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Rob Sheffield’s Top 20 Albums of 2020

Folklore, Fetch the Bolt Cutters, and more

Rob Sheffield runs down the albums that kept him moving in 2020.

photographs in illustration by William Claxton, Beth Garrabrant, Parkwoord Entertainment, Fiona Apple

Music kept us moving this year. We depended on our favorite music like never before, to give us that jolt of human connection, to shake up our emotions, to keep us dancing on our own. These were the albums I loved best, the music that lifted me up, and pointed me forward. My favorites run all over the map stylistically, from pop gloss to indie rock, from rap to R&B to folk to disco. Some come from longtime heroes; some are by new kids; one is by Paul McCartney. But all these albums were something to celebrate in 2020 — and a reason to look ahead to the future. More than ever, “Have you heard this?” is the best way to begin any conversation.

From Rolling Stone US

20

Paul McCartney, ‘McCartney III’

Can you take me back where I came from? Brother, can you take me back? Paul McCartney wasn’t planning to cut an album this year, but he got stranded like the rest of us, quarantining on the farm, strumming his guitar to the sheep and chickens, until McCartney III spilled out. Made in lockdown — or “rockdown,” a very Paul thing to call it — it’s not as ambitious as his evergreen 2018 opus Egypt Station. (“Dominoes,” damn.) These songs are moments in time, captured to keep them from slipping away, because when you’re Paul, nothing redeems a lost day like singing a lazy song beneath the sun. Imagine being so in love with music you could write “The Kiss of Venus” with the same fingers you used to write “Blackbird,” 53 years later. Maybe even on the same guitar? An inspiration to us all.