Today we feature our dear friend Remi VL who’s been contributing for over a year now, he’s all over the map with his taste, which is awesome and he has all kinds of amazing stats. Check out what he has to say about 2020 listening below. And keep scrolling he went nuts with a top 100 albums.

Every year, I plug away at a spreadsheet of new releases, increasing the range of music I find and what I get around to listening with every year that passes.

I use a scale of 5, with 3.5 being kind of the “this is a solid album, I’d probably come back to this”.  4s tended to be the albums I came back to regularly though.

My list doesn’t have a lot of 2s and 1s, but the list is generally built around albums I think I might like. A band I know, a label I know, a musician I know, a single I heard, etc. If I listen to something and I’m 90% sure I won’t dig it, I just won’t bother putting it on the list. Some weaker albums make their way on there, but it generally ended up on there because of one of the previously mentioned reasons.

So, 2020. What a year… in so many ways. Recorded music was great! I miss live shows… I wonder how much being stuck at home has affected the albums that came out? I figure the first half of the year, most albums were done, or being finished. Something to think about, I guess!

One thing is for sure, this year, I decided to listen to a ton of music!

As of this writing, I got through 1017 of the 1539 albums that I had tracked. I still have plans to get through a few more as I try to make a “best of the month” for each month, and I still have to finish up October, November, and soon, December, before getting started on 2021.

A bit of numbers:

My average score was 3.46.
520 albums received a 3.5 or better.
My top 100 albums received a 4.1 or better.
The top 10 countries represented were, in order: USA, UK, Canada, Sweden, Germany, Australia, Italy, Norway, France, and Spain
The top 10 cities were: Los Angeles, New York, London, Chicago, Toronto, Austin, Portland (OR), Melbourne, Philadelphia, and San Francisco
The top 10 labels were: Ripple Music, Nuclear Blast, Heavy Psych Sounds, Argonauta Records, Season of Mist, The Sign Records, Svart Records, Pelagic Records, Prosthetic Records, with Century Media and Tee Pee Records tied for 10/11.

If I were any better with excel, maybe I’d figure out their average score… something for next year?

#25 Mother’s Cake – Cyberfunk!
Genre: modern rock, progressive rock
Label: Membran

#24 Dead Sun – A/B
Genre: post-hardcore, slowcore
Label: Flesh & Bone Records

#23 Howling Giant/Sergeant Thunderhoof – Turned to Stone Chapter 2
Genre: heavy psych, progressive stoner
Label: Ripple Music

#22 Bambara – Stray
Genre: post-punk, noise-punk
Label: Wharf Cat Records

#21 Lykantropi – Tales To Be Told
Genre: heavy psych, folk
Label: Despotz Records

#20 Vitskär Süden – Vitskär Süden
Genre: stoner, heavy psych
Label: self released

#19 Dead Lord – Surrender
Genre: heavy rock
Label: Century Media

#18 Freeways – True Bearings
Genre: classic heavy metal
Label: Temple of Mystery Records

#17 The Night Flight Orchestra – Aeromantic
Genre: AOR rock
Label: Nuclear Blast

#16 Elden – Nostromo
Genre: stoner rock, hard rock
Label: Fuzzorama Records

#15 Melted Bodies – Enjoy Yourself
Genre: heavy metal, experimental
Label: Plastic Smiles

#14 Familiars – All In Good Time
Genre: heavy psych, roots metal
Label: Full Moon Records

#13 Shaman Elephant – Wide Awake But Still Asleep
Genre: progressive rock
Label: Karisma

#12 Rookie – Rookie
Genre: 70s rock hard rock, rock n roll
Label: Treehouse Records

#11 Lowrider – Refractions
Genre: stoner rock
Label: Blues Funeral Recordings

#10 Gargoyl – Gargoyl
Genre: math-metal, grunge
Label: Season of Mist

#9 Protest The Hero – Palimpsest
Genre: math metal, prog metal
Label: self released

#8 Slift – Ummon
Genre: prog rock, space rock
Label: Vicious Circle

#7 The Ocean – Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic
Genre: prog metal, post-metal
Label: Pelagic

#6 Transit Method – The Madness
Genre: modern rock, progressive rock
Label: Brutal Panda Records

#5 Huntsmen – Mandala of Fear
Genre: americana metal, prog metal
Label: Prosthetic Records

#4 Dead Quiet – Truth and Ruin
Genre: sludge , proto-metal throwback
Label: Artoffact Records

#3 Motorpsycho – The All Is One
Genre: prog, psych
Label: Stickman Records

#2 Psychonaut – Unfold the God Man
Genre: post-metal, progressive sludge
Label: Pelagic Records

#1 Elder – Omens
Genre: heavy psych/progressive stoner
Label: Armageddon Shop

And because I’m a sucker for punishment, I made a top 100,  and here’s 26-100!

26. Wailin’ Storms – Rattle (post-punk/noise/americana)

27. Haken – Virus (heavy progressive rock)

28. UUBBUURRUU – UUBBUURRUU (heavy psych/stoner rock)

29. Country Westerns – Country Westerns (americana/college rock)

30. Wytch Hazel – III: Pentecost (heavy metal, prog rock)

31. Autocatalytica – Powerclashing Maximalism (prog metal, tech metal0

32. Elephant Tree – Habits (stoner/doomgaze)

33. …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead – X: The Godless Void and Other Stories (indie rock/alternative rock)

34. Maggot Heart – Mercy Machine (post-punk/noise-rock)

35. Dboy – New Records in Human Power (punk rock n roll)

36. Narla – Till The Weather Changes (heavy psych, stoner rock)

37. The Nude Party – Midnight Manor (psych/garage)

38. The Unfit – The Unfit (grunge/punk)

39. All Them Witches – Nothing as the Ideal (heavy psych/stoner)

40. Kaskadeur – Uncanny Valley (prog-rock, psych rock)

41. Kings of the Valley – Kings of the Valley (heavy psych, progressive stoner)

42. Daydream – Mystic Operative (garage punk, hardcore punk)

43. Valkyrie – Fear (hard rock/heavy prog)

44. Kadavar – The Isolation Tapes (heavy psych, progressive rock)

45. Phoxjaw – Royal Swan (post-punk/post-hardcore)

46. Slomosa – Slomosa (desert rock)

47. Blacklisters – Fantastic Man (noise-rock)

48. Sun Crow – Quest for Oblivion (stoner, doom)

49. Troll Teeth – Goes Nowhere, Does Nothing (progressive sludge, heavy metal)

50. Kimono Drag Queens – Songs of Worship (psych rock, prog rock)

51. Idles – Ultra Mono (post-punk)

52. Chronus – Idols (heavy metal/heavy prog)

53. Gouts – Big Horse I Love You (instrumental stoner/heavy post-rock)

54. Mountain Caller – The Truthseeker (instrumental heavy post-rock, heavy psych)

55. Khan – Monsoons (instrumental progressive stoner)

56. New Primals – Horse Girl Energy (noise-rock/dance-punk)

57. Deftones – Ohms (metal, post-hardcore)

58. Arcadian Child – Protopsycho (psych rock/stoner)

59. GoGo Penguin – GoGoPenguin (nu-jazz, post-rock)

60. High Spirits – Hard To Stop (proto-metal, heavy metal)

61. The Lemon Twigs – Songs for the General Public (indie rock/glam rock)

62. Places Around The Sun – Places Around The Sun (desert rock/modern rock)

63. Yardsss – ∅∀‡ | Cultus (dark ambient, post-rock)

64. Arcing Wires – Prime (progressive rock, jazz rock)

65. Lord Buffalo – Tohu Wa Bohu (heavy psych/americana)

66. Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Viscerals (stoner, noise-rock)

67. Molassess – Through the Hollow (progressive rock, heavy psych)

68. Forming The Void – Reverie (progressive doom/stoner)

69. King Gorm – King Gorm (heavy psych/prog metal)

70. Mount Hush – Mount Hush (stoner rock/heavy psych)

71. Rafael Denardi – Two Handfuls of Rock (stoner rock)

72. Holy Fawn – The Black Moon (heavy post-rock/blackgaze)

73. Gaytheist – How Long Have I Been On Fire? (hardcore, noise-rock)

74. The Bloody Mallard – Realm (instrumental heavy psych/prog rock)

75. StoneBirds – Collapse and Fail (post-metal/progressive sludge)

76. Frankie and the Witch Fingers – Monsters Eating People Eating Monsters (heavy psych, prog)

77. The Glad Husbands – Safe Places (post-hardcore, mathcore)

78. Ritual King – Ritual King (heavy psych/stoner)

79. King Buffalo – Dead Star (heavy psych/stoner)

80. Turtle Skull – Monoliths (psych rock, stoner rock)

81. Wayward – Wayward (punk rock n roll/metal)

82. Automatism – Immersion (prog rock, krautrock)

83. Palehorse/Palerider & Lord Buffalo – Legends of the Desert Vol 1 (desert rock, psych rock)

84. Kingnomad – Sagan Om Rymden (progressive stoner rock)

85. Oresund Space Collective – Four Riders take Space Mountain (psych/space rock/jazz fusion)

86. Population II – A La O Terre (psych rock, space rock)

87. Colour Haze – We Are (stoner/psych/jam)

88. Loviatar – Lightless (doom, post-metal)

89. Radiant Knife – The Body (progressive sludge)

90. Mammock – Itch (math-rock/noise-rock)

91. Dvne – Omega Severer (post-metal, prog-metal0

92. Jeremy Ivey – Waiting Out The Storm (rock & roll, alt-country, amercana)

93. Hydra – From Light to the Abyss (stoner/doom)

94. Svalbard – When I Die, Will I Get Better? (post-metal/post-hardcore)

95. Gloe – Dead Wait (shoegaze/math-rock)

96. Rider Negro – The Echo of the Desert (desert rock/psych rock0

97. Acid Mammoth – Under Acid Hoof (doom metal)

98. Personality Cult – New Arrows (punk rock/power pop0

99. Dirt Woman – The Glass Cliff (stoner/doom)

100. The Erkonauts – I Want It To End (prog-metal)