeremiah Chiu on synths, Josh Johnson skronking horn lines goddamn. There is a song on here called Dolphin Language which is so jazz it is beyond jazz.

Sour Widows - Revival of a Friend (2024) - In the 2020s, guitar kids devoted themselves to mashing up 90s sub-genres and thus we have a bunch of buzzy records whose goal is Hum playing Siamese Dream. Sour Widows is my fav of the bunch, unspooling interlaced guitar lines for the Q: “What if the Breeders covered American Football?” A: the raddest bummer.

Why Bonnie? - Wish on the Bone (2024) - Fans of Rilo Kiley and Wye Oak rejoice. Why Bonnie? shreds six strings / heart strings as she cuts to, then wishes on, the bone.

MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks (2024) - Was Pavement about the failures of masculinity to provide a true sense of self-worth to 20 somethings? MJ thinks so. He’s got a wristwatch that’s a pocket knife and a megaphone. He’s got a wristwatch that tells him he’s all alone.

*The cover for Babehoven’s Light Moving Time makes me wish light did not move images…*

Babehoven - Light Moving Time (2022) - Probably the best of the Pheobe-Bridgers-core sad strummers, this album has strong songwriting for pensive moping. “You are family, and that means loss to me.” If you’re in the mood for over-gazed navels filled with tears, then this will hit the spot.

Birds in a Row - Gris Klein (2022) - In the 2020s, a calcified hardcore punk underground began to break rigid genre barriers and found cross-over success not seen since Kurdt dropped the D. These French ragers released my favorite of the bunch, out-belting nu-melodic hardcore acts like Turnstile and Militarie Gun. “YOU CAN FIX IT WITH MONEY!!” is a great chorus to scream.

Hovvdy - True Love (2021) - This whisper-pop Austin duo is too shy to have messed with Texas. Great sepia-toned choruses ‘member the goodtimes around a campfire. Sorry about the gerrymandering!

Sam Evian - Plunge (2024) - The best Beatles cover band out there.

Katie Von Schliecher - A Little Touch of Schliecher in the Night (2023) I’m a sucker for motown string arrangements and this record has it all. Von Schliecher is Bacharach-ing hard here, matching 60s smaltz with divine violins.

AG Cook / Thy Slaughter / Finn Keene - Soft Rock (2023) - This decade, producer AG Cook has played Kirkland Brand Max Martin for Charlie XCX and made a series of experimental records to keep you off balance (Gucci Brand Max Tundra?) Soft Rock is my fav of his records, its the one where his blown out synth pyrotechnics mesh best with waterfall autotune melodies. Pop songs that will get stuck in your head and impress RISD grads.

Florist - Florist (2022) - If phrases like “daily practice” and “Catskills artist retreat” make you roll your eyes, prepare for your pupils to disappear into your head. Florist’s gentle psychedelic folk buys you crystals and explains how you can’t explain the fabric of life, man. The band recorded themselves living in an upstate cabin, emerging with a moving collection of introspective strumming and found sound improvisations. Ommmmmm.

Fenn Lily - Big Picture (2023) - Bristol’s Fenne Lily combines wistful UK folk with the jazz-inflected guitar leads of Willie Nelson. Seriously, the imaginative guitar frills that Lily bends across this album speak directly to god. Pick is the standout song from this one, a conflicted love song about finding the right person after you’re diagnosed with cancer.

*Not to be confused with Howard Dean Blunt*

Dean Blunt - I don’t know what this one is called (I don't know when this one was released) - Look, this guy releases albums on YouTube for a limited time and then takes them down forever and I think that googling the name of not-available releases goes against the point he is trying to make as an artist. Dean’s music wants the listener to think about the ephemeral nature of digital art and consider the difference between an artist removing content they don’t make money from instead of a tech company removing content they do make money from. All in all, his whole “i’m rapping over Automatic for the People” thing works way better than it should.

Patio - Collection (2023) - Why do so many post punk bands name themselves after everyday objects? For some of the UK sprechgesang shit-posters (dry cleaning, english teacher, etc), my guess is that they want to elicit a barely audible chuckle from their clever ironic detachment, but for this brooklyn band I think they’re doing it to showcase the everyday aw-shucks marriage of twee & postpunk going on here. Are Patio the Moldy Peaches of wearing rain jackets on the subway? THINK ABOUT IT.

John Xerxes Fussell - When I’m Called (2024) - From William Tyler to Steve Gunn to Marissa Anderson, we’ve had a fertile half decade of improvised Americana. Mr. Xexes Fussell is my fav of the bunch, entering fingerpicking fugues with a troupe of banjo-jazzbos. I’m always surprised by the gentle hush and gorgeous peaks dreamed up by his ensemble’s extemporaneous country compositions. While the country-bros in Nashville stay fixed on whiskey and pickups, When I’m Called’s probing folk is the real American experiment .

Bernice - Crusin (2023) - Finally, art rock has re-embraced Genesis with open arms. This Montreal soul-searcher definitely thinks of themselves as a composer and these rubbery almost-pop songs combine the unconventional song structures of Stevie circa Talking Book with heartfelt tarot shop lyrics. “Now is the moment for healing” yep, this record earns that line one wind chime at a time.

*Teethe butchered their namesake so bad they were given British citizenship*

Teethe - Magic of the Sale (2025) - Majestic slow core from a Texas band that aspires to be a mid-2000s Seattle band. There’s magic in the air, created by the band inviting musicians from a burgeoning southern sad sack scene to capture a hushed campfire confessional. Violin emotions!

Marina Allen - Eight Pointed Star (2024) - A gorgeous Laurel Canyon style folk record complete with mystic Joni falsetto. Often piano-led, Mrs. Allen’s clever chord changes present as laid back bliss-outs but a close listen to the lyrics reveal that many of these songs seem like they are from the perspective of a ginger-bread house owning witch with the oven on. This is being published on an urbanist website, so I’d like to publicly state my support for new zoning laws that allow multi-family ginger-bread dwellings.

Office Dog - Spiel (2024) - Going off this album alone, I bet the skate parks in New Zealand rule.

Horse Jumper of Love - Disaster Trick (2024) - Guitar pyrotechnics at 30 frames per second. This Boston slowcore-shoegaze outfit turns high viscosity hooks into emo molasses. Somnambulant bummer jams.

Cloth - Secret Measure (2023) - slinky art pop with every note in its right place. If you like your sophisti-pop to embrace negative space this ones for you.

Shame - Food for Worms (2023) - Outside of London, the country of England scores poorly on quality of life metrics – the country’s health outcomes, educational scores and life expectancy are comparable to the state of Mississippi when you exclude their capitol. Maybe that's why Shame’s shout along chorus is just the band yelling “Adderall.”

Bladee – Exeter (2020) - Look, sometimes you need to flee to Malaysia for tax reasons. Visionary leader of Swedish “Drain Gang” collective, Bladee is what would happen if 100 Gecs weren’t an inside joke. Bladee combines the ATL autotune of Future with the avant techno pop of ML Buch. A dance-forward white dude genre pollinator whose albums are dictated by the drug they’re crushing at the moment? Yeah this guy is the Primal Scream of the 2020s. Exeter is their upper-driven Screamadelica and 2025’s Cold Visions is their come-down gone bad XTRMNTR.

Andras - Joyful (2020) - this meditative house mix hit the spot at the start of COVID lock down. Walk through the arboretum while this winsome Australian thumps in your earbuds.

Jim-E Stack - EPHEMERA (2020) - Every fan should hope their favorite singer gets the chance to work with super producer Jim-E Stack. This collection of star features shows Mr. Stack’s mastery of lush synths and pitch-shifted hooks. I think this is what Phil Collins would sound like if he came up in the Ableton-era.

Nilufer Yanya - My Method Actor (2024) - British/Turkish guitar god Nilufer Yanya is heir to the Radiohead throne. Heady riffs that need a 30 min YouTube music theory breakdown to explain and only 2 seconds to feel.

Fontaines DC - Heroes Death (2020) - Brooding hypnosis from these Irish post-punks. Repetition is the game here–lyrics repeated into absurdity (“Life ain’t always empty”) and minimal bass lines played until the band or the listener collapses. These guys are stadium rockstars now, which makes this one their version of U2’s War, dance-y, arty and political.

Alvvays - Blue Rev (2022) - Shoegaze cicadas Alvvays emerge every seven years with a stunning album that spawns a new generation of hazy guitar heroes. Their 2022 album led to a glut of ‘23 imitators who never quite reached the melodic heights these Canadians blasted out. Blue Rev feels particularly indebted to the Cure or Echo and the Bunnymen–a pretty fun choice that helps these tunes sound timeless.

Juana Aguirre - anonimo (2025) - Bibio for la biblioteca, this Argentine folktronica record is a slow, beautiful suite of experimental acoustic guitar

bar italia - Quarrel (2020) - Hypnogagic pop dreamers snore on. Finally, Simon Reynolds can get an erection again.

Far Caspian - ways to get out (2021) - Sensitive twinkle guitar jams YES. This guy better be English for real or I’m gonna have to get Snow Patrol to tell him they are very disappointed in him.

Phil Veras - Dentro EP (2020) - Sao Paolo Phil has the best pipes in indie rock. This acoustic EP goes full Radiohead unplugged, bringing complex samba-inspired fret work and emotive vocals to the table for an intimate dinner for one… its ok to wear a hoodie and earbuds at a restaurant while you eat pho by yourself right?

Sharp Pins - Radio DDR / Lifeguard - Ripped and Torn (2025) - These teenage dreamers built the analog Hallowgallo zine-scene in Chicago. A dou of bands with overlapping membership made two great odes to youth in 2025– Sharp Pin’s lovelorn Jangle pop vs Lifegaurd’s scabrous riffs. You decide.

*For the love of god nobody tell this band they can buy butterfly wing costumes in bulk at Spirit Halloween*

Black Country New Road - Ants From Up There (2022) - This theater kid collective combines the orchestral pomp of illinoise-era Sufjan with downcast emo lyrics of bands like…nevermind what am saying this shit sucks.

English Teacher - This Could Be Texas (2024) - This theater kid collective combines the orchestral pomp of illinoise-era Sufjan with downcast emo lyrics of bands like…nevermind what am saying this shit sucks.

Racing Mount Pleasant - Racing Mount Pleasant (2025) - This theater kid collective combines the orchestral pomp of illinoise-era Sufjan with downcast emo lyrics of bands like…nevermind what am saying this shit sucks.

Dendrons - 5-3-8 (2022) - Why are so many progressive rock bands actually libertarian? Like myriad prog bands these guys seem like they would be insufferable to have a conversation with…so its an added benefit that many of their 6 minute shapeshifting epics are largely instrumental. A fun combo of Chairs Missing-era Wire and indie rock conservationists like Cymbals Eat Guitars. Atlas shrugged, and the movement he needed was on his shoulder.

Rusowski - DAISY (2025) - As mainstream pop hit the snooze button for the last five years (Jack Anontoff hospice rock ... Morgan Wallen “kills woke” with self-pity ... Pandering Disney child stars reboot GLEE ) this Spanish producer captured the adventurous spirit that makes the best pop both distinct and timeless. Lifting techniques from Timbaland and Bad Bunny, DAISY finds left field hooks in unexpected places. Take note Dan Nigro, this is how you sample a xylophone.

Davido -5ive (2025) - I know I was talking shit RE: cheesy Disney Channel pop one blurb ago…but even this heart of stone bleeds for the smaltz-n-b of Afrobeats star Davido. Smooth vocal runs, Akon-esque autotune ad-libs and tasteful dancehall synths. This album is uneven, but once you lay out the rose pedals, break open the red wine and get to “Offa Me” its Luther Vandross time.

Christian Lee Huston - Beginners (2020) - John Hughes-core fingerpicker sings precise tales of suburban Chicago youth. A record of hushed sleepover exaggerations and child-of-divorce-on-an-airplane thoughts.

Good Looks - Bummer Year (2022) - Depressive socialist (is there any other kind?) goes Woody Guthrie on this deep thoughts and crawfish south texas album of indie twang. “If we’re going to make a comeback, we’re going to need those people, like my friends on the bottom who don’t know who to fight” sings Tyler Jordan reflecting on his childhood and the deepening gap between rich and poor. But Mr. Jordan, have you considered coconut memes?

Magdalena Bay - Imaginal Disk (2024) - Feeling disk inserted? These Miami synthpop freaks went full Pink Floyd on their ‘24 concept album about a robot (or something?) learning how to be human (or something?) by using emotion CD-ROM technology (fuck yeah!) Very fun dancepop with Neuromancer lyrics. Shout out to the New Radicals and Fatboyslim.

Winter - Adult Romantix (2025) - I suppose I could have picked Wishy or Hotline TNT or DIIV or any of the feedback frenzy bands that have formed a new gauzy genre this decade for this spot, but Winter’s hooks are sharper. Theres a reason Shakespeare got famous writing about doomed teen romance, and Winter’s take on highschool bedroom yearning transcends trendy sounds with an ode to pure mope.

Ganser - Animal Hospital (2025) - I love a band with a bassist lead singer and this Chicago three-piece’s gnarly take on feedback rips. The band asks “do they show movies in heaven”...unfortunately in Ganser’s afterlife they only show Fire Walk with Me.

Dummy - Mandatory Enjoyment (2021) - What if a lava lamp formed a band? Hypno-dance along with these LA weirdos wearing suave mad scientist scrubs in the Stereolab. Heady repetitive euro-cool

Congrats on reaching the end! Remember, if your favorite record is not on this list it sucks.

-Anand

Oct 2025

Best Albums of the 2020s (so far)

Intro