I changed things up a bit this year and got rid of the indie rock list and made this shoe-gaze / post -rock list . In years past the indie rock list had turned into this any ways or those bands got lumped in with post punk. Post rock is about atmosphere , post rock is about tension , ya know like Joy Division. Ok now that that is out of the way , much like in years past sort through the genre lists before making the overall top ten of the year list. I know many of you are ready for 2020 to be over with. Hate to break it to you but nothing is getting better next year. As far as 2020 goes there more new bands on this list than most.
The fact these artists made it on the list speaks to how great these albums are, so it's not a slight that the number 8 album is above the 9th album, there is something that just gives it an edge that makes me want to listen to it more. After all we can try to look cool and pick the hippest bands for a list, but at the end of the day what makes an album the best is that it makes you want more, you look forward to listening to it again. Sure you can bitch and complain about your favorite band not being on the list. However I listen to five new albums a day so yes I heard your favorite album and was not impressed. No I do not care what you think about it .I do hope you can find your next favorite on this list and have included links to reviews of these albums if you want to check out audio on these guys. Anyways here are the top 10 Shoe gaze and Post-rock albums of 2020
10-Mogwai - "Zero, Zero, Zero"
This is more of an honorable mention. Granted they were not trying to write songs as they normally would due to the fact this was the score to a tv show.
Burton C Bell takes another step away from metal with this project and out into a surreal blend of post rock and shoe gaze. I do not think he has anything against metal, it sounds like he is just smoking hella weed.
More of a Radiohead direction than their harder rock edged records of the past. The yare still good song writers able to lure you in with the more subdued direction.
Many of the bands on this list have a heavy side. You did not think I was going to sing the praises of some castrated bull shit did you ? This one lumbers in a way that borders on being sludge. But the crunch is outweighed by the surreal .
A different shade of dark. Which considering where you are reading this it is almost redundant as almost every album I review has a dark side. Happy music does nothing for me. This albums lingers in the narcotic shadows it hypnotizes you with. They also have a heavy side.
Like a darker more progressive version of Alcest. This album sweeps you away with it's dream like atmosphere, but still has some balls to it. In many ways the fey nature of what they do now occupies a place Sigur Rios once held for me before they started doing symphonies. .
This band has been good at evolving from album to album. They are great at capturing their sound but not being defined by it in a way that hinders the dynamic scope of what they do. Their song writing which pulls from familiar influences continues to captive.
Their unexpected return was everything I could have asked from them. They remember to not just ponder why there shoes are untied and also wrote fucking killer songs . The guitar tones on this album rule really hard. Nothing has nothing to be ashamed of by being beating out for the number two spot these guys as I am sure they also agree.
This late entry can in and swept it out from under Hum. Hum made a great album and it would have taken the number one spot if not for me finally hearing this album. It had been on my list of things to check out but everything I went to Bandcamp, there was never anything up, so I forgot then rediscovered it. Dark beautiful and hypnotic, the emotion invested into the vocals is really what beat out Hum. This album is catchier/
Here is a band that was ahead of their time. They never fit neatly into any one sub genre. Alternative being a broad umbrella in the 90s. They are ctied as an influence from bands such as the Deftones and Deafheaven heaven . They are metal adjacent though were much closer to being metal on their first to independent albums than when they made it to MTV. If you are counting their 1995 album "You'r Prefer an Astronaut" as their first album then this would be their third. The hazey shoe gaze waver of guitars is even more pronounced as if they are self aware of being thought of as the more mainstream rock version of My Bloody Valentine.
The rock part of this equation is more pronounced on the second song. There are not just dialing it and replicating previous albums.There is more of the Helmet like stomp to "Step Into You" . The vocal falls into their typical relaxed almost crooned indifference . They retained the more punchy sound going into "the Summoning" which despite their metal past sounds like a more metal song title than I would expect from them. The masterfully atmosphere when the sludge like amble of the verse riff. "Cloud City" is dynamic and floats with a pleasing bob. Another indicator at how they are capable of balancing two polarities. They hit their classic sound in a very compact fashion on "Falling". The last song delves deeper into shoe gaze than we have heard from the band before . 22 years later and still able to pick up where they left off. I will give this one a 9.5
Closing in on the halfway mark . If you don't know the rules we don't give a fuck about what records sold well or ruled the radio , but what has stood the test of time. 70-Hum- "Downward is Heavenward"
Think you indie rock band is clever , well chances are you have less balls than Hum. The guitar tones on this album stand up against anything out today. Apathetic yet sublime, if you took the bubble gum out of Weezer and didn't give a fuck about the radio you would be close to Hum.
69-Far-"Water & Solutions"
Here is a band that should have developed much more of a following than they did. They were touching on a emotive put powerful blend of rock that would later be replicated by bands like Thursday years later.
68-Lords of Acid - "Voodoo-U"
After the hard hitting techno of "Lust" which showed this project were not just buttons pushers , but knew how to throw in a good hook, they came back adding rock guitar to give them a more industrial edge, with songs still focusing on the glories of sex and drugs this was the ultimate part album for many a drug summer.
67-Bjork- "Post"
One of the heaviest synth lines ever opens this album with her calling card "Army of Me". She go weirder after this but never had the stars align in the same way the did for this album. While vocally Bjork is no slouch, it more how she uses her voice and this album her melodies are pretty flawless.
66-Morphine- "Cure For Pain" -
Boozy lounge rock held together the groove the bass and drum create for the sax to lay down the kind of atmosphere that would not be out of place on the soundtrack to a David Lynch movie. When I go back and listen to this album is at times happier than I remember it being, which is why it did not rank higher.
65- Gwar- "ScumDogs of the Universe"
Their theatrics got you attention, but they prove on this album that they could not only play , but write some really catchy and air tight metal songs, that have stood the test of time though in more of a silly guilty pleasure way.
64- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - "Murder Ballads"
While Cave continues to age like fine wine, this 96 album seethes with the narrative violence that makes this darker in a dirtier back alley way than any other album that might earn the goth tag.
63-Slayer - "Seasons in the Abyss"
Slayer hit the mainstream with this one, they speed things up from "South Of Heaven", gone are the falsetto screams and more straight up drive and groove. Their song writing was fine tuned making this the last great album with Dave Lombardo, they never really got back to this place again.
62-R.E.M- "Automatic For the People"
This album was darker and more introspective, they captured some amazing sounds on this album and for my money proved their was no contest when it comes to comparing them to U2. Stipe's vocals dip from the nasal tenor into a lower baritone that adds to the somber atmosphere. John Paul Jones also arranged the strings on this album.
61- Failure - "Fantastic Planet"
These guys were an interesting bird, not really hard rock , but not indie rock either, they had a stoned slacker vibe to them , but something otherworldly to their sound as well as if the drugs were coming out fo their pours and dripping onto the frets of their guitars.
