Ears to Feed staffers listened to a lot of music this year. For our sake, as well as yours, the all-encompassing year-end list format will not be used. Instead, all staffers logged their 10 favorite albums of 2020 along with a brief statement to introduce their personal list. The albums appear in no particular order. We compiled songs from every album mentioned into a playlist, which can be found here.
Editorial Board
Maxwell Cann, Editor-in-Chief
This year has been one of reflection. Music has always played a big part in my life, but this year it’s become a bond with my friends, family and it has channeled all of my emotions. I don’t know what lies in the future, but all I can say is there will always be music playing in my head until the day shows return.
Women – Rarities: 2007-2010
Crack Cloud – Pain Olympics
Yves Tumor – Heaven to a Tortured Mind
Protomartyr – Ultimate Success Today
Bambara – Stray
The Strokes – The New Abnormal
Dehd – Flower Of Devotion
Run The Jewels – RTJ4
Angel Olsen – Whole New Mess
Special Interest – The Passion Of
Christopher Cann, Managing Editor
When my daily life was completely upended in the first quarter of the year, I turned to the albums on this list for help. Each one of them has provided me with comfort, tranquility, joy and insight into how to navigate life amid chaos.
Crack Cloud – Pain Olympics
Fiona Apple – Fetch the Bolt Cutters
Freddie Gibbs – Alfredo
The Strokes – The New Abnormal
Dehd – Flower Of Devotion
Yves Tumor – Heaven to a Tortured Mind
Run the Jewels – RTJ4
Clipping. – Visions of Bodies Being Burned
Car Seat Headrest – Making a Door Less Open
Angel Olsen – Whole New Mess
Staff Writers
Andy Andrade
Unemployed, panic and static. Countless phone calls for government benefits and service industry relief funds. When I would walk to the corner, only to hear the mumbling rumors that something as essential as a bodega would close down next, I braced myself for stasis. The sounds of Brooklyn bounced off empty buildings. Mine was no exception.
These albums aided in the passage of despair, finding their power in a familiar yet intrinsically new sound. They represent a memento of fragility, homecoming, passion and the solace in eulogy. Perhaps we cannot come to a proper solution. If there’s anything to be found this year, find it in music.
Surface To Air Missive – Shelly’s Secret
Crack Cloud – Pain Olympics
Freddie Gibbs – Alfredo
Jyoti – Mama, You Can Bet!
Cindy Lee – Cat O Nine Tails
Knxwledge – 1988
Nubya Garcia – Source
Jeremy Cunningham – The Weather Up There
Angel Olsen – Whole New Mess
Peel Dream Magazine – Agitprop Alterna
Eric Rios
I found myself captive in my childhood bedroom for the majority of the past few months. I sought comfort in glasses of shitty boxed wine and in the albums that shaped my teenage years. Records like OK Computer and Dark Side Of The Moon never felt more relevant than during this period of extended isolation.
However, 2020 was a pretty great year for new releases. Beach Bunnies’ Honeymoon and I both shared a birthday on Valentine’s Day – aka the beginning of the end. And although Honeymoon is a fantastic album, it was Lovings’ If I Am Only My Thoughts that perfectly soundtracked the solemn moments of my year.
I can’t wait to be back in the pit, spilling my beer on close friends and suffering from acute tinnitus. Those were the best of times.
Beach Bunny – Honeymoon
Boyo – Where Have My Friends Gone?
Crack Cloud – Pain Olympics
Deeper – Auto-Pain
Loving – If I Am Only My Thoughts
Mustard Service – C’est la Vie
Porridge Radio – Every Bad
Shopping – All or Nothing
TV Girl – The Night in Question: French Exit Outtakes
Vundabar – Either Light
JP Basileo
I certainly missed a lot of music this year, though I know a lot of great music came out. I stayed in bed a lot. I cried more than in any year prior. The music I did listen to, seek out and returned to, had to do with stillness, presence, nothingness and rage.
Ono – Red Summer
Special Interest – The Passion Of
Public Acid – Condemnation
Gnawed – Subterranean Rites
Linekraft – Industrialized Criminal History
Dreamcrusher – Panopticon!
Kyle Flanagan – Dolly
LEYA – Flood Dream
Apologist – Dirt Road
Evicshen – Hair Birth
Kelsey Wagner
Listening to new music this year wasn’t my first priority. I found myself looping old albums, trying to find any form of comfort. It wasn’t until I took the time to think about it that realized I ended up staying pretty true to my old self, picking mainly rock-oriented albums from artists I was already familiar with.
Chubby and the Gang, Crack Cloud, Deeper, Hank Wood & The Hammerheads, Shopping and Sweeping Promises released albums that took me back to cramped rooms full of sweaty bodies that were brimmed with energy. Dehd, Porridge Radio, Remi Wolf, and Sorry’s albums were there for me when I was down. They gave me the kick in the pants I needed with a hint of a “been there done that” attitude.
Crack Cloud – Pain Olympics
Chubby and The Gang – Speed Kills
Deeper – Auto-Pain
Dehd – Flower Of Devotion
Hank Wood & The Hammerheads – Use Me 7”
Porridge Radio – Every Bad
Remi Wolf – I’m Allergic To Dogs!
Sorry – 925
Shopping – All or Nothing
Sweeping Promises – Hunger For A Way Out
Patrick King
This year has been like one giant puzzle I haven’t been able to solve. Without seeing three shows a week, the options of stretching myself thin have shifted to more insular ones. I’ve been diving into the Criterion Channel on a nightly basis. Running has become a huge part of my life and my connection to music has changed as a result. Before I was logging close to 30 miles a week, my listening habits were far from active. Now, I have been able to grab whatever records are released each week and dial in as I am running through a world that is falling apart around me.
Bruce Springsteen – Letter to You
Fiona Apple – Fetch the Bolt Cutters
Perfume Genius – Set My Heart on Fire Immediately
Cut Worms – Nobody Lives Here Anymore
Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud
HC McEntire – Eno Axis
NNAMDï – BRAT
Daniel Romano & The Outfit – How Ill Thy World Is Ordered
Sparks – A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip
Frances Quinlan – Likewise
Phillipe Roberts
In a year of consistent disillusionment, I am proud to say that I indulged in a bit of escapism and fantasy. My black body felt threatened this year, but science fiction novels and long bike rides with this year’s best albums sent my mind everywhere but here. Empowering your imagination is a powerful antidote for bullshit. While the “music industry” lost its footing, its artists managed to smother genre expectations, channel divine rage, soothe our deepest wounds and lead us to new worlds. All of this while streaming services that didn’t exist twenty years ago bleed them dry. Their work, the fruits of their courage, were fuel for my imagination when I needed it most.
Note: The selection below is what sustained me between long marathons of listening exclusively to Prince. None of these compare to the feeling of flying down Eastern Parkway on my bike listening to “I Would Die 4 U.”
Ana Roxanne – Because of a Flower
Armand Hammer – Shrines
Cindy Lee – What’s Tonight to Eternity?
Crack Cloud – Pain Olympics
Lianne La Havas – Lianne La Havas
Liv.e – Couldn’t Wait to Tell You…
KMRU – Peel
Pink Siifu – NEGRO
Space Afrika – hybtwibt?
Xyla – Ways
Staff Designer
Kris Harris
I found comfort in listening to live sessions after beginning my day with the whole studio album. As a musician, I love giving a body of work the holistic respect it deserves. Hope you take a listen to some of my picks if you haven’t heard them before.
Tame Impala – The Slow Rush
AG Cook – 7G
Arca – &&&&&
Black Noi$e – Oblivion
Sven Wunder – Eastern Flowers
Connan Mockasin Live – Sundae Sessions
Björk – Vespertine
Shygirl – Uckers
Tom Misch/Yussef Dayes – What Kinda Music
Various Artists – Self Discovery for Social Survival