The Brighton Film Club's Albums of the Year 2020

As I mentioned yesterday in my end of year film round up, it can be tempting to write the year 2020 off as the absolute clusterf*ck it's been. That though would be unkind to the plethora of incredible musicians and artists who've used the 'year the music died' as an opportunity to create some staggering music, many reflective of the times we're living in.

I pledge undying love and support to all those who work for venues, as well as the artists themselves and management teams, whose livelihoods have been choked by this horrible year and again implore you to support those musicians you love and get to a venue when it's safe to do so as it is the live scene which breeds great music and music does indeed make the world go round, a fact we've seen more and more across the last 12 months.

Sadly, we must also honour those who have moved on to that great gig in the sky and artists like Neil Peart, Kenny Rogers, Bill Withers, Florian Schneider, Little Richard, Tony Allen, Ennio Morricone, Peter Green, Toots Hibbert, Eddie Van Halen and Chet 'JR' White (sadly amongst many others) have left us with incredible music never forgotten. Here then, after the customary squabbles and shuffles, is The Brighton Film Club’s Albums of the Year 2020:

25. Hayley Williams - Petals For Armor

24. Bright Eyes - Down In The Weeds, Where The World Once Was

23. Fontaines D.C. - A Hero's Death

22. Haim - Women In Music Pt. III

21. BC Camplight - Shortly After Takeoff

20. Car Seat Headrest - Making A Door Less Open 19. Bloxx - Lie Out Loud 18. Willie J Healey - Twin Heavy 17. Andy Shauf - The Neon Skyline 16. Alexandra Savior - The Archer 15. Sam Hunt - Southside 14. Porridge Radio - Every Bad 13. Caribou - Suddenly 12. Tame Impala - The Slow Rush 11. Creeper - Sex, Death & The Infinite Void 10. Grimes - Miss Anthropocene 9. Run The Jewels - RTJ4 8. Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia 7. Glass Animals - Dreamland 6. The 1975 - Notes On A Conditional Form 5. Sorry - 925 4. Boniface - Boniface

3. Matt Berninger - Serpentine Prison 2. Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher 1. Taylor Swift - Folklore/Evermore

Lots of honourable mentions here to once again demonstrate that, no matter how bad things can get, musicians are far too good to us and will continue to bless us with incredible material: Biffy Clyro, Georgia, The Big Moon, Pinegrove, Bombay Bicycle Club, Mura Masa, Slotface, Nova Twins, Soccer Mommy, Phantogram, The Weeknd, The Kite String Tangle, James Righton, Childish Gambino, The Chats, The Strokes, Hamilton Leithauser, Rina Sawayama, Laura Marling, Perfume Genius, Sports Team, Charli XCX , Dominic Fike, Another Sky, The Magic Gang, Disclosure, Everything Everything, Idles, The Nude Party, beabadoobee, Nothing But Thieves and the legends that are Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney could have easily made this a top 100.

A shout out as well to some awesome EP's by Viagra Boys, Little Simz, Whitney, Father John Misty, The Ninth Wave, Matt Maltese, The Japanese House, Wallows, Bring Me The Horizon, Nilufer Yanya and Marika Hackman, remix albums from 100 gecs and Foals as well as amazing live releases by Arctic Monkeys, Father John Misty and the master Nick Cave.

Stay safe everybody and roll on 2021.