Our Favorite Albums Of The Year (So Far)

2020 has been anything but an average year. It seemed 2020 was destined for greatness based off its number alone: the fact that we entered a new decade, as well as the fact that the first two digits of the year are identical to the second two digits– this only occurs once in a century. While these factors made it noteworthy, the year has turned out to be extremely monumental for other reasons entirely. Of course, it was kickstarted with the COVID-19 global scale pandemic, the likes of which we’ve never witnessed before. Now, we’re in the midst of socio-political upheaval, again, the likes of which we haven’t witnessed since the civil rights movement. All that to say, 2020 is one for the history books, and we hope, one that will result in a real, impactful change across both communities and governments. 

Now, though, getting to our point: the music. As we enter 2020’s half-way mark, as unbelievable as that may seem, we’re taking some time to reflect back on all the albums we’ve received thus far. Instead of providing a countdown, we’ve asked each writer to simply pick their favorite albums in 2020, and write about each.

The albums are featured below, divided in sections according to the writer. Let us know your favorite projects from 2020 in the comments.

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Lil Uzi Vert – Eternal Atake (Deluxe)

The hype was most certainly there for Lil Uzi Vert’s second studio album Eternal Atake. After teasing the project for two years, the Philadelphia rapper experienced a slew of label-related issues, sitting on rap’s sidelines for a full year as fans begged him to find a way to release the long-awaited album. Finally, after signing a supplementary deal with Roc Nation, Uzi released Eternal Atake on March 6, 2020, marking a momentous occasion for the rapper and his supporters.

The eighteen-track display starts off with “Baby Pluto” before bringing us into the booming “Lo Mein,” “Silly Watch,” and “POP.” With one sole feature from The Internet’s Syd, the 25-year-old went about things solo and it masterfully paid off. 

The sequel of “XO Tour Llif3” was not the only song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 from Eternal Atake. In fact, every single song appeared on the chart, kicking off the rapper’s dominant run, escalating further when Uzi released the deluxe version the week later.

The official deluxe edition of the album was packaged as Lil Uzi Vert Vs. The World 2 and, while this fact has been disputed by the artist’s diehard fans, it’s arguably just as effective as Eternal Atake in delivering the message that Uzi is one of the most accomplished and talented rap stars of our generation. 

Fourteen extra songs followed up the 2016 project perfectly and, this time around, Uzi brought all of his friends to the party. The deluxe edition features Chief Keef, 21 Savage, Future, Gunna, Young Thug, Lil Durk, NAV, and more. He stole the spotlight for a second straight week, spoiling his rival Rich The Kid’s album drop and commandeering the charts once again. 

Like the regular edition, each one of the deluxe’s new songs charted on the Billboard Hot 100, giving the Philly mainstay some bragging rights as he remains the artist with the most entries on the chart this year with 35 so far. A good chunk of these songs will live on as stand-outs for years to come, including “Moon Relate,” “Myron,” “P2,” “You Better Move,” “That Way,” and “Futsal Shuffle 2020.”

Eternal Atake is everything that fans were hoping for, truly making up for an unforced hiatus that had social media in shambles for twenty-four months. Uzi’s hitmaking ability shined through and he proved that he could go about things by himself when he needs to.

– Alex Zidel

Lil Baby – My Turn

Lil Wayne named Lil Baby his favorite rapper of the moment and a big part of why he’s earned so much of the legend’s respect is because of My Turn.

When the Atlanta upstart announced his new album, it had been a year since his last full-length project, Street Gossip, and the fans were hungry. He had a very clear vision in creating My Turn. No pun intended but you could tell that he genuinely had something to prove this time around. Baby was sick of being “lil boy’ed” by powerful men around him. He wanted to show the world that he’s one of the biggest names in music and he should be respected as such.

With his first-ever #1 album on the Billboard 200, Lil Baby accomplished his goal.

The 25-year-old set out to get more personal in his music, opening up for the world to embrace his story. He definitely achieved that, with standout songs like “Emotionally Scarred” allowing Baby to display his heart on his sleeve.

The emotion and vulnerability that he delivers on “Emotionally Scarred” makes it one of his top songs ever, and it also proves that Lil Baby is way more than just a street rapper. When he realized that he could show his true colors after the success of “Close Friends” in 2018, he renewed the formula with tracks like “Catch The Sun.”

On top of all that, he even tapped into the all-important TikTok market with “Woah,” which was a viral dance success.

You may think that, by striving for so much, My Turn would sound like it’s all over the place. However, the reality is quite the opposite. The album sounds complete and comprehensive. It’s not perfect. There is some filler. But Lil Baby did what he set out to do, reaching the next level of rap superstardom.

Behind the scenes, the rapper has additionally been working to become the next rap mogul of his generation — think Jay-Z level. With a couple of artists signed to his 4PF imprint, Baby got the chance to display them at their best on My Turn. 42 Dugg stole the show on “Grace,” and he’s enjoying tons of solo success as a result. Rylo Rodriguez also stood around the same height as his mentor on “Forget That.”

The first twenty songs that were presented as part of My Turn’s release — and the six that were added later for the deluxe edition — contain some records that will become staples in Lil Baby’s career discography. Tracks like “Sum 2 Prove,” “No Sucker” with Moneybagg Yo, and “Get Ugly” are all some of Baby’s best songs to date. 

We wouldn’t be surprised if this remains one of the best albums of the year once December comes around.

– Alex Zidel

Roddy Ricch – Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial

Okay so, technically, Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial wasn’t even released in 2020. However, the fact that it dropped in December 2019 made it ineligible for our Albums Of The Year list at the time, so we’re giving it some love here.

One could confidently say that there are no bad songs on Roddy Ricch’s debut album. If the 21-year-old recording artist from Compton, California set out to make an instant impact in the rap game with this album, he over-exceeded his own expectations. These days, Ricch is seen as one of the leaders of the new generation of hip-hop and it’s all from this album’s success.

The insanely enjoyable body of work begins with an intro track, which could honestly have been the lead single for this project. That’s how good it is. Then, we drive right into the late-blooming #1 single of the year, “The Box.” “The Box” wasn’t a hit right off the bat. It took a while for the kids on TikTok to realize how genius Roddy’s vocal work and production were on the obvious banger. However, once it blew up, it stayed there and it remains a staple of the Billboard Hot 100’s coveted Top 10 to this day. 

Start Wit Me” with Gunna served as the perfect early single, “Perfect Time” showed off some of Roddy’s expert vocal crafting, and “Moonwalkin” with Lil Durk is a perfect ode to his jewelry and girls. For his first album, Roddy came out of the gates sprinting. He refused to be considered a slow-burner. While PEMFBA will remain in the rotation for years, the 21-year-old wanted to open up and show a side of himself that would be difficult through singular efforts. He ended up doing so with seamless transitions and an album that could be up for some mixing and mastering awards.

Songs like “War Baby,” “Roll Dice,” “Gods Eyes,” and more all show us how much pain Roddy has had to deal with throughout his short life. The obstacles have never subsided — they’re just a little easier to deal with now that he’s got millions of dollars.

Because of this album, Roddy Ricch is seen as one of the current best in the game and, in a few years, he has the chance to become one of the greats of this generation. Because of that, he’s a lock for our Albums of the Year (So Far) list.

 – Alex Zidel

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Mac Miller – Circles 

As far as posthumous albums go, this one hit especially hard. As we all know, Mac died from a drug overdose on Sept 7th, 2018, a little over a month after Swimming, his last album to drop during his lifetime, was bestowed upon us. Completed by producer and composer, Jon Brion, who had been working with Mac on the project up until his passing, Circles served as a companion album to Swimming, carrying on in the same musical direction as its predecessor. Almost entirely abandoning the rap sensibilities he’d been slowly shedding or, better yet, reimagining his entire career, Circles still sees Mac adopting the same slurred, dreary, twangy vocal delivery he’d come to perfect in his most genre-fusing music to date. Circles encapsulates exactly what we might have expected the final step of his transition from frat boy rapper to well-rounded, dynamic hip hop artist to sound like, if there had to be such a conclusive destination. 

It’s impossible, though, to escape the truth that Mac is no longer with us when listening to Circles. Themes of death are ever-present, to a degree of self-awareness that, at-times, verges on foreshadowing—or, at the very least, an understanding that what was to come, could very well come. Despite how certain lyrics like “I’m way too young to be gettin’ old” or “Things like this ain’t built to last/I might just fade like those before me” almost feel like messages of hindsight from beyond the grave, Circles is not entirely—or, even predominantly—consumed with impending morbidity. In fact, Mac seems to have been grappling with his struggles as though he believed there could be a light at the end of the tunnel after all, an optimism that will break your heart, but that ultimately offers some solace. “Some people say they want to live forever,” he sings on “Complicated.” “That’s way too long, I’ll just get through today.” We know he had hope despite his pain, and it’s reassuring that he was able to express that before he was gone.

As one of the earliest releases of the year, Circles was a comforting goodbye for fans of Mac who, considering how soon before his death we’d gotten Swimming, might have assumed with defeat that there was nothing left in the vault from the late and great artist.

– Lynn

Childish Gambino – 3.15.20 

If this addition comes as a surprise to you, or if you’ve just been reminded that this album exists at all, or, perhaps, you didn’t even know Gambino had put anything out this year in the first place, you’re likely not alone. 3.15.20 was a surprise drop accompanied by an odd teasing method, and despite the collective confusion and immense intrigue this mini rollout caused for a brief moment, the album hardly made any noise after the fact. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not worthy of its place on this list.

Gambino first released 3.15.20 on the title date through an inconspicuous website called donaldgloverpresents.com before taking it down after only 12 hours. After a cryptic countdown appeared on the artist’s website, the album was officially released a week later, under Childish Gambino on streaming services, and Donald Glover Presents elsewhere. It’s these peculiar details—the manner of its release, the songs (save for two) named after their respective time stamps on the album, the title of the album itself often requiring a Google search to recall—that make 3.15.20 easily forgettable, even though the content of the piece itself is much more memorable.

Despite how unconventionally the project was packaged, these 12 tracks don’t exactly blend into one homogenous vibe, indistinguishable from one another, as you might expect; on the contrary, they each offer something different. We get frantic, passionate, unhinged Gambino (“Algorhythm,” and “53.49”); sweet, airy Gambino (“Time,” and “42.46,” previously released as “Feels Like Summer”); Gambino at his most evolved. We get introspective Gambino (“Grief is a standing ocean, I never swam unless you did”), philosophical Gambino (“To be happy really means that someone else ain’t,” “Bliss is a cheap emotion everyone here seems to afford”), conscious Gambino (“Summon the new edition, made it way too efficient/Made us the guinea pig and did it with no permission”). We get futuristic beats (“32.22”), catchy hooks (“35.31”), and bars on bars (“12.38”). We get 21 Savage and Ariana Grande and Legend Glover. 

There’s something to dance to (“19.10”), something to cry to (“47.48”), and plenty that will make you think, or, at the very least, will linger in your mind for a minute or two. 3.15.20 was all the different stages of a psychedelic trip that never quite made sense of itself, but it worked. It had a little bit of everything, and it deserved more.

– Lynn

Jhené Aiko – CHILOMBO

When it comes to the contemporary crop of alternative R&B ladies, it’s impossible not to bring up Jhené Aiko, and unlike many of her peers, she’s been at this for a minute. With a handful of projects to her name, she has been honing her musical craft and tackling difficult subject matter all the while, and this occasion was no different.

CHILOMBO is post-breakup clarity on wax, and while the writing of this album was no doubt a therapeutic process for Jhené, it’s hard to approach the content objectively or separate her art from her widely publicized personal life when the “ex” in question is right there on the record. But that’s the beauty of Jhené: she’s never been one to steer away from this truth to appease the

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source https://youngandhungryent.blogspot.com/2020/06/our-favorite-albums-of-year-so-far_18.html

from Young And Hungry Entertainment https://ift.tt/3eg1GQR
via Young And Hungry Ent.