Albums of the Year: Finalists

With the help of Spotify, there's no question that I listened to more new music this year than ever before.  On the one hand, that's a great thing.  On the other, it did make me wonder if there was such a thing as "too much music."  It's my own fault, but I found myself too often reaching for the shiny new object (i.e. that week's new releases), and not spending enough time doing a deep dive into those albums which I enjoyed the most.

By the end of the year, I think I'd figured it out.  But there are still going to be a lot of 2020 albums that end up on my "subjects for further research" list.  

This list is the list from which my year-end Top Ten will come.  That will be, and this is a promise that will be kept, sometime during the holiday break - and definitely sometime before year's end.

My picks for the best of 2020, with further refinement to come:

Ashley McBryde, Never Will

Beach Bunny, Honeymoon

Bob Dylan, Rough and Rowdy Ways

Bruce Springsteen, Letter to You

Charli Xcx, how i'm feeling now

Chris Stapleton, Starting Over

Courtney Marie Andrews, Old Flowers

Drive-By Truckers, The Unraveling

Drive-By Truckers, The New OK

Dua Lipa, Future Nostalgia

Emma Swift, Blonde on the Tracks

Fiona Apple, Fetch the Bolt Cutters

Fleet Foxes, Shore

HAIM, Women in Music Pt. III

India Ramey, Shallow Graves

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Reunions

Jayhawks, Xoxo

Kathleen Edwards, Total Freedom

Lilly Hiatt, Walking Proof

Lydia Loveless, Daughter

Ondara, Folk 'n Roll Vol. 1: Tales of Isolation

Run the Jewels, RTJ4

Sarah Jarosz, World on the Ground

Soccer Mommy, Color Theory

Sylvia Rose Novak, Bad Luck

Taylor Swift, Folklore

Taylor Swift, evermore