PS2 Backlog Committee

The following are my favorite albums of 2020 (in alphabetical order):

Absurd Minds - Sapta
Ad Infinitum - Chapter I: Monarchy
Amaranthe - Manifest
Assemblage 23 - Mourn
Beyond the Black - Horizons
The Birthday Massacre - Diamonds
Clan of Xymox - Spider on the Wall
Delain - Apocalypse & Chill
Diabulus in Musica - Euphonic Entropy
In This Moment - Mother
Leaves’ Eyes - The Last Viking
Marilyn Manson - We Are Chaos
Mono Inc. - The Book of Fire
Nightwish - Human Nature
Pig - Pain is God
Rotersand - How Do You Feel Today?
Secret Rule - Against
Semblant - Obscura
Seven Spires - Emerald Seas
Stitched Up Heart - Darkness
Trivium - What the Dead Men Say
Unleash the Archers - Abyss
Volturian - Crimson

What are yours?

I only listen to old music.

I only listen to even older music.

This is the closest thing I have to a favorite album of 2020... it came out in 2019.

Not a lot that actually came out last year, but a few I discovered last year:

Mono Mind - Mind Control
Latest of the many side projects of Per Gessle of Roxette. He wanted to see how he would do releasing something without his name on it & where his voice was heavily altered to disguise it. The result was the #1 spot on the US Billboard Dance charts for 6 weeks, and a really good album. Turns out you can disguise your voice, but not great song writing.

Birthday Massacre - Diamonds
Only thing I've heard from your list Phase, but it's a great album. I think I've mentioned this before, but for the uninitiated, this group isn't nearly as emo or dark as their name would imply.

Aesop Rock - The Impossible Kid
One of the very few rap acts I really enjoy, largely because you can understand what he's saying and he's talking about something real instead of girls, money, and/or booze. "If I died in my apartment like a rat in a cage / would the neighbors find my corpse before the cat ate my face?" is the kind of tongue-in-cheek lyric a recluse like me can relate to. Of course, Tam would probably eat my face instead of the cat.

Not really albums, but honorable mention goes out to the first 2 System of a Down songs we've gotten in ages - sucks that they can't get their crap together, both of them were great songs. Also to the last 2 truly new Roxette songs the world will ever be graced with.

Ok. I don't listen to music like I should anymore. But I have TWO!!!

Persona 5 Royal Soundtrack: Yo. This thing is a bop. Divorced from the game and had I played P5 when it came out, Life Will Change would have been the song I walked down the aisle to instead of Tank! from Cowboy Bebop. Life Will Change, Blooming Villain, Rivers in the Desert, Throw Your Mask Away, Beneath The Mask, Gentle Madman, Colors Flying High...this album was my year in music!

Fiona Apple Fetch the Bolt-cutters: It's Fiona Apple. I will accept no ill words about Fiona Apple. Ever. Also, the title of this one is a title and not like a whole ass poem! I have loved this woman's music since like my senior year of high school and never once has she done me wrong. Strong lyrically, some vocal gymnastics and solid production. Not as good as The Idler wheel...or something whatever her last one was (it was like a whole ass poem) but that's not fair. That last album was easily her best album with all the underproduction and focus on her voice and lyrics. This one does more with more and is a bunch more honest (which is saying a lot) and raw so I love it. I don't do much music but I stop and listen when Fiona Apple puts out something new and I hear about it. I would urge y'all to do the same.

That's like all I got. Sorry.